Four LITTLE pumpkins

Four LITTLE pumpkins sitting on a gate...

The first one said, "Oh my! It is getting late!"
THe second one said, "There are bunnies in the air..."
The third one said, "Well, we don't care."

The fourth one said, "It's stinky out here..."

And then "OOOO" went the wind and OUT went the light....
and four little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?

Do princesses wear hiking boots?

Or blonde haired two year olds turn into goblins?

Eleanor is not sure...

What do you think?

Green

Remember the days when you received a fresh box of Crayola crayons? The kind with their bright cheery colors popping their heads out of a new box- no broken ones, no nubby ones, and maybe even, if you were lucky, a box of 64- promising great artwork ahead. I thought of these crayon boxes today as I hiked the Eagle Creek trail in the Columbia River Gorge (read more @http://www.splintercat.org/EagleCreek/EagleMainPage.html) . Crayons which boasted names such as 'fern, forest green, shamrock, mountain meadow, pine green, yellow green' came to life as I hiked through God's amazing crayon box this afternoon. With my friend Laurie leading the way past waterfalls, through old growth forests, and over high bridges, I walked over ten miles in some of the most beautiful land I have ever seen. Trees covered in a hairy green moss rose up from a deep gorge cut by a raging stream. Waterfalls collided with other waterfalls in their urgent race to the Columbia River. Tiny snakes and furry caterpillars shared our trail. At the risk of being trite I will say I was awestruck. I have never seen so many shades of green, so many different varieties of moss, or yellow leaves eighteen inches wide dropping from the trees above. Awesome.

Laurie checking out the trail ahead.

Hairy Trees

This was shot from behind a small waterfall...a little chilly guy looking for some sun...sorry, buddy.

Rain; Breezy

"DRENCHED," proclaimed this morning's paper in bold letters scrawled across the green section of a rainbow colored United States map. Not warm, not humid, not even those nice little slanted lines representing "showers," but DRENCHED was the adjective of choice to describe this moist, green region of the country we now call home. One of the things I've found most interesting about living in this quirky, eccentric city is the relationship Portlanders have to the rain. When we arrived this summer to weeks of bright blue skies, low humidity, and 70 degree temperatures, we thought we had landed in weather heaven. "Oh, but you just wait," they would say. In coffee shop lines, at the grocery store, walking along neighborhood sidewalks, Portlanders personified the rain as though it were a great sea monster about to rise out of the deep. It was as though the rain were omnipresent and would come, yes, it would come. And then....the rains came and time after time I have heard, "Wow, it sure is raining outside. Did it do this last year? Doesn't it seem a bit early this year? Can you believe it is raining? Oh, it is just miserable outside." Wait.... I thought this was the big thing we've all been waiting for, the thing that Pacific Northwesterners pride themselves upon, the thing that was about to descend upon us all, driving us into the coffee shops and pubs? So why is everyone so surprised and so mildly irritated?
And then I began to wonder who the poor guy was at the Oregonian (Portland's paper) who had the laborious job of writing up the weather each week. How long can one's creative juices last? Here are some of his valient attempts at giving creative expression to this week's weather report:

"rain; breezy"

"a little rain"
"rain possible"
"a couple of showers"

"cloudy; some rain"

"a touch of rain"

More to come. From what I hear...it has just begun.

BOO!

Going Oregonian

The itsy, bitsy spider climbed up the Portland routes. Down came the rain and washed the spider out( but luckily for this little spider, mommy took her to feast on a ginger peach muffin in a coffee shop with a toy room).

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain, and the other itsy, bitsy spider was able to compost again (or is that become compost? Watch out for Daddies!!).

Wondering if Rynn broke her arm or is beginning some new preschool fashion? It is her sling in which she is carrying her baby stuffed kitten so she can "be like the mommies at the park." You gotta love Oregon.

LINES AND LYNS

"So, how do you say your name again?," says the tenth person this week as I check my children into the nursery of a very large, growing Portland church. "CaroLINE?," they ask with surprise in their voice, "you don't usually hear it pronounced that way." I never knew that the name Caroline could be so challenging. And that is LINE, by the way, not "lyn." Apparently, in Oregon, people only know Carolyns. This has been the week of cultural surprises and surprised conversations. As the many faces of people whom I have met in Portland floated through my mind this morning in church, I began to think of the many conversations which spontaneously grew out of book clubs, play groups, or even a casual run with a new friend. "So, tell me again why you are here?? Now, how does one plant a church? Now, how is what you believe different from (fill in the blank)," people ask. The answers to these questions are a bit more involved than merely explaining that my name is indeed CaroLINE and not CaroLYN. Tentatively beginning to answer peoples' questions, I have grown shy and then self conscious that surely they must be growing bored. "NO! This is fascinating, " they reply, "I've never met people starting a church/I've never met people who still believe in the Bible/etc.." I try to hide my shock thinking how different this is from the world in which we left. In Chattanooga, I often felt shocked at the amount of common dialogue that was shared. Everyone, it seemed, at least had a cousin, uncle, or sister that was in some church. How different it is here!

