Tea Kettles and Lavendar

Endings and Beginnings

The end of a year. Time has surely flown by. I sit here and think of just one year ago making my annual resolutions, to which many were not kept.  Fondly, I remember the activities and functions happening at my niece's school, her birthday slumber party, the Memorial Day parade, fireworks and county fairs. I remember my mother and I going to the country in Pennsylvania and "us girls" seeing The Little Mermaid on Broadway and how very cold it was that day. I also remember the sadness with both my grandmother and my uncle joining my father in Heaven. Thankfully, my faith has remained strong and has brought much comfort to me.

Now a new year is upon me and again I make my resolutions. I have my usual resolutions of eating heathier and completely giving up Pepsi. I also want to exercise more. But there are many things that I want to do differently this year. I am going to become more faithful in my time with Christ. Family is going to be more focused for me as well as taking time to plain enjoy life and all its beauty and simplicity. I will make time for crafts and reading and working on making my family recipe book a reality for Christmas 2009. I will also become more responsible financially watching how I am spending my money. In these difficult financial times and with job insecurities, things must be tightened.

A new year with new possibilites and the freshness of the morning fresh dew. What a thrilling time this is. I pray that each of you has a truly blessed New Year with much health, peace and happiness but most of all, with a renewed faith.

~Blessings and prayers

The Dawnings of a New Day

As I sit here quietly at the computer, I just spent some time sitting in the family room looking at our beautiful Christmas tree all lit up in its white lights and sipping some hot tea. Soon, the sounds of family waking up will fill the house. There will be breakfast and Church, then home to make some cookies and have supper. But for now, I just enjoy the peace and quiet and think of how awesome our Lord is in all His simplicity and goodness.

As I was sitting looking at the Christmas tree and having my tea, I was thinking just that. I was thinking of how complex Jesus is, yet He is so simple that He came to us as a baby, born in a manger among animals, with just Mary and Joseph. The Bible doesn't mention grandparents or aunts or uncles being there. Nor does it mention any doctors or nurses. Just Mary and Joseph. In a world with all its hustle and bustle, I find that we make life more complicated than it really is. There should be no worry about much because when we put our trust and our hope in Him, things will be taken care of. We may not know when or we may not know how, nor may it be the way we want it to be, but God provides and takes care of us in His ways. And His ways are always best and simple.

This day as you spend time with your family, take a moment when everyone is soundly tucked away in their beds, all snug and warm, just sit and listen to the stillness and quietness that He has created to refresh and nourish our souls. Allow your life to be more meaningful by living and trusting and believing simply, like a Child.

The Beginnings of a New Day

It is so very difficult to imagine how fast time is flying past. As a child, time seemed to have stood still. Summer seemed to never end and even though I loved to play, I could not wait for September for school to start. Then June came around, finally, and I could not wait for summer to start so that I could catch lightening bugs, swim and all the books that I could read. Now as an adult, time goes rather too quick. How I love to cherish each day, watching and enjoying the change of seasons. But, with the start of September, there seems to be such a whirlwind of activity. I have slowed down on much but there still seems to be too much hustle and bustle in my life for me to truly feel content and at peace. This is something that I will have to continue to work on.

In our kitchen, we have this beautiful double window.  How I just love to sit at one end of the kitchen table and just watch the little birds come to sit on the dog wood tree that we have right outside that window. This dogwood tree stretches right past the second floor of the house. We use to have a bird feeder in the tree and unfortunately, it was broken and we have not gotten a new one to replace it. Yet, still the little birds come. This morning I went to the store and got an inexpensive bird feeder for the tree so that I can watch the little birds come and feed. What a delightful way to have a cup of hot tea in the early morning while watching the bluejays and cardinals enjoy a treat. Oh, yes, and the occasionalsquirrel who thinks that he is a bird.

Today is a busy day of laundry, dusting, vaccuuming, dishes and if I have a free moment, I would love to woek on a little scrapbooking and some cross stitching or maybe copy of few of our family favorite recipes!

~Have a Blessed Day

A Beautiful Saturday and a Crazy Tuesday

Saturday was absolutely beautiful! Even though it rained the entire day, my mother and I enjoyed ourselves in a day trip to Pennsylvania. We first went to a store called Sauders Bulk Dry Goods and Fabric in Denver, PA. I believe they are Mennonite and it is a store in the basement of their home and they sell fabric and bulk dry food and spices. I love going there. What a selection of fabrics! And to open the door and walk in, instantly the aroma of the spices one could smell. I think of all the pots of homemade soup that I am going to make and all the batches of homemade cookies, too. Then we headed off to another fabric store called Martins. It is in the loft of the grocery store called Martins. We then went to a variety store called Goods. Everything one could need from fabric to clothing to toys to health care to cleaning supplies can be found in one store. And to top off the long day, we had supper at Shady Maple. Mmmmmmmmmmm.... does not describe it enough. How I just enjoyed the ride.

