SHE LIVES!!!

I have missed each and everyone of you the past 2 weeks! I've checked now and then on blogs but haven't had much computer time.

I thought my orders were slowing down because there were none for about 5 days...giving me time to catch up and see the last of the orders but this week they came in heavy again so it's has been sewing for me. And YES, I love it but I sure do miss posting here and commenting on your blogs.
And because of my sewing I've had nothing exciting to post about.

Did your week go by as fast for you as it did for me - seems like just a couple days ago it was Friday heading into the long weekend.
Our son and grandson stopped here before work this afternoon and our Grandson said his 1 year review is coming up next week and he said how fast time goes by anymore...and he's 20!!!! LOL. He said when he was in school you gauged your time by school and then summer break...now it just flys by. Sometimes the young learn fast...lol

I had a special order for a smaller Sheep runner because she's putting it across a sheep so I had a large sheep and put it on and I love it so now I'll make them in different seasons and holidays...what do you think?
Also, does anyone know where I can find some of these large sheep. It's about 14 inches high and about 18 inches long.
Isn't it cute????




A friend of my husbands went to Oregon a while back to the College basketball playoffs and went to this popular restaruant called Ottos and who was in there but Guy Fieri (center) from the food network doing a taping...afterwards he came over and talked to Mike (left) and his brother Pat (right). Cool huh???




On Tuesday the 2nd we're heading for Lancaster, PA for a week to our cousin's daughters graduation party and a bit of shopping and I'm also meeting some great girls from A Primitive Place forum. We're meeting on Thursday morning for breakfast and chatting and getting to know each other...should be a great day and I'm soooo anxious.
Plus I'm going to try and finalize some plans for THE GATHERING OF FRIENDS trip in August.
But I'll check in nightly to see what's going on in blogland.

Well that's about it for this poor sole - real interesting huh?
I tried to scrape something up but this is all I could do...lol

Hugs, Karen

Another Milestone

Today we celebrated another milestone in our family. Our grandson Jaxson Price Turner was one year old. Love you my little sweetie!


Jaxson at one day old.


Jaxson at one year. What a cutie!

One Feminist's About-Face

Wow. This is startling to see in print... a former feminist and champion for women's rights now believes women should be home with their kids.

SHE IS one of feminism's pioneers and founder of the UK's first refuge for victims of domestic violence, but after decades of fighting for women's rights Erin Pizzey has come to a startling conclusion: women should stay at home and look after the children while men go out to work.

Her revelations don't stop there. Pizzey also believes that with mothers away from home working, their child's development will be harmed. Her views are supported by new research conducted by Birbeck College in London, which suggests that the longer children are in childcare, as opposed to with parents, the more aggressive they become.

advertisement

... In [a new BBC2] programme, she says: "I think the traditional way the family was run has been going for thousands of years and it works. What I see now is men disenfranchised from their roles. Women are lost because they now have to work full-time. They don't have a choice. There is no proper child care, there's nobody home when the children come home." (Hat tip: Ladies Against Feminism)

I'm stunned -- how delightful to see someone who is willing to really look hard at the mess we westerners have gotten ourselves into and actually admit that perhaps we've misprioritized our lives. Thoughts?

Seven Things About Me

I was tagged by Zita, who has a lovely blog that I enjoy Mlle Magpie, to share seven things about myself and then pass this along to seven interesting people that I would love to know more about. Thanks so much Zita for honoring me!

1~I will be 50 (how did that happen?) next month. Oy vay!

2~My favorite color is brown.

3~I am a terrible procrastinator but a type A personality.

4~I hate housework and do less of it all the time.

5~I have way more ideas and projects in my brain than time.

6~I am madly in love with my two grandbabies.

7~The older I get, the less afraid I am to dress weird.

Okay now for my selection of sistas and one dude to pass this along to:

1~Deb of Talking Trash.

2~Lulu of 2Chippys.

3~Sue of Bella Shabby.

4~Jermonne of Barn House.

5~Tina of Dream In Cream.

6~Lisa of La Rustique Market.

7~Margo of Margo's Junkin' Journal.

