Lilley of the field

laugh·a·ble ˈlafəb(ə)l/ adjective so ludicrous as to be amusing - - - - - Five years. I drove away from school with our school sign in my review mirror and just like that, this girl has five years of teaching under her belt. It's almost laughable when I remember my very first day of school five years ago driving home with that same school sign behind sobbing and deciding how I would tell my principal I was quitting. I simply couldn't do it. Simply didn't have it in me. That's especially laughable when I consider that two years ago, I was chosen for District Teacher of the Year. Five years. We drove away from the mountains this past weekend with the Lilley's cabin in our review mirror and just like that, this boy and girl have five years of marriage under their belt. Aaron's parents bought that cabin shortly after we started dating and I remember my first time there hauling rocks to line the driveway. Secretly, I hoped that

Do you ever want to really explain something so significant in your life, but you come up short with words? Are there really words to describe the greatest joys and deepest sorrows of life? In Brennan Manning's book,  The Ragamuffin Gospel  (which I can't recommend enough), he writes that trying to comprehend God's love is like trying to contain Niagara Falls in a tea cup. I feel overwhelmed by the sheer love and mercy of the Lord looking at these pictures my good friend Mary Ashley took of my feet. My little tea cup has shattered because His grace just can't be contained. So in feeble words- I will at least tell my story in hopes that you will hear His story of love and mercy which is intended to be the theme of all our stories.   - - - -  Five years ago, during my first year teaching, I started coming home from school with terrible pain in my feet. I developed plantar fasciitis. Your plantar fascia is a band of connective tissue that runs along the sole o

So we've been cooking in the kitchen for a while now, but I haven't posted pictures because I have been waiting for the counters to be clean and the light to be right which equals letting weeks go by before I take pretty pictures. So let's revisit the old kitchen first.... And now for the kitchen reveal..... (If you want more info about stages of the project, visit my  home projects page. ) The big question: Would I do this again? YES! Actually- it only took about 2 and half months of our life on weekends and some week nights and it was SO worth it. We saved a ton of money doing it ourselves and learned a lot along the way. I love every aspect of and we LOVE cooking.  We see God is making, creating, and redeeming. Restoring and fixing up our house is one of the many ways we do this together. We want our home to be a safe place and a refuge for people and although I know it's the love and the people that mak

I made up a new song "All I do is trim, trim, trim no matter what. I got moulding on my mind I can't ever get enough." This post is long overdue and I didn't take as many pictures as I should, but I will come back and add details about it soon. I mainly wanted to get the "finished" pictures up, but still have my blog posts in chronological order. More to come soon.....

The sun is streaming in the windows. The dogs are playing next to me. I am drinking a delicious strawberry ale. I've got my new trendy glasses on. It is Friday afternoon of my first week of school and I, by miracle of miracles, have energy to spare. And yet, it is both a miracle and the product of a string of conscious decisions. We have grandly titled this year our "Year of Sabbath." We have purposely said no to things, stepped down from things, and thankfully finished some things- like being Teacher of the Year and Aaron's grad school. Some weights feel lifted. So I went to work each day and  I came home each day and I loved loved each day. Wednesday, we filled our house with about 22 people and we ate around a table, laughed, shared stories, and prayed to our good, good Father. Thursday, a dear friend who has moved away came over for dessert and we shared about life. We say "yes" to people, to rest, to a peace filled home, to abundant room for time

So I wrote this two weeks ago, but it didn't publish on my other computer and I thought it had. I wanted to post it though because it is an interesting follow up to my excited post about swimming.... Real life man. ------- Sometimes it feels like for every step forward you take, you take two steps back. I had high dreams and hopes last week. My feet were feeling better and I could picture myself swimming- confident and maybe not great- but decent?! I spent way to much time watching pros swim on youtube who make it look easy. So Tuesday rolls around and my friend Dana comes to the pool with me to teach me how better techniques and I am surprised. Surprised at how hard it is. It does not come naturally at all to me. The breathing part. Then I psych myself all out in my mind because other people are around and I have to stop at the end of every lap and catch my breath. She taught me how to do the flip turn, but I can't even do two laps back to back right now... so flip tur