The Newsletter - Part 2

The Journey Continues...

The third, and most important topic for our newsletter, comes to me in the form of a mathematical equation:  10 years divided by 2 individuals yields what?  March 10th, 2011 marks the date that Tyler and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary.  Ten long years ago two young adults working their way through College were called by God to become one flesh and join together in the greatest earthly journey known to man.

In the years that we have been together, we have grown from those two young adults, to becoming a  mother and father and raising a family together.  What an incredible expedition the Lord has brought us through.  Graduating from College, building a house, having a family, selling a house, to raising a family, and building a new home in Christ.  In hindsight, events always seem to come together perfectly as though they are from the pages of a book.  But that is not how God has directed our life; it is not to be perfect to the point of prediction.  Rather, the perfection is only seen when one looks back, the present always seems muddled and confusing:  Walking on the line of overwhelming activity and responsibilities; only by turning to the Lord daily can our past come together as beautifully as a fairy tale.  

With that said, I want to address my mathematical equation.  10 years for 2 Godly people results in what?  Would it be a surprise to learn that it is in fact, 5? Does it not fit perfectly that in the same year we celebrate our tenth anniversary we also welcome our fifth beautiful child from the Lord?

Please join us in our year of adventure as we continue to serve the Lord, raise our Family, and rejoice with our friends.

The Newsletter - Part 1

This week we sent out a newsletter to update some of our friends and family on some of the upcoming adventures we have planned.  Because we obviously did not send a newsletter to everyone I am going to share on the blog the newsletter that we sent out in 2 parts.  So, without further ado, here is part 1 of our recent family newsletter:

Throughout the years Tyler and I have received numerous family Newsletters.  Although we find them engaging, informative, and simply delightful; we have never felt it necessary to draft our own.  For some reason, whenever the topic would arise as to whether we should write one, we felt there would never be enough to warrant a newsletter over, say, a blog posting.  Well, Tyler has spoken, and announced that the year 2011 holds so many changes in our family that we simply must do more than our simple blog can accomplish: Hence this newsletter!

Although it may seem premature to send out a newsletter declaring future events for the Smith family we do have a reason.  Not only do we wish to keep all of our friends and family well informed ahead of time, but also we wish for you all to share with us as we walk through this year of activity.  Shall we walk through the year together?  

Let’s start with a little background... About 2 weeks ago we went under contract on our house. We have thoroughly enjoyed living in this home that the Lord provided for the past 6 years, and would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all of you who helped us to get our start by building it alongside us.  We are saddened to say goodbye to our home, yet excited to move on to the next adventure.  At this moment the inspection has gone great and we are currently scheduled to close on the Ides of March.  We have yet to find a temporary location to move to, but hopefully by the time this reaches you, we will be in the midst of moving to a suitable apartment or house.  With plans of selling and moving in March; it will not strike those of you closest to us as surprising to learn that we are going to be starting to build a new home sometime in May.  Please pray for us as we endeavor to construct a home sufficient to meet the needs of our growing family, yet not overwhelming to Lori’s fear of having to maintain and clean a mansion!  Lord willing we will be able to build and move into our new home no later than October.  Before our busy Summer of wielding hammers running wires, however, is a busy month of May for Tyler. 

For a few years now,  we have been supporting and praying for a missionary in Ghana, Africa.  In various ways, Tyler has felt the need to express our support for Rockeybell through more than just the gift of a regular monthly gift.  Not only do Tyler and I know that our presence could be a great service to the cause of Christ, we also know that the Lord has many lessons and blessings for us that we can only learn through service.  At this point Tyler will be going to Ghana for a ten day trip to assist Rockeybell in his ministry to Muslims and African Traditionalists through radio programs and conflict resolution outreach programs.  If you have any questions about this trip of a lifetime or would like to help us afford this exciting new journey, please feel free to call or come by for an exciting visit. We’d love to provide the details of the projects in Ghana through Rockeybell. 

to be continued...

Treasure Box

We have started packing up our home to move.  Not only does it seem overwhelming at times, but downright crazy.  I keep reminding myself that the mess created by moving is only temporary.  Eli and Si have been huge helpers and I am thankful for their attempts to please in packing.  The first items that we packed were our books.  Mostly because we will not need all of our books in the interim house so most of them will remain packed for the next 6 months.  I have to admit it was hard for me to decide which books to pack for the long period and which to keep accessible.  With the turn of Spring around the corner I opted to keep almost exclusively garden and outdoor books.  

While Eli was packing his first box he pulled out this white three-ring binder from my shelf.  I assumed it was my photography portfolio and told him he would enjoy looking at it.  Well, he opened it up and wasn't excited about anything he saw.  Obviously, I had to see why so I went over and looked at the book he had found.  It turned out to be a collection of all of my grandmother's recipes.  I had no idea I even had a book of my gram's recipes.  What a treasure to find on my very own shelf.  This book naturally made it to the keep out pile so that I could peruse it at my leisure.

The three-ring binder is full of photocopies of hand written recipes of all kinds.  Most of them are labeled with the person she received the recipe from.  It is amazing to me that if we could continue to keep hand written recipe cards like this we could track genealogy for women, or at least women who like to cook. If you are in a cooking mood please feel free to come on over and we can attempt one of my gram's great recipes!

Truly a Maine Sport

Considering the amount of snow that Maine has the privilege of receiving every Winter Season it comes as no surprise that Skiing is a huge sport for Mainers of all ages.  I, myself, am not a big skier: preferring instead the quieter snowshoeing adventure or cross country ski journey.   My father, however, is a great skier, and as such has succeeded in introducing this fun and expensive sport to all of his grandchildren.  

 This past Saturday our entire family bundled up and met my father, mother, and sister's family at Black Mountain resort to watch Elijah, Josiah, Tony, and Alex ski with grandpa.  The boys did great, as usual, and had a wonderful time.  Andrew and Caleb enjoyed watching everyone and hanging out in the beautiful and bright Winter day on the mountain.  Overall, it was a great time with the family and almost makes me want to attempt downhill skiing one more time.  Then again, Black Mountain has some of the best cross-country trails and I would love to get my skis on those!

Antonio was a great help with the boys.  He continually gave up skiing time to take them up the hill.

Josiah may not be sturdy enough yet to ski without assistance, but he can sure stand!

Standing with Style

February is upon us.  Time always seems to fly by, but for some reason the Seasons stand still.  In Winter, it feels as though it has always been Winter: Days outside with no coat are but a long lost memory reserved for the Southerners.  As this cold Season threatens to remain forever we are reminded that Spring will soon be here.  How you may ask?  SMASH - Southern Maine Association of Shakespearian Homeschoolers.   

 In March the incredible members of SMASH put on a great production.  This year's production is A MidSummer Night's Dream and helps us all feel as though those days are right around the corner.  Elijah is very excited to be playing one of the manly fairies in this year's production. In preparation for his second production with SMASH we had Eli practice posing in one space, just to see what he would do. All I can say is there are few kids who can stand in one place with such style as Elijah Benjamin Smith!

So if you want to see him and the other fantastic players usher in Spring by putting on an incredible show then you will need to order tickets and come out for a night of fun! Check out MaineShakespeare.com to get the information you need.