MIA- lost in the old testament

I feel like I've been a little M.I.A. on here lately... it's because I have this new love that's been taking up all my free time lately.... studying the Old Testament! It started out of reading Bible stories to the boys in the morning at breakfast. Then I finish their story, they leave the table, an I end up sitting there for an hour or more just reading and reading, with google open nearby, and I have found so many little interesting pieces I've missed my whole life before this. I feel like prior to this when I've read the Bible I've been reading with application to my own life as my only thought. The past two weeks I've been reading with historical context as my focus. I learned all the Bible stories when I was little, but never strung them all together on a timeline like I'm doing now. It is SO COOL to see God's sweeping plan unfold from one story to the next. To see how they all fit together to accomplish his ultimate purpose. And as I put things on a timeline I get these new little revelations about the character and heart of God. New things to meditate on and ponder.

I don't know what it is exactly, but I love the chronological order of things. Timelines make me happy :) I have this vision of studying and compiling a huge timeline of how and when things actually took place in the Old Testament. (The Bible is organized by type of literature opposed to date written) As I've studied I start to feel like I know these people a little bit, like I'm getting a peak into the real lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob...

Some fun facts I've uncovered in my self-study so far:

- It's possible that there was actually 6,000 years between creation and the flood. I've been processing what this means for days now, and coming up with lots more questions. (More time pre-flood than there has been post-flood??! God seriously STARTED OVER. What did the Nephilim-God's reason for destroying everyone in the first place-actually look like? (They were the result of demons coming and co-habitating with humans. Some people think the gods of Greek mythology were based on them) Most likely the sin in the world was worse then than it even is now.

-Did you know that Job and Abraham were most likely contemporaries of each other? I always assumed Job was an Israelite. But if this is the case then he wasn't.

-Abraham was a descendant of Shem, one of the son's of Noah. It is possible Shem was still alive when Isaac was born due to the longer lifespans back then.

-Abraham and Sarah, who were husband and wife, were also half brother and sister. Sounds gross right? But the laws preventing inter-marriage didn't come from God until almost 500 years later, during the time of Moses. So Abraham married his half sister. Their son Isaac married his second cousin, Rebekka. Isaac and Rebekka's son Jacob married his two cousins Leah and Rachel. Isaac's other son, Esau, married his half cousin (Ishmael's, Isaac's half brother's, daughter) All of them besides Isaac had more than one wife.

-It is most likely that Sarah acquired her maidservant Haggar (who was Ishmael's mother) during Abraham and Sarah's stay in Egypt when the Pharoah took Sarah into his harem not realizing that she was Abraham's wife. When he realized she was a married woman he returned her to Abraham with gifts, including livestock and servants. In rabbinic literature there is a legend that Haggar was not just a servant, but actually the daughter of the Pharaoh himself, and that he said he would rather her be a maidservant in the household of someone like Sarah than mistress of her own household. If this is true then Ishmael came partly from Egyptian royalty.

-God told Abraham he would be the father of nations. Even though God's chosen people would be Israel, he knew that would not be the only nation to come from him. The entire Arab world came from Abraham's son Ishmael. After Sarah died Abraham remarried and had six more sons after Isaac. I would love to find out if we have modern day nations that came from any of them too .

-God's people were also called Hebrews because Abraham first settled in the land of Hebron.

-Esau became a nation too, and his descendants were called the Edomites. They lived among the Israelites and were considered brother nations until the Babylonian Exile. At that time the Edomites turned against the Israelites and helped their enemies. The book of Obadiah is about God then wiping the house of Edom off the face of the earth.

Ok, well I think that's where I'm gonna stop for today, but there's so much more interesting stuff I could share about Jacob's family, how Jesus came through the line of Judah, and how I wonder why he came from him instead of through someone like Joseph, and the story of Judah and Tamar, and all five of the women who are listed in the lineage of Christ for that matter (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, & Mary)

Anyway, if you want a really interesting read, just start reading Genesis. It is amazing, and so full of interesting detail. (Another fun fact: Moses wrote Genesis. He was able to read and write because of the fact that he was raised in the palace of pharoah. Interesting how God prepared those who he would inspire to write the Bible. Also, even though Moses was 500 years after Abraham, and possibly 6,000 some years after creation, he still knew all the stories that had been passed down through the generations. Makes me wish we were better at passing down stories today.)

Ok, really stopping now.... I'm sure I'l share more later.

:)

Valentines Recap 2013

Almost a week late, but I had to post some Valentines photos... :) 

It's becoming a tradition for me to make a special lunch for Drew and Isaiah and eat it picnic style somewhere in the house we don't normally eat. We eat mostly all red & pink foods, this year we had strawberries, red peppers and dip, heart shaped pb&j's, raspberry granola bars and yogurt covered valentines pretzels. I just fixed them a big platter and let them eat the food in whatever order they wanted. They each went for the pretzels first, but then the first thing gone was the strawberries, then the sandwhiches, then the granola bar... and there were still pretzels left on the plate at the end. I didn't know how they'd like the red peppers, I thought I might just end up eating them myself, but they surprised me and dug right into them too. Drew told me they looked like candy canes. :)

My firstborn. He is the sweetest boy ever. I just love his sensitive heart and sweet smile.

This year we had our picnic in Drew's room. I spread a red tablecloth out on the floor so we wouldn't get anything on the carpet and it worked out great. Shaun had flowers delivered to me while he was away at work and they came right before lunch so we brought them upstairs as our centerpiece :) 

Drew turned on his cd player so we had music while we ate and it was so fun! About half way through lunch we stopped the music and talked about valentines day, love, how Jesus loves them more than anyone else ever will and then we sang Jesus loves me together. Drew sings every word perfectly, Isaiah lalala's along with us :) 

When we went to the store that morning to get our red and pink food I let the boys each get a balloon too.  