Tag, you're it!

The Morning Star Cafe

I just got an email from J.D. Ray with pictures of his cafe in Portland, which has recently reopened in a new space with a steampunk inspired decor. (My plans for world domination march forward, as J.D. says "the pictures, projects, and general ideas on things that you've posted on your blog were instrumental in us developing the decor for our cafe.")


The cafe features warm coloring, fabulous light fixtures, and a lovely gear laden mural.


Thanks for sharing, J.D. -- I know I'll be visiting next time I'm in Portland!

Wise-Worded Women

Lately, I've been contemplating all kinds of things...

• How to be the kind of wife that is described in Proverbs 31: 11, 12, 23, 26.
  
• This video of a speech given by a young woman on the verge of dying from cancer.
• How to avoid being/becoming the proverbial nagging or "argumentative wife"
  
• 1 Corinthians 13-- that oh-so-convicting passage that shows me what an awful love-r I really am.

And other things too...

...and I keep coming back to the idea that I, as a young woman, need to be actively and carefully pursuing wisdom. Not for wisdom's sake... but so that I can "SERVE with joy" as is advised in the video linked above. So that I can wisely COUNSEL my husband when he needs it, in order to assist him and propel him in the way the Proverbs woman does. So that I can JOYFULLY speak truth and remain faithful in hard times, as the wife & mother of young children who is dying from cancer has done. So that my words become DEPENDABLE and STEADY... that I might never be that woman who is as annoying as a constant dripping sound... that I might never drive my husband insane with incessant nagging and impossible expectations. So that I can OFFER wise teaching and influence in the lives of my growing children. So that I might really and truly LOVE.

FLIMSY, DRIPPY, UNWISE WORDS
Last week, I really blew it. Though there was undoubtedly a mix of hormones, culture stress, sadness at Doug's impending week away, and honest frustration, I was anything but steady. My words were not solid words of wise counsel. They were flimsy and faithless. What was I lacking? Self-control? Surely. A long-term perspective? Absolutely. I was lacking wisdom.

It is so easy to write off our sin as "hormonal". Or the effects of a bad day. Or as a natural response to something really rotten. But the truth is that as women, one of the things we will be later called to teach to other women is "self-control". So we ought to be learning it while we're younger, it seems to me.

Instead of adding to what should be a growing reservoir of dependable wisdom flowing out of my mouth, so that my husband could be confident in his trust of me, I acted like the drippy wife. Grumping. Griping. Throwing words around.

Oh, how much I want to be a woman who speaks wisely! A woman who keeps her mouth shut when foolish things would try to escape from her lips (or fingers, if writing!)... and a woman who speaks when prompted by the Spirit of God. A woman who knows and skillfully wields God's Word as a balm to the hurting, an encouragement to the discouraged, a help to the searcher, an exhortation to the wanderer, and instruction to the young. A woman who does not seek after her own glory or what will be the most comfortable and attractive... but who seeks after the glory of God and works towards the good of others.

And it always comes back to:
IN ORDER TO DO THAT, I NEED TO KNOW GOD'S WORD.
So what am I going to do about it? Each day, I spend time cooking. Cleaning. Reading-- for myself and to my children. Learning a language. Spending time with my awesome husband. Playing guitar and dancin' with the kiddos... and none of it is bad. But if I neglect the main things-- knowing Christ, knowing His Word, spending time in prayer so that He might change me... it will slowly (or maybe even quickly) erode away at what I am able to live out. I may get the externals right-- but it will be hollow-- propped up by only my own ways & thoughts rather than the ways & words of Christ.

God tells us-- EXPLICITLY TELLS US-- that if we need wisdom, HE WILL GIVE IT.

That verse has been a life verse for Doug & I. When we need wisdom in our marriage, we ask for it. Before we have dinner with friends that have acted wisely in some area of their lives, we ask for God to give us wisdom through the conversation. When we need to know what to do, we ask for wisdom. When we don't know how to pray, we ask for wisdom. And He so faithfully gives... and a large portion of that is through the things He's already written to us.

