The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We just wanted to take a moment to wish a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of our readers! We hope you have the best of days celebrating the birth of our sweet Saviour and enjoying time with family. 

What the Moon Did the First Christmas

Hello everybody! :) 

This is a thought I got just as soon as I clicked to write a new post... so let's see how it goes!

----

What the Moon Did the First Christmas

The star was so bright. If the moon could have known how many songs and poems the star would have written about its luminescence over the stable, I'm not sure what it would have thought the night that God told the universe His plan.

Recipe Testing--Hot Vanilla

Hot Vanilla

Hello everybody! 

Last week, Abigail and I decided to test out a new recipe of something we never tried before. We picked Hot Vanilla, which sounded intriguing-- something different, for sure! 

"Thankful"--Brother's handiwork

By request from various readers, we will be showcasing our brothers "Thankful" projects. :) I think they all did a great job, and were very creative! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

I hope you've had a lovely Thanksgiving!

Update on the ones behind the blog! :)

Isn't it funny how changes tend to happen all at once? At least it seems that way to me... don't worry, nothing about the blog is going to change, but some things are different with Abigail and I, although in Abigail's case it's temporary. ;)

First snows of the Season!

Hey hey!
Well this post is a bit overdue, but better late than never in my thinking!

Last week, (exactly a week, actually, from today) Shibetsu got her first snow! We were all super excited, taking pictures and running around to see it from all the windows. We do that every year, too! lol! :P
It really is a beautiful sight though! Nothing compares to the excitement and wonder the first snow of the new winter brings.

Campfire, missionary style!

The day before my birthday, Daddy got this rather spur of the moment idea to have a cookout. He took the legs off our little grill and the boys put rocks around it so we could have a quick "fire pit" type thing. It made the grill look a lot more campfire ish that's for sure!
Our neighbors probably wondered why we didn't get out more than a couple times this summer and now that it could snow any time we're out there all evening in coats cooking marshmallows, lol!

Happy Birthday Victoria!

Hello!
Today is Victoria's seventeenth birthday! Victoria is very special to us and we are very thankful for her. :)

"Victoria is a special blessing to us (as are all the kiddos!), especially because she is our first child and such a big help. Thank you for all you do Vee and for keeping us laughing. We love you so much!" - Daddy

Increasing, Decreasing

Hello!
This is a very common verse but so powerful! I wonder if we think about what it means enough!

Little things, 2

Because the "Little Things" post turned out to be our most popular, I decided to do another one, this time with both mine and Abigail's answers to our "favorite little things" of the past few weeks.
We also decided to add five random facts about each of us at the end, and we'd like to hear five random facts about you! ;) So don't forget to comment below, or send an email. :) Also, go ahead and click the response boxes below! :D

So here are a few of our favorite little things this past few weeks.

Writerly moments

Hello my friends!





--my desk--

I think this quote should almost be my writing motto! It really is one of the reasons I keep plugging away at writing---not just for me, but to glorify God and so that others will have books that perhaps they've wanted to read but haven't found either.

Days of Summer, 2

Here are some snippets of our Days of Summer!

Flashback Friday!

2001, Himeji Japan
Victoria on the left, almost 4
Abigail on the right, age 2.

Windy at the beach--our visit to Teshio

When most people think of going to the beach, they picture a cloudless blue sky, bright sand, and lots of sun. So it's rather funny that most of the times I've been to beaches in my life the day has been beautifully gray, to match the water, and the sand is black. And the water is frothy and cold.

Project MK Matching skirts!

This post is picture heavy! You are forewarned. :)

Back in June, Abigail and I were working on sewing matching skirts for our Mk friends. We are the "younger set"-- pretty much growing up a lot of our lives together. Abigail was the youngest MK girl for the longest time, until one of the missionary families had a girl three years back. So, we decided to make her a skirt too, since it's fun to sew small things. ;)
We had a system--I measured, did the maths, cut, and sewed up most of the skirts, and Abigail hemmed and did the ruffles (that were on only some of them, for added length), because I sort of dislike hemming circle skirts and doing ruffles. :D But then, I discovered a trick to make hemming circle skirts easier, so I did some of the hems as well, to help speed things up.
This was the sewing process for us! I'm sorry the first picture is fuzzy-- the picture was clear, but the collage app I used was being cantankerous this morning, lol.



