Sweet Will of God ~ Hymn

Sweet Will of God

My stubborn will at last hath yielded;
I would be Thine, and Thine alone;
And this the prayer my lips are bringing,
Lord, let in me Thy will be done.

Refrain

Sweet will of God, still fold me closer;
Till I am wholly lost in Thee;
Sweet will of God, still fold me closer,
Till I am wholly lost in Thee.

I’m tired of sin, footsore and weary,
The darksome path hath dreary grown,
But now a light has ris’n to cheer me;
I find in Thee my star, my sun.

Refrain

Thy precious will, O conquering Savior,
Doth now embrace and compass me;
All discords hushed, my peace a river,
My soul, a prisoned bird, set free.

Refrain

Shut in with Thee, O Lord, forever,
My wayward feet no more to roam;
What power from Thee my soul can sever?
The center of God’s will my home.

Refrain

Words: Lelia N. Morris, 1900.

Applesauce Raspberry Jello

This Applesauce Raspberry Jello recipe has been around a long time. I added a few options in presentation this time around including the parfait version above. You can use a parfait presentation or a simple square pan presentation to enjoy this easy dessert or side salad dish.
Applesauce-Raspberry Jello

Ingredients:

  • 1 – 3oz. pkg. raspberry jello
    1 – Cup hot water
    1 – 10-oz. pkg. frozen raspberries
    1 – Cup applesauce
    1 – Cup sour cream
    1 – Cup miniature marshmallows
Method:
  1. Dissolve Jello in hot water.
  2. Add frozen raspberries and blend carefully.
  3. Add applesauce and blend gently.
  4. Pour into 9-inch square pan.
  5. Chill until set.
  6. Combine sour cream and marshmallows and spread over top of set Jello.
  7. Cover and Chill.
  8. Serves 6-8.

If you want to present this dish in an individual parfait glass do not spread the sour cream mixture on top of the set jello. Keep it separate and layer the ingredients.

I have doubled this recipe and put it in a 9 x 13 pan. It’s a refreshingly cool salad!
If you aren’t fond of marshmallows omit them and add a tablespoon or two of sugar to your sour cream.

You can also just put a dollop of the sour cream mixture on top of the jello squares instead of spreading the topping completely over the jello.

It’s fun to transform a simple recipe with an eye catching presentation.

Thanksgiving decorations are put away and today I’ll ask our sons to get down all the Christmas bins which require a ladder. Not promising the bins will get emptied but at least they will be where I can get to them easily in the next several days to empty. Time for me to pull out our Christmas CD’s. I’m aging myself and not apologizing. CD’s are very much appreciated at our country bungalow.

Katie and Andrew decided to make the drive for home today with Willow their cat (there will be a Willow post, soon) since there are some snow forecasts that show significant snowfall in the mountain passes later on Saturday and into Sunday. The rest of us will carry on with activities after they hit the road. The girls are going to paint signs and the guys might be pushing around some snow, after they get those bins down for me.

Stuffed

Hope you all had your fill of Turkey yesterday! We had turkey with all the trimmings at our local kids’ home. Our daughter and husband and cat arrived yesterday afternoon in time to settle in and drive with us for our evening meal. Today our other kids will be driving over the mountains to join all of us.

I’ll be back next week!

So Far From Want Hodgepodge

 

It’s time for Wednesday Hodgepodge on the Eve of Thanksgiving here in the USA. Thank you to Jo From This Side of the Pond for the timely questions.

1. Have you ever been on a cruise? If so where did you go and how did you like it? If not, do you have any desire to take a cruise someday? 

The answer to all of these is no. If a cruise could tempt me it would be a small boat river cruise.

2. Tell us about your Thanksgiving plans…are you hosting? cooking? eating out? turkey or some other main? is it stuffing or dressing in your house? homemade cranberries or cranberries in a can? are pies on the dessert menu? what kind? what are your ‘must have’ sides? Tell us one thing you’re especially grateful for this year.

