Away in a Manger... Christmas Eve

A Well Watered Garden...

I don't like to rush into December too quickly without saying a proper farewell to November.








I do love Christmas, but Autumn is one of my favorite seasons, so I let my Harvest Decor linger a bit longer than most people,

 allowing the rush of reds and greens of the Winter Holiday to wait a few days.

Tonight we have special out of town guests coming for dinner.

  I set my table last night and most of the food is done ahead,
 or in the Crockpot because I wanted to be able to visit with them, and not feel the slightest bit stressed about serving a nice, healthy and flavorful meal.

Here is a promise to ponder tonight:

"If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins,
 If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
Your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.

You'll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.

You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past.

You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again." 

Isaiah 58: 9-12 The Message

This is how we know what love is: Playing Headbands with Pop Pop

B begged us for "Family Night" with Grandma and Pop Pop.  I knew it was a slim chance since Pop is post op from major back surgery and not exactly in the lap of comfort these days, but we asked anyway.  Mike fired up the grill, I bought New York Strips, (it has to be the first time in years-- with my Beans and Rice Mentality).   It was worth every cent... to see my father play BINGO and "Headbands" with all of us-- close to miraculous.  Miracles do happen!  Only my cousins and closest friends would know what this truly means to me... to have my Dad playing board games with us on a Friday Night! 

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us... " Ephesians 3: 20

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• Amy Cleveland-Dutton, Beth Barge Woods, Rose Snyder and 2 others like this.
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  Beth Sayers Missed you this weekend! Love the pictures!

  May 28 at 7:51pm via mobile · Unlike · 1
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  Jason Collett We have that game too!

  May 28 at 8:01pm via mobile · Unlike · 1
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  Blue BerryCottage Great fun!

  May 28 at 8:06pm · Like
• 

  

  Gayelynn Quigley Great pictures Dawn.

  May 28 at 8:23pm via mobile · Unlike · 1
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  Rose Snyder God's bountiful gifts never cease to amaze us...and the greatest of these is love.

  May 28 at 9:08pm · Unlike · 1
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  Beatty Shaffer Awesome what wonderful memories for all of you!:)
• 

  Carol Bartilson This old roomate from Africa is praising God with B!!
• 

  Blue BerryCottage @Carol-remember all our home made fun at the compound... Singing out hearts out, playing with the children making up skits for Sunday school...

"My Mommer Tips" for Loving a Child... Part Two

Think about the "cost" of not praying or reading God's Word with your children daily.

Really calculate the "Cost."

 Then calculate the short amount of time it would cost you

 to add this essential instruction to your day with them.

If you're always racing to practices and appointments,

pray out loud together in your vehicle.  

Play worship music & sing with them.

Pray for your children, and pray over them.

We can whisper a prayer that they will never hear,

but when we embrace them before heading out the door,

quickly praying God's Peace

and Protection

aloud over their little heads,

 they'll always know

 their Mother believed

in God's power,

 and in the power of Prayer!

Ordinary Moments

 "What's the most important thing about being a leader?" I ask, continuing a conversation I started in the car earlier today.

We're in the Garden, watering. 

Kimba  looks up, eyes shining blue against the Azure August sky.



"Being able to tell people the right thing to do, you know, like the God thing to do" he says.

Well, yes, I think to myself.  I think he's got something there. 

In Pursuit of "Pretty"

As I seek to create a calming oasis in our little cottage home, my husband reminds me that I am outnumbered

 (i.e., 1 female, 2 males in our home). 

  Even so, we all want the same thing from our home:  To discover a place for ourselves, and to make that place

 as beautiful as possible. 

At the moment, my "space" exists only in my dreams as our Bedroom walls are being stripped of wallpaper and re-sheet rocked. The room in my dreams has a cushy, plush chair for reading, a collection of impresionist-type sea-shore prints on the wall, and fresh hydrangeas or roses on the bedside table daily.

  But I.Will.Get.There! Until then, I will keep learning many easy ways to bring a "little pretty" into my life. My teachers are my friends, church sisters, family members, and creative women who write decorating magazines.  



I love the blues of my sister Natalie"s Bedroom... So calming!

I recently visited a friend who lives in New Jersey. Simone has turned every surface of her home into a chance to showcase something beauiful and usefull (from shapely french jars where she stores flour and sugar, to the vintage chandelier over her bed. Did I mention that she does it all on a shoestring? 

Simone's kitchen tablecloth is Dollar-a-yard burlap (but it looks like a million bucks). She says she never knows where or when inspiration for decorating will strike. 

Thriftiness is essential for my family these days. I love to draw beauty out of the humblest objects! I use junk mail to scribble quotes or decorating sketches on, stapling the papers together and making inspiration notebooks. I currently have several of these "inspiration journals" going.  

 I love to constantly dabble and tweak my accessories, pulling things together and moving things around the house.
 Mike says I have a style like that of a tumbled-down French Chateau.

 But I would rather believe our humble cottage is a romantic mix of old-world French and Italian influences, from a New Jersey Shore perspective.



Satan Hates it When We PRAY

"One important goal of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. No man is greater than his prayer life."

--------------- Samuel Chadwick

Water Works

"So much bad in the world and so much good

 that can be done in Jesus' Name.

We were born for this time and place"

DR.James Dobson



Grandma Jeanne's "Semi" Home-Made Hot Cross Cinnamon Buns

Ingredients:

#############

1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed

2 tablespoons melted butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup heavy cream

2/3 cup sifted confectioner's sugar

1 tablespoon milk

dash of vanilla

####

PREPARATION
##########

• Roll dough into a rectangle, about 8x6 inches.
• Brush with the melted butter.
• Combine brown sugar, chopped nuts, and cinnamon.
• Sprinkle over dough.
• Starting at long edge, roll up, jelly roll fashion;
• moisten edges and seal.

• Cut roll into 20 slices.
•   Place rolls, cut side down, into two 8 inch lightly buttered round cake pans. 
• Let rise for about 1 1/2 hours. until doubled.
• Pour the cream over the rolls and 
• bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

• Combine confectioners sugar, milk, and vanilla,
•  adding more sugar or milk if necessary. (I double this part!)
• Drizzle over rolls while slightly warm
• Makes 20 yummy cinnamon buns

"If we fix a goal and work towards it, then we are never just passing time." --Anna Neagle,  Actress

The path I desire for my life is one of integrity and honesty. I want to love myself; look in the mirror every morning and acknowledge the unique person I am. I am working on acknowledging  the kindness and good in me.   I strive to conduct myself with dignity and honor. I am taking charge of my life; nurturing it, giving myself little rewards when I overcome; hoping that the balance within will reveal itself through the smile on my face, and the gleam in my eyes.

With all of this in mind, I hope to pass these same qualities on to my son, and to my Sunday School students at our church.