As Jason and I celebrated our seventh anniversary today we rejoiced that God has brought us on this grand adventure to plant a church in Portland, OR. God is at work in His world and has won the victory in Christ. I was encouraged both in my faith and in our calling to this city by a sermon I heard this morning at a Portland church called Imago Dei. I encourage you to listen to it. I have included the link. When you click on it, scroll down and either download to your IPod or listen on your computer by clicking on "Launch Jukebox." There is about three minutes of announcements before he starts the sermon. Unload your dishwasher or pay a bill, but then enjoy hearing his sermon. Not only is it in a very "Portland style," but it is very helpful in understanding why we follow this Jesus anyway. http://www.imagodeicommunity.com/sermon/1000-conversations-part-4

Happy listening.

Pumpkin Patch Adventures

Ten miles outside of Portland lies a pastoral and beautiful place called Sauvie Island (read more @ .http://www.sauvieisland.org/about-sauvie-island/). Connected to Portland by a small bridge this stretch of land in the Columbia River makes you feel like you have stumbled upon a treasure protected from another time and place. As the cumulus clouds and fog, which have become so familiar to us in the past weeks, drifted between the hills surrounding Portland we drove onto Sauvie Island. Farms that had boasted fields of blackberries and lavender only two months ago now put forth their fall show with varieties of squash and corn and of course- PUMPKIN PATCHES. To the girls' delight we pulled into the first farm we saw and hopped on a tractor for a hayride around the farm. We caught five minutes of blue sky (the first I've seen in two weeks), hundreds of bright orange pumpkins, and even some ghostly white ones. We came home with a white pumpkin which Rynn has decided will become our Ghost Jack-O-Lantern for Halloween. The rain chased us off and on, but that didn't stop us from "getting lost" in a HayMaze, drinking apple cider, and meeting a calf, two ducks, a turkey, two lambs, and a tortoise. A grand adventure!
Meanwhile, Jason gets aggressive with a crowbar to find a sermon in a file cabinet with a lost key. They say church planting can be stressful, but I didn't think it would come to this! Perhaps he has a future with Rick's Lock& Key.

Concentration

Eleanor in a quiet moment of focused concentration. Quick! Run! Take a shower before it passes!

Rynn concentrates on one of the many beautiful fall leaves in her "leaf pile."

Running in Circles

Today, as I ran in circles both literally and figuratively, I began to wonder why it is so easy to over plan, over schedule, and overstress about God's work in this world. In a desperate attempt to meet people, to become a "productive" church planter's wife, and to give my children every opportunity that is at their doorstep, I signed Eleanor up for gymnastics. With images of great grandeur for my tiny tow-headed two year old I walked into the Portland Parks and Rec studio with Eleanor loping slowly behind. Certainly, today would be the day I would meet ten new best friends that would surely become church members. And, while being the picture of community outreach and involvement, my dear Eleanor would astound all the teachers and parents with her forward rolls. The reality, as it turned out, was a knock down drag out wrestling match with a tantruming two year old who didn't want to put a sweater on, much less hop in circles.

So, running in circles around a rainbow colored parachute with a bunch of nannies, I thought, "What AM I doing??." I had turned down meeting a few moms from Rynn's school for coffee because Eleanor and I had an important engagement to run circles around a parachute. So, I got to thinking, "Why is it so hard to stop striving, to rest, and to trust God?." I went back to a BB Warfield sermon which I have often turned to. It is titled PEACE WITH GOD. He writes, "How can we obtain (peace)? It is not our peace; it is God's. We do not make it; He makes it. Its foundation is, of course, in Christ and Christ's work...We are at peace with God; our conscience knows it. But we may so seldom look to Him who is our Peace, and so much to ourselves, that we fail to take the true comfort and joy of our changed position" (BB Warfield, Faith & Life). Thank God for this true Peace! And thank God for no more Friday gymnastics!

Cocoa Comes Home

Today was a special day for Rynn as Cocoa the Bear got to make a first time visit to the Little house from preschool. Cocoa gets to go home with a different child every couple of days and while he is with us we are to write down Cocoa's adventures in his very own journal. You might have thought it was Christmas morning if you could have seen the smile on Rynn's face when I picked her up this afternoon. Of course, Eleanor shared in the joy. Oh...and we're finally official. CHeck out our new liscense plate!