Grander Than Ocean’s Story ~ Hymn

 

Grander Than Ocean’s Story

Grander than ocean’s story,
Or songs of forest trees;
Purer than breath of morning,
Or evening’s gentle breeze;
Clearer than mountain echoes
Ring out from peaks above,
Rolls on the glorious anthem
Of God’s eternal love.

Dearer than any friendship
Our truest comrades show;
Stronger than all the yearning
A mother’s heart may know;
Deeper than earth’s foundations,
And far above all thought;
Broader than Heav’n’s high arches—
The love that Christ has brought.

Richer than all earth’s treasures,
The wealth my soul receives;
Brighter than royal jewels,
The crown that Jesus gives;
Wondrous the condescension,
And grace beyond degree!
I would be ever singing
The love of Christ to me.

Words: William F. Sherman 1826-1888

Round Robin Photo Challenge ~ Outside the Window

 

It’s time for a new challenge. The idea for this one is to stand (or sit) outside a window, and photograph through it to whatever is inside.  Visit the Round Robin Photo Challenge Blog to see more entries for this challenge.

Here are a few photos I’ve taken that qualify for this challenge.

 

Looking in to a Tea Room in Santa Monica, California.

 

A fairy tale shop at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

 

A bridal gown shop in Laguna Beach, California. Generic with no sentiment or emotion attached when I took this. This next photo is another story…

 

This is our daughter in front of the Bridal shop in Bellevue, Washington where we just purchased her wedding dress. Very sentimental and personal with plenty of emotion attached!

A wedding is afoot at our house but because my daughter is marrying a Marine who will soon be in Active duty we do not know what date we can choose for the event yet. It will be sometime in the next year in the meantime we are preparing what we can because we might have very little notice for the actual event.

Have a great weekend Robins!

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.

FFF ~ As November Begins…

 

It’s Friday again and time for Friday’s Fave Five. Look back over your week and choose some favorites you’d like to share. Join us at Susanne’s Living to Tell the Story to share your five.

 

This week is a week of looking forward for me. Looking forward to next week when our middle son is finally back in our home state of Washington. Looking forward to having an early Thanksgiving meal together.  But I’ll pause and think back and share my favorite quotes from this past week.

1. From Gumbo Lily’s blog ~

Earth is crammed with Heaven
and every bush aflame with God.
But only those who see
take off their shoes.

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

2. From my brother and SIL on Facebook ~

“How much greater is the God we have than the one we think we have” -Father Gregory Boyle

3. From Mighty Mom’s Blog ~

“You can get glad in the same shoes you got mad in.”

4. From our sermon on Sunday at Westminster Chapel in Bellevue, Washington.

“Your dreams should be bigger then your memories”

5. My fifth favorite is not a quote. Hip Hip Hooray the elections are over and my phone has stopped ringing off the hook looking for support of such and such candidate!!

I hope to come around soon and see what your favorites were this past week. Blessings…

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.

Better Late Then Never Tablescape…

Turns out we were going to have actual company over for a meal on Halloween so I finally got my Halloween and Thanksgiving bins down on Saturday the 30th of October. Not a day too soon. Here’s what I came up with for this year…

I was trying to make the napkins look like bats…

Here’s the proof that we actually sat down and had a meal at this table.

And here’s what we had to eat…

Pioneer Woman’s Pork with Applesauce and Sauerkraut on Mashed Potatoes.

I’m linking up to Tablescape Thursday with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch this week.

That Halloween Bin is all tucked back away in the attic and I’ll be working with the Thanksgiving/Fall bin next. Wednesday is starting out beautiful here in the Northwest. I’m going to get my roots looked after and then I have some physical therapy later in the day. Still wondering what to tuck in the middle of the day. Time will tell…

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.

Ruby Tuesday ~

…is it possible in my oh so blue state? Time will tell if the state of Washington turns a little Ruby today.

 

For more Ruby Tuesday visit Mary at Work of the Poet.

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.

Sunday was…

…as full as a bag of trick or treats!

Dear, Katie and I went to church and besides hearing a good sermon we were treated to a Violinist who was amazing. His name is Klinkenberg and he sometimes plays with the Celtic Women. He played a more classical piece and then at the closing of the service he fiddled a wonderful rendition of Jesus Loves Me. We bought his soon too be released CD called Fiddle-Levity! We had it on during lunch and really enjoyed it.

When we got home Josh and Laura had already arrived to enjoy a meal with us. I tried a recipe from The Pioneer Women Cooks ~ Tasty Kitchen blog called Sauerkraut and Pork that had been cooking away in the oven while we were at church. We all agreed it was very tasty!

