A new year! Sometimes it's happy. Sometimes it's not. Life is full of twists and turns. Some days are joyful and others are devastating while most days are somewhere in between as if on cruise control. How do we hold onto joy in this new year? Or find it if there is none? Is there such a thing as being able to thrive in this world with so much sorrow all around us? And what about hope? Do we dare hope? Where is joy, anyway? Does it all come down to resolutions and striving for better this, better that? I don't think so. I don't know about you but I can't seem to muster up anything that great over here. I wonder, where is the joy I had in days gone past when I was excited about so much? What went wrong? I think it's this cruise control thing. Just getting by, day by day, without much thought. And then life throws a few curve balls and, Bam, ON THE FLOOR! Are some days just plain hard to get out of bed? For some, I know it's impossible. I'm so sorry for your sorrow and heartache. No matter where life finds us, we CAN find JOY again! It's not going to be easy. There will continue to be sorrow. A new day dawns. A new day of grace. A NEW DAY OF GRACE! New! Grace! Joy! Hope! Believe! It is given to us daily! New strength. New joy. New hope. Give us eyes to see it, Dear Lord! Wake us from our slumber! Show us your joy in each new day, each new year!
If sorrows bring us closer to you, Dear Lord, may you give us strength to lean on you more in this new year! Thank you from the bottom of our weary hearts! "Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD." Psalms 31:24 "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." Romans 15:13 May the Lord bless you and keep you always!
I am an American. I will exercise my right to vote. Election day is today. There seems to be so much at stake in America these days. I am a mother. What kind of future awaits our children and generations to come? It can all be downright scary. Do I need to be afraid? I am a child of God. God will never leave us nor forsake us. He carries us, tucks us under His wings. He holds us by the hand! I am not afraid. There is no need to fear. God is in control of everything! "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done." He has the whole world in His hands! I believe in God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost! I believe in the promises of God. I believe in Emmanuel~God is with us! And if God is with us, who can be against us? I am not afraid! Our peace, joy, hope, strength and encouragement for today and everyday is always in the promises of God. His Holy and precious word! His most precious gift! Jesus. What a friend we have in Jesus. "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Isaiah 41:10 "For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee." Isaiah 41:13 " These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33 "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31 "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, then he that is in the world." 1 John 4:4 Enjoy listening to these hymns with peace in your heart!
Our little homeschool just finished a wonderful children's book series by Gloria Whelan! The first book is called Once on this Island and it takes place on Mackinac Island during the War of 1812! The other books in the series are, Farewell to the Island and Return to the Island. We met wonderful, interesting characters and learned so much about what life was like for those living on Mackinac Island during the war between Britain and America. The second book takes the main character all the way to London which gave us a glimpse of a very different way of life than here in the States during that time and then, of course, the last book is back on the island with more adventure involving a fur trading company and the local Indian tribes.
The little girls were playing Indians all day today in the woods with braids in their hair, beaded necklaces and scarves over their shoulders. If I were on the ball I would have taken a picture or two! Anyway, perhaps you'll check these books out from your local library like we did! LOVED THEM!