Our Colville Kids are hosting and I’ll be bringing the Yams with Marshmallow topping goodness. Stuffing is enjoyed as part of our turkey tradition. It doesn’t pay with our crowd to make homemade cranberry sauce so I’ll buy a can of it just in case someone asks for it. Yes, pies for dessert, pumpkin and pecan. Must have the Yams with the marshmallows.

This year we are especially grateful for Greg’s continued recovery from his stroke on November the 5th.

3. If someone approaches you and asks for money do you give it to them? Do you drop money ‘in a tin cup’ that belongs to a person on the street? Do you have a specific charity you support during the holiday season and/or year round?

I am not prone to dig in my purse and give money to someone on the street. I have dropped money into a violin case, or a guitar case or a similar container for street entertainers. We have in the past donated to the Union Gospel Mission Thanksgiving dinner drive. Our specific donations during the year for those in need go through our home church’s benevolent fund.

4. Have you started decorating for Christmas? Is your tree up? Shopping done? Wrapped? 

While our kids are here this coming weekend I am solicitating their help in getting the fall decor put away and the Christmas bins down and helping me decorate. They will carry the fake tree in from the garage, too.

This is a stocking only year for our family because of a trip we are all taking together in January. Shopping for those stocking gifts are half done and they not wrapped.

5. Create your own acrostic using the word THANKS. 

Because of our health scare in November my acrostic is about Dear and Me. We will celebrate 48 years married on December 6th. We always have a lot to be thankful for. This year the theme is different.

T is for time away together traveling near and far.
H is for our hours of learning more about God with the help of the Holy Spirit.
A is for another year to celebrate being one in Christ.
N is for new things to learn about each other.
K is for knowing our hope is in eternity with God.
S is for our Savior and Lord who secures it by his perfect sacrifice.

6.  Insert your own random thought here.  

Our pastor shared the following letter and especially the quote that I put in bold letters. The letter is from Edward Winslow’s 1621 Thanksgiving letter from Plymouth in New England.

Loving, and old Friend; although I received no letter from you by this ship, yet forasmuch as I know you expect the performance of my promise, which was, to write unto you truly and faithfully of all things.  I have therefore at this time sent unto you accordingly.  Referring you for further satisfaction to our more large relations.  You shall understand, that in this little time, that a few of us have been here, we have built seven dwelling-houses, and four for the use of the plantation, and have made preparation for divers others.  We set the last spring some twenty acres of Indian corn, and sowed some six acres of barley and peas, and according to the manner of the Indians, we manured our ground with herrings or rather shads, which we have in great abundance, and take with great ease at our doors.  Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown, they came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom; our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the company almost a week, at which time amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain, and others.  And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

If you’d like to read the whole letter click here.

We forget here in our land of plenty that we are far from want. Thanksgiving is a good time to remember all we have and how far from want we are. Everyday is a good day to thank God for his goodness to us. Hoping we all are ready to share our plenty.

Happy Thanksgiving Hodgepodgers! 

St. Barnabas Church, Oxford (Jericho)

On Friday September 16th we decided on a self-guided tour of the Jericho area of Oxford. This day was a student open day at all the Oxford colleges so none of the colleges were open to general visitors only to perspective students and their families.

We walked north from our apartment and followed Walking Oxford, a worthwhile book of walking tours that we purchased before traveling to Oxford.

St Barnabas Jericho is a fine Victorian Basilica-style Church in west Oxford, built in 1869.

Inside, the church is very beautiful with wall panels in the eastern apse depicting Christ in Majesty above the 12 Apostles. On the other walls, panels feature the animals mentioned in the Book of Revelation, chapter 4.

The High Altar is higher than the nave and is reached by nine steps and has a delicately ornate gilded ciborium over it.

The intricately decorated Walnut pulpit was donated in 1887.

On the North Nave wall of the church I was taken in by these panels which I will show in more detail.

The murals on the north wall of the nave represent Te Deum laudamus, (Latin: “God, We Praise You” ) and are made of cut glass using the “opus sectile” technique.

We Praise Thee O God

We Acknowledge Thee To Be the Lord

All the Earth Doth Worship Thee ~ The Father Everlasting ~ To Thee All Angels Cry Aloud ~ The Heavens and All the Powers ~ Therein to Thee Cherubim and Seraphim Continually Do Cry ~ We Praise Thee O God Throughout All the World.

