This is the morning view from a walk earlier this week.
The way the colors changed so drastically within minutes was mesmerizing! This sequence of photos was taken in a three minute span.
I’m really surprised I didn’t fall while I was trying to pump those arms and turn around my body for another great view.
Aren’t sunrises just the best?
Bluebonnets are here!
Spring is a great time of year. Renewal and new growth in nature reminds me that we are all capable of coming from a dreary season of life to a time of blooming and beauty.
Our neighborhood walking path was dotted with beautiful bluebonnets and I drank in the loveliness of these flowers as I exercised outside this morning.
I’m grateful to be able to walk around the neighborhood. Thankful for a body that’s in motion today!
Depending on your viewpoint, it can look as if the bluebonnets go on endlessly.
This morning I had a worship service in my car, which moved to my backyard. I was suppressing a huge grin as I drove home from early morning school carpool. I couldn’t wait to get home and photograph the beautiful sunrise! I decided to take the long way home where most of the drive was in a school zone so that I was forced to drive really slow and would have the best view of the sunrise.
I don’t know if you believe this or not, but I think everything we do can be worship if our heart is pointing to God. Think about it for a second.
Olympian Eric Liddell said that when he ran, he felt the pleasure of God. We too, can feel the pleasure and presence of God in our daily activities.
Obviously our activities that are sin will not be worship of God, but worship of ourselves and our pleasures.
This morning in the brisk fifty degree air, I snapped multiple pictures and smiled at God’s glory in the sky. These photographs represent worship of God as Creative Artist.
These are some of the breathtaking horizons from our sandy Christmas in Florida. I can’t help it…I get totally giddy and delighted when I see beautiful colors in the sky!
After blogging for about a year and a half, I just discovered this handy little tool that you see above. It’s so fun! You insert pictures and it places them in order for you. I can’t get enough and wanted to show you some pictures that we’re considering framing for the living room.
If you are new to Coffee with Christine, then I need to tell you that our family loves Africa. We especially love African people. We lived in central Nigeria for a couple of years and grew to love some great Nigerian people. We learned a lot from them and appreciate many things about Nigerian culture. More about that another time. 🙂
The pics above are all from Kenya, when Danielle and I went to the Kibera slum in Nairobi in June.
2012: Our year in pictures
2012 was a huge year of transition for our family. Our milestones this year represent huge change. The changes are a joy, and yet there’s a little sadness about them.
Our son moved away from home for the first time to live in campus housing at his college. We are excited for him and proud of him!
Our daughter started high school at our local public school after homeschooling for several years. She really likes it on all fronts: academically, socially, and athletically. (How’s that for lots of -ly words!)
I’ve been struggling with some medical issues and am learning to navigate this new course. This has caused me to really evaluate what I believe about the sovereignty of God and suffering. My conclusion is that God is always sovereign, even in our suffering.
My husband is the most consistent person that I know; no change there! Yea!! He’s there through thick and thin (metaphorically and literally) and a great source of comfort and companionship. Besides that, he laughs at most of my jokes!
The one constant, unchanging thing in our lives this year is God. He is unmovable, unshakeable, and I don’t know how I’d get through life without Him.
This is from the wordpress.com Weekly Photo Challenge.
When you look at this picture, what do you see? A stunning morning sky, or power lines; an eye sore? I can’t help but see beautiful vivid blue as a background with silvery white clouds. I am convinced that if we are looking for beauty, we will see it. We can focus on the positive in other people, our situations and hardships, and in nature, or we can hone in on the negative.
Sometimes a perspective shift is all it takes to see things differently. This view is still from my backyard, but you’re seeing more of the beautiful sky. I live in a suburban area that is mostly a developed concrete jungle. You really have to look for beauty in nature and you must be intentional. Otherwise you’ll mostly notice stores and shopping centers. What do you want to see today? Focus on beauty in people and nature, and you will see more of it.
