~ a little girl
plays
DRESS UP. . . . .and Mommy can’t resist a few photos!
“The happiness of life is made up of
minute fractions~the little soon forgotten charities
of a kiss
or smile,
a kind look, a heartfelt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of
pleasurable and genial feeling.” ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“Come For a Visit”
My Meanderings has requested more house pictures. I only had time to take pictures of the kitchen and the living room. I consider these two rooms to be the most important of the house. The kitchen is the heart of the home. Here you find mom cooking and baking. Is it Mom’s presence or is it the food that keeps the foot traffic of the little ones so heavy?
The living room is where the family comes together. Mom and Dad sit on the couch drinking coffee while the children play with army men, read books, play a game of UNO, or play with toys.
“Want what you have and you’ll always have what you want”
the piece over the mantle says it all: “Faith, Family, Friends”
“At long last, I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all” Laura Ingalls Wilder
~
Yesterday, in the late afternoon, I had just put my dinner in the oven, chicken cordon bleu, when I decided to go to the front porch to check on the boys, who were swimming in the pond. I was leaning over the railing, yelling down to them, when I noticed a vehicle coming down the road. The car slowed down and the couple in the car waved to me. I waved back thinking, “They’re so friendly! I wonder if they think I’m Nancy!” (the previous owner). As the car drew nearer to our house, it suddenly hit me.
It was my parents. My Mom and my Dad. All the way from New York state, over 3 hours away. I hadn’t talked to them all week. My heart started pounding with excitement and as I stepped down off the porch I started to sob. I was so surprised, so happy, so thrilled to see them that I couldn’t stop myself! They parked the car and got out to hug me and talk to me. “We’re here! Surprise! We found you!” I felt so loved. I never, ever expected to see them, I knew that they would visit in a couple weeks, but not so soon.
My Mom said, “I couldn’t wait any longer to see your new house!”
They had a little gift for me, a set of rose-scented soaps.
It took me a while to compose myself and the excitement continued as I showed them my new house. The kids at this point were buzzing about us, all eager to get Grandma’s and Grandpa’s attention.
They stayed the night and they are gone now. The visit was just a quick surprise visit, they went to go surprise my sister at lunchtime and then they are on their way back to NY. We had such a wonderful time, even taking the kids to McDonald’s for breakfast, going grocery shopping, and visiting an antique store. What an encouragement they were to me and how precious will this memory remain!
“Truly we live in a pitiful world that desperately needs a smile, a friendly touch, a kind word. Yes, our encouragement can make a difference in the daily challanges we all face, but encouragement can also make a difference for eternity. And that’s the real power to change a life.” Sandra Aldrich
watching caleb play
on grandpa’s lap. . .we’ve all been there, in the safety of his arms
Mom advice: “Always make sure you have the ingredients in the house to make cookies. And then make them!”
“Let’s make some cookies today, and see if time will wait. . . . . . . .”
I have questions and a request:
Q) Does anyone know if it’s okay to put bubblebath in a tub that has water jets in it? (Do the jets recycle the bath water around or is it air?)
Request) If anyone reading this has a favorite crock-pot recipe that you could not imagine life w/out, could you please share it? Thanks!
A couple more pictures. . . . . . .
Caleb is walking now!
View out the front door
The Homer Laughlin “Colonial Kitchen” plate
The other night I dug through bazzilions of boxes looking for my camera cord. Today I was digging yet again. This time I was looking for my bathing suits that I have not worn for years. I found them finally! Now for a swim in the pond before the kids get up!
I collect cherry things and found this plate the first Saturday we were here, when Amanda and I explored a local antique store.
Some of my fiesta collection:
The middle one is the coveted LILAC disc pitcher that Lea Ann shockingly ( I was “completely shocked”) GAVE to me when I visited her in TX this spring!
Come to think of it, she gave me the SCARLET one (on top), too, as a gift when I had baby Caleb. She handed to me and said, “Congratulations, you’re a mommy!”
Come and sit by my side? I told Lea Ann I’d put a red rocker on my porch for her. . . .I’ll have to call it the “chair for kindred minds”, it can represent all my dear friends that live too far away for frequent visits, Joanna, Christie, Colleen, Elisha! It’ll be waiting for you!
Wow. I just got the computer running for the first time since last week and I eagerly came to xanga. I was not expecting to read such beautiful things from my friends ~ both my old friends, and my new xanga friends. I have tears in my eyes from the encouraging words left for me, and I cannot begin to tell how much it means to me!