My daughter, Chloe, started a blog featuring her own poetry and some of the music she loves! She is the daughter who was born in Australia 20 years ago! She loves painting, writing and music which are traits handed down from my mom's side of the family, though I tell Chloe that I was constantly singing to her and her siblings when I was expecting her! We sang the patriotic songs I learned in grade school: This Land Is Your Land, The Star-Spangled Banner, My Country T'is of Thee, America the Beautiful And every children's song that I could think of: Daisy, Daisy, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, In The Good Ol' Summertime, Hey Diddle, Diddle and the whole album of a wonderful lullaby cassette that I received as a gift when I was expecting our first child in 1990 featuring songs called The Appalachian Lullaby, Tomorrow We'll Go to the Fair, Look at Teddy, and Raindrops. We sang all the hymns and church songs, too, that we loved so much: Jesus, Tender Shepherd, Jesus Loves Me, I Am So Glad, Day by Day, When We Walk With The Lord, When He Cometh, Within Thy Wings. We learned all kinds of Australian children's songs and discovered the singing group, "The Wiggles". It was so cute listening to Miss Polly Had A Dolly in an Aussie accent! And since our oldest, Shane, attended prep grade in Australia, we learned the Australian National Anthem, Australia Fair, and I still catch myself singing it from time to time! Life was less busy in those days living so far from home without a lot of extra activities. I would walk in the neighborhood close to the school with the girls while Shane was in school and sing the whole time! No one seemed to be out and about in the neighborhood and the girls loved it. We sang all the songs again at bedtime! Chloe would then grow up to be the one child who actually liked to recite poetry, and the other day she inspired our whole homeschool class with typing out their own writings along with accompanying artwork! So, anyway, here is Chloe's blog! I hope you enjoy it! https://coffeechlo.wordpress.com/
It was a beautiful day yesterday sitting on the deck by Lake Walden celebrating my dear friend, Sarah's, birthday! A wonderful group of ladies took time out of their day to share their love with our treasured friend. Most of us have been friends since childhood and we laughed about old memories. We were blessed to have in attendance her mother and mother-in-law who joined in on the fun plus a few young ladies and a handful of children who scurried around us to offer up a delightful mix of youthful energy! The sun warmed us nicely on this beautiful fall day! We sang hymns. Were angels chiming in? It was beautiful. Everyone wrote a memory of Sarah and then a question for her to answer. It was quite fun! We laughed and reflected and even received a few wonderful lessons on family, faith and the latest rage in household paint colors. A few opened up about minor or major struggles. We listened. We learned. We laughed. We shared. You know what? We loved! We loved being together. We loved being in the fresh air. We loved the fellowship. This morning is a new day. We hear of death and sorrow and heartache. Our hearts are aching for friends who've loved and lost. We ache over sickness and loss and uncertainty. One day our hearts are filled with joy. The next heartache and sorrow. I am reminded of what is precious in this life. Love. And the relationships we've been blessed with. God is reminding me that our relationships are the most important thing we have on this earth! The love of our Heavenly Father the most important relationship of all! He lovingly calls us to Him, wants us to confide in Him, talk to Him, listen to Him! He's our Best Friend! Our Best Friend Forever! He is constantly giving us unexpected gifts of love: ~a friend out of nowhere. ~a conversation of comfort. ~a smile from a stranger. ~a quiet moment to hear His voice. ~a small child to hug. ~a glorious sunrise. ~the joy of a birthday, a celebration, a birth. ~the comfort only He can give when our hearts are broken. Can we find joy in that? When our joy is lost, He gives us His! Let us find the time to love. We were created in love~it is part of our identity. Enjoy it! Celebrate it! Give it away!
Life is a gift. Love is a gift. "That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love," Colossians 2:2
Has anyone ever wanted a beautiful, streamlined closet? Where you can find something nice to wear no matter what kind of day you're having? I've always dreamed of having a beautiful closet thinking I'll get to it when the kids are all older, when I'm not so busy, etc, etc. Ahh! Wouldn't it be wonderful to feel HAPPY when you opened your closet? Thankful, even, and so excited that you felt like SINGING? Well, let me tell YOU I'm SINGING! My closet is ORGANIZED! AND BEAUTIFUL! AND I THINK IT'S A MIRACLE! It IS a MIRACLE! I'm so EXCITED! I CAN'T STOP SINGING ABOUT IT! I told you my New Year's resolution was to have more fun and I AM HAVING A BALL! I have a clean, beautiful and organized closet! And it has stayed clean, beautiful and organized for over a month already! Believe me, there is nothing special about me! I have never been the most organized person know matter how hard I try! I plan on keeping the house neat and then before I know it, POOF! Back to a mess! Constant cleaning and maintaining. You all know what I'm talking about! So, Here's the SECRET!
This little book is all the rage, you know. It really is life-changing! The author, Marie Kondo, is a tidying expert! Her philosophy is to gather all your things by likeness, clothing, for example, and deal with it all in one go. For example, she has you start with clothing, so I gathered all of my clothing from all around the house from winter coats that were hanging in various closets and in the basement to summer sandals stored in a bucket on a basement shelf~ All hats, scarves, shoes and dump them all on your bed or bedroom floor. Then she advises handling each piece individually and asking yourself if it sparks joy! I LOVE IT! If it doesn't spark joy then OUT it goes! I got rid of bags and bags of stuff that didn't spark joy: shabby looking t shirts, shoes that really weren't that comfortable, hats, scarves and coats I never wore anymore because I had too many and they were just taking up space! It felt SO GOOD to get rid of stuff I could hardly believe it! I threw a bunch of shabby things straight in the garbage and bagged up everything else and brought it to the local thrift store. I figured someone else could find real joy in the things that no longer sparked joy for me! Another thing that the author suggests is keeping everything you wear in one place! So no more storing things in the basement or downstairs closet! EVERYTHING I own as far as clothing goes, FITS IN MY CLOSET! All my shoes, boots, hats, scarves, purses, workout wear, swimsuits and cover ups, camping shorts and flannel shirt, socks, underwear, hoodies, jackets, fur collared coat, fancy hats, gloves, winter ski pants. EVERYTHING! Isn't that MAGICAL? Here is my closet!
