so much to say!

I have been a bad, bad, bad blogger. please forgive. 
It is a very busy life being a new wife, pastoring a church, and sculpting all life into Mark 16:15. I love every minute of it, but there is definitely a knack to having it all flow smoothly. 


I will try to be better. I had written several half-finished posts that maybe I will end up following up with later perhaps. But for now...


HOLIDAYS ARE ALMOST HERE.


This is going to be one exciting next couple of weeks! I can't believe that Thanksgiving is next week. This year is going by so incredibly fast! Andrew and I will be spending the day out with family...in about 3 sessions of what I will lovingly refer to as Thanksgiving-athon. I suppose that takes some of the relaxing part of out of the day, but in reality I don't think I'd have it any other way. I love holidays full of family and people, the more the better. So...Thanksgiving-athon (currently) sounds like I'm going to make breakfast at home, head to early lunch at Andrew's parents house,  perhaps a mid-afternoon stop at his Sister's home to spend some time with her and her husband, and then onto my sister's home for dinner. Busy, but fun. 
So...What is everyone doing for Thanksgiving? 


I made this buttermilk pie last week in preparation for the holidays. It's delicious, but I will have to make it more then once to get it a little more perfected. I realized I do not prefer to make pies. Pies are needy, and what may have been intended an easy bake turned into me babysitting a pie for an hour and twenty minutes. 
Note: It isn't comfy to stand in the kitchen watching pie.
However, if you have never had buttermilk pie, you should. Immediately. Bake it, or go find a cute tea room that serves it, like...now.


Since we are somehow now talking buttermilk, I whipped up some buttermilk pancakes last night from scratch. They. Are. Delicious. They are also very easy. Try them!


Over the weekend we also went to the Greek Festival. Although lively, here is what I have observed from my first Greek Festival: 
Greek Festivals are for eating. 


...That's it. 
Sure, there was some dancing and music, but everyone I saw was eating. 
But darn it, we were eating good food. Moussaka? Delish.
I did learn one more thing, and that is that no matter how you slice it, or combine it, I do not care for greek desserts (at least the ones at the festival). There are only so many combinations of phyllo dough, honey, nuts, nutmeg, sugar, and cinnamon that I can handle.






Love,
Ruth Ann

yes, i know.

I am a totally bad blog friend. I know.

Forgive me?

Things are so busy... and among all of the busy-ness, i just want the Lord. I want the fire back, or I just want fire. I want to love Him and serve Him. I want no more of my life, I just want Him to fully live through me. I am trying to see what the old "paths" are, and get back to them. Old paths rub against the grain with the new things, but that's just the name of the game. I long to be abandoned again to Him. I just...need more. 

Stand in the ways and see, 

And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,

And walk in it; 

Then you will find rest for your souls. (Jeremiah 6:17)

Love,
Ruth Ann

deep breath.

finally.
Finally!
finallllyyyyyyyyyy.


This has been one long last couple of days, but praise God we finally we have every single (save, our vacuum) item from the house now present in the loft. That is a very good choice of words, by the way. "Present" in the loft does not, by any means, mean that it is put away. In fact, it is very un-put away. But, that my friends is the beauty of moving and that is also the next challenge-UNPACKING! Although a bit trying at times, and a tidbit frustrating, unpacking is by far more fun then packing and leads to a much better result.


We started moving on Saturday, the 2nd. That was a long, long day. We finally ended up at the loft with the final load for the day at about 5 or 6pm. The dogs arrived, which was a very big thing. Now, Andrew and I had previously planned on having an office in the loft's 2nd floor (the actual "loft" part of the loft) but upon seeing the place repainted Friday, and realizing the loft was MUCH bigger then we though, we decided that we were going to try putting the bedroom on the second level. 
But...


The dogs can't currently make it up the stairs. Stanzi will do just about anything to be with Andrew, and she eventually made it up the stairs but Mozart barely made it about halfway up before he just....froze. Both dogs had to be carried down, and I haven't even been up there since last Saturday. In due time!


 All that said, everything about the new place is perfect. Sure, there are a few little things that need some help, but as I keep telling Andrew I am just SO happy. I wake up in the morning and I am not stressed out. I know more than anything that God totally hooked all this up...I mean, I look at our location and the loft and building and etc, then compare it with what we are paying and how close it is to our Church and my office...and I'm just blown away. The most beautiful soft lighting floods the room at all times of day. The building is full of beautiful character. I am a happy lofter, and so is my little family.


