Starrs In Denver

Kids Are AWESOME!

2012-02-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

These two have provided a whole lot of comic relief lately.

It's the cutest two-headed, four-footed person I've ever seen.

~Rose

Celebrating My Dad's Birthday

2012-02-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

Last month we celebrated my dad's birthday over at my parent's house. My mom cooked up a tasty brunch which we all feasted on. We shared cards and gifts with my dad and enjoyed talking and laughing together. Jason, you were missed. Love ya.

Happy Birthday Dad. Thanks for being such a fun grandpa to our kids and an awesome dad to Jason and me. We are so grateful for all the fun times and great memories we've made with you and pray that we can live near each other again in the not too distant future ;) May 2012 bring you all you desire. May God grant you peace and provision and a continued loving marriage. Love you Dad.

A couple days later, Desi and I went off to Estes and while we were gone Hope made these awesome dessert pancakes with Nutella. Found a few cute pics on my camera and wanted to share.

~Rose

Slow Cooker Coconut Ginger Chicken & Vegetables

2012-02-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

From Pinterest to our dinner table: This dish was SO SO SO GOOD! Desi added a few more seasonings and this is a winner! We'll totally make this a regular dish in our home :)

~Rose

Starr Academy Update

2012-02-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

So we just finished Week 20 yesterday! 16 weeks left in our 7th year of home education :) This year has been quite different with all the changes that we've had...mainly, having Alex move in and share our school area and deciding to move 3 hours west of Denver! We moved our school stuff up to the main level and have been doing school at the dining room table while we pack. It's warmer up here anyway.

Speaking of warm, I wanted to remember how the kids love to sit on the heater vent to get warm so I snapped this shot of Levi. We'll all fondly remember this house when they were little and that awesome vent that they love.

Working hard! Rare sight in this house to see all four engaged like this! ha ha!

Levi loves his preschool work :)

Emma illustrates a poem we've memorized:

Owen drawing using the amazing book called Draw Squad. We highly recommend that drawing book...super fun, super easy to follow. Owen and Emma can do it independently most of the time.

Two recent favorite books...the Wolves was really fun...orphans, a wicked woman, standing up for what is right and those who are helpless...great book. The Apprentice really surprised Owen and Emma. They totally judged that book by it's cover and thought it would be dumb. Boy were they wrong...a unique look into life in Florence during the Renaissance as a painter's apprentice. It's a mystery too!

More of Owen's recent artwork...lessons from Draw Squad.

A fun science experiment: making it rain in a jar!

Sonlight continues to be a wonderful curriculum. We are so happy with it. Despite the being in the midst of a move we are still able to get some great schooling in! I open the IG and away we go...no prep for this busy momma!

~Rose

Super Bowl 46

2012-02-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

We headed back home from our painting trip on Sunday. We were happy to get home right before the game started. Thanks to the DeKornes and Pavlaks, our home was warm, tidy and filled with food when we arrived from our 3 hour drive.

We had such a great time watching the game, laughing at the half-time show and enjoying good food and fellowship. I got choked up a few times as I savored this party...our last real party in our home in this season. When you get super close to people, they really do become like family and my heart is filled with joy and gratitude for all the moments I've shared with these amazing people! I love this first pic: Classic Starr Family House...filled with people! The gift of hospitality truly came alive for me in this house.

Micah & Betsy

Jami & Greg

Jon & Anne Marie

Sarah & Lee

Brittani and Tim

~Rose

De Collectieve//Challenge Thirty-nine: Animal

2012-02-08T23:15:00.001-07:00

I wanted to take some pics of our beautiful chickens...BUT our backyard is covered in 2 FEET of snow and the birds are hanging out under their hen house...so they are hard to see!

My submission is of our cat Anakin a couple days ago when the roads were covered in snow. I like how he is contrasted with the background of white outside.

See the rest of the submissions here...there are a BUNCH of GREAT shots! So fun.

~Rose

Hearts in Two Places

2012-02-08T19:43:00.002-07:00

After spending 4 days up in New Castle I feel like my heart is in two places. We're in Denver for 2.5 more weeks...cleaning and prepping the house for it's new chapter: being a rental. I love Denver and our home and the memories we've made here. And I can burst into tears at the drop of a hat when I contemplate the goodness that has been our "Denver Chapter" and the awesome people in it. But I'm also very excited for our "New Castle Chapter" and in my heart of hearts I know this is what God wants for us and this is indeed the right next step for our family. Very painful and very exciting. It's hard to hold those emotions together in my heart.

If you head on over to our other blog you'll see some recent pics from packing and painting. The link is at the end of this post.

Cute kids in an empty truck. I forgot to take a pic of it filled to the brim!

Before:

After:

Head on over to our other blog to see a bunch of before and after pics of our new castle! Click Here.

~Rose

In Which We Return to Denver Covered In Snow

2012-02-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

I took this photo this morning while waiting for the van to warm up.

Last week Desi and I packed almost non-stop on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday we filled a 16' Budget truck (thanks Tim Bergon for the Budget suggestion...way cheaper than UHaul). About noon Desi and my dad headed west with the truck filled to the brim with our 'non-essential' items. My mom and I packed our two cars with food and clothes and kiddos and headed out a few hours after the guys.

By the time we arrived, the guys (and New Castle friends and helpers) had already unloaded our stuff into the garage! Thanks to Vivian, we had an awesome chili dinner waiting for us.

My folks spent half the day with us on Thursday before making their 3 hour trek home. Desi and I wrestled over paint colors for our new castle and he went out and bought a sort of sandy tanish color, a light greenish color and a dark brown color. We started painting that night...one wall in the kitchen and dining room. Friday and Saturday we painted all day long! Thankfully we had various people to help us both days. It would have taken Desi and I a whole week to do what we did in 2.5 days! I'll post pics soon! We are stoked on all we got done and the new place really feels like it's ready for us.

Sunday morning we worked for about 4 hours, got showered and loaded up and headed home to enjoy a superbowl party at our house. We were not surprised to see the tons of snow as Denver's storm was the talk of the town even in New Castle. We were exhausted but had so much fun with the 12 awesome friends that showed up. We all laughed and ate the awesome food that everyone prepared...and we enjoyed seeing New England go down! This morning I started crying thinking about how awesome the people here are...and how much I'm going to miss them...and how thankful I am to have made that memory yesterday. Good stuff.

So now that Desi and I are semi-professional painters, we're ready to work on our Denver house before we put it on the rental market. I'm going to paint the boy's and girl's rooms, the bathrooms, the laundry room and touch up our bedroom and the upstairs hallways! We have some minor repairs to make and hope to get this home on the market in the next week or so. It is very odd to feel like my heart is in two places...so ready for our move and this next chapter for our family but so present here in Denver and trying to savor each and every day.

More pics from the past two weeks to come soon!

~Rose

We Shall Get There

2012-01-31T10:23:00.002-07:00

“Rivers know this: There is no hurry. We shall get there. ”

A. A. Milne (1882-1956);

English author, best known for his books about Winnie-the-Pooh

This is a good word for us today as we pack, pack, pack!
~Rose

MA Retreat in Estes Park

2012-01-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

Desi and I got back Saturday from a four night stay in Estes Park with the MA team (part of the EFCA). Despite our not being officially part of the EFCA, Desi has been asked to remain on this team. This team was originally a sort of "think tank" for the leaders of the EFCA...the MAs were guys across the country doing church in a different sort of way...the 'scary guys'. Over the past few years this group has changed and the guys have grown very close. They rally around a centeredness and sentness and family is the first expression of the church. So, this trip was the first time the wives got to meet up and it was really a wonderful time. We got to stay in these amazing cabins thanks to a connection of one of the couples. Desi and I had a sweet time up there...a lot of fellowship, some work on a covenant way of life, lots of laughter and food and we even squeezed a date in there. Thanks again to the 9 people who volunteered to take shifts and watch our kids. The kiddos had fun and hardly missed us as everyone who spent time with them practically spoiled them!

~Rose

De Collective// Challenge Thirty-Eight: Three

2012-01-27T18:16:00.002-07:00

I've been out of town for a few days (more on that in another post) and I didn't bring my good camera but I did get a chance to take some photos with my phone for the current challenge which is "Three."

The photo above is what I chose to submit.

It's taken in Estes Park, CO

and it's BEAUTIFUL here.

See the rest of the "Three" submissions here.

They are fun.

~Rose

Snowballs!

2012-01-15T14:08:00.002-07:00

There's not a ton of snow on the ground, but there is enough to make some snowballs with the snowball maker I found today!

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.3

~Rose

Just For Laughs

2012-01-13T22:25:00.001-07:00

We are loving these Songify Songs on YouTube lately. Totally silly. And Hilarious. We laugh every time. And the kids know the cat song by heart now. Too funny.
~Rose

Monday School End of Term

2012-01-09T20:55:00.000-07:00

The kids had a great open house today for their "Monday School" today. We enjoyed some musical performances as well as an awesome Kindergarten performance. Levi was so cute!