My second born boy. He was dipping his yogurt covered pretzels in the veggie dip. 

I just love those blue eyes.... 

I love my baby boys. So much. And it's so fun to have little parties for them every now and then and just make things special. I hope they remember this someday. 

After lunch the doorbell rang and more flowers were delivered, this time from my dad. I felt so loved :) 

That night Shaun and I went out on a date and Aunt Nan came over and made cookies with them. 

My main Valentine. I love this man.

Aunt Nan and me :) Thanks, Ran, for watching the boys for us!! I know it was tough, especially with weedman visiting and all.... lol (at 8:00 at night I got a text from Randi asking if we were expecting anyone cause the doorbell rang. She got a little freaked out and took the boys upstairs. I told her to lock the door and turn on the outside lights and then not to worry about it. When me and Shaun got home there was a pamphlet from "Weedman" hanging on our door. Really?? Eight o' clock valentines night and you're out advertising for weed removal?? Even if people were home, I doubt they were wanting to interrupt their candlelight dinners or romantic evenings to talk about lawn care.... in February.... Just a tip weedman, maybe you should choose a different night of the year to advertise your services.) 

Anyway, we had a great day and have been laughing about weedman ever since. ;) 

Hope you had a great Valentines Day too!! 

Hartman Maternity Shoot: Just a little peak :)

This week I had a really REALLY fun shoot with awesome friends :) I met Brittany my very first day of college, when I was on the shuttle headed over to the school, not knowing anyone, and I timidly asked from the backseat if anyone else on the bus was majoring in ultrasound. And Brittany turned around and said she was. And we have been friends ever since. :)We were both blondies who loved taking pictures dating dark, shaggy haired music loving guys, both loved Jesus, taking all the same classes. Pretty sure our friendship was God-ordained. After graduating we married our men a week apart (she married Kyle Sept 14th, I married Shaun Sept 22nd) and our pregnancies with our first babies even overlapped. Kaylynn was born when Drew was not quite 6 months old. Brittany and Kyle are now expecting their second little miracle, and Brittany is scheduled for her c-section April 5th. I was SO honored when Brittany asked me to do their maternity photos for them. It was an overcast day but that made for great lighting anywhere we shot. The shoot was the day before Valentine's Day and it was really fun to incorporate some lovey-ness into the shoot too. :) (Fun fact- Brittany and Kyle started dating Valentine's Day of 2003... so fun to see where they are 10 years later!) 

Note: this really is just a peak. I have not even done one tiny bit of editing yet. Also, we did some really fun photo's with baby boy's name in them that I can't share til after his name is revealed.... SO! I will post more photos from the shoot at a later time. I narrowed it down big time to just sharing seven of my favorites (I have over 90 of them!)

In the one above Kaylynn is holding a photo from Brittany and Kyle's maternity shoot when they were pregnant with her, and behind her they are doing the same pose again. Love it! 

Hope you enjoyed this little peak at their photos, I seriously cannot wait to start editing and to share more!!! 

Favorite Photos from Long Ago Shoots & Facebook Page made public!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Last Year I shared much more Valentinsey posts around this time... This is one of my favorite holidays :) I just love having a day to focus on making sure we demonstrate love to people. We are gonna be celebrating around here today for sure!

Today I am finally sharing my facebook page for Vintage Rd. Photography by jlk that I have been working on for quite a while! (the link is at the bottom of this post)

I thought I'd celebrate by going back through some of my first ever shoots and pulling out a few of my favorite photos to post here :) Most of these you can probably find in the albums on Vintage Rd.'s facebook page, but some are only on my blog. 

These first six photos were all taken on my little point and shoot sony camera. They were all just for fun, and I never knew they would lead to something much bigger someday! 

Above are me (with dark hair), Shaun, and baby Drew when he was only a few months old. I set the timer and it took a few tries, but we finally created what I was envisioning! 

Above- Drew at 16 weeks old. My first photo shoot of him. 

My favorite shot from a father's day photo shoot I did of Drew when he was about 7 months old

Above: My best friend pregnant with her first baby. 

The photos above and below are from a shoot I did of my mom and dad for their 25th wedding anniversary. 

Everything from this point on was taken with my canon. 

Below: first shoot with my canon, my cousin and his fiance's engagement photos. 

Above: photo from one of my first paid shoots, a sweet little newborn :) 

Above: for fun I took a few photos of my sister-in-law Brittany and her (then) fiance Tre while we were on vacation at the beach at sunrise. 

I set the camera and did the editing, and had Brittany take this maternity photo for us the same morning I took engagement photos for them. 

I took my brother Eric and his girlfriend Mary's senior photos at the same time and couldn't resist taking a few "dating" photos of the two of them together :) 

One of Mary's senior photos

One of my brother's senior photos 

Above: a more artistic senior photo of my brother 

Below: the next few shots are of my best friend and her husband and son when he turned one. 

My cousin David and his wife Shirley have been some of my most faithful clients! I have my fourth photo shoot scheduled with them this spring. These are a few photos from the first one I ever did. 

Below are several photos I did for Shaun's cousin and his wife and son. 

And last but not least, a few favorites from a shoot I did for a girl I went to highschool with. It was so fun to reconnect with her and get to meet her sweet daughter. Since this shoot she now has another sweet girl and we have a second photo shoot scheduled for this spring!! 

Well, that takes us up to the end of 2011. By the beginning of 2012 I started posting photos from each shoot on my blog. To view my entire portfolio, you can head over to my  

facebook page! 

If you decide you'd like more info on scheduling a shoot, you can contact me at 

jlkauffman20@gmail.com

or message me either on vintage rd.'s facebook or my personal facebook. :)