Year: 2010 (Page 6 of 7)
I’ve been making lots of chai spiced tea to keep warm lately.
My pot was steaming right in the middle of the 4 minutes
I was supposed to be beating Josh’s cake batter.
So I tried letting go of my mixer to see if it could keep going
while I went to get my tea… and to my surprise it stayed balanced!
I love my new convection oven.. it does wonders with cakes and cookies!
Here are Josh’s many faces during the birthday song.
We are so happy to have had him these 22 years.
He spent his day hiking and pet sitting. We had a nice lunch out at Rosie’s.
I’ve been enjoying playing my Kinnor early in the morning. I worked on improving my first song and I’ve been learning a couple of other songs.
This is my attempt at a song by Hillsong called “Healer”.
My harp only plays in two keys (D and Bm) so I was glad to find a real song I could play.
It took me forever to learn how to play “I trust in You, I trust in You.”
Then I had to write down the cords so I could remember the whole song.
Here are the words:
You hold my every moment
You calm my raging seas
You walk with me through fire
And heal all my disease
I trust in You
I trust in You
I believe You’re my Healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You’re my Portion
I believe You’re more than enough for me
Jesus You’re all I need
You hold my every moment
You calm my raging seas
You walk with me through fire
And heal all my disease
And I trust in You
Oh, I trust in You
I trust in You
I believe You’re my Healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You’re my Portion
I believe You’re more than enough for me
Jesus You’re all I need
For nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible
Nothing is impossible for You
You hold my world in Your hands
I believe You’re my Healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You’re my Portion
I believe You’re more than enough for me
Jesus You’re all I need
I wanted to do something special for Valentine’s Day this year.
I didn’t used to be a big Valentine’s Day girl, but years of faithfully being
unconditionally loved by Jesus and Mike has brought me around.
I was inspired by a collection of cards and letters that I’ve kept since before I was married.
This move I decided that it was time to up grade from the
three overflowing shoe boxes I had them in to something prettier.
I wanted a couple of those large decorative cardboard boxes to store them in
on the top shelf of my closet, but I couldn’t find one that I liked for a good price.
So after weeks of searching, I bought this tin chest for $14 at Marshalls.
So many sweet letters and cards
It doubles as a side table and almost all my letters fit in it;
meaning I needed to go through them all and weed out a few.
The ones I like best are the ones that are about everyday stuff
that was going on in the lives of my friends and family.
I carefully read all the ones with Bible verses, too for their rich encouragement.
I was so inspired that I really wanted to send all my friends and
family a Valentine’s Day letter. I spent hours looking for the perfect verse to share
and trying to think of something to say.
I decided that Song of Songs 2:4 was the perfect verse.
Then I ended up playing on photoshop and learning some new tricks
with some free brushes and made this banner.
Here’s a link to the brushes I found..
if you google “free photoshop brushes” you’ll find tons more.
http://www.easyelements.com
It’s my very first Valentine’s Day decoration.
It says, “His Banner over me is LOVE. Song of Songs 2:4
I wasn’t quick enough to print out and mail the banners to everyone,
so I uploaded a pdf file of it for you to print and make your own
.
I printed mine on card stock, cut out each heart with different fancy edged scissors
and used a large needle to tie the hearts together with ribbon. Here’s the link:
Happy Valentines Day!
Enjoy!
J
The very first thing I learned to sew in homemaking class was this quilt.
It’s made with two sheets, batting for the middle, and yarn to tie it together.
I embroidered “Love Jenny” on the corner and gave it to Mike
to remember me by before he left for CFNI.
After just one year at CFNI, the quilt had worked its magic;
Mike came home to court me, and we married the following June.
The quilt is now over 26 years old and has lived a very full life of miracle making.
It kept us warm in our first apartment, through four babies,
many camping trips, and has now made it to our newest and hopefully last house.
many camping trips, and has now made it to our newest and hopefully last house.
When I was unpacking this time, I noticed that when you hold it up to the light
you can see right through it and decided that it’s time for it to be put to rest.
you can see right through it and decided that it’s time for it to be put to rest.
Good bye, old quilt. Thanks for catching me such a wonderful man
and for the many years of love and warmth.
and for the many years of love and warmth.
J
Billy Bob’s fame spread quickly through the neighborhood yesterday.
Passers by stopped and waved and even got out to take photos.
As the hours pasted by and the temperature rose we prayed he’d make it till the evening hours and have the opportunity to greet Mike when he got home.
We’d stratigically placed him in a shady spot, but
around 4 PM he succumbed to the heat and this is all that’s left of him.
And all poor Mike was greeted with was two broken solar lights.
So sorry.
J
I can’t believe I just did this, but …
I put my first song on YouTube to share with you.
I did a version where I was singing the words.. you won’t see it, ever.
