Add some beauty to life!

Lately I've been reading the Anne books again, by L.M. Montgomery.

Right now I'm on Anne of Avonlea and I thought Anne had a nice ambition-

"I'd like to add some beauty to life," said Anne dreamily.

"I don't exactly want to make people know more...

though I know that is the noblest ambition...

but I'd love to make them have a pleasanter time

because of me...to have some little joy

or happy thought that never would have

existed if I hadn't been born."

This cute little teapot was given to me by my Mom, quite a few years ago.

It goes well with my collection of smaller, demitasse size teacups.

I hope you are able to spread some beauty and joy to those around you

this week!  I'm joining Tea Time Tuesday and Table Top Tuesday again this week.

God's goodness

You know, if you start looking around at this old world, it can start to look like a pretty crummy place.  There are bad things happening all around- children die in accidents, mothers die of cancer, crazy men go into theaters and shoot everyone, wars kill innocent people, droughts come and people have trouble making a living, forest fires and prairie fires claim peoples homes.  But the Bible says over and over again that God is good.  These are just a few examples.

Matthew 7:11

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to

give good gifts to your children,

how much more will your Father in heaven

give good gifts to those who ask him!

Psalm 119:68

You are good, and what you do is good;

teach me your decrees.

Psalm 145:9

The Lord is good to all;

he has compassion on all he has made.

So how can a good God allow all those bad things to happen to us?  It doesn't make sense- cancer and accidents and fires and death don't seem like good, do they?  I was reminded of the story of Joseph, in the book of Genesis.  He was sold into slavery by his jealous half brothers when he was 17, accused falsely by his owner's wife and sent to an Egyptian prison for years.  If that isn't bad I don't know what is.  But then God gave him the ability to interpret dreams, and so the Pharaoh heard about him and brought him out of the jail so he could interpret his dream.  Joseph predicted seven years of plenty followed by seven years of drought, and so Pharaoh made him second in command of the whole country.  This is what Joseph said to his brothers later-

You intended to harm me,

but God intended it for good to accomplish

what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Genesis 50:20

So, somehow, in a way that we can't understand, God is able to use what is bad for good in our lives, without changing his goodness or his perfection.  I've seen this myself in my own life.  Something bad, like not being able to get pregnant, has been used for good.  We have been able to adopt four children- who I am so thankful for, by the way! 

Now I know in part;

then I shall know fully,

even as I am fully known.

1 Corinthians 13:12

One day, in heaven, we will be able to understand all these things that seem so hard to comprehend now.  For now, we just need to trust that what God says is true- He is good, and his love endures forever!





A story about listening to God's voice

Today I read a verse that I had underlined in my Bible 2 years ago, and it reminded me of the situation we faced at that time.  I thought I'd share the story with you, and maybe it will be an encouragement to you as well. 

We were deep into waiting to adopt, we had been waiting for 2 years already.  Our preferences for a child were boy or girl, up to one year old.   Then one day our agency sent us an email asking if we would consider adopting a sibling group of three sisters, ages 9,7, and 2.  We pretty much thought that would be crazy and so wrote them back and said no.  However, we had not stopped to pray about it!  After we told them no we just couldn't get the girls off our minds.  We knew that if we did end up adopting them it would be the most challenging thing we had ever done.  That's when I read these verses.

for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care.

Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts

as you did at Meribah,

as you did that day at Massah in the desert.

Psalm 95:7-8

Both Andy and I definitely felt like the Lord was wanting us to say yes to these girls.  So, we emailed the agency back and told them they could show our profile to the girls' mom.  We waited about a week and then heard that we were the mom's first choice and she was going to call us the next day!  We were very excited and couldn't believe it!  But she never called, and never contacted the agency again.  I guess she changed her mind.  Hopefully things worked out for her and she was able to keep her girls. 

But here's the amazing part.  Because we listened to the Lord's voice, and opened our hearts to those girls, the Lord also opened our hearts to the possibility of adopting an older child.  We told the adoption agency we would be willing to adopt a boy up through age three, or an older girl.  We didn't feel it would be right to add another boy in between our boys' ages.  It was only 2 weeks later that we got the phone call saying we had been chosen for AJ, a three year old boy.  You can read the rest of the story here, if you like.

So I challenge you, that if you hear God in your heart, asking you to do something new or different, don't harden your heart to what He is saying to you- there just might be a precious gift right around the corner!

Our precious gift- AJ

Grandparents visit!

We are glad to have Andy's parents here for a couple days this week!

Last night we took a walk in our little pasture/woods.

The boys are glad to have someone to play legos with!

Just life--

Aren't these Black Eyed Susans pretty?  They are in my Mom's garden.

I hope you are all having a good start to your week.  We are busy here at our house because Andy's parents are coming for a visit this week!  It will be fun to visit with them again.  The kids weren't too pleased with me today though because I made them do a bunch of cleaning...

A week and a half ago I started going off the anti-seizure medicine I've been taking for the last 5 1/2 months.  The withdrawal has given me headaches and made me "mad at the world".  Poor Andy.

It's still so so dry here.  Since we had such a hot dry summer last year we thought for sure this year it would be cool and wet.  But we were wrong.  I heard that around here we haven't had two hot dry years in a row like this since the 1950s.  Maybe next year it will be cool and wet?



Lots of tomatoes = spaghetti for supper!

All the heat and drought this summer hasn't hurt our tomatoes any!  They are producing like crazy.  We can't keep up eating them so I had to cook some up for the freezer this week.  On Monday I did some diced tomatoes and today I made some tomato sauce.  If I was doing this to save money my time wasn't worth much!  But I guess it does give you a sense of accomplishment anyhow. 

While I was looking for a recipe for tomato sauce I found my Grandma's old Bell Canning Book from 1941.  It's falling apart and has her notes of which recipe was good and the year she made it.  The inside front cover has this lady admiring all her jars of who knows what.  Does anybody can like that anymore?

Well, with all that tomato sauce I decided to make spaghetti for supper.  I made this recipe up back when we were first married and we have eaten a lot of it over the years!  In case you would like to try a new spaghetti recipe, here's our family's favorite.

Carmen's Spaghetti

2 lbs. ground beef
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 16 oz. can tomato sauce
1 16 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
1 11 oz. can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. basil
1 tsp. oregano

Brown ground beef with diced onion.  Drain and add remaining ingredients.  Simmer for 10-20 minutes.  Serve with 1 lb. spaghetti noodles, cooked.  Sprinkle with Parmesan and shredded cheese if desired. 

Painting away-

Our sewing room/guest bedroom is getting a new look this week!  With PD and DJ gone to camp and SJ and AJ spending a few days at Grandpa and Grandma's, it was the perfect time to do a little fix-up.  It had old vinyl covered drywall for walls, so LA and I taped and mudded the seams, primed right over the vinyl, and today I painted the first coat of paint. 

I'm using the color Mulberry White, from Walmart.  I really like the color- in some lights it looks more light pink and some more light purple.  It's very feminine.  Perfect for a sewing room!