The children are having fun, too. They spend the majority of their time at the ponds catching tadpoles, minnows, and even a little turtle. They swim in the pond (with life-jackets. . .don’t worry!) They ride their bikes down the banks, bumping and laughing as they go. I can hear their voices echoeing back to me and Rich and I had one of those moments the first day we were here. Someday we won’t hear their voices, or feel the super energy that they give off all day every day. The realization hit us hard in the midst of busily unpacking. But, that’s the way it goes. Stage of life after stage of life.
The best way to prepare for the next stage of life is
To enjoy the one you’re in.
No regrets.
Not just a house, but a home. Today is my last day of life as I know it here in my white, 3 bedroom, cape-style house. But, to me it’s more than that. It’s a bittersweet change, an ending of a chapter, and a change of direction.
Here I learned how to be a neighbor: how to let go of my self-consciousness and allow myself to share my children and backyard with people that I never knew before, my neighbors. Here I learned life lessons on motherhood, about my spiritual life, and about friends and family. These walls have heard laughter, screams of loud friends, and fun. They have also heard the many other sounds a family makes: the cry of a newborn, the cry of pain, the cries of frustration and sadness.
I made meals here, brought newborn babies home here, loved my husband here. I saw this house in every hour that there is on the clock!
I entertained friends and family here. My sister and my niece lived here for a time.
Celebrated holidays.
I don’t think a day went by that I didn’t clean SOMETHING in this house!
I had private, special moments here. Reading letters from long-distance friends, reading books, praying, making choices and decisions.
It’s only been 4 years. But, we’ve made so many memories.
The house I leave behind, but home remains with me.
Hold things loosely
with an open hand
ready to let go
whenever the Lord wills
50 “Promises” for Marriage
To Inspire You
1. Start each day with a kiss 2. Date once a week 3. Wear your wedding ring at all times
4. Accept differences 5. Be polite 6. Be gentle 7. Give gifts
8. Smile often 9. Touch 10. Talk about dreams
11. Select a song that can be “our song”
12. Give back rubs 13. Laugh together
14. Send a card for no reason 15. Do what the other person wants before he or she asks
16. Get your portrait taken–without the kids
17. Listen, encourage
18. Do it his or her way
19. Know his or her needs 20. Call during the day
21. Fix the other person’s breakfast
22. Compliment twice a day 23. SLOW DOWN
24. Hold hands 25. Cuddle 26. Show respect
27. Ask for each other’s opinion
28. Look your best 29. Welcome the other person home
30. Wink at each other 31. Apologize 32. Forgive
33. Celebrate birthdays in a big way
34. Set up a romantic getaway
35. Ask, “what can I do to make you happier”
36. Be positive 37. Be kind 38. Be vulnerable
39. Respond quickly to the other person’s requests
40. Talk about your love
41. Reminisce about your favorite times together
42. Treat each other’s friends and relatives with courtesy
43. Send flowers every Valentine’s Day and anniversary
44. Admit when wrong 45. Pray for each other daily
46. Watch sunsets together
47. Say “I love you” frequently
48. End the day with a hug
49. Seek outside help when needed
Holding Hands in Church!
Yesterday in church my husband and I walked the halls, peeking into classrooms to check on our children. We were holding hands as we went and one of our church widows saw us. She told us how much she loved seeing us hold hands and made us promise that “we always would”.
It made me start thinking about Christian couples and what a blessing it always is to me when I see them “showing love” to each other. A look, a touch, a sign to the other that “I know you’re there”, “I love you”, “You’re my special someone”.
Can we be examples of what a Christian marriage should be? What a powerful statement to those around us as they see us demonstrate love.
Kissing at a Red Light!
This weekend Rich and I were going somewhere with the kids and we had to stop at a traffic light. The couple in front of us took the opportunity to kiss! At the next intersection, we decided to try it. It was so cute to turn around and see Grace grinning at us from the backseat.
Can we be examples to our children? Those little eyes are watching, watching all the time! What a blessing to demonstrate a solid, healthy marriage in front of those observant eyes! I’ve watched 30 years of my own parent’s marriage and the obvious love they share toward one another.