After the performances we got to walk the hall to see all the artwork and jewelry that our awesome kids had made during their first term. Hope, Owen and Emma got to choose their favorite artwork to display on the walls.

Levi has been bringing things home all term.

These were a few things he made today.

~Rose

Emma Reads From Pompeii

2012-01-06T13:23:00.000-07:00

Emma's reading is coming along so nicely.
I love to hear her read and this story is very exciting!
~Rose

Sadness~ A Poem By Hope Starr

2012-01-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hope had to write a poem for school this week.

She's a reluctant writer but when she knew this

was not an optional assignment she had fun with it:

Sadness

Sadness stood short, skinny and bent-over.

He had messy brown

hair,

red eyes,

and a tear streaked

face.

Sadness spoke with

a small,

but thick

voice.

Sadness walked very

slowly,

then he crawled up into

a ball,

and wept, sobbed

and cried.

I felt sad

for him,

so I gave

him a hug.

His name is not sadness anymore,

It's Gladness.

By, Hope Starr age 11

I read this poem aloud to the family the day she wrote it and Owen yelled out, "It sounds like sadness is a person!" Exactly right Owen! This was an exercise in personification. I was stoked that first, Hope wrote an awesome poem and second, that Owen got it. So fun.

~Rose

Guitar Boy

2012-01-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Levi is So. Darn. Cute. with his guitar.

I can't even stand it sometimes!

~Rose

Moving to Our New Castle Chronicles

2012-01-02T18:14:00.003-07:00

I'll be posting regularly about our big move over on our family ministry blog.

Check it out here.

~Rose

Ringing In 2012

2012-01-02T15:34:00.000-07:00

Our New Year's Eve was nice and mellow.

Just our family and just what we needed.

We had a favorite dinner: black bean tacos (with corn tortillas fried in coconut oil and lime splashed shredded cabbage with cilantro and feta cheese). After dinner I made gluten free chocolate chip cookies and we went over all the highlights from 2011. We had fun remembering back to all the memories we made last year. After that we filled out one page each of favorite memories, lessons learned and desires for 2012 and then shared those. It's so fun to hear the kid's perspective on the past and future. After that it was a viewing of Nacho Libre which took us to a few minutes till midnight. We gathered pots and spoons and did the countdown with a national clock website and then ran outside and made as much noise as we could. We managed to rouse one neighbor out of her house. Miss Pepper yelled "Happy New Year Starrs!" to us from across the street. Ha! We couldn't see the fireworks that went off downtown and due to the cold temps we ran back inside pretty quickly.

Once inside I got a photo with each of my favorite people:

Yesterday we welcomed 2012 with our traditional quiche and cinnamon rolls and mimosas thanks to Erika! We had a mellow day filled with sunshine, football and an awesome evening church gathering with some of our very favorite people. We took time to look back over what was a very challenging and difficult year for most of us and see the beauty of God's hand despite the hardships. We all shared about our dreams and hopes for this new year and prayed together. Awesome way to end the first day of the first week of the first month of the new year.

Today we took the day off school and went downtown to go ice skating (it's only $2 a person!) but found that it was WAY TOO CROWDED! We decided to come back when kids are in school and adults are at work so we can have the ice rink to ourselves!

I snapped a few pics before we headed home:

What makes Denver unique? We do! But not for long. Soon we'll be making New Castle unique!

~Rose

My 312th Post of 2011

2011-12-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

Happy New Years Eve!

I've been blogging for just over 6 years now.
This post makes 1,943 blog posts!

Last night I went over my 311 posts from 2011.

Thanks to this online 'photo journal' I enjoyed seeing photos of the highlights from our year. We have so many wonderful memories that we made in 2011 but in many ways 2011 was the hardest year for our family in terms of vocation. It was a year of waiting...doing what God had put on our plates but waiting for the next chapter...assuming it would come sometime in 2011.

We have been exhausted and emotional and frustrated.
If it weren't for our kids I would have spent quite a few days in bed.

From family and friends moving away to not having any sort of real vacation (I know this is lame...many people don't have vacations but I would have loved one...one that would be a time of peace and rest for us) to having Alex move in (an adjustment for sure) to just not knowing what the next chapter would hold for us (but feeling all during 2011 that God was preparing us for a change).

It's been a long year.
I'm happy to put it to bed and excited for what 2012 holds.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2011 Highlights~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

January
Downtown Ice Skating
Desi & Rose travel to Estes Park for 2 nights
Hope plays Little Alice in Alice in Wonderland
Desi's parents visit
Desi travels to Estes Park with the Missional Architects for a prayer/planning time
Rose's friend Shannon is pregnant!

February
Rose participated in a 30 day creativity challenge
Desi travels to frigid North Dakota with his friend & fellow Missional Architect Eric Hesse to share about missional living/simple church
Our friend Jamie N. moves here
We host a super fun super bowl party
Emma and Levi get their first library cards

March
Rose's brother Jason gives us a deluxe chess set
Our gray kitty Todd has her second (and last) litter of kittens
Bob helps us plant a front yard garden
Emmaline Faith turns 7
Desi & Rose get free tix to see an Avalanche game (ice hockey)
Desi travels to Tennessee for a Quiet Waters Listening Prayer retreat

April
Our chickens turned 1
Our family enjoys an Evergreen day trip
Owen learns how to ride a bike (which gets stolen 5 months later)
Desi travels to Temecula, CA for his mom's 60th birthday (Easter weekend)
I host an Easter Gathering sans Desi
Mom & I take the kids to a Living History Day in Arvada

May
Desi and I celebrate 12 years of marriage with a one night stay downtown. I absolutely love being married to my best friend. There is no one else I'd rather spend time with or raise our kids with. Desi is the best gift I've ever received and I am so grateful for the years I've had with him.
The Perea Family visits
I turn 34 (I don't feel older than 24! Am I seriously a grown up? lol)
I prep and have a HUGE yard sale only to have it rain (2 van loads to the Goodwill)
Andy Yi makes us an awesome Korean dinner before moving home to OK
My Uncle Doug and his wife visiti CO and we go to the Wild Animal Sanctuary with them
We attend a Rockies V Giants baseball game with the awesome Sailer Family
Desi travels to Texas for a Luke 10 conference
Kids get involved with 4-H and Owen builds a rocket
Desi turns 35 (and celebrates Micah, Jason and Tim at an awesome party)

June
Kids dub me "most awesome mom" for giving them strips of cloth and red cloth marker to simulate war wounds in their outdoor war games with neighbor kids
Desi and Owen get free tix for a Rapids game (soccer)
Family Road trip to Arkansas for James and Jessa's wedding
Desi officiates his 6th wedding, both boys are in the wedding party
Levi turns 5
We finish another year of home education (Rose & Hope's 6th year -1st with Sonlight)
We enjoy City Park Jazz with friends
Mark & Karen travel to Africa and then move to Texas for Law School :-(
Desi travels to San Diego for the EFCA Leadership Conference to lead a training seminar with the Missional Architects about a lifestyle of "Sentness" that flows out of centeredness on Jesus

July
We enjoy awesome thunderstorms and I capture Owen's reaction to big thunder on video
Alex moves into our basement
We experience a super long power outage the same day that
Desi travels to the Rocky Mtns for a 'Braveheart Intensive"
Rose's brother Jason moves back to Florida (Rose mourns the change)
Owen launches his rocket 3 times (awesome fun)
First family bike ride to City Park (dinner and free Jazz)
Rose road trips with her parents to Carpinteria & Ojai, CA to visit family

August
We start our 7th year of home education (2nd yr with Sonlight)
We use our library passes to take the kids to Elitch Gardens (they discover big kid rides)
Owen turns 9
Desi's parents visit and take us to
Lakeside Amusement Park (freaking awesome!)
Rose gets an emergency tooth extraction
Ryan Likes moves to Seattle for school (sadness ensues)
Family trip to New Castle, CO to Price Family where
John White and Desi lead a LK10 one day conference on simple church living

September
Jamie N. moves back to CA :(
Family day trip to Echo Lake and Mt. Evans on Labor Day
Rose takes 3 kids to Celtic Harvest Festival (got to see an eagle close up)
Hope performs as a Snow child in Carousel
Family day hike to Meyer Ranch for Alex's birthday
Family day hike in beautiful Golden Gate Canyon State Park with mom and Alex

October
Shannon's baby boy is born (much rejoicing ensues)
Corn Maze with mom and Erika
Free pumpkins in Five Points
Carving Party next door (Hope wins a prize)
Previa Posse (we take photos with the Sailer family who bought a Previa like ours)
Trip to the Denver Zoo with the Sailer family
First snowfall and we take an awesome
Family Snow Day!
Hope turns 11
Emma busts her chin open and gets 3 stitches in the ER (first kid to the ER)
Halloween (home made costumes- H is a gift, O is a mad scientist, E is Steve Jobs and L is a dog)

November
Hope plays (and ROCKS) Lucy in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Desi's parents visit for a 3rd time this year (we are so grateful)
Hope's friends and family fill the theater to see her perform
Thanksgiving at our house with the DeKornes, Pavlaks, Bob and mom

December
New Castle trip to get some direction on moving there
We make the decision to move forward with moving to New Castle
Desi gets free tix to see a Bears V Broncos game (football)
Rose gets a tooth extracted (doesn't go well) and suffers for a week
Alex's family visit for Christmas
Christmas Eve dinner with Rose's folks and Alex's family
Christmas day with Rose's folks, Bob and Alex's family

Quite the year, huh???

