I love Butterflies.

Buckeye Butterfly (c) heh

One of the many great things about working at a nursery: butterflies.
I literally see hundreds within a month!
(or maybe the same regulars, over & again...?)

So, while pruning the flowering bushes at work, I've often seen buckeyes, black swallowtails, tiger swallowtails, monarchs, viceroys, cabbage whites (white & yellow), brown skippers, commas, questions marks (and yes those are butterflies!), as well as painted ladies, and admirals!

 This is to say nothing of all the millions of little bees, bugs, flies, and moths hovering about too!

But butterflies really do make me smile. :)
They remind me that God cares about even the smallest,
most vulnerable things, like butterflies, you and me.

{These are Blessings Indeed!}

I must say, I've been blessed. Truly, truly blessed. You all have blessed me! God has smiled on me.
And I don't say that in a cliche "ohymgoodness" sort of way....I really mean it.

The fact that I'm even alive today is a miracle.
The fact that I have a supporting circle of loving people is a true, real gift.
That fact that I have a loving family, and a beautiful, safe home to live in is worth celebrating too!

But today, what I'm thinking of the most is the hearts of the those.....my friends and family....who decided that the dream God gave me of going to Romania, and loving on those lovely, needy people was worth sponsoring.
Worth praying for.
Worth believing in me for.

It's amazing to me!
Because, really, even if I told everything I know and feel about Romania, and what God has said so far to me about it....and even if I admitted that I don't know exactly why I'm going or what will come of it.....it doesn't seem matter to you all!

I'm not talking just about monetary giving for my trip here. (No, but in that respect, I've been extremely blessed as well! Everything has been provided for! Many, many thanks...) I'm thinking of the love, the kind words, the prayers that these folks have given me....each was special!

And I think I'm just standing in awe of God right now.
How He works things out and, how he worked this out for me.
I feel so special! and yet so little, and unworthy of this trip, at the same time!
I promise I will try not to worry about my abilities because "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" and I promise to carry myself well in Romania, and serve with all my heart, soul, mind & strength! As would befit someone who has been so, so blessed....

I must thank you, my friends, my family & my church.
Love in Jesus,
~Hannah

Restless

"Green Fall", World's End State Park, Pennsylvania. (c) Hannah Hottenstein.

Silently,
the drops curve down,
trailing quickly,
and the leaves
quiver in their wake
(as the rain restlessly
seeks the ground.)

William & Kate

I am still (and will always be) quite the romantic at heart.

Today was such  a special day for them,
and for the whole world!

~

What Love Really Means

by Christian artist JJ Heller, with her husband David.

This video and song moved me so much when I listened to it several times today. Is it not amazing that God does indeed love us? ...and not just that, He loves us for us, as we are! How can that be?
Yet, it is true.....and that's incredible.

Summer 'Kisses'

I miss the warm, bright days of the year
when it seemed like God reached down from the sky
and kissed the earth...
Summer, come soon please!

Yellow Sulpher Butterfly, Hannah Hottenstein. 2009

Little Rabbits

Rex Rabbit bunnies, 8 of them, and they are just the softest, tinest little things...
<3

We had our first snow today!

 

*

Mr. Junco stepped out to inspect the snow...

 *

 *

...whilst I caught some of the 'white stuff' on my sleeve.

 *

 *

(So pretty)  

Evergreens look a billion times better with snow, don't ya think? 

*

*

 The snow-boots were dug out from the closets' recesses...

 *

 *

 ...and I discovered there is a great snowy view from mi ventana!

 *

 I think we like it!

And I think it should be here & stay a while!

Okay, for winter at least. ;)
{Isn't it just fantastical?}
- - - - - - - - - - - - - * Merry Christmas! *

Hey, Today Is the Day!

Just wanted to say right now:
I am very excited!
About everything!!
About CHRISTMAS, and living, and cleaning my room, and starting college again next month, and.... just everything! :)
It's a funny, but nice, feeling.