We Praise Thee O God ~ The Noble Army of Martyrs

We Praise Thee O God ~ The Goodly Fellowship of the Prophets

We Praise Thee O God ~ The Glorious Company of the Apostles

Praise The Powers ~ We Praise Thee ~ The Angels

Praise ~The Powers ~ We Praise Thee ~ Cherubin and Seraphin

They never completed the South wall because they ran out of money.

We were in Oxford during the grieving period for Queen Elizabeth II.

We left the church and continued walking north and made our way to the path along the Oxford Canal on to Walton Well Rd. We crossed the Walton Well Bridge which connected us to Walton Road.

On the way to the canal we passed Old Bookbinders and it was still too early to enjoy a refreshment there.

 

Along Walton Well Rd. were a group of terrace residences nos 11-25 which included these finely carved scenes from the life of Elijah on the arches above the first floor windows, with the prophet being fed by ravens at one end of the terrace and whisked up to heaven at the other.

After we turned south on to Walton Road we came to the entrance to St. Sepulchre’s Cemetery.

We spent some time here poking around and then it was time to move on to wet our whistle.

We thought we were ready for some Fish and Chips, too. We stopped at the Jericho Tavern, no fish and chips. We stopped at Jude the Obscure, no fish and chips.

We decided to head further south and east taking Little Clarendon St. where we discovered the wonderful Gail’s Bakery and bought a couple goodies to enjoy later. We were still on our quest for Fish and Chips.

We found the Lamb and Flag where The Inklings (C.S. Lewis/Tolkien) were known to frequent off St. Giles but alas it was closed for renovations. Bird and Baby or Eagle and Child has been closed for 2 years and there were no signs of renovations when we walked past.

Our Fish and Chips hunt was becoming a real challenge. Walking along St. Giles we popped into The Randolph and sat down in the Alice dining room.

After being ignored for well over our usual tolerance level we walked out and continued our quest along George St. and tried the Wig and Pen and to our dismay they were out of Fish and Chips, too.

At this point we decided to go back to Broad and head over to our fast becoming favorite The Turf Tavern.

We sat at table #1 and waited for our Fish and Chips because they had not run out!

Cheers from the Turf Tavern! The end of a long walking day in Oxford overrun by prospective students and their parents who all decided to eat up the Fish and Chips! Thankfully they didn’t all try to find the Turf Tavern tucked away from the main streets of town.

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Back to the present. Today begins the week of Thanksgiving here in the U.S.A. Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. We are looking forward to all of our kids being together. The west siders arrive on Thursday and Friday. Thanksgiving day we will be at our Colville kids’ home for our Thanksgiving meal. Friday and Saturday we’ll spend time at our country bungalow all together. We will be counting our blessings together.

World Cup started yesterday and our TV service is set to record all the games. I’m a huge soccer fan. The USA has two of our Seattle Sounders on the roster. The team from Ecuador has one of our players and the team from Cameroon has one of our players, also.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world and you all recount the things you can be thankful for!

In Every Trying Hour ~ Hymn

In Every Trying Hour

In every trying hour
My soul to Jesus flies;
I trust in His almighty power,
When swelling billows rise.

His comforts bear me up;
I trust a faithful God;
The sure foundation of my hope
Is in my Savior’s blood.

Loud hallelujahs sing
To our Redeemer’s name,
In joy or sorrow—life or death—
His love is still the same.

Words: John Killinghall, 1740.

St. James’ Church Chipping Campden

History

The History of St James’ Church

St James’ is one of the finest wool churches in England. Much of the current building dates from the 13th and 14th centuries; a testament to the significance of the town and the wealth of the medieval merchants who paid for its construction. Much of Chipping Campden High Street dates from this period and reflects the historic importance of the wool trade.

The East Window which is a memorial of the First World War (1914-1918) and was dedicated in 1925.