We are so grateful. God has sustained us and loved on us in countless ways.
We have enjoyed the ups and downs of living in close community with a small group of utterly amazing people. We have made mistakes. We have made good choices and bad. We have learned from them and grown. We have met amazing people and have been inspired to go deeper in our relationships with God and each other. We have been surprised at God's leading and opening the door for us to move to New Castle.

2012 holds a lot of changes for us.

We are leaving our first home...where we've spent more than half our marriage and have created countless memories. We are leaving this awesome neighborhood and city. We are saying goodbye to this amazing community of brothers and sisters. There is sadness and loss in these changes. But we are strengthened in knowing that this is God's plan for our family. In so many ways, He has confirmed this to us and we are confident. We are excited to take the first month of moving to our New Castle as a sabbatical. A time of rest, peace and renewal before diving into the next chapter of our family's life. We are happy that Denver is only 3 hours away and we'll be able to stay connected with loved ones here. I'm looking forward to coming down for a girl's weekend here and there...Betsy, keep that guest room ready for me! We're excited to have people come stay with us in New Castle and excited for the awesome potential that that house has. More than anything though, I'm filled with joy at knowing how loved I am...by God and my family. The peace God has filled me with can only come from Him and I eagerly look forward to enjoying each new day He gives me.

May 2012 bring you closer to Him who alone can give you what your heart truly and deeply desires and needs.

~Rose

Rhythms For 2012

2011-12-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

I have been journaling and praying about 2012. While I am very excited about a fresh new year and all that it holds, I am also fearful and sad. A big move like the one we are making has lots of challenges. We've lived in this home for 7+ years! The logistics of moving, schooling (including testing Hope and Owen this spring), and getting settled into a new place and town feels like a LOT to me. Saying goodbye to our loving community here is something I have already been grieving. Knowing in my heart that this is the right move for us makes it a little easier and I'm grateful that it's only 3 hours away and we'll still be able to visit Denver and have folks visit us in New Castle.

So, a brand new, fresh year is right around the corner!

Some of my desires for myself and my family for 2012 are...

Take a daily walk
Continue to use The Divine Hours to observe the ancient practice of fixed-hour prayer
Use a 2012 planner to record God's goodness in my life and His provision and answers to prayer
Continue to use OhLife to journal every night before going to bed
Take 30 to 60 minutes on weekdays to observe a quite time for reading, drawing or napping (for all family members). I've wanted to do this for years...to have a real time of rest for all of us in the afternoon.
Continue with photography
Check in at a heart level daily with Desi and kiddos
Daily chores for kids
Daily outside play for kids

Weekly family game night
Face time with long distance family
Guys make dinner once a week
Girls make dinner once a week

Continue with monthly dates for Desi and I, and our kiddos
Take a once a month no phone/internet/electronics/work day of rest.
Once a month family adventure/outing

I enjoy dreaming and planning and new beginnings.

~Rose

A Starr Family Christmas 2011

2011-12-28T21:21:00.002-07:00

Christmas Day was quite nice.

Owen and I were first up and we enjoyed some quiet time alone before the hustle and bustle of the day began. The kids get to open stockings first thing, then we have breakfast together and once we're all dressed we open gifts. This year we got to video chat with Desi's family so they could see the kids open the gifts from them and we could see them open the gifts we sent them. It was really special to be able to do that...especially with Desi's grandmothers.

My parents and Alex's family arrived around 10am and enjoyed exchanging gifts, eating tasty food, playing a variety of new games and one old favorite (7 to 1 or Up and Down the River). Bob came for lunch and enjoyed a card game with us. Mid-afternoon everyone went home or out so we had some family time. Bob came back over (with his dog Stella) to join us for dinner and football. It was a mellow and enjoyable evening.

As I write this on Wednesday night, we have already 'put Christmas away'. I love how big the house feels after putting our 3 boxes of decor away. It's always kind of sad though. We have the tree up for a month of anticipation and then once Christmas is over there is a bit of sadness because the anticipation is gone. But we are grateful for the memories we made...especially since this may be our last Christmas in this house.

Already I am anticipating the beginning of 2012. I relish in saying goodbye to one year and hello to the next. As I love the changing of the seasons, I love the changing of the years. A fresh, new year brings the opportunity to reflect on the past and look prayerfully into the future. I have begun journaling some desired new rhythms for the new year and am excited to implement them.

Our Tree

Owen and Red on Christmas Morning

Cute just-woke-up kids...

Opening stockings...notice our awesome tv fireplace?! lol, we played that all day!

Good Morning Beautiful Girl!

Good morning awesome five year old!!!

Video chatting with Desi's family...kids are stoked to have their own "Grandpa Des Bubble Bath"

We got lots of games this year :)

Levi got ninja swords and daggers. Watch out bad guys.

Owen has a thing for Penguins.

Emma, our peace loving 7 year old.

My parents got the kids tear off a day calendars (which they have had the past few years and love) and Garfield books among other things. Owen loves to read Garfield at night.

Ninja back back thing...

That girl is all LOVE. New sweatshirt!!

Hope read Harry Potter this past year and thought this calendar from my parents was sweet!

Mom helping the kids play one of two Lego games that Owen got.

Spot It. Super fun game. Highly recommend this one!!!

Card games!

Painting the ceramic bobble heads they got in their stockings.

We come from a long line of card playing folks.
It's so fun that Hope and Owen are of the age to join in on the fun.

Puppy lover!

Cat lover!

My awesome parents. It's such a gift to celebrate the holidays with them.

Uno Roboto. Another new game. SUPER FUN! We love Uno games and have a few of them (Spin Uno is fun) but this one takes the cake. We've played everyday since Christmas.

Story cubes. This one will help us expand our story-telling muscles. We're not too good yet, but the cubes make this an easy and fun game that all ages can play.

This dog is seriously one of the best dogs on the planet.

Stella and Red are best dog friends forever. Too cute together.

Owens' other Lego Game. I'm looking forward to playing it soon!

Owen's new (well, new to him...thrift store find!) bathrobe.

Levi's big gift this year was a real guitar. He LOVES it! Oh. My. Gosh. It is so stinkin' cute to see him strumming away on that thing. Alex is helping to keep the guitar in tune (needs it multiple times a day) and is showing Levi some of the basics. Love it!

~Rose

Christmas Eve

2011-12-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

Owen had the idea to open sibling gifts on Christmas Eve morning. Last year we did it after dinner but we all thought morning would be fun. The kids each spent about a dollar or so on each other and really enjoyed opening gifts. They were so sweet.

We got to dog-sit Micah & Betsy's dog Red while they were out of town and decided to give Red an old stuffed animal for Christmas. She loved it.

Alex's mom and brothers arrived on the 23rd and came over on the 24th for Christmas Eve dinner with us. Beth, Alex's mom, gave the kids gifts which they loved.

I rested most of the afternoon as my extraction site (got a tooth pulled a few days before) was sore. Thanks to Beth, Desi and my mom and I we pulled off a nice but low key Christmas Eve dinner.

Owen was STOKED on Hope's gift for him :)

Opening 'sibling gifts'

Redención (Red for short)

We gave Red a stuffed animal for Christmas...it lasted about 24 hours! lol

Sweet Siblings...I really like these kids.

Levi loves his new tic tac toe game.

Alex's brother Sam enjoying our kiddos.

Taking Red for a potty/play break.

Sam and Emma working on bracelets from her new kit. Hope got a new purse that she loves.

Levi is loving his new marshmallow gun. Owen got one too.

~Rose

Chilling With Ryan

2011-12-27T20:29:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday night our friend Ryan hung out with us. He's in school in Seattle. He moved away last August and we've really missed him so it was great to spend some time with him and hear how school and his new life are going. We got a chance to share in depth about our impending move as well. I really cherish these moments...sharing a meal and evening with friends...hearing and sharing stories and laughter. Good stuff.

A few minute to win it games :)

I enjoyed some hot coco out of Levi's cute mug.

Ryan telling us about his first semester at school in Seattle.

Good conversations and Desi using his hands to talk :)

Watching something online?!

~Rose

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

Luke 2 Message

The Birth of Jesus

^1-5About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David's town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.

^6-7While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.

An Event for Everyone

^8-12There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you're to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."

^13-14At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God's praises:

Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.

^15-18As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. "Let's get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us." They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.

^19-20Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they'd been told!

Merry Christmas Eve!

