Dew From Heaven

His heavens shall drop down dew. Deuteronomy 33:28

 

"What the dew in the East is to the world of nature, that is the influence of the Spirit in the realm of grace. How greatly do I need it! Without the Spirit of God I am a dry and withered thing. I droop, I fade, I die. How sweetly does this dew refresh me! When once favored with it I feel happy, lively, vigorous, elevated. I want nothing more. The Holy Spirit brings me life and all that life requires. All else without the dew of the Spirit is less than nothing to me: I hear, I read, I pray, I sing, I go to the table of Communion, and I find no blessing there until the Holy Ghost visits me. But when He bedews me, every means of grace is sweet and profitable.

What a promise is this for me! “His heavens shall drop down dew.” I shall be visited with grace. I shall not be left to my natural drought, or to the world’s burning heat, or to the sirocco of satanic temptation. Oh, that I may at this very hour feel the gentle, silent, saturating dew of the Lord! Why should I not! He who has made me to live as the grass lives in the meadow will treat me as He treats the grass; He will refresh me from above. Grass cannot call for dew as I do. Surely, the Lord who visits the unpraying plant will answer to His pleading child."
C.H. Spurgeon

This meditation by Charles Spurgeon refreshed and encouraged me.
Lately life has been busy and different. God continues to teach me each day. Each new season and each new task reminds me how much we need a loving Savior to guard and guide our fragile lives. When I am weak He is strong, when I am discouraged He brings me joy. What a comfort we have in Jesus! There is no greater joy than what we find in Him. He is our love, our life, our salvation!

What has God been teaching you?

The ongoing goings on

 

 I got a gift card to Dunkin' Donuts and splurged on a cappuccino. It was good. =)


I've been busy with the regular, random happenings of life....
Working on school. Finished reading Twelfth Night by Shakespeare a couple weeks ago. I never thought Shakespeare's writings had happy endings!

Music... I've been listening to lots of bluegrass. Hand bell choir rehearsals. Violin lessons.  Playing an instrument is refreshing and satisfying! 

Jumbles of sewing. Right now I am trying to figure out (how to make a dress)+(for my baby sister)x(out of a peasant shirt pattern.) That's an equation. It should be fun though. (That's an iron btw.)

Photography. Oh yes. I'm always taking pictures.

Fun reading. I am in the middle of reading the book Start Here by the Harris brothers.(very motivating!) Finished It's (Not That) Complicated by the Botkin sisters. It's a great book. So much insight and wisdom. I am on the yearbook committee with our home school group. I've been learning a lot. It's a great experience.

 ...And so much more. God's been so good!

So what have you been up to? ..And do you drink coffee?

A little guessing fun...

What is it?

Do you know?

Maybe it's easy,...maybe it's not. (evil grin) 

We shall see.

I'll tell you on the Thursday, November 24th!
All guesses will not be published until then. Whoever guesses correctly will be congratulated and will have the satisfaction of winning. ;-) (Sorry, no prize. But guessing is the best part...Right?)

Have fun commenting! I am looking forward to seeing what y'all come up with.

Doors Knobs, Keys, and Roots

  I begin this post with a (sort of) thrown together title. 

In a hope that I'd draw your attention. 

Although what I write in this post has most likely been said before,

what I am writing is something that I am learning and discovering.

I sit on a hard, rough bench. The room damp and dark.

I see the door that is keeping me in to this room.

The door is marred with dents and scratches. I rattle the door knob. Only to find it is locked. 

I rest my ear on the door trying to hear what is on the other side. 

I look through the key hole on the door knob.

I can only see a faint, but bright light. 

I pound my fists on the door, hoping it will open. 

  

This is how I feel sometimes when looking for an answer....

...We all have flaws.

I often try hard to overcome, and correct my own faults. I struggle to let go of selfishness, impatience, pride and anger. To unlock the answer to overcoming. They can all be stitched into a web.

A web that I wage war with.

Some days it’s easy to win the battles.Patience, humbleness, joy overshadow my struggles.

But some days it takes so much work (and battling) to get my anger and other faults controlled.

So, I ask myself over and over how to win the battle...

The desire to keep fighting my sin is there. (Sometimes more than other times)

However sometimes I miss the real reason that I am trying to fight my sin.

One thing that God emphasizes many times in His word is love.

I might want to be a better person. But love should always go hand and hand--

---or rather be the center of my goals. Love for God. Love for my neighbor.

It might seem a simple concept. (It might even be easy to ignore.) But, it might be hard to follow through.