We wore them for part of the Missionary Summer Picnic day, and had fun doing a photo shoot!




Left to Right-- KT, Me, KL, G.W., H.M, S.M., and Abigail <3 ....I don't know why but I had so much trouble balancing on the rounded side of the bridge right then...lol!








We had fun meeting a young Japanese girl, who enjoyed hanging out with us.






















Do you see the fly on my arm? For some reason, it cracks me up really bad. lol.


The littlest girl and I ;)








We had a lot of fun making them and we were pleased how they turned out. ;) It was really easy making our own half circle skirt patterns and it was quick to sew up.
I hope you enjoyed seeing them. Have a lovely day!! <3
Victoria

Cupcakes and Books

Here is hoping you are having a lovely and wonderful day!
We have been keeping busy and enjoying life, but have quite a few posts lined up. Now to buckle down and write them.... ;)
I made cupcakes last week when we had guests over for supper. It was a last minute thing but I was so pleased how they turned out! Often simplicity is the best kind of beauty.




Lately I have been thinking about my life and what it means. The future is not always clear, and I don't always know what the upcoming years have in store for me. But it doesn't really matter. I know the One who understands my entire life and knows exactly what He wants me to do. And so I'll leave it up to Him.
I have been deeply moved by these verses the past few days:

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Isaiah 40:3-5

I have read these verses many times but lately they have become so meaningful to me. It's the first part that really moves me. "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,". We do live in a spiritual wilderness, but I wonder if we are crying out enough. We do not know when Jesus will return.


On a different note, have you ever read The Headhunter's Bride? I recently read that book and really enjoyed it! It was so much different than I expected. The missionary bride was not your typical American/British etc. She was Japanese! I was thrilled to read about a Japanese missionary woman. It was a pleasant surprise. It was a very good book, (although if you are still younger than I, or have a weak stomach, perhaps you might not like it as much). The characters were nice, and it was also a very interesting setting. Although at first I couldn't think of where "Formosa" was...at the dinner table with my family, we discovered it is what is now Taiwan. :P I had never even thought about aboriginal people in Taiwan! Your learn something new every day. :)
It spans the last half of the missionary woman's life, including the Japanese invasions and then WWII. I won't tell you any more... ;) (it's not a romance though, in case you were not wanting to read that). I'm just wondering now if it's a true story or just based on real things that happened.

Well anyways, I need to go. Every one of you enjoy your wonderful day, and take time to smile!
<3
Victoria

Tuesday Picnic

Hello!
I hope you are having a good day. We are staying busy and enjoying summer break.
Today, I thought I would post about Tuesday, the twenty-ninth of July. Four of the Wilhite boys got to spend the day with us. So, Mama decided we would all go down to the city park. Victoria and I went on our bicycles, taking a picnic lunch in our baskets. While we were finishing up lunch, we saw some girls playing with two, stray kittens. After a few minutes, they came over and we played with the kittens together for awhile.

Titus









We also got to ride go-karts! We raced each other and had fun.


Malachi and Isaiah



Top left: Malachi and Isaiah Top right: Victoria and Noah
Bottom left: Titus and Gideon Bottom right: Abigail and Micah


Josiah


Mama and Zebulun



Well that's all for now. Hope you have a wonderful day!
-Abigail

Days of Summer

Summer. Rain. Green. Watermelon.




