I Still Miss Him

Today was my Dad's birthday.He died in 1992 . I still miss him very much. I rarely visit the cemetery where he was buried because he is not really there.

He is here, in my memories of him.( picture of my Dad & me when I was 2 years old.) I remember he always wore cowboy boots when he wasn't wearing his Army boots. I remember him playing his guitar and singing songs, mostly Country Western, to us and with us.I remember him helping us build our house. I remember how much fun he was. I remember so many, many things about him and ... I miss him. My grown children still miss him. The song being sung by Garth Brooks will always bring to mind my father.I think we played it at his funeral, but I cannot remember for sure because that day is a blur for me.I would say "happy birthday Dad",but he will not hear me ~ so I say "Thank-you" to my heavenly Father for giving me my earthly Father . I still miss him.~

New Lambs, Can Spring Be Far Away ?

The first lambs of the year!

It is snowing here and we are experiencing record low temperatures for this time of year. Actually, they would be record lows for most any time of the year in this neck of the U.S. Nevertheless, new lambs foretell of spring , and new lambs melt my heart. Aren't they cute? This is Sassafras with her new ram lambs .

"It's winter, and I am bound to squeeze the beauty and life out of every day, to appreciate what is wonderful about it, and to stop my pointless yearning for the mellow days of autumn past or - perish the thought - the distant warmth of spring."Julie Zickafoose ~ 'Letters From Eden '

Heartfelt Tea Party

Even boys like a good tea party! Here our oldest grandson pours a cup of "tea" ( root beer) for our youngest grandson. Yes, I let even the toddlers drink from my china teacups, and not one of my teacups has been broken by a grandchild thus far.

Our youngest granddaughter is visiting us for awhile and we decided to have a Valentine's Day Tea Party . We invited our daughter and her 4 children for a sweet-filled and fun day.

Our daughter's oldest daughter made these doily place-cards using cut-outs from garden catalogs and pasting scripture from the Bible regarding the word "heart". Have you ever checked out how much the Bible has to say about our hearts? "For God knows the secrets of the heart." Psalm 44:21b

Before the tea party I placed a selection of teacups alongside the frosted cupcakes. I told everyone to select their own teacup....

...so they did.

The table was laden with a simple selection of sandwiches : egg salad, tuna, peanut butter & jelly, and just plain jelly. Obviously, dessert was cupcakes with pink frosting and lots of candy.

Our youngest grandchild chose the yellow butterfly teacup and saucer.

Granddaughter KN chose the pink butterfly cup & saucer.

These two, our two youngest granddaughters, chose the little butterfly handled cups and saucers...

...and spent the rest of the day as best friends, clinking their cups together,talking , laughing , eating, and giggling together....

My featured teacup is Royal Grafton, Bone China, Made In England, and was chosen by our oldest grandson. The Grandson who is already a kind and loving big brother,son, cousin, grandson. The Grandson who is already a hard worker.The Grandson who really loves his cup of root beer, even when it is being sipped out of one of my favorite teacups !

I love having our grandchildren over to play with me. I love watching them grow up and seeing their character develop. All too soon they too will be grown-ups and I hope they remember it is a very good thing to enjoy tea parties sipping root beer, tea, and hot coco out of real china teacups and saucers and eating peanut butter & jelly sandwiches served on fine china with Grandmas and cousins. Maybe one day in the not too distant future they will invite me to a tea party with their children..won't that be a joyous tea party? "So remove vexation from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting." Ecclesiastes 11:10

I am linking up with these ladies who faithfully host Tea Cups, Tea Parties, and All things tea every Tuesday. Click onto their names and enjoy!

• Martha *
• Lady Katherine*
• Terri*
• Pam*
• Wanda Lee*
• Sandi*
• Laura Ingalls Gunn*

Hope For The Prodigal & A Parents' Heart ~

"A dear sweet friend of mine has had nothing but trouble with his children. In my estimation he has been the perfect parent who provided them with everything they needed to grow up and do the right thing, but every one of them , in one way or another, took a wrong turn. He grieved over them and disciplined them and set proper boundaries with them. After years of cleaning up after their messes and making the best of the worst of situations, some of his prodigal kids came home and some of them did not. From all appearances his heart was broken over these prodigal kids. But through it all his love for them did not falter. To all of us who know him, he is a great example of how to deal with our children when they go the way of the world. He wrote a book about his experiences and it has become a best-seller. My sweet friend is Jesus and of course His book is the Bible." Stephen Arterburn, introduction to 'Moments For Families With Prodigals' by Robert J. Morgan * ~

"Wait for the Lord, Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord." Psalm 27 :14

I'm A Distracted Blogger

When our children grew up and had families of their own, I missed them and regretted the many times I was too busy attending to some things that in retrospect were not worth the time and energy expended. I will never get those days back, and really, would it have been such a big deal if the sink full of dirty dishes and the baskets full of dirty laundry waited while I rocked my little ones a bit longer and read just one more storybook to them? ~"While we try to teach our children all about life, Our children teach us what life is all about." Angela Schwindt ~ Now that I am a Grandmother,I find I am still a busy lady, but perspective changes some things...I guess that is what the blessing of getting older can do for us. ( Yes, getting older IS a blessing, think of the alternative.) I should have posted about the wonderful Valentine Tea Party I had with 5 of my grandchildren for Tea Time Tuesday, but after all the fun of our tea party, my youngest Granddaughter who is staying with us for awhile and I cleaned up and enjoyed each others company. It turns out she loves to just stay home and play quietly, checking up on me and my husband every so often. She sings to herself while her dolls and stuffed bunny have a wonderful time with her. I love to watch her, sing to her, and cuddle her when she is ready for a snuggle.I even take a few moments to watch her sleep. So, I am now a distracted blogger. My Valentine Tea Party will be posted next Tuesday, but for now there is a lot of cuddle time not to be missed....she is our youngest granddaughter, and growing up quickly! ~ "A child seldom needs a good talking to as a good listening to." Robert Brault