Always loving. Kind. Never hating. Not boastful, not selfish.

³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  ³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  Matthew 22:34-40

Did you skip that verse? You should read it.

I never truly took this verse to heart until a few years ago as our pastor preached on it. All the commands of the bible are connected to loving God and loving our neighbor. If we love God, we’re not going to have any other gods, we’re not going to have idols. We’ll keep the Sabbath. We’ll honor our parents. We will not murder, commit adultery, steal, lie or covet.  

That’s an amazing concept. Love is the root to obedience. 

It’s the key.

 Your thoughts?

Reflections

 I'm back!...
I have been having an amazing break. My family and I drove to the beach three Saturdays ago and stayed for a week. We were able to walk to the beach every day. We rented bikes for the week and enjoyed riding by the ocean. We made sand castles, slept late, ate cereal, dunked oreos in milk, and my sister found a huge whelk shell.
I took pictures.(You can see a couple pictures here.) Almost five hundred pictures. Pictures of the beach when it was windy, when it was stormy, when it was sunny, as the sun set. Even a few photos of our family in front of the ocean.
I saw sea shells, star fish, sand dollars and seagulls.
I read "happy baby colors" many, many times through the car ride.(Not to myself, but to my baby sister.)
Through the adventures of following a GPS that can't seem to tell us where to go, I am happy to be home.
Vacations are such a blessing.

I've been working on school, coming up with Christmas gift ideas, taking pictures, writing, getting ready for hand bell and violin recitals/performances, and finishing/performing a reformation skit with my two sisters yesterday. My sister wrote most of it. She's a great writer.
We helped tweak it here and there. My sister is so creative. It went well. Although I accidentally skipped one of my lines.

Also, the picture space on my blog is full. So, I am thinking of either paying for more space or transferring my blog to it's own URL. Do you have any ideas as to what I could do? Has this happened to you? Any help would be appreciated. :-)

I love blogging. I have missed it. But, I am really trying to focus on life. And most importantly on God. It's amazing how nice it is not to be on the computer so often. I do have some posts up my sleeve. But I will be posting fewer and especially since I don't have any more picture space.
You all and your blogs are a blessing. I've loved hearing what you've been up to. I've been reading all that you've posted, but not been commenting very much. (I've done many mental comments mind you.)

Before I sign off I thought I'd share the Give thanks! challenge.
You can click the link if you're interested in learning about it or joining.
The holiday season is almost upon us! Cold weather, hot cocoa, and celebrations.

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.  Ephesians 2:8-9

Have a great day!

A Post of Sorts...

I love to celebrate. How about you?

On Sunday, the third, we had our dear friends over for a very yummy dinner and went to the county's fireworks display. Yummy food, good friends, and fun fireworks.

Did I mention that our friends make beautiful, delicious cakes?

 Waiting for the fireworks to begin

The best part about fireworks is anticipating them before. :-)

We tried our best to make the fourth a productive day. So, we organized the garage.
Sounds fun, huh? :-)
Yes. Depends on your perspective, but fun none the less.
We made a lot of progress for a much needed clean. 
 For dinner we went out to eat at the Italian restaurant where our uncle works as manager. It was very nice. After dinner we were surprised to see more fireworks from the restaurant windows.

So, life has been very celebratory.

I thought I'd share a few other things, too. So here it goes.

One. My sister has the voting up for her poetry contest and every one  has done a great job on their poems. Maybe you should head over and vote, too. :-)




Two. Lots of giveaways over at Ashley's blog! So many beautiful prizes...




Three. One of my favorite photography blogs, just has the most inspiring photos! This week their showing holiday photos. Would you like to see? (Click here)

Four. Doing a little CAT testing. Sharp pencils and crisp test papers. Fun.

Five. We had some thunderstorms move through. Before the storm descended yesterday evening, upon the whole sky,  the clouds looked very much like cotton candy. God's creation is awing!

What have you been up to? How did you celebrate Independence Day?

Sisterhood Lessons...

 Early in the morning my three sisters and mother went to run some errands, while I stayed at home with three of the littles in our family.

I relished the time today while my cute two year toddler brother stood perched, craning over my shoulder watching every move I made, babbling on observing me, ( And giving me an occasional kiss or hug) as I sat working on my school work.

Sweet sisterhood!

It was one of those moments when the house is...quiet, when your twin brothers are getting along, playing nicely and peacefully, and your handsome, dreamy, smart, big blue eyed, ball of energy, love bug, tough two year old brother is... behaving, and life seems...orderly.

