Huge Surprise! Three Cousins Arrive!

Look who showed up at our door a little after six this morning!

Three cousins from Pennsylvania (with Sam behind them to the right in the picture)
on their way home from a week and a half of helping at a mission in Mexico!

We found out last evening when Sam got home from work, that the boys were coming,

and what a hurrying and scurrying to sweep and vacuum and clean house!

Jonathan changed some plans for Sam so he could enjoy spending the day with his cousins,

but all the boys did go to the work site to unload and stow styrofoam concrete forms for a new foundation going in.

I made pancakes while the boys visited.

A recipe and a half of buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup.

Mmm.

What fun to enjoy cousins we hardly ever get to see.

It has been probably 13 years since Samuel Morley's family was here,

and several years since Ezra and Jed's family was here.

At the end of breakfast, Samuel was juggling oranges!

Talk about a blur!

Then the cousins went out and four-wheeled.

Hope to add more later about this wonderful day!

While President-Elect Trump Places Wreath--We--well--Freeze Beans!

 On the day before President Trump's inauguration,

 we hurried before school this morning to freeze a bushel of green beans that Jonathan brought home yesterday from Sprouts at just 88 cents a pound.

I don't know what is on President Trump's inaugural luncheon menu,

(I read that President Obama had steamed lobster I think, and grilled bison for his inaugural luncheon)

 but we little, unimportant country folk like green beans whole and pressure-cooked just right.

So we needed to finish the beans, 

do school, and take Carrie to work...

and then hopefully watch

online as President-Elect Trump placed the wreath in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

in Arlington Cemetery.

We froze green beans, studied in school, hung laundry outside in the warm sunshine,

bought towels and sheets at an estate sale on my way home from taking Carrie to work,

and other family things...

 and then watched a new First Family gather near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

in Arlington Cemetery.

 So then here finally came President-Elect Trump.

A soldier presents the wreath...

and Trump and Pence place it on the stand.

 It was refreshing to see the new president stand unapologetically with his hand over his heart

in respect for our fallen soldiers.

 I pray, Lord, for our new President and his family.

As they move into the White House,

may they make room for You as the honored Guest.

May You be honored, I pray, as Trump takes office,

and be with our country tomorrow.

Please keep Your hand over all of us, and may Your Word go forth to the ends of the earth,

bringing the gospel of peace to those who are hungry and broken and needy.

Remember every common, ordinary family, like ours,

who goes to school and goes to work and makes simple meals and tries to honor You

in our homes.

Amen. 

When the Puzzle Piece Turned Around

For Christmas, one of the children received a puzzle of the presidents of America.

Thanks to Rose's insistence, we ended up keeping it out and little by little getting it pieced together.
Here is Hannah trying to find where one puzzle piece belonged.
There was a spot where one seemed to belong,
but she had to turn it around and around till she found how it fit just right.

And about the same day, I read in my devotions a phrase that caught my eye.
"Jesus turned around."

 It was the story of Jesus and the woman who came up behind Him to touch the hem of His garment.

We don't read very many times about Jesus turning around.
We read how He set His face like a flint to go to Jerusalem,
and He let no one deter Him from Gethsemane, and Golgotha and the cross.
But when it came to a silent sufferer,
someone living in suffering and shame, coming up behind Him and touching the hem of His garment,
Jesus turned around.

And I wonder, when Jesus passes by us in our present day,
in our times of trouble or sorrow or shame or suffering or grief or uncertainty,
and we reach out to touch Him,
does He turn around to us?

Jesus is always on His way to help someone.
That's the very nature of Jesus.
So we all know He's out there to help people,
usually somebody else.
But when I have a need--
maybe something I'm too ashamed about to go to the throne of grace,
or too weak or too scared,
and I just slip up behind Him and reach out to try to touch the hem of His garment,
does He turn around to me?

Jesus, when somebody comes up behind You, hesitantly,

because they can't face up to You with this need or this burden or this shame or this hurt,

what do You do with a person like that? 

Is it really true that You turn around for someone like that?

That I don't have to be great like a President or rich like Bill Gates,

or classy like Mrs. Jones down the road, 

or smart like some people I know,

or anything like that,

for You to stop and turn around

and care?

