How much wood...

A few days ago my kind brother in law came to my house to chop some wood and make kindling for me. It is so nice to be able to just go out to the porch to get some wood, instead of going out back and deal with a tarp.

My wood stove has a big belly, but a small mouth, so first task of the day was to take some pieces too big for said small mouth and make them smaller.

I love the whole idea of chopping wood for the stove. There is such a cozy, romantic feeling, knowing I physically added to the warmth of my home, not just by hauling the wood in. However, using an ax still sets butterflies in my stomach, it does unnerve me a bit. But, I over came my fear and chopped the wood, and I still have both legs in tack. A notch on my farm girl, homesteading belt!

Go see what other 'homesteaders' are doing today. Two of my friends are #15 and #21.

Glory to Glory

It is amazing when you have a truly seeking heart, what the Lord will do, even in a mere 24 hours. A timely arrival of a book from a friend yesterday(written last year), a verse quoted on a friends blog yesterday...worship today in song, the testimony of a man at church and the teaching of God's word...and two verses used by these 4 people, unbeknownst to them, that brought healing, and making sense of recent days in my life. Two verses, I have marked in my bible, ones I have read over and over. Today it clicked. Today it brought release. Today I was able to get beyond...to be reminded that I am truly loved.


'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.'
Jeremiah 29:11-13

'But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the His own image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.'
II Corinthians 3:18

Daily struggles will continue to come. I will have to continue to provide, to make decisions on my own, and carry responsibilities I don't like. These are things I wish didn't have to be, but as I am being transformed, daily, I do so with a renewed knowledge of hope and certainty, by a loving and most patient Lord.

But there it is...

Well, today was one of those days, where staying in bed would have been a good idea, but I couldn't. Things had to be done, and I had my sister's birthday party to go to.

First off, I had some computer work to do, for a website where the plan is, to sell somethings, to hopefully make a bit of income, as well as just keep my creative juices flowing. I have a love hate relationship with computers. I made several attempts to get set up on the website, and had trouble at every turn. For some reason the site wouldn't remember my login information, and I had to repeatedly start again, having to change things as 'this user ID is already in use', 'this email is already in use'. I know, because it is mine and I am trying to log in!!!! Needless to say, after 2 hours of this, I lost it, big time. Everything looked bleak at this point. So, I decided to go read some blogs. I only got through one. It was so timely. It was what I needed.

The good that lingers in our hurt (from my friend Becki's blog) http://arisgma.blogspot.com/

"Dear God,
Thou art the Father of us all,Thou art the light of our darkness and the hope of our despair.
Thy Spirit is our refuge in hours of strain and tension. Thy presence is our strength when fears assail and doubts annoy. Thou art the sunshine of our poor dripping days:the rainbow overarching all storms that sweep across our days.
When we travel back over the years in retrospect. we are grateful for the quiet voice of conscience that saved us from what might have been. We thank Thee for the inner imperatives that lure us with a sense of what we ought to do or be.
We know that though we ascend into heaven Thou are there, and though we descend into the depths you are there as well. We cannot escape the alluring summons of Your Spirit. We are grateful for teachers who shared with us our learning and inspired us to seek the Truth. We give Thee grateful thanks for those who touched our lives and left us better than they found us.
Do Thou forgive our ingratitude, our childish complaints when things go wrong for us.
Teach us to find the good that lingers in our hurts, to understand the discipline that hides in our disappointments. Enable us to see beyond the everlasting now to what will come if we push on in Trust, Forgive our giving up, and save us from weakness of surrender to the paths of least resistance. We would be strong in Thee. Have mercy upon us when we make excuses for ourselves and miss the lessons our mistakes might teach us.
God give us people in a time like this that demands, people who will honor the marks of integrity, people who will stand sun crowned above the fog of deception.
Give us men and women who will dare to challenge corrupting customs in the name of Christ. who will march against the tides of public thinking for the sake of truth. Inspire us with a deeper faith in things that cannot be seen, and yet are everlasting.
This is my prayer. Father, offered in Jesus name Amen. Anonymous

I wept as I read it, it seemed written just for me, but my heart was still heavy. And now it was time to go to a party and be perky. I didn't feel like being perky. As soon as I got in the car to come home, I started to cry again. It just came. I cried all the way home. My eyes sting. I stoked the fire and went to check emails. There was one from a friend. It was a forward, but it was again timely.

