~ * ~

Bountiful berries

Strawberries.  Our first-ever harvest of them.  Our strawberry bed is thick with plants and full of berries.  Delicious.

 *  *  *

Creamy Iced Jasmine Green Tea

A wonderful drink for summer.  Delicious, refreshing and rejuvinating.

I make it up by the quart jar and keep it in my fridge, then take it with me when I'm gardening on a hot day or to church or to a family reunion.  Greta loves it too.  I keep a straw in mine to stir it.

*  *  *

SUMMER HAIL

*  *  *

As near Thy Cross a Garden lay,

So, as we follow in the way,

We find a garden.  Pain and loss

Were not the last words of the Cross.

Beyond the sharpness and the strife,

The Easter lily reigns in life.

And singing birds are in the trees;

Were ever singing birds like these?

O Lord, the solemn mystery

Of Cross and Garden beckons me.

Thou who didst never turn Thee back,

Keep my feet steadfast in the track.

~Amy Carmichael~

Mountain Breezes

(p. 232)

Still she sings

Meet Sadia Moyo, a little girl orphaned and abandoned amidst the horror of the genocide in Sudan. Sadia has been rescued by the brothers there, crazy enough to pour their lives out for Christ and the orphans around them.

We can't comprehend what these children have gone through or the danger that they face every day. I've been reading about the work of Kimberly Smith* and Make Way Partners. Beautiful, ugly, agonizing work to rescue women and children from human trafficking and other forms of slavery. Torn by joy for those they can give safety and hope to and deep pain for the hundreds, thousands and more still suffering.

Please care. Help if you can. Above all pray to our God, the One who hears the cries of the desolate and is our only hope, the only one who can bring justice and peace and redemption.

Sadia is now being cared for. Kimberly writes: Day by day, Sadia takes the new girls under her wing, teaching them how to make tea, clean up, and find joy.

She sings, "I have power, in Jesus I have power...Lord Jesus give me power every hour."

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.




*  *  *  *

Do you want to know me?




***

*Warning: Some of the content in these links is appalling and deeply disturbing. It is also really happening.

Family Reunion





My Great-Grandparents, Robert & Erma, and their children
(my Grandpa Bob is top right)



Last Saturday both my family of origin and my own little family got in our big green van and drove to a beautiful dairy farm belonging to my mama's cousin and her husband for a family reunion.  The gathering was for Mama's family, on her dad's side.

It was such a pleasant day.  Blue sky, bright sunshine and time to visit with relatives.

Mama, Aunt Emma and our hostess, Mama's cousin, Julie

Basketball

The lunch line

 

Eating with cousins, visiting with Uncle Kevin

Mama found a baby to snuggle

Mama and her Aunt Linda

There was even a calf just waiting for a little friend.

What a beautiful place it was.

I like cows.

 

 

Pa even blew bubbles for the littles!

***



Great-Grandpa Robert & Great-Grandma Erma

(left & middle)





 Mama with her Grandma Erma -->







 My Grandpa Bob





***

My very own dad and mama

"[I]t is beyond all ordinary rules that I, a poor, helpless, undone sinner, should find grace to bear about in my soul the indwelling Spirit of the Lord Jesus.  I, who once despaired, as well I might, for my nature was as dry, and withered, and barren, and accursed as a howling wilderness, even I have been made to bring forth fruit unto holiness.  Well may my mouth be filled with joyous laughter, because of the singular, surprising grace which I have received of the Lord, for I have found Jesus, the promised seed, and He is mine for ever.This day I will lift up psalms of triumph unto the Lord who has remembered my low estate...."

~ C.H.Spurgeon
from Morning & Evening
(June 15, Morning)

Nigella

Late night succor.



Trying to get a tired yet wakeful teething one to sleep.
Nigella to the rescue as my eyelids droop.

I never get tired of these episodes.

Kitchen Shelf

as I found it
in the afternoon light

Mr. Squishy,

teething and tired, crawling around my legs and banging the cupboard doors.

Mommie's camera flash is so bright!

(Even prettier, I think, than a freshly shined bottom of a pan is the first use after...blues and pinks and a star.)

All in a day's work...