I'm back!

When life gets busy, blogging is usually the first thing that gets put to the bottom of the list. That's alright with me, because sometimes it's good to take a break.

Since I don't have time to post anything else right now, I thought that I might as well catch up on the 52 challenge, say a quick "Hi", let you know that I'm surviving driver's ed, and be on my way again. Oh...the joys of growing up.

I'll have to admit that, once again, I've been so busy that photography hasn't been top priority so some of the photos aren't that great.

~ Heart Shadow ~
52 Challenge Week 11 - Unedited Challenge Photo 2

~ The new growth of Spring ~
52 Challenge Week 12 - Unedited Challenge Photo 3

~ Silhouette ~
52 Challenge Week 13 - Unedited Challenge Photo 4

~ The beautiful colors of Spring ~
52 Challenge - Week 14

I'll try not to disappear so suddenly next time :) Hopefully I'll be back soon with another post!

Sorry if my blog is looking sort of strange. Photobucket seems to be making some adjustments right now, so my blog design isn't showing up. It'll hopefully be back soon!

A Horse and a Camera...

...make a very fun combination on a beautiful afternoon!

And for once, I wasn't the one behind the camera :)
(all photos taken by my sister, Hannah)

 

{I love my horse!}

Highlights from 2010 - Goals for 2011

Wow...it's almost 2011 already?!? It seems that 2010 flew by so fast! There were so many things that I enjoyed about this year, and I can't wait to see what 2011 holds!

Some of the highlights of my year were:

- Our family starting a home based business (small scale farming)
- Hippology Contest (Hippology is the study of horses)
- Starting this blog!
- Cowgirl Queen Contest
- My friend returning from Africa
- County Fair
- Co-leading a Bright Lights group in our area
- Turning 16
- Participating in Iowa 4-H Camera Corps
- ...and much, much more!

Once again it's that time of year to sit down with a notebook and pen and write out all of our goals for the upcoming year. Do you ever notice that those goals all seem great, and you are excited about doing them...for the first week? Well, this year my goal it to complete these goals, not just hope that they will eventually get done sometime when I feel like it.

Spiritual...
- Read the Bible daily
- Keep a journal of the things that stand out to me
- Work on memorization every day (right now I'm working on Colossians 3)

Horse...
- Have Misty ready for Sarah to show in the performance classes at the County Fair
- Get Flash in shape for showing (a couple local shows and Cowgirl Queen Contest)
- Work on getting Flash to take her right lead

Farm...
- Read several small-scale farming books
- Learn about pastured pork and how that could fit into our farm
- Learn how to weld (my dad said he'd teach me if I'd like to learn!)

Exercise...
- Train for and run a 5k race
- Figure out a weekly exercise schedule, and stick with it

Photography...
- Participate in Iowa 4-H Camera Corps again
- Practice, practice, practice!

Also, you'll be seeing a few changes around here in the upcoming weeks, as a few months ago I won a giveaway for a new blog design (hosted by Hannah at A Homemakers Daughter). So right now Amanda at CS Designs is working on a new blog design for Beautiful Gems, and I can't wait to see how it's going to look!

One verse that stands out to me as we step into a new year is...

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 3:5-6

May each of you desire to grow in the Lord more and more and seek to serve Him with all of your heart. Remember...in ourselves we can not change for the better. True change only comes about because of what GOD can do in our lives.

Have a wonderful New Year!
Rebekah

I'm Finally Back...

Life has been busy (I need to re-word that...life has been normal) which is the reason I've been absent from my blog for the past several weeks. But that's fine with me as sometimes it's good just to take a break from the blogging world. There are so many other things that are of more importance, and putting aside blogging for a few weeks was actually kind nice. So if you have been wondering why I haven't responded to your e-mail, commented on your blog, or posted anything here...that's why.

My friend, Rachel, and I have gone out and done several photography shoots in the past couple weeks, and I like to share just a few of those photos with you (ok...maybe more than "just a few" photos). I've loved having the opportunity to work on my photography skills, and doing it with friends is even better. Picnik is my new-found photo editing friend, and I've enjoyed exploring it's endless possibilities!

So now for some of my favorite photos from the past few weeks (sorry they don't all have captions)...

