No-fail flowers

If you live in the middle of America like me, you probably know gardening can be a challenge.  With our unpredictable weather, high winds, and hard clay soil, you never quite know what a year will bring!  But after gardening for a few years, I thought I'd share my favorite flowers that have done well in years of drought and years of steady rain.

Bulbs-
     Daffodils... Every spring I am so thankful I took the time and effort to plant daffodils!  They are the first flower to bloom after a long winter and they bring lots of joy as well as bouquets for Easter dinner!

     Tulips... They are the second flower to bloom and I just love them.  When we moved to our house I planted some red ones along the woods behind our house and they are so pretty and cheerful.

     Irises...  Irises just might be my favorite flower, or maybe roses, or lilacs, or peonies...  But yes, back to irises, they are so beautiful, and smell so sweet, and once you plant them they are good to go for many years.  We have irises growing in ditches around here with no house in sight.  The flowers lasted longer than the farm.

     Daylilies...  I'm talking about the old-fashioned orange ones.  They grow really well and are hard to kill.  We see these at old farmsteads around here as well, where they've been faithfully blooming for a hundred years.

Seeds-
     Zinnias...  These are my favorite flower to grow from seed.  They don't bloom till a little later in the summer, like July/August, so when the May flowers are a memory your garden is still beautiful and full of color.  Plus they attract butterflies, so that's fun.

     Marigolds...  These little cheerful flowers are easy to grow and give lots of color.  They are a little pungent, but are pretty if you don't get too close!

So there you have a few no-fail flowers for our part of the world.  Do you have any additional suggestions?  My flower beds are full so I might need to do some expanding this year! (:

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Loving Tea Parties

My great aunt gave us an amaryllis bulb kit for Christmas this year, and I was excited to try it since we've never had one before.  It did not disappoint!  Miss E and I enjoyed having a little tea party with the beautiful amaryllis front and center last week.

Miss E asked me who made it and I was glad to tell her God did!  

This pretty little Valentine belonged to my Great Grandma.

With Valentines day and our pretty red amaryllis, we had to use our red transferware.

These teacups are called Romantic England, by J.G. Meakin.

The amaryllis has cheered up our winter, we might have to get one every year!

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When You Can't Choose Joy

 

The cold and dreary winter can sometimes wear on a person.  We start to feel a little low, like the clouds that hang low over the dead landscape.  We hear the phrase, "Choose Joy", like it's something we can just conjure up.  But that never seems to work for me. 

 

A few days ago I read these verses that Jesus spoke to his disciples just before he was crucified.

 

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Now remain in my love.

If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love,

just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.

 

Now notice this next verse--

 

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you

and that your joy may be complete.

 

So to have complete joy, we just need to obey Jesus' commands.

Now you may be thinking, obey a bunch of commands?  How could that bring joy?

Check out the next verse--

 

My command is this:

Love each other as I have loved you.

John 15:9-12

 

I don't know why these verses never registered with me before,

maybe they did and I just forgot, but it makes perfect sense.

 

If we love each other, with true love like Jesus has for us, then our lives will be full of joy!  What is the most common cause for discouragement in our lives?  Isn't it usually people problems?  But if we are loving each other (and that means loving everyone) then our lives will be much happier because we aren't spending all that time being mad and annoyed at people that bug us.

 

Remember what true love looks like?

 

Love is...

 

patient

kind

it does not envy

it is not rude

it is not self-seeking

it is not easily angered

it keeps no record of wrongs

it does not delight in evil

it rejoices with the truth

it always protects

it always trusts

it always hopes

it always perseveres

it never fails

 

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

 

"Does Jesus care when my heart is pained

Too deeply for mirth and song,

As the burdens press, and the cares distress,

And the way grows weary and long?

 

Oh, yes, He cares, I know He cares,

His heart is touched with my grief;

When the days are weary the long nights dreary,

I know my Savior cares."

 

~Frank E. Graeff~

Gifts

~our gifts~

 

"I want to see little children adorning every home as flowers adorn every meadow and every wayside.  I want to see them welcomed to the homes they enter, to see their parents grow less and less selfish and more and more loving because they have come.  I want to see God's precious gifts accepted, not frowned upon and refused." ~Elizabeth Prentiss, in Stepping Heavenward

This is an appropriate quote for this day, the 43rd anniversary of the supreme court decision that made it legal for parents to kill their children.  Abortion is so awful in every way, and if you have been affected by it, I pray that you will find forgiveness.  Thankfully God will freely forgive us if we ask him, and he asks us to do the same for others.  Children are not a burden, a problem, or an inconvenience, they are God's gifts to us.  Having children has taught us so much and continues to teach us daily.  It is not easy to raise a child, but it is so very worth it. 

Family Cookbook

A while back I was thinking about how I might pass our family recipes on to our children, and I decided to make a scrapbook style recipe book with photos to copy and present to each child as they leave home.  (Our oldest will be graduating from high school this May, so the kids leaving home is going to be happening sooner than I'd like to think!)  I am making each page 8.5 x 11 size so they are easy to make color copies of and place in plastic sleeves in a binder.

 

Here are a few of my finished pages that I scanned to show you.

 

 

It's been fun to go back through our family photos and find food pictures to use- some of these recipes I've been making for over 20 years!

 

 

It's been a fun project and one I will be working on for awhile yet.  Our kids are thinking it's a good idea too-hopefully their wives will also...

 

I know that there I nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.  That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil-- this is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

 

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More Love to Thee

 

I am currently reading the book, Stepping Heavenward, by Elizabeth Prentiss, and it is so good!  You wouldn't think a book written almost 150 years ago would still be relevant today but people have always been people, and the same struggles that the fictional Katy Elliot faced throughout her life in the 1800s still face me.  The book is written as Katy's journal, and it is so real.  I would highly recommend it.

 

 

This is a drawing of Elizabeth Prentiss.  Besides the book Stepping Heavenward, she is also the author of the well known hymn, More Love to Thee.  She wrote these words after nearly losing her daughter because of an illness.

 

"More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee!

Hear Thou the prayer I make on bended knee.

This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to Thee,

More love to Thee, more love to Thee!"

 

"Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;

Now Thee alone I seek; give what is best.

This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to Thee,

More love to Thee, more love to Thee!"

 

"Then shall my latest breath whisper Thy praise;

This be the parting cry my heart shall raise.

This still its prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to Thee,

More love to Thee, more love to Thee!"

 

This is my prayer as well!

 

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Friendly Village

 

So, how is your January going?  Are you keeping warm?  January is a great month to drink some hot vanilla chai tea, wrap up in a blanket, and enjoy a good book.  Miss E and I had a little tea "pahty", as she says, yesterday, and I wanted to share it with you.

 

I purchased another Friendly Village tea cup and this plain white teapot with some Christmas money, and I've been looking forward to using them now in January.  The Friendly Village pattern is made by Johnson Brothers in England, and although they were first introduced in 1952, they are still being made today.  I really like the tea cups, with their snowy barns.  They are perfect for this time of year.

 

 

We enjoyed our banana nut bread on this fun green transferware plate.

 

 

Miss E and I really enjoy our tea parties, it's a fun and easy way to do something girly together!

 

 

As we sipped our tea we watched the sun setting on this winter day.

June may have roses, but January has cozy tea parties!

 

Trust in the LORD and do good;

dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Delight yourself in the LORD

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:3-4

 

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