Holiday leftovers

After spending Thanksgiving with 17 of my favorite people, there are always leftovers... in every room of the house.

Want a tiny taste of our time together? Follow me.

The kitchen...

The laundry room...


The living room...


The "craft" room...


Even the door...


I love leftovers. They leave such a nice taste in my mouth.

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. Psalm 127:4,5

Thanksgiving day

2008 11 27 010
Originally uploaded by cHimprints

Voices always sound so strange on these videos... really, these are not our voices!

This wish is from all of the family around our table to all of you!

Thanks and Praise service

"When you come to the Praise and Thanks service on Tuesday at 7:00 pm, be ready to share what the Lord has done in your life the past year." That was the announcement at church last Sunday.


What would I say? Certainly I am thankful to God for meeting our physical needs in wonderful ways.. a house, food, health. That list is long.

But, if I were to be honest... to openly praise God for what He has done in my life this year... yikes. This has been the year of deep cleaning. After much soul searching, I knew what I should say.

Tonight, I was ready. At one point, I started to stand, but someone else was already on their feet. The service started, happened, and ended, and I never got to say what was in my heart. I wondered to God, why did You have my heart full of praise and thanks and keep me from speaking? And then I knew... it was for me to share with you - my blogosphere friends!

Beware - I'm going to go all serious on you and tell you what God has done in the last year.

My verse for the year would have to be Psalm 40:17 - But I am poor and needy: yet the Lord thinketh on me... There has been persistent conviction of "nice" sins, tucked in the corners of my soul... the ones that have been dismissed as personality traits or "quirky" little habits. Not any more. I see the sin. Am I hopeless? Not with the second part of that verse... the Lord thinketh on me. He loves me enough to bother with the conviction, stay with me through the ongoing correction.

So, why is it so important to tell you this? Today, in my Bible reading, I found this verse (at the end of a list of how God blessed His people) That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this... (Isaiah 41:20)

This has been a year of blessing, personal spiritual blessing - and I tell you this so that together, we can 1) see, 2) know, 3) consider and 4) understand that God has been at work... in me... in you?

It is wonderful to be so loved. It is indeed a season of thanksgiving.

Cranberry chutney

Thanksgiving officially starts when I smell the chutney in the kitchen.

I found this recipe when I was emerging from the early stages of learning to cook. You know... just past you mean Jello isn't fruit?, but before recipes that required more than three herbs/spices.


There is no way to describe the magic that happens when all these ingredients bubble in the pot and fill the air with holiday enchantment.



Today was the day... and my heart is filled with thanks.

How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103

Big city shopping

Work called us to a Chicago suburb on Tuesday. So, we mixed business with pleasure, and took an extra day to do some antiquing.

I suppose you want to see the results of our day of searching... the "gem" that would stop the heart of any expert on the Antiques Road Show? That little item everyone else overlooked that is worth nearly $100,000?

Ha!

This was the treasure of the day...



I paid cash ($2.15) and handed the tiny little bag to my vac-man husband. That was more fun than cameras and the Keno Brothers any day.

Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. Psalm 97:11 & 12

Checking the list

This afternoon it looked like this...



But tonight, the finishing touches are in place. The last thread has been snipped.

One more thing to cross off my "to do" list.

Sorry... can't show the finished project. It's a birthday gift!

Rejoice with them that do rejoice... Romans 12:15

Haircut-day

One of the "strictly-for-fun" days in my life is haircut-day.

I live in a very small town where the best shopping happens at WalMart. When haircut-day arrives, I get to drive to a nearby medium-sized city and:

1. get my hair cut.


2. shop wherever I want, for as long as I want in some real stores!


3. go to Sam's and buy, among other things, cashews, which I use as stay awake food for the drive home.

I love haircut-day.

This past Wednesday will probably go down in the history books as the greatest of all haircut-days. You see, I love to shop more than I love to buy. It's the thrill of the bargain, the challenge of the hunt... that ecstatic moment when you find exactly what you want (but don't need) at such an amazing price, that you have to take it home!

For several weeks I have been eyeing/wanting this -- the Quickutz Revolution!

In many places, it sells for around $100, give or take. I spotted it at Archiver's for $49. I found it online several times for $39, but when I hit "add to cart", it was always out of stock, or unavailable, for who knows what reasons! I was just about ready to send my travelling husband back to Archiver's when haircut-day arrived.

I'll leave out the hair stuff, and the many stores visited, and cut right to Hobby Lobby. I was contentedly strolling through the store, looking, touching, imagining, when there on an end cap was my Revolution! The price? $39.95... and I had a 40% off coupon in my purse! I couldn't believe they would let me use it... BUT THEY DID! (That's $24 for all you non-math people.)

I am happily experimenting with my card stock. I have enough flourishes to wallpaper a small room.

See why I love haircut-day?

...Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. I Corinthians 2:9

Sniff

I have a new best friend this week...


Due to an unpleasant affinity for my nose, these tissues have accompanied me everywhere, caused an unnatural glow to appear mid-face, and destroyed any desire to be creative.

sniff...

This too shall pass.

Take no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:34

Marching on

Today I saw...

* Hatpin Harry and his antique band, doing the shadow dance in the living room.


The progression of the sun - morning into evening.

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** The leaves dancing with the wind, high above the house in the clear blue sky.


The march of autumn into winter.

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*** Flowers (fake), turkey feathers and corn husks (real, real) arranged on the front door. The first time in many months that I have bothered to do it.


The journey of hurt into healing.

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Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to thee forever. Psalm 30:11, 12

Today

Three good things.

1.) I live in a country where I can earn this sticker. (I know, I know... it's backwards, but I've always wanted to try one of these mirror pictures.)


2.) The story is in the mail. Prayed about... prayed over... mailed! Now the editor will vote.


3.) Autumn is my favorite time of year. I love the colors. I love the smell in the air. I love sweaters and jeans. This was my view on the road to the Post Office with good thing #2.


I am slooooowly reading my way through the Psalms. Some of the verses for today were:

O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth... O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth. Psalm 96: 1 & 9

I am greatly blessed.

Details of life

I haven't been here in a while.

Well, that isn't true. I have been here. I started several times to write something, but it was so uninteresting, I was putting myself to sleep!

Want to know what have I've been doing? (I don't care. Read anyway!)

• I have three articles written. One is completely ready to go - all spiffed up, double spaced - even the cover letter is finally finished.
• My Christmas card design is almost complete. I have spent hours working on a love/hate relationship with Photoshop Elements. I'm not sure which side of that fence I'm on today! But, a little more hands-on tweaking and the card will be ready for my limited production! (If I don't have your address, you won't ever see it...)
• I'm still slathering paint on my old books. The ideas keep changing as I go. (The latest addition was modeling paste... I like it.) To be truthful, I don't know what the finished product will look like... or be!
• The monthly breakfast for the men at church was Saturday. The decor involved corn husks (harvested fresh from the field), turkey feathers (fresh from the turkey - ouch!) and my old favorite turkey centerpiece.

The best part of the last week was Grandparents' Day - on the right day! It was wonderful. We worked on papers at school, and then went hunting, played Wii racing, boxing, tennis and bowling, baked Toll House muffins - yummmm! Recipe upon request - ate homemade spaghetti... we just had a ball! It was worth two trips just to experience such gramma/grampa love! (I forgot to take pictures! What kind of a blogger am I?)

And next.... the election!

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. Psalm 95:2,3