Hearts in Service

Thanksgiving is over and we are beginning the season of Advent. I love the anticipation of this time of year.  My children are grown so it's not the same as when they were little, but there is still something beautiful and magical about Christmas.   I love every single thing about it - the music, the decorations, the treats, and the special services.  I'm so thankful for many things in my life, and on this Monday, I want to list them as I always do at the beginning of each week. This week I'm thankful for blessings, 3161 - 3175. 3161. Warm cookies. 3162. A joyful worship service yesterday. 3163. My children all under the same roof. 3164. Crusty loaves of baked bread, fresh from the oven. 3165. Stephen has preached a few times at our church recently and it's been a blessing to see him grow and stretch in this area.   3166. Quick and easy meals.  This one start to finish took me 20 minutes. 3167. A daughter growing in stature...

The past few days have been all about food, family and fun.  When we found out Dan's parents were going to be by themselves for Thanksgiving, we decided to go there for the day so they wouldn't have to travel.  They live 5 hours away so it was possible to leave on Thanksgiving morning to get there by early afternoon.  I didn't want my mother-in-law to cook an entire meal by herself, so I contributed the pies, cranberry-orange relish, sweet potato casserole, cooked carrots and rolls.  She took care of the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and green bean casserole.  It was a wonderful afternoon, eating, visiting, watching football, playing board games and enjoying each other's company.  We spent the night and got to visit some more this morning before we left to come home.  We haven't spent Thanksgiving with my in-laws for about 9 years so it was wonderful to be able to do this. We got home around 3:30...

Psalm 146 ~ Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, my soul. I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God. He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free, T he LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD. Happy day before Thanksgiving! I love this time of the...

My chicks are all home and under one roof and I am extremely happy right now.  I've been busy with prep work for both the things I'm taking to my in-laws on Thursday as well as making and freezing Christmas cookies. So far I have 4 different kinds of cookies made.  My crusts are in the fridge and ready to be rolled out tomorrow and turned into apple, pumpkin and blueberry pie.  I need to make rolls, sweet potato casserole and some sort of veggie dish. Friday has traditionally been the day to set up our tree and decorate but because we will be traveling, I'm not sure when that'll happen.  Emily has plans with a friend on Saturday and Dan and I are ringing the bell for the Salvation Army Saturday afternoon. Dan is taking Emily and a friend's son back on Sunday afternoon so it may just be three of us decorating this year.  No matter, it'll get done one way or the other.  We are hosting an open house here on December 30th so I...

Martyn Lloyd-Jones ~ "We tend to take all the gifts and pleasures and happiness and the joy without saying much to God. We take our health and strength, our food and clothing and our loved ones, all for granted; but the moment anything goes wrong we start grumbling and complaining and we say 'Why should God do this to me, why should this happen to me?' How slow we are to thank and swift to grumble." Guilty! I so often do this and am ashamed.  Even here on Multitude Monday, I give thanks for all the wonderful things, but rarely for the hard things.  That's where my faith waivers; when things are difficult.   Can I thank Him for the troubled times?  For the stale times?  For the times when things are crashing down around me and I truly wish I could run away?  Can I praise Him when things are stark and bleak and it seems as if the sun will never shine again? Why is my faith so weak and my flesh so frail that I can't even trust for one se...

It's been a crazy week and I'm glad it'll be over in a couple of days. On Monday afternoon I received a phone call as I was in the midst of sewing to get ready for a craft show this weekend.  It was a pastor in our district who is on the licensing, consecration and ordination committee.  He was calling to schedule my accreditation interview for Thursday (yesterday).  YIKES! Then Monday night we received a phone call from one of our elders.  He and his wife had been in a terrible car accident and were in route to the hospital via ambulance.  So Dan and I jumped in the car and headed the 45 minutes there to be with them. I'm thankful they are going to be okay as a dump truck t-boned their car and was totaled.  They have multiple broken bones and cuts, but will be okay. I spent Tuesday and part of Wednesday, sewing and trying to study at the same time.  However, the more days that passed, the more I realized that there was no way I could do both ...

We are entering the time of the year that I love.  I wasn't feeling it until this past Saturday when we had the craft fair at our church and I put on Christmas music.  After a few songs, I began to sing and felt joy flooding my heart.  It's the most wonderful time of the year, for sure! It has been a wonderful week and weekend and I have a lot of thankful things to list this morning.   This week I'm thankful for blessings, 3147 - 3160. 3147.  Stephen came home on Thursday and it's been nice to have him home for a few days.  He leaves today and will be back again this coming Thursday through Thanksgiving weekend. 3148.  Our worship team is tightly knit together and I love the comradery we feel.  We laugh together, have fun making music together, pray together and support each other.  There are times when my phone sounds like an alarm going off with multiple texts and when that happens, I know it's members of the te...

