Strength and Dignity are Her Clothing

Happy Birthday to my beloved mother.  She is in heaven today.  If she were here with me, she would be 76 years old today.  She was my confidant, my teacher, my encourager, my motivator, my example, my everything for my first 20 years of life.  I'm thankful for a Godly mother.

All of 'em

Oops!  Forgot to put this up.  Here's them all together.  Looking forward to meeting the little ones these will belong to.

In case you didn't know, if you want to see them better you can click on the picture and it blows up bigger for you :)  

Silence is Good

The best part of my day, really my absolute favorite time is early in the morning when I meet one on one with the Lord.  The quiet of that hour has become a solace to me as important as food and rest.  Listening to the Word and meditating on what it means for me specifically this day...even this hour...this minute gives me the right motivation to live my day for Christ. I like quiet.  In the quiet I learn to love the hustle and bustle of more people.  In the noise of others, I learn to appreciate my silence.  Just God and me.

“There is an indifferent, or even negative atiitude toward silence which sees in it a disparagement of God’s revelation in the Word.  This is the view which misinterprets silence as a ceremonial gesture, as a mystical desire to get beyond the Word.  This is to miss the essential relationship of silence to the Word.  Silence is the simple stillness of the individual under the Word of God.  We are silent before hearing the Word because our thoughts are already directed to the Word, as a child is quiet when he enters his father’s room.  We are silent after hearing the Word because the Word is still speaking and dwelling within us.  We are silent at the beginning of the day because God should have the first word, and we are silent before going to sleep because the last word also belongs to God.  We keep silence solely for the sake of the Word, and therefore not in order to show disregard for the Word but rather to honor and receive it. 

Silence is nothing else but waiting for God’s Word and coming from God’s Word with a blessing.  But everybody knows that this is something that needs to be practiced and learned, in these days when talkativeness prevails.  real silence, real stillness, really holding one’s tongue comes only as the sober consequence of spiritual stillness.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, pg. 79

Little Adventures

The other evening the house was dark.  Alone in a bedroom sat myself and my mom.  The boys were having a camping trip and we were left in the charge of the dogs.  One dog, a close descendant of a wolf is "primary guard dog."  The other, a black and white herder of English descent is "secondary guard dog" who sleeps in the house.  Both vow to be faithful to the family and cruel to any disruption of their family.  
  

*Scout and Willy

As we sat in the bedroom making some baby quilts for some little ones we have not yet had the privilege to meet, we heard howling in the distance.  Willy never howls.  When he used to howl in AK, it was some sort of sick hoarse undeveloped howl.  This, though, was different.  The howling grew louder and louder and became a growling bark.  Guard dog #2 sat up in her kennel and began trying to pace.  The close quarters of the kennel made it not very easy to pace, so she ended up turning circles in a ridiculous manner.  

Dutifully, I got up to let guard dog #2 out the door.  She took off.  Willy came running up to me and begged me in a very old yeller type way to come follow him.  I stepped back and took in my surroundings.  It was dark.  There was surely a creature out there waiting for me.  My feet were bare and the cement porch was cold on my tootsies.  So, I thought better of following the advice of my protector.  I went inside.  

My mom and I held a quick counsel that lasted about 30 seconds and then jumped into action.  She went to the closet to continue picking out fabrics for the quilts we were making.  I went downstairs and collected my supplies before heading out.  

By the time I had myself put together they had been able to chase the watcha-m-call-it away.  So, I never was able to figure out whether it was a cougar, porcupine, or coon.  I think it was one of those though.  We did deduce, it was not a skunk.  

*For all the observant ones: no, the pic was not taken the night of the expedition, but totally set up later . . . we didn't have time the night of.

"My first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord." 

George Mueller

Quilt #2 and 3

Is He a Man and a King? Be Careful Young Ladies...

A Woman’s Question

By Lena Lathrop

Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing

Ever made by the Hand above?

A woman’s heart, and a woman’s life-

And a woman’s wonderful love.

Do you know you have asked for this priceless thing

As a child might ask for a toy?

Demanding what others have died to win,

With the reckless dash of a boy.

You have written my lesson of duty out,

Manlike, you have questioned me.

Now stand at the bars of my woman’s soul

Until I shall question thee.

You require your mutton shall always be hot,

Your socks and your shirt be whole;
I require your heart be true as God’s stars

And as pure as His heaven your soul.

You require a cook for your mutton and beef,

I require a far greater thing;

A seamstress you’re wanting for socks and shirts-

I look for a man and a king.

A king for the beautiful realm called Home,

And a man that his Maker, God,

Shall look upon as He did on the first

And say: “It is very good.”

