Of pots and pans and sacks of coffee~

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Behold my new rack for pots and pans! I would say that it was just what I wanted, but actually Caleb took my idea and greatly improved upon it. My hooks alternate in length in order to get as many pans as possible up, and they will not come off but slide left and right to arrange as I please.

The curtain is new (to me) as well. My papa had a stash of coffee bean sacks from Latin America that he let me pick through, and I found this one from Mexico that has a stripe of the loveliest dusty blue.

Priidite, Poklonimsya!

Rachmaninoff’s “Vespers” is playing into our home this morning; an all-time favorite of mine. We used to always be checking it out from the library, Robert Shaw’s version, and finally Mama got our own copy. Beware of other arrangements. It loses something when it’s sung too fast. Priidite, Poklonimsya! Come, Let Us Worship! Greta is accompanying it on her little four-note plinky piano in all the seriousness of a musician perfecting his craft.

I did write a bit last night and will post as soon as I finish uploading some pictures. :)
(*update: It's published now...see below.*)

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I just pulled chocolate cake out of the oven. Mmm it smells good. I found the recipe at Passionate Homemaking. It is 100% whole wheat, but is so moist and delicious. I am extra glad to have something that tasty coming out of the oven, since we’ve been dealing with a malfunctioning oven for the last couple of days. There is something very shiny and new coming to my house tomorrow to fix that problem for good…

Since posting last we’ve had several lovely days “following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string”, as Anne Shirley says. Greta has discovered a love for being outside. She loves to spend time outside walking around in her little Ollie-the-owl shoes on the concrete pad, making forays into the grass or the garden, stooping to pick up a special rock to carry around for the rest of her time outside. She knows how to get out, so I have to keep a close eye on her and make sure the doors stay locked. : ) She is careful, though, and knows to get her coat and shoes on before going outside and to hold onto the railing as she goes down the front steps. She asked ‘specially to go out this afternoon, but unfortunately it was raining too hard to be much fun for a little girl. She likes to pick Johnny-jump-up flowers from my patch. So pretty!

She got a new little camp chair at a tool sale in town last week, complete with a cup holder for her sippie that she uses when she is outside in the garage with Daddy or the garden with Mommie. (She actually says “mama” to me now, which I find completely thrilling!) She used it last weekend to hop into periodically while she was helping me (and Grandma, and Auntie…and later others) dig up our new garden on the west side of the house.

Greta is altogether a girl. She is drawn to all things pretty: “Prow!” She loves to dress up already and will go around the house with her favorite turquoise blue t-shirt or another similarly bright article of clothing (hopefully clean). She puts it on her head ‘cause she thinks its so pretty. She has had a cold over the last week or so and it learning how to blow her nose, so (somewhat unfortunately) she’ll practice on her same favorite t-shirt or a cloth from the towel cupboard, holding it up to her nose (or her forehead!) and blowing…then dress-up time is resumed. : ) The other day she had her little pink bucket to play with and worked hard arranging and rearranging her little collection of toys and sippie in there, then walked out onto the porch, saying “bye!”. Apparently she was going on an expotition. She also loves to stir things in her little tin cup.

I’ve been maniacally crocheting potholders for the last couple of days. Mine were getting worn and I decided to use some yarn ends to make myself a new set. I am quite pleased to have them. : ) I had the idea Sunday evening and, in my usual obsessive style, had one almost done on Monday.

Crocheting is greatly improved by listening to good sermons, and I have had several good ones to listen to this week. I just found Pastor Francis Chan for the first time this week, thanks to Mama, thanks to Ann. His sermons are so edifying. I look forward to making my way through all of them that I can find. I’ve found good listening through links at “Between Two Worlds” as well, as always. Sermons, I meant, but also through J.T. I discovered LeCrae and his music. Wow. “God honoring, culture piercing and world-view shaping”, as Thabiti Anyabwile put it here in his podcast on “Holy Hip Hop”. I was impressed by LeCrae’s testimony, given in three interviews by Desiring God, beginning here. I am thankful that God raises up men like this to unashamedly proclaim Christ. I’ve been fed.

***

Your money your singleness, marriage, talents, your time/

they were loaned to you to show the world that Christ is Divine/

that's why it's Christ in my rhymes/

That's why it's Christ all the time/

see my whole world is built around him He's the life in my lines/

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I refuse to waste my life/

he's too true ta chase that ice/

here's my gifts and time cause I'm constantly trying to be used to praise the Christ/

If he's truly raised to life/

then this news should change your life/

and by his grace you can put your faith in place that rules your days and nights.

--LeCrae

***

Rosie’s cold so far hasn’t seemed to improve much…throat for a while, now sinus nasties and a wet cough. She’s teething too (eye teeth), but has been a remarkably cheerful little soul despite it all. She is sleeping well now; I am glad. She is positively the snuggliest, squishiest, yummiest little person I’ve ever met.