Also, I want to list things I am thankfully to God for
(because remembering everything He does for me is very important!)
My beloved chum, Caroline, always inspires me to turn my thoughts this way. :)

~ my sister Lizzie.
~for playing dress up again( see picture above)
~ being able to find yummy non-dairy food to make & eat!
~the sound of the classical radio ....playing all day long. :)
~Mom's amazing-super-industriousness! If only I can learn to be so awesome. ;)
~the Bible. Yes, wow, really.
~the promise of getting together with friends & family more this month!
~the possibility of SNOW~!
~my little brother. He is so creative, he's building a huge model airplane right now!
~ribbon!
~cookies.....yum!
~books (just finished a re-reading of The Scarlett Letter, and I'm working through Debt-Free U still. Both amazing!)
~God's grace.
~having things to clean! Really, it's interesting. I may complain about doing it, but the very fact I have a home, a room, and a room of my own is a huge thing.

This is the picture of a Scarlett Tanager I started late Monday night!

I think I am highly attracted to color & solid black lines. ;)

 

 

Here's our beloved Maxi! <3 What a sweet poochie!

He likes napping on my bed. :) And he's almost 7 years old now!

Here is the room damage before! There are two huge piles (winter & summer clothes) taking over my bed!!!

If I'm ever going to get those Christmas cards out, or gifts made...this desk has to get clear as well!

Here we (me, myself & I) are half-way done! Whew...now to attack the closet and the stuff under the bed!

I am using Ashley Skabar's Dairy-Free Cooking site on About.com to make some sumptious things for the family! Her recipes are delicious and invaluable to us as a family, what with 3 of us needing dairy-free foods!
Here are a few recipes that I'm working on right now (and need to get back to ASAP!):
Deviled Eggs
Roasted Garlic Hummus
Yellow Cake
Dijon Caramel Chocolates

(c) http://www.papaspantry.org/2008Pg/Classes.htm

That last one is sounding really yummy....

When you read this, try to think of what being alive as a child of God really means. :)
It's positively a MIRACLE.
Love,

Karl, Silence, and Friends

K-a-r-l

We might be selling my car, Karl.
[insert sobbing]
I can't believe it, but it's true...this may be happening in the near, unforeseeable future!
It feels a little like sending your kid off to an orphanage! (Mom says I exaggerate here; I might be.)
But I was raised in that car, practically! My older sister, Victoria learned to drive in it, and so did I. It wasn't my brother, Josh's style so he got a VW Fox. Which was pretty cool too....but still. Nothing compares to driving my Karl, a powder blue 1986 Dodges Aries station-wagon. Thus named "Karl" for the plastic, meaningless, blocky little 'K' on the side of the driver's door. He also has this odd quirk of accelerating faster than you want to. ;) There is also absolutely no winder-shield washing fluid (the reservoir cracked and leaked ages ago), and the mice like living in the warm heating ducts. >.<
But! It's still works! Some of the time. :)
Time to let go, I tell myself.
*sniff*
And looking at the new one that will replace him (shhhh) I don't feel too bad about it anymore. ;) Who knows, maybe some artistic hippie will find him, fall in love with him and paint him psychedelic colors like I always wanted too! Wouldn't that be funny seeing the old car you sold, being driven around town like that? It'd be funny, indeed.

S.i.l.e.n.c.e

I was laying in my bed last night, trying to force myself to sleep, trying to drain the day's worries and consciousness of all the mistakes made and trying to just be quiet. Enjoy the silence. It was hard. Sometimes I feel like I am not living unless I am talking, or hearing someone talking at least. Maybe that sounds extreme. Maybe it's not though. Reading about Richard Wurmbrand, and how he spent years in solitary confinement created a gratefulness in me that hasn't gone away--a gratefulness for speech, for talk. Yes, there are times I just want to yell, "Would you all just SHUT UP!" to whoever is talking their heads off. However it is, at other times, that the comforting sound of Mom talking with Dad, or of Lizzie explaining something interesting to Mom and Jon, or the sound of a good friend's voice on the other end of the phone makes me all happy and tingly and sunshiny inside! :)
You know the feeling don't you? It's that feeling that says, "I am alive, I am human! Breathing, living, loving, hearing humanly alive!" What an amazing thing, God. (He talks too, you know.)