2011-12-24T11:40:00.001-07:00

This morning we enjoyed opening "sibling gifts" once everyone rolled out of bed.

All four kids had purchased small gifts for each other and it was so fun to watch them open gifts and be excited about little things. The best gift was from Hope to Owen: a little bag of snickerdoodle cookie mix. Owen was PUMPED!!! What I enjoyed was their working together to make the cookies and then proudly sharing them with everyone. Warms my momma's heart.

Now we're enjoying the Bronco's game...and hopefully a win!

My folks, Alex's family and Bob will be joining us for a semi-formal dinner tonight.

Love this time of year.

~Rose

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. ~Burton Hillis

Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart. ~Washington Irving

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love! ~Hamilton Wright Mabie

When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs? ~G.K. Chesterton

This is the message of Christmas: We are never alone. ~Taylor Caldwell

De Collective: Challenge Thirty-Seven: Christmas Song or Lyric

2011-12-23T12:02:00.000-07:00

My submission for Christmas Song or Lyric is

"Walking in a Winter Wonderland".

Desi thinks it should be called Stalking in a Winter Wonderland.

This is Todd, our one female cat.

She could not resist a stroll

in the deep snow yesterday morning.

See the rest of the submissions here.

~Rose

It Means SO Much More!

2011-12-23T09:38:00.003-07:00

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991);

Writer, Cartoonist, Animator

Views From My House Today

2011-12-22T13:23:00.001-07:00

This morning I had to shovel to get to the chickens so I could bring them their water. We pour out the water every night and refill it each morning (otherwise it freezes and is a pain in the neck to deal with). After getting the birds their water I moved all the snow off their coop.

There is so much snow in our backyard!!!

A cat's eye view from our front door:

My view of downtown from our porch.

My favorite view is from inside my cozy, warm house though!

Happy Snow Day Denver!

~Rose

Snow Falling on Starr Children

2011-12-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry!

2011-12-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed a game of Sorry with my boys last night
as the snow started to fall softly over our city.

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~Rose

Blessing Way for Dawn

2011-12-22T08:10:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday my friend Shannon and I had to joy of giving our pregnant friend Dawn a Blessing Way. It's an alternative to a traditional baby shower. Dawn and I gave one to Shannon a few months ago which was really special.

Ours went like this: gather and get a bite to eat, and then get settled in a comfortable room. We had blue ribbon that we unrolled and passed along to connect us all. Dawn had a chance to share her heart, fears, ect... and then we then took turns giving Dawn verbal blessings. Some of read letters we wrote, others just spoke from the heart, others shared scripture passages. It was so beautiful and encouraging for all of us! Dawn had asked us all to bring a rock with a word written on it and we had a time to share how that word is special to us (my word was Hope). Dawn collects rocks to symbolize events in her life she wants to remember (what a neat idea!). We then had a time to pray for Dawn. After that we cut the ribbon and each made a bracelet from it to remind us to pray for Dawn in these last few weeks of pregnancy. We will cut our ribbon bracelets off when we hear she has had her baby boy! After it was over I took photos of everyone with Dawn to remember this day and Dawn shared that she felt as good as if she had just received a massage! So awesome.

I was honored to be a part of another Blessing Way and hope to participate in more!

~Rose

Christmas Party!

2011-12-21T16:58:00.003-07:00

Last Friday we hosted a fun little Christmas Party. We enjoyed dinner with friends, a time of checking in, prayer, carols and of course, a white elephant gift exchange!

Micah got a dog shaped cookie jar.

Dacia got Fanta!

Hope got a hand made paper bird. She loves it.

Stella & Red

Owen trying to decide if he wants to steal Dacia's Fanta.

Hilarious!

He ended up going for it!

Our new friend Erin Jo got the "Half cup of coffee"

Too fun! I love white elephant gift exchanges!

Levi got some educational cards and coffee cups.

Mistletoe!!!

What a gift to enjoy a fun evening with friends!

~Rose

2011-12-20T17:41:00.001-07:00

Just had a tooth extracted.

Did not go nearly as easy as the one in August.

This was not a very back molar and this tooth was broken so the dentist had to drill it to pieces and then pull them out. It took a long time...and then I had to get more pain killers shot into my mouth because I started to feel things! My mouth is so sore :(

Walked out to the van and the lights were on and it wouldn't start!

I started crying.

After a bit I tried the van and it sputtered.

A few more minutes wait and it thankfully started!

I'm home now.

Got a mouth full of gauze.

Time to watch Elf with my family to get my mind off my painful mouth!

Eventually I'll get a bridge over gap we just created by pulling my tooth out.

I am so grateful to live with modern medicine! Can you imagine trying to pull out a tooth in the olden days????

~Rose

New Castle Pics & Long Overdue Update

2011-12-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

Wow. I have had such busy days lately that my heart has zero energy for this little blog! But all the big projects are done and we are entering into what I call the fun time of Christmas. Gifts have been made, packaged up and mailed, cards & newsletters have been mailed, meal plans for the 24th & 25th are done and each night I wrap a few gifts so that will be done soon.

Now is time to enjoy Christmas music and movies and games and treats and family fun and the end of 2011. I cannot believe we are here already. 2011 has felt like a long year. This time last year we were going through some painful changes which started last December but were finalized in early January...being asked to leave the leadership of Ancient Paths Network (Read about it here).

2011 held a lot of questions for us as we asked God what was next for us. We continued on with a few things: Desi being a part of the EFCA's Missional Architect Team, Desi became more involved in the leadership of Luke 10 and continues to be a big part of the wide network of Colorado house churches as well as our house church and the one that was in Globeville (before most of those folks moved away this summer...sad for us, but good moves for them). We have been praying and asking and searching this year for a place to have a Home-Based Training Center. Read more about all of these things here. We had a couple leads for the training center (which we thought would be in Denver) but nothing panned out. Month after month went by and we continued to pray and wait. It was a lot of waiting. It's been a tough year in that respect.

But God has this amazing timing...these amazing plans...which is why New Castle is such a beautiful surprise...we didn't strive to make anything happen. This is such a God thing. Head over to our family ministry blog for all the details of our impending move to New Castle, CO!!!!

New Castle Exploration Trip Part 1

New Castle Exploration Trip Part 2

Christmas Newsletter with more details

Then enjoy a few of the many pics I took on our last visit....

Emma and Lucy (the Price's dog)

There are shops, eateries, a post office, library (under renovation), park with playground and other businesses on Main St. It's this sweet, quiet, little mountain town (about 10 min west of Glenwood Springs).

Looking west on Main St. with Burning Mountain

Looking east on Main St.

The River Center where amazing things take place for not only the community of New Castle but all the towns along this part of the I70 corridor on the western slope of Colorado.

Prayer room

The basement of the center is being renovated...and is beautiful.

The beautiful Colorado River runs westward along I70

Beautiful...

Jana drove me around and we came across this sheep farm. I have this crazy love for sheep farms after reading the book Mountain Born a few times to my kids. I love this photo...

The house we would be moving into is the one on the right in the pic below.

We took a walk with the kiddos up the foothill across the street from the house. The rest of New Castle is on the other side of this foothill/mountain? I forget what they call it but there is a hiking trail to the left of this paved path.

Sidewalk tunnel...on our way to a playground...

The kids were enthralled with the frozen ponds all over the place.

Lucy joined in the fun at the playground!

The house is a single story double wide mobile home. It's huge! A bit bigger than our 3 stories here in Denver. There is a little grassy area, garden area, tree swing, slide and climbing wall and even a chicken coop!

There is open garage space under the whole house which is zoned for multi family housing. This totally fits with our dream for a home based training center. The potential for this place is amazing.

More Lucy Love. We almost named Emmaline Lucy.

This playground and park is just down the street from the house.

~Rose

Owen At Work

2011-12-08T17:18:00.001-07:00

I love when one of my kids creates beauty with our pattern blocks.

In other news I'm sick today & I don't like that.

~Rose

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De Collectieve//Challenge Thirty-Six: Food

2011-12-07T19:12:00.001-07:00

I couldn't resist this photo for my "Food" submission.

Ha! I love this girl so much.

See the rest here.

~Rose

New Castle

2011-12-06T12:31:00.001-07:00

New Castle, Colorado

We've been visiting our friends the Price family here in New Castle for the past few days. It's been beautiful and peaceful and a wonderful getaway for our family.

I like it here.

~Rose

Decoratin' Ye Olde Christmas Tree

2011-12-01T22:22:00.001-07:00

The day after Thanksgiving we got out the Christmas tree right before bedtime. The kids were so excited to put the three parts of the tree together and plug it in.

Warning: there are a TON of pics in this post...mainly for the grandparents and great-grandparents! Love you guys!

I love all these goofy kiddos!

Owen did NOT want to be in the group pic...

...but we eventually won him over with the power of silliness!

Tree Hugger...

I think he may have hurt himself a bit here!