A Prayer for You.
Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Dear Woman of God,
Be still for a while and praise God for His favor, His grace and His awesomeness
God is able to do the impossible and is always near
He loves us unconditionally.

Dear God:
This is my friend, whom I love and this is my prayer for her. Help her live her life
to the fullest.
Please promote her and cause her to excel above her expectations.
Help her to shine in the darkest places where it is impossible to love.
Protect her at all times, lift her up when she needs you the most, and let her know when she walks with you, she will always be safe.


Again, I cried. A reminder that the Lord knows my future. That is is not for calamity, even though if feels calamitous right now. My expectations, they are pretty low at the moment. I want to excel in what the Lord has called me too. I just wish He would answer my cries so I know what it is I am to do. I hate making decisions about my future. I hate that I have to be the provider. I hate that I have to be the head of my home and carry all the responsibility that comes with it. I know all the responses to those things. I know what His word says, but some days, it doesn't seem to help. Sounds awful I know, but there it is.

Snow day

It is 28 degrees, the sun is brilliant, the sky a soft, wintry azure. The snow, now crunchy from the cold, reflects the sun like little diamonds. It is beautiful. God's handiwork at its best.

Even the brush pile looks pretty.

A snowy, trodden path.

Re-do

I have been in the process of shabby chic-ing my house. I love the style of white, worn, vintage decor. So, I got some paint last weekend and started the process. I have an old dresser that was my G'pa's. It isn't a great old antique, but a nice piece. It was stored out in a shed one winter and all the veneer peeled off, so it really was in need of a face lift. I have been using it in the dining area as a side board and to house all my table linens. Here is a before~ Sorry for the weird angle.

I chose a color called Pistachio Ice Cream. I really like how it turned out. I makes me smile every time I see it.

Someday, I hope to buy a real camera that takes lovely pictures, so my blog can be like the pretty blogs I follow. But, it gives you an idea of the direction I am going. I will keep you posted with the projects as the go along.

Homesteading

Okay, so I technically, don't have a homestead. I have a cute 1940's craftsman style wanna be cottage, on a small lot in town. Unfortunately, it has ugly siding on it put on by some ninny, covering up the wonderful original wood siding, sigh. Regardless of living in town, my heart is very much in the country. I grew up on a farm and have been a farm girl ever since. Yet, in my own little sphere I have a 'farm'. I have raised beds where Raspberries, Blueberries and a Currant bush live. I have a bed for my herbs and veggies, though I will be making a separate bed for each so that I can grow a bit more. I have lots of flower beds all around the house. I hope this spring to get chickens.

I can, not as much as when there was a family to feed, I eat organic and natural as much as possible, I bake, make my own cleaners and detergent, even got them published in MaryJanesFarm Magazine a couple years ago, (the link is for the cleaning recipes).

I love to repurpose things. Whether it is making furniture out of old fence board and window, like below~ a project my hubby and I did together.

Or taking rescued fabrics and making them into something new. I am in the process of joining a website, much like Etsy, only smaller. Their main requirements, the products have to be handmade, and the sellers, have to 'farm' to some respect. For this website I will be making a lot of repurposed things, such as hats and clothing for most little girls, pins and hair accessories and more, all from odds and ends of rescued fabrics. I will keep you posted on the website. I think it will be fun.

This is the banner for the new website

Why this post? Well, as I was doing my blog run, reading all the blogs I follow, one blog spoke of posting about 'homesteading' and linked to the blog she got the idea from. So, I thought it would be fun to do the same thing here.
Here are those to blogs:
Deborah Jean
Homestead Barn Hop

As the snow is falling, I have decided to hunker down for the day. I am going to get some sewing done for the new website, while soup is simmering away on the woodstove.

Work? Holiday?

