Fall Beauty

For the beauty of the earth,

For the glory of the skies,

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies:

Lord of all, to Thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

 

 

For the wonder of each hour

Of the day and of the night,

Hill and vale and tree and flower,

Sun and moon and stars of light:

Lord of all, to Thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

 

~Folliott S. Pierpoint~

 

This is one of my favorite barns in our area,

the little valley it is in is especially beautiful in the fall.

I thought I'd share a Thanksgiving hymn with you today,

since there are only 57 days till Thanksgiving! (:

 

I hope you're all enjoying fall!

 

The Kitchen Cupboard

 

This little girl's kitchen cupboard has been in our family

for more than 70 years.  When my Grandma was a little

girl, the carpenter who built their house used the leftover

wood to build this little cupboard for her.  He also made

a desk for her older sister.  My Grandma is on the right,

and her older sister on the left, below.

 

 

All the girls in our family have

played with it and used it when they were little, and

now it is ready to be used again!  Tea, anyone?

 

This summer I gave it a fresh coat of paint.  The photo below

is how it looked before, I loved the cute decals that my

great-aunt placed on it many years ago, when it was last

painted.  Originally it was painted a light yellow.

 

 

I love the vintage hardware!

 

Hopefully our girl will enjoy it as well!  We are anxiously

waiting for Friday, when they have the meeting to decide

whether we are chosen to be Mimi's family or not.  There

 is so much to think about when you adopt an eleven year old!

Thank you for praying.

 

~May God's will be done.~

 

I'm joining Tea Time Tuesday and A Return To Loveliness.

We have a date!

 

We have some exciting news today!

 

The meeting where the social workers choose the family

for Mimi has been set for October 4th at 11:00.

 

As of now we are the only family being considered.

 

We would really appreciate your prayers-

both for us and for Mimi, she has a lot more to adjust to than we do.

 

If God wants her here, she will come!

 

Thank you for praying!

Goodness

He loves righteousness and justice;

The earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.

Psalm 33:5

 

 

On this last day of summer that feels more like fall,

take time to enjoy all God's goodness!

 

Cool mornings, wildflowers, children laughing,

warm coffee, pumpkin cake, a full moon,

and good news about our adoption

are some things I'm thankful for today.

 

How about you?



The Rest of the Story

 

I have written several times about the folks who built our stone house, and the type of people they were.  Starting a farm from nothing, true pioneers!  The husband a Civil War veteran, the wife a faithful church member.  Their daughter, Alice, was known in the community as a quiet, kind and faithful wife, ever ready to do her part.  Her husband, Clarence, on the other hand, unfortunately does not have a similar reputation.  Here is the story of the end of his life, pieced together from newspaper articles and neighbors.

Clarence and Alice had been married for 30 years when Alice finally died after a long two year illness.  They were both 56 years old.  Clarence then moved to Peabody where he began working at the Beer Parlor, which was located in the hotel.  Over the next year or two he was able to secure the farm in his name, since it had still been deeded to Alice.  He did not return to the farm, however. 

Apparently he had a weakness for gambling, and lost the farm in a card game one night.  After that devastating loss, he went to pay for his dollar's worth of beer with a check.  The waitress realized that the check would be no good, since he had just lost everything by gambling, so she went and told the hotel proprietor about it.  He refused to take the check, and told Clarence he must pay cash.  Clarence was apparently so upset that he pulled a revolver on the proprietor.  In the scuffle which followed, the hotel proprietor was shot, but was able to wrestle the gun away from Clarence and carry it in to the restaurant.  In the mean time, Clarence left through the lobby. 

An ambulance was called, and the hotel proprietor rushed to the hospital.  Meanwhile, Clarence walked down the street to the drug store, where he bought some rat poison, broke open the package, and swallowed some of the contents.  He then walked across the street to his car.  After the ambulance returned from taking the hotel proprietor to the hospital, they took Clarence in.  The hotel proprietor died from his wounds the next day.  Clarence was placed under arrest in the hospital, but died from the rat poison three days later.

So now you know, the rest of the story.

Been Camping

 

Sorry for my lack of posts lately, but we've been busy-

you know when you go camping with 5 kids it takes at

least 3 days to get ready to go, and 3 days to clean up

when you get home, which is probably why we don't

do it very often!  But here's a look at our fun weekend-

 

 

Lots of good camp food

 

Free kayak rentals

 

 

Beautiful lake scenery

 

 

Lots of good visits with extended family

 

 

Pelican entertainment

 

 

And last but definitely not least, a sweet, sweet,

great-niece to hold!

 

We had a great time, until a storm came and almost blew our tent away,

and most of our stuff got soaking wet.  But that worked out too because

Andy's folks had a cabin we could hunker down in for the night!

 

 

 

 

Not So Easy

~ PD and AJ playing some mini golf ~

 

Sometimes God sends some hard things our kids' way.  It's not easy to watch, and not easy when there's not a whole lot you can do to make it better.  This summer we had a food allergy test done for PD, and we learned that he is allergic to 39 different foods!  No wonder he had not been feeling well.  So, that knowledge has led us to quite the food adventure the past few weeks.  Not being able to use things like onions, milk, eggs, wheat, rice, cheese, or pepper on your food can make things somewhat difficult when it comes to cooking.  Thankfully he can still have steak and potatoes!  (just hold the butter).

 

So yesterday Paul was really hungry for pizza.  But, with not being able to have a crust on the bottom or cheese on the top, it wasn't really possible.  So here was what I came up with to hopefully taste somewhat like pizza.  The ingredients- salted hamburger, corn-based macaroni, pepperoni, homemade tomato sauce (the canned sauce has onions), goat cheese, expensive garlic powder (without additives), and home grown basil.  I threw it all together and baked it awhile.  I think he's been watching too much Master Chef though, because he told me it was pretty good, although the noodles were a little too mushy.  Sorry.

 

He basically can't have any desserts, since he can't have chocolate or milk or flour.  So we let him drink a can of pop a little more often.  (only sprite or root beer though- can't have cola or oranges).  He eats a lot of plain potato chips and fruit (but no bananas or cantaloupe).  When we have chicken, he eats turkey, because he's also allergic to chicken. 

 

The good news is that he only has to be totally off these foods for a set period of time, then we can start introducing them back in.  The hope is that in a year he will be able to be back on everything.  I don't totally understand the science behind it all, but we're trying to kill off the cells that attack these foods.

 

It's been a hard thing for him, eating isn't very fun anymore, as I'm sure you can imagine.  I know he'd appreciate your prayers for strength for him and that he would remember not to eat things people offer him unless it has passed Mom's examination!  We can be thankful that there are doctors who have the ability to figure these things out- and that he will feel better eventually!

 

I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13