A Time to Give Thanks...

This time of year always seems to be the busiest for us.  Matt is busy studying and working, I'm busy with nanny responsibilities and sewing, but in the midst of all this business it's good to stop and take time to give thanks.  God has been so good to us!  Matt began his second year of Seminary in August and he is now in his last weeks of finishing up this semester.  As I'm writing this post, we are sitting in Barnes and Noble and he is studying, reading, and preparing for his finals next week.  We are so thankful for every circumstance that God used to bring us here to The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  At work, Matt received a promotion to operator; which came with a nice raise.  God is good to us financially! I could not be happier with my job as a nanny.  It is the perfect job for this season of our lives.  Since both of the kids that I nanny are in school, I have the whole middle of the day to myself.  This has allowed me to be able to attend chapel services with Matt on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I'm so thankful for what God has been teaching me through all of the Godly chapel speakers.  God is allowing us both to grow so much in the knowledge of Him and Who He is while we are here attending classes.  I just finished up my third semester of Seminary Wive's classes by taking a discipleship class.  I learned so much from this class, but one thing that stands out to me is this profound lesson:  "ministry wives will need to learn to be 'self-feeders' before they will ever be able to feed (disciple) another."  This class greatly challenged me in my own personal walk with God through helping me to be more consistent in my daily Bible reading, prayer, and worship time.  I'm so thankful that Mrs. Mohler, the seminary president's wife, began this special school to train up minister's wives alongside their husbands.  I don't want to give any of you all the false impression that we live perfect lives.  No, we don't have perfect lives, and everything doesn't always go our way.  But, we are doing our best to learn from what the Apostle Paul said:  "I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content."  Even if that state is Kentucky and not California.  :)  Yes, we miss California, but we know that God has us over here in Kentucky to prepare ourselves for the future ministry He has planned for us.  We both can boldly say that whether in good times or bad, God has always been there working in us and even through us, and for this we are ever thankful.

Okay, now I will get you all up to date with some of the pictures of our latest adventures since our last post.  I don't know about you, but I love looking at pictures, so if you're like me, than this section of this post is for you.  Enjoy!!

Back in September, Matt and I went on a little mini-vacation to the Madison Art Festival in Indiana, which is about an hour away from Louisville.  The town of Madison, IN is reminiscent of small-town America, and we really enjoyed looking at all the amazing architecture from that era.  We had a great time even if it did pour on us the second day we were there.  There were many local artists and artisans with some very unique art on display.

We have found the best spot for eating fresh seasonal food at The Blue Dog Bakery and Cafe.  It's walking distance from the Seminary, and they have the best soups, pizzas and sandwiches.  Everything there is so fresh, and a lot of it is served farm to table so we are supporting our local farmers and enjoying good food. 

Last year we got our pumpkins from Huber's Farm in IN, so this year we figured, "why not make it a tradition while we're here."  Matt had never been to an actual pumpkin field to pick his own pumpkin.  This was quite fun watching my perfectionist husband trying to pick the perfect pumpkin in a field of 100s of pumpkins.  

In October, my mom surprised my dad by flying me home for his birthday.  It was so good to see family again, and to meet my cousin Mike and his family for the first time.  It was a quick two-day trip.  Just a little teaser to make me miss California even more.  :) 

Before I left California to go back to Kentucky, my parents took me to see the ocean.  I sure do miss the Pacific Ocean.  The Ohio River here in Kentucky just doesn't compare to the great big Pacific Ocean.  

I've always had this fear of cooking steaks, but I love to eat them.  So recently I decided to conquer this fear and learn how to cook a good steak.  I've been doing pretty good so far, and Matt sure does like steak night Saturdays.  

Every year, since we've been married, Matt and I have packed up shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.  We always have so much fun shopping for the items to put in our boxes and then coming home and trying to fit everything into the box.

Ok, I'll admit it.  Kentucky does have something up on California.  The trees all turn the most beautiful colors here during the fall!

As a side job, I sew vintage belts for two ladies who have a business designing the belts and selling them to boutiques. When I'm not sewing these belts, I love to quilt.  I made this wall quilt out of a bunch of vintage scrap material that I found at the thrift store here on campus.  All the pieces of material were already cut into shapes, so it was quite a challenge trying to piece them together, but I like the end result.  

Matt and I took our Christmas card picture the weekend before Thanksgiving.  It was freezing outside at Cherokee Park.  Matt was a good sport though.  We had to use the timer on my camera and set it up on a tripod to take the pictures for us.  It took us a while, but we finally got a picture we both liked.  The picture above is not the picture we used for our card, I didn't want to put that one on here only on our Christmas card.