no eloquent words found here

i'm sitting here infront of the screen not knowing what to write.  it seems that every sentence i start off with doesn't feel right.  doesn't fit. 

there are so many things i want to say yet i can't seem to get anything out. 

sometimes i don't understand all the things God allows to happen.  even if i ask him to give me a reason, he doesn't always give me one.  there are things we are never meant to understand.  in times like these, i cling with all i've got to the truth and promises he has told me so many times before. it's easier said than done sometimes, but that's the only way i can have hope.  the only way i can have peace.

trust in his ultimate plan... 

trust that his ways are better than ours...  

trust that he has a purpose...

i don't have the right words to say right now.  the ache i feel for my cousin and his family has been overwhelming, and trying to process what transpired yesterday has left me speechless. 

so, i will let my niece speak for me here.

wordless wednesday::mama's boy

he's got a face that can quickly melt away all my worries and troubles.

more wordless wednesday here and here.

top ten tuesday

like last week, this week's top ten has not been created by yours truly, but by our old pastor in seattle.

he had posted some great date night tips on facebook for married couples that i've enjoyed reading.  you can also head here for the complete list.  so, here they are...

my top 10 favorite date night tips from pastor mark (in no particular order):

1. Husbands, plan out your date nights. Ask you wife in advance what sounds good, see what your options are, and make a plan. She’ll be thankful.

2. Dads, moms who stay home all day with the kids need to get dressed up, taken out, and have some adult conversation with their husbuddy.

3. Time with other couples now and then is OK, but if most date nights involve other people, there is likely an intimacy disconnect in the marriage.

4. When life gets crazy, the kids are sick, etc. is there any way to sneak in a bit of a date night at home with say a soak in the tub together, glass of wine etc. after the kids go to sleep? [we do this one often, since we're on a tight budget.  and even though ty is older, he's still sent up by 9 p.m. so we can have couple-quite time together.  i love these moments.]

5. Sometimes sending the kids out to someone’s house and having a date night at home can be cheap and fun if planned right.

6. Men, you don’t pursue a woman to marry her and stop pursuing her. You pursue a woman to marry her and pursue her with more passion and creativity than ever. How’s it going husbands? [i will say that my husband makes me feel like i'm still being pursued as if we were still dating.  it keeps our relationship lively, fresh and feeling like new. not to mention that it makes me feel special each day.  thanks, husband.]

7. Ladies, sometimes it’s a great gift to go into your husband’s world for a date night by doing something like putting on a jersey going to a game and eating a hot dog. His love language may just be hot dog. [or staying up until the wee hours of the morning to see channel 3.]

8. Sometimes the best date night is date breakfast, date lunch, or surprise pick up your spouse from work for an hour at a hotel.

9. Sometimes takeout is fun and a drive to somewhere more private to turn it into a picnic or adventure.

10. Every once and a while you just have to have a redneck date night and go bowling, play pool, or throw darts. If nothing else, enjoy people watching.  [i don't know if i'd consider bowling a "redneck" activity (i will have to clarify with my arkansan friends...lol!), but we do have fun people watching.  karaoke is also fantastic for that too.]

i cherish our date nights and look forward to them, no matter how fancy or simple they may be.

a little getaway

last week i received the following e-mail in my inbox:

I’ve come across your blog and wanted to get in touch. I’m involved in PR for Bob Evans and we have a pretty unique proposition for you!

Next weekend, October 8-10 marks the 40th anniversary of Bob Evans Farm Festival, an enormously entertaining celebration of where the Bob Evans legacy all began.  The festival is being held on the original farm where Bob and Jewell Evans once lived.

Would you and your family be interested in a behind the scenes tour and VIP treatment at this year’s farm fest?  The festival runs from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and since you’re an Ohioan we thought you might be interested in a road trip with a lot of goodies waiting for you upon arrival.

If you decide to join us, we can offer you one-on-one sessions with some of the unique demonstrators and exhibitors featured at farm fest such as Master Pumpkin Carving, cow milking with Laurel Valley Creamery, sheep shearing, front row seats to Border Collie demonstrations, stirring the famous bean soup with the bean team, soap making, exclusive walk-throughs with crafters who won at the festival last year, blacksmith demos, front row seats to the timber show or tractor square dancing show, behind-the-scenes at the Mark Wood fun show and even Clogging lessons!