I am fair and young, but the rose may fade

From this soft young cheek one day;

Will you love me then ‘mid the falling leaves,

As you did ‘mong the blossoms of May?

Is your heart an ocean so strong and true,

I may launch my all on its tide?

A loving woman finds heaven or hell

On the day she is made a bride.

I require all things that are grand and true,

All things that a man should be;

If you give this all, I would stake my life

To be all you demand of me.

If you cannot be this, a laundress and cook

You can hire and little to pay;

But a woman’s heart and a woman’s life

Are not to be won that way.

Quilt #1

Over Christmas break, my mom and I have been making a whole bunch of baby quilts for the new little ones just starting to arrive.  We've been working on five of them on and off the past few weeks.  The two of us together can really cruise.  I hate binding, she hates the quilting, we both cut and piece together . . . We're a pretty good team I think.  Here's the first one that we actually got completely finished!

"Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth . . ."

Starting My Year Right Means Starting My Day Right

One of my favorite times of the day is the early morning when I meet with Christ.  There are days of the week when Hubby leaves earlier than I can pry my eyes open, but I like to drag myself out of bed by 6:00 AM.  That usually leaves me an hour of blessed peace and quiet (with coffee of course).  It hasn't always been this good.  I have struggled with my devotions most of my adult life.  Through years of trying to figure out the best way to pray and read the Word of God, the Lord has shown me through trial and error some "best" ways for me.  They include:

1. The reading of an old (as in dead) Christian of the faith.  At present I am reading our beloved brother      Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together.

2. Reading through the Bible. Unlike my hubby, I don't get through it every year.  My plan is more like "Read the Bible in 3 years".

3. Journaling my prayers.  I do this on my laptop simply because I type almost as fast as I think.  When I write my thoughts down, I focus much better.  My prayers follow the old ACTS model as well as some daily urgent prayers for others.

• A - Adoration
• C - Confession
• T - Thanksgiving
• S - Supplication

4. Memorization of Psalms.  I only just started this in the fall of last year, and its slow going for this lady.  But, I did manage to get Psalm 90 memorized and am now working on 34.  What a joy it is to have these words hidden in my heart when fear and doubt come calling! 

 So that's what I do.  I'm always looking for ways to better my time with the Lord.

"For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened and oppressed with besetting concerns for the day's work.  At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it.  All the darkness and distraction of the dreams of night retreat before the clear light of Jesus Christ and his wakening Word.  All unrest, all impurity, all care and anxiety flee before him.  Therefore, at the beginning of the day let all distraction and empty talk be silenced and let the first thought and the first word belong to Him to whom our whole life belongs." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Merry Christmas to all my friends from Russia and Ukraine!

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  

~ John 1:14

My Little Man

C. S. Lewis thought it offensive to call a young man "little man," but I can't help it.  My Natey Boy is my little man.  If only he wasn't my brother and a little older . . . Oh well.

Here's my little man trying to be a big man like his Papa.  We heard him outside the other morning as he was getting firewood ready for the family.  It was cold and we had the stove blazing.  The yelling is a trick he learned from his Jui-Jitsu professor.  "Ki-ah!" is what they yell before striking.  "Makes me hit harder," he told me later.  Seemed to work pretty well for him.

Grilled hamburgers the way I like them.

Birdseed Bread

When we lived in Montana, we had some good friends there, the Hollies.  The daughter, Char, was my sister's best friend and made delicious bread.  She passed the recipe down to my mom who made it a lot in Alaska and has recently begun to make it regularly again.  

I've been wanting to make birdseed bread for a while now.  I didn't have the guts to try it by myself in California, and it's a good thing I didn't.  This stuff is intense!  Yesterday my mom showed me how to make it.  Without a captain america kind of guy on hand or the handy dandy kitchen aid, this would be nearly impossible.  As I have not been blessed with a captain america kind of guy, we used the kitchen aid.  I love love love this bread!  It calls for around 3-4 cups of whole wheat flour which would make it super dense and heavy, so we went for only about half of that (previous bouts with this bread and 4 cups of whole wheat flour broke the kitchen aid).  

The most delicious thing about this bread is that you can add whatever kind of grains you so desire.  I chose bulgar wheat, sunflour seeds, brown rice, whole flax seed, and wheat germ.  By now you're either thinking that sounds superb or super nasty.  It's the former, I assure you.  The finished loaves couldn't have turned out any more beautiful.  They taste as amazing as they look too.  After baking them yesterday, we cut into them, put a little butter on top, and enjoyed the warm bread.  They were also outstanding toasted for breakfast with, of course, a little butter on top.  

Happy Birthday New Year!