Greetings from Amurrica!

Hello friends! 
After a very long day of traveling, and three different flights, we made it safely to Amurrica last Saturday. Thank you so much for your prayers! 
We have been having such a wonderful and relaxing time here with family, eating and laughing and catching up. 
I haven't been taking many pictures because I wanted this to be a real vacation. ^^ But here are a few shots of the last week: 

Some of the highlights from the last week:
- receiving my new GUITAR (!!!!!) - reading on my new Kindle (gosh, I love that thing) - visiting Target ^^ - laughing (so much laughing!) with my family, especially while playing Apples to Apples- Thanksgiving dinner! 
Some of the culture shocks from the last week: 
- seeing huuuuge pick-up trucks everywhere- the low prices of produce! - all the different southern accents- big portions! - so, so, so much variety in stores and restaurants! - country music 

Happy Belated Thanksgivingfrom Toone! 

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Pre-Flight Jitters

In just over 24 hours the hubs and I will be

departing on our long-awaited trip Stateside. 

Three take-offs and landings later, 

we will be home. 

I say "home" and I mean it. 

"Home" has become a very fluid word for me 

in the last few years. 

I think all my expat friends will be able to relate. 

Home is where the love is. 

And there is so much love waiting for us in Tennessee. 

I'm not really looking forward to 

saying bye-bye to my Moto-cat tonight

or to the 2 layovers that we have in

store for us tomorrow, 

BUT,

here's what I am looking forward to for our trip: 

*FAMILY! 

*hearing and speaking English everywhere

*TARGET! 

*REAL Thanksgiving food!!! 

*just. relaxing. 

*catching up and sharing laughs

with people I love

*Red Robin

*pumpkin pie

*TARGET!! 

*visiting my very first Hobby Lobby

*autumn in pretty TN

*not working

*people-watching in airports

*my neck pillow

*reading through an exciting new series

and 

*TARGET!!! 

I covet your prayers for the hubs and I as we travel, dear friends. 

Please pray for safety for us and please pray against spiritual attack. 

Pray that John and I would operate  in great love 

towards one another in the midst of the chaos of traveling. 

And please also pray that God would grant us 

wisdom and clarity on how to spend our time and money

during this trip. 

God-willing, my next post will be from the States! 

LOVE! 

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Advent Conspiracy

Has anyone else ever wondered if we do Christmas all wrong? 


Find out what you can do here: 

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Insta-Friday {4}

Caramel lattes / Auntie Fay's sleepy bear / fabric heaven / 

playing dominoes with students / Moto takes a trip to the vet / 

parade in Seoul / the hubs' birthday breakfast / 

Reese's cake for the hubs' birthday / autumn arrives at the Magic Tree / 

a street-side snack / big no-heat curls / NEW boots! / 
personalized menu planning sheets / Korean traditional masks / 
his & hers drinks / the only white guy for miles / 
Moto, the cute / 'Give Thanks' signs with popcorn kernels / 
old & new / and it was all yellow... 

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Peace {from Contemplating Beauty}

This week I had the great privilege of guest-posting over at Contemplating Beauty with the lovely Gina. 
I thought I'd share what I'd written here: 
-----------------------------------------------------

When Gina asked me to guest post for her, I was elated. 

When I read what she wanted me to post about, I became hesitant. 

The topic is, peace. 

Yep. 

Peace. 

What's not to like, right? 

The thing is, peace is the exact thing that I haven't been feeling lately. 

Just not feeling it. 

Jesus says, 

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. 

I do not give to you as the world gives. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." 

- John 14:27

But these days my heart has been troubled. 

I have felt fear. 

And more. 

Anger, frustration, and discontentment. 

Ah, discontentment, what a cunning foe you are. 

You come creeping in, without any forewarning. 

You invite your friends, selfishness, complaining, and impatience along. 

The four of you always show up in the most inconvenient times too. 

I feel like I have no energy to defend myself against your attacks

because I'm too busy dealing with difficult work situations, 

an irritated husband, or cross-cultural madness. 

But Jesus says, 

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. 

I do not give to you as the world gives."

The world (and the enemy) will throw everything in our path: 

discontentment, fear, self-consciousness, anger, depression, 

hate, gossip, lust, materialism, greed, gluttony, 

laziness, sickness, sadness, and pain. 

But Jesus says, 

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you."

Jesus gives us His peace, freely. 

It is a gift. 

One of the many gifts from our gracious Savior. 

Every moment of the day we can choose to accept the gift of peace. 

It's there for the taking.

In any and every circumstance, 

we can choose to say, 

"Now may the Lord of peace Himself 

give you peace at all times and in every way. 

The Lord be with all of you."

- 2 Thessalonians 3:16 

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Bacon-Banana Pancakes

After my last Insta-Friday post, 

many of you inquired about my photo of the nomlicious

'bacon-banana pancakes'. 

And so, without further ado, 

here's the how-to...

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Happy birthday, Hubs!

I'm looking forward to dancing through so many more years with you, God willing! 

I love you. ^^ 

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Travel Organizer

Last week I wrote a post about how excited I am about our upcoming trip to the States. 
I love traveling with the hubs. I love packing up my things for the excitement to come. I love people-watching in the airports. I love using my neck-pillow on the plane. 
What I don't love is rooting around in my bag trying to find all of my documents and such. 
And so, with the help of this great tutorial, the Travel Organizer was born.
*Please don't laugh at my sloppy stitches, I'm still learning to sew. ^^ **Aaaand, please don't laugh at my purple tie-dye shirt, I made it myself. *^^*

It holds everything perfectly, ready for quick access. And it makes my crafty little heart happy. 
Only 2 more weeks until we fly! 

Linking up all over the place.

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