Pictures

Month in Pictures, Week 4

June 7, 2019 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

I finally have a chance to sit down and finish this up! I had a delightful weekend—filled with visiting people and sharing life with different ones for a while. That meant that I didn’t take time to actually do much writing, but oh well. Here we are now!

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Wednesday, May 22:

We’ve had a lot of rainy weather lately, but I loved seeing the sunrise early this morning as I got to work. So beautiful—and a great reminder of God’s goodness to us, even in dark times!

Thursday, May 23:

This is what happens when we run out of mayonnaise. My brother got home from work and discovered that his favorite ingredient for snacks had been used up, so he had to make more. (Have you ever made homemade mayonnaise before? It is delicious!)

Friday, May 24:

Somewhat of a rarity—I was home today! I loved getting to see the sunrise after a light frost last night. Light has just about got to be one of my most favorite wavelengths ever! (Wait…is that scientifically correct? I’d have to ask my brother.)

Saturday, May 25:

The reason for staying home from work yesterday was to prepare for our trip today. We took a trip to Kaikoura, about four hours away from home, to visit friends. About half-way there, we stopped to stretch at a little park, and the boys loved playing on the huge rocking horse that was there!

Bonus picture: This evening, we went out on Kaikoura Peninsula. We walked around the bottom for a while, then climbed a short track up to the walk along the top, and were able to enjoy the sunset from up there. There was a cool sea breeze blowing, but that didn’t take away from the experience at all. I had forgotten how much I love Kaikoura; we came here for church for the eight years before we moved, and it’s still a very dear place to me.

Sunday, May 26:

I loved being able to get up early enough to see the light on the mountains and autumn colors this morning! I miss these mountains. They’re so beautiful, but I do love the people that live under their shadow even more!

Monday, May 27:

Home again! Got to listen to several podcasts today, and one of them, from Focus on the Family, really struck a chord with me. They were interviewing Abby Johnson (she has something to do with the Unplanned movie, I think), and she said something that struck me as carrying a lot of truth:

“When something is right, it doesn’t have to be justified. When something is true, it doesn’t have to be rationalized. When something is wrong, we have to justify it.”

I wrote it down in my Bullet Journal, but the first attempt was a flop—which allowed me to quote another of my favorite verses to cover the mistake, Psalm 139:17! Yay!

Tuesday, May 28:

Tonight, some of the family went out for a meeting, and several of us others stayed back. After getting the jobs done, we watched a couple videos. The first was Incredible Creatures That Defy Evolution, Vol. 1—a great movie about different animals and some of the unique features the Lord has given them! They talked about at least one animal I’d never even heard of before seeing it here! We also watched ABC Say it With Me, which shares 26 verses, each starting with a letter of the alphabet, for children to memorize. They have great skits to go along with each one, and this movie has subsequently become a family favorite! I love the fact that we can put either of these two on without worrying about having to skip bad content!

Wednesday, May 29:

Did the last picking of tomatoes today! The plants are all dead now, but we have had a wonderful growing season. Now is about the equivalent of the Northern Hemisphere’s late November, so I’m very grateful for how long we have actually been able to have fresh tomatoes!

Thursday, May 30:

Today was a rainy day, but thankfully I had lots of inside jobs to do at work! I snapped this picture as I was ready to head home—this is where my brother and I work.

Friday, May 31:

One of the few things that brings together our entire family every single day: Family Bible time! I’m so thankful we can learn from God’s Word together, and have an opportunity to discuss that and our everyday life together. What a blessing!

And that’s a wrap! Overall, it has been a wonderful month. It hasn’t always been easy; there have been days when I wondered what the Lord was doing, and what would happen next, but God has been faithful. I’m so thankful that He is faithful, because without His love and guidance, we would live pretty miserable lives!

What was your favorite part of this past month? I think mine was being able to hang out with my family, and being able to see the sunrise several times—something unusual for this night owl!

Month in Pictures, Week 3

May 24, 2019 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

Wednesday, May 15:

A storm blew in, and I loved watching the clouds forming over the mountains that are visible from my room! The colors were spectacular, too, as different waves came through. It was sunny for a few moments, then I looked out and saw this!

Thursday, May 16:

I was amused, this evening, as the boys did a quick tackling wrestle match right before our family Bible time. #2 brother pinned #3 brother down first (#3 is on the floor in picture 1), then #1 tackled #2, and in the end #2 and #3 ganged up to get #1 brother down! It’s a wonderful life—and I love watching my brothers!

Friday, May 17:

Got a glimpse of the sunshine after a rainy day—I love seeing the rays peeking through over the mountains at work!

Saturday, May 18:

I got a shipment in with the last of the pictures for my sister’s new photo album! Mom stopped making them about 10 years ago, I think, as life got busy, so she didn’t have any printed out for my sister yet. Now I have 524 pictures to sort (that’s what I’m working on here), then put into a scrapbook! I’m looking forward to working on this over the winter.