Philippians 4:4-9 (NLT) ~  Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!   Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.   Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. I started writing these weekly "Words of Encouragement" almost nine years ago.  They generally are things that I'm learning from the Lord through my ...

I am a crier.; I admit it.  Always have been and probably always will be.  I cry at sappy commercials.  I cry during love songs.  I cry at weddings.  I cry during movies.  Emotion wells up and out of me at unexpected times.  My feelings irritate me at times because the emotion comes out of nowhere and when I least want to show it.  But it's just the way it is. But lately, it feels like tears are constantly at the surface and they well up and spill out and down my cheeks at truly the most inconvenient places.  I'm like a leaking faucet. Little things will set them off.   😢Such as when I'm reading a passage of scripture to our congregation during Sunday morning worship. 😢Standing in the aisle of a Toys R Us store, trying to select just the right gift for two little girls.  The memories of picking out toys for my own children cause them to drip down my cheeks. 😢Having a conversation with a friend. 😢As thoug...

I woke up this morning with the song, Give Me Jesus, running through my head.  It really was a sweet way to wake up and a wonderful start to the week. This week I'm thankful for blessings, 3130 - 3146. 3130. Times of sweet prayer this week, crying out to the Lord for different things. 3131. I'm thankful for God's provision.  Dan is tutoring three students which is very helpful to our finances. 3132. A contractor came on Friday and checked our roof, which is leaking.  There are three holes up there which he will be coming to fix.  I'm thankful for proactive church members who got this done. 3133. Fall scents. 3134. The beauty of the woods in November. 3135. The fact that my husband still can make me laugh out loud after 29 years of marriage. 3136. Answered prayer.  I had a major flare-up of diverticulitis on Saturday.  On top of that the plantar fasciitis in my left heel was so bad I couldn't put any weight on my foo...

Having a young man with multiple disabilities means that our lives are different. Everything I planned and dreamed for my child as a baby had to be put aside. And because Nathan is so high functioning in many ways I often forget the severity of what we are dealing with.  And I often think people assume I'm exaggerating because they can't see the things we deal with here in the privacy of our home.  Or because they haven't ever had to deal with it themselves, they kind of feel like he should just "snap out of it." Tasks that you and I take for granted don't come easily for him.  When he was tested a number of years ago, his processing speed and working memory dipped way down below the average range.  His reading, writing and math skills are very low.  All this means that learning new things does not come easily or quickly.   I forget how much energy it takes him to just manage a job and having to do multiple tasks.  I often think he's being...

I found the quote above by the first century philosopher, Lucretius, and I like it.  The key words there though is "with a contented mind."  You can't live frugally and have a bad attitude about it.  Otherwise, it's just pinching pennies unhappily and more than likely, will not last. I do find that I'm content as I work to make ends meet.  I like our simple lifestyle and I have no desire for "more" stuff in my life.  It's a good place to be. :-) Here are some ways I've saved this week: $ Since there are just three of us, I definitely have been saving money on our grocery bill.  I've always loved Aldi, but lately I've been shopping at Wegman's since Nathan works there.  I have to say as long as I stick to my list and don't get sucked into buying all the "extras" that are displayed so attractively, I've been spending much less on groceries by going there.   $ Now that the holidays are upon us, the pr...

I feel like I have a little sweat shop going on here the past two weeks as I've been busy sewing for a very large order, as well as for some upcoming craft fairs.  The thing that has been on my mind is teapot cozies!  All in all, I've churned out 35 cozies, along with some tissue covers and tea bag totes. Usually my creations are a work in progress and I start improving on them as I go.  The last 10 have been reversible ones so you if you get tired of one side, you can turn it inside out and side two will have it's own handle too.   Here are a few I've been working on.  Some of these are in my Etsy shop which is on my sidebar.  You can also like my business on Facebook for more photos: Terri's Country Crafts & Books. It's raining today and I have no where to go so it's back to my machine!  I have 10 more teapot cozies to go for the order, 25 coffee cup sleeves and then I'm headed to the kitchen to make tea jelly!...

Psalm 104 Praise the LORD, my soul. LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.   The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants. He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them. You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth. He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the fiel...