We were going to decorate the next morning but I was super sick all day Saturday so we waited till Sunday mid morning when I felt better. The kids loved decorating and finding their ornaments. We buy them each a new ornament every year and write their name and the year on it for a keepsake.

It's so fun to have big kids who can decorate all on their own. I only put one ornament on the tree! It was done in 10 minutes flat! It was so fun to sing along to our favorite Christmas songs as we decorated.

Anakin enjoyed a little cozy spot under the tree. All three cats really enjoy sitting under the tree. The only problem is that we cannot put any gifts there as the cats will tear them apart!

We gave the kids their ornaments: Hope got an owl, Emma a St.Bernard dog, Levi a red chicken (he didn't like it so I let him hold our family ornament which is a little song bird...but that made Owen mad-he thought Levi should be forced to hold his own ornament-thus the big frown on my first born son's face) and Owen got a penguin. Ah, the joys of parenthood :)

The kiddos are pumped for the holiday season and we are too. It's always more fun with kids around and this year is no exception. I find each new season to be more enjoyable than the last as the kids get older. I can't believe this is Hope's 12th Christmas! My how time flies.

So, on this first day of December, I wish you a very merry Christmas season.

May you have peace and joy in your heart.

Keep your relationships first.

Gifts of time, love and fellowship

far outweigh material gifts for we do

not know how long we have with those

we love most dearly.

~Rose

Workin' On Gifts

2011-11-29T22:38:00.004-07:00

So we are making very special gifts for 10 very special family members for Christmas this year. If we were rich, we'd buy everyone iPads and take them on Hawaiian vacations with us, but so far our chickens are not laying any golden eggs.

So we are taking the humble, but oh so lovely, hand-made gift route. It harkens back to my dear Grandma Nina who seemed to always be making gifts. She did it year round. It's just what she did. I love that.

I'm so excited about these gifts!!! All 6 of us are working on them together. Team Starr all the way!

This is part of my brother's gift (I don't think he reads my blog b/c he doesn't have a computer out in Jacksonville yet). If you are reading this Jason: Hi and I Love YOU and Miss YOU!

Isn't this so fun? My brother is a Tolkien fan and I saw this quote online and was inspired to create this little piece of art for him. It fits him so well and I think he'll love it. And that makes me happy.

~Rose

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Paper Mache Animals!

2011-11-28T09:11:00.003-07:00

Hope and Emma showed off their adorable paper mache cat and elephant to me at Monday school today. So cute. Fills my cup right up.

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~Rose

A Starr Family Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

This was the best Thanksgiving yet!!!

The only thing that could have made it better was having my brother here...and my dad (he got a migrane and had to stay home). We enjoyed a ton of delightful dishes and the roasted chickens I had bought the day before from Sunflower Market. It was SO NICE to not have to prepare a turkey!!! We enjoyed all the traditional trimmings with our chickens: mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, yams, rolls, greens, green bean casserole and cheesy carrots (a new one for most of us...but oh so good!).

After dinner we sat around and enjoyed our traditional game of guess what you are thankful for and I started a new tradition of placing 5 corn kernels beside each plate and we used those to share with everyone 5 specific things we are thankful for. It was a neat time that ended in prayer before cleaning up the dinner dishes.

The Delightful DeKornes: Betsy & Micah

After cleaning up the dinner dishes we got the desserts out: pumpkin pie, apple-blueberry cobbler, pecan pie, key lime pie and apples with pumpkin dip. Oh my!

The kids opted for whipped cream mustaches before a piece of pie:

Hilarious!

After dinner we started a big old game of Captionary.

Owen had been looking forward to this for the past few weeks and was so pumped to have a big group here to play.

I waited awhile for my dessert...

Levi played with Stella while we played our game.

Then he did some artwork...

The Pretty Pavlaks: Jami & Greg.

It was so fun having them with us this year!

Micah & Betsy's dog Red loves Stella :)

Chatting on the phone with Micah's folks during a game break...

Cute girls!

Part 2 of Captionary: showing the drawings and reading the captions. HILARIOUS!!!!

For the game we played each packet had 10 pieces of paper...in the photo below are four that I found hilarious (I think the photo will enlarge if you click on it). The game goes like this: start off writing a phrase or sentence on a piece of paper, pass your stack of papers to the person on the left, they read what you wrote and then draw a picture, then they pass their picture to the person on their left and write a caption for it on the next piece of paper (keeping the stack together the whole time). You end up with these little story booklets that are so so so so funny.

We cracked up over the funny drawings and things people wrote!

Once the game was over the kids headed to bed and my mom left and then we stayed up a bit longer talking. It was really a most lovely evening and I'm so grateful.

~Rose

Visit With The Starrs

2011-11-25T22:23:00.002-07:00

Desi's folks came to visit the second week in November.

They got to join us and a bunch of our friends to see Hope perform as Lucy in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. She was amazing and it was so special to have Desi and my parents there.

We enjoyed teaching them how to play Captionary which we played a few times. They stayed home with the kids one night so Desi and I could enjoy a long date night out. We enjoyed Jan's various flavored Stevia drops on baked apples and yogurt and mixed with sparkling water. Oh so fun!

Des & Jan, thank you so much for such a fun visit. You spoiled us all and we loved it! I cherish our time together...we all do. You both mean so much to us and Desi and I are eternally grateful to God for you...our relationship with you and your relationship with our kids. You are passing along a beautiful legacy to them.

~Rose

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!

2011-11-24T13:22:00.004-07:00

I just finished getting the table ready.

There will be 13 of us this year. I really enjoy preparing the table and place settings. It's something I do only once or twice a year.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for many reasons but best of all is that the only gift giving is verbal as we give thanks for all the good in our lives and we tell each other how much we mean to each other. We enjoy games, football and delicious food. It reminds me of my Grandma Nina and Aunt Nina who hosted our family Thanksgiving gatherings year after year. I have such fond memories of those family times. They just might be the richest memories I have.

So, today Desi and I get celebrate our 13th Thanksgiving together. We are honored to share the day with my parents and 5 other close friends. The only sad part is that my brother and Desi's family are not here to share in the festivities. They are greatly missed.

~Rose

Psalm 95

¹ Oh come, let us sing to the LORD!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
³ For the LORD is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
⁴ In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
⁵ The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.

⁶ Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
⁷ For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.

Discover Beauty in Everyone

2011-11-21T09:42:00.002-07:00

Romans 12 (The Message)

Place Your Life Before God

^1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

³I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

^4-6In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.

^6-8If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

^9-10Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

^11-13Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

^14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.

^17-19Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."

^20-21Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

Parental Rights

2011-11-18T22:15:00.003-07:00

I just watched this 35 minute docudrama and it was quite interesting!!!
~Rose

Smile

2011-11-18T09:27:00.003-07:00

"Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing." ~Mother Teresa

"All the statistics in the world can't measure the warmth of a smile." ~Chris Hart

Levi drew these adorable smile faces yesterday. We all fell instantly in love with his sweet drawings!

"A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give."

~Author Unknown

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Guitar Lover

2011-11-17T07:08:00.000-07:00

So I think we may have a little musician living in our house!

Levi has been playing his sister's guitar every day this week and he says he really wants his own "real guitar without stickers". Too cute. I'm pretty sure we can make that happen with Christmas right around the corner :)

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The Tales of Robin Hood

2011-11-16T09:32:00.003-07:00

I'm reading Robin Hood to Owen, Emma and Levi this morning while they play with Legos.

This book is SO FUN!!!! I LOVE IT! We look forward to watching the old Errol Flynn movie once we finish the book.

Hope and I are enjoying Eric Liddell so a viewing of Chariots of Fire will be scheduled as well :)

~Rose

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Cherish The Ordinary

2011-11-14T14:34:00.003-07:00

“OBSERVE!!! There are few things as important, as religious, as that” – Frederick Buechner

Mommas, please check out this link to be encouraged to enjoy the ordinary days of mothering your young ones. I was encouraged to read this post today and the video made me tear up...it was beautiful.

I feel so strongly (along with the author of the blog above) that our days are so precious, so fleeting... and it is so easy to get caught up in doing, doing, doing that we forget to really look at our kids, to really enjoy them, to soak in all the goodness that kids bring. Even though it'll be a few more years till I have my first teenager, I feel the days and years slipping by. I find myself enjoying these amazingly ordinary and precious moments with my kids that bring me to tears for I know they are once in a lifetime despite the ordinaryness of them. Does that make sense?

I guess my point is to cherish.

Cherish your children, no matter what age or how they are acting. Let love cover a multitude of sins.

Cherish your spouse. The one who loves you in all your good and bad.

Cherish your friendships...those true, open, vulnerable soul to soul friendships you might be lucky enough to have found and grown.

Do the hard work of choosing to love these people instead of focusing on their faults. The relationship is what matters most.

~Rose

Hope is Lucy!

