Vintage Reading Book: Winter Is Here

To properly bid February a fond farewell, I thought I'd show you this adorable little vintage reading book.

Its illustrations take me back to elementary school days.


For easier viewing, click on any photo to enlarge.  

 

 

 

So simple...and so sweet.  

Good-bye, February, can't really say I'm sorry to see you go.  
We woke up to freezing rain and ice this morning.
NO FUN!
Winter, you can go away now!

Crawl In...

Aren't Sunday naps just the best, ever?

Sometimes, after Church, when dinner is cleaned up and put away, I will steal away to the guest room upstairs and turn down the covers and take a quick snooze.

There's nothing quite like it.

A nap, any other day of the week, is somehow, not the same.

SCENIC SUNDAY: The Lighthouse

Lake Superior @Whitefish Point

Taken by Jamie.

an old, old church song...

The Lighthouse...
There's a lighthouse on the hillside
That overlooks the sea
When I'm tossed it sends out a light
That I might see
And the light that shines in darkness now
Will safely lead me o'er
If it wasn't for the lighthouse
My ship would be no more

(Narrative)
It seems that everybody about us says
Tear that old lighthouse down
The big ships just don't pass this way anymore
So there's no use in standing around
Then my mind goes back to that one dark, stormy night
When just in time, I saw the light
Yes, it was the light from that old lighthouse
That stands up there on the hill

And I thank God for the lighthouse
I owe my life to Him
Jesus is the Lighthouse
And from the rocks of sin
He has shown a light around me
That I might clearly see
If it wasn't for the lighthouse
Tell me where would this ship be?

I thank God for the lighthouse
I owe my life to Him
Jesus is the Lighthouse
And from the rocks of sin
He has shown a light around me
That I might clearly see
If it wasn't for the lighthouse
Tell me where would this ship be? 

Lansing, Here I Come!

 

Myself and an unnamed patriot.  This protest is the first Tea Party in Lansing, April 15, 2009




I am heading with some friends over to Lansing this morning.  I've got to put my money where my mouth is and show up to counter-protest the Moveon.org driven-union demonstrations.


The time has come for the haves to try to put us "have-nots" in our place, and I'm not going down without a fight.


Public sector unions have NO business being run as those in the private sector.  Taxpayer money is a whole different issue than those in private-sector unions paid dollars made from a profit. 


As more and more states face bankruptcy, this will spread.  I'm afraid it's going to be a LONG fight.  We need to get our big girl pants on and go out there.  It's cold, it's snowy, but I've got long underwear and snowmobile pants, and I can go.


FOR OUR KIDS.


Our state governments are not like our federal government, which at a whim of Bernanke's can print money as fast as they can --all to prop up their empty coffers.  States do not have that at their disposal and budgets must be balanced.  


I don't know what's not to understand about that and that states and municipalities cannot control costs and predict spending with bargaining rights such as they are.


Reality cannot be put off or kicked forward to our grandkids and theirs, and that is why I must fight now.


YOU?

A Home of Their Own!

Bryant looks back at home.

Christmas 2010






Home.

The American dream.  A place to call your own.  It's where family lives.  Shelter from the worries and cares of the outside world.  A good piece of land and a spot for a garden.  A porch and a rocker.  A lamp in the window.  Shelter from all of life's storms.  Where you rock your babies to sleep.  Peace in a noisy world.
All these are home.

This is the scenery right behind their property.

Jamie and Thad (our daughter and son-in-law) were finally able, yesterday, to close on their first home!  They've rented it for years and have been in the process of buying it for all the years they've rented.  

There was a land dispute that was a long, legal battle to gain clear title to the land and it's finally theirs!  (The moral of the story is:  always get a survey done and always buy title insurance!) 

We are so happy for and so proud of them and their sweet house in the woods!  It's been quite a month for them:  finding out that a new  little baby will soon be joining their family, and now owning their first home!  What a happy time!

A really sweet spot to raise a family...