Sunday, May 19:

It was a beautiful day for a walk—so that’s just what we did! I’ve been wanting to get a picture of this gravel pile that stretches along the local creek for a while, but the perspective of my brothers and a friend or two going along the top was too good to miss. I live in such a beautiful area!

Monday, May 20—forgot about the challenge

Tuesday, May 21:

Had some prep work to do for my driving course today, and also got to work on the photo album a bit! The latter was fun, and the former informative! It’s interesting (albeit a bit disgusting) to learn about how drugs and alcohol affect driving, and what the results can be.

This week turned out a bit different than expected, and it seems as if winter has moved in to stay. Today was nice and warm, but tonight there’s a chill in the air. I’m thankful for warm clothing and fires, and that our house hasn’t been too cold yet!

This weekend, we’re planning to be with some friends, which I’m really looking forward to. We’ll see how the challenge goes through that; I’m hoping I won’t forget like I tend to do when there are others around. Enjoy your last week of May, and I’ll see you next week!

Month in Pictures, Week 2

May 16, 2019 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

Wednesday, May 8:

One afternoon, all the younger ones were busy playing Lego—such fun! (And I couldn’t decide which picture to keep, so you get both.)

Thursday, May 9:

The table next to my desk showed remnants of the day’s work: Time spent on some studies on American History, and my first handwritten letter in ages! (So much fun to do! I hope you get it soon, Marlène!)

Friday, May 10:

Our dishwashers. Such a fun bunch!

Saturday, May 11:

Building a shelf in the lean-to garage (for holding a car engine?). My brothers are hard workers!

Sunday, May 12—forgot about the challenge

Monday, May 13:

Our enthusiastic laundry sorter. I love this boy so much!

Tuesday, May 14:

Cake- and pie-baking, little sister style. It’s a good use of time when you’ve finished school, but everyone else is still working!

It’s been a fun challenge to try to remember to take pictures of each day—and it’s fun to look back on things that already are nearly forgotten! It’s the mundane and ordinary of life that makes up all those years we look back on…and how precious to have a few pictures to remember those moments by!

One interesting thing I noticed this week, as opposed to last week, is that it was a lot harder to remember to take pictures on the second week. Hence, several evening/nighttime pictures with not the greatest lighting. I remember noticing this before with other challenges—what is it about the second week that makes it so hard to keep up? During NaNoWriMo, if there’s one week where the going is especially hard, it’s the second week.

If there are any spiritual applications, they’re escaping me right now. I was away at work all day, and my brain is tired. It’s been very windy and rainy here today, with racing clouds overhead, and the sun peeking out for a few seconds or so now and then (“Look, guys, the sun is out! Look outside quick, because it might be the only sunshine you’ll see all day!”).

For now, keep pushing through those second weeks, and I’ll see you again next week.

What has your weather been like today?

Month in Pictures, Week 1

May 9, 2019 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

Well, my grandma has inspired me once again. Last month, she decided to do a photo-a-day challenge, and I had such fun seeing pictures of her normal life! I’ve done something similar before, but it’s been a few years. Somehow, I always got caught up taking flower or landscape pictures because I couldn’t find anything else worthy of photography (or so I thought). After seeing Grandma’s lineup, and especially enjoying the pictures she shared of parts of the family I don’t see very often, I thought it would be fun to try the challenge again.

So, without further ado, here goes:

May 1:

The strip canoe project my brothers have been working on for nearly a year now—ready for more epoxy coating! They brought it out in the sunshine one afternoon so the epoxy would harden faster.

May 2—forgot about the challenge

May 3:

An impressive lump of coal a local miner gave my boss’ family! It burned for nearly 24 hours on their open fireplace.

May 4:

Several years ago, I bought our first copy of a book in the Pleasant Valley Farm series, Shadow the Barn Cat. It quickly became a favorite—a great series of picture books! I’d be tempted to replace Shadow now, because our first copy has been so well-loved that it came apart last week! Mom just ordered the last two books, to finish off the series, and my two youngest siblings were thrilled! This is their first look at the new books.

Bonus picture: Little sister helped me mix up a brine to soak a pork leg in. We’re looking forward to seeing how it turns out and if homemade ham is something we want to do again! I’m pretty excited about this project.

May 5:

Sunday evening: Playing Skipbo Golf with Dad.

May 6:

Monday evening schoolwork and reading. A fairly typical evening around here!

May 7:

Making peanut butter while sitting in the chair he made (didn’t he do a great job on that?)—and fresh peanut butter can’t be beat!

Have you ever done a photo-a-day challenge before? What has been happening in your normal life lately that might not be normal for some people?

