Basil and Sage

Herbs to Root...

Afternoon

Papa and Mama's totally rustic-ly gorgeous family room couch~'::

Enjoying favorite home-movies of when we were little~'::

plans

Hello ~'::

This week has been a rainy one. After all of the hot, dry, droughtish weather rain is a pleasant thing. Lots of thunder and lightning and heavy raindrops on the roof. A couple of days were even pleasantly cool and required a sweater!
Rain doesn’t make it very easy to dry clothes outside on the clothesline though. Right now my main room has three loads of trying-to-dry laundry in it on hangers and over chairs and on my handy-dandy drying rack. :) I am trying to get caught up with laundry today so that I can finish packing for our road trip and vacation out west next week.
Another thing I am attempting to get caught up with is dusting. Yikes. It is quite astounding how fast dust bunnies and cobwebs can proliferate themselves. It is a satisfying job to have done though.
For our vacation this summer we’ll be driving out to Yellowstone in Montana for a week with some good friends of ours. I can’t wait to see all of the beautiful places. I enjoyed going out through South Dakota and Wyoming last summer. This year should be more of the same sort of beauties. We’ll be camping in a pop-up camper on the west side of Yellowstone near Old Faithful, I believe. We hope to take a day trip and see the Grand Tetons. It should be a fast but truly enjoyable week. We’ll leave on Sunday. I am not sure that I will have internet access during the trip, but I will take lots of pictures and post the best of them when we come back!

(My dearest took this picture last summer during our expotition out west.)

"‘Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide’ Genesis 24:63

Very admirable was his occupation. If those who spend so many hours in idle company, light reading, and useless pastimes, could learn wisdom, they would find more profitable society and more interesting engagements in meditation than in the vanities which now have such charms for them. We should all know more, live nearer to God, and grow in grace, if we were more alone. Meditation chews the cud and extracts the real nutriment from the mental food gathered elsewhere. When Jesus is the theme, meditation is sweet indeed. Isaac found Rebecca while engaged in private musings; many others have found their best beloved there.
Very admirable was the choice of place. In the field we have a study hung round with texts for thought. From the cedar to the hyssop, from the soaring eagle down to the chirping grasshopper, from the blue expanse of heaven to a drop of dew, all things are full of teaching, and when the eye is divinely opened, that teaching flashes upon the mind far more vividly than from written books. Our little rooms are neither so healthy, so suggestive, so agreeable, or so inspiring as the fields. Let us count nothing common or unclean, but feel that all created things point to their Maker, and the field will at once be hallowed.
Very admirable was the season. The season of sunset as it draws a veil over the day, befits that repose of the soul when earthborn cares yield to the joys of heavenly communion. The glory of the setting sun excites our wonder, and the solemnity of approaching night awakens our awe. If the business of this day will permit it, it will be well, dear reader, if you can spare an hour to walk in the field at eventide, but if not, the Lord is in the town too, and will meet with thee in thy chamber or in the crowded street. Let thy heart go forth to meet Him."

~Charles H. Spurgeon, from Morning and Evening (August 15, Morning)

Rain

Fresh Garden Salsa

Ah, Holy Jesus

Ah, holy Jesus, how have you offended,
That mortal judgement has on you descended?
By foes derided, by your own rejected,
O most afflicted!

Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon you?
It is my treason, Lord, that has undone you.
'Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied you;
I crucified you.

For me, kind Jesus, was your incarnation,
Your mortal sorrow, and your life's oblation,
Your death of anguish and your bitter passion,
For my salvation.

Therefore, dear Jesus, since I cannot pay you,
I do adore you, and will ever pray you,
Think on your pity and your love unswerving,
Not my deserving.

WORDS: Johann Heerman, 1630; para. of Jean de Fecamp, 11th C.; tr. (English) Robert Bridges, 1899, alt.
MUSIC: Johann Cruger, 1640

Sisterhood

::'~cooking yummy things together...including sister's caramelized summer squash and onion deliciousness~*~doing housework projects...twice as fast!~*~rosebud sheets~'::











::'~'fairy lights'~*~pink nail polish~*~embroidery: a green vine with little red berries on blue gingham~'::

First Tomato Harvest

Soft & Fuzzy

I finally finished a knitting project that I have been working on for a while. Hurrah! It is the softest, fuzziest thing ever.

Morning Glories