It has felt good to be "back in the saddle" again after our Christmas break.  I do love the life of academia!  I often tease my beloved professor-husband that it is why I stick with  him- the vacation time!

What's Happening in the Quilt Studio- It has felt so good to get the studio organized and safe for the new kitty too.  Come see the UFO that I am determined to finish this year and consider joining me with one of your own to complete-let's encourage one another!  O rmaybe this is the year you want to make your first quilt; let me know how I can help in your quilting journey.  Are there tutorials you would like to see?  Advice you need?

Freebie Thursday-A bird and a 2014 BOM for your quilting enjoyment.

Psalm 119:47-48-haha, the California road crews must have their hands busy keeping track of cows on the road-God has made it quite easy for us to be aware of the dangers ahead.

Psalm 119:49-56 -on Christ the Solid Rock I stand and if you look really closely at the photo you will see a seagull making his stand on this rock.
Psalm 119:57-64-I need to spend my days getting to know the God I serve-for in that process my love for Him will grow, my desire to obey will increase, my whole being will improve as I set my mind in Christ.

Psalm 119:65-72- How should we respond to affliction?

Blessed New Year- first in a series sharing how Ken and I ended 2013 and began 2014.  First installment: off to California...

Missions: Rescuing from Hell and Renewing the World-Okay, maybe the reason I love this post is that John Piper agrees with what I have been saying for years-but this is a really good post on what missions should be all about.  Our churches have got to stop trying to engage the culture by looking like it and get back to sharing the Gospel in order to transform the culture.  If we really want to work towards social change we have got to stop bringing bandaids and give them the cure-Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection.

Twitter 101-Jesse Johnson over at The Cripplegate has started lessons for those of us who are not very twitter savvy.  I like the idea of using it to streamline my blog reading: letting others sort through the masses of posts out there and read those that have caught their attention.  Of course this means I need to have some people to follow on Twitter that read a lot of blogs and share my views-Thank goodness I have a few of those already.

Don't Waste Your Weakness in 2014-John Piper with some interesting thoughts.  What happens if we focus on our weaknesses rather than our strengths?

Blessings to you all,
Deb

I hope you all had a joyous Christmas and wish you a blessed New Year.  2014!  Honestly, I do believe time flies faster as the years go by.  Come this March Ken and I will have been married for 30 years!  The last of our babies have graduated from college.  It has been a great ride so far.  My dear, sweet, ever-so-thoughtful, beloved husband decided last summer that he would arrange an anniversary trip for the two of us over our Christmas break.  Whisking me off to my favorite place on earth in the mountains of Oregon we embarked on a wonderful adventure together.

We usually just "wing it" on our trips, but Ken had our stops planned along the way.  And this budget conscious girl was very proud of her man- the deals he found for our accomodations were incredible.  I was a little disappointed at first that he had our journey take us California for a few days- I heard Union Creek, OR and that was all I wanted to do.  Here is a tip for you, though I share reluctantly for I do not want to ruin the wonder of empty beaches and low cost accomodations, but over Christmas is a wonderful time to travel.  (well, it is when the weather cooperates anyway.)  While we had our coldest night in Flaggstaff with 14 degrees-by the time we hit California it was in the 60's during the day along the coast.  

We enjoyed several strolls along the Sonoma Beaches- with whales, and sea lions, and all kinds of birds.  I even made my first sighting of tufted puffins, alas not close enough for a good photo though.

Below are just a few of the sights we saw while in California

I have to tell you this next set of photos was a wonderful find.  A little winding road-did I say winding?  Well, let's just say it was a good thing we were in the Mini Cooper-not a road for the faint of heart, but the views...spectacular.  We had a lovely visit with a young man while watching some surfers-he was a dad of two young children, a subaru driver, a surfer, and a meteorologist.  He was packed full of great information that he shared with us in an engaging way.  We learned a lot about wave action and could have stayed and visited with him all day.  The waves in these photos were running 16-20ft by the way.  They came in "sets."  For 20-30 minutes or so they would crash against the shore and then the ocean would become completely still-just little ripples moving in.  A few minutes later the whole show would resume again.  We had never encountered that before.

We closed out our time in California with a lovely meal on the harbor in Crescent City.  These are photos of the things that captured our attention and made it hard to leave, inlcuding another birding first for me: a pacific loon, one of four I saw on this trip.

Next up- the Oregon part of our trip.

Happy Trails!
Deb