Advent 2009

Today is the first day of Advent.  As I've shared before,

"Advent is a season of preparation. For centuries Christians have used the month prior to the celebration of Christ's incarnation to ready their hearts and their homes for the great festival. While we moderns tend to do a good bit of bustling about in the crowded hours between Thanksgiving and Christmas--shopping for presents, compiling guests lists, mailing holiday greeting cards, perusing catalogs, decorationg hearth and home, baking favorite confections,a nd getting ready for one party after another--that hardly constitutes the kind of preparation Advent calls for. Indeed, Advent has been a time of quiet introspection, personal examination, and repentance. A time to slow down, to take stock of the things that matter the most, and to do a thorough inner housecleaning. Advent is, as ancient dogma of the Church asserts, a Little Pascha--a time of fasting, prayer, confession, and reconciliation. All the great Advent stories, hymns, customs, and rituals--from the medieval liturgical antiphons and Scrooge's A Christmas Carol to the lighting of the Advent candles and the eating of the Martinmas beef are attuned to this notion: the best way to prepare for the coming of the Lord is to make straight His pathway to our hearts."

~from Christmas Spirit by George Grant and Gregory Wilbur

Because of some more pressing priorities, we won't be using my wonderful Upsized Advent Calendar this year, but you can look at it and possibly get ideas for your calendar if you're wanting to make one.

For our daily Advent readings, we'll be reading from Jotham's Journey.  It's an Advent devotional we use every few years, and we never tire of it.  The publisher summarizes the story...."In one of the most exciting Advent stories you will ever read, follow ten-year-old Jotham across Israel as he searches for his family.  Hold your breath when he faces thieves, robbers, and kidnappers.  Rejoice in his encounters with wise men, shepherds, and innkeepers until at last he finds his way to the Savior born in Bethlehem."

You could start using this advent devotional from Christ the King Presbyterian Church.  It's a free PDF.

Here are some Advent poems written by Pastor John Piper.

May this be a wonderful time of "thorough inner housecleaning" as you prepare to celebrate the gift of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.


Love,
Queen Mom

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a lovely, loud, relaxing, joyful Thanksgiving.

Lots of cooking

a little bit of game playing

playing football in the beautiful weather

catching up on some reading

the Table

yummy food

silly moments

and the best time of all...going over the cards in our Ebenezer Box.

Thanksgiving Every Day

"We ought to make the moments notes of happy, glad Thanksgiving; The hours and days a silent phrase of music we are living."

We are by nature ungrateful. Oh, that we would be a thankful people, not just on Thanksgiving, but each and every day God gives us another breath. This is a lovely poem reminding us to be thankful in all things. Be encouraged to thank Him for His bountiful goodness!


We walk on starry fields of white
And do not see the daisies,
For blessings common in our sight
We rarely offer praises.
We sigh for some supreme delight
To crown our lives with splendour,
And quite ignore our daily store
Of pleasures sweet and tender.

Our cares are bold and push their way
Upon our thought and feeling;
They hang about us all the day,
Our time from pleasure stealing.
So unobtrusive many a joy
We pass by and forget it,
But worry strives to own our lives,
And conquers if we let it.

There's not a day in all the year
But holds some hidden pleasure,
And, looking back, joys oft appear
To brim the past's wide measure.
But blessings are like friends, I hold,
Who love and labour near us.
We ought to raise our notes of praise
While living hearts can hear us.

Full many a blessing wears the guise
Of worry or of trouble;
Far-seeing is the soul, and wise,
Who knows the mask is double.
Bur he who has the faith and strength
To thank his God for sorrow
Has found a joy without alloy
To gladden every morrow.

We ought to make the moments notes
Of happy, glad Thankgiving;
The hours and days a silent phrase
Of music we are living.
And so the theme should swell and grow
As weeks and months pass o'er us,
And rise sublime at this good time,
A grand Thanksgiving chorus.