Commit Your Way…

March 29, 2019 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

This morning, I woke up feeling ready to go, wide awake and encouraged for the day ahead. I had gotten just enough sleep last night, and was ready to hit the day with a vengeance. Which was fortunate today, because I had a full day ahead at work teaching school, making lunch, and getting some cleaning out of the way.

Note: The pictures are from a birthday party we had out at a local beach last Sunday evening.

And this evening as I was finishing up, the song Be Unto Your Name got stuck in my head. So as I scrubbed bucket tops, mopped floors, and cleaned out the vacuum (again), I sang.

But some days…I don’t wake up feeling refreshed. Or I plan on doing one thing in my day, and it turns into something else. I don’t appreciate change enough as the medium for blessing it is.

So today, I thought I’d share a few verses that have encouraged me lately, and perhaps would be a blessing to you, too.

“And I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me…” (Ezra 7:28)

“Thou art the Lord the God, who […] hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous:” (Nehemiah 9:7-8)

Commit Your Way... 03 — Cleaning fresh-caught fish

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” (Psalm 43:5)

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:71)

“Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.” (Psalm 119:114)

“They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.” (Psalm 125:1)

Commit Your Way... 05 — Fish baking on the fire—yum!

“Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37-38)

One thing that really struck me when I read through Ezra and Nehemiah within the last month or so was the amount of times the phrase “good hand of our God” appears. I’ve found it at least five times between the two books, and I’m pretty sure there may be a couple more, yet.

And today, I was encouraged with the thought that the “good hand of our God” that was on Ezra and Nehemiah is on us, too. We have hope! He is faithful, and we can commit our ways to Him with confidence!

Tasmania 2019, pt. 5: Detention River, Dip Falls, and Unique Rocks

March 15, 2019 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

And here is part five and the final instalment of my trip’s pictures! It was so hard to choose which ones to share, and which not to. I’ve delighted in looking through the ones I was able to print, but seeing them here is special, too.

We took a walk down to the Detention River one warm afternoon, so the children could enjoy cooling off in the water. It was a beautiful setting, and I enjoyed seeing the little “peek” out to the ocean across the river flat! This particular river, at least near the sea, is a tidal river, and it was nearing high tide when we were down there.

Sometimes I wonder what makes one place stand out to you as being extra-special, and what makes another one just, well, ordinary. I think it has a lot to do with where one feels loved and accepted (such as my family home, for example), but I’m convinced there’s more to it that I don’t see, too. Perhaps it’s spiritual, or some other sort of tie like that that resonates with me—I don’t know. But whatever it is, when I am able to connect with others and share in the joys and struggles of walking this walk of faith with them, even for just a short time, I come away feeling very enriched.

Our last evening there, my “family” and a few other additions to the crew drove about half an hour inland to Dip Falls. It was a beautiful, fascinating place. I’ve never seen rocks quite like these before!

During the winter, the water flows over the entire expanse of the falls, from bank to bank, but since it was mid-summer when we visited, there was only a little bit coming over. Even that amount was pretty, and I loved the rock’s colors on the upper portion of the falls, especially!

Tasmania 2019, pt. 5 05 — You can see how high the first level of the waterfall is by the two girls in this picture. (And yes, those are good-sized logs leaning against the rocks that were brought over the falls during the winter.)

And, of course, since the rocks looked like pretty easy stepping stones, most of us decided to climb up to get a different perspective.

The most intriguing part about this particular waterfall, for me, were the rocks. They were like pillars, all jammed up against each other vertically, and seemed to go straight all the way down to the rock underneath (wherever and whatever that was) in this pillar formation. There was no vertical distortion that I could see—it was all at a 90° angle in reference to the earth.

They were also sliced cleanly horizontally, some in slightly larger than 1 ft/30 cm slices, others more like 5-6 ft/1-2 metre slices.

And then, I counted the “sides” on the pillars, and a lot of them (the ones that weren’t round) were five-sided, or pentagons. I did see a couple hexagons, but they all definitely were made with a similar pattern!

I did not end up going on the upper level of the falls, but they seemed to be made of similar stone, lots of rocks stacked and packed together in the same sort of regular symmetry, but with smaller “columns” and more were four sided instead of the five sides further down. These were also warped and twisted more, as if they had been laid down, pushed up at a different angle, and tweaked some as they were going up. I wondered how two similar, but very different rock formations ended up right next to each other—and how, scientifically, their appearance can be explained! Fascinating to study, anyway. Shows how great our God is! (If you have any information on why these rocks might be like this, I’d be interested to know!)

In the end, after a too-short two weeks in Tasmania, I left for the States with mixed feelings. I looked forward to being with my family again, but these people had showed me another side to the body of Christ, which was very special. I’m hoping that someday, I’ll be able to go back and visit again. But we’ll see what the Lord has planned!

Have you taken any memorable trips lately? What kind of unique natural formations have intrigued you before?