THE ANSWER IS IN THE WORD; THE ANSWER IS THE WORD.
The Bible is powerful and active... but we have to be meditating on it. It won't bulldoze us over as though it's a magic spell-- we have to let it work in us and through us. I don't have it all figured out, but I know this:

IF I WANT TO BE A WISE-WORDED WOMAN,
I NEED TO BE A WOMAN OF THE WORD.

I've gotta be reading and meditating on Scripture. And so that's what I'm off to do before bed tonight.

How are you doing in the area of knowing the Word and using it wisely-- in your own life and in the lives of others? What parts of Scripture have been meaningful to you in dealing with the drippyness of our complain-filled mouths and minds as women? Please, share-- anything and everything you think might be helpful for me or others facing tough days and pursuing wisdom.

India by Rail

By the photographer Steve McCurry. This was featured on a cover of National Geographic on "India by Rail."

The steam engine, with the Taj Mahal in the background, makes for one of the most romantic steampunk images I've ever seen.

Thanks Peg

I bought this fabulous old cast iron floor lamp last spring from Terri (Garden Worthy) at Marburger. Mr. Sweet Pea re-wired it and it now sits in my living room. It even came with the old tubular bulbs. Love it! But it needed a little somethin' somethin'... And so, this spring Peg (French Vanilla) had these adorable lampshades that were dripping with old seam binding wrapped around them in rumpled bows. Peg was kind enough to let me snap some pics and I decided that this treatment was exactly what my lamp needed. Here's my version... What do you think?

Lightbulb Moment!

I have recently become aware of the fact that I am a bonafide geek. Really.

Evidence?

* Watching Antiques Roadshow (now free for viewing online @ pbs.org-wahoo!!!) or BBC/Nat'l Geographic specials is as delightful as slurping down a bucket of ice cream for me, plus-- my knowledge is the only thing that grows bigger when I slurp down a history special.
* We don't own a TV and like it that way (we do any DVD viewing on our laptops). We miss out on TV & movie trends, but that is A-OK with us.
* Like most women, I like to shop... but what I like to shop for is books. My public Amazon wishlist is quite lengthy... and I have a private Amazon wishlist as well, and it's even longer.
* Learning about history is a main event in our home... (case in point: the night before last, we all lined up on the couch-- even our 1 & 2 year olds were sitting still-- for an hour while we watched a PBS special about Thomas Jefferson. That's right, Thomas Jefferson. I'm telling you, we are dweebs.)
* I'm far too excited about the twenty-or-so tomato plants growing on our balcony.
* After trying out the lemon juice ink trick for secret messages (it didn't work for us, maybe we did something wrong?), my almost-7-year-old and I had a blast writing each other notes throughout the afternoon yesterday in a fancy cipher spy code from a new book of his.


And these are just a few examples. Really, I'm a geek. And I'm completely OK with that. :) Anyone else willing to own up to geekiness?

A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

~ ~ ~ I JUST UPDATED MY PICTURETRAIL AT 3 PM TODAY ~ ~ ~

I started a PictureTrail this weekend with all my favorite things I love to look at: http://www.picturetrail.com/kmprimitives
Now if you go to it you'll not see a link back to the albums...not sure how to fix that. Anyone know????

But if you go there, there are 6 different albums. So here's just a small peek at what doesn't show in some of the pictures I post and what doesn't show in the magazine article.

I have also been very busy with orders - they still are coming in and I'm grateful for that....and I'm still not tired of all that sewing. On days when I'm not sewing my mind keeps saying 'get back to it'....now that's just not right - my mind doesn't even take a break.

Oh the mess outside! The city is tearing up the street from our corner and up the hill - there are huge pieces of machinery everywhere.

So now that the temps are in the 70's and my dining room - right there in the front - is all new and clean I can't even open the windows for nice fresh clean air and this will be going on for a at least a good week!!! Next comes the wonderful smell of tar!!!!! Uhg!

But here's the strange thing....I LOVE IT! I really love seeing all sorts of activity and progress. I love hearing the lawn mowers, hammers on roofs, sometimes, not always....dogs barking if it's in the distance....I just love knowing life goes on....the quite is peaceful, but it's also a lonely sound.

