His Words Are True ~ Hymn

His Words Are True

What wonderful words in the Gospel of grace
Our loving Redeemer has giv’n!
How happy are they who in spirit are pure,
For theirs is the kingdom of Heav’n!

Refrain

Tho’ all that is earthly will fade,
And vanish away from our view,
We know that as sure as the Savior lives,
The words He has spoken are true.

He maketh the lilies to bloom in the field,
And shelters the bird in its nest;
He calleth the weary to come unto Him,
And find the sweet blessing of rest.

Refrain

To those that are thirsting and longing for Him,
The water of life He will give;
And they that with patience endure to the end,
Forever in glory shall live.

Refrain

Then why are we fearful, and where is our faith?
His own He will never forsake;
And tho’ He may lead them where waters are deep,
His promise He never will break.

Refrain

Words: Fanny Crosby, 1905.

Hello February!

I’m ready for this new month and some fresh ideas around this old house.

Nothing drastic just a little something here and there. I’ve organized a couple areas of our kitchen to make it more efficient and less cluttered. Little changes that make a difference.

Katie has been busy making creations out of chain maille rings. I’ll take more photos soon of all the bracelets and other necklaces she’s made. She’s sold a couple and has bartered one in exchange for a scarf.

Katie and I have watched all but the last episode of Downton Abbey! We will watch the last episode later today! I love watching it with sub titles!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Have a great Saturday…

Five Words

This week for Friday’s Fave Five I’m sharing five words that stood out from my reading in the month of January. Thank you Susanne for hosting this meme each Friday. I’m including random photos with the post.

For this new year I’ve challenged myself to read 5 Psalms a day, One Proverb and concentrate on relearning Romans 12: 1-2. I’ve read around the Romans verses and that’s where the word inscrutable came from.

1. Inscrutable: not readily investigated, interpreted, or understood

Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

2. Extol: to praise (someone or something) highly

3. Steadfast: firmly fixed in place

4. Redeem, Redeemer, Redeemed: to make (something that is bad, unpleasant, etc.) better or more acceptable, (Ecclesiastical Terms) The Redeemer Jesus Christ as having brought redemption to mankind, saved from the bondage of sin.

5. Refuge: 1. Protection or shelter, as from danger or hardship. 2. A place providing protection or shelter. 3. A source of help, relief, or comfort in times of trouble.

Great Is the Lord

Psalm 145: 1-10 (ESV)

1 I will extol you, my God and King,
and bless your name forever and ever.
²Every day I will bless you
and praise your name forever and ever.
³Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
and his greatness is unsearchable.

⁴One generation shall commend your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.
⁵On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
⁶They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds,
and I will declare your greatness.
⁷They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

⁸The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
⁹The Lord is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.

¹⁰All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
and all your saints shall bless you!

I’ll be around to visit your favorites, soon. We are gearing up for game day here. Can’t be avoided when your home team is playing in the Super Bowl. Truth be told watching NFL games is not my favorite thing to do but we will rejoice with Seattle and enjoy the game.

Flitting

…move swiftly and lightly

A Minor Bird

(Robert Frost)

I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;

Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.

The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.

I have to say that the only birds I’ve clapped my hands at have been crows or woodpeckers.

Today was quite the bird event at our house. So many little, medium and big birds flying in and out. They would peck at the ground, at the bird feeders, in the planters.

How about this chubby Robin? We saw many Robins today.

A first for us was seeing a small hawk/falcon like bird and woodpecker having a life and death struggle. They both slammed into our French doors and landed on the deck and then when the senses were regained from the hard hit into the door, the falcon/hawk flew off with the woodpecker in it’s claws. Very strange event to see…

After some beautiful days we are back in a rainy pattern. Of course that is normal and we all need the rain along with the sunshine. California would love to have some of our rain drops…

Confession of the week: I went to Costco on Tuesday and bought season 4 of Downton Abbey so very soon Katie and I will have a marathon viewing of the rest of the episodes we haven’t seen yet. Costco had the DVD for $25.99 with a one time $4.00 rebate at the register.

Hows your week progressing?

C is for Cemeteries

Some of the places that I like to visit when we travel are cemeteries. I only enjoy very old cemeteries. Here is a sampling from several of the cemeteries I’ve visited.

St. James Church in Chipping Campden (Cotswolds) U.K. September 2013

Monumentale Cemetery in Milan, Italy March of 2013

Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois May of 2012

Riverside National Cemetery California May 2012. My Father in law is buried at this cemetery.

Arlington National Cemetery May 2011

Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia October 2012

Ivy Lawn Cemetery in Ventura, California

Calvary Cemetery ~ Seattle June 2008

Crosses could have been an added theme for the letter C. I wouldn’t mind re-visiting some of these cemeteries. I have a goal in my head to visit a very old cemetery covered in snow…

Hope your week is going well.

I’m joining in the fun at ABC Wednesday click over to see more Letter C posts!

Tuesday Tips!

We enjoy eating earlier these days so when we decide to eat out we try different Happy Hours around the area. Some Happy Hours are happier than others. Last Friday we re-visited an old favorite from a few years ago and were very pleased. All of these dishes were half priced and each selection was plenty for the three of us to enjoy. Yes, three, as our daughter Katie is still with us while our Son-in-law Andrew is serving in Afghanistan. There were three meatballs on that plate before I took the photo. We were pleased with the selections that Grazie in Canyon Park offered.