I would love to put together a brief agenda with some of these exclusive activities with some of these demonstrators that also allows for tons of free time to roam about the farm fest with your family!

it was sent from a PR exec at an advertising agency in pittsburgh.  my initial thoughts: this is a joke. seriously?  why would some guy doing PR for bob evans e-mail me about something like this?  i'm a nobody in the blog world. surely there are others who would be much more suited for this.  this must be a scam.  this guy is probably some creep trying to make money off us.

i checked the bob evans website.  i checked his agency's website.  then aaron and i realized that this might just be a legitimate offer. 

so i responded.  and we will be going to the bob evans 40th annual farm festival this weekend.  i mean, how can you say no to a cow milking experience? 

photo source here.

as this whole idea finally started to sink in, a small part of me was still cautious (just so that i don't endup being disappointed), thinking that this was going to end up being some crazy scam.  but i doubt that it is. 

i know that this opportunity is a way of God providing for us.  we had resigned to the fact that we weren't going to be doing any vacations (even a tiny one) after the huge, unexpected (home-related) expenses we had to deal with this past year.  there was just not enough extra cash to allow for even an overnight trip somewhere.  but God is so gracious and faithful, and he provides for us even when we don't ask for it.

this would be our little mini-vacation.  a very short, family getaway.  and it wouldn't cost us anything except for gas.  i cannot ignore the fact that this is God's work.  i know that this weekend opportunity wasn't from something i did, because i didn't do anything special or extraordinary. 

this whole little weekend getaway may seem like a funny way for God provide for us. it's easy to dismiss that this had nothing to do with God. i mean, if the Lord is going to provide, why doesn't he give us money so we can pay off our debt?  but God provides for us in big and small ways so that in all aspects of our lives we can bring glory to him.  if we keep focusing on the "big" things that God has done then we may miss all the wonderful, little details in our lives that he has taken care of for us.

and this farm festival is certainly a wonderful, little detail.

photo source here.

now i wonder exactly what kind of goodies we will be receiving?  a lifetime supply of bob evans sausage gravy?  bacon?  hmmm...

do something :: weekend october 1 - 3

we are planning to do some apple picking tomorrow morning, so this week i thought i would feature a handful of local pick-your-own farms in the northeast ohio area.

• patterson fruit farm in chesterland, ohio.  this place is over 45 minutes east of cleveland in geauga county.  they also hold a family fun fest every weekend which will run from sept. 18 - oct. 31. 
• pick 'n save orchard in medina, ohio.  this place is about 40 minutes south of cleveland.  this is the place we're planning to check out on saturday.   the apples are fairly affordable, running between 85-95 cents a pound, though they from their site it looks like they're not offering my new favorite, honey crisp. 
• miller's apple hill in amherst, oh.  this place is about 35 minutes west of cleveland.  not only are there apples ready for picking, they have a special children's play area set up during the fall season called pumpkin land.  let your kids explore the hay maze, check out the scarecrows and visit with some of the animals. oh, they also have a bulk store offering items such as dried fruit, grains and chocolate.  chocolate in bulk?  i think i would be in a big trouble.
• mapleside farms in brunswick, oh.  this place is about 30 minutes south of cleveland.  we've been to this farm once, a while back before emma and gibson were born.  when we went, i had thought they would also offer pick your own apples in addition to the pumpkins, but apparently they didn't.  it was a nice place and we enjoyed the experience, but i felt it was set up to be a bit more of a tourist attraction and less like a "real farm."  
• sage's apples in chardon, oh.  this place is about 50 minutes east of cleveland.  although it's listed as a "pick your own" farm, i couldn't find any information about it on their site.  however, they have honey crisp, and other fruits and vegetables.  

a couple of other things to note:

cleveland metroparks' chalet recreation area will be offering hayrides through october.  they're not free, but it does include the other activities offered at the chalet including square dancing, face painting, pumpkin 101 and more.

tomorrow night, a friend of ours will be performing with lighthouse bible church's worship group and opening up for reilly.  the show starts at 7 p.m. at lighthouse bible church.  admission is $5 and you can get your tix here.

happy fall and happy weekend!

baby, baby

my plush cubes are being featured in an etsy treasury: oh la la baby. 

do you have baby fever yet after looking at all those baby-fabulous selections?

word log.1

when emma was born i had bought a baby book to record her first year stats and some of her firsts.  i had big plans for that baby book: print out photos and paste them in their proper sections, fill in all the blanks, write little notes of some of the unique things she did.  i wasn't going to leave one page empty.

