My God, I Thank Thee ~ Hymn

My God, I Thank Thee

My God, I thank Thee, who hast made
The earth so bright,
So full of splendor and of joy,
Beauty and light;
So many glorious things are here,
Noble and right.

I thank Thee, too, that Thou hast made
Joy to abound;
So many gentle thoughts and deeds
Circling us round,
That in the darkest spot of earth
Some love is found.

I thank Thee more that all our joy
Is touched with pain,
That shadows fall on brightest hours,
That thorns remain;
So that earth’s bliss may be our guide,
And not our chain.

For thou who knowest, Lord, how soon
Our weak heart clings,
Hast given us joys, tender and true,
Yet all with wings;
So that we see gleaming on high
Diviner things.

I thank Thee, Lord, that Thou hast kept
The best in store;
We have enough, yet not too much
To long for more:
A yearning for a deeper peace
Not known before.

I thank Thee, Lord, that here our souls
Though amply blessed,
Can never find, although they seek
A perfect rest;
Nor ever shall, until they lean
On Jesus’ breast.

Words: Adelaide A. Procter, Legends and Lyrics, a Book of Verse, 1858.

FFF ~ Family, Friends, Food!

Time to look back and remember your favorites from this past week. Visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in this worthwhile experience.

My favorites from this past week revolve around our immediate family being reunited for a few days.

Here are the guys, my husband with our sons. I love this photo of the three of them.

Our girls Katie and Laura with their special aunt Lana.

We took advantage of my sister being here so she could take a photo of all of us together. This will probably end up being our Christmas photo this year.

Our Thanksgiving gathering on Sunday is definitely a favorite from this past week.

Last but not least our son Dan made it safe over the passes to his new digs in Eastern Washington. He started his job at his new location and is pleased with his surroundings. We are looking forward to my brother and SIL coming to spend Thanksgiving weekend with us. So much to be thankful for.

Psalm 40:16 (ESV)

But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, “Great is the LORD!”

What are your favorites from this past week?

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Early Thanksgiving 2010

I’ve posted some photos of our early Thanksgiving meal already but wanted to add these for Tablescape Thursday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. If you want to see some great table settings click on over and check all the latest posts.

The table was set for 12. Since I only had 10 of my Yorkshire dishes I added these two Johnson Brothers Plates to the mix.

These are the Yorkshire Staffordshire Ironstone plates, a country road with a hay wagon. The colors were perfect for Thanksgiving.

Wouldn’t you know when I went to pull out my green goblets there were only 11. I scouted out a local Antique Mall hoping to find at least 1 more but there was nothing close to these so when I came across a set of 7 amber colored goblets at a good price I decided to mix and match 6 of each for the table.

I was real happy to find these bird place card holders last week. It’s not easy finding non-Christmas themed holders this time of year. Our daughter Katie printed the names on each card for our table.

We had a wonderful time around the table. We decided to serve Susan’s Champagne Punch while waiting for the turkey. It was very tasty with the hint of cinnamon and cloves.

On Thanksgiving Day I’ll be sharing this punch when we join friends for a 2nd Thanksgiving meal. Life is rich!

Looking forward to seeing more Scapes around the Blogisphere.

Thankful for my Man!

Not only does he help in the kitchen but on this day he vacuumed the house and steam cleaned the kitchen floor! Thank you Dear!

Thanksgiving Is…

…a time to gather family and friends around the table.

Thanksgiving at our house is a very traditional meal with few changes if any. We stuff the turkey because we enjoy the taste of the stuffing that cooks in the bird. We include mashed potatoes to go with the gravy. One thing that would cause an uprising around here is if I left out the the candied yams smothered with marshmallows that get browned in the oven. Cranberry sauce is good for color. This year I added some steamed green beans stir fried with onions and bacon. Dessert always must include a few pies like pumpkin, pecan and a fruit pie. Truth be told I don’t bake pies, gasp! My dear friend Beth volunteered to bring the pies after I asked her to and they were really good! Thanks Beth.

We celebrated early this year since our kids were all available on this Sunday.

We take time to thank God for loving family and good friends and all His goodness to us. What a blessing to sit around the table with loved ones and enjoy good food together.

The girls…

The guys…

Dan’s friend Jamie since 2nd grade with his sweet family.

Jamie’s parents, Dave and Beth with Dan. Good friends since Dan and Jamie became friends in elementary school.

We tried a fall champagne punch.

The sugared rim was fun.

At the end of the festivities we loaded up on the couch to watch the Major League Soccer semi-final between L.A. Galaxy and Dallas.

Can you count all the pairs of feet?

I’ll post more photos of the table for Tablescape Thursday.

In a Bit of a Fog…

Not quite sure how much to blame on the “turkey effect” or just the activity involved in getting the turkey to the table.

As soon as I have access to my cord to upload some photos from our Thanksgiving meal yesterday I’ll share.

Hope your new week is starting out well.

Lord, We Thank Thee for the Pleasure ~ Hymn

Lord, We Thank Thee For the Pleasure

Lord, we thank Thee for the pleasure
That our happy lifetime gives,
For the boundless worth and treasure
Of a soul that ever lives;
Mind that looks before and after,
Lifting eyes to things above;
Human tears, and human laughter,
And the depths of human love.