But silence is important at some crucial times; say, when you need to decide something. Often, if I really examined why I was talking so much, so fast I would find that I was doing it to drown out something. The other person, my heart, the situation, others' opinions,or maybe even...God Himself. :( It's true.
Silence leaves everything to the imagination.
Silence leaves room for those bottled up things in the corner of your consciousness to blow up, or diffuse.
Silence opens up an audible way for God to get to you (finally.)
Silence can be scary.
And yet, if the Lord helps you fill the silence, and helps you sort all the knots out, silence could turn out to be a good thing. A tool to open up, to grow, to humble yourself. And that, that...is wonderful thing. :)

F-r-i-e-n-d-s

My sister Lizzie, is doing a informal survey of those around her based on the question of what things are important in a friend. What must they be, to capture our hearts? At first I admit I thought this ground had been covered already, but then...when she asked me what three things I thought were most important in a friend, I had to think. And even then, the answers I gave ("a good listener", "cares about you", and "love you") seemed okay, but cliche and 'fluff' answers.

So, she got me thinking, with that survey. :) What is a friend? Or, more importantly for each of us to stare in the face:
What kind of person is a friend for me?
Who draws me, sticks with me, loves me for who I am and never leaves?
(Were the friends that drifted away even 'friends' in the first place?)
How can I be that person to someone, or several persons?

I feel like these questions (and more) are so important to answer, at least for myself, but I am definitely going to need a lot more silence around here to find some answers.

Here's to Life, and It's Questions,
~Honnah

Today Is A Rainy Day

~~~~~
Today is a rainy day and,
I believe that calls for celebration as,
a) it hasn't rained in a good while
b) I love rainy days
c) I need something to celebrate
d) school work is not as exciting as rain
and there's too much schoolwork around here.
^_^

Join me, won't you?
We'll make up a poem:

pitter patter rain
running down my face
washing away my woes
carpeting the hills in glisten
pitter patter rain

And we'll....
look and see if there aren't any Scriptures on rain:

Let my teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
As the droplets on the fresh grass
And as the showers on the herb.
(Deuteronomy 32.2)

Who does great and unsearchable things,
Wonders without number.
He gives rain on the earth
And sends water on the fields,
So that He sets on high those who are lowly,
And those who mourn are lifted to safety.

After my words they did not speak again,
And my speech dropped on them.
They waited for me as for the rain,
And opened their mouth as for the spring rain.
I smiled on them when they did not believe,
And the light of my face they did not cast down.

Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him;
The number of His years is unsearchable.
For He draws up the drops of water,
They distill rain from the mist,
Which the clouds pour down,
They drip upon man abundantly.
(from the book of Job)

As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day,
so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance
Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD
And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking...
(Ezekiel 1.28)

~~~~~

What beautiful passages. God, beautiful, strong and life-giving, like rain.
Waiting for Him like for him to come down
like it is waiting for a rain after years of drought...

When I first heard Selena Gomez's new song A Year Without Rain,
I kept thinking about Jesus as who she was talking about (rather than a human):
"A day without you is like a year without rain..."

Is one day without Jesus in my life like a year without rain?

"But do not let this one fact escape your notice,
beloved, that with the Lord
one day is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years like one day."
(2 Peter 3.8)

Confessions: My Pet Peeves



 My blogging friend, Emy, inspired me to do a blogging "confessions session" with this post. I frankly don't know what I am getting myself into, but that's the whole adventure of it I suppose! So here goes nothing. Pay attention because I'll only post this confession for exactly 5 hours before it goes back into the hidden "drafts" pile........