In the Noel Chantry is a memorial of note; that of Sir Baptist Hicks, who built the nearby almshouses and the picturesque Market Hall. Hicks gave money for the pulpit and lectern, and also gave £200 to re-roof the nave. His striking monument is built of marble columns supporting a canopy. On the wall nearby is a memorial to Penelope Noel (d. 1633), daughter of Edmund Noel, Viscount Campden.

 

The right honorable Sir Edward Noel Viscount Campden and Baron Noel…

This post concludes our Cotswolds in a Day recap.

We enjoyed the grounds of St. James back in September of 2013 with Josh and Laura. That post is here.

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We are enjoying a quiet weekend here at our country bungalow. We’re looking forward to going to church tomorrow and seeing our people face to face. Hope you are having a good weekend.

Cotswolds Tour Part 2

Bourton on the Water and Bibury were the last two villages in the Cotswolds that we visited on our Go Cotswolds Tour on Thursday September 15th.

Bourton on the Water is known as the Venice of the Cotswolds. We had time to enjoy an ice cream cone, buy some take away hand pies, and buy a couple souvenirs in Bourton on the Water. There are 5 bridges over the water here. I’m not sure if I got a photo of all five.

While purchasing our ice cream we met a sweet older couple from Yorkshire who encouraged us to visit their part of England.

We visited Bourton on the Water in July of 2014 and to see the colors of summer in comparison to my Fall photos click over here.

After Bourton on the Water we traveled a short distance to Bibury.

Bibury ‘the most beautiful village in England’.

Arlington Row

The cottages of Arlington Row are often referred to as the most photographed and beautiful cottages in the country.

Originally built in 1380 as a monastic wool store, the building was then converted into a row of weavers’ cottages in the 17th century.

The cloth produced at Arlington Row was sent to Arlington Mill on the other side of Rack Isle. The cloth was then hung on wooden timber frames on Rack Isle after being degreased at Arlington Mill.

 

The Arlington Mill

With a history dating back to 1086, the mill which stands on the site today is believed to date back to the 17th Century.

Arlington Mill is now a private residence (which was also available as a holiday cottage), but it was once a working mill processing corn and wool, and later housed the museum of Arlington Mill with a collection of period clothing, documents and working machinery illustrating milling & the Victorian way of life.

Arlington Mill, a Grade II listed building, was recorded as a cloth and corn mill in the 17th Century, continuing in dual use until mid 19th Century when concentration switched to corn milling.

Founded in 1902, Bibury Trout Farm is one of England’s oldest working trout farms set in the historic village of Bibury, in the heart of the Cotswolds.

On our Go Cotswold Day Tour we were happy to make a couple stops to places we hadn’t seen in the past. Bibury was one of those stops. This was the end of our tour on this day and we got back on our tour van and were driven back to the Oxford Train Station. While others on the tour headed in the station to catch trains back to London we enjoyed the 5 minute walk back to our apartment in Oxford where we warmed up our steak pies for dinner.

One more post from the Cotswolds featuring St. James Church in Chipping Campden coming soon.

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Back to the present…

We are doing well here at our Country Bungalow. Our church family is treating us well with meals and visits. Our friends, family and neighbors are checking in to see if we need anything. We are waiting for Occupational Therapy appointments for Dear. There was a glitch on the referral from Dear’s new doctor. Our sleep schedule is improving.

We had a light dusting of snow on Wednesday night and we have more snow predicted next week. Our temps have been below freezing and the forecast is for several more days of freezing temperatures.

Hope all is well in your corner…

Truth for Today #40

Thursday November 17th

On Thursdays my posts will include verses that stood out in my readings from the Bible during the week. One, two, three or maybe more. If you have a verse/verses that you read during the week and would like to share, leave it/them in the comments and I will add it/them to the post. Let’s dig deep in God’s Truth this year!

Announcement: This will be the last Truth For Today for 2022. It will resume sometime in the New Year. 

From my readings in 1 Chronicles, part of David’s Song of Thanks.

1 Chronicles 16:23-34

Sing to the LORD, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place. Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength! Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The LORD reigns!” Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

From Vera:

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬-‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.”

From Leonard:

John 12:26

“If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”

From Maristella:

Psalm 34:17-18

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.