Enough Words! Let's picture. 

what a huge difference that paint made.

beginning to move.

love my husband.

oh the stairs! 

so much more work to do, but...well. we have time to make this a home. 

it starts now!

love, 

ruth ann

Wednesday: People/Places/Things I love

It wasn't until the other day when I was looking through our wedding pictures (for the 259th time) that I realized how beautifully genius this shot is. I never noticed that Tracy, our amazing amazing amazing photographer, arranged the rings so they perfectly fit between the "A" (Andrew) and the "R" (...Ruth)

love. so blessed to have had them at our wedding!

please check out Tracy's blog, and her other studio Lightly Photography. They are wonderful photographers and every time I look at our pictures, or any other pictures they take, I am always blown away. 

love, 

ruth ann.

packing & pictures

happy monday! 


as I've told you guys, we are moving THIS saturday.
...we started packing 2 days ago.
I kept thinking "oh no problem, we'll be fine, it won't be THAT bad." 
and i was just a little bit wrong. It's just that there is so much to do and go through, we had 2 rooms with wedding presents and miscellaneous items laying around, and we still have lots of wedding decor (all vintage knick-knacks, candlesticks, cake stands, etc etc etc) all around. Eventually these things may have a place, but for now they are a bit of a nuisance to me. 


Andrew is a trooper though. You see, I've never really had to move myself before. My dad was always in the military, or worked for the government, which means that when we moved, someone always packed and moved for us. I moved from my sister's house, to my apartment, and then from there to my current house-but those moves were minimal. Andrew has moved several times, and knows how to get the job done. I am a procrastinator at times. I got pretty distracted by a bin of childhood/high school pictures. I'm glad he's patient.


For now our house is mid-moving mode. Everything is a mess, but we are making progress. 


NOW! Pictures!
For anyone who hasn't seen the loft, here are a few pictures:

Main floor of the loft. Wood floors and bits of concrete, and to the right you can see some of the spiral stairs that go up to the loft-area. they are re-painting it all back to the neutral white color before we move in-so no more weird khaki. It should lighten the room up a bit more.

Cutesy bathroom (please forgive this raised toilet seat), love the tiles. There is storage that you can't see next to the shower.

Sorry for the blur! Here is the staircase (and blurry Andrew in back)

The kitchen has a lot of good storage, and will definitely do its job:) I could do without the choice of backsplash-I don't know who chose it, but it's not pretty. Thinking about painting the entire left wall in a yet-undetermined shade of chalkboard paint.

One more view of the windows. There is so much light in the loft, which makes me happy:) Oh...and our view is AMAZING

SO!

I will do my best to document as we pack and move this week. I'm glad that the weather is cooling down now-that will make this a much more delightful move.

love,

ruth ann.

so i've been thinking...

I would like to revamp this blog concept. 

I think my focus is a bit off, and I feel like if I go about doing it the way I originally planned it wouldn't give God much glory at all. 

that's never what I want.

So...that being said. I'm thinking this will definitely include a lot of loft and moving,

but more so include just the everyday, normal, life. 

It's hard to explain on paper, but I'll do my explaining by...doing.

Love,

ruth ann 

new blog, new lease, new day.

day one of this new blog, and i'm excited.

let's do introductions, shall we?

hello, i'm ruth. or ruth ann. whichever you prefer is just fine with me.

i was just married to the love of my life on July 2nd, 2010. it was, and still is, AWESOME.

we are moving on Oct 1st into our new loft apartment on Fort Worth's Southside.
This is a definitely a change. We currently live in a 3 bdrm, 2 bath home with a yard.

we have 2 labradoodles, Mozart & Stanzi

my husband and i pastor a church on the west-side of Fort Worth, called Deliverance Bible Church-FTW. Check us out here. 

(photo courtesy of adlevology 's flickr)

my life is not my own. in 2007 the Lord touched me and changed me entirely, and now all i want is to live and die for Him. i am all about Mark 16:15 (go into all the world and preach the gospel). August 2010 we took a team to Kiev, Ukraine to preach the gospel. In February 2011 we'll be in Munich, Germany & in August 2011 we'll be taking another team to St. Petersburg, Russia with the gospel.
Mark 16:15 is the call on every Christian's life.

i love vintage/thrifted/repurposed everything. let's partner that with my love for interior design/decorating.

(photo courtesy of buppins flickr)

& lastly, i would prefer d.i.y. over manufactured absolutely any day of the year.

my mission, accepted:

to blog about this new phase of life and everything that comes along with it. 

i hope you enjoy!

love,

ruth ann 


upcoming post---->some pictures of the loft space, building.