Points To Ponder

From this week's church bulletin:

"Jesus was going around 'doing the kingdom', healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, feeding the hungry, he was celebrating at a party with all the wrong people, transforming people's lives."  N.T. Wright

"If we are to seek first the kingdom of God, we must first seek an audience with the King."  Anonymous

"If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead."  William Law

"Death may be the king of terrors...,but Jesus is the King of kings!"  Dwight L. Moody

The Thanksgiving...

...that almost wasn't.  Ok...the table is set, fresh flowers, candles, the pies and apple crisp have been freshly baked that morning and everthing is ready...except for SNOW...that four letter word.  We woke up to snow falling Thanksgiving morning and watched it accumulate over already packed snow and ice.  Phone calls began between us and our guests as to what to do.  So BJ put chains on the truck and made a test run to the bottom of the mountain and had no problems.  So it was decided to proceed with some shuttle service from the Iwarssons.  One couple had chains and studs so they were fine...two other couples carpooled and met BJ at the bottom of the mountain along with another couple BJ had picked up in town, and everybody headed up to our house without incident.   It certainly was a memorable Thanksgiving as we all had a great time and we were just grateful that we could get together in spite of the picture postcard environment!  Today it's close to 40 degrees and everything is melting...yes, timing is everything in life.  

The Wild West

18 degrees, 50-60 mile per hour winds, and two power outages later, we have a damaged garage from trees down.  Neither of us can recall a 'noreaster like this and last evening we heard a bump in the night and figured a tree had fallen somewhere but not until this morning did we see that a large fir had fallen next to the garage taking out one of the large hip beams, snapping it in two like a toothpick.  Another tree is leaning and will have to come down.   BJ is currently on the tractor checking out another tree that is leaning down on the mountain road and we have a tree guy coming up to try to clear away the debris from the garage sight.   Let's see... ca ching, ca ching....and the garage will cost how much to build??....:-(  But hey, it's Thanksgiving and we are giving thanks it wasn't the house!!!

Points To Ponder

From this week's church bulletin: 

"Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow."  Edward Sandford Martin. 

"The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts.  No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving."  H.U. Westermayer

"If the only prayer you said in your life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice."  Meister Eckhart

"Joy is produced when we choose to be grateful."

Don't Tell Me...

...it's going to be one of THOSE winters!!  6 inches of the lovely white stuff greeted us this morning.  We hope we don't get any more before Thanksgiving as we have 8 people coming for dinner and they won't be too thrilled as it is driving up the mountain road. 

At least Hank had fun catching snow balls!

30 Years!

30 years ago next July, I got up in the wee hours of the morning to watch the wedding of Lady Diana and Prince Charles.   It was all captivating and her life seemed perfect in every way.  She was the epitome of glamour, class and style and everyone wanted to copy her hair styles and the way she dressed.  Over time we were all reminded that wealth does not bring happiness and the end of her marriage was tragic and even more so her early death.  Watching the news this week of her son becoming engaged and giving Diana's ring to his fiance was a bit surreal.  We all ooohed and awweed over that "rock" when Diana became engaged and frankly, it feels weird to see it on another woman's hand.   Ok, ok, I know what you might be thinking...it's special to William... but it's a bit creepy for me.   I guess I was too much wrapped up in all the details back then and thus it seems that it might have been good to let a few generations go by before taking that thing out of the jewelry box.  Now, everytime I see that ring I will think of the tragic life of someone who continually sought happiness and who missed out on the best years of her children's lives.  

Garage Progress

Framing has begun and things are taking shape.  All the boulders lying around still have to be placed on top of the existing rock wall to the left of the garage.  I guess we need a bigger excavator other than Deere John to do that.  The roof beams should be in place by Tuesday.



$20..Not Much You Say?

Recently we received a thank you note from Daniel, the little 7 year old Bolivian boy we are sponsoring through "Compassion".  We even got a new photo as well.  For his birthday in September, we started out with what Compassion recommends as a minimum birthday gift to see what he might get with that donation.   All special contributions of this nature go 100% to the child.  So his thank you note says he was able to get new shoes, pants, a sweater, a red cap and underwear!   In his new photo he is holding one of his new items and the others are on display.   Never before have I felt so good by spending so little. 

Soup's On

It's cold up here on the mountain now and I have returned to one of my Saturday routines of making soup to be eaten Sunday evening.  There is usually enough left for two more dinners so I freeze and then vacuum pack the leftovers and "squirrel" it away in my freezer.    Served with my "no fail" popovers or corn bread, it's the best meal.  This week's creation was Butternut Squash and Apple Bisque.  After this stage was done cooking it headed off to my food processor to be made into a heavenly smooth, creamy bisque.   I like to let it set over night to let the flavors blend.    Soup...it does a body good.  Sometime I'll have to share with you my original soup story...I think there is a reason I am so enamored with soup.   But that's for another day.

All Done

BJ has been working so hard to landscape the new back steps.  He had to put in drainage as we had some unexpected water collection at the bottom of the stairway after some heavy rains... that should have been foreseen by the contractor but it's fixed now and fortunately we were home when it happened.  He has planted some deer proof grasses and added more dirt and mulch and now I think it looks like it's been there forever.   The little orange stakes will be where the outdoor lighting will be located...yes...that will mean coming and going without our trusty flashlight...when we've ever remembered to bring that!

 He has continued on the rock wall as well.

Julie

When I discovered a couple months ago that I could actually hold a drawing pencil and even better, have some control, I went back to one of my old drawings that I thought I had finished but after so many months away I realized, with fresh eyes, that there was more to be done.  So now "Julie" is finished and I've been working on this one so long that I'm starting to see my face in hers...the falling chin, saggy eyes, droopy mouth..oy!  This is just another reminder to all of us aging folks to smile!!!  It's nature's facelift!!  Now to move on to something else...maybe someone with fewer wrinkles this time...:-)