{Our friends are currently taking care of four adorable puppies}

{I actually didn't take this photo...Rachel did}

{Rachel playing her guitar}

{Wood parks make great places to take photos!}

 

{Talking with a friend while sipping a hot cappuccino on a cold day...so relaxing}

While I was gone from the blogging world, Nela over at Beloved Star tagged me (thank you!). But since I don't have enough time to do that right now, I'll leave that to a later post :)

I also have many other things (and pictures!) I would love to post about, but I really don't want to bore you with an overwhelmingly long post! I would also like to get some other things going on this blog so that it is more interactive for the readers. Maybe a recipe exchange or a photo challenge...something along those lines.  Let me know if you have any thoughts about this!

I'll try to post again soon, but for now I want to leave you with this verse:

"Let us hold unswervingly 

to the hope the we profess, 

for He who promised is faithful. 

And let us consider how we may spur 

one another on toward love and good deeds"

Hebrews 10:23-24

A fun day as a family

Yesterday our family decided to visit a church in another town since they were hosting a speaker that my parents wanted to hear. We also decided to pack a lunch so that afterwords we could go and spend the day as a family. While looking for a park to eat lunch at, we saw a sign for a free outdoor expo that had activities for the whole family. We went to check it out, and we ended up having one of the funnest family days we've had in a long time! It was so fun to spend a day just being a family.

Mom and Lydia (4) kayaking

My little brothers: Caleb (6) and Joshua (8)

Dad and Caleb kayaking

Hannah (12) trying out archery

Joshua getting ready to shoot his arrow

Caleb and Lydia making pop bottle bird feeders

Sarah, Joshua, and Caleb all shot a BB gun for the first time

I decided to try shooting a shotgun (this was the first time I had ever done it).  My dad, mom, and Hannah all did this too and I'll just say that...they all did better than I did. It was actually a lot of fun, but my arm is a little sore today :)

The perfect ending for a perfect day

Dad and Lydia enjoying their ice cream

Life on the Farm

Well, as usual, life has been busy. But, instead of giving you a long, boring update about what's been going on, I thought I'd add some photos to make it a little more interesting.

A couple weeks ago we got 100 chicks that we'll be raising for meat birds. I bought 40 of them, and my parents have the other 60. 

 

 When they are three weeks old (maybe a little bit older if it's cold) we'll be putting them out on pasture in coops that we move daily so that they always are on fresh forage. These pictures were taken the day we got them, but right now they are a little over 2 weeks and are feathering out, so they're not quite as cute.

The baby pigs (which are no so "baby" anymore) are now about 10 weeks old, and still quite cute. They are weaned, and I'm hoping that they can also be put on pasture soon. That may be my farm project this week :)

 

We've been working on canning vegetable soup (this is a family favorite!), and a lot of the vegetables are from our garden. If any of you are interested in getting the recipe, I can try to post it.

I've been taking a lot of photos lately, which isn't too untypical for me (you can ask any of my family members...or friends...or anyone who knows me). I would post more of the photos I've been taking, but I really want to use some of them in future posts.

 

Our kitten (Bobby) decided to yawn just as I snapped a photo. 

Isn't he cute?

This is a photo of a yellow flower at my grandma's house

And then, on top of farm life, photography, and everything else, I've also been getting going on school. That's been going really well, and I'm enjoying it! 

My friend and I recently started a Bright Lights group in our area, and I'm so amazed at how the Lord has been working. We had both been praying for quite awhile that the Lord would provide the funds needed to provide Bright Lights notebooks for all the girls, and I was kind of starting to wonder how God would answer. But He worked it out in His perfect timing! A couple weeks before the first meeting my friend called me and said that a friend of hers, who had led a Bright Lights group several years ago, dropped off a whole box of Bright Lights materials for us to use in our group. In the box were 15 notebooks, as well as many of the lessons! Then, last week at our first meeting I realized that 8 of the girls already had Bright Lights notebooks, so that left only 11 girls who didn't have one yet. And God had provided 15! It was so amazing how He worked it all out!

Well, this is kind of a brief update about what's been going on here. Before I close this post, I want to share a verse with you that has encouraged me lately:

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." Colossians 3:23-24

When I look at this verse, I think it applies to so many things! Whether that task be school, cleaning out a pig pen, writing an article, or babysitting, do it with all your heart and remember that you aren't serving man, you are serving the King of kings, the Lord of lords, Jesus Christ. Strive to please Him in all that you do, and make Him top priority in your life. I find that when I think of this verse while going about a task, it keeps my mind on the Lord and praising Him...even if it's one of those tasks that your not too excited about doing.

