Trying some new old-school things...

Having grown up in a society where we try so hard to do as little as possible & finding it to be very boring, I've decided to buck the trend by learning a few new skills :)

I made the spontaneous decision yesterday to attempt to make my very first quilt ever after happening upon a huge fabric sale w/ clearance priced fabrics marked down an additional 50% ... I figured there might never be a better time to try :) "Clearance" limited my choices but I managed to find some in black & white w/ splashes of red & a dab of denim that should go well w/ our bedroom decor. I intend to keep it very simple - and...

thankfully I have a couple friends who can coach me thru' the process.

- AND -

I want to learn to make bread. Reeeaaally GOOood bread :)



I just I got this new bread machine - nothing fancy bc I mainly want it to knead & rise the dough that I plan to bake in the oven. Our friend gave me his recipe for oatmeal bread ...


& in turn I plan to give the first loaf of it that looks this pretty - to him.

Any quilt or bread making tips you care to share that might spare me from having to learn them the hard way ?? :)

She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Proverbs 31:27

Capturing Color

Strike & I went outthis afternoon & stopped along the way so she could capture some color - which she did - in varying degrees that her camera allows. This feature on her camera is a fun one to play w/ as it allows you to "pull out" only certain colors .....

Black & White

Some color....

Full Color

And in the few below I like how
only the colors show up in the reflection ...

Esther

I just began this study w/ some women at church yesterday: Esther - It's Tough Being a Woman - so I'll likely journal here some things now & then that "struck & stuck" from both the study & my own research - starting w/:

- Esther is one of only two books in the Bible to bear a woman's name as the title (the other is Ruth)

- There is NO mention of God in the the entire book tho' much can be learned about the nature of God & His activity in human history.

- In a survey of women who were asked about what's tough about being a woman, overwhelmingly the answers fell into three categories: 1) Yielding submissively 2) maintaining balance & 3) hormones

- I looked up the meaning of Esther's name here,:

Possibly means "star" in Persian. ...The Book of Esther in the Old Testament tells the story of Queen Esther, the Jewish wife of the king of Persia who saved the Jews of the realm from extermination. Her original Hebrew name was Hadassah.

SOoo - I looked up Hadassah & found that it means "myrtle tree" in Hebrew.


SOooo - I did a bit of research on the Myrtle Trees & learned that they will regrow from their stump & are also grown from their seeds. ( My note: Like the Book of Daniel, Esther is a diaspora story (Diaspora means to scatter seeds...)

In the Bible, the Myrtle tree is of special religious significance, representing fertility & life. (My note: - chuckled at how closely Esther sounds like estrogen! - & was struck that God used (chose!) Esther to preserve the Persian Jews as they faced extermination ... & - if the Jews had been annihilated at that time, our Savior, Jesus Christ (The Way, The Truth & The Life) would not/could not have been born.

...Myrtlewood is among the world’s most beautiful woods. The color is often influenced by the minerals in the soil & ranges from blond to black with many shades of honey, browns, grays, reds & greens in between & even some pinks & oranges. One description indicates that it's as if nature had formed a rainbow in the heart of this unique tree.The struggle or stress during the growth of the tree causes figurations. It often forms a design & the tree itself is so symmetrical it would seem to be carefully pruned & cultivated. When small, the tree looks/grows like a shrub & different stalks grow together to form the trunk. Mature trees are identified by four characterstics: very short /thick trunk topped by a wide crown of dense, lacey foliage; olive shaped, nut-likefruit; a pungent odor to it's shining green leaf; & a very long tender tap root.

and...one last noteworthy note for now ...that Beth Moore so eloquently stated & I scrawled ....Some of our biggest problems w/ being a woman are ... other women. hmm - Did I just sense a collective "Amen!"? :)

just rambling

- A friend stopped by the other night & you'da tho't the farmers market pulled into our driveway. He gave us our pick of homegrown pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, squash ... & to top it off he delivered a beautiful loaf of oatmeal bread that he made himself - still warm & fresh from the oven --as well as fish that he caught himself! Such a blessing. We've invited him back! .... for a fish-fry tomorrow night :)

- I made a tomato tart last night....it was tasty -- but I need to perfect it a bit.

- The fall colors are so beautiful here right now. Sunday evening we enjoyed being in the midst of it. The moon was full blown & pink(!) as it hung in the blue sky w/ the fiery trees below. A white fog blanket covered the ground in places as if it were tucking the fields in for the chilly night ahead. I tried to get a good pic of the moon but it played hide & seek in the hills & trees as we drove - which certainly made the drive that much more fun - but didn't allow me to capture the pic that I'll treasure in my memory.

- last but not least --- I went into the archives to dig up the pic above ...a favorite of mine - it's of our girls back 2004 at my brother's house in Colorado :)

F is for....

Ferris Wheel

Friends

Fried Dough!

Frightening?!

FaNtaBuLoUs!

fUN! FuN!! FUn!!! at the Fair

Snapshots

School at the park on a beautiful day

Beautiful colors on that same beautiful day

Sleeping dogs lie

Strike & Playmaker are working on a song for church.
I love that they are fluent in the universal language of music. This is
an area where they could both teach me some things.
I can only speak (Sing!) it...can't read it :(

A puzzle we did a while back that's
been on our coffee table ever since.
I just like it too much to pack it up.

homemade
brandied peaches,
vanilla (been curing several weeks - should be good now)
&
caramel apples

If this were a test...

If this (below) were a test, would you want to ask for some way to gain some extra credit?

- Just askin' - but you don't have to answer. -- Well, not to me anyhow....

*****

God Won't Ask

God won't ask what kind of car you drove,
He'll ask how many people you drove who didn't have transportation.

God won't ask the square footage of your house,
He'll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.

God won't ask about the clothes you had in your closet,
He'll ask how many you helped to clothe.

God won't ask about your social status;
He will ask what kind of class you displayed.

God won't ask how many material possessions you had,
He'll ask if they dictated your life.

God won't ask what your highest salary was,
He'll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.

God won't ask how much overtime you worked,
He'll ask if your overtime work was for yourself or for your family.

God won't ask how many promotions you received,
He'll ask how you promoted others.

God won't ask what your job title was,
He'll ask if you performed your job to the best of your ability.

God won't ask what you did to help yourself,
He'll ask what you did to help others.

God won't ask how many friends you had,
He'll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.

God won't ask what you did to protect your rights,
He'll ask what you did to protect the rights of others.

God won't ask in what neighborhood you lived,
He'll ask how you treated your neighbors.

God won't ask about the color of your skin,
He'll ask about the content of your character.

God won't ask how many times your deeds matched your words,
He'll ask how many times they didn't.

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