Feel Good Friday - The Simple Things in Life, Sung by the Boyer Sisters

Texas Wildflowers - Verbena

Mom Prays in the Night

Years ago a friend of my mother's had the privilege of caring for Ethel Waters in the last days of her life on this earth. Julie, my mom's friend, lived with her family in a large house somewhere in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California. Miss Waters, a famous actress and singer in the worldly sense at one time, was a well-known Christian singer at the time of her death. She had cancer and needed care during the final stages of her life. I am not sure how long Julie actually cared for her in their home but I believe it was somewhat over a year.

During part of that time, my family lived in the area for a few months, fellowshipping at the same church that Julie and her family attended. My mother had known Julie for years, but they were able to renew their old friendship during that time. I also became friends with Julie's daughter who was about my age.

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Evening Song - I'll Meet You in the Morning

Revelation 21:16-18  And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.

Sew Happy Friday -- Turtorial for An Easy Origami Bag

Here is a tutorial by Debbie Shore for a cute little bag that is quick and easy to make. These would make great gifts, an easy sewing project for beginners, or items for a fund raiser sale.

Texas Wildflowers - Evening Primrose In the Morning

Evening primroses are one of my favorite wildflowers here. These are nice large flowers which bloom in our yard some years. This type grows very low to the ground and looks very much as if someone were shredding yellow tissue paper and had scattered the bits around the yard. I am not sure exactly which type this one is, as there are several.

Sometimes on very cool mornings, evening primroses will still be gorgeous for awhile after the sun comes up. I took these photos on such a morning.

"Scattered tissue."

Is It Food?

Another post from the past since we have company at present and I needed a quick post. :-)

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Did you ever wonder how to tell what is good food and what is not at the grocery store?  Or, have you ever had trouble deciphering the label lingo?  Here’s a clever flowchart to help you determine what is really edible on the grocery store shelves. :-)
Is It Food? [Flowchart]

Martha and Mary – A poem by Annie Johnson Flint

This post originally went up in October of 2011. Since then it has become one of the most popular posts on my blog. I think you will see why when you read the poem below.

Do you ever feel like there’s just too much to do and that you can’t get it all done?  Do you feel like you don’t have enough time for the things that really count?  I love this poem.  It thrills me at the end, as so many of Miss Flint’s poems do.  She had such a way with words and such an order to her thoughts. Thank God for preserving these for us!  This one really helps us to re-adjust our perspective and consider the things that are truly needful.
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Martha and Mary

Martha was busy and hurried,
Serving the friend divine,
Cleansing the cups and platters,
Bringing the bread and wine;
But Martha was careful and anxious
Fretted in thought and in word.

She had no time to be sitting
While she was serving the Lord,
For Martha was "cumbered with serving,
Martha was "troubled" with "things"---
Those that would pass with the using---
She was forgetting her wings.

Mary was quiet and peaceful,
Learning to love and to live.
Mary was hearing His precepts,
Mary was letting Him give---
Give of the riches eternal,
Treasures of mind and of heart;
Learning the mind of the Master,
Choosing the better part.

Do we ever labor at serving
Till voices grow fretful and shrill,
Forgetting how to be loving,
Forgetting how to be still?
Do we strive for "things" in possession,
And toil for the perishing meat,
Neglecting the one thing needful---
Sitting at Jesus' feet?

Service is good when he asks it,
Labor is right in it's place,
But there is one thing better,
Looking up in his face;
There is so much he can tell us,
Truths that are precious and deep;
This is the place where he wants us,
These are the things we can keep.

Annie Johnson Flint

Luke 10:41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: 42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

(I took this picture in the corner of my mom’s kitchen, and yes those are real amaryllis.)

I love this picture in contrast with the one of my messy, stress-filled kitchen at the top.  It is so simple. So beautiful. So quiet.  Yet there is strength there as well.  It speaks to me of quiet waiting on the Lord and the slow, strengthening growth and beautifying that comes with that.  May God help us to seek out the quiet corners of our lives where we can focus on the precious, lasting things.

Evening Song - Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Hebrews 12:2-3  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Sew Happy Friday - Scrappy Log Cabin Quilt Tutorial

This video is a little longer than some that I have put up, but this lady gives a lot of instruction which might be helpful to the beginner or someone who has never made a log cabin quilt with scraps before.
The tutorial is produced by the National Quilters' Circle.

Texas Wildflowers - Bluebonnet Portrait

Evening Song - There Is A Way

Sew Happy Friday - A Really Scrappy Quilt Tutorial

This is a great way to use up scraps. Pre-cutting the pieces when you're working on other projects will also make it go faster. I also like her idea for exchanging scraps with friends. :-)

The Thousand Word Project - Spring Is Near or Here

O wind, where have you been,
That you blow so sweet?
Among the violets
Which blossom at your feet.

The honeysuckle waits
For Summer and for heat
But violets in the chilly Spring
Make the turf so sweet.

Christina Rossetti

"Rescuing" Disney

[Photo: SteamFan, WikiMedia Commons.]

Colossians 3:2

Set your affection on things above, 

not on things on the earth.

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This week there has been a big blow up over Disney including "inappropriate content" in a recent cartoon and in an upcoming movie. Frankly, this concern and protest is over 70 years too late.

Perhaps the first really disturbing cartoon that Disney produced was Fantasia, his third feature length animation. It included a lot of animation set to well known pieces of music and was perhaps most famous for the Mickey Mouse short of The Sorcerer's Apprentice which was included. But there were many other things in this cartoon - sorcery, magic (some of it being extremely powerful), nudity to various degrees (including full upper body nudity of "female centaurs"), mythical creatures from heathen religions, a nature "goddess", various "spirits" and devils, people apparently falling into hell, and more. And that isn't even mentioning some of the suggestively sexual incidents. Altogether it is a grotesques and very evil presentation.

Fantasia was released in 1940. You read that correctly - 1940.

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Evening Song - Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross

Galatians 6:14  But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Writing Challenge #3

Hooray! It is time for another writing challenge.

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Write a story from your family history. Strive to make it interesting while staying as close to the facts as possible.

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This can be anything you want - sad, happy, funny, heart-breaking, recent, long ago, etc. It did not have to happen to you personally. The choice is up to you. One way to stretch your abilities here would be to interview some family members about their memories of the event: how they felt, what they remember about it, etc.

My effort will be posted later this month. :-)  And here it is: Mom Prays in the Night.

Enjoy!

The Thousand Word Project - Delicate

Oxalis also called Wood Sorrel

To those who may be interested:

Stephanie at The Enchanting Rose is having sign up for the 10th Tea Cup and Mug Exchange this week. If you're interested, go take a look and see if you want to participate. I enjoyed the one I participated in last fall.