My man’s project in his free time these days is making a smoker--as in one of those big grill-things with a firebox on the side for smoking a brisket for a party or something. We’re pretty excited to try it out. It’s going to be a nice looking smoker, all stainless! (It’s helpful to have a metalworker for a husband.)

Speaking of which…the handsome dude made a beautiful aluminum rack to hang my pots and pans from above my stove. I am thrilled! I have wanted one ever since I was old enough for Mama to show me pictures of elements of her dream kitchen. (I’m not sure where her ideas leave off and mine begin, but we love it that way! It works for us. A synergy.)

Well, so now you know that I’m still here. I’m doing the dailies (some of them at least) and seeking to do them in light of eternity. Sometimes that means shutting off my computer so the real here and now is all there is. I do like checking in to a few favorite places for encouragement and inspiration, though.

:: from my finds ::

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My $1 orange tufted chair--
perfect for my bedroom;
I was thrilled.

The lady at the garage sale thought no one would want it;
she probably would have given it to me.

It's very comfortable.

Carrot-orange and velvety...
It couldn't be better.

* * * * *
(My man also got us a [new] set of fire irons. No more poking with a stick. A happy thought indeed!)

Don't worry...I have since cleaned out the dusties from the tufts of my chair! :)

my garage sale buddy

One of them :)
It was our town's weekend for citywide garage sales again. Greta Rose and I went around to the sales with Auntie Ana and had a lovely time of it! We found many good things. ~'::

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Greening ~

Sunrise through olive oil ~'::
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Breakfast Biscuits ~'::
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Little girl peasant nighties (made from a soft flat sheet) ~'::

growing

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My little "Crown of Thorns" sprouts poked through the moss yesterday morning.

(They'll grow to be a vine with decorative bi-color or striped gourds.)

“[I]n respect of our ignorance, we stand in need of His prophetical office;
and in respect of our alienation from God, and imperfection of the best of our
services, we need His priestly office to reconcile us and present us acceptable
unto God; and in respect of our averseness and utter inability to return to
God, and for our rescue and security from our spiritual adversaries, we need His
kingly office to convince, subdue, draw, uphold, deliver, and preserve us to His
heavenly kingdom.”

(The London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, VIII “Of Christ the Mediator”:10)

We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Isa. 53:4

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See him dying on the tree!
‘Tis the Christ by man rejected;
Yes, my soul, ‘tis he, ‘tis he!
‘Tis the long expected Prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
By his Son God now has spoken:
‘Tis the true and faithful Word.

Tell me, ye who hear him groaning,
Was there ever grief like his?
Friends thro’ fear his cause disowning,
Foes insulting his distress;
Many hands were raised to wound him,
None would interpose to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced him
Was the stroke that Justice gave.

Ye who think of sin but lightly
Nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed,
See who bears the awful load;
‘Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed,
Son of Man and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost;
Christ’s the Rock of our salvation,
His the name of which we boast.
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on him their hope have built.


Thomas Kelly, 1804
O MEIN JESU, ICH MUSS STERBEN 8.7.8.7.D.
Geistliche Volkslieder, Paderborn, 1850

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“It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both, to be the Mediator between God and man; the Prophet, Priest, and King; Head and Savior of His church, the Heir of all things, and Judge of the world; unto whom He did from all eternity give a people to be His seed and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.

The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father’s glory, of one substance and equal with Him who made the world, who upholdeth and governeth all things He hath made, did, when the fullness of time was come, take unto Him man’s nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin….

The Lord Jesus, in His human nature thus united to the divine, in the person of the Son, was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure, having in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell, to the end that being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth, He might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a mediator and surety; which office He took not upon Himself, but was thereunto called by His Father; who also put all power and judgement in His hand, and gave Him commandment to execute the same.

This office the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake, which that He might discharge He was made under the law, and did perfectly fulfill it, and underwent the punishment due to us, which we should have borne and suffered, being made sin and a curse for us; enduring most grievous sorrows in His soul, and most painful sufferings in His body; was crucified, and died, and remained in the state of the dead, yet saw no corruption: on the third day He arose from the dead with the same body in which He suffered, with which He also ascended into heaven, and there sitteth at the right hand of His Father making intercession, and shall return to judge men and angels at the end of the world.

The Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience and sacrifice of Himself, which He through the eternal Spirit once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of God, procured reconciliation, and purchased an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven for all those whom the Father hath given unto Him.”

(The London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, VIII “Of Christ the Mediator”)

juice glasses

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So lovely ::'~
~
from my Auntie Emma
brought back from Ukraine
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I can't wait to use them.
Thank you, Auntie!
You'll have to come and sip kombucha from them with me sometime.

Dimple Sunshine

* * * * * * *

Playing in the sunpatch with Auntie:

Monday evening date

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Homemade ice cream after Greta goes to bed!

Rosemary

Rosmarinus officinalis

* * *

My lovely new olive oil bottle (a present from my man)

Beautiful--with little "church window" designs in the glass