2011-11-12T16:40:00.001-07:00

We finally got to see Hope (as Lucy) in Narnia today. She was marvelous! We had 30 people (family & friends) in the audience. What a blessing to have so many people come support Hope!
~Rose

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Parent Science 101 - Part Three "Listening and Limits" - Hand in Hand Parenting

2011-11-10T19:20:00.000-07:00

Parent Science 101 - Part Three "Listening and Limits" - Hand in Hand Parenting

The link above is to an article I found really interesting. For quite awhile now Desi and I have sent our kids to their rooms when they are having tantrums, melt-downs, etc... I've never felt really good about sending them away but I haven't know what to do with them. Either I'm quite angry and need them to be away from them (and that's my problem, not there's) or it's uncomfortable to be with them when they are freaking out (which again is my problem)!

I'm rethinking things lately. Part of me thinks, "They can't pollute this room with all this negativity...they need to go calm down somewhere else." Another part of me sees how their emotional outburst is a cry for help...that something deeper is going on in their hearts and the outward manifestation of the melt down is not the main thing. I think it's almost cruel to send them off alone when their little worlds are spinning...unless they want to be alone. Sometimes they do...and in those times when they go somewhere to cool off (of their own choice) they seem to be pretty happy when they return.

I've had a few experiences lately with kids melting down and I've stayed calm, kind and loving...and nearby. Instead of doing what I've done (time out in rooms) I've tried to stay with them...in the moment...in love. While it can be quite hard for me to be loving in the midst of these times, I've felt that it was the right thing to do. I've been able to really listen to my child and really show them that no matter what they do or say, I love them and I'm here for them. When they are done and feel better we can talk and the heart connection that we share feels so good. It's worth every moment of their frustration.

Anyway, I don't have this parenting thing figured out and the older my kids get the more emotionally difficult it becomes, but I care deeply about my heart connection with my husband and children. I am willing to do the hard stuff...to stay loving and calm and kind in the midst of wild emotions. I know that I won't always choose the path of love and that I will make mistakes and that is ok.

There are so many choices we have to make regarding our kids...from the moment they are born...cloth vs disposable diapers, vaccines, nursing or bottle feeding, make your baby food or buy it, school choices, media exposure, extracurricular activities, what you put in their mouths, etc... The choices don't really matter, what matters is that we love our children and do what we feel is best for them. And thank God we have the freedom to do that.

I only have my kids for a short time.

I want to cherish every moment.

~Rose

A Friend Who Cares

2011-11-09T00:16:00.000-07:00

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares. ~Henri Nouwen

I'm truly grateful for these friends in my life....

~Rose

A Game of Hope

2011-11-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

This totally made me cry. What a sweet story. I love it. May we all have a heart to give others (especially those closest to us) a second chance and to not hold past mistakes and wrong doings against them.

~Rose

Homemade Chewy Granola Bars (without corn syrup!)

2011-11-03T14:02:00.000-06:00

Homemade Chewy Granola Bars (without corn syrup!)

I made these yesterday and oh my...they are SO GOOD!!!!!

Basic ingredients: natural peanut butter, honey & coconut oil...add oats and whatever else you like in granola bars such as flaked coconut, sunflower seeds, flaxseed (ground or not), raisins, mini chocolate chips, etc...

YUM!!!! It's an easy, tasty and healthy snack that I'm happy to give to my kiddos :)

~Rose

De Collective//Challenge Thirty-Four: Sunset

2011-11-03T13:46:00.003-06:00

So, I thought this challenge was 'sunrise' so I took these two shots...

I love this one below...and I was stoked to be up and dressed in order to take sunrise shots! lol

But, alas, when I went to send the above photo to Kate, I realized that it was SUNSET, not sunrise!!! Ha ha ha!

It took me a few days and the best I could do for sunset is the photo below which I like because of the snow everywhere :)

See the rest of the submissions here.

~Rose

Snow is Fun

2011-11-02T17:59:00.004-06:00

Our 2nd snowstorm of the season rolled in last night. We awoke to a winter wonderland which always makes me smile. It didn't take long for the 3 younger kids (Hope had a Narnia show) to get in their snow gear and head outdoors. I joined them and snapped a few pics and a video. It was only about 30 degrees but if felt much colder to me!

I posted the photo below on Facebook this morning...isn't it stunning? I love the way the snow stacks on the branches like that. It's so beautiful!

I enjoy not being tied to a schedule...it's fun to have the freedom to play whenever the mood strikes us. Once we got cold we headed home and curled up in blankets to enjoy some good books for school!

~Rose

Hope's 11th Birthday Party

2011-11-01T23:20:00.006-06:00

Hope wanted an owl themed party for her 11th. She found this cute cake idea in a Family Fun magazine and helped me make all of these cute cakes!

We played captionary first and laughed till we almost peed our pants!

Candle blessing time...

What a beauty!

After cake and ice cream we had a time to do some art. We drew owls with oil pastels!

Present time...

Bob made Hope this sweet knitted bunny:

Best Friends for 11 years!!!!!!

Sisters for 7.5 years!!!!

My folks....

...and their adorable grandkids!

Me and my gal!

~Rose

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T22:24:00.003-06:00

I told the kids we could not buy costumes this year so they got creative and made due with what we had. Hope was a present:

Owen a mad scientist (we did splurge and get blue hair spray for a couple bucks!).

Emma was Steve Jobs.

Hope made her an iPad to carry around and we found wire rimmed glasses at a thrift store (popped the lenses out and ran the glasses through the dishwasher). Everyone LOVED Emma's costume!!! The idea for this costume came from Desi because we had joked for over a month about how Emma had a Steve Jobs outfit (the black turtleneck and blue jeans with white tennis shoes). So when he suggested she be Steve Jobs for halloween, she was all for it! Too funny.

Levi was a dalmatian dog with blue hair ;)

Emma and her friend Raylynn who broke her arm yesterday (the same day Emma got her stitches). They were in the ER at the same time and got to see each other briefly.

Our one and only fabulous neighbor Bob!!!

Another neighbor dressed up in a great home made costume!

It was a fun night. We saw all sorts of friends out and met some new neighbors. It sure is nice to have older kiddos. No one cried. No one needed to go potty. No one needed to be carried! It was wonderful!!! Now if I could just figure out how to make their candy turn into something healthy! I hate all this sugar!!!

~Rose

The Greater Good & Emmaline's ER Visit

2011-10-30T23:44:00.003-06:00

I was too amped up from taking Emma to the ER tonight to go to bed when everyone else did so I watched this documentary on vaccinations to ease off the stress of the evening. (See it here for free till Nov 5th.)

I've never seen anything like it before. It's done really well. I'd say the message is that we should have the freedom to choose whether to immunize or not but the families they focus on have all been negatively affected by vaccinations. There are doctors and others interviewed who hold to both sides and those who are just wanting to get parents informed about the risks involved and that they have choices in the matter. I think it was really good.

So, today our dear Emmaline took our long board skateboard out and had a fall in the street. Her chin hit the road and busted open :( I didn't see it but I was outside when it happened. I didn't think much of it (kids fall all the time) but when she went in the house and came back out I knew immediately there was a problem. Then I saw the blood and I freaked out a bit. I yelled for Desi as I grabbed a paper towel for Em. She was crying a lot and there was a lot of blood (it always looks like more than it really is). I peeked at her chin and knew instantly she needed stitches. I thought i could see her jawbone! Thankfully a friend arrived as this was happening so Desi drove us to the ER at Denver Health and dropped us off so we didn't have to find and pay for parking.

We were seen right away...hardly any waiting at all. Everyone was very nice. We interacted with at least 10 hospital personal and had a fabulous experience. Emma was scared to death to go to the hospital but was able to be calm. She was one tough cookie and despite her pain said that it was only a 2 out of 10. Here she is waiting for the doctor to take a look.

She got to watch cable tv, got her chin numbed up and even got to see her friend who lives a block away (she had broken her arm earlier in the day and was wheeled by). Once the wound was numbed it got power washed out and Emma giggled all the way through it! Hilarious. Then the doctor came in (well, three came in) and one stitched it up with the other two watching (the poor gal...her hands were shaking! I'm thinking she's a newbie). Em needed 3 stitches and I watched the whole thing (it doesn't gross me out to watch but I don't' think I could ever stitch someone's skin...even though I think it's marvelous that we can stitch skin together). After that a nurse came in and put on some ointment and a bandage and we were ready to go! About 2.5 hours...not too shabby if you ask me.

Here is my sweet gal sitting with me as we waited for Desi to pick us up :)

I'm so glad it wasn't any worse. It's moments like these that help me realize how everything else is secondary to our relationships with those we love. Emma could have done a lot more damage to her face! Her scar will not be very noticeable as it will be under her chin. My poor brother needed stitches twice in the same spot when he was a kid! I think it's a pretty common injury for kids.

I can't believe it took 11 years (to the day that Hope was born) for us to take a kid to the ER! No broken bones and these are the first stitches! I hope it's another 11 years till we go back!

~Rose

Happy 11th Birthday Hope Taylor Starr!

