“I was born with an enormous need for an affection and a terrible need to give.” -Audrey Hepburn “I don’t need a bedroom to prove my womanliness. I can convey just as much appeal fully clothed, picking apples off a tree or standing in the rain.” -Audrey If I were a person that photographers wanted…
>“…We are doing good- drenched in Christmas spirit. Yes, we still LOVE our church oh my oh my we love it so much. These people are so genuinely loving and giving and Christ-seeking. God is good. I have been reading up on social justice lately- As in I’m reading like 4 books at once: “Everyday…
>Gallup polls revealed that 65% of Americans would like to see major corporations having less influence and only 18% of Americans have confidence in big business. I agree with the majority here- I do not trust many big corporations, which are too often driven by money-hunger, but I like them better than big government. I…
>my fortune cookie says, “Happiness is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.” I like what Greg Matte said better, “Joy is not the absence of crisis, but the presence of Christ.”
>It is officially winter now, but here is a journal entry from the once lost but now found fall journal. November 19:I like rakes less than leaf littered lawns. Right now, my back yard is smothered in orange and the historic village in yellow. I often stare from the store porch and smile.I like sunny…
I prayed that God would help me better understand the characters of both Him and of those He created. And this week, I came across four different sources that taught me separately about a this common theme. I’ll just type my thoughts here though they don’t culminate to some fantastic conclusion now. 1) We were…
>Back when Chris went to sea (thank the Lord that is over), I would get excited about his homecoming when my milk’s expiration date was after his return date. Now, the expiration date on my milk reads Dec. 02, so I am getting excited about Christmas! On that note, may I say that I am…
>I don’t know if I have ever been quite so aware of time as I was yesterday, when we were leaving Boston. On 93 South, we came to the intersection: S to Providence, RI or N to Portsmouth, NH. A year ago, we would have turned N and it would not have occurred to me…
>Thursday: Bell ringing at New York Stock Exchange. We met Navajo Wind Talkers and I got to walk around the floor while Chris joined the men on the bell platform. Later, we marched in the Veterans Day Parade down 5th Avenue. I was asked thrice if I was a reporter while I took notes in…
English Breakfast Tea in hand, I walk from the parlor of our 1890s house staff building, where my sewing colleagues sing English folk ballads in harmony, to the landing, where The Duke of Kent’s Waltz (1830) streams from the blacksmith’s office, then duck under a clothesline web on my way to the sewing room from…
Our history buff and battle reenacting friends, Annie and Jay took us to the Monmouth Battlefield in New Jersey where Washington and Howe clashed and stalemated in June 1778. “This hill is perfect for sledding,” Jay told us at the top of the highest, steepest one from which you could see every other. Long shadows…
I accidentally found a lakeside hiking trail when I got lost on my way home from our friend’s apt, where Chris and I crashed after attending a military event aboard the Intrepid in Manhattan. (hence the dress shoes… and the pajamas). Despite the weird looks some joggers gave me, I really enjoyed my hike! I…
>Wouldn’t it be terrible to work at a landfill? It is so much better to just pretend they’re not there. . . . please sense my sarcasm. We need to live in a way that takes care of the earth. (I live on Staten Island- (New York City’s garbage dump until 1997. The landfill here…
>I made apple pie by myself for the first time last week. I have made two since and they are dang ugly but boy do they taste good. 🙂 I have also spiced cider and toasted pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin bread cupcakes tomorrow!
Blacksmithing, tinsmithing, carpentry, basket making, rope making, weaving, quilting, butter churning, cider pressing, bread baking in a historic brick oven, apple butter making, stewing (beef, veg, pumpkin), Indian weaponry making, dulcimer playing, hay jumping, historic game playing, historic building touring… On week days I give tours the farm to elementary field trippers. The kids pick pumpkins,…
We drove to Western New Jersey where the October hills are covered with a patchwork quilt of heathered red, orange, yellow, and green fabrics. We wound down country roads between meadows and forests past goat farms and cider mills then stopped at an orchard to pick apples. After that, we hiked to a waterfall in…
>A devotional that my dad wrote was published in The Upper Room devotional book this week. 🙂 Here is the link: http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/default.asp?month=10&day=12&year=2010
>http://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Justice-Global-Impact-Choices/dp/0830836284/ Many in my church are reading this book. I ordered it yesterday. In the meantime am looking through these websites. I do not want to be one of those Americans who unknowingly oppresses people elsewhere with my purchasing decisions. So I am trying to inform myself of “what not to buy” as well as…
>The opening page of the book I am reading reads, “In loving memory of my mother whose strength always amazed me.” When I read that dedication, I wrote a prayer, “Lord, make me that kind of a woman. Show me how. Make your strength my strength and keep me thankful, prayerful, and humble. Amen.” I…
> http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/09/07/anatomy_of_an_adoption_crisis?page=0,0&sms_ss=email&at_xt=4cab4e70f4fe7cd1,0 Anatomy of an Adoption Crisis BY E.J. GRAFF | SEPTEMBER 12, 2010 “…The State Department was confident it had discovered systemic nationwide corruption in Vietnam — a network of adoption that was profiting by paying for, defrauding, coercing, or even simply stealing Vietnamese children from their families to sell them to unsuspecting Americans….
>(http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/) in which a British woman named Emma wrote, “Sin clouds my sense of God’s nearness.” The line could be easily skimmed over. In fact, I doubt Emma thought much of the wording of this particular sentence. When I read it, I realized that I have always subconsciously thought that “Sin makes God not near.”…
Glory be to God above May Your love and mercy overcome On earth as it does in heaven. Let our every deed proclaim Your name And our hope for justice prove our faith In You, the author and perfecter You bring rest to the weary You bring strength to the weak You give peace to…
I wrote this in 2009 for a church youth group lesson, but it is applicable to anyone.
> Comments of this sort appear on my blog posts quite regularly. I assume they are mass dispersed to various blogs, but why is it written in this manner? Perhaps they writer is trying to mask an advertisement a normal post… but the ad part of it is not very clear and it definitely doesn’t…
>Mom, So I attended a women’s Bible study group that meets every Monday morning- its pretty much a group for stay at home moms, so naturally they bring their kids. Chris asked me how it went and I acted it out for him: “So how has your week been? Honey, share the ball. My week’s…
>http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7526193&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0 One Orphan from Children's HopeChest on Vimeo.
Written from a rustic fabriced chair in an eclectic Tudor-style coffee shop. Across the street, Princeton University stands like a young fortress, the way that Cambridge may have looked in 1550. Classes start in 2 days and America’s smartest freshman scurry around clueless and bumping into things. Outside, summer is seasoned to taste with autumn. Sunflowers…
>New gets old and interesting becomes normal. If you run from that fact then change just becomes routine.
>First at 4:00, after I left the walled garden and sat on the green grass of the allee facing the Georgian-style Phipps mansion, I tilted my head back like a sun-hungry flower and closed my eyes to better feel the wind as it swirled my hair upward and rolled up my neck and face urging…
>Amongst stone and steel, we approach a patch of green. A network of herb-topped tables across from mazes of “summer annuals.” Between the networks and mazes, bustles a classy throng. Girls in the dying fashion of long blouses over tights and ballet shoes sniff flowers. A granola couple in dreadlocks under worn bandanas walks with…