I had a giggle when I saw this guy cleaning his windows and I asked myself 'Why????" LOl Can you see him???

Hope you are enjoying yourself this early Spring day and that the weather is great where you are and you can have alllllll your windows open!!!

Thanks for being with me today.

Karen

Mark Driscoll on Pride

Insightful words from Driscoll on pride & self-esteem (from the sermon, "Humble Pastors" looking at 1 Peter 5:1-5).

"Pride is demonic. ...Ever since [Eden], pride has been the problem. Most of us don't even understand that it's a problem, because satan also went into the marketing business and he's repackaged pride as self-esteem. Utter nonsense!

'Well You need to have self-esteem.' No you don't! Your identity is in Christ; your joy is in Christ! ... Live for God's glory, not your own!
...
'Well what about self-help?' That's the problem! We don't help ourselves; we need Jesus. It's not self-help, self-esteem, self-actualization. It's God, it's Christ, it's grace, it's gospel, it's glory to Him! We miss this totally.

You see this starting at youth. This is like a toxin that's put into your soul from birth. "Oh, you're a snowflake, you're special, there's no one like you." There was a study that came out; they tested American kids versus kids around the world. We score the lowest in geography, scored really low in math, really low in reading, and really high-- among the highest in the world-- in self-esteem.

This is what happens... "you can be anything you want, you can do anything you want to do, you're a snowflake, you can even go to Burger King and get it your way, right away." ... It's crazy-- you live in a insane, demonically-inspired culture that wants to make you the center of the universe, wants to make your glory the penultimate goal of your existence, and wants you to think that everyone should bow down and realize how amazing you are and it's satanic. No help at all. Because God opposes the proud. Think about that. To be proud is to fight God. And God gives grace to the humble.

...What we don't need is pride; we need grace. ..."God I need help; I need a Savior. I don't need self-esteem; I need identity in Christ. I don't need to self-actualize; I need to worship You, live for Your glory. I need to get out of myself; I'm addicted to myself. I think about myself. I love myself. All the time, and only my self."

I've said it before, I'll say it again-- there are times and ways that I have failed you. This is utterly condemning: arrogance, haughtiness, boastfulness. I have failed you. I deeply regret ways I have acted, things I have said. I ask your forgiveness. I would ask us all to follow Jesus. I hope by God's grace to grow in this.

... We're all so proud. CJ (Mahaney) says the best we can say is: "We are proud people pursuing humility by the grace of God."

Good stuff, there. What say you?

RE-ARRANGED

I know, I just posted about this room already, but today I went in and switched out the two cupboards you see on the left wall and put the accessories in different places - now I like it and it's going to stay!
Do you have any idea how easy it is to move these large pieces around on that floor especially with the felt pads on the bottom....I can do it myself now and don't even need to empty them out to do it! Power!!!

I also put up some of my Salt Glaze Pottery - I kept it to just the larger crocks on the front wall and the pitchers on the side wall and it's not as crowded and junky looking...it's going to stay this way as well!

So this is all I'm going to post about this room....it has been over thought, over posted and I'm calling it quits - on to something else now.....see ya!!!

Karen

KIND OF FINISHED

Good evening my dear blogging friends - needless to say I didn't end up going to Pennsylvania - long story but won't bore you with it -it will happen sometime soon though...just not this time.

I had a few free minutes today so I put up my new Tobacco Cloth panels on the windows.
I bought them from Family Heirloom Weavers in Red Lion, Pennsylvania this past Feb. and I tried putting them up a couple weeks ago on the two side windows but didn't like how they took away the natural light but I thought about it some more and tried them again and now I like them so they'll stay.

I took a couple pictures with the flash off so you can see how sheer they actually are....I think they're very Colonial looking and am loving it.

I'm still not sure if my cupboards and pie safes are staying where they are - I was used to the other arrangement so we'll see.

OH, AND THE LITTLE TAN RUG DOESN'T BELONG THERE FOR LOOKS - IT'S MY KITTIES SPOT TO SIT AND WATCH OUT THE WINDOW....what we do for our animals!