What a crazy day weather wise we are having today. I could hear the rain coming down and hitting the window last night around 11pm as I drifted off to sleep. What a nice sound to fall asleep to. It was still raining when I woke up. As I was driving my mother to work around 10:15 am I noticed that the rain drops looked funny hitting the windshield. Well, the rain drops have turned into big and wet snowflakes! Here it is, the end of October and we are getting snow already here in central New Jersey! What a treat and delight! I am making a pot of chicken noodle soup for supper tonight to warm everyone up along with fresh warm rolls. As that is simmering, I will enjoy the NEW Victoria magazine and Tea Time magazine that I just got today. The Nov/Dec issue of Victoria magazine came with a Christmas cd called the Magic of Christmas by Phyllis Hoffman. It says on the cover that it is a piano instrumental with orchestra. How I cannot wait until it is closer to Christmas to listen to it. It appears to be only a selection of the full cd that you can get.

Well, I am off to enjoy my new magazines while the house is quiet with a cup of raspberry hot tea and watch the silly snowflakes fall down.

May God bless you with a blessed day.

In the Spirt of Christmas

A New Transition

Yummies from the Kithcen

The house is quiet and I have a free moment. Is there ever really such a thing as a free moment. My mother is an absolutely wonderful cook. SHe makes just simple, down to earth cooking. Some recipes she has written down, but many are from her memory because she has made it so many times. I know that my mother is young yet, but my brother, sister and I all love her cooking. Often, we go overf my brother an sister-in-loves house for supper once or twice a month. My brother enjoys to cook and they both love to entertain often with their family and friends. His food is good but it is not homecooking. He uses many prepared food items and sometimes, goes overboard on the garlic. Several times, he has asked for recipes of certain dishes that mom makes and my sister-in-love has been wanting my mother to teach her to cook. This gave me a wonderful idea. I also want to make many of the dishes that my mother makes but doesn't have the recipes written down for. I have been having her on the weekends show me how to make some of the dishes. As we cook, I also write down the directions. I am putting all the recipes in order for at some point, I am going to have them professionally printed up into a family cookbook. By no means do I want to start selling these. I am looking for more of a way to have our family recipes written down in a nice fashion and give a copy to my brother, my sister, my niece, myself and mom. Hopefully by next year, I will have enough recipes put together to have it printed up and have a nice Christmas gift for everyone. Part of my gift for my family is 2 Christmas' ago, I cross stitched new Christmas stockings for everyone and filled them will little goodies. This year, I am going to refill the stockings as my gift for them with small items that I have been collecting throughout the year from yard sales, from clearance sales, from coupons, etc. I also like to give a homemade gift as well. This cookbook of family recipes will be great!.Well, I am off to write down some more recipes into my recipe files.

~Blessings and prayers

Heirlooms

A Delightful Site and my Everyday Musings

Yesterday evening, I decided I needed to visit an old friend. Her website is A Christian Home. If you have time, try to stop by and visit. Her life is a pure treasure and I am sure that you will agree and come away with a renewed sense of tranquility.

I was at the bookstore yesterday and discovered a treat that I just had to get for myself. It is the new issue of Mary Janes Farm. Once you see the cover, you will love it. This is only my second issue of this delightful magazine and I have surely gleemed so very much already just from the first issue alone. What a treasure and wealth of practical knowledge for everyday living.

I have started a new cross stitch project. It is probably the largest project that I have tried to stitch yet. It is a sampler and the pattern is called "Christian Sampler". I have always wanted to do a sampler and the pattern came from one of the three cross stitch books that I found at a local yard sale for just 50 cents a piece! What a find! If I can finish this sampler by next August, I would love to try entering it in the county fair. I have always wanted to enter a cross stitch piece in the county fair, but we were either away on vacation or I just felt that my piece was not good enough and did not want to humiliate myself.

The kitchen is smelling wonderfully delicious with the pork chops in the crockpot. We are also going to have stuffing, fresh green beans from our garden, a cuccumber salad and a fruit salad with fresh straberries, blueberries, watermelon and peaches for dessert. I can hardly wait. This is what I love about summer - all the fresh fruit that is in season! There is a fruit and vegetable market about 20 minutes from my house that is on the outskirts of Monmouth Battlefield in Freehold, NJ. It was here that part of the Revolutionary War was fought. This orchard is known in these parts for their peache with the juice that just runs down your chin, their apple and the cider and apple donoughts that they make with them. We get a pass every year for $1 and this allows us to pick our own cherries, peaches, apples, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries and pumpkins right from the orchards. What a fun day that is. I take my niece and a few of her friends once or twice to pick some fruit and they can take some home to enjoy. Plus, we have a garden this year. I find that when children help grow fruit and vegetables in a garden in the back yard or pick fresh fruit and vegetables from an orchard, they seem to be more likely to eat it or at least try it.

I finished reading Christy, again, last week. I am now re-reading Pride and Predjudice. These seem to be my summer reading books that I read every summer. How I must have read them at least 10 times each. I am very particular when it comes to what I read and watch on tv. I do not watch much tv to start with, so the time that I do spend watching, I want to make it worth my time.

It is such a beautiful day today that I took the opportunity to hang my laundry outside on the clothesline. How I loved to look out the window while washing a load of dishes and seeing the vegetable garden by the pool and the breeze blowing the sheets and my nightgowns gently. What a breath of fresh air for my spirits!

I pray that you shall have a blessed and Godly day, today~

~Sharon

                       ~Thought for Today~

                  Always say a kind word to a child or an elderly person for we shall never know if it is the only nice thing that has touched their ears.