For the thrill, the leap, the gladness
Of our pulses flowing free;
E’en for every touch of sadness
That may bring us nearer Thee;
But, above all other kindness,
Thine unutterable love,
Which, to heal our sin and blindness,
Sent Thy dear Son from above.

Teach us so our days to number
That we may be early wise;
Dreamy mist, or cloud, or slumber,
Never dull our heav’nward eyes.
Hearty be our work and willing,
As to Thee, and not to men;
For we know our soul’s fulfilling
Is in Heav’n, and not ’til then.

Words: Thomas W. Jez-Blake

Today our family is celebrating Thanksgiving early with a meal together. God is ever good to us and we’ll take time today and everyday to thank Him and praise Him. Blessings on your Sunday!

Carpe Diem ~

Seize the Day…

We are taking all the time we can to enjoy each others company for the days we have together right now. Tomorrow we are going to have our Thanksgiving meal early, all together, with 7 more joining us. The turkey is thawing. The yams, potatoes, gravy, green beans are waiting to be prepared. My sister is bringing the rolls and wine. Dan’s long time friends who became our good friends are joining us. Dave and Beth are bringing the pies. Jamie and Sarly are bringing their sweet babe. We’re going to make a champagne punch I saw on Susan’s Between Naps on the Porch. Josh and Laura will mash the potatoes since I’m still having a tennis elbow issue. Dear will carve the turkey. Katie will write the names on the place cards. I’ll make myself a note to remember to take photos. Life is rich.

Have a wonderful Saturday everyone!

FFF ~ He’s Home!

My Friday Fave Five is a little slow in the making as I was busy just sitting around and looking at our 2nd born son yesterday. I’ve missed seeing his face for over 9 months. More about that later. In the meantime you can join Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and share your favorite things from the past week.

Here are my favorites~

1. Zumba! It’s physical torture for a solid hour that makes you sweat till you’re drenched but it’s fun! I signed up at the YMCA this month and I try to go to the Zumba classes 3 days a week. The other 2 days I do less torturous activity like the treadmill.

2. Molbak’s ~ We have a wonderful garden store in a neighboring city here that really decks the halls for Christmas. I’ve been looking for place card holders and had a Groupon coupon for $30.00 worth of merchandise for $15.00 so I went shopping there last week. I found some holders I really love and got to enjoy their displays of an amazing variety of poinsettias. I’ll share the holders next week after I set our Thanksgiving table. While there I saw this sign that made me chuckle. Just goes to show you how fickle happiness is :0). I much rather choose JOY!

3. I was praying all day long on Wednesday for safe travels for our son Dan and Dear. Dan drove 12 hours from Yuma, Az. to Sacramento, California. Dear flew to Sacramento to meet up with Dan and to drive the next 12 hours to Seattle together. Dan left Yuma at 3:00 A.M. and they pulled into our driveway at 2:30 A.M. I heard their voices and fell back to sleep thanking the Lord for their safety. When I woke up on Thursday and pulled out Daily Light (a Bible devotional) the heading for this day was “He led them on safely”. I smiled and thanked God again for leading them safely home.

4. When Dan finally woke up on Thursday it was so good to give him a big hug and then just sit and smile and talk to each other! He was so happy to be back in the state of Washington. Some of the things he enjoyed…

~cold water right out of the faucet. The water is warm coming out of the faucet in Yuma. Not surprising since it’s desert.

~A real nice mattress to sleep on. He’s been living in a hotel for 9 months.

~A house to move around in with more then 2 rooms.

5. TACO NIGHT! We had the whole family sitting around the table last night for Tacos. It was real good. We got to hear lots of stories from Dan and get caught up a bit.

Dan will be heading to Eastern Washington for his full-time job next week so we’ll enjoy a few more days with him before he heads out. It’s good to have him in the same state now with the opportunity to see him on some weekends in the future. We’re having our Thanksgiving meal early this year (on Sunday) so we can enjoy it all together.

I’ll hop around for some visits now before Dan wakes up and before ZUMBA!

6. I’m cheating with one more. Here’s a quote Dear sent me this week that I wanted to share.

“We have placed too much hope in political and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life.” – Speech to the Graduating Class of 1978 at Harvard by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Happy Veterans Day & Armistice Day!

They Did Their Share

On Veteran’s Day we honor
Soldiers who protect our nation.
For their service as our warriors,
They deserve our admiration.

Some of them were drafted;
Some were volunteers;
For some it was just yesterday;
For some it’s been many years;

In the jungle or the desert,
On land or on the sea,
They did whatever was assigned
To produce a victory.

Some came back; some didn’t.
They defended us everywhere.
Some saw combat; some rode a desk;
All of them did their share.

No matter what the duty,
For low pay and little glory,
These soldiers gave up normal lives,
For duties mundane and gory.

Let every veteran be honored;
Don’t let politics get in the way.
Without them, freedom would have died;
What they did, we can’t repay.

We owe so much to them,
Who kept us safe from terror,
So when we see a uniform,
Let’s say “thank you” to every wearer.

By Joanna Fuchs

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

My God, I Thank Thee ~ Hymn