I also went to the garden center and bought 2 large potted plants for the courtyard......it's so difficult finding plants for shade that have pretty color but I think I did pretty good. I had to bring them into the house tonight because they just came from being inside the greenhouse and it's rather cool tonight plus it wants to rain.

Part of my Mother's Day gift from our son and his family was used to purchase these pretties.

But before we went for the flowers we stopped at an estate sale and look what I got....2 14 inch Pewter plates and a large 18 inch charger plus a creamer and sugar set....all for $11.00!!!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone

MIA

So you ask, where have I been? Here and there, to and fro, like sagebrush caught in the wind. Have you ever had a period of time where you just couldn't finish anything you started, couldn't get out of your own way? Well that is where I've been. Starting several new projects, finishing none. Dabbling. Driving myself crazy. I know WHAT I want to do~~so as Nike says~~why can't I "Just Do IT"! Words of enouragement appreciated here...

I'll be back...

Sustaining Contentment

Lately, I've struggled with contentment. Or maybe a better way to say it would be that I've *noticed* an ongoing struggle with contentment in my life. While life is not gumdrop perfect in any way, I have so many blessings and joys in life... and yet I struggle to maintain the elusive "attitude of gratitude" (I loathe cheesy rhymes and phrases, but this one is so perfect for what I need to cultivate that I'm going with it.) and be content. Sometimes it's the people, sometimes it's the place, sometimes it's the circumstances... but I am now realizing that I have allowed seeds of discontented bitterness to spring up in my life unabated.

Yesterday, I came across some helpful advice and wise words... all of which seem directed at me:

1. QUICKLY DEAL WITH THE SIN YOU SEE IN YOUR LIFE - Jay Adams offers sage wisdom about not harboring sin in your heart. Sadly, I have seen the effects of what happens when I as a believer allow sin to creep in and claim and control portions of my life... particularly in my thoughts.
   
2. Reading Psalm 51 is always one of the first places I go when I need to confess sin-- ESPECIALLY when I don't feel like it, when I'd rather just maintain the status-quo. "Have mercy"... "wash me thoroughly"... "against You have I sinned"... "purge me"... "blot out"... "create", "renew", "restore", "uphold", "deliver". I love Psalm 51's honesty about sin and its target of renewal and restoration... as the living and active Word of God, when I read it and use it as a prayer to the LORD, it somehow works in me to bring about a right attitude even when I start out with a rebellious, self-focused desire to stay the same.
   
3. PRESCRIPTION FOR CONTENTMENT: "*Never allow yourself to complain about anything - not even the weather. *Never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else. *Never compare your lot with another’s. *Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise. *Never dwell on tomorrow - remember that [tomorrow] is God’s, not ours." Good advice. And it's now up on my fridge, cause I need to read it again and again. :)
4. I somehow ran across this old post: A LIFE WITHOUT COMPLAINING (Excellent advice here!)
   
5. This Puritan Prayer-- "HEART CORRUPTIONS"
   

   O God, may Thy Spirit speak in me that I may speak to thee. I have no merit, let the merit of Jesus stand for me. I am undeserving, but I look to Thy tender mercy. I am full of infirmities, wants, sin; Thou art full of grace.

   I confess my sin, my frequent sin, my wilful sin; all my powers of body and soul are defiled: a fountain of pollution is deep within my nature. There are chambers of foul images within my being; I have gone from one odious room to another, walked in a no-man's-land of dangerous imaginations, pried into the secrets of my fallen nature.

   I am utterly ashamed that I am what I am in myself; I have no green shoot in me nor fruit, but thorns and thistles; I am a fading leaf that the wind drives away; I live bare and barren as a winter tree, unprofitable, fit to be hewn down and burnt. Lord, dost Thou have mercy on me?

