spring forth

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

All new life springs from what is beneath.

We cannot truly bloom until we shed our old life, 

our worldly life,

and live the way of true life with Jesus. 

Only love

t

Whoever finds his life will lose it, 

and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

home making monday

Some days it is enough to sit on the porch with a cup of tea in the early morning sunlight and recover from the long weekend.

My sister came to visit from out of state and on Sunday morning we spent some time walking around the little seaside town where we grew up and enjoying the company of one another. We have not always made it a priority to set aside time for each other so it was a real treat. Saturday morning she, our mother, and myself drove about town visiting the graves of my father and my step-father and my mum's best sister-friend who passed away a few years ago. She had 7 children who all pitched in to purchase a beautiful granite bench in her memory and we stopped in to sit on that for a bit.
It is located in one of the oldest cemetery's in the country, Old Burial Hill, in Marblehead, MA, which is where I grew up. This is the view from her bench which sits inside a shady gazebo and looks out over Marblehead harbor.

I was busy in the afternoons as well. Joe's good friend/brother had a friend visiting from out of state and we spent Saturday afternoon at his house with them and Sunday afternoon at our house with them. Joe's boys were with us all weekend as well.  On Monday morning we were serenaded with bagpipes and percussion as the parade gathered for start in the lowlands just across the street. We walked up to the cemetery and watched as they honored those who have fallen for our freedom here. Each year the elementary school chooses one 6th grader to read the Gettysburg address to the crowd gathered on Memorial Day. This year it was this cute young man who was as cute as cute can be and pulled it off without a hitch.

It is not always cookin' and cleanin' that make a house a home.

Monday: Steak tips, rice, home made creamed corn

Tuesday:White chicken chili, Salad, cornbread

Wednesday:Honey butter pork tenderloin, rice, broccoli

Thursday: Meatloaf, green beans, baked potato

Friday: Creamy chicken and broccoli

Saturday: cowboy beans with sausage, corn on the cob

Sunday: Roast chicken, boiled new potatoes with green beans

jerimiah 31:3 friday

Jeremiah 31:3 (KJV)

The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

in the ESV it says

I have loved you with an everlasting love;

Therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

 ~

These mean completely different things to me. Normally, the KJV is my go to. I admit that I am a sucker for beautiful words and the KJV almost always is the version that makes my heart sing.
However, I like to read the ESV version for verses I particularly like because I want to understand more about them and reading two versions seems to deepen my understanding.
This verse...well...Have I drawn thee. and I have continued my faithfulness to you. They just don't say the same thing. 
Good old King James tells me I have been made by God with loving kindness and the ESV tells me that God has been faithful to me. Which, honestly, doesn't really seem like his job...isn't it my job to be faithful to him?

All of this brings to mind Luke 2:19, But Mary treasured up all these things,  pondering them in her heart.
So, I suppose, I too will have to treasure up these words and ponder them in my heart until they are made clear to me.

wabi -sabi treasures

~

i gave her 

a heart shaped piece of sea glass

and purple, and pink, and cobalt blue

and bright yellow goldfinch feathers

from a pile an old owl had left on a wooded path

i walked down one afternoon last fall

~

she gave me 

aqua sea glass that had been melted in a beach fire 

one night long ago

and swept away into the waves of the next high tide

tossed and turned about

and left all melted and bumpy 

on the shore she was treasure hunting

and a fairy table

and an peach pit washed clean by the sea

 ~

once she was my little girl-child

tottering down the path and across the sand

her sweet little hands and tiny fingers

would pick up a pebble or a bit of seashell, or a curvy stick

and stop and turn to me

~look mama, look what I found for you~

~

diamonds, and rubies, and opals, and pearls

are dust beneath my feet

so I take the peach pit from her grown woman's graceful hands 

and long slender fingers

and I place it on the fairy table in the kitchen window

and every morning see it there 

wabi-sabi glistening 

in the morning sunlight

faith barista

beloved brews

honeysuckle floating

the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing birds is come,

and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land.

Song of Solomon 2:12

Honeysuckle is blooming along the dunes on the path to the beach.

I noticed Sunday morning when I walked early -just after the sun came up.

Monday morning I walked again but it was cooler and the wind kicked up a bit of salty spray.

I brought my clippers and marched through the brush looking for errant branches.

Laid out on the soapstone table in my kitchen....

pitchers full of honeysuckle

fragrance floating in the early morning sunshine

 

beauty for my family

 a gift of 

joy for those i love

tuesday's with a twist

purposeful faith 

homemaking monday

When Joe and I first moved here to our home on this rather tiny island I set up housekeeping with new curtains in the living room and kitchen and bath.  When it came to the dining and bedroom though, we ran a bit short of cash. So....I used valances that I had used in a bedroom about 10 years ago. I never really liked them though...they seemed more bedroom-ish than dining room-ish.

I've spent the past two and half years searching the charity shops for something

better but, because we have three big windows in the dining room, I have never had any luck. Also, though it doesn't show in the picture, we have a spectacular view of the Atlantic Ocean across the street. So I didn't want anything that would block our view. 

Saturday morning I went to the bi-annual rummage sale at a local church and found the perfect solution! Three curtains that fit my windows perfectly! For $5.00!!

this is one of the windows with the new curtains up. 

here is the view from our dining room window

We are socked in with fog today so the water looks rather silvery

I also found curtains for our bedroom which I will show you another time. 

the art of homemaking monday

philipians 4:8

Philipians

4:8

this is the first thing i can remember reading in the bible

that came alive

previous to this i had thought of the bible as

pretty words that didn't apply to real life

or at least not my real life

after reading these words

i began to see how it might be possible to find my life in the words of the bible

~ ~ ~

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,

whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,

whatsoever things are of good report;

if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,

think on these things.