Serene. Still. Calm.

Oh, and then the next moment everything seems to fall apart...

(Like the dogs start to bark at nothing, the phone rings, your brothers don't want to share, and... well you get the picture.)

But moments of quiet (and rowdy moments,too) make me so glad to be in the family God's given me. They make me never ever want to trade a day of my precious life. The one that God lovingly gave me.
Even the juice spills and the toddler feet scampering into trouble, children shrieks and boisterous giggles, the toys on the floor and the dents in the door.

 The life that teaches me patience, love, endurance, self sacrifice, joy...and some many needed lessons!

The First Day Of Summer

                                     

How did you spend the first day of summer?...

Quotable Quote

 

(source)

"The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of christian,
But the fact that I am a christian does make me a different kind of woman."
-Elisabeth Elliot  


  I thought I'd share my most favorite quote.
 I am always inspired when I read her undeniable words.

I know I have been rather quiet here on my blog.
I've been enjoying my days learning, planning some sewing projects, growing, laughing, writing, playing music on my violin, spending time with family, and Yes, doing school through the summer. :-)

I hope you all enjoy your weekend and memorial day!

 What have you all been up to?
     ...Do have a favorite quote to share? :-)

Musings

  
"I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition."
- Martha Washington

 Our attitude is so significant in each situation. I discover this daily.
I am always amazed how my attitude effects a problem.
If I become angry or frustrated it makes it a lot more difficult to handle the circumstance.
Even if we are feeling emotions that we can't stop we can at least hide our mood and pray that God would gives a better attitude.

But if I truly want to be happy I need to first be content and delight in the Lord... :-)

Take delight in the LORD,
   and he will give you the desires of your heart.

            Psalm 37:4

Christmas musings...

Christmas is a joyful time to express thanksgiving, give to one another and most importantly celebrate Christ's birth and His beautiful gift of grace to us.

Every Christmas year my sisters and I enjoy making a gift for each person in our family. The past couple years our goal has been to make something practical. The most fun part is to try and keep every one's gift secret. It's harder than it sounds. Especially when certain people try to look...
I am making most of my handmade gifts out of this fuzzy fleece. I can't tell you what I am making other than it's warm and fleecy... I've been busy snipping and sewing. 

I love to think up gifts; the hard part is making sure you have a enough time to make them all. I try not to buy all the gifts. Handmade gifts seem more original and creative. I am almost done with my gift making and shopping. After a rampage of sewing, I should be done. ;-)

 The past several days we've had a blissful dusting of snow flurries.... the snowflakes don't stick, but it's exciting since we've never had snow this close to Christmas.

              I do hope it stays cold. I would be so happy if it snowed (dusted) on Christmas.
                             

                     
Gift making, gift wrapping, excitement building, smiles growing, joy flourishing;
and most importantly Christ is born!



What's your favorite part about Christmas?.....
            ..........What are your traditions?
                                             
                    
                                              

Life...

Most of the time if I feel stressed out, stopping what I'm doing and writing down thoughts, feelings and future events helps me clear my mind and reorganize. I think I usually write in a journal, write a letter to a pen pal, or write on my blog almost every day. I didn't use to write down anything if I didn't have to. But through the past few years I have gotten into the habit of writing down something almost every day. Whether it be a to do list, a future post, my feelings on something or a poem. I am some what obsessed with writing down what's in my brain. Which in a way is sometimes not a good thing. :-) 

Since this post is titled "Life" here's what I've been up to:


~I have been practicing for our Christmas recital.We are going to have it at a nursing home. I am actually quitting piano after this recital. I am sad, but I really want to focus on violin for the time being. It's getting harder to keep up with both.

~I had a photo shoot with our cat, Pebbles.

  She is a very sweet cat. She's not very photogenic. It took some work to get some good ones.
  Here are several of the photos.  

                                                   She loves playing with yarn.

She has a cute mustache(Got milk?) and hazel eyes.

 Her nicknames around here is Kitty and The cat... Very original. :-)

She is so tolerable with the boys. No matter what happens she'll always forgive.It's amazing how much she'll put up with. I love it on cold nights when she curls up on my bed.    



~ Planning Christmas gifts for family and friends.

~ Knitting and crocheting squares. 

~I don't know how anyone can not take at least one picture this season. The camera and I have been almost inseparable. The leaves are so gorgeous...

 

 ~ Bought some fabric...

