Category Archives: Blog Carnival

Thankful Thursday ~ A New Beginning!

Lamentations 3: 21-25 ~

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.”

I am thankful for a new year, each new day that the Lord extends his love and mercy to me and my loved ones.

I am thankful that He is the faithful one and nothing that I do changes who He is.

I am thankful that He continues to teach me through His Holy Spirit.

I am thankful that He gives me the desire to continue to seek Him and wait for him.

I pray that we all grow in His wisdom and grace this New Year.

For more Thankful Thursday posts head over to Lynn’s who I am thankful to for hosting again!

TT #15 ~ Ben Franklin Resolutions

I nabbed this from my brother Steve’s blog The Temple…

Ben Franklin Resolutions – The Virtue Chart.  Ben Franklin regularly followed a plan to develop his character. Based on Philippians 4, Ben used the chart below as a tool to improve himself. Check out the site Flamebright for a brief explanation and DIY Planner for templates you can print out. His “Plan” was made up of 13 virtues, each with short descriptions:

1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation.

2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.

3. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.

4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.

5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.

6. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. Justice: Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation.

11. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; Never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.

12. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

For more TT click here.

HT: The Temple

WFMW ~ Persian Salad Dressing

This Dressing Recipe that I got from a cookbook I own called In My Persian Kitchen is fresh and good and always works well for me.

 

1/3 C. Olive Oil

3 Tblsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. sugar

1 clove garlic crushed (pressed)

Whisk these ingredients all together and pour on salad greens or a nice cucumber, tomato and onion salad! Enjoy and Happy 2008 everyone!

 

Fall Reading Wrap-up

So here we are at the end of Fall and it’s time for true confessions. I did read some of the books on my list.

Holy Bible ~ year long ~ I’m moving along in my yearly reading. I’m in Ephesians right now and I’m being blown away!

Hood ~ Stephen Lawhead ~ This is going on my Spring List

The Documents in the Case ~ Dorothy Sayers ~ Fabulous! I highly recommend it.

The Dean’s Watch~ Elizabeth Goudge ~ I thoroughly enjoyed this and Goudge is on my new favorite author list! Here’s something I wrote about it when I finished it.

“I just finished the last page of this book and I’m so sad that the story has come to an end. Elizabeth Goudge is fast becoming my new favorite author. She has a great descriptive style. The same appreciation I have for George MacDonald and how he weaves a true loving relationship with God contrasted against a cold religious relationship is growing as deep for Goudge’s fiction. I love MacDonald’s Scottish Countryside settings and I love Goudge’s English countryside settings”

Faithfulness and Holiness ~ J. I. Packer ~ Meaty and I will be reading this one again.

Peace Like a River~ Leif Enger ~ This is going on my Winter list…

Taste and See ~ John Piper ~ I’ve just started this…

The Tale of Beatrix Potter ~ Margaret Lane ~ As usual the real story is different from what you saw in the movie. I’m looking forward to going back to Lake Country in England to check out some of the inspirations for her stories.

Pierced by the Word ~ John Piper ~ I really have a huge appreciation for Piper but this one isn’t one of my favorites…

Books added along the way…

The Scent of Water~ Elizabeth Goudge ~ I’ll be trying to get my hands on more of Goudge’s books. I am thoroughly enthralled by her writing…

What I learned this time around is that there are authors out there that I still need to discover. I’m so happy that the bloggy world has introduced me to some of my new favorites.

Thank you so much Katrina for hosting this great challenge! To see more wrap ups head over to Callipidder Days on Friday.

Christmas Tour of Homes ~ 2007

 Boo Mama is hosting a Bloggy tour of Christmas homes. Come join the fun.

Christmas Tour of Homes

Please do come in and enjoy my home at this beautiful Christmas time. Jesus has prepared the way for us to love and enjoy this season. There would not be a Christmas worth celebrating without Him!

 

The wreath welcomes you at the front door. Please do come in and make yourself at home.

I’ve been busy preparing for your visit.

From a Christmas past on to Christmas present…

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care…

and lighted garland is placed here and there…

 

Some Christmas decorations handed down from years gone by…

Now here’s a Caramel Pecan treat before we go any further. If you enjoy them you can find the recipe here.

 

Now to some tables set for my friends. First red and green on cream.

 

or how about gold with green?

 

Here’s the fun Christmas breakfast table set for the family with placecards and placemats from long, long ago.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my home. It would be so much fun to see you in person and share a cup of coffee, cocoa, eggnog or tea to go with the Caramel pecan cookies. We could sit by the fire and enjoy the lights on the tree. Blessings on your day touring other homes. Click here to continue your tour from Boo Mama’s.

Photobucket has blacked out all my photos I was storing on their site and they are holding them hostage. I am working on updating my more than 4000 posts.

Fun Monday ~ The Story of Your Home and Road…

We live in a neighborhood in Washington State northeast of the city of Seattle. We are surrounded by new homes. Our home is the original home that was here by itself surrounded by trees and fields. It was part of  a nursery. The owners of this home finally sold all the property around it to a developer who built many homes on small parcels. There used to be a dirt road access to our home from the main busy road. New roads were built when the neighborhood was developed and access to our home is more convoluted. We moved into this house in 1998.