   Thou hast struck a heavy blow at my pride, at the false god of self, and I lie in pieces before Thee. But Thou hast given me another master and lord, Thy Son, Jesus, and now my heart is turned towards holiness, my life speeds as an arrow from a bow towards complete obedience to Thee. Help me in all my doings to put down sin and to humble pride. Save me from the love of the world and the pride of life, from everything that is natural to fallen man, and let Christ's nature be seen in me day by day. Grant me grace to bear Thy will without repining, and delight to be not only chiselled, squared, or fashioned, but separated from the old rock where I have been embedded so long, and lifted from the quarry to the upper air, where I may be built in Christ for ever.

6. And then today came this story of a woman content to be confined to life in a metal tube for 60 years. Truly, contentment is worth the having. Just as discontentedness can change blessings to seeming-curses, contentment can change miserable circumstances to delightful ones.
   

This week, I have to tell you, I really got fed up with refinement. What a poor attitude for a believer, a Christ-follower, to have! I wanted to run from His sanctifying and changing work in me and just "be left alone for a while" (as I told a friend). But that is not the road of Christ. Though it hurts, though it is tiring, though it threatens to make me into something new and the new can be frightening, though it feels as though the road keeps narrowing for me, though the self-grown protective scales must be ripped off to reveal the soft flesh beneath... it's really what I want.

And I say that with resignment. I'll confess- I'm not always an eager trooper for Christ. I want to be. I want to want Him. But I so often fail... it is in these moments that I am thankful that HE is the One that keeps me and it is not my own goodness that will recommend and reconcile me to Him.

How do you cultivate contentment in your life? How do you stave off bitterness and a critical nature? What Scriptures, books, articles, or advice have helped you in your fight for joy and delight in the LORD?

RHUBARB CAKE & NEW PENNY MAT

I thought I'd share this recipe with you - it's rhubarb season and I'm so happy ours is finally producing!

I sent almost half the cake home with our son yesterday so ours is almost gone but hopefully when I get back from PA there will be larger stalks for me to pull and make another one.

Rhubarb Cake

This is a heavy moist cake and just delicious!

Oven 350
9 x 13 cake pan

2-1/2 cups rhubarb - cut into ½ inch cubes
1/2 cup sugar
Mix this sugar with the rhubarb - let sit while mixing cake

1/2 cup margarine or butter - soft
1-1/2 cups sugar
Cream these two together till creamy
3 eggs - add this to the creamed mixture

Now add
2 cups flour
1 teasp. Vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teasp. baking soda
1/2 teasp. baking powder
Dash of salt

Mix all together as you would any other cake, beat about 2 minutes
Add rhubarb - fold into cake batter
Put in buttered/floured cake pan
Sprinkle top with cinnamon and sugar
Bake 40 minutes (insert knife in center - if it comes out clean it’s done)
Serve with whip cream, cool whip or ice cream

VARIATION:
I have used apples cut up in place of the rhubarb and it’s just as delicious.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This week I had a request for 'Just Pennies' on a table mat so this is what I came up with and she approved it and loved it! I'm happy!

So now I have put it on my site as of today. It measures 14" square and had alternating Penny stacks of Black, Bronze and Brick Red.
　

NOTHING MUCH HAPPENING

Please know that I am still here!

I have been so busy finishing up orders so I can head for Pennsylvania tomorrow (Thursday).

I want to do some wholesale shopping for some particular items and on Saturday I'm meeting a huge group of gals from PRIM MART community forum - they have their annual convention going on in Harrisburg and on Sat. they are all heading for Lancaster and I'm meeting up with them for a day of shopping...fun huh????

The weather here has been beautiful but now today we woke up to rain!
Yesterday Doug and I spent the day running errands and I also baked a Rhubarb Cake - we finally have some usable Rhubarb from our patch out back...the last few years it has been tiny stalks and the leaves shrivel up before we can even harvest it......and we finally found out that there is a BLACK WALNUT tree about 50 feet away in a neighbors yard and they are poison to Rhubarb, Tomatoes and many different flowers....WHO KNEW!!!!

I will try and keep posting on the blogs while I'm away but probably won't get anything interesting posted here....I haven't even got my dining room back in order yet....WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME! Oh, it's all back in - just not where I want it yet so when it happens I'll take pictures.