 I am going to make a skirt out of it, but not just yet. It's my birthday project. :-) I'll be sewing it on my birthday. (With the stress of the holidays I don't want to take on too many projects, so this will be my after Christmas project.)

~ I've been driving at least once a week. The fastest speed I've driven has been 50 mph. It's really fun. Soon I'll be taking trips to stores. I've only driven to get practice, -mostly in neighborhoods-, but now I can actually practice driving with a purpose!

~ I am so excited about the new baby. My Mom went for another ultrasound. It is now confirmed that it is a girl. Now it's time to shop! We have lots of little boy clothes, but almost no little girl clothes. :-) I can't wait for another little baby in the house.

So that's what I've been up to -other than school-...

                                         What has kept you busy?

Mushrooms and misc...

 I thought that these mushrooms looked so neat!
All cute and just how you imagine a "Mushroom"....

How about this one?  I've found other mushrooms around our yard as well, popping up and growing all at about the same time. :-) I don't know why...

I also wanted to show you my new sewing scissors case. My friend took a sewing class and one of the easier things they made was a sewing scissors case. She told me how she made it and I thought I'd try and make one.

                                           All I did was stitch a square of fabric with batting inside,

                                               over stitch on the edge,

                                                 fold it into this ^ shape and handstitch it closed.

Anyway, I know this post is random, but I thought you might enjoy those cute mushrooms. :-)
Have you taken any neat picture lately? How about sewing or other projects that you'd like to share?

Hope your all doing well,
B.T.W. I am going to try to take a blogging break starting this Saturday...I'll miss you all, but, I need to spend a little less time on the internet and focus on real life activities for at least a week. Hope you don't mind. ;-)

Rambles

I can not comprehend that it is the 20th of August; the months fly by so quickly...

The warmth of summer is still in the air, and my mind is not ready cold weather just yet.
Usually when fall rolls around I am ready for it. But at the moment, I am enjoying the warmth. Today it was rainy and a bit dreary for a change.

I have still been reading Do hard things. It's a great book.
I am reading through Psalms, 2 Corinthians, and I read Romans 11. It is definitely food for the mind.

After my giveaway ends, I am planning on taking a blogging break for a week at the least, and most likely longer. :-) I need to focus my time a little more discreetly on literal life for a while. I am trying to get my schedule more planned out and organized. My sisters and I have been very bad as to what time we go to bed over the summer and I think we finally have a decent bed time schedule. We have also been walking every morning for exercise. It's a refreshing and motivating way to start the day.

 I have been crocheting and I have requested yet another crocheting book from the library. :-)

This august has also been the anniversary of one year of playing violin... :-D I am not very professional or very skilled yet but it's exciting. I am practicing Minuet No.1 and No.2 composed by Bach. Of course it's not the original version of both songs but I like to practice songs that I know.

Well, there's my shortish ramble...
Now it's your turn, what have you been up to? :-)

photo credit

Hello down there!

Well, I don't know what to say.
I  am shocked.
I am overwhelmed.
I am sad.

Now it might not seem very outrageous to you... but.... my younger sister is taller than ME!!!! Me.... I....the oldest and most grown up, of my siblings, and my sister is taller!!! She is a 1/4 of an inch taller!!! (Maybe more.) How could it get any worse? 

Now... I have a couple years ahead of me to grow, but Abby... (Sniffle) could grow taller too...Gulp.

I know, height's not that important. Being 5'2 is a just a little short to my liking and still not that bad, but being shorter than your younger sister hurts...

It's heart breaking being short... Everyone towers over you. You walk on an earth with giants surrounding you. Your trampled by the tall people. People think your eleven or so when your really fifteen! 

How will I bear it....................(faints on the floor.) Sob, Sob, Sob!

Okay enough with the drama. Control yourself, Leah!

I'll survive! Have no fear!

I just need to remember that God made me this way. I am the only me, that's like me.
Short or Tall. I am God's creation and the more I want to be tall, the shorter I'll appear.

Just remember shorties of the world, God made you, you!  ;-)

Thanks for listening to my sob story.

Now I'd like to know...

                  

                   How tall your you? :-)

July is here...

A new month that really makes summer, summer. I always have images of July as the hottest month of the year, with watermelon, many pool trips, and of course the fourth of July, (which will be here quite soon.) :D

Lemonade, water balloons, pools, picnics, rose cheeks, thunderstorms and a time when I really appreciate summer skirts!

When do you enjoy most about Summer? :-)