~Cody~

And now, finally, a post about CODY! With the other two brothers it was hard to find pictures of them, but with Cody it's hard to decide which picture of him to use!

A couple of awesome photos of Cody in the rain, in a cowboy outfit :)

Yes, that's my brother, not a movie star :)

Cody is 19 years old and is right above me in birth order. This past April he moved to Kentucky, to rent a room in my brother Erik's house while he works in the warehouse for the Creation Museum. It started as a seasonal job, but soon a full-time position opened up, so he moved there for good.

Cody and his good friend Verde (whose real name is Daniel but Cody never calls him that!)

Cody is very outgoing and friendly, and has the kind of charismatic personality that really draws people to him. He also has a great sense of humor and keeps people laughing with his anecdotes and witty lines.

Cody has become known as "Cody the turtle farmer" because of his hilarious facebook videos of him with turtles he has found...  he saves them from being run over in the road - haha :)

Another snapshot from one of his turtle videos - do you think that turtle looks real??

Along with his humor, he has a lot of seriousness and a heat that is burdened for reaching the lost and reviving the church. Over the past few years God has really developed his understanding and fervor for the things of God like never before.

Having devotions on the shed roof before he moved away.

 God has given him a real eye for art and an ear for music. He uses both these gifts to glorify God and bless other people, by writing songs for the Lord and giving very artistic, heartfelt gifts. If you'd like to check out his music, visit his facebook page here.

Down by the Ohio river (a couple blocks away from their house) playing music.

He loves kids, and his vision for his future is to become a husband and a father, living a simple, honest life as the hardworking leader of his home.

This past March at our Wednesday night prayer group, with all the kids flocking around him!

I'm so thankful for Cody and the influence he's had on my life, which continues to grow. I miss him a lot but it's exciting to see God directing his life as he grows into a godly man!

Brother-sister date on his last visit home in August.

~Zach~

Yes, you knew it was coming,and here it is - the next post in my brother-post trilogy!

Enjoying the beautiful fall weather last year. And I just love that shirt, don't you?

Zach is my second oldest brother. He's 21 years old and lives at home, and he worked a job at a potato farm this summer. He threw rocks off of a conveyer belt of potatoes for 11 or 12 hours a day - in the burning sun, cold wind, sometimes even in rain or sleet. Coming home every day he was soo tired!I don't know how he managed to do it.

In front of my dad's 350 Z sports car - so cool! :)

Zach is generally introverted and keeps to himself. But he does enjoy getting together with one of his closer friends, or meeting with the men of the church to pray and encourage each other in the Word.

In the plane, headed to Florida this past April

He aspires to be a writer someday, and his written a book (not published) and some blog articles. He has strong beliefs about a lot of topics and enjoys writing about them.

Where you can usually find him - on his laptop in his room.

Science and facts interest him. He loves anything that gives him information about life, the world, how things work, and how things can be improved. In fact, he's often suggesting ways we can be more effective and efficient just in how we manage things at home.

Gigantic rock in front of our church's gymnasium - it's a great place to sit. :)

Since he's not outspoken, many people think Zach doesn't have much to say. But if you get to know him, you'll find out he is witty, passionate, talkative, hardworking, and full of a desire to be godly. So to anyone reading this who knows our family personally, take the time to get to know him! :)

From our family pictures at Christmas 2010

~Erik~

So I was just realizing that my most popular posts are about my brothers, (except Cody's didn't make it on there... weird! I promise it's definitely NOT because he's not interesting! lol. It's because many of the people who read my blog already know him well and wanted to know Erik and Zach) but those posts are very old! Looking back at them, I realize that my brothers have changed a LOT since I wrote those posts, so I decided to write new ones. Hope you enjoy them!

Let's start with Erik.

Headed to church during a visit home to NY in May. And if you're thinking, "He looks like a move character, but I can't figure out who," the answer is Mr. Tumnus from Narnia :)

Erik is my oldest brother, who just turned 23 on September 26. He moved to Kentucky just over two years ago, where he works full time at the Creation Museum as a web editor. He edits the grammar on all sorts of things, as well as writing and designing things. He's even been published in a book - he wrote 2 chapters in a book by Answers in Genesis about supposed Bible contradictions. He also write many of the devotionals that AIG puts online. So if you "like" Answers in Genesis on facebook, keep an eye out for devotionals by him! :) (And if you aren't familiar with Answers in Genesis - GASP! Get familiar right away!! It will seriously help your apologetics and your faith.) It's so neat that he is contributing to such an important ministry.

And the two of us together :)

How would I describe Erik? A lot of words come to mind. Mature. Weird. Country. Smart. Wise. Silly. Deep. Intuitive. Over all, he is a person who has a lot of depth and ideals, but is also very, well, weird. :)

Erik and Cody at a staff meeting at AIG... I can tell they were really paying attention ;)

He is very "guy" and he loves guns, woods, hunting, and all that. He also is somewhat of a cowboy, except that he lives in a small town and doesn't have much interaction with horses. But his dream is to live on a family farm someday.

I LOVE this picture! So handsome :)

He's not shy (as in, afraid to step out and meet people) but he's not a loud, outgoing personality, so it takes a while to get to know him. Once you do, you'll find out he has a lot of love for people and is a great listener, always helping people bear their burdens. He enjoys talking and having quality conversations with people, not just making small talk. You'll also find that he does the weirdest, most random things sometimes! And he's very intelligent. He has a thirst for knowledge and a capability to understand things that definitely surpasses mine.