You’ll have to use your imagination:
I’ll play You a song,
I’ll play You a song,
I’ll play You a song of praise.
Oh, Most High
Oh, Most High
A song of praise to You.
Very excited to be able to play anything,
J
I am the proud new owner of a 12 string kinnor.
A harp maker in Austral made it for me.
I picked it out especially because a little over a year ago I had a dream where
an older, mentor type lady brought one to me. I had no idea what kind of
instrument it was at the time so I drew a picture of it.
A year later I found this one on line. None else makes one quite like it.
http://www.harpsales.com
It’s my birthday, Christmas and everything else present all wrapped into one.
I am very excited. I am hoping that like in the dream
this will be the one instrument that I can learn to play.
It’s very hard to be musically challenged in a family of musicians.
I love to worship. I love to sing loud.. even when I am out of tune.
A loud church sound system is a must.
I can jump but not dance. Sometimes, clapping on beat is a challenge.
I’ve never had anyone tell me that I am bad at waving flags,
so I wave them as often as possible.
I am very excited to have a room in our new house that’s big enough
to worship with flags. In the past, I’d take them outside occasionally.
When the kids were younger, I spent every evening practicing the guitar
while they were getting ready for bed. I learned how to play 10 or so cords
just to discover that I am not coordinated enough
to strum and play the cords at the same time.
If I practice a hymn for several days on the piano, I can play it so-so,
but that can be loud and annoying for everyone to hear the same song day after day.
I know how it feels to be on the other side of things and think, “anyone can do ___ if
they just try or give it some time.” Hope springs eternal.
I learned that harps are “diatonic” like the Do, Ra, Me scale,
so no matter what note you play it harmonizes.
I got a chromatic tuner too, so I can tune it.
Here is Mike teaching me how to tune it.
I’ll have to tune it everyday for a while.. new strings and all.
Pray for me not to give up.
Maybe one day I’ll take it to hospitals
and play and pray for the sick and see them recover.
Love,
J
Here are more picts of our house.
You can see the foyer and Prayer room through these doors.
Just outside and to the right is our front door.
This is our game room/den.
It’s basically the kids’ TV room. They enjoy watching shows like
“Everybody Loves Raymond” while doing their math homework in here.
The French doors keep their TV noise separate from the rest of the house,
while allowing us to check in on what they are watching.
Each flower pict has part of the Love Chapter printed on it.
Did you know that love is so many things? I love the garden effect.
I am still trying to get the hang of gardening, so I enjoy my love picture garden year round.
The blank wall is reserved for my family quilt. I need to get to work on finishing it.
I got the lamp in Gatlinburg last year. I love the colors.
The cord wasn’t long enough to reach the ceiling and back,
so I created the arm from a piece of molding and a dowel from HD.
Here is my collage of C&W’s families. Do you like it?
Minus the frame it only cost $6 to print at Costco.
I was very happy with how it turned out.
I’d like to update it from time to time so I can remember how big the kids are getting.
Like my scripture/photo art? I cut the mat to fit and printed the words on sticker paper.
Moving around the room to the game amore.
I have a small collage of Mike’s nephews and nieces on the TV shelf.
I am hoping one day to find the perfect fabric for curtains and the pillows.
I hate the brown pillows that came with the couch.
It’s my bright, red, white, blue, orange and green room.
J
I was able to finish the photos in time to order and pick them up
on our weekly shopping trip after gymnastics.
I decided to put the parable on the photos and the explanations in brackets
on little cards like at a museum.
I thought that printing them that way would draw more attention to them than
if I put both on the photo and that it was actually easier to read that way.
It’s kinda a long story so I thought it was my best chance of getting it read.
I edited my first post about the parable and put in the words I used if you’d like to read it.
I’d like to put “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” above it.
But that will be a while later.
Anyone have one of those vinyl letter making machines I can borrow?
I will be taking all the kids into the bathroom for a tour of the story
and make sure that we have a family devotion where we discuss
the things I learned from Joseph Prince. 🙂
I made the numbered birds Sunday. What for??
When we were selling our house in FL, I bought the new
silvery sage towels and rainbow shower curtain to help stage the house.
For years I had a different color towel for each kid,
so that if there was a towel on the floor there was no question who left it,
although they’d like to argue that there was.
Since I replaced the old ratty towels, no one can remember which towel is theirs
and they almost always choose a new one from under the sink and,
of course, throw it on the floor when they are done.
It took me forever to try to think of a way to identify their towels. I thought about sewing on colored ribbons.. but then they’d have to look through the towels to find the right one.
So I am trying the numbered birds. The odd numbers are a little lower than
the even for the towels on the lower rack.
So far I think it’s working. 🙂
Here’s the rest of the bathroom.
I know their getting a little too old for Murdock the talking duck, but he’s so cute.
Thanks for looking at my hall bath parable. More house photos to come.
J