Giveaway Winner + Where we are now

Wow, I was totally blown away by the number of comments I received on the giveaway this week, thank you all so very much!  Here are the winners:

For the Freyja’s Rose French Press Cozy: Rie (, who said “OMG, I don’t drink coffee & it’s not cos I’m breastfeeding either. I haven’t drunk coffee since high school – no real reason why, I just prefer water or hot chocolate or tea or my latest discovery is Chia tea. Boring, I know!!”  Well, I hope you find use for the cozy anyway, or at least have fun knitting it!

For the Mended Sweater Snowflake Sachet: Stephanie (moobeardesigns) who said “Your kit makes me want to cross stitch again!! The sachet would end up in my top craft draw so every time I open the draw I am smelling wonderful inspiration!!”

Congratulations to you both, and keep an eye out for an email shortly to get your mailing address.
(a note on selection winners: there were several comments that did not exactly fit within my directions, but I tried to include anyone who at least mentioned something I asked for and specified which giveaway they wanted.  There were several others that were too vague to place or even to tell if they were intending to enter the drawing so I left those out of the drawing to be fair to others.)

Now, back to our globetrotting family. . .

We are currently residing at L’Abri in Eck-en-Wiel, the Netherlands, a community that doesn’t really fit into any one categorical box so I encourage you to check out their website, but very basically it is a Christian study center that seeks to aid people from all walks of life who are earnestly searching for answers to all of life’s big questions by providing this space–a communal living arrangement where we are all responsible for upkeep of the grounds, a well stocked library and weekly sessions with a tutor to ensure study is productive, and the opportunity to interact with others through daily lunch discussions, regular lectures, and throughout the day’s activities (this is all my description, not theirs, just fyi). There are several L’Abri campuses around the world and Eric and I spent time here (well, I in Switzerland, he here) individually before we were married and are thrilled to be back as a family. Each campus runs a little bit differently depending on location, the types of students it attracts and any number of other factors, so I personally am excited to see how the Dutch campus differs from the Swiss.

Actually, I’m excited about a whole lot of aspects of life here. As far as studies are concerned, I hope to do a little reading into issues of women’s roles in the church while Eric pursues a project about C.S. Lewis and reformed theology. I’m also looking forward to living in community after months of much less human interaction than I’m used to. Everett already seems to be benefiting from the set schedule (days are divided so that morning is study time, afternoon is work time, and meals, tea and coffee times are the same every day) as well as being around people. The two families who live here permanently and run the place have several children, all of whom speak Dutch and English and I am just loving that we hear both languages constantly, even though I know zero Dutch myself.

For you faithful blog followers and brand new ones, I slightly regret that my posting will be rather irregular while we’re here (until mid-July) because internet access is deliberately limited in order to maximize actual human interaction and using time for study and other such endeavors, but I will post when I can and try to keep up with occasional giveaways. I will probably skip this coming week however because last week’s projects for May Giveaway Day completely consumed every spare minute for me so I need a tiny break from creating on a deadline! But I have lot of ideas. . .

Here are a few pictures from the first few days here, including my work assignment from yesterday afternoon–picking cherries while Eric helped prepare dinner (first full afternoon of keeping Everett by himself–he did great!) which we then got to enjoy outside!