Celebrating his 23rd birthday with his "second family" in Kentucky. They live down the road. Patty (left) is 17, Autumn (right) is 12, and they also have Gwen who is 16 and Otto (Erik's best friend) who is 19. Candy (center) is their momma and their dad is pastor of Erik's church. They are such a wonderful family!!

The "2" was falling down and his face is PRICELESS! Hahaha love it!

But, you don't have to get to know Him at all to see that he has a love and passion for Jesus Christ. He has a lot of understanding and wisdom about scripture and doctrine, but what's more, he knows the Lord personally and walks with Him. He is an amazing brother and sets an amazing example to me!

I love this guy! :)

Veggies out my ears!

Hello again, everyone. Yes, I know, I've been away for almost a month. But I tell you the truth, I have been really busy! I have missed blogging, and I mean to start up more faithfully again.

So what's up in my life? Well, school is still going well, but I won't bore you with the details. But what I love is that I only have to do school four days a week and even for those four days I'm done by early afternoon.

Something that's been keeping me really busy lately is VEGETABLES! Yup, that's right. :) Our family purchased a food share with a local organic farm this summer, where we get to pick up a big load of vegetables and fruit every Thursday. We have learned so much about selecting the best produce, and cooking, storing, and preserving all of it. I feel like I'm so much more prepared to feed my future husband and children someday. :) So anyway. We've been getting a lot of veggies each week all summer, but lately we've been getting a TON because we get unlimited pick-your-own on some things, plus the final motherload of the harvest in everything else. It takes my mom and I all Friday and even into Saturday just to process it all!

Here is everything we got this week:
7 enormous head of cauliflower (I mean, this is a SCARY amount of cauliflower!)
5 ears of popcorn (really cool!)
15 kale leaves (which are pretty big!)
7 squash (or is it squashes?)
8 watermelons (thankfully they aren't too big!)
4 quarts of apple (so awesome! I'm thinking applesauce)
10 green bell peppers (I ate a whole one today just for a snack!)
2 Banana peppers (which are actually quite boring raw... I expected them to be sour.)
8 Sweet Italian peppers (They taste pretty much like normal peppers)
4 yellow bell peppers (I have nothing to say about these but I don't want them to be left out...)
3 jalapeno peppers (I can make delicious Mexican recipes!)
6 collard greens (which I'd never had before this year)
1 colossal head of cabbage (I hate cabbage...)
A bunch of potatoes, I don't know how many (We love potatoes... they're so versatile)
2 heads of garlic (We've been getting two a week all summer - that's a LOT!)
1 quart of onions (I love the flavor that onions add to pretty much anything!)
A couple of pounds of carrots (They're pretty bitter, but that's okay)
1 heaping quart of sweet potatoes (Yummy!)
Fresh dill (Good for potato salad!)
Fresh parsley (Nothing like fresh herbs!)
Cutting celery (It's like regular celery, but thinner, stronger flavored, and more herb-like)
1 bunch of green onions (A nice, mild flavor)
1 bunch of radishes (Mexicans eat them as a side to most any meal, and I like the habit =])

YIKES! Isn't that a scary amount of vegetable? To add to it all, we had a ton of tomatoes leftover from last week that just finished ripening, and some kale and peppers, too. So today we got done all of the kale, tomatoes, cauliflower, and leftover peppers. In addition to having delicious healthy food all summer, we now have a freezer full of healthy food to last us through the winter. I'm so blessed by this abundance!

The romance of life

It has been a busy and glorious fall! My education this year, as I said previously, has been exceptional because I get to study God's word as a large part of it. I've been busy with a million other things besides school though. And I thought fall would mean the start of life being more quiet and settled - ha! Somehow life has managed to fill itself up with friends, events, appointments, etc. We visited my brothers in Kentucky a couple of weeks ago, and it was delightful. Most of our time was also spent with the Neffs, our friends who live a couple of blocks away from Erik and Cody. They have a son and three daughters and our families have a BLAST together! We only stayed for a weekend but we crammed in lots of talking, laughing, taking walks, playing games, and a variety of other wonderful things, just enjoying each others' company. I miss everyone and can't wait to see them again. :)

As of yesterday, there are 8 weeks until the week of Thanksgiving. That should mean 8 weeks of peacefully spending my days studying and learning, sorting the closets full of clutter that have crept up on us, and attempting to get enough rest and rhythm to life to regain my sanity. I've brainstormed up yet another new schedule for my daily life (yes, I'm quite the planner) and though this is only day 2, it seems to be working very smoothly and hopefully will continue to do so for the next 8 weeks. I love it when life follows the peaceful cadence of happy home life.

The weather here is simply indescribable. New York is definitely at it's best in September, in my opinion. It's getting very cold, but the sunshine is so bright and strong that every afternoon it's perfect for taking a brisk walk. The sky is a deep blue that isn't seen the rest of the year, and the evening sun casts a lovely autumn gold over all of the greens, reds, oranges, yellows, browns, and purples of our country homestead. It's the kind of weather that inspires songs, poems, and prayers.

It's little things like these - weather, home, friendships, family, work, school, and everything we do and have - that make life romantic. And you know what? I think I'll go enjoy the romance of life right now!