Just updated my art blog--what's available

http://artbykasteen.blogspot.com/2009/12/whats-available.html

So cute--my new neighbor Mallory Rose Klein

Gerle Creek Photos

Here we all are at sunset with Gerle Reservoir in the background.

Does this smell like vanilla or butterscotch or not?


We love each other!

We found the geo-cache!
Maggie likes to paddle and paddle and paddle and paddle...
Go!
Here comes Trey with another bouquet for Mama!






Trey loves loading up his truck and pushing it all around.
Our first evening.
Our friends' goat had a baby--here she is a few hours old.

Gerle Creek

We just got back from a sweet time camping in El Dorado National Forest at Gerle Creek. It was the most beautiful weather--warm with deep blue sky and cool, evergreen scented breezes. We played in the creek. Trey was leaping from granite boulder to granite boulder like a frog. Hanna and Maggie figured out different ways to jump into the pools with Lily judging their jumps. The creek with it's little waterfalls and rapids gave me such delight--I could bask in the sun and in the goodness of the Lord as I watched my little ones play. We also swam in the reservoir and boated. We jumped from a boulder on an island, hiked to find a geo-cache, had deep conversations, laughed and played, saw a baby squirrel with Trey, went for a dusk walk around the lake, had good time with friends, saw the children enjoy each other, made food over the campfire (hot dogs, croissants, smores), saw snakes, saw lizards, received many flower bouquets from Lily and Trey, tossed things into the creek to watch them go down, had a chipmunk jump in my lap, and watched a butterfly land on Lily. Trey's assessment of mosquitoes? "The bite me because they think I'm cute. And they want to make me itchy." What a wonderful time of worship. The beauty of His creation always causes me to worship. I had the opportunity to jog some trails around the reservoir and worship some more. This song was one that I enjoyed and took to heart:

"Good Life"

I've watched my dreams all fade away
And blister in the sun
Everything I've ever had is unraveled and undone
I've set upon a worthless stack
Of my ambitious plans
And the people that I've loved the most
Have turned their backs and ran

This is the good life
I've lost everything
I could ever want
And ever dream of
This is the good life
I found everything
I could ever need
Here in Your arms

Loneliness has left me searching
For someone to love
Poverty has changed my view
Of what true riches are
Sorrow's opened up my eyes
To see what real joy is
Pain has been the catalyst
To my heart's happiness

What good would it be
If you had everything
But you wouldn't have
The only thing you need

I keep learning more and more that He is my everything. I truly feel as if I have lost everything I wanted--but it has opened my arms and heart more to Jesus.

I was able to see thousands upon thousands of stars up in the Sierras--and see them reflected in the lake. What am I, that You O God are mindful of me?

A Wonderful Poem By My Sister-In-Christ

This poem is so beautiful and shows me how God has gifted us each differently. Enjoy!

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
Psalm 84:10


The Sanctuary
By Jen H.


Weekly and weak
I return to this shore. Baffled,
Yet balmed to see

Brash sand sculptors mock the tide
With its too-soon waves
That lap, then leave, and lap again,

Till all is lost and
The barren shore rests
Flat, yet moist--

No trace of craft enduring,
Save in soul clay
Kingdom-bent.

Here, in the swish and grime
Bare toes, dizzied, curl tight,
Re-righting their stance at the rim of majesty.

A chin shakes; knees quake.
Ears --and fears—pop! Deafened by the din
Of rattled hearts and cancelled sin.

The world’s crimes hang clean
And sweet as slips on wash day.
The wind whips through and through,

Sets all in proper place--
Such rare force, grace--
God stretches; I shrink.

The ceiling’s not where I think,
Here, where chalk writing leaves
Indelible ink.

I'm actually copying something from my sister-in-Christ Jennifer's blog:

On the first day of orientation, our medical director drew a diagram like so:

high expectations---------------------
disappointment
reality-----------------------------
JOY
lower expecations----------------

He said that high expectations in life- with others, with yourself, with circumstances- causes all kinds of problems, and often leaves us disappointed..sometimes feeling ripped off from our previous feelings of entitlements. So what we need to do it simply lower our expectations ...and when things go better than expected, just be glad in it. Because in the end, we always have more than we deserve. And this is reality.

Now Kerstin speaking: I definitely have found this to be true. I definitely have seen in me, my kids, and others around me the thoughts that things should be perfect--I mean, I deserve it good. Carl has definitely shown me in the Bible how I don't deserve anything good, but that God made it possible for me to have everything good in Him. But I shouldn't expect good or feel entitled to it apart from Him.

Formal Portrait

Here is a silhouette page I did of the kids. I'm using it for cards and got all four framed and hung above our stairs.