A friend was telling me about one of her neighbors visiting with her in the front yard. Her young daughter gasped with delight as she pointed out a beautiful rainbow in the distant sky. The pessimistic neighbor scoffed and said, “Heck, I can see a rainbow anytime I want with a water hose.” This perfectly illustrates how much our perspective matters. We can appreciate simple beauty in life, and intentionally look for it. Or we can be pessimistic and ridicule those who see the brighter side of things. Which one will you be today?
Who else but God could show up at the dawn in my suburban neighborhood like this:
This was the view from my back door as I entered my garage a couple of mornings ago. I was darting into my car to grab something and I gasped at this kind of beauty that declares the glory of God!
A minute later the colors had morphed a little- what a great Artist God is!
This weekend we got to experience a unique and fun birthday party….on the farm. I guess you could call it a funny farm, especially considering the group of us there. It was a group of our daughter’s friends and a few of us chaperoning adults. (We adults are the funny farm part!) My friend Lynette and I jumped on the mule (kind of like a go-cart for the farm grounds) and snapped pictures like crazy.
Evening light
Everyone should have at least one friend that makes you laugh till you cry….even more than one would be better! Someone that you can cry with and pray with, tell your insecurities and know that she won’t tell.
Like my mom always said: If you want that kind of friend, you need to be that kind of friend.
A horrible picture of me, but you get the idea….we were acting like silly teenagers. My daughter has told me that sometimes we act as immature as her and her fourteen year old friends. It’s true.
Barbed wire in the foreground. This is my favorite kind of picture.
Photo by Lynette….beautiful
We were hilarious wanna-be photographers while we rode around on the mule. Every 20 seconds or so, one of us would see something beautiful, we’d have to stop, take 10 or more pictures, then we’d go again.
Perimeter fence, with and without teenagers!
Birthday party girls! Photo by Lynette
Little sisters can be a joy. Photo by Raven
Lovely birthday girl glows!
The scenery at this farm is as beautiful and picturesque as it looks.
Lynette
She may be mad at me for posting this, but I’m hoping the world’s most unflattering picture of me earlier in this post will redeem me. This picture is so great because you can see the happiness on her face. Swinging just makes you feel happy, doesn’t it?
Danielle anda little girl play with the ukulele
It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words. For this post, let’s make it a thousand plus a few thrown in for good measure! Most of the photos speak volumes, but I’ve added my two cents along the way.
We taught 6th through 8th graders to play ukulele throughout the week. This is my favorite picture from our time in Kibera.
We did crafts with the younger students
Stickers are fun accessories
Children wait in line to be served lunch. They are served in the container that they bring to school. You can see that some use plastic lids for plates.
Curious eyes
The innocence and curiosity of some of the younger children is so sweet.
The Kibera New Hope compound overlooks another compound with a chain link fence separating them. This is a child on the other side of the fence.
A boy on the other side of the fence from New Hope compound.
The students look out of their classroom to watch us enter their compound on a school day.
You saw this adorable boy in an earlier post, but I love this one of him watching me.
The outhouse bathroom on New Hope compound is a hole in the ground called a cho. I lost my sunglasses in the cho on our second day there!
Game day was a blast for the elementary kids. They had some crazy relay races around the compound.
In this relay, they had to run from one point to another with a ball between their heads
As we said our goodbyes on our final day, we could promise the Kibera children that we’ll see them again in heaven, if they have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Here Danielle says goodbye.
Our trip leader, Buddy, reminded us several times during our time in Kenya: It’s good to love on the kids and enjoy them, but only one thing will last when we leave Kibera. It’s good that we played games and did crafts, and that many will enjoy playing ukulele after we are gone. However, the only lasting thing is the truth that God loves them, and that they can live forever with Him through a relationship with Jesus.
Danielle kissed by a giraffe
We had a day of rest during our 11 day trip to Nairobi, and we got to visit a giraffe park.
I seriously considered whether or not I will lie on my death-bed and regret not kissing a giraffe. I decided that I would only regret not taking pictures of my daughter with the giraffe. Besides that, I’m good!
great photo by Danielle