Blog Banners

I put up a new "in between seasons" blog header today.  I usually try to have a new one for each season, but I just couldn't stand the winter one for another day.  I was originally planning to use the snowy farmhouse header until March 1st, but I didn't make it!

This is the first time I've done a sepia toned header for my main blog.  It's a little out of my "comfort zone", normally I like to greet readers here with a welcoming pop of color at the top of the page.  We'll see how this one works out, what do you think?

Originally, I had a few blog banners made with my own photos by a blog designer and I loved them all.  I sent the pictures, told her what I had in mind, and she designed them for me, did a wonderful job, too.  (The first four or five here are ones she designed with my ideas and photos.)

Shabbee Chick Designs who has since disappeared from the blog design scene...and I don't know where to find her.

So, out of necessity, I've had to start making my own.

I have Sarah, over at the wonderful blog "Clover Lane" to thank for her awesome tutorial on how to do it.  Do some browsing on her blog, she's a great mom and full of common sense and wisdom on raising kids...organizing the home, is a wonderful photographer, and she has a beautiful large family.

Since she "taught" me, step by step with her "how to", I have been having so much fun learning to create new headers to use and keep things interesting around here.

If you have a blog you want to jazz up or change with the seasons with your own photos, go click over and see how easy it really is!

(And Shabbee Chick, if you're out there somewhere, I'd really like to say that I miss you and I would love to hear from you again.)

A Pile Of Junk: Build Your Own!

I had a little spot in the farmhouse where I needed a small table.

But an actual table wouldn't work.  The spot was narrow.  The table couldn't be too tall, it needed to be no taller than the chair arm height.

I saw my Coke crate, brought it over.  Just the right size!  But it was too low.

I remembered a picnic basket that has lived in our garage for many years.  I went and got it.  

Just right!!

The old wooden drawer was added for interest and a wee bit more height, plus, I think three is always better than two.  I am still looking for the perfect thing to pop in that box to bring some color to the corner.  This will happen in good time, there is no hurry.

On the bottom of the Coca Cola crate, I used stick-on silicone dot/protectors that you can get at the hardware store to keep from scratching the hardwood floor, and to keep the crate from sliding when it's used as an end table.

I didn't fasten anything else down, the picnic basket has a couple volumes of an old encyclopedia inside for weight.

Now, how's that for a cute, quick, pile of junk that makes itself more than useful?

Shopping in your own home can sometimes be fun!

Of February Sunsets

I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God. 

-Abraham Lincoln

It doesn't matter how many sunsets you've seen in your lifetime each one is better than the last.

The shades of periwinkle still astound, the on-fire pinks blended perfectly with orange and yellow....and the brilliance the bright middle, and darkness of the outer side of this rainbow-colored sunset contained within the western skies--all painted to capture  attention at twilight.

Another sunset ... framed perfectly by what surrounds us; 

Maybe an old farm fence, topped with barbed wire and a few bare trees, and some ragged weeds and light reflected off the blue snow.


A jeweled painting put in the sky--nothing that can be matched by any paintbrush a human could wield, all to savor and enjoy, if you only take time notice....

For those few still and quiet moments God timed it to last.   

The blue of heaven is larger than the clouds.  

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A Chance....

Another BABY!!

Jamie and Thad are happy and thrilled--we got a call a couple weeks ago telling us the happy news.  This isn't something they ever thought would happen again without difficulty.


They were told a few months ago by the specialist that treated Jamie achieving pregnancy would probably not happen without help from the fertility clinic where she was treated before they conceived Levi.


They beat the odds and are expecting a sweet new addition to their little family early this fall--around the middle of October!


All of us are in awe, and beyond thrilled at this, and of course, we have to say that the LORD IS GOOD and this is a BLESSING!

SCENIC SUNDAYS: A Godly President

George Washington
1732-1799


Sixty seven years between the dash there, and yet so much was accomplished.


"Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.
Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."


--George Washington