Prairie Plaid Pickers

These photos are actually from months ago which I had uploaded to my blog but never did caption. Rose's mandolin teacher had tried to find a way to share some music, but with all the shutdowns, it was hard or impossible to do so. However, one Sunday afternoon Rose's teacher had arranged at a church for her and her husband and our family to share some music that we had practiced together, along with music by several other folk.

And the little group of the teacher, her husband and us they named "Prairie Plaid Pickers."  This lady's husband used to play in night clubs before he became a Christian. He just loves picking up various instruments to add to the children's song arrangements, including this "washboard" which is actually called a "rubboard" in musical terms. 

Another sweet friend of our family who lives on a ranch 45 minutes away was there to play her accordian.

 We all wore plaid shirts or blouses. I managed to find a pretty red and black top for Hannah at Walmart, and one for me, too! It's hard to find clothes for tweens, but we were tickled for this one for Hannah.

I taught her how to iron the flounce at the bottom. I try not to forget to teach my youngest the skills she will need in the future, and not leave her behind with skills just because there are several other ladies in the household who can do the work for her. 

My older girls were reminded a couple months ago by a very sweet, grandmotherly lady to be sure to let Hannah learn to work, and not to do all the work for her. 

Even the youngest needs to learn homemaking skills!

I still remember the first time I ironed Jonathan's shirts for him in Kiev, Ukraine!

I was so thrilled to do that for him, to show him how happy I would be to keep his home and do laundry for him! And I do it happily to this day!

Practicing at Rose's teacher's home before the service. And then we made a caravan of two vehicles and followed the Hudsons to the little country church that had arranged for some music.

  Danny was asked to hold the flag for the National Anthem, accompanied by another group of musicians.

The children and our friends had asked me to sing along with about three of the songs, to help them stay together! It was fun! We did "In the Garden," "Fairest Lord Jesus," "Wayfaring Stranger," and "Count Your Many Blessings." Jonathan and I also did a little patriotic reading together that I had written while the others played a medley with "America the Beautiful."

This musician dressed up like Beethoven, I think it was, for a cute musical rendition similar to that musician's.           

 

            It was a great opportunity for the children to use their new musical skills, even though they are still learning.      

This is a family photo that a friend snapped of us clear back in July of last year.

Breakfast Bonanza on Christmas Morning

 

Just a fun idea!

Jonathan stocked up on some breakfast supplies on a bi-monthly trip to Costco a couple days before Christmas. Jonathan and I decided to turn our two--month supply of breakfast fixings into a Breakfast Bonanza which we built on the kitchen table after the children went to bed Christmas Eve.  I added the poinsettias and Christmas bouquet that we already had to make it festive.

 

No Boring Prayers in Congress Wednesday

 I suppose you think I'm talking about the "A-men and A-woman" prayer from a few days ago, but I'm not. Instead, I'm talking about the sudden call to prayer when suddenly news began to filter into Congress that the Capitol had been "breached." As uncertainty reigned, one Congressman hollered across to another that maybe now the other was glad the police had not been defunded!

 As more uncertainty stopped all government proceedings, the chaplain called out, "Let's pray," and offered prayer as Congressmen and women, staff, and journalists wondered what was happening and where to flee for safety.

Two insiders of the event and eye witnesses said two of them held hands and prayed.

I find this interesting. 

(And thanks to my sister's family who sent the pictures above way back around July 4th. )

Regardless how disconcerting and alarming the whole scenario was yesterday,

regardless how we feel about the rightness or wrongness of the storming of the Capitol,

one thing it accomplished was that at least some of our Congress prayed!

They were also, I hope, thankful for the police whom many of them had tried desperately to defund. 

 Our prayers can tend to become boring when life goes well.

Sorry this picture below is sideways, but it is a page of fresh mealtime graces that I cut out of various Taste of Home magazines through the years. 

Recently I glued some of those prayers onto this stiff paper, and stuck it on the fridge with magnets, for us to sometimes choose one and pray it, for the simple fact that I get bored with some of our mealtime prayers. We need help with having fresh and meaningful mealtime prayers.  Even if we have to read them, that is better than the same old same old,

"Dear Father, Thank you for the food. Help Daddy and Sam at work. Help them come home safely. In Jesus' name amen." 

Yeah, after a while, hearing this over and over gets old. About as old as the mouse nest I found in Carrie's shoe several days after they came home from hunting.

 Fresh prayers.

Meaningful prayers.

Desperate prayers.

Congress, and we all, discovered that we need these kinds of prayers

again in our country.

The Best Pillow--God's Word

                 It's not every day that you find your dog pillowing her head on God's holy Word! 

It's a poor, worn out Bible with pages falling out, but it is a Word that will endure forever.

It can be trusted completely when our adult son can make the statement time and again about people and the media, 

"You can't believe anything!"

That is how the media leaves you feeling, so you better not rely on the media.

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But today I heard a 90-second encouragement from a conservative man who is in Washington, D.C. right now, to simply pray, read quietly verses of promise from the Bible, and to be at peace.

He wasn't telling us all to weep and wail and fast and pray and carry on and give up and worry ourselves to death. 

Just pray and be at peace in the Lord.

I liked that better than any other call to prayer that I have read recently.

I've been trying to pray extra each day, sometimes several times a day for a moment or more, and trying not to feel guilty when I can't do the fasting that has been recommended. 

I eat lightly and skip any desserts or chips, but I fall apart if I don't eat. 