I had my day all planned and plotted out... a few things have been done, but it is now 1:30pm, and little has been accomplished. Partly due to two phone calls, both lovely and neccessary, so it is okay. But I am so list oriented, it throws me for a loop, to not stay on track, mainly, because if I don't have lists, I don't stay on track, and wonder at the end of the day what was accomplished.

So, the question is this, do I re-write the list, continue on with the prior list, or take a holiday? It is Presidents Day, and schools, banks, and other places are on holiday. I would be justified, on that fact to take a holiday myself. But I have so much to do. I have a cupping to prepare for on Wednesday, a new website, where I need to get some projects made so I can 'load' them on my 'storefront', as the site launches this week. I have painting projects to finish, some slipcovers to make, garden work to be done...Oi! I am tired just writing it all down.

Perhaps I will try to get a few more things done off the list, then call an early day. Maybe, I will work till late to get as much done as I can. Or maybe, a pot of tea, a good book and a fun movie would be what is on the docket. Is that how you spell docket? Maybe I should look it up and just be done for the day.

D.A.O.B

Deliberate Acts Of Beauty. A couple of posts ago, I wrote about creating beauty in our lives, and how we do that. A few of you left comments telling me how you do that. Thank you.





A couple days later a friend told me how that had really challenged her. She said that the past several years had been hard years, that 'beauty is something I have forgotten, or misplaced in the day to day tasks.' I had to tell her I too had been challenged by my own words, realizing, I had misplaced beauty somewhere as well.


I know that the main reason, is that after Dale's passing, the spirit, desire, drive, to create beauty was snuffed out. When Em got married and left home, and I found myself alone, I felt there was no reason to, cause it was just me. I could eat dinner out of the pan while standing in the kitchen, because there was no reason to set the table, light a candle and sit and enjoy the meal. There was no one to enjoy it with me.

I realized after that last post, it was time to change that. It was time to create Deliberate Acts of Beauty, no matter how small, or whether it was just for me and know one else saw it.

Today, I had a business type meeting with a gal I had never met before. Not being a social butterfly and new encounters unnerve me, I went with fear and trepidation and a lot of prayer. Long story short, I think I have met my twin. What an easy time of conversation and laughter, something we both needed. It was such a God orchestrated meeting. We talked of beauty, something she had just realized she had let slip, just because of the busyness of life. I think that is the key problem for us all. We are too busy, and don't take time for us, for beauty.

After we parted, I stopped at a garden center, usually because I spend too much money there. Being a place of beauty, I decided to do a walk through and just enjoy it. Okay, so I did spend too much money, but every girl should have a pink watering can.

What was your Deliberate Act of Beauty today?

For You

Beauty

So, I have been asked to speak at the annual ladies tea at my church this year. The theme is all about the hats we wear as women. Made me giggle when the gal asked me, as I love hats! I have collected them since high school. I have always dreamed of being a milliner. Tea, hats, fits me (no pun intended) to a T. Sorry, I'll stop now.















Anyway, as I have been letting things roll around in my brain as to how to approach this, as I don't want it to be trite, and fluffy, 3 'hats' have come to mind. One of them is Beauty and how was as wives, moms, grama's, daughter's...create beauty in our own spheres for those we love. And it is this point that I would ask a favor.




















You my dear readers, all of you, would you please, please, please, leave a comment, however brief, or lengthy, and let me know something you do to create beauty in your life. It can be anything. Always fresh flowers in the home, candles for the family meal, handmade cards for friends...

I really would like to hear what you do, it would be an encouragement to me as I put together my talk. I really appreciate it. So, what say ye?

10 on 10

Ahh...

Lace~

Linen~

Lovely~

I love my girls...

...it's a joy thing~

Of things to come

'These, as they change, Almighty Father, these, are but the varied God.
The rolling year is full of Thee.
Forth in the pleasing spring Thy beauty walks;
Thy tenderness and love wide flush the fields;
the softening air is balm;
echo the mountains round;
the forest smiles;
and every sense and every heart is joy.' Thomson

It seems rather early, but there are signs of spring in the garden. I just picked a small boquet of the most fragrant Violets. They now abide in an old milk glass medicine bottle, next to my bed. I shall start the yearly ritual of walking the yard every few days to see what shall emerge next from it winters sleep.