goodbye fall... and thank you

I almost feel like Advent is really, for me, the beginning of the year.  It's the birth of something - someone - the catapults me into fresh change.

The end of Fall has come and tomorrow is DECEMBER!  CRAZY!!!!!

Fall, this year, was all about adjusting.

My darling Laina is having to adjust yet again to diet changes as we continue to figure out her gut.  One trial broke her out in a rash.  Goodbye corn and dextrose! 

But she is owning it this go around.  We (Laina & I) are learning to cook gluten free.  Learning that "gf" stands for gluten free, not God forsaken.  Hah!     (Yes, by all means, share your favorite recipes with us.  We've found some nasty ones for sure...LOL... but we're into this adventure like Lewis & Clark!  We've made gf (gluten free) shrimp tempura by candlelight via power outage.  We've made roasted chicken and veggies.  Sweet potatoes, parsnips, red peppers and baby carrots.  Yum!  We've had salmon and grean beans.  This, however, was comical looking as my attempt at breading the fish may have given us a glimpse into how "chips" were created. 

We LOVED Josie's Cinnamon Muffins (which we had to adapt for Laina's list, but it worked!).

Thank you, Josie!

We said goodbye to our wholewheat pumpkin muffins.

But we're hanging on to the Hope, thank you.  (Read the mug)

We said goodbye to those warm days and yellow light.

And are welcoming the frost on the grass.  It's so thick, it looks like snow!

And we welcomed Davis home for Thanksgiving weekend with BIG hugs!!!! We are at our best when we're together.

I took fewer photos.  I grabbed more hugs.

Two weeks prior, Rich and I were given a miraculous marriage tune-up weekend at "A Weekend to Remember" by Family Life.  The whole weekend was topped with a date night.  We took off to Mambo's in Fairhaven, WA.  It's an Italian Italian (as opposed to American Italian) restaurant and I have not eaten food that good in I don't know HOW long!

While we were away, we began to dream again together.  (Just learned the Hebrew word for create and dream are the same...cool, huh?)

And today I finished the second of seven.  This one is called Camille Celeste.

 

Remember those awkward facial impression that had to be covered with light.  Well, they're gone.  But it was time for this girl to see some blue sky.  Some hope.  At first the blue looks out of place.

 I kept telling myself, "BE BOLD.  Don't be afraid to change this!" 

 And then the sky began to shine through her dense forest. 

Detail of top right corner of the canvas.  When I took this progress shot, I almost jumped!  I've been wanting to learn to paint clouds. I learned so much just by experimenting on how to let light in.

She's both transparent

 And solid

And suddenly, while listening to Ray Hughes talk about music, I realized I was almost done.  I began to look at what was right about it, instead of all the things that could be wrong about it.  I put on some buttons.

Then I shaded them and they looked like pearls.  A fun surprise.

 

And then I signed my name which not only means Lydia Crouch, or Mrs. C (my husband is Mr. C at school so I became Mrs. C by default)  But it also signifies that I'm "in Christ".  Oddly, or maybe not, it has taken me 55 years to figure out how to sign my name.

I've learned SO much in the process of this one.  It's not perfect, it's just done.  And I am thankful.