Bucket Bird

This bucket is on a stump near our woodshed. I spied a bird in the bucket and my husband dubbed this bird "Bucket Bird".This bird frequents the bucket lately, and I am wondering if the bucket full of sedums is being considered a possible nesting site . It is February after all, and I did spy the swallows checking out the birdhouse they nest in every year. This little Song Sparrow did not seem too concerned about me being so close, and maybe thought the bucket concealed him / her. "Birds are to see, to hear, to store in memory." Allan D.Cruckshank ~Most of the birds around our home do not seem too concerned with my presence though, and sometimes perch nearby when they see me filling the bird feeders. They often land on the feeders as soon as I re-fill them, paying no mind to me. Have you ever heard the Song Sparrow sing? "...we judge bird song not by its musical quality nor even by its creativeness, but by its effect on the human spirit." Len Eiserer "Then God said. "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let the birds fly above the earth in open expanse of the heavens." Genesis 1:20 "Look for the birds with your ears." William Saunders ~ Song Sparrow : "One of the most familiar and widespread North American songbirds...Habitats vary from weedy fields and brushy areas to open woods, backyards and gardens, desert , scrub, and salt marshes." 'An Audubon Handbook, WESTERN BIRDS

Tea & Toil = Joy

My sheep were sheared this past weekend. The woolly ones are now the naked ones, and my toil of joy has just begun again . I hope you don't think life around here is one big tea party. Lovely teacups are a delight but my most used teacup is the one I am showing you today.

Here sits my teacup, well used and chipped.I never drink coffee from this tea cup, just hot tea. My tea of choice is most often Red Rose, black...no sugar or milk, ever.This tea cup is porcelain. I bought it in the 1980's, before we moved to the country and built our home. This is the tea cup I take outside with me when I work, or check on the livestock. This is the cup I fill with hot tea and take out in the evenings to check on any new lambs, or watch a ewe ready to lamb. You can see I have a lot of work to do. Twelve of my sheep were sheared, and their wool fleeces ( shown above in plastic bags ) need to be skirted a bit more , then I will sort their wool into bags of all black wool, all white wool, and a bag of black and white combined, making gray wool. See my tea cup on the skirting table? I like the pictures on the sides of this tea cup. They depict a cozy home with some of the things that make a home the place to be. A rocking chair by the fireside, a good book to read, a cat...all the cooking and tea utensils. With twelve bags of wool to get ready for spinning and weaving I will be drinking a lot of tea from this cup, that is why this week my teacup is my working one...tea and toil, joy for me!"The highest reward for a persons' toil is not what they get from it, but what they become by it." John Ruskin To see more teacups and all things tea ,check out the links below :

• Pam at Breath Of Fresh Air
• Martha at Martha's Favorites
• Lady Katherine at Lady Katherines' Tea Parlor
• Wanda Lee at The Silken Purse
• Terri at Artful Affirmations
• Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage

"Hard work is painful when life is devoid of purpose. But when you believe in something greater than yourself and the gratification of your own ego, then hard work becomes a labor of love." Steve Pavliner

Grandma's Joy, A Hard Working Boy

I am blessed, yes BLESSED, to have a grandson who loves me, and also loves to work. He was eager, very eager, to come over and help me with cleaning my sheep pens.I use the word "help" loosely as he actually did all the mucking and digging out. I supervised and brought out a snack. You can see my woolly bunch of sheep in the background.The cleaned out pens will be used for lambing, but first the sheep will be sheared. Yes, there they are. My ewes ( girl sheep ) standing just out of reach. Little do they know they will be sheared today . They will no longer be woolly, but naked. I am so pleased my grandson is a hard worker, a happy worker. Next week we ( he) will clean out the chicken pen. "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

"In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." Proverbs 14:23

Teacups & Trucks

Look, we went shopping for a teacup and brought home a truck!Can you see the teacup on the hood of our new ( used ) truck ?

My husband's car was totaled, as in smashed, killed, crumpled, in a wreck a week ago. Fortunately no one was hurt seriously or killed but the cars involved, and the wreck was not my husband's fault. Unfortunately, he really liked his car and now we had to go out and find a new vehicle to replace it. On our search we stopped at an antique store along the way. As my back was still in pain my husband helped me out of our rental car and I hobbled along beside him to stroll through the store. Now how kind is that? My husband even lifted teacups up off shelves for me. We both decided we liked this cheerful cup and saucer, and it's price.

Paragon , By Appointment, England

The colors of the cup and saucer compliment the color of the truck, don't you think?As you can see,after we bought the teacup and went on our way we discovered and bought a truck we were very pleased with . We drove it home, the truck, not the teacup.

The underside of the saucer reads "Paragon, By Appointment to H.M. The Queen & H.M. Queen Mary" Fine Bone China, England, registered "

Oh I really like our new teacup and truck! I will probably always remember this as my truck teacup. Do you think my husband would have ever thought he would be shopping for teacups the same day he shopped for a truck?

I love him so much! He is sure I'm nuts, posing a teacup on the new truck , but he puts up with me anyway. To view the Tea Time Tuesday Ladies and see lovely teacups and all things tea ( probably NOT in or on trucks ) just click onto the names of the ladies below :

• Martha at Martha's Favorites
• Terri at Artful Affirmations
• Lady Katherine's Tea Parlor
• Wanda Lee at The Silken Purse
• Pam at Breath Of Fresh Air
• Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage

"A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver." Thomas Kempis