2011-10-30T07:32:00.000-06:00

Once again I'm amazed at how old my first born is turning. I think 10 was more emotional for me but 11 is still special. We had a little party for her here yesterday and she had her best friend Abby spend the night which is one of her favorite things ever. We are having a special breakfast this morning and I'm making her favorite dinner for tonight. It's quite fun to celebrate my children each year as they turn another year older. It goes by way too fast and I appreciate having these times to reflect on the gift that each of my children are to all who know them. I cherish each year I get with them, knowing that it could be the last. Not to be morbid, but a neighbor of ours died yesterday and it's just so sad and a reminder that we don't know when our last day on this earth will be. I probably have about 7 more years with Hope living with us and I want to make the most of it!

My dear, darling Hope:

Looking through your baby photos yesterday was so fun. I can't believe how young your dad and I were!!! I was only 23! I love looking at your chunky little baby body and remembering back to how wonderful and hard it was to have a baby. How weird it is now to think back on our family just being the 3 of us! As our firstborn you bear the brunt of our parenting mistakes and mishaps and yet you take it all in stride.

I've never been the mom of an 11 year old but I look forward to what this year holds for you. I pray that it includes a closer walk with God for you...that you will hear His voice in your heart and know how beloved you are. I fully expect it to include more theater!!! I love how creative you are...how thoughtful and kind and caring and helpful you are. It makes me happy that you are a book lover like me and that we can enjoy books together. You're siblings are blessed when you take time to play with them and help them do things. Everyone who knows you is touched by your beauty and kindness. You shine forth God's beauty and love. Keep on doing that.

Keep on being yourself...with your awesome sense of fashion and artistic pursuits. Keep on pressing into your friendships and family connections...they can last a lifetime if you cultivate them. Don't let anyone look down on your youth, but continue to set an example to other people who are walking with God...in the way you live your life, the things you say and do and in your faith in God. You are truly a shining star.

I am honored to be your mother and to be on this journey in life with you. Thank you for being such a wonderful travelling companion. I am truly blessed to know you and count you as one of my most dear treasures.

I love you.

Love, Mom

Snow/Family Day~October 26th, 2011

2011-10-28T08:42:00.000-06:00

Typically our first snowfall is a light dusting to a few inches. I was not expecting the winter wonderland that greeted us Wednesday morning! The kids were up early and outside as soon as they found all their winter gear! I'm stoked that I only need to buy 2 pair of snowboots this year. Everything else still works from last year!

Like I mentioned in a recent post, we decided to take this day (and all future first snowfall days) as a day to reconnect as a family. The kids were pumped at the idea!

They played outside for a bit before getting cold (and hungry!). Look at all that white!!! It still amazes me every winter how the snow drastically changes our landscape. It's so beautiful and quiet. I really love it.

Hope and Anakin warming up in the house:

The following photos were taken in the afternoon.

Emma and I took a walk together to enjoy the beauty. This tree almost looked as if it were on fire!

There were many broken tree branches due to the unusual heavy snowfall. That snow is heavy on all those leaves! This is right around the corner from us and probably the worst of many breaks we saw on our 2 block jaunt.

The playground & basketball court looked magical...

Snow donut anyone?

We had fun kicking the fencing to make lots of snow fall down.

Have a seat!

Such bright Autumn colors!

I took a ruler to measure the snowfall on the top of our van: 7 inches!

So many trees were weighed down by the snow...it looked as if they were depressed and moping around. But not this one! This one looks like a wild woman who loves cold weather!

Emma: "Take a picture of my hair mom!"

(After knocking snow off downtrodden tree limbs).

It's so beautiful how the snow is delicately stacked on each branch!

Vibrant reds and oranges...

And last but not least...one of my most favorite trees suffered some damage. This is a nectarine tree in our back yard that we planted the first month we moved into the house (7 years ago). It was about 2.5 ft tall when we put it in the ground! We learned our lesson about pruning...we had not pruned in probably 2 years so this guy was pretty wild with his growth. We lost about 5 branches :( At least our fence and the chicken coop and hen house are ok!

I really enjoy taking walks in the snow!

Our snow/family day was awesome. We had a great time of prayer for each other, a time of affirmation/truth telling for each other and we laughed and danced and watched a movie together and ate popcorn and sipped hot cider while staying in our jammies all day. We really felt reconnected and we really enjoyed each other. This will become a tradition for us for sure.

~Rose

Quick Harvest

2011-10-27T22:38:00.002-06:00

Since a big snowfall was predicted for Wednesday (I didn't believe it would be as big as it really was) we pulled all the tomatoes off our plants on Tuesday afternoon. HOLY COW!!!! I'm so glad Desi, Emma and Levi helped me. It was a big job. The green and slightly green tomatoes are now in single layers in brown paper bags in the basement where I hope they will ripen up.

Desi made an AMAZING red sauce with some tomatoes today...we had it with butternut squash gnocchi. YUM! I'll be making salsa tomorrow!

~Rose

25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes!

2011-10-26T21:13:00.000-06:00

This is too awesome!!!!

~Rose

Free Zoo Day!

2011-10-26T17:45:00.004-06:00

A few weeks back we joined the Sailer family for a free day at the Denver Zoo.

The weather was lovely and we had a fantastic time (minus Levi's crazy and I mean CRAZY, public meltdown).

The day started off enjoyably with silly Previa photos & lunch out at Wahoo's. Thanks guys!!!

Checking out the map!

Awesome children!!!!

Zoos are such a happy/sad experience. It's really neat to see these animals and I know zoos help with animal conservation but the poor animals who live at zoos simply cannot have the type of life and space they'd have in the wild.

So poor Levi had this HUGE meltdown over a water bottle. He FREAKED out and was screaming and crying and hitting and kicking me. Oh my word. It was the worst meltdown I've ever experienced...AND IT WAS IN PUBLIC on a free day which meant that through all of his meltdown there were at least 20 people looking at us! I seriously thought someone would call security! God helped me to stay calm and loving and I just had to ride out the storm (typically at home I would not hang around a kid freaking out...but I wonder if that is not the time that our child might need us the most...when they feel most out of control?). Eventually after what seemed like 10 hours (maybe it was 10-15 min) he calmed down. We worked out a solution for him (he would buy his own water bottle since I could only afford two for the family to share-I had even offered for him to take the first drink and hold one of the bottles). He was fine with that so he got his bottle and after a drink was ready to rejoin the others. He apologized to me and we hugged and all was right in the world. And I was EXHAUSTED!!!! We saw a few animals on our way to catch up with everyone else. The rest of the day was awesome :)

Levi: "Oh look! Camels!"

The lions are amazing!

These two just melted my heart!

It won't be too many years before our new elephant/breeding area will be done! Having baby elephants will be amazing!!!!

These monkeys were SUPER cute and entertaining.

Thanks Sailer family for an awesome day!!!!

We love you!!!

~Rose

Snow Day!

2011-10-26T07:46:00.003-06:00

First snowfall of the season!

God spoke to my heart last night and told me

to take a snow/family day today. To take time

to re-connect as a family...to pour love and

kindness and affection and affirmation into

each other. To pray for each other and take

time to really ENJOY being together. I am

so grateful to be able to do this with my family

today. They are way, WAY more important

than anything else in my life. More important

than 'getting stuff done' and the various things

we own. Everything else is secondary. Who

cares if yet another thing gets broken or

ruined around the house? It's ok if things get

spilled, if messes are made, if things are lost.

Today I choose to ENJOY my family!!!

~Rose

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Children Go Where I Send Thee by Tennessee Ernie Ford

2011-10-25T15:00:00.000-06:00

Kids have always been hamming it up ;)
My grandmother sent this to me recently in one of those fwd emails that go around. This was a delight to watch and so I share it with you.
~Rose

Previa Posse

2011-10-21T08:44:00.003-06:00

Our friends recently bought a light blue Previa. They came down for a free Denver Zoo day and I insisted on some Previa pics before we left. Hilarious!

Rounding up 12 people:

Previa POWER!!!!

Ha ha ha ha! I wanted to grab some chickens for us to hold in the pic too (the Sailers raise backyard chickens as well) but that would be a little over the top. So just use your imagination and laugh with me at the thought of us holding chickens in this pic:

We were given our Previa back in November 2004. It's been SUCH a great van for us. The major bummer is that it's rear wheel drive (which is awesome when I need to get my Tokyo Drift on...I know my brother got his drift on when he borrowed our van!) so it handles very poorly in the snow/ice. Most everyone we know with a Previa has all wheel drive which is awesome. We have a neighbor who has 2 Previas and he wanted to buy ours! There are a handful more in our neighborhood...most of them gold like ours. Our mechanic has a Previa as well and swears that they are the best minivans ever. I think I agree with him.

To prove that it's possible to drift in a Previa, I present a few videos:

~Rose

Melt Those Old Crayons!!!

2011-10-18T19:32:00.003-06:00

I came across this idea on Pinterest. Yes, thanks to my fabulous friend Dori, I'm hooked! It's a fun place to virtually pin ideas to various boards that I've created so I have one place to keep fun art ideas, quotes, recipes and all things inspirational. If you aren't hooked yet, let me know...I'll send you an invite!