4 years later, the book is not finished (and it only goes up to 3 years).  photos that i meant to print out are still in my computer...waiting...ever so patiently.

i bought a baby book for gibson too.  i had the same big plans, and the only thing i've recorded in there are his height and weight stats and a handful of his firsts.

i'm going to buy another baby book for this next baby.  i know i will have big plans to finish it.  and i know it will sit for years, half finished.  just like the other 2.  hey, at least i'm consistent.

honestly, i don't really feel that bad about it.  most of the special memories have been recorded here.  on this blog.  but even with that, i know that i have been a little bit more neglitient in sharing some of gibson's exciting firsts (unlike the first child).  did you know that he's been walking now for the past month or so?  it's just so cute to watch him pad around the house, his fat, little feet going pitter-patter trying to catch up with his big sister.  *sigh*

 anyway, i digress.  this post is meant to be a word log for my little man.  it's not supposed to be anything fancy or eloquent.  just a straight up list of words he can say amidst all of his babbles.  it's meant mostly for me...so that i can remember that feeling of excitement i had listening to him form words and identifying objects on his own years down the road when all the kids are older. 

so without further ado, i present to you gibson's 16 month word log:

• bird
• minum (drink in indonesian)
• bear
• dog
• ball
• star
• spoon
• nack (snack)
• kacker (cracker)
• emma
• daddy
• mama
• lolo (hello/phone)
• baby
• guy
• dodo (dinosaur)
• book
• no.  or i suppose it should be more accurately written as NO.
• nao (nose)
• beebee (berry/blueberry)
• tee (tree)
• caw (cow)
• duck
• quack
• wow-wow (flower)

of course there are so many other words he can comprehend but can't yet form on his own.  and there are times when frustration takes over him because he cannot quite clearly express his wants and needs.  his sign language has been a little slow to pick up but i suppose that's our own fault since we haven't been as diligent about signing words with him as we did with emma (he only knows change, more and milk).

and there you have it.  the word log.  i like it.  i think it may make a comeback sometime down the road.  a little dull perhaps for you, dear readers, but this mama is pretty excited.

wordless wednesday::mira!

introducing my beautiful new niece, mira, born september 11 to my sis and brother (who took these great photos).  i am a proud auntie and can't wait to meet her in person!

more wordless wednesday here and here.

top ten tuesday

instead of coming up with my own top ten today, i thought i'd share with you an article i came across via the organic consumers association facebook page.

the article is originally posted here (with links to sources for their information), but i'm going to re-post the article below sans source links.

[top] 10 freakiest things about frankenfish:


10. Frankenfish Aren't Animals, They're "Animal Drugs"
Obama's FDA is regulating genetically engineered salmon, a genetically modified organism (GMO) that is the first of its kind, not as an animal, but as an animal drug.

Normally, a veterinary drug would be used for health purposes, but there's no therapeutic benefit associated with jacking up salmon with the genes of an ocean pout to make it grow twice as fast. On the contrary, genetic engineering increases the poor salmon's mortality, disease and deformity.


So, why would the FDA treat a the first genetically engineered animal for human consumption like a drug? The idea came from the biotech industry. They knew that the FDA's animal drug process would keep companies' "proprietary" information secret, while limiting public participation and downplaying food safety concerns. Genius.

9. The GMO Part of the GMO Salmon Isn't Being Safety Tested
Since 1992, the FDA has operated under the legal fiction created by the Bush-Qualye Administration that there is no risk associated with the human consumption of genetically engineered plants and animals. The FDA explains that DNA is Generally Recognized as Safe, so genetically engineered DNA is safe, too, and it doesn't have to be safety tested.

8. Frankenfish DNA Could Change the Bacteria of Your Gut
A human study conducted by the UK's Food Standards Agency found that consuming genetically engineered soy can result in "horizontal gene transfer," where the bacteria of the gut takes up the soy's modified DNA. With GMO salmon, the bacteria of our digestive tracks could take up the modified genes of the eel-like ocean pout, but the FDA isn't looking whether this would happen or how it might effect our health, because...

7. If It Swims Like a Salmon, FDA Says It's Safe to Eat
Instead of reviewing the safety of consuming genetically engineered salmon DNA, the FDA food safety review is a simple quacks-like-a-duck-style comparison of genetically engineered and normal salmon for hormone levels, nutrition, and allergenic potency.