Shine for the Lord in ALL that you do,

Rebekah

Little Works of Art

On Labor Day we were at my grandma's house, and in her backyard was a whole colony of monarch butterflies! It was so neat! I was very glad that I had my camera as well as a full battery :)

God put so much design into these beautiful little works of art! Which one is your favorite?

I think that I ended up taking like 150 pictures that day (not all of them were of butterflies...but most of them were)! The only problem was that my camera didn't focus on them quite like I was wanting it to. With them being so active, it was hard to get really clear photos. On the screen of my camera they looked great...but not quite as good when I got them loaded on the computer.

Challenged

I've had so much else going on that it was nice not to have to worry about blogging for a couple weeks. I have pictures loaded onto the computer, so I'll try to update you as best I can along with a few pictures. Over the course of the past few weeks, I have had a couple of things that the Lord has been challenging me with, and in this post I'd like to share them with you.

August 10-11 was the Strong in the Lord conference, and August 13-14 was the Radiant Purity conference, both in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I came away from them so encouraged and challenged. One of the things that I was challenged with the most was totally surrendering my teen years to the Lord and asking Him to give me a passionate love for Him and His Word. I want Him to be the center of my life so that He is the one who controls my thoughts, actions, and words. We can't gain a love for the Lord if we aren't continually in His Word, and I'll have to admit that though I do read the Bible often, I probably don't read it as faithfully as I should. I have committed to trying to read at least one chapter of the Bible every day, but I know that in my own strength I can't do it. It's only by His strength that I can be diligent about it.

Did any of you attend any of the conferences in either Iowa or Minnesota? If so, I'd enjoy hearing your comments about it. If you would like to share something that you learned, I'd love to hear that as well!

{A chalk drawing from one of the "Chalk Talks" that Sarah Mally gave at the Radiant Purity conference}

August 18th we performed our quartet for 4-H Share the Fun at the State Fair. It was a great learning experience, and we all enjoyed it. We were encouraged to find out later that the judge who was giving comments (it wasn't a contest, she just commented on each performance) was also a Christian! 

After we were done performing, another girl that had also performed that night came up to Alexandra and I, and we got into a short conversation with her. Alexandra asked her if she was a Christian, because the song she had done her dance to sounded like a Christian song. She said that she wasn't, and then she mentioned that we seemed so joyful while we were performing our song. I told her that it was because of Jesus in our lives, and the conversation pretty much ended there. Later as I was thinking about it, and I wish that I would have been prepared. Prepared to give an answer. In 1 Peter 3:15 it says, "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have. But do this with gentleness and respect". Here the Lord gave me an opportunity to be a witness, and I wasn't ready to give an answer. How many times does the Lord give us opportunities, but we aren't equipped and ready? This incident really challenged me to not let this happen again. Next time, I want to be prepared.

 {Pictures from State Fair}

Those two events took up a majority of my time the past few weeks, and I hope I didn't bore you with details :)  There were so many good topics covered at the Bright Lights conferences, so they'll probably make their way onto this blog in the near future. As I close this post, I want to challenge you with two things...to be passionately in love with the Lord, and to always be ready to give an answer.

Takin' a Break...

I just wanted to let you all know that I'm going to be very busy the next week and a half, so I'm going to take a break from blogging (not that I'm very faithful about blogging anyways...). If possible, I'll post later on next week.

In Christ,
Rebekah

County Fair...last update :)

Well, the County fair got over last Thursday, and in a way I'm glad it's over. It was really a fun filled week, but it was also tiring! I thought I'd fill you in on the events of Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday was quite busy with the swine show, livestock judging contest, communications judging, and the open horse show. Hannah and I both got blues for our pigs, which isn't too bad. It would have been fun to get top in the class (or champion!), but it was still a great learning experience.

On Tuesday night was the judging for the communication events. Our club's skit went onto State, but for our song we got a lavender, which means that we were the first alternate in case one of the other acts canceled. Us girls were kind of disappointed about that, but even in the midst of things such as these, God is at work (I'll tell you the rest of the story after I finish up the County fair update).

Wednesday was the parade, and Thursday night was the livestock auction which concluded the County fair. All in all it was a fun week, and I'm looking forward to next year!

Ok, I mentioned earlier that God is at work even when we don't see the big picture. This past Tuesday I got a call from our County extension office asking us if we would like to go onto State with our quartet! Another girl is going to be leaving for college, and won't be able to do her Share the Fun act at the State fair. Now that I look back and see the whole picture, I'm just amazed at what God can do. We were quite disappointed that we didn't go onto State at first, but I think that God was planning it that way just so that we could see Him work. If we would have gone onto State right away, we probably would have taken it for granted. Our God likes to work in ways that will amaze us and show us His power.

