Weekend Words

My Diary - 1883 - Sarah Jane S.

November 21 - Pa came home this morning with prairie chickens for dinner tomorrow.  Ma said we will have a feast.  She started cooking yesterday and Pa said he couldn't stack wood as fast as Ma could use it.  We are going to have lots of company.  Mr and Mrs Logan and Charity are coming.  Ma says Mrs Logan makes the best cream layer cake ever.  Mr Turner and Harriet and Hiram are coming.  Pa said Mr Turner had a ham to bring.  I hope they bring their checker game.  I have to get up early tomorrow to help Ma with the rolls for dinner.

November 23 - We had a good Thanksgiving.  I wish Aunt Ivy and Uncle Henry and Gramma and Granpa could have come.  Then it would have been perfect.  All the food was so good.  Pa read from the Bible a long time and I was so hungry and I could smell food.  Pa and Mr Turner and Mr Logan went outside after dinner.  Ma and Mrs Logan washed up the dishes, so I played checkers with Hiram.  I would have won but Molly grabbed the checkers and we couldn't remember where to put them.  I sat on Pa's lap when he played checkers with Mr Turner and Pa won.  Mr Logan started singing.  He knows so many songs.  I wish I could remember some of them.  When we were singing Muffie ate some of the chicken.  I was afraid Ma would smack her but she just laughed and said it was Thanksgiving for cats too.  I am sorry Thanksgiving is over but Christmas is coming.

(From the Prairie - A Child's Memories by Joan Vibert and Linda Brannock)

Catching up

Finished my sweater, and worn it once, but it might need to be put away till next autumn/winter now as the days are certainly getting warmer...

 A skirt and book from the op shop.  I've read and enjoyed the book by Patsy Clairmont.  

 Working on my autumn colours granny blanket...

 And reading another op shop find: The Last Runaway.  About Quakers, slaves and quilts.  Unfortunately she has added the standard 'love story', almost ruining a good book :)

Finally have all 80 squares in this blanket sewn together and am working on some border rows...

While dipping in to this one from my bookshelf: Amish Front Porch Stories.  Delightful, uplifting, short stories.

And in the kitchen...

 sprouting seeds

cooking vegies

baking jam drops

And there is always the garden: mowing, weeding, watering, pruning...

But made time last week for an outing to Devonport...

 and the Mersey Bluff Lighthouse

To enjoy fish and chips from the lookout...

Busy Days!!

xx

Weekend Words

Thinking Positive Thoughts

...Whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honourable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things (fix your minds on them).  Philippians 4:8

If you want to improve your life, one of the first things you can do is improve your thoughts.  There is tremendous power that comes when we choose to be positive people...  

Having a positive mind-set and attitude does not mean you are not facing reality or ignoring real problems.  It simply means that you are agreeing with the Word of God and dwelling on God's promises rather than the negative, depressing things of the world.

Notice that throughout His life Jesus endured tremendous difficulties, including personal attacks, and yet He remained positive.  He always had an uplifting comment, an encouraging word.  He always gave hope to those He came near.  We can follow that example today.  When we choose a positive outlook, maintain positive expectations, and engage in positive conversations, we are following the example Jesus gave us...

Your life will follow the direction of your thoughts.

(Closer to God Each Day - Joyce Meyer)

sunset in Canberra (from Jefferson)

Weekend Words

Take time to Listen

In the morning you hear my voice, O Lord; in the morning I prepare [a prayer, a sacrifice] for You and watch and wait [for You to speak to my heart].  Psalm 5:3

In order to hear the voice of God, it is necessary to find times just to be still.  This is an important part of living in close fellowship with God.  It is how you recognise God's leading in your life.  A busy, hurried, frantic, stressful lifestyle makes it very challenging to hear the Lord.

If you are hungry to perceive God's voice, find a place to get quiet before Him.  Get alone with Him and tell Him that you need Him and want Him to teach you how to receive His guidance and direction.  Ask Him to tell you what He has for your life and what He wants you to do that day.

And then I encourage you to do this: Take time to listen.

Even if you don't feel an immediate prompting in your spirit, God promises that if you seek Him, you will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). You will get a word from God.  He will lead you by an inner knowing, by common sense, by wisdom, or by peace.  And each time, however He leads you, His leading will always line up with His word.

I have found that God doesn't always speak to us right away or necessarily during our prayer time.  He may end up speaking to you two days later while you are in the middle of doing something completely unrelated.  Though it may not be in our timing, God will speak to us and let us know the way we should go.

(Joyce Meyer - Closer to God Each Day Devotional)

November Yarn Along

Joining Yarn Along again this month.

This granny blanket finished...

Still sewing together these squares...

Three top rows done.  So many ends to weave in!!!

Working on an 'autumn' (even though it's spring here) blanket, and almost finished A View from the Buggy...

 Such a delightful read!  

Short (2 or 3 pages), varied, true stories from 'real' Amish folk

My sweater is almost done.  Just finishing off the second sleeve...

And these two books came in the mail today: Wilderness Essays, and One More River...  (which I will start tonight).  Even if I never read them I could be content to just gaze at the covers :)


And your nature fix...

After the rain.  At the river this morning

Reading, knitting, crocheting, walking...

A blessed life!

xx

Weekend Words

"But I want first of all ... to be at peace with myself.  I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can.  I want, in fact - to borrow from the language of the saints - to live 'in grace' as much of the time as possible.  I am not using this term in a strictly theological sense.  By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony.  I am seeking perhaps what Socrates asked for in the prayer from the Phaedrus when he said, 'May the outward and inward man be at one.'  I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God.

Vague as this definition may be, I believe most people are aware of periods in their lives when they seem to be 'in grace' and other periods when they feel 'out of grace', even though they may use different words to describe these states.  In the first happy condition, one seems to carry all one's tasks before one lightly, as if borne along on a great tide; and in the opposite state one can hardly tie a shoe-string.  It is true that a large part of life consists in learning a technique of tying the shoe-string, whether one is in grace or not.  But there are techniques of living too; there are even techniques in the search for grace.  And techniques can be cultivated.  I have learnt by some experiences, by many examples, and by the writings of countless others before me, also occupied in the search, that certain environments, certain modes of life, certain rules of conduct are more conducive to inner and outer harmony than others.  There are, in fact, certain roads that one may follow.  Simplification of life is one of them."

(Gift From the Sea - Anne Morrow Lindberg - p29)