1. Storming out our bedroom window. Sitting cozy at my desk.
2. Reflections. And another storm.
3. Our new favorite recipe for amazing chocolate chewy cookies. ;) make them with chocolate chips, plain, or with coconut and m'n'm's. ;)
4. Jollof. Yum. It's a dish from Ghana, I believe it was. I enjoy making things from around the world. Jollof is easy and deliciously different. But it's for a cooler rainy night...it's got a nice warm spicy flavor, and it stays hot in the bowl. And the chicken is so tender and flavorful! :)
5. Another cookie! What a surprise....not! Lol. Scrumptious and healthy is this cookie...studded with dried fruit, oatmeal, and black chocolate. Oh yum.
6. Dark chocolate whole wheat muffin. Very heavy, but a great snack if you're really hungry. :)
7. Another storm coming. Over one of our neighborhood temple/shrines.... That's the temple.
8. Double rainbow around the sun! It was amazing and gorgeous.
9. Feathery evergreen and our gold summer sunsets.
10. The two sisters, taking pictures of each other. Lol
11. Parmesan herb popcorn. It was so yummy. We had it with sandwiches a week or so back and had a picnic outside our house in a tent we set up.
12. Our rolling hills. Green, it's so green here!
13. The birthday present I made for my mum. <3
14. Rain on our van's sunroof.
15. First watermelon of the year! It was so delightful.
16. A project Abigail and I have been working on...this is the smallest version of seven skirts we've made/are making, all matching. ;) maybe a post later about us two Minks girls skirts? Who knows. :)

....We don't have a three month vacation during the summer like most American folks, (we have a three week one coming up) but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy all things summer!

I hope you are having a lovely summer as well. Let me know in the comments your favorite thing about summer!

Mine would definitely be ice cream and the water...whether it's the ocean, the river, the city fountains you can play in, water balloons, water guns, waterfalls, or summer storms... I love them all! :)

See you around!
Victoria <3

Little Things

Hello!
Today I thought I'd do something a bit different and have a little questionnaire that I would answer about the little things that I'm really being blessed by/have been enjoying right now, recently. Let me know what you think of it. ;)
Abigail is working on a smorgasbord post, as well, so hopefully that will be forthcoming.

"What has been your favorite ---- recently??"

1. Song?
But I have Prayed for Thee
2. Color?
I've been drawn to bright summer teal a lot this last week. Everywhere I look I'll see it and be like, "Oh that's my favorite color!" ;)
3. flower?
Not sure what type it is, but it looks like this:



They come in varying shades of orange to deep coral. Sadly most of them are gone now. (They're wildflower around here).
4. Bible verse?
Habbakuk 3:10-13 has really caught me the past few days.



5. snack?
Chocolate cookies with m'n'm's and coconut. :D
6. drink?
Green tea (Not sweet, for you American readers information ;P)
7. projects?
I've been redrawing my dress designs on paper and coloring them in with pencils. I also have been working on my book a lot. This week I'm going to be sewing up some skirts. ... Might be a post. ;) Other than that and cooking/baking not much.

8. looking forward to?
The missionary summer picnic, July 21st!! So excited. ;)
9. game?
Played tag in the rain outside with some missionary friends the other day. Epic. :D haha, not really. Just fun. I enjoyed it a lot.

10. book?
I just finished reading these two books today by the same author. There are a couple words you'd have to mark out, but I really enjoyed them. They were different from the books I normally read, but I was fascinated by the culture in the two books. Inspired me to share cultures more in my books. ;) They were both by Joan Hiatt Harlow... book one was Star in the Storm, and book two was Thunder from the Sea.
They are both about the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, the first in the 1910's and the second in the late 1920's. They both involve a Newfoundland dog. The stories are not related however. I had never read about the people of Newfoundland and found it very interesting. I never imagined that Celtic culture was so strong (at least back then). Or that they mixed believing in The Lord with old wive's superstitions. As an American, I tend to link that idea with the Ozarks. However, since many people in the Ozarks were Irish and Scottish, it makes sense, because I found out that a lot of Irish and Scottish settled in Newfoundland. The stories are based on many true happenings and the real way they lived, so that said--I don't agree with everything (for example their folklore--it's just silly. It does say so in the book too, at least) but if you want to find out about how Newfoundlanders lived, they're very interesting.