I have the cupboards and pie safes in a different arrangement and I'm not sure if I like it so you just may see pictures of THE OLD ARRANGEMENT when I do figure it out - but at least you will see it all with the new floor - which I am still very happy with.
Now I'm thinking I would love it in my kitchen as well.

I sent out an update to the GATHERING OF FRIENDS to those that have responded to me.
If you want to consider joining us there's lots of time left to decide - just got to the link on the right side at the top of my sidebar to go to the post.

Have a great day!
Karen

Quotes On My Mind Today...

Instead of brain-dumping, I thought I'd share these quotes which are all rattling around in my heart and mind... from a variety of books I'm currently reading... hopefully they'll speak to you as well:

If you have a genuine desire to please God, you will want to discern as much of His will as you can. You will be faithfully storing up Scripture, properly interpreted and related to other passages of Scripture, every day. You will not wait until the problem comes to go running for your Bible. The more that you learn through daily study and thoughtful, meditative assimilation of the truth into life, the more prepared you will be to meet it when the crunch comes on Thursday. ... Don't be concerned about how much or how little knowledge you have at the moment; just continually get all that you can. ~Jay Adams, What To Do On Thursday

@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @

Love must be learned, and learned and learned again; there is no end to it. Hate needs no instruction, but waits only to be provoked. ~Katherine Anne Porter

@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @

Jesus did live in a family, and as Betsy Ricucci points out, that's all He had done at the time the Father proclaimed, "This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased" (Mt 3:17). "What had Jesus done to receive such praise? Nothing but live in His own home, honoring His parents and serving His father's carpentry business. Apparently that was enough to please God." ~Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage

@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @

We live in slavery. True, we have (in Western countries) abolished the institutionalized forms of slavery... [but] Freedom is on everyone's lips. Freedom is announced and celebrated. But not many feel or act free. Evidence? We live in a nation of complainers and a society of addicts. Everywhere we turn we hear complaints... and everywhere we meet the addicts. We trade masters; we stay enslaved.

The Christian is the person who recognizes that our real problem is not in achieving freedom but in learning service under a better master. ~Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @

Principles of Bible Interpretation... [selected points I found particularly helpful]:
* Avoid any brand-new interpretations. (The Spirit is at work in others besides you.)
* Pursue a well-rounded emphasis in the study of the whole counsel of God. (Some go overboard for one kind of study (e.g., prophecy)-- don't!)
* Don't sacrifice thoroughness and care for speed. (Take adequate time; it is better to come to no conclusion that to the wrong one.)
~Jay Adams, What To Do On Thursday

@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @

The LORD is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
He knows those who take refuge in Him.

~Nahum 1:7

A SPECIAL VISIT

We had our son and daughter in-law and Aidan over for dinner last night - it has been a couple months since we've seen Aidan...seems schedules get in the way but we got our Aidan fix!!!!

He has grown so much in the 2 months that we've seen him and doing so many things. He'll be 11 months on the 20th - a big boy already.

Here he is with Grandma and Grandpa

And with mom and dad

I fixed a pot roast with potatoes and carotts, and some corn and that was it....a simple weeknight dinner that cooked itself so we could play with Aidan. A good evening was had by all.

I'll even get to see them on Mother's Day because they invited us out to brunch. Doug can't make it because he'll be on a vehicle delivery heading for California - although sometimes these deliveries get cancelled at the last minute so 'maybe' he might join us...we'll see when Friday comes.

I'm getting closer to the bottom of the order pile - I can see daylight I think...lol
So with that to look forward to next Thursday I might head for Lancaster on a shopping outing and on that Saturday the 16th meet up with the girls from Prim Mart forum - they are having their convention in Harrisburg for 3 days and they're going to Lancaster on Saturday. I'm planning on being with them that day. They're meeting at IN GRANDMA'S ATTIC for the sart of the day. It should be fun!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Now if this isn't relaxed I don't know what is...and look how perfectly Baby fits into the chair (well, she's huge actually!) But I thought her snuggling with the pillow was too cute.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Isn't this Serviceberry bush pretty....it gets these delicate white flowers and then a bud comes out and a beautiful red berry about the size of and M&M which the birds just adore! If one can salvage enough of them before the birds get them you can make jam from them....but it's wayyyy too much work plucking that bush! We have two of them actually - the other one is on the other side of the driveway but smaller, it's just a baby yet - you can see it behind the picket fence.