 

These 4 photos are the road that comes to the back side of our house and then the drive you have to come up to get to the front side of our home.  You could say we are the “sticks out like a sore thumb” house in the neighborhood. One of the major attractions we had to this old house was the detached garage/shop/barn. We have lots of  extra junk and cars (projects and hobbies) that fit in this extra space nicely. Our chain link fence is another thing that is different than all the new wooden fences in the neighborhood!

 

We’ve made several improvements to this old house but are now reconsidering what we want to do. We have put new siding on 1/3 of the home so the front and one side of the home are different than the back of the house.

 

This is the front of our house that you can’t see from the street. You can see the new siding we’ve added here. We are now seriously considering the idea of demolishing the house and rebuilding on this property. We have some heating challenges because of how old the house is and the way things were added on over the years. We also have very uneven floors and some flooding issues when we get big storms. We can only make a wild guess as to when the original part of the house was built. We tend to think it was in the ’60’s. But it wouldn’t surprise us if the original little section of the house that’s been added on to over the years is a lot older than that. The last addition that there are county records on shows the ’70’s.

 

I decided to add this photo taken from the inside of my house looking out my stairwell window. A pretty view of my neighbor’s Maple tree in the late fall (all her leaves land in my yard!) 🙂

Head over to Kitten’s homeschool on Monday to see more Fun Monday participants.

Photobucket has blacked out all my photos I was storing on their site and they are holding them hostage. I am working on updating my more than 4000 posts.

Show & Tell Friday ~ Fun Christmas Table

Last year at the after Christmas sales I bought these great chair covers for half-price. Our everyday and breakfast Christmas table is casual and fun with Santa Bear place-mats from our daughter Katie’s 2nd birthday party 20 years ago.

 

 

The chair covers are Christmas hats with a little bells on the back of the covers that jingle when you move the chair.

For more Show and Tell head over to There’s No Place Like Home.

Photobucket has blacked out all my photos I was storing on their site and they are holding them hostage. I am working on updating my more than 4000 posts.

Thursday Thirteen #13 ~ Handel’s Messiah

The Messiah, Handel’s most successful and best known oratorio, was composed in the 1741 in 24 days. It was first performed at a concert given at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, on April 13th, 1742, Handel conducting in person. For more history of this first performance click here.

Here are thirteen lines from this amazing work…

1. “And the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed”

2. “For He is like a refiner’s fire”

3. “and shall call his name Emmanuel: God with us”

4. “arise, shine, for thy light is come”

5. “For unto us a child is born unto us a son is given”

6. “and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

7.  “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

8. “He is the righteous Saviour and he shall speak peace unto the heathen”

9. “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd, and He shall gather the Lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom”

10. “Behold the Lamb of God, behold the lamb of God, That taketh away the sins of the world.”

11. “He was despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”

12. “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of glory.”

13. “Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

I’ve only seen the Messiah performed twice in person. If you never have you should put it on your list of things to do. It was an amazing experience. I hope to be able to enjoy a live performance again…

For more TT click here.

Christmas Tree Treasures ~ 2007

Welcome to Christmas Tree Treasures hosted by Morning Glory at her blog Seeds From My Garden.

This angel is our Christmas tree topper that we’ve used for several years now.

We put the lights on the tree first, then come the red glass ornaments (a few dozen) When they are all placed we add all of our one of a kind that we’ve collected over the years. This was last years tree. This years is not up yet! We plan to get a shorter fatter one this year…

This was our very first ornament that was given to us as a Wedding Gift. We were married December 6, 1974.

 

The top three ornaments in this collage are the first ornaments for each of our children. 1979 was Josh’s , 1981 was Dan’s and 1986 was Katie’s. The second row in the middle was a very primitive baby Jesus in a 1/2 walnut shell that one of my kids made and I’m sorry to say I don’t know which one.  The camel and Winnie the Pooh are from Josh’s baby stash. The little girls on the bottom right are from Dear’s mother and are a lot older than most of our other ornaments.

 

These are the handmade ornaments my 3 kids made that make me smile whenever I see them. Katie made the angel, Josh made the star and Dan made the reindeer below.

These photo ornaments are all from the same year.  Josh with the baseball theme, Katie with the Angel theme, and Dan with the Soccer theme.

This is one of my favorite wooden ornaments.

 

 

I’m a huge Beatrix Potter fan and I was thrilled to find these Christmas ornaments. Hunca Munca and the Amiable Guinea Pig.

My heritage is Russian and these ornaments were gifts from my brother Leonard.

I added this Russian ornament to the tree last year.

My Christmas tree skirt is usually a Christmas tablecloth that I drape around the trunk of the tree.

Thank you Morning Glory for hosting Christmas Tree Treasures. To see more click here.

I’ve also linked to Katabug who is hosting Fun Monday Show me your  Christmas Ornaments version.

Photobucket has blacked out all my photos I was storing on their site and they are holding them hostage. I am working on updating my more than 4000 posts.