“In the tiny book of Titus, I discovered that I am to hold my husband first in my heart after God. That’s the clear implication of God’s instruction to the older women in the church who are to teach the younger women how to be women after God’s heart. The first thing married women are to learn and practice is to love their husbands” (Titus 2:3-4) Elizabeth George, in A Woman After God’s Own Heart
“If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” Galatians 5:18
“How blessed it is to know that we dwell in the domains of grace and not of law! When thinking of my state before God the question is not, “Am I perfect in myself before the law?” but, “Am I perfect in Christ Jesus?” That is a very different matter. We need not enquire, “Am I without sin naturally?” but, “Have I been washed in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness?” It is not “Am I in myself well pleasing to God?” but it is “Am I accepted in the Beloved?” The Christian views his evidences from the top of Sinai, and grows alarmed concerning his salvation; it were better far if he read his title by the light of Calvary. “Why,” saith he, “my faith has unbelief in it, it is not able to save me.” Suppose he had considered THE OBJECT (Jesus Christ) of his faith instead of his faith, then he would have said, “There is no failure IN HIM, and therefore I am safe.”
Charles Spurgeon
When it comes to my spiritual life, I detest myself when I begin to focus on what I “can, should, did, am doing, or not doing” for the Lord. Where is Jesus Christ in such thinking? Why do I focus on myself and what I DO (or should do, or do not do!), rather on Christ and what He would ask me to do? I beg the Lord to keep me humble and to keep me BEHIND THE CROSS, so that others (and I!) will see HIM and not me. I am nothing! He is everything!
Oh Savior, as my eyes behold the wonders of Thy might untold,
The heav’ns in glorious light arrayed, the vast creation Thou hast made-
And yet to think Thou lovest me-my heart cries out, “How can it be?”
How can it be? How can it be That God should love a soul like me,
O how can it be?
As at the cross I humbly bow and gaze upon Thy thorn-crowed brow,
and view the precious bleeding form by cruel nails so bruised and torn,
To know Thy suffering was for me, in grief I cry, “How can it be?”
How can it be? How can it be? That God should love a soul like me,
O how can it be?
How can it be? How can it be? Was ever grace so full and free!
From heights of bliss to depths of woe, in loving kindness Thou didst go,
From sin and shame to rescue me, O Love Divine, How can it be?
How can it be? How can it be? That God should love a soul like me,
O how can it be?
Written by Avis B. Christiansen, 1895-1985
Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord!
O to be lost in Thee!
O that it may be no more I, dear Lord!
But Christ, who lives in me!
“If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” Galatians 5:18
“How blessed it is to know that we dwell in the domains of grace and not of law! When thinking of my state before God the question is not, “Am I perfect in myself before the law?” but, “Am I perfect in Christ Jesus?” That is a very different matter. We need not enquire, “Am I without sin naturally?” but, “Have I been washed in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness?” It is not “Am I in myself well pleasing to God?” but it is “Am I accepted in the Beloved?” The Christian views his evidences from the top of Sinai, and grows alarmed concerning his salvation; it were better far if he read his title by the light of Calvary. “Why,” saith he, “my faith has unbelief in it, it is not able to save me.” Suppose he had considered THE OBJECT (Jesus Christ) of his faith instead of his faith, then he would have said, “There is no failure IN HIM, and therefore I am safe.”
Charles Spurgeon
When it comes to my spiritual life, I detest myself when I begin to focus on what I “can, should, did, am doing, or not doing” for the Lord. Where is Jesus Christ in such thinking? Why do I focus on myself and what I DO (or should do, or do not do!), rather on Christ and what He would ask me to do? I beg the Lord to keep me humble and to keep me BEHIND THE CROSS, so that others (and I!) will see HIM and not me. I am nothing! He is everything!
Oh Savior, as my eyes behold the wonders of Thy might untold,
The heav’ns in glorious light arrayed, the vast creation Thou hast made-
And yet to think Thou lovest me-my heart cries out, “How can it be?”
How can it be? How can it be That God should love a soul like me,
O how can it be?
As at the cross I humbly bow and gaze upon Thy thorn-crowed brow,
and view the precious bleeding form by cruel nails so bruised and torn,
To know Thy suffering was for me, in grief I cry, “How can it be?”
How can it be? How can it be? That God should love a soul like me,
O how can it be?
How can it be? How can it be? Was ever grace so full and free!
From heights of bliss to depths of woe, in loving kindness Thou didst go,
From sin and shame to rescue me, O Love Divine, How can it be?
How can it be? How can it be? That God should love a soul like me,
O how can it be?
Written by Avis B. Christiansen, 1895-1985
Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord!
O to be lost in Thee!
O that it may be no more I, dear Lord!
But Christ, who lives in me!
“A Christian ought to be a comforter, with kind words on his lips, and sympathy in his heart; he should carry sunshine wherever he goes, and diffuse happiness around him.”
Charles Spurgeon
Good to be Home 