I must get back to my needle and wool but have a wonderful day and see around the blogs.

Hugs, Karen

Biblical Descriptions of Mothers

[First, a sidenote: Last month, while reading through a book that had been highly recommended to me, I realized something that seems contradictory:

1. In my own personal study, lists help me to understand what I'm reading. It is a great assistance for my memory and understanding to take information from Scripture as I read and better understand a passage or biblical subject by simplifying the larger whole down into understandable parts. (See this post on biblical descriptions of women or this post on Psalm 119 for examples of what I'm talking about.)
   
2. However, I do *not* like to read lists. (The book that had been recommended was one chapter after another of bullet-pointed lists of biblical information... and it hit me as I was reading that it's the very thing that I do in my own study, but that form of "reading" was very off-putting to me and I couldn't get past the first couple of chapters. I kept trying to read further, because of how highly the book had been spoken of, but it is extremely unhelpful for me to take in information in list format, so I finally gave up and replaced it on my shelf.)
   

So, if you are one who is like me, I apologize in advance for this post. This is one way that I process and glean from God's Word. But perhaps it is helpful for you to see it in this way, in which case, by all means, read on. :) ~Jess]


Here are some of the significant or insightful ways that God, in His Word, describes mothers, and some things we can learn from the stories of mothers in Scripture.

POSITIVE OR NEUTRAL BIBLICAL DESCRIPTIONS OF MOTHERS:

• From the beginning, the plan and pattern for motherhood is that children "leave and cleave". (Gen 2:24, Mt 19:4-6)
  
• She is to be protected by her husband. (Gen 32, Mt 2:13)
• A mother's heart desires protection for her children. (Exod 2, 1 Ki 3:26)
  
• She is to be honored and cared for by her children. (Exod 20:12, Lev 19:3, Deut 5:16, 27:16, Mt 15:3-9, Jn 19:26-27)
  
• She should never be struck or cursed by her children. (Exod 21)
  
• A mother is to be modest around her children. (Lev 18)
  
• She is to instruct and discipline her children. (Deut 21:18)
• Fathers and mothers teach, advise, help, love, and guide their children together. (Judg 14, 1 Ki 2:19, Prov 1:8, 6:20, Lk 2:33, 48)
• Her early care, physical affection, availability, and kindness to her children plant seeds that can grow into an ability to trust in and treasure God, and an ability to understand God better. (Ps 22:8-11, Ps 131:2, Isa 66:13)
• It is a joy when the barren woman becomes a mother! (Ps 113:9)
• She has great reason to be glad and rejoice when she has raised a godly, righteous son! (Prov 23:24-25)
• If her children follow Christ, their love for and devotion to Him will rightly exceed their love for and devotion to her. (Mt 10:35-37, Mt 12:46-50, Mt 19:29)
• She can be like a mother to others who are not her biological children. (Rom 16:13)
• Her relationship with her children provides a reference point for understanding healthy, biblical Church life and how Christians are to treat one another. (1 Th 2:7, 1 Tim 5:1-2)
• A mother's faithful instruction multiplies to bless others as her children grow into mature servants of God. (2 Tim 1:5)
  

NEGATIVE BIBLICAL DESCRIPTIONS OF MOTHERS:

• She can deceive her children and encourage them in sin (Gen 27)
• She can forsake her children. (Ps 27:10)
• A foolish son brings her sorrow, and may despise her. (Prov 10:1, 15:20, 19:26)
• She will be shamed if she leaves her child to himself. (Prov 29:15)
  

Insightful bits here, I think, both in what a mother IS, and what what she is NOT. What her role is as her children grow, and what her role is once they leave home. What a wise mother does, and what the ultimate goals are. God's Word is so very faithful.