Josh, Laura and I left Dear and Katie at home to handle the Trick or Treaters and we headed downtown to Qwest Field to see the Sounders play the L.A. Galaxy. Lots of the crowd dressed up for Halloween. These guys were one of our favorites!

Three Blind Refs! After the game we wondered it they were the refs that called our game.

Joshua’s red beard really made his leprechaun costume more authentic. :0)

It was a great night for a Sounders game and for Trick or Treaters with no rain drops falling on anyone’s heads. Too bad the Sounders didn’t win. That would have really capped off a wonderful day!

Today I headed out early for some physical therapy on my tennis elbow. It has been raining steadily and promises to keep raining all day and into the night. I’m glad to be home in my slippers enjoying the coziness of our gas insert fireplace…

I came across this verse in Ecclesiastes today and couldn’t help but chuckle and use it during this political season we find ourselves in! Out of context? Maybe, maybe not.

Ecclesiastes 10:2 (English Standard Version)

“A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right,
but a fool’s heart to the left.”

Sing to the Lord of Harvest ~ Hymn

Sing to the Lord of Harvest

Sing to the Lord of harvest,
Sing songs of love and praise;
With joyful hearts and voices
Your alleluias raise.
By Him the rolling seasons
In fruitful order move;
Sing to the Lord of harvest,
A joyous song of love.

By Him the clouds drop fatness,
The deserts bloom and spring,
The hills leap up in gladness,
The valleys laugh and sing.
He filleth with His fullness
All things with large increase,
He crowns the year with goodness,
With plenty and with peace.

Bring to His sacred altar
The gifts His goodness gave,
The golden sheaves of harvest,
The souls He died to save.
Your hearts lay down before Him
When at His feet you fall,
And with your lives adore Him,
Who gave His life for all.

To God the gracious Father,
Who made us “very good,”
To Christ, who, when we wandered,
Restored us with His blood,
And to the Holy Spirit,
Who doth upon us pour
His blessèd dews and sunshine,
Be praise forevermore!

Words: John S. B. Monsell, 1866

FFF ~ It’s all about Hope!

It’s time for Friday’s Fave Five. Please visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in or visit more favorites.

 

Our little Miss Hope wasn’t named that randomly but because she was the result of the hope my brother and my SIL had for her to be born. My brother didn’t have hope of being married a few years back and I’m sure the hope of having a child of his own was off his radar. BUT ~ our God is a God of hope and because of His great mercy and love gave Leonard and Mandy a gift from Him and they named her Hope! Leonard and Mandy married in their 40’s, a first marriage for both of them. They’ve been married for 4 years and little Miss Hope will be 3 in January. Last Thursday we flew to Dallas to have a visit with Leonard, Mandy and Hope. My favorites for this week are…

1. Seeing Miss Hope warm up to us over the course of our time there. At the beginning she only wanted to sit with mommy at the dinner table but soon she decided it would be fun to sit by Dear and me.

2. Watching Miss Hope and her lack of fear at gymnastics.

3. Having several good meals around the table with Leonard, Mandy and Hope.

4. Being able to have good conversations with Leonard and Mandy.

5. Every morning Dear was up first, then Hope, then the rest of us. Dear would be stationed on one of the couches in the family room with his back to the arm of the couch and legs stretched out on the couch reading. On the first morning Hope came out and saw Dear there and ran back to daddy and mommy’s room. By Sunday Hope decided when she got up that she would grab a book and sit on the couch opposite Dear with her back to the arm of the couch and legs stretched out on the couch and read. Too Cute!!

Hope to get around soon and see 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.

Yard Art ~ Dallas

My little niece arranged some pumpkins in her front porch area. If you look closely between the corn you’ll see an H and an O and a P and part of an E. :0) Then while my SIL and I went on a 6 mile walk early in the morning we spotted this..

It was still on the dark side so a little blurry. Please visit Mary at Work of the Poet to see more yard art or to join in…

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.

Habitats…

While at the Dallas zoo with my brother, SIL, and niece there was lots of chatter about habitats.

 

It really is more pleasant to see an animal in it’s natural surroundings even if those surroundings are man made. The zoo’s newest addition was Giants of the Savannah. Both my brother and SIL spent some time in Africa last year on a mission trip and were excited to see this part of the zoo.

 

 

 

It was a fun challenge to keep up with the Little Miss…

 

 

We took a ride on the Safari Monorail to see some more habitats.

 

 

 

This reminded little Miss of the Pocahontas story.

 

So many interesting animals to see. After we had our monorail ride we saw some feathered friends.

 

 

Our last stop was the children’s zoo and a ride on the pony!

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.