{A Week in the Life (and Mandy Downloads Instagram!)]

Finstad Heart-Carrot. Growing together as one. Love.

Family.

Summer. Upright. Our cool iron gate. Patience while waiting for The Jean. Cutest purse I own.

{A Very 'Special' Birthday}

Happy Birthday to me,
We went to NYC,
Then when we got ho-o-o-me,
Duke Special came to me!

OK, so I'm no songwriter, but that pretty much sums up this year's awesomesauce birthday celebrations. I've had some pretty fantastic birthdays as of late. March 31, 2009 was spent in Ireland, 2010 was spent just back from Ireland and newly engaged to the JeanBean, and 2011 was spent surrounded by Duke Special love. For those of you who don't know me, A) How are you reading this blog?, and 2) I heart Duke Special. Now, I don't spread myself super thin, and I'm not typically half-assed when it comes to things I like or believe in...

Case in point: I (and Jean) believe in a traditional 'home first - family first' approach, so I quit my job when we got married (a month before, actually). We have no kids and we rent a teeny shoebox, yet I left the workforce, including health insurance and a higher-and-more-steady salary than Jean was making in order to serve my husband and my home.

Case #2: Our good Lord above started dropping stutterers from the sky and into my life one day, and I listened to every blocked and repeated word He was using to get to me. I joined the National Stuttering Association at the same time Jean and I started dating, even though he was not even a member. For months I volunteered and busted my butt and got us to the 2010 Annual Conference in Cleveland. I pushed, I prodded, I wrote, and I did a hell of a lot of editing and social networking, and now I work for the NSA, one of very few paid employees. I believe in it, I love it, just like I love my stutterers. (Check out the animal growing on Jean's chin!)


So it's plain to see that when something comes along that I take a liking to, or believe in, I give it my whole self. One of those somethings is Duke Special. I came across this unique musician in a roundabout way, as most do, when listening to the Culture Northern Ireland podcast several years ago. His name kept coming up, and once I finally checked him out, I was hooked. From then on I've traveled up the Eastern Seaboard and across the Atlantic multiple times to see him perform live, and they've been some of the greatest experiences of my life, and helped me to meet some of the most generous, loving, people in my life through his fanbase.



Birthday week saw us traveling up to Manhattan to see a one-off show of his at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and to meet up with several other fan friends who were coming over from the UK for the show. Duke (aka Peter) had been working tirelessly for months writing 12 original songs based on photographs from The Met's photography exhibit 'Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand'. For the days before and after the show we were able to meet new friends, catch up with old ones, see some sights, and eat a lot of pastrami.


Leaving a Duke Special show always leaves me a bit...sad. They are always such moving experiences that a return to normalcy seems so...normal. This time, however, I knew that I would be seeing him and some of our UK friends (Woot, woot Fizzys!) in just a few short days when they traveled down to DC for another show. God must have been smiling on me, because despite their hectic travel schedule, the rain, and the unfortunate task that is driving in the Northern VA/DC area, they drove out after Duke's gig to attend Jean's gig and my birthday party. They even brought pie.

Happy Birthday to the Luckiest. Girl. Ever.

See Duke Special perform all new songs inspired by photographs from the exhibition Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand at The Metropolitan Museum of Art here:
,

{Whimsical Wednesday}

Every time I see this commercial now, I smile. We chose the song as our 'exit music' for our wedding reception. Those who know us, know just how appropriate this is for The Finstads :-)

And for those who just can't get enough Patrick & Eugene, here's the full song:

Smile :-)

{Lead Me...}

One of the shortest but most precious memories from our wedding was dancing together to the song 'Lead Me' by Sanctus Real. We listen to a lot of Contemporary Christian music both in the house and in the car, and this quickly became one of our favorites. Each time I hear this on the radio, I can't help but remember Jean singing along to me while we danced (thank God for memory burn!)

I invite you to take the few minutes to play the video below, listen to this beautiful song, and read along with the lyrics.

Father, give me the strength

To be everything I'm called to be...