I apologize for not having any pictures in this post! I don't have any other photos from County fair loaded on our computer.

County Fair Update

I have to apologize for not keeping my blog up to date in the last few weeks. Our 4-H county fair started last Friday, and it goes through this Thursday! Today doesn't have much going on, so I'm actually home for the afternoon. I know some of you had mentioned that you would like to hear what is going on during the fair, so I though I'd give you a little update.

Friday wasn't too busy...we just took the horses to the fairgrounds. The dog show was also on Friday night, and Hannah showed our dog Bentley. They got 2nd in their obedience class. She was quite excited about that, and is also looking forward to showing again next year!

On Saturday I showed my Quarter Horse, Flash, and my sister Sarah showed her Shetland pony, Misty. Flash and I didn't place very well in any classes...but I'm alright with that as we have greatly improved since last year, and that's what counts. Sarah showed Misty in the 2-3 year old halter class, and there was only one other person competing against them (which was really nice since this was Sarah's first year showing). Misty was a little ornery, but they still placed 1st in their class...great job Sarah! We also had our exhibits judged on Saturday, and all of my pictures got blues. The seasons collage went onto State!

 (Sarah showing Misty)

(Myself showing Flash)

Yesterday was communications, and I participated in two Share the Fun acts. The first was a skit that I did with my club, and the second was a vocal quartet that I did with my sister Hannah and my friends Alexandra and Jessica. We did the song "On Faith Alone" by Robert Pierre; Hannah and Alexandra played violin, Jessica played piano, and I sang. We hope and pray that all we did represented Christ, and that He got all of the glory! I think that all of us were quite nervous, but we were able to do it almost perfectly...which is better than we have ever done before! We got a blue ribbon, and tomorrow we'll find out if we go onto State or not. One of my close friends and her family had been missionaries overseas, and she came in on Saturday. Their family came to the fair yesterday...it was great to see them again!

(From left to right: Hannah, Jessica, Rebekah, Alexandra)

Tomorrow is the swine show, and then Thursday is the livestock auction. This will probably be the last post before fair is over...it's quite a busy week!

~ Rebekah

My Very Busy Summer

I'm sorry that I've been so bad about blogging lately! It has been a very crazy week (actually, a very crazy summer, to be exact), and I just haven't had any time to get around to it! I'm starting to think that "Summer Vacation" isn't the right wording because it really isn't much of a vacation...it's more like a break from school so that you can get everything else done that needs to get done :)

First of all, I have a question for all of my followers. What types of things would you like to see more of on this blog? Verses? Photography? My daily life? Bible studies/Articles? Other? I'd like to do a little of all of these, but I am interested in seeing what all of you would like to see more of :) Please let me know!

So, what have I been up to this summer?? We've been trying to get outdoor stuff done, which has been very hard the past few weeks since we have had a ton of rain. On top of farm work, there has been 4-H activities, a horse show last Saturday (prep work for that took up pretty much all of last week), just life in general, and it seems like there have been many other things piled on those. Summer can sure be a crazy season of life, but it it also so fun!

Lately, I feel like the Lord has been challenging me to make time for Him, even when my schedule is crazy. I feel like there have been too many days that I get "too busy" for my quiet time, when in reality, Christ should be the center of my day. Why does it seem that when life gets busy, our devotions seem to be the first thing to be set aside? If we think about it, Christ should be first in everything, especially our day. My goal is to set aside time for Him each and every morning, even if it means getting up earlier. There will probably be days that it does get set aside, but one thing I have found helpful is having an accountability partner. My friend and I decided to e-mail each other once a week to check in and see how we're doing on spending time with the Lord each day. If you find it hard to have your quiet time daily, I would encourage you to team up with someone as accountability partner...it really helps!

Ok, I have one last thing I would like to ask of you. In mid July is our 4-H fair, and I'm entering some photos. The only problem is, 10 photos is the maximum, and right now I have 15 that I'm trying to choose between. I'd love feedback on them, so if you could let me know which ones are your favorites (or which ones you don't like as much) that would be great!!! For a larger image, just click on the photo :)

Sorry this post was kind of random :) I hope you all have a wonderful summer!!

~ Rebekah