So, back to melting crayons...

The basic idea is to hot glue crayons to the top of a canvas (I had a $3 Big Lots canvas in the basement). My BEFORE pic:

Use a blow dryer to melt the crayons. They run down the canvas in such a mesmerizing way! We experimented with running the blowdryer on high and low. It was quite enjoyable!!!

I found white cardboard for the kids to use. They chose their own crayons and did the hot gluing themselves. They did all the melting themselves and decided when their art looked done. We clipped their cardboard up because it was not strong enough to stand on it's own. The kids LOVED this project!!!

Go! TRY IT! You'll like it :)

~Rose

Slow Down...You Might Be Surprised What You Notice

2011-10-17T07:55:00.000-06:00

I took the trash out the other day and admired our morning glories...they are wildly covering all the rocks on the alley side of our house. We've had them for the past few years. They re-seed themselves and grow without any help on our part...they grow like weeds really. They add so much beauty to our alley. As I was admiring their heart shaped leaves and pretty blooms I noticed a big old fuzzy bumble bee. I was quick to grab my camera to try to capture his image. I was happy to get a couple great shots!

"A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books." ~Walt Whitman

~Rose

FREE Pumpkins!

2011-10-16T14:37:00.004-06:00

Betsy called me today to tell me they were giving away pumpkins at 26th & Lawrence till 4pm. Desi and I quickly rounded up the kiddos and hopped in the van. We could have walked but didn't want to carry 7 pumpkins home!

May Farms donated over 3,500 pumpkins for this fundraiser. They are raising funds for two different organizations (one a local farm on the next block south and another is to help give urban kiddos a farm education and experience...i forget the names of both organizations). We donated $10 and bought a watermelon for $2 and a big gallon bag of peppers for $1. Oh yeah!

The kids had a blast...the tractors were a big hit! Em sure is a cute little farmer girl.

"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion."
Henry David Thoreau

We are stoked to cut these open next week and roast the seeds! Don't you just love roasted pumpkin seeds? We do. I've said it many times, but Autumn is totally my favorite season!!!

Levi is so cute.

~Rose

Maize Maze!

2011-10-16T11:39:00.004-06:00

Yesterday we used our free passes to go to Denver Botanic Gardens' (@Chatfield) corn maze! My mom and our friend Erika met us there. The last time we enjoyed a corn maze was 5 years ago so we were excited to go.

With four adults we thought it'd be fun to break up into teams so the kids could lead the way.

Desi and Owen

Emma and Erika

Grandma Kate and Levi

Me and Hope

It was SUPER warm...I think we said HOT even! Unusual weather for Oct. 15th but we didn't mind! The maze is 8 acres and has two spots where you can climb up to a bridge to get a better look...which didn't really help us. lol We had papers with clues on them and there were 10 posts throughout the maze and when we arrived at a post we could use the papers to figure out the clue and decided which way to go. Hope and I took off right away totally disregarding the clues till post #4.

My mom and Levi tagged along with Hope and I till the halfway point of the maze at which point they decided to take a break and go sit in the shade. Hope and I continued on with renewed vigor, hopeful to finish before the other two teams.

Most of the time we just followed our instinct. We had to backtrack numerous times but that is part of the fun :)

We ended up finishing first and got some lemonade and two funnel cakes for everyone to share once they were out of the maze. There was a free bubble station and mini corn maze which the kids enjoyed.

On the way to the van we stopped to enjoy this huge grassy amphitheater. It felt so good to play and sit in the cool grass.

~Rose

De Collective//Challenge Thirty-Three: View From My Bedroom Window

2011-10-12T21:58:00.002-06:00

HA! I thought this was a creative challenge. I took all sorts of straight on photos mostly of the neighbor's garage and the alley but when I tilted the camera down I decided I liked this view much better. After all, I love my chickens and there they are in their happy little shady spot!

See the rest here. They are fun shots!

~Rose

Baby Love

2011-10-10T20:26:00.002-06:00

One of my best buddies had a baby on Friday morning!

I've walked with Shannon for many years through her journey to motherhood and to see her holding her son in her arms was one of the sweetest moments I've had in a very long time. My heart is full of love and happiness for Shannon and her husband.

I got to visit them on Saturday night and I instantly started crying once I beheld them.

I did not hold Elijah right away for I knew that once I had him in my arms I'd have a hard time giving him up! He is a big, healthy boy (9lb 3oz at birth). He smelled like heaven itself. I just wanted to kiss him all over and I soaked up all his baby goodness as Shannon recounted her ultramarathon labor saga. She is one strong woman!!!

Congrats to you both. Brian & Shannon, you'll be such wonderful parents!!!

Love you.

~Rose

Garden Inspiration

2011-10-07T17:46:00.000-06:00

Levi and I were on a date at the Botanic Garden's Children's Garden last Monday and we came across this amazing veggie garden at the far north end of the gardens. It's awesome! I had to take a video for Desi to see but thought you all might enjoy it too! I love how the beds are at different levels with paths winding around. I really was drawn to the heavy duty tomato cages and vertical wooden climbing walls. Really fun. I'd love to have a garden like this someday. Who wouldn't?!

~Rose

Look What Owen Made Today!

2011-10-06T17:30:00.003-06:00

We've had these wooden dominoes out and on the table for the past few days. Good for building domino runs and structures of all sorts. This is the kind of toy I like :)

~Rose

Commencement Speech Delivered by Steve Jobs 6 years ago

2011-10-06T16:52:00.000-06:00

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

Video of the Commencement address.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

2011-10-04T12:23:00.002-06:00

“All endings are beginnings, we just don't know it at the time.”

Mitch Albom (born 1958);

Author, screenwriter, musician

Oh, I love this quote.

Feeling like there have been quite a few (and will be more) endings in my life...

...looking forward to new beginnings :)

~Rose

LIFE

2011-10-03T13:56:00.000-06:00

“The adventure of life is to learn. The goal of life is to grow. The nature of life is to change. The challenge of life is to overcome. The essence of life is to care. The secret of life is to dare. The beauty of life is to give. The joy of life is to love!”

William Arthur Ward (1921-1994);

author, educator, motivational speaker

Does Not Understand How to Play Hard to Get

2011-10-02T12:14:00.000-06:00

Our cat Bedhead is so funny. The more you ignore him the more he wants to love on you. He's especially drawn to folks who are allergic to cats. He follows us all around the house and starts purring if you just look at him. He's the happiest cat I've ever lived with.

~Rose

Golden Gate Canyon State Park Day Hike

2011-10-01T16:17:00.008-06:00

Yesterday afternoon we took off to explore Golden Gate Canyon State Park which is about 14 miles outside of Golden where my folks live...so not too far for us. I like finding places less than an hour's drive from Denver so we're not in the van too long. We were told about this state park last weekend and I knew if we didn't get out there soon that the Aspen trees would be bare.

BOY, were we NOT disappointed! The sun shining on the Aspen made them look like they were on fire! My pics don't do it justice. It was the most beautiful, breathtakingly stunning drive and hike I've ever been on!

My mom and Alex joined us and we started off at the visitor's center to pay our $7 day use pass and get a map. There was a little pond with trout which the kids feed with fish feed for .25c each. The loved it. The fish practically jumped out of the water to eat the pellets.

We decided on Raccoon Trail which was about 15 min drive from the visitor's center. It was a 2.8 mile loop (500ft elevation gain right near the start...pretty intense) that took us to Panorama Point which was STUNNING!! We could see from Mt. Evans to Longs Peak!

The start of our trail was at Reverend's Ridge campground (I want to camp there next summer!)

We walked through some very shady forest at first and then around a corner the sunny Aspen trees practically glowed through the pine trees!

The fir trees were pretty too...

This view met us near the point where the trail's loop began. So so pretty.

Can you believe how pretty those trees are????!!!

I love the contrats of the gold against the blue sky.

This trail was so pretty...

A mountain meadow...close to the 1/2 way point of the loop.

Hope found a beautiful leaf...

Panorama Point. Owen preferred to use these the wrong way. lol

STUNNING!!!

Long's Peak is off in the distance.

Group shot! At this point we had to hurry because Hope had a show that night (the reason her hair is in curlers) and we had a late start getting out of the house. She needed to be at the theater at 6:30pm. We quickly took a few pics, took in the view and continued on our way. At this point I knew it was 5 something...

Mt. Evans in the background...

The trail was very well marked!

So, once we reached our van we saw that the time was 6:10pm!!! We had 14 miles (mostly curvy roads) to get into Golden and then had to feed Hope and get her to her show! Long story short: she made it to the theater 15 min before the show started!!! Hope stayed totally calm the whole time. I could not believe it! I was stressed but kept it to myself. She had called to let them know she'd be late. It was no big deal.

Bottom Line: Best Aspen day and hike EVER!

~Rose