New Beginnings: rain and sunshine

The picture above is of the house plants on the front porch back in June. We had a large rain shower and put all the house plants out to be properly cleaned of dust. The last few days have been filled with rain. Rain, gray skies, and gray moods. Plus the yard does not look nearly as green as it did in June, but before I finish my thought:

I've noticed that many people (and myself) tend to take the holidays as a time to slack off, eat what they shouldn't, stay up late, scratch schedule and productivity with excuses for celebrating and "...But it's Christmas!". Then when New Year's eve ends we get back to the grind, frantically looking for a sheet of paper to scribble our resolutions on as we start over...again. I am not trying to write a guilt trip-I'm to blame, too.

It's a new year! January is a special month to refresh, rejuvenate and reevaluate our life and priorities.
Schedules begin their familiar hum and holiday sweets disappear. No. It's not a good thing that we slacked. (I am talking to myself here) We should be constantly guarding ourselves against laziness and making each holiday and break, more about Christ and less about our enjoyment. Let us not be discouraged or weary.

The past few days have been making me think that sometimes God sends rain on our lives.  Refreshing? Yes. Rejuvanating? Yes. Sometimes God sends hard times to strengthen our faith. If we get into bad habits and get out of good habits, God will continue to grow us, strengthen us, stretch us and discipline us. When your nice and healthy with foliage and greenery, rain is wonderful. Growth is seen quickly. When plants are dead and rain comes -especially in the Winter- growth is slow and sometimes the rain might even freeze the plants. But as with rain and clouds the sun will come out and joy, health, and strength will abide in our hearts.

As we spend each day serving God, we will all grow and learn. (Maybe learn a few lessons the hard way) Through this year there will be rain, clouds and sunshine, and God will be our strength and our joy.

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 
                     1 Corinthians 3:7

How is God growing you?

A splash, a glimmer

Though the cold (and the wind) have been frightful, the sunshine has been quite delightful!
It's amazing how cheery the sun can be to any day. Gleaming through the windows and brightening up each room in the house. Ah... So refreshing. I love sunlight.

                                           

                                             

                                              

                                          

                                              

......

What cheers you up?

Coffee. The End.

Cold rainy days are an excuse for....

 Drinking several cups of cocoa.....

                         ......With fun colorful mugs, mittens and gloves!
                                   

 Crocheting with cheery red yarn....

Wearing fuzzy slippers and cozy leggings....

Wearing warm stylish jackets....

Having a flower photo shoot inside...




See, you can have fun on a rainy day... :-)


                   

What do you do on rainy days?

Photo Contest

Lydia at Reel Christian is having a winter themed photo contest!

 ....Hop on over and enter your best winter photo!

Oh, The Weather Outside is Frightful...!

We've had snow big time. It started snowing at around 10:00 on Sunday night and the ground was covered, like I haven't seen before. It was amazingly beautiful! We couldn't help but go out in the snow. So my sisters and I bundled up and headed out. Our neighbors were just as excited as we were and we all had the best time. We tried sledding on the road which was piled up with fluffy white snow. Everything was covered. We went for a walk in our neighborhood and stayed out in the snow until midnight, enjoying the heavy white flakes falling on us. My hair was a thick sheet of ice when we went inside. It took some time getting it all out of my hair!
Then the next morning we did our school and went out once again. It had started raining freezing rain before we went out and there was a thick layer of ice on top of the snow. Crunching it was so much fun... We experimented by putting maple syrup on the ice and eating it. And we even tried chocolate syrup! Some of the roads were closed and almost all the roads are iced over and slippery. Most schools are out, too. (Not ours!)
We've been enjoying our snow and we got a total of six and a quarter inches of snow! We've been very thankful for our warm cozy home.

                                              Our neighbor's tree...

                                                   Our car....

                                        

                                             My brothers' toy helped clear the ice. :-)

 

 

 

I hope your having a lovely day!!! 

How's the weather at your house?

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?
                                             
                    
                                              

Scripture for Thursday

¹ Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

² But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

⁴ Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.

⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

Psalm 1

I hope you are a having a blessed morning!





Pictures in memory of snow. :) Alas it has all melted.

Valentine knitted hearts

Here are some valentines that I am making. I decided to make knitted hearts this year and I will try and explain to you how I made them. I am not very good at explaining while knitting. So bear with me. :)

You will need yarn and three needles. Preferable all the same size. I used a number 4 needle.

Make a slip knot and stitch one. After each row increase one until you get to your seventh row. Knit two rows. Than keep increasing one each row, to row nine. Stitch two rows on row nine. Increase again on row ten.

Knit five stitches on each needle. Grab a spare needle and start knitting with five stitches.
Now with each row decrease one, until you are down to one stitch. Now cast off.
With your other five stitches place your other needle into the stitch. Like up top.


Now begin to knit with your skein once more by, placing it in between your two needles.

Stitch like normally, being careful not to lose your yarn. Now decrease each row like the other side, and cast off when you have one stitch left on your needle.
And your done! There are different ways of doing it but that is how I have been making mine.
I decorated with glitter, beads, ribbon, and knitting with two types of yarn.
Here are a couple of the ones I have made with different yarns.
With these two hearts, I used an embroidery needle and threaded the ribbon on to it.


Enjoy experimenting with this pattern. :)



It snowed from about 3:00 to 8:00 pm yesterday and left about 2 inches on the ground. :) Abby, Maggie, Sam and Joe. Went outside and played in it yesterday along with our neighbor. With her yard's snow and ours they had a good time.

The snow also canceled the Daddy Daughter Dance. But they're re-scheduling it soon. :)

Today I was able to play in the snow, too. With the left over snow we made a huge snow man/ woman. Which is about 5 foot 2 inches tall.

I am feeling a lot better than yesterday and still don't have a good appetite. This sickness has definitely opened my eyes to how blessed I am with good health so often.

My Daddy and John are both sick now too. :( John is still in wonderful spirits. He is getting better though. I keep praying that Sam, Joe and our Mom don't get it.

The Holidays

Here are our stockings. (My mother has not embroidered my brothers initials yet.)

Thanks giving is over and now the only thing I can think about is Christmas.


On Friday we went to the tree farm and picked out our tree.
After bringing it home we decorated it with lights and ornaments. Then we decorated around the house and out side. One thing I like about getting our tree is our Mother gets us a new ornament each year to put on the tree. It is exciting to see what she picks out each year.

Tomorrow and next Monday we are having the our first ever Christmas Gift Camp at our home. My two sisters and I are the counslers and our Mother is the director. It is for 5-8 year olds. We were hoping for about eight kids for both days but only got three for this week and four for next Monday. I think this will be good starting out by, not having to many kids the first year. I am really excited. We are making two gifts this week and two the next week. Hopefully they will be useful gifts for the parents and easy to make for the kids. We'll have a Christmas themed lunch, dessert, two crafts, games and a devotional. We have been preparing all day and some of yesterday. Yesterday we cleaned out the garage and our father organize a lot of it for us. He is a wonderful organizer. My mom is a wonderful cleaner. Their a perfect match. :)

We've been busy with Christmas gifts and much more!


~Blessings~


What do you like to do during the Christmas season?