more photos of our home.

Our Upstairs Bedroom & Bathroom:

Downstairs Chapel:

Kitchen & Living Room:

Our home has come a long way since I last shared an update. We have carpet in our sink/closet area. We have a much needed new door in our room. Our oven actually works! Up until a few weeks ago we had been using our toaster oven for all necessary baking. That oven is small, so I'm thankful for a full sized working oven. Our house plants are thriving, too! Josh enjoys house projects a lot; he has put in a new window and fan in our bathroom, installed a new door to our room, and he's put together some temporary shelves for our bathroom.

We're pretty happy living here; our home if functional and cozy and we have great housemates!  

project life in 2013: august.

weeks 1-4

AUGUST

What happened this month? The first half of August we were in Greenville. Many of our friends had left, so we hung out a lot with family and a few friends still in the area. Josh and I helped Caitlin move to Springfield, Illinois, and my parents and I helped Layla move to college at Trinity International University in Chicago. Then we moved to Wichita, Kansas! 

Anything special in the spread? I included an insert with my summer reflection from this blog post. I formatted the text in PSE and printed it out at home. On the back side of the insert I included some “before” pictures of our room in Wichita.

Overall thoughts? With so much moving going on in August, I decided not to stick to a strict week by week plan for project life. Instead, I took pictures when I felt like it and mashed two weeks into one spread. The pages are mostly chronological, but I didn’t bother with too many dates. I’m happy with it!

Supplies and Tools: American Crafts thickers, washi tape, paper source labels, pretty paper from Dick Blick, random paper from my stash, Design A and B photo pocket pages (this variety pack), Seafoam core kit, Kraft core kit, Cobalt cardstock, black sharpie, black steadtler fineliner pen, slicker writer pens.

Project Life is a simple scrapbooking system by Becky Higgins.  I am using this system to document our first year of marriage with photos, words and other fun paper stuff.  You can see my other project life pages here.  

our thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving highlights just in time for Christmas! I'm a little behind on the blogging, but I thought it's never too late to share gratitude. 

Last Thanksgiving Josh and I cooked all day to have a Thanksgiving meal with some of our European friends. We had fun preparing the meal and hosting friends, but my favorite part was going around the table to share what we were each thankful for in the past year. Our friend (and Josh’s advisor) Martin said he hadn’t shared his gratitude like that in two years. I found it really special for a diverse mix of people (a Swed, some Germans, a Ugandan, and two Americans) to gather around the table and express our thankfulness. This year I found myself thinking a lot about Norway. When I reflected back on what I'm thankful for in the past year I couldn't stop thinking about the people who became our close friends and for the challenges that brought Joshua and me closer together. Thank you friends and Norway for a good year!

This Thanksgiving we were surrounded by our family in Wichita, Elise (who came from Greenville), and some new friends. It was wonderful and restful, but also quite active; somehow I felt sleep-deprived by the end. I made rolls for the Thanksgiving meal; we all gathered at the Overholt's house. The JRLD household, plus Elise, did a Turkey Trot run. (Let me explain JRLD. It stands for Joshua, Rachel, Lauren and Daniel and it's pronounced "Gerald." It's a whole lot easier to give our house a name than to say Lauren and Daniel's house, where Josh and Rachel live.) On Thanksgiving day we enjoyed delicious food and copious amounts of pie, played games like "Dictionary" and "Off the Wall,"took an afternoon walk, and played with sparklers. Throughout the weekend we spent a lot of time with family, I did a little Christmas shopping (NOT on Black Friday- I refuse), we ate dinner/watched movies with friends, played disc golf, and skyped/phone-talked with our parents. There's a lot to be thankful for this year like a good job, a cozy place to live, great housemates, new friendships, old friendships, family, and God's love. I'm feeling very blessed.

And thanks to you for reading what I write here!