One hanging bar with shelf on top, a set of four wire drawers, and 4 shelves tucked into the side where I keep all of my shoes, purses and a few hats- right side of photo. Hanging are all the dresses I chose to keep, jackets, shirts, blouses, pants and skirts. The drawers hold all my pj's, underwear, socks, nylons, tights/leggings, 2 hooded sweatshirts, 2 swimsuits with cover ups, 2 pair shorts, t shirts, tank tops, camis, workout clothing, even my painting clothes! The TRICK in getting all this stuff into the drawers is Marie Kondo's magic folding method! Basically, you fold everything into a narrow rectangle then fold in thirds. Then she has you file them standing on end rather than stacking on top of each other. Check it out here: http://goop.com/the-illustrated-guide-to-the-kondo-mari-method/
She suggests you use little boxes that you have hanging around the house to hold accessories and as dividers for socks, underwear, etc, as seen in the photo above.
I keep extra hats, accessories, and off season clothing in these pretty boxes I bought from TJ Maxx for $8-$10! I love them! You can see them in action in the first photo above.
Here is one box with a few fancy winter accessories that I keep on the shelf!!
Can you see why i'm singing? After you tackle your clothing, Marie suggests tidying your books. And being a homeschooling mom, I LOVE MY BOOKS! But somehow she has you happily going through all of your books and asking yourself if each one is still bringing you joy! I got rid of over 400 BOOKS! I'M NOT KIDDING! PHOTO PROOF! These all went to our beloved local public library who were more than happy to receive them! It's going to help fund their summer program!
All of a sudden our home has so much SPACE! After implementing Marie Kondo's Life-changing magic to your home, you will find your home is so much bigger than you realized! You don't need a huge walk in closet, but if you have one. you'll soon be able to use it as a valuable space for so much more! You don't need more square footage! You just need to start TIDYING! Life just got more FUN! Get the book from your local library and start right away! Your whole life will change just like mine did! Pretty soon you will be singing about YOUR closet! I hope you have a wonderful and blessed day! "O sing unto the LORD a new song.." Psalms 96:1
There is a beautiful garden. The most beautiful garden in all the world. The sun never stops shining and love and joy will forever grow. The tears have been shed, The bloody sweat poured out. The work is finished. It is ready for all to enter. The price is free. All are welcome into this garden. It is a place where all hearts find True Love and Joy! Forever! Happiness forever! Joy forever! And it's for YOU! All sins have been washed away by the Gardener~ Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
"The hour in Gethsemane I never shall forget, When Christ alone the battle fought, In grief and bloody sweat. Gethsemane, Gethsemane, I must remember thee, Where God's eternal Son I saw In pray'r on bended knee." "When I among the solemn trees, In spirit gazed around; I saw the burden of my sin On him with judgment bound. Gethsemane, Gethsemane, I must remember thee, Where God's eternal son I saw In pray'r on bended knee."
"I saw Him tempted to despair, By anguish, grief, bent low; The depth of pain He suffered there No man can fully know. Gethsemane, Gethsemane, I must remember thee, Where God's eternal Son I saw In pray'r on bended knee." "If ever. Lord, my love to Thee Should cold and fruitless be, O show me in Gethsemane Thy suff'ring there for me. Gethsemane, Gethsemane, I must remember thee.
Where God's eternal Son I saw In pray'r on bended knee." Author unknown
The story of our Lord's agony in the garden can be found in Luke 23:41-44. Be happy! There is no need to fear! The agony turns to Joy on Easter morning where the angel at the empty tomb proclaims: "He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again." Luke 24:6, 7 Grief turned to JOY! The promise of that Beautiful Garden!
May all Hearts be filled with Neverending Love, Joy, Praise and Thanksgiving this Easter! You are all So Loved! *All drawings done by my children
