Farewell! (by Kendal)

Y'all are likely wondering about the blog title. As most of you probably guessed, I am handing the blog over to Kelsey. (Who, BTW, happens to be rather better than me at expressing thoughts with the written word.) However, my main reason for quitting the blog is just a matter of priorities. The blog, as y'all may have guessed, due to my lack of posting, never was very high on my priorities list. It has mostly been merely a fun way to communicate with friends, especially those that I rarely see. I have often thought that I should be more "serious" about my blogging, but then when I did blog I never had time for truly thoughtful posts. [Coming up with the proper way to express exactly what I'm thinking through the blog takes me FOREVER. Maybe that explains the {long} time it takes for me to write a good paper.:) ]
Well, anyway, I wasn't making time for worthwhile posts.
Since school, next to work at The Chicken, is what is taking the most of my time, I'm thinking that after I graduate I might find myself with some extra time on my hands, and so I may start a new blog then. We'll see!
In the meantime, I hope that y'all will enjoy Kelsey's blog! I might write a "guest post" once in awhile, but don't count on it. :) I'll still read and comment on y'all's blogs, of course.

Well, au revoir!
~Kendal Marie Butler

What do you measure your productivity by?

What do you measure your productivity by? Or what are your thoughts after a day has ended or just begun? Is it, "how was I able to bless others today?", or is it,"I wonder what I can get out of this social event/time with church family." Or even, "I wish I had been able to have some more free time, or do something for me today." As human beings we are so selfish and in general such takers, instead of givers.(and quite prone to exaggerating, though some more than others) I'm sure at some time or another we have been guilty of this, and even recently I have caught myself thinking "I hope this will be fun for me." It is so worldly to be thinking this way, and even acting on these thoughts. Especially since it is opposite of what Jesus did in his daily life. He was always giving of himself and sacrificing his will and even daily needs even until his very last seconds on this earth. I especially see this shown when Jesus is dying on the cross and he asks John to take care of his mother, he was constantly seeing to the needs of others.

I'm sure we can all do more to serve others instead of ourselves. Is it not part of being a Christain, everyday dying to ourselves and following Christ?

It is such a sad and empty life when people serve themselves constantly, instead of others. I'm sure that if you are paying attention to life around you you have found that the people who are most enjoyable to spend time with are those who are servants to others, and the ones who seem to enjoy life to it's fullest.

Well I hope everyone is having a wonderful week,

~Kelsey

I hope everyone has had a great week, and I hope you also have a wonderful weekend! I took this picture earlier this week of the sunset, after that strange and unexpected snow~thunderstorm. that is why the sky appears to be glowing, because the sun is shining through the thick clouds. ~Kelsey

Sunset pictures

I took these pictures were earlier this week. ~Kelsey

Christmas day

We had a wonderful Christmas! We didn't do what we had planned for Christmas and New Years, or in other words what Kendal and I hoped to do, but we had fun anyway. On Christmas Eve we were planning on going to our church's Christmas Eve service, but some of the little ones came down with strep throat or something so we stayed home. We watched The Ultimate Gift instead, which was a really good movie. On Christmas morning we opened our presents. Here are some pictures.

We didn't actually take this on Christmas morning.
Joy opening her freshwater pearl and sodalite bracelet
Mary really wanted a watch for Christmas

Noah loves Veggie Tales, so Mom and Dad got him A toy Larry, Bob and Jr. Asparagus



Aren't thease the cutest things ever? They look like Yankee candles but they're really tiny thing of lip balm

In the bottom of a box with many different things in it were handfuls of organic lollipops!

This is a box of staitionary with butterflies all over it. the box is really neat, it looks like a book, but when you open it it's a box!

This is Kendal's graphing calculator

This is a really neat toy that you make moterized cars and things with

Mom opening her package of lip balm

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! ~Kelsey