So I have to trust that God will still hear my prayer even if I can't combine fasting with it while I still have to teach school and do my work. 

But mostly, there has been a sense of peace--not that the world gives.

The pieces of news I hear and read give me alarm, but Jesus gives peace.

He was faithful in 2020, amidst the Covid pandemic, amidst the mask mandates, amidst the contested election, amidst the riots, amidst the forest fires and hurricanes.

Jesus was faithful. 

His unchanging Word is our Pillow, our Rest in weariness, our strength in weakness, our help in helplessness, our rope to which we can cling in our pit of despair.

Yes, the best pillow of peace is God's Word with His eternal promises.

"I will never leave you nor forsake you."

"I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

"When you pass through the rivers, they shall not overflow you."

"I will guide you and teach you in the way you should go."

"When my mother and my father forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me."
 

 

Toothpaste for Lotion--and How a Care Package Made My Day

 I don't know about you, but as soon as we start firing up the wood stove in the fall, my thumbs and       fingers start cracking at the tips. I don't know if it is the drier air once we have to run the wood stove or what it is. Doing dishes a lot in dish soapy water makes the problem worse, but how am I supposed to stop washing dishes?

                                            I do find that using the dishwasher helps! While the others finish eating and talking at supper time, I'm often up loading the dishwasher and finishing scrubbing up pots and pans. And when my hands get chapped and cracked, I end up using Vitamin E oil and covering them with bandaids. So I have been experimenting with different lotions. I bought one called Udderly Smooth at Dollar Tree recently--for just $1. And I put it next to the sink.             

Unfortunately, that is also where my toothpaste tube was, and one day I accidentally picked up the toothpaste tube instead of the lotion tube, and started to squeeze "lotion" onto my thumbs! It is a good thing my thumbs weren't cracked worse, for that dab of toothpaste would have stung pretty bad, I'm afraid! As it was, I got a laugh out of my silly mistake. And when I posted about my laugh for the day on Facebook, a sweet friend decided to send me her Relive lotion which she uses for her cracked thumbs!

Her care package arrived in the mail and was waiting for me when I arrived home from Missouri. When I opened that package and discovered two tubes of lotion and a special chapstick, it just meant so much to me. I felt like God had reached out His hand of comfort and care to a mom who had nearly lost her father three days earlier due to kidney failure. It had been a roller coaster of emotions for several days, and I come home and I rarely if ever get a gift in the mail like that! But there was a package just for me!

As I rubbed in that lotion, I felt like God Himself was sending His comfort and grace. Little things can mean so much! Blessings on Laura Fellencer for her sweet and loving gift! It was so from the Lord!

A Candle in the Dark

 A few weeks ago, we enjoyed a Christmas candlelight service where little tea light candles were placed inside glass jars.

                                                       I loved the row of candles in the dark.

And if there were ever a time that seemed dark, it is now. 

But there are still candles in the dark--whole rows of them.

 

Even while Georgia counts its votes, and Congress decides whether to certify electoral college votes, 

there are candles in the dark.

 
There are common, ordinary Americans going about their daily work, doing their jobs, praying in our helplessness, reaching out to others in the dark who are worried and struggling. 

The lights and trees and ornaments of Christmas are coming down, one by one, but there are still candles in the dark.

There are places of peace where one person after another has chosen to put their trust in God--

and do the next thing.

It might be homeschooling one's children, or going to work, or taking supper to the grandparents, or attending church, or sweeping the floor or knitting dishcloths and scrubbies for someone's Christmas.

It might be helping to pull stranded motorists out of the snowy ditch like Jonathan and the boys did on our way home from friends in western Colorado Sunday evening.

It was dark on that slippery road, and one vehicle whizzed by within inches of our bumper.

But we just were doing the next thing--trying to help someone in the cold and dark.

Just little tea candles in the dark.

My Story Reprinted--But His Is Greater

It was exciting to receive this notice in the mail a few weeks ago--that one of my children's stories which had been published several years ago had been reprinted by Herald and Banner Press, and would be in an upcoming children's Sunday School paper. 

And it was an even bigger excitement to find out that the first printing of my first book has been sold out, and a second printing would be necessary to fill the orders that are coming in! The book is also being translated into Spanish!

It's exciting when stories are printed, and then reprinted and also translated into other languages because they are touching hearts.

But there is a Story that has been printed and reprinted over and over,

and it never gets old, and it bears repeating.

It's the Story of Love and Redemption.

It's being told all over the world. 

I just read in a magazine that came yesterday, how God is helping a few people who are working at spreading the gospel online, and how it is going all around the world, esp. in Muslim and Hindu countries.

Of course, I'm excited about where a writing ministry may go at this point in my life. But the Greatest Story of All is the One I try to read in every day. Right now I'm in Isaiah, and I think Isaiah is one of my very favorite books in the Bible. It is so full of beautiful promises about relationships with God. I read it and pray through the chapter as I read, pray for our country, for my children, for myself. Isaiah is the book I opened up to the day I was quite sure Jonathan was going to pop the question in Kiev. I wanted to know what God thought. Was it all right with Him if I said yes to Jonathan? I asked for a word of peace that day, and He gave me Isaiah 60 and 61, where I opened that morning in my Bible. "She shall no more be called Forsaken, but she shall be called Hepzibah, and her land Beulah [meaning married]." It talked about a bride and bridegroom. And there was peace about marrying Jonathan. 

        That is just one small part of the book I'm writing called Roses in Kiev.