 

Is it really true that You turn around and

1) cheer us--"Be of good cheer."

2) Value us-- "Daughter."

3) Commend us-- ""Your faith..."

and 4) Heal us-- "has made you well."

When the puzzle piece turned around,

it exactly fit the empty spot in the puzzle, making it whole.

And when Jesus turns around,

He exactly fills our deepest need and every empty crevice of our longing heart,

making us whole!

Boxing Up Baby Jesus

Last week we took down the Christmas tree and strings of Christmas lights.

It's the latest we've had the tree up, I think, in years,

because we had so much going on, with Crystal gone back to college and having to take Carrie to work every day early this week. 

We packed ornaments and gift bags and 50% off Christmas cards into boxes.

I couldn't help treasuring a few of my favorite Christmas ornaments, like this little sled.

Of course, we packed the angel away in the same box as the other ornaments.

Only a few ornaments match each other. 

I thought, for next year, I'd like to aim for a blue and white and silver theme

since blue is Jonathan's favorite Christmas color.

So, for next year, I packed all the blue and white and silver decorations in a separate box--not very many. We better get a small tree, very small!

We bought a few blue and silver ornaments at 50% off.

And then there was the manger scene, of course.

It has its own box.

One problem!

 We couldn't find the box!

We ate leftovers for lunch, cooked beets on the woodstove, took down Christmas stuff and packed it,

sauteed mushrooms and made chili and cornmeal muffins for supper,

lit candles for supper,

and still the manger scene was sitting on the table.

We just hadn't found the box for Jesus yet.

Maybe He doesn't want to be put in a box.

Maybe He wants to be left out of our little box where we like to pack Him away in our basement somewhere.

Maybe He really wants to just stay right in the middle of our home,
right in the middle of our heart.

Right in the center of our world, and our home,

and our family,

and our affections.

Jesus, all boxes aside,

be free to be Who You are,

and reign in my heart, making me more like You every day.

Almost Hurricane Winds Yesterday

Yesterday the wind was blowing between 43 and 63 mph here at our house,

and up to over 100 mph in areas of town and up in the mountains.

Jonathan got a couple snaps of destruction he passed.

So many trees were blown over, and Jonathan saw about a dozen semis blown over on the interstate.

The news online said 21 semis had blown over.

High profile vehicles like semis and school busses were prohibited after this many disasters.

On my way home from taking Carrie to work, I snapped this picture of a gate smashed by a fallen tree.

And this tree snapped off near the top.

Jonathan said a street was closed at both ends by police 

because glass was being blown apparently out of windows of the skyscrapers onto the street,

and the courthouse closed for the day because so many pieces of roofing were blowing down onto the premises.

At home, our trampoline blew away from its place, and the children had to hurry out and batten it down with dogfood sacks and cement blocks and other paraphernalia!

How thankful we are for a cozy house to be a shelter in time of wind and storm!

I thought over and over again how thankful I was for this cozy, warm, shelter of a home.

,

Several of us were out on the roads yesterday, whipped about a bit by the high winds,

but at home it was safe and quiet.

Outside the wind whistled, and we sometimes we could not open the front door due to the wind, 

so had to go out the back door.

Something flew into one of the boys' eyes, so after that, he wore goggles outdoors!

We watched a neighbor's trampoline fly many yards away over by the road and get caught against an electric pole.  

We watched bags and cardboard and all sorts of trash fly through the air and get caught on fences.

We watched clouds of dirt pushed along on the dirt streets by the wind.

But inside was safe.

We did school, cooked our meals, did our chores, watched Mama Poodle with her cute little batch of puppies, put away laundry,

cooked another huge pot of beets on the woodstove,

baked berry cobbler,

found more pieces for the puzzle of American Presidents,

and looked up news about the devastation in town.

And before bedtime, we sang together,

"The Lord's our Rock, in Him we hide,

A shelter in the time of storm...

O, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land,

A shelter in the time of storm."

Jesus is our shelter in the windy storm and tempest.

He doesn't shake in the hurricane wind.

He is not a glass window that breaks or mere shingles that fly away.

He is not even a fir tree that shelters birds from the weather.

He is a Rock.
He is our strong shelter, a fortress, a place of safety in the time of the hurricane winds.
The righteous run to Him and are safe.