6. FDA Lets the Frankenfish Company Test Its Own Product's Safety
The FDA's food safety review of GMO salmon consists of collecting data produced by AquaBounty, the company that wants to sell it. Not surprisingly, that data is seriously flawed.
* AquaBounty did not always segregate, or even collect, data specific to their AquAdvantage GMO Salmon. And, FDA did not require AquaBounty to produce data in the actual conditions under which the salmon will be commercially produced, so we don't have food safety data on the Panama-raised, triploid, monosex AquAdvantage Salmon that people will be actually be eating if the FDA grants approval.
* FDA did not require AquaBounty to show that AquAdvantage and normal salmon were similar when raised under the same conditions. AquaBounty's food safety data for genetically engineered salmon did not have to match data for its control salmon. FDA compared AquaBounty's data for genetically engineered salmon to data for farmed salmon raised under unknown conditions and data for salmon from other scientific studies.
* AquaBounty only tested a few fish, making it less likely that its food safety studies would reveal statistically significant differences between genetically engineered and normal salmon.
* AquaBounty's detection levels were often set too low to produce food safety data for comparison.
* AquaBounty selected which fish to test, and unblinded samples.
But, even with all of the flaws and biases that likely hid differences between GMO and normal salmon, it's clear that Frankenfish isn't same...

5. Frankenfish Is More Carcinogenic
GMO salmon has 40% more IGF1, a hormone linked to prostate, breast and colon cancers in humans.

4. Frankenfish Is Less Nutritious
GE salmon is less nutritious than normal salmon. It has the lowest omega-3 to omega-6 ratio of all the salmon in the studies FDA reviewed.

3. Frankenfish Is More Allergenic
GE salmon have mean allergenic potencies that are 20% and 52% higher than normal salmon, increasing the risk of potentially deadly allergic reactions.

2. GMOs Can Mess a Fish Up! (But, Salmon Are Already Deformed by Factory Farming)
The FDA notes evidence of "increased frequency of skeletal malformations, and increased prevalence of jaw erosions and multisystemic, focal inflammation" in the tissues of GMO salmon.
Most people wouldn't be too surprised to learn that genetic engineering can mess a fish up. What might shock you is that the FDA dismisses these findings as "within the range observed in rapid growth phenotypes of non-genetically engineered Atlantic salmon."
The abnormalities FDA found weren't much worse than those currently plaguing the factory farmed salmon selected for rapid growth and subjected to the physiological stress of intensive production. "Screamer disease" deforms 80% of Chilean salmon and "humpback" spinal compression is found in 70% of Norwegian salmon operations.
Thanks, FDA, for letting us know that factory farmed salmon are so messed up! But, that's no reason to turn them into Frankenfish!

1. The Government Wants More Transgenic Fish and Less Wild Fish
The main justification for GMO salmon is that it could "reduce the pressure on wild fish stocks". But, consumption isn't the primary pressure on wild Alaskan salmon, which gets a "best choice" rating from the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program. The biggest threat to wild Alaskan salmon is the destruction of their habitat.
Ironically, as Paul Greenberg, author of the new book "Four Fish," explains, "While the government seeks to boost farmed salmon supplies through transgenics, it is simultaneously letting wild salmon go to pot."
The spawning grounds of wild salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska, are threatened by the international mining giant, Anglo-American, which plans to construct Pebble Mine, the largest open-pit copper and gold mine in the US. Two months ago, a copper mine failure in China's TingRiver killed millions of fish. A similar disaster at Pebble Mine could mean the destruction of a quarter of a billion pounds of salmon, curiously, about the same amount of GMO salmon Aqua Bounty hopes to produce. The EPA could stop Pebble Mine through the Clean Water Act but has failed to act.
Greenberg writes, "More transgenic fish, less wild fish. You have to scratch your head at a government that's planning that kind of seafood menu for its citizens. Instead of endorsing a risky experiment in genetic salmon modification wouldn't it be better if our leaders protected wild salmon habitat? In the end we'd have just as much fish on our plates and a safer environment to boot."

as the primary grocery shopper for the family, i do try to be conscious as to what i buy.  GM animals and plants don't seem natural to me, so as much as the budget allows i do try to buy organic and/or local produce and meats whenever possible so that i may hopefully avoid coming across GM products.

or maybe i'll just raise my own animals and my own produce.  or maybe i'll just not eat anything anymore...

back to the bridge :: ingenuity fest!

we made it to ingenuity fest on saturday and stayed for a couple of hours before my our hungry tummies got the best of us.  although i missed the dancing portions of the festival there were still plenty of things to see, hear and touch.

the old trolley level of this bridge was a happening place this past weekend.

bustling with people young and old!

never too young to appreciate art.

work-in-progress as we crossed the cuyahoga river.

resting on a lovely tubular cardboard chair.

old steps leading down to another level of the old subway system transformed into art.

hello!

ha!  very clever...

i can't wait until next year!