Just kidding.  This post will be up & staying up! Plus, I'm not planning on divulging anything really crazy. (Not like there is anything really crazy to divulge. ;)
So, the topic:

My Personal Pet Peeves

First off, I hope none of these will be used to torture me! *ahem*

Second, we all have them, we know it. Those things, activities, or habits that just plain bother us. Pet peeves, as they are colloquially called. I like to think that I am not like other people in my particular pet peeves, but who knows? Maybe I am not peculiarly 'peeved' after. Ha! But let's find out then, shall we?

Pet Peeve #1 - The Sound of People (other people) Chewing.

UGH! I do very much hate this one. If I can hear you making noises with the food in your mouth, or you are smacking your lips, slurping or doing something of the kind (to say nothing of table faux pas i.e. burping, etc.) then there is a very good chance that I am already being driven up the wall! It's awful, frankly. Nails on chalkboard? Nothing. That never bothered me (and in fact, I was often the kid who did it slowly just to watch the others squirm and yell, "Cut it out!", while I wondered why.) But, chewing or drinking sounds....Gahh. Another story entirely. Now you may ask, I can bet you are wondering, "So wait...how do you eat if you hate those sounds?!" The answer is: I don't know!

Okay, okay, let me think.

I think it's because this pet peeve of mine is a little vain? It seems to me that everybody else makes a ton more noise than I do eating (probably not true.) But another thing is, if I am eating, my head and jaw are making enough 'white noise' that I can't hear you no matter how awful of a racket you're making! It's a sort of simple solution; I either leave the room or join in the eating, usually the latter.

Pet Peeve #2 - Uncovered Feet at Night / Laced Shoes

It's a weird, weird thing this particular set of pet peeves. It just doesn't make sense! On one hand, when I sleep at night (no matter how unearthly, blistering hot it is) I love to have my feet either socked or safely tucked up inside the warm blankets. My toes have to feel safe & secure? (lol, I have no idea!)

On the other hand, I really, really, really detest having to lace up* my feet into shoes. I think I have a bad case of feet claustrophobia! It just feels...wrong, tight, constricting? My favorite shoes are:

- slip-ons

- flats

- boots

-moccasins

- sandals

Or, just going barefoot, or just wearing socks! Feet Freedom!

Now, you may draw whatever conclusions you like about my juxtaposition of Feet-in/Feet-out fetish, but as for me. I think it just calls back my childhood; 1) as a kid, I always was taking off my shoes during the day (or never put them on!) and 2) I never believed in monsters int he closet or anything.

But, I did keep thinking that if you let your feet hang over the edge of your bed, something was going to nab them. Don't ask me what I was thinking would do that! But in consequence, I always tuck my feet in at night, and I always wear shoes I can slip off easy. :)

* There is one compromise here. Like if, say, the shoes are super cute. Then, I'll be more than happy to tuck my footsies into a laced shoe. ;)

Pet Peeve #3 - Walking Into a Spider's Web

: : shudder : : This one is pretty much self-explanatory, and not at all unusual to have!


Pet Peeve #4 -  Stinkbugs
Yes, those bugs. Those nasty, horrible, crazy, lunatic, manic, unnerving, bothersome,.....!!!
Enough said. If you want to hear more about why I hate them, look here.
And the last one, which is especially important to remember, if you ever want to remain on good speaking terms with me... *tongue in cheek*


Pet Peeve #5 - Repeated Attempts to Get My Attention While I Am Reading
Listen: don't do this.
Okay?
No, wait, you!
Come back here!
I don't think you heard me well enough:
DO NOT DO THIS TO ME.

lol, Really! True story. :P It's awful, it wrecks my train of thought ,and it embitters me (haha). :D
So, pullllleeeeease, don't okay?
*sigh*
All done! There I am, in all my pet-peeve un-glory. :) I do have rather a lot of things I do like and enjoy, not being wholly made up of pet peeves. ;) Lollipops, cake, green grass, working with wood, acorns, birds, kiddies, laughing, and hugs being a few. :)

Okay, so. What are your pet peeves? And also, so this doesn't become a reason to rant only, heh heh... what are your very *favorite things*?

~Hannah