~Ella Wheeler Wilcox


Love,
Queen Mom

Frozen Toes - Part 1

There be some fella's who like one wurd diskripshuns; fella's who'll give it to you a nutshell - a really small nutshell. Fer example, one o' dese fellas might jest have survived bein' scalped by savages, and all he'll say is, "Ouch!". Dat's rather borin', ain't it? Setch a deskripshun jest don't make fer a very rip-roarin' tale. No, siree, not a bit of it. It jest don't give you enuff facts and lies to make anythin' out of. And I can't stand dat. So, I do 'ere swear to do no setch nutshellin' with this 'ere yarn. I'll be agiving it to yer da way it oughta be gave - plain and simple with maybe a lie er two thrown in ta give it flavor...

~

Day 1 (Wednesday, Nov. 11) - Little Big Man, Mountain Man, and yer's truly loaded our gear onto our mules and headed off to da wilderness kountry around Fort Stanton, where we pitched camp to rendezvous with other trappers fer 'bout five days.

When we'd finished settin' up camp about late afternoon, I started rustling up some grub. Yep, I were nominated ta be camp cook again (which means dey either like my vittles or don't want to do da cookin' themselves). It be a job o' great responsibility and it can get tirin' sometimes. However, every job usually has a benefit er two in it. If yer camp cook, ya get ta plan what sorta grub to take, get a big say in how it's prepared, and (usually) you don't have to do no dishes. Yer pals also tend ta treat you with a bit o' respect, too. After all, it usually ain't wise ta mess around with the fella dat handles yer dinner, considerin' he jest might decide to get even by doin' somethin' weird to it .

But to get on with the story, we finally did get around to scarfing down eatin' a fine meal, washed down with some kinda funny tastin' beverage da flat-landers call gatorade (what it be, I'll never know). Afterwards, we sat 'round da fire, talkin' and exchanging lies true yarns with friends. When we finally went ta crawl inter our bedrolls, it were probbly 'bout 8:30 (a rather early bedtime, but we always hit the hay earlier than usual on rendezvous). And yep, it got cold. Big surprise.

Our Tent

~

Day 2 (Wednesday, Nov. 12) - Da followin' mornin', after going through da frigid routine of donning our outfits (cold buckskins are extremely unpleasant to put on), we had a quick breakfast, and den began assemblin' our shootin' gear. It were lucky we did so, cuz... a minute later, a dozen blood-curdlin' yells split the air and injuns leapt from da bushes! In no time at all, we wuz engaged in a hand ta hand battle with doze murderous - ah, never mind (de Editor's acomin' this way with his bull whip... an' he ain't lookin' very pleasant).

What I mean ta say is, after we'd gotten our gun stuff together, we ambled on over to da shootin' range where we encountered the deadly... steel targets (man, I liked the injun fightin' idea better). We loaded our smokepoles, and began takin' down deze opponents in short order. In all, dere were 'bout thirty of 'em, rangin' from thirty to one hundred-forty yards away. Dere were basic ones (like plates and squares), animal shaped ones, bizarre ones (which looked like nuthin' in particlur), and plain difficult ones (like a thin steel pipe hangin' in a tree at ninety-yards). They wuz great ta shoot at, but as far as makin' good meat goes, methinks they'd be a bit hard on da teeth.

Dad shootin'...

Yer's truly shootin'...

Little Big Man, contemplatin' the seriousness o' the task at hand...

~

And we wuzn't the only mountain men campaignin' agin' the might of the steel thingies...

* * *

Persevero,

Scribe

Agent 7's Mission: Impossible

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to wire-drop into an impenetrable CIA vault to locate and swipe an important computer disc, containing a vital list of secret agent info. As usual, should you fail, we will avow no knowledge of you or your venture..."

"...well, okay, you're so cute we won't go to that extreme; but you really need to get that thing! Only you, Agent 7, know the play-pen like the back of your hand..."

MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED

More of Our Family Photo Shoot~ 2009

Family Photo Shoot 2009~The Sisters

Peep's pictures were taken when we insanely tried to get all 9 of us to look at the camera at the same time had our family photo shoot in the mountains a few weeks ago.  Here are the shots Mountain Man got of the sisters.  I think they beg for a photo display on some wall in our home, don't you?

Isn't This Amazing?

This is the flooding that my family in Virginia experienced a few days ago.  This is a picture of the house across from my parents' home.  Praise God for His goodness and mercy!  Thanks, Mom, for the picture!

Just Two of the Reasons I Love Mountain Man's Camera

This is why all I want for Christmas is a digital version of his amazing Canon 35 mm! :)