This Bruschetta appetizer was great with the added ricotta and herb spread and olive tapenade. I’ll be trying to duplicate it and will post it on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook webpage. I’m thinking it will be a great dish for Super Bowl Sunday.

Speaking of Andrew if you are a praying friend of mine could you please pray that Andrew’s time in Afghanistan will not be extended? We all would appreciate it here at this old house. Originally he would be returning before April. Now we are praying he’ll be home before May.

Monday was an amazingly non-productive day at his old house. I did manage to make dinner. Can I have some applause please? Thank you. I hear our Midwest and Eastern friends will be experiencing some more nasty winter weather this week. Stay safe please! All we have in the forecast here is rain…

Our Honeymoon…

This weekend I finally got familiar with the new scanner I purchased to scan old slides that Dear took in the 70’s. At least one day a week on my blog will be devoted to a blast from the past.

I’m starting with our honeymoon which was in December of 1974.

After our wedding we went to my parents home and got ready to leave on our honeymoon. Our family and closest friends were there, too, and we opened gifts before we changed into our get away clothes and left for our honeymoon. Did any of you do that after your wedding or did you take off and go straight to your honeymoon from the wedding sight? We were pretty beat when we finally arrived to our first destination, the Pierpont Inn in Ventura, California.

The Pierpont Inn, Ventura, California. Little did we know that 10 years later we would move to Ventura.

From the Pierpont we continued north along the coast of California.

This little log cabin somewhere in Central California was a nice little spot to stop. I can’t find it online anymore but it was called Butterfly Trees Lodge.

This was Dear’s car, a 1971 Datsun 510.

We went as far north as San Francisco and then headed back home along the 101 highway to our apartment in West Los Angeles. We stopped in Solvang on our way home.

Back to the present…

We had a nice quiet weekend and we were able to start a couple new projects. I filled our bird feeders…finally. Dear is working on closet doors. I started the huge project of scanning old photos starting with our slides. What fun it’s been to see these old images from the 70’s. How was your weekend?

The Haven of Rest ~ Hymn

The Haven of Rest

My soul in sad exile was out on life’s sea,
So burdened with sin and distressed,
Till I heard a sweet voice, saying,
Make Me your choice;
And I entered the Haven of Rest!

Refrain

I’ve anchored my soul in the Haven of Rest,
I’ll sail the wide seas no more;
The tempest may sweep over wild, stormy, deep,
In Jesus I’m safe evermore.

I yielded myself to His tender embrace,
In faith taking hold of the Word,
My fetters fell off, and I anchored my soul;
The Haven of Rest is my Lord.

Refrain

The song of my soul, since the Lord made me whole,
Has been the old story so blest,
Of Jesus, who’ll save whosoever will have
A home in the Haven of Rest.

Refrain

How precious the thought that we all may recline,
Like John, the belovèd so blest,
On Jesus’ strong arm, where no tempest can harm,
Secure in the Haven of Rest.

Refrain

O come to the Savior, He patiently waits
To save by His power divine;
Come, anchor your soul in the Haven of Rest,
And say, My Belovèd is mine.

Refrain

Words: Henry L. Gilmour

In the Midst of Fog…

…there are still favorites. Things to be thankful for that shine through no matter what. I’m joining Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for Friday’s Fave Five.

1. January is a big birthday month at our house. Joshua’s birthday was on Sunday. We celebrated earlier in the month and the photo above was part of our celebration. Our Son Dan’s birthday was on the 16th and his girlfriend’s birthday was on the 15th. This year we celebrated Dan from afar while he celebrated in Eastern Washington. My brother Tim celebrated his birthday and our niece Hope will celebrate her birthday on Saturday. We love to celebrate our loved ones and that’s my first favorite this week.

Our son Dan and his girlfriend Jamie

2. My dear old pop has been having a hard time with a lot of shoulder pain and when he’s in so much pain he misses my mom even more. I was happy to see this photo of him with my niece Melissa enjoying a meal out and looking so alive and pain free. He has been feeling better and the pain with medication has been more manageable. I’m so thankful my father’s pain has been relieved.

3. We’ve been in quite a foggy overcast pattern here in the Puget Sound area. The afternoons where the sun finally broke through were another favorite of mine this week.

4. An early morning walk with Dear on Saturday was a blessing. It’s always good to get out and get some exercise in the Winter when we tend to want to stay inside and be couch potatoes. We were treated to some Eagle sightings.

5. Another favorite is visiting my bloggy friends each week. This week one of my favorite posts was this one from Gumbo Lily. I love seeing how other people live in different environments than my own and thrive “Day by Day”.

What were your favorites this week?

Update: I posted this last night and this morning I woke up to beautiful clear skies and amazing sunshine! Woohoo!

Full of Thoughts…

In my college years which happened to be the late 60’s and early 70’s I bought this album to keep me organized in my thoughtfulness. Appropriately the album is called…

These sweet illustrations called to me back then. Remember Holly Hobbie?

Each month has a page with a pocket and each day of the month is in a list form for you to add birthdays, anniversaries and other events.

I cherish this old album that is worn with age and use.

It’s time for me to go through that drawer in my desk…you know the one, where you throw everything in for future organization. I have wedding invitations and birth announcements and funeral leaflets to put into the appropriate month of the year pocket. These monthly pockets are wonderful now all these years later because so much has happened and I forget more and more about when these events took place. Each month I can flip the page and not only see who’s birthday and anniversary fall in that month but what year the event took place. Everything all in one book.

How do you keep organized when it comes to birthdays and anniversaries?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

His Words Are True ~ Hymn