Well that's all for now! Hope you are all having lovely days, enjoy all the little blessings and happy things that come every day. :)
In fact, you could pick a couple of the questions above and give your answers in a comment below. We are so happy to get comments. ;)
If you like our blog, let us know, and tell us what you would like to see more of. :)
Also... pardon if there's little hiccoughs in the blog format right now. We are in the middle of giving the blog a makeover. ;) It's taking a little bit of time, but hopefully it will be a little more professional looking and easier to navigate soon. :)

See you around! <3
Victoria

German Apple Cake

Hello, my friends!
I hope this finds you having a lovely day!! :)
Because of a general consensus to please post this, here is the recipe for German Apple Cake!
You can see pictures of the outside of the cake we made here



German Apple Cake

***picture not taken by me. We ate our cake up too fast, I forgot to snap a picture of the actual cake, lol! This recipe was found on www.food.com, but we did however make some changes, so our version of the recipe is below. This picture is the picture shown for the recipe on their site, but it looks the same.****





Ingredients
2 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup flour
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon* (As comments in the recipe online noted it needed more cinnamon than the said 2 teaspoons, I decided to go by the general thinking there....but actually got over zealous and dumped in three and a half or something like that. It had a very strong flavor. Some of us liked it, but others didn't so much, so I will be putting down the happy medium that I reckon will be just about right.)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups peeled chopped apples
Optional I noticed some people added other spices to make a flavorful, more fall-ish tasting cake. However, we didn't have all of the ones listed on hand, and I couldn't find the nutmeg for some reason till a few days later, lol. Adding the spices you might have in spice cookies etc., I think would taste really yummy too, so I am adding this note in for those who might want a more spiced version of it.


Directions
1 In large bowl, beat eggs and oil until smooth.
2 Add next 6 ingredients and mix well. It's going to be a REALLY thick batter by now. It will look very strange for a cake, actually. lol. But it turns out great. Don't let the constancy fool you! :)
3 Fold in the chopped apples.
4 Pour into greased 9 by 13 pan.
5 Bake at 350F degrees for 40-55minutes, or till golden brown. Definitely start with 40 minutes, though. ;)

So there you have it! German Apple cake. We frosted it with regular whipped cream... I didn't even put vanilla in it that time. But, in the above picture, it looks like it has some kind of cream cheese frosting, which would be so delicious as well! But, seeing as cream cheese is expensive, and Gideon doesn't actually care for it as much, we used whipped cream, which was also very yummy. ;)





***picture taken perhaps two weeks ago, at a lovely spot called Star Hill, across the valley. One of my most favorite places in the world. Hmm.... maybe could be a post.... ;)***

Have a wonderful day, and enjoy all the little things God blesses us with every day!! :)
<3
Victoria

Happy birthday Gideon!

Hello!!
First off I want to say I am so sorry for our inconsistent posting. We will try to do better. ;)
Now that I have that off my chest, I would like to say Happy Birthday (belated) to my brother Gideon who turned 11! :)
Take a deep breath....



Blow it all out!!



And no, even though it looks like his brothers are trying to strangle him, they really aren't. :) Daddy had classes to teach in the public school the morning of Gideon's birthday, so we had German apple cake and BLTs at lunch, when we also gave Gideon his presents and things.

---Side note....the German Apple cake was VERY good. I'm curious if anyone would like a post about it, with the recipe? Comment below letting us know, if you want the recipe, and we will be glad to do a post on it! ----

After lunch, we drove an hour south to Asahikawa, where we took Gideon to an indoor playground. We all enjoyed it! :D
You can't tell just by looking at it, but that entire area is like five levels of tunnel mazes. I won't lie...although I've been in it before, I always get a little claustrophobic-panic at the beginning, until I get used to it. Once you do, though, its a ton of fun!



Gideon is one of our quiet ones. He likes anything to do with sports, he always has his nose in a book, and he has always enjoyed drawing and writing stories. ;)

Then... Father's Day was yesterday! I don't remember if we did a post on Mother's Day or not... ( :^ ) But because we have some traditions in connection with Father's Day I thought I'd share them.
To start with, we always make a big meal. :P I made an apple pie, my dad's favorite, for dessert.



Also we have for quite a few years now decorated him a coffee mug. Here is a 360 view of this year's. ;)

This view you can see Zebulun, Josiah, and Gideon's art. :)


Malachi and Abigail's... (I just cracked up when I saw how big us girls made our stick figures compared to the boys... big sisters.... lol!)


Me, and my mom! P.S. I drew cowboy boots on my person. :P


Anyways, we have been enjoying this past weekend as a family! ;) It has been raining a lot here, and it has gotten pretty cool on some days...
Hope you are all having a LOVELY day!
Love in Christ,
Victoria
....leaving with a hope for posts to arrive soon......