The reason for eternal thanksgiving!

The Supper of Thanksgiving

by Horatius Bonar (1801-1889)

For the bread and for the wine,

For the pledge that seals Him mine,

For the words of love divine,

We give Thee thanks, O Lord.

For the body and the blood,

For the more than angel's food,

For the boundless grace of God,

We give Thee thanks, O Lord.

For the chalice whence we sip

Moisture for the parched lip,

For the board of fellowship,

We give Thee thanks, O Lord.

For the feast of love and peace

Bidding all our sorrows cease,

Earnest of the kingdom's bliss,

We give Thee thanks, O Lord.

For the paschal lamb here given,

For the loaf without the leaven,
For the manna dropt from heaven,

We give Thee thanks, Oh Lord.

Only bread and only wine,

Yet to faith the solemn sign

Of the heavenly and divine!

We give Thee thanks, O Lord!

pinecone project

Last night, while my man was building cabinets in the garage with his dad (as usual!), Ana, Leah, and I had a lovely time making sparkly pinecones to decorate with this winter. Ana and Leah had gotten the idea, picked their pinecones and bought gold and silver paint and then invited me to bring my pinecones over to join the fun! We needed to paint them outside so we’d have proper ventilation (the garage being full of lovely wood cabinets), so we set up outside on the front step…even though it was only 33 degrees out. The pinecones turned out lovely! I enjoyed setting them out around my house once they were dry. They are so lovely to look at…gilded in gold or sparkling with frost-like silveryness. You’ll have to check out my sisters-in-law’s blogs to see how theirs turned out because I imagine they will be posting about their pineconial progress as well. :)

cooking notebook

I'm having fun adding recipes to my cooking notebook. Hurrah for holiday baking and trying new recipes!

bits and pieces

I'm back home today...so glad to see my man, but missing my mama and siblings' company during the day while he's at work!

more such things

My duck-carving, flatpicking brother, who also got a deer this week!

A Few Days at the Farm

My handsome man is away for a couple of days on a business trip this week, so while he is away I am visiting my parents and siblings on their farmplace. I drove here early this morning so I could enjoy a whole day with my peoples. It is a grey, windy November day...wonderful for doing school and cooking dinner, washing dishes and drinking tea, listening to cozy music and doing crafts at the kitchen table together. I love family life. The extra time with my people is so lovely.

fresh eggs ~':: Jesus--the reason for everything that we do ~':: tea steeping ~':: the duck-carving handiwork of my talented brother

a lovely farmhouse table setting ~':: herbs in for the winter ~':: a farmhouse dinner...oh, yum.

My project this afternoon was to make the ornaments for the Jesse Tree my man and I hope to have this year. I got the ornaments from Ann Voskamp's ebook. I printed them out, cut them out, and glued a piece of lovely coordinating cardstock to them for a back. The gold ribbon is the perfect finishing touch! They are so beautiful. I look forward to having them in my home. (I used the smaller ornament size.)

Morning light through white ~':: Eagerly thumbing through my favorite baking book for delicious holiday recipes ~'::

Stacks of folded, creamy-colored softness ~':: Trying to bring a pretty sort of order to a smallish kitchen ~'::

snow

We had our first snow flurries this afternoon! It wasn't cold enough for it to stay, except for on the edges of the tin garage roof or on a cold leaf. It came down pretty steadily for a while...blowing around in the street with the gusts of wind. A snowflake landed on my hand and I could see its lovely shape for a second before it melted. So now I am listening to "A Charlie Brown Christmas" music--something of a tradition in my family for the first day of snow. :)

Baby

For those of you who are interested, you can scroll down to the bottom of this page to keep track of my sweet tiny baby's development!

kitchen

My treasured Ukrainian tomato jar...from my Aunt Emma.


















Recipes, white dishes and twinkly lights ~'::
::'~ Our gorgeous new mugs from my man's dear family:
one for me and one for my man!
My sister saw them and said, "C.S. Lewis would approve!" (see the quote on my sidebar if you don't know what she is referring to).

::'~

Remember

This is a poem written by a sister in Christ in UT for another sister in Christ named Li Ying who has been imprisoned in China for Jesus' sake since 2001.

Read. Remember. Pray for these people.

How exquisite the fragrance that fills the air

Of darkened halls of shame and fear.

Among the guilty and profane

A sweet flow'r blooms amidst the pain.

Silently her cries ascend to God

Unheard, unheeded, so it seems.

Yet angels weep and wipe away her tears

Bring hope amid the questions and the fears.

Her crown is woven by her trials

Her tears are captured in God's vial.

Though justice is denied her here

Her cause is not forgotten there.

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a story

There once was a girl who had a bit of a problem...
Her tummy kept getting bigger and bigger because of a little somebody, and her clothes weren't fitting very well anymore.


So she took apart a dress she was given that didn't fit just quite right...




...and she measured and snipped and took in here and there...

shoulders and sleeves,
neckline and bodice,
waist height and skirt shape.



She made satin ribbon and sewed on beads and buttons.

And in the end it was just right!
(It looks like there's something going on on the left side of the neckline...but I assure you there isn't.)


Yep, I am very happy with my new dress. I love designing different styles for dresses. Always have. Sewing my own clothes is a wonderful opportunity to try out my ideas (with no risk to anyone else...although I do subject my sister and mother to whims of fancy when constructing something for them on occasion). This happens to be a dress in which I will imagine myself to be Kate Sutton from The Perilous Guard. :)
~*~*~*~*~*~

surprise

Did you ever guess that a book of paint samples could be so lovely as an art piece? I love it.

My Song Is Love Unknown

My song is love unknown, my Savior's love for me;
love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be:
but who am I, that for my sake
my Lord should take frail flesh and die?

He came from heaven's throne salvation to bestow;
but they refused, and none the longed-for Christ would know:
this is my friend, my friend indeed,
who at my need His life did spend.

Sometimes they crowd His way and His sweet praises sing,
resounding all the day hosannas to their king:
then "crucify" is all their breath,
and for His death they thirst and cry.

Why, what has my Lord done to cause this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run, and gave the blind their sight:
what injuries! yet these are why
the Lord most high so cruelly dies.

With angry shouts they have my dear Lord done away;
a murderer they save, the Prince of Life they slay!
Yet willingly He bears the shame
that through His name all might be free.

Here might I stay and sing of Him my soul adores;
never was love, dear King, never was grief like yours!
This is my friend in whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.

~Samuel Crossman, 1664; rev. Hymns for Today's Church, 1982

dinner together

blue corduroy and lace

A new cover for my ESV Reformation Study Bible! I am so pleased with it...it's exactly what I wanted. I'm thinking of maybe putting a strap on it to button over the open edge so the binding doesn't get pulled on so much...I'll have to see.