Welcome Home!

This post contains pictures I think will not be as photogenic as I would like, but these are pictures that make my heart sing with joy. Our two sons and their families are here this weekend for a quick visit. We try to cram a lot into these visits and with so many children there is always a lot of commotion , clutter, and fun! One of my great pleasures is sitting at the table with the children with only Christmas tree lights and candles glowing, and talking with them as they sip hot cocoa, or eat ice cream. ( This makes them very happy and more prone to sharing their childhood joys.) Our oldest son holding his youngest daughter while the oldest daughter sleeps next to him on our sofa.His other two daughters are playing with the big doll-house in the study. The wood-stove has a nice fire within and the house is warm and cozy. We are all full and drowsy from dinner and snacks. I found these words in a very old book on our book-shelf. The book was published in 1909 and translated from Norwegian. The book is titled 'Our Homes and Our Children', by O.Klykken. ~ "A wonderful power is in the word home: the home of mother, our childhood home. This holds good of the child, the youth, the man. Nay, even in old age the word home is able to call up a world of memories and sensations." ..."And God bless your coming and going every time that you really return to take your parents by the hand and hear the familiar and precious : "Welcome home." I say, welcome home sons, welcome home granddaughters, welcome home !

Chickens For Christmas !

Our first-born grandchild C.T. is passionate about animals, especially horses, reptiles & chickens.He gets pretty excited when talking about certain breeds of bantam ( tiny ) chickens. He has been raising Mlle Fleurs to show but his parents' hunting dogs have thwarted his loving and hard work by breaking into the pens and killing the chickens our grandson loves. For his Christmas present his grandpa & I decided we would order chicks for him, to raise here. C.T. & I ordered a variety of Mlle Fleurs, D-Uccles, Porcelains, and 5 black bantam Cochins for me.

The chicks arrived almost 2 weeks ago in a box via the U.S. mail.

Aren't they cute? ! ?

C.T. was so excited and very eager to share his enthusiasm over the little bundles of fluff with his baby brother, Little 'J'.

The weather here is very wet & cold. The temperatures have been below 30 degrees most nights, so the chicks are being raised in our sun-room for now.Because we have indoor cats who stand over the brooder and lick their lips, we protect the chicks by placing old barbecue grills over the stainless steel bucket. The aluminum foil is used to cover the bucket to keep the heat in (without risking the fire danger other coverings might cause) as this is the coldest room in our home and baby chicks need to be warm to thrive.

It is kind of hard to decorate for Christmas around a batch of baby chicks who need their brooder cleaned at least twice a day...the parakeets in the cage to the left seem to be enjoying the chirping chicks though.

...but the happy smiles and joy it brings from our oldest Grandson make it more than worthwhile. C.T. is going to keep a detailed record of these chicks and help me at least once a week with the cleaning and set-up involved with keeping them here. His ultimate goal is to move the best of them to his back yard, raising and breeding them for show. Another part of his present is that after Christmas, he and I will work on a joint blog all about our poultry raising endeavors.

Sleep Like a Cat ~ Boldly & Peacefully

What is this?

Only a cat or a sociopath can boldly sleep peacefully in a forbidden place , be awakened upon being caught, and turn on you with a glare that says "how dare you wake me up ?" ! Blizzard is a naughty cat.

Messiest Room In The House Re-Do ( Craft Room)

I keep setting aside blocks of time on my calendar to clear out & re-organize my craft room, but life keeps re-arranging my schedule. ( Grrr) What is it about MY planning and reality that conflict? Anyway, I have finally started while the season of extreme busy-ness is upon me...what can I say, I am a glutton for frustration. Here is the start ( above). My goal is to weed out items I know I will never use, re-organize and efficiently store items I use all the time, and make the room I work in many hours a day a pleasant and inspirational place to be.You can see the shelves hold wool and yarns, but what you don't know is that my wool supply is at it lowest right now. Soon, more of my wool will be back from the fiber mill where I have taken my skirted and washed wool to be turned into batts and rovings. There will be so much wool it will sit in bags in front of the shelf. That is not even taking into account the wool from next months' shearing.... This wall holds work and storage space. I am trying to make it pleasing to my eyes and heart. The table is an antique high school home-ec table. The wood surface the teapot is on once topped a voc-ed drafting table, the filing cabinets were re-claimed from an old desk our brother-in-law gave us. They hold patterns, ideas, crafting books....all in order now of course. :)

These shelves hold boxes clearly labeled with things I really do use frequently.

I am excited about this little shelf ( above ) because it allows me to position things I want to photograph by simply removing these items, arranging whatever I am photographing ( little sheep, miniatures, etc, ) positioning the goose-neck lamp for the right lighting, all inside my warm room, not completely at the mercy of outside natural light anymore. ( Even though I prefer natural lighting) This is my favorite place to write, read , think. This window looks out onto our big front lawn and our pond. I watch my flock of ducks swim in the pond from here, my doves in their beautiful dovecote from here. However, this is also usually my most cluttered place, my messiest place. My husband is helping me fix that problem. He has measured the area and thought about the need for storage.He came up with a plan, but when we went to purchase the needed storage the store was sold out and maybe in 2 weeks we might be able to purchase our desired solution.

So, for now, this temporary shelf on the right holds needed wool processing equipment and my T.V. It works, and I am fine with it...

..on the left, where the major storage is needed, well, things are stock-piled because I removed the very inefficient shelving in preparation for the new.There is another wall I haven't shown where my sewing machine sits, that is for another time.~I have several big bins of fabric that will be stored in the shelving that will fit into this space.

Boxes that please me hold things I use frequently, and I have clearly labeled each box. I love these sheep tags* and originally bought them from an Etsy site to use as gift tags. I could not give them up and decided to use them to label my boxes. The tags make me smile, and smiling is good for you the health professionals say. Of course, a cup of tea and my notebook for jotting down my thoughts, ideas, and inspiration for possible future projects is important to have in my craft room, my workshop, my room of busy-ness and creativity. I have titled this notebook Snippets.~My mission is to fit this room only with items that I will use in the near future and edit the things I am very unlikely to use. I have already taken out a lot of things I know I will never get around to using, projects I will never do, things that have become just clutter. The only things that will remain must be able to fit into this room without impeding my ability to work and move around in it.. I know I will not be getting a bigger room, or shop, nor do I want one now.All the space I have right now is more than sufficient for my needs...so what I have to do is be creative in editing, storing, and using the abundance I already have. Creative being the key word.I am hoping anyone reading this who has also posted pictures & ideas about their own creative spaces will let me know so I can view theirs and maybe pick up a few tips.

The Gift That Really Keeps On Giving, and it's FREE!

Our firstborn, our daughter~ and her husband. Thanksgiving day more than 3 decades ago ( very close to 4 decades but , shhh!) I was in the hospital after just giving birth to her, and now we celebrate Thanksgiving with her, her husband, their 4 children, and her husband's family.What a gathering, what a feast.Who could have known so many more blessings were to come when I held our tiny firstborn daughter in my arms and knew the very second I held her I would die for her if need be. Fortunately things have never come to that, and she has been a gift from God that gives back...kindness, love, fun...more blessings of the good kind than can be contained in this blog post. And she is the gift that keeps on giving of herself to her family and friends. This is how she chose to spend her birthday, bow-hunting for elk! Her husband snapped this picture of her while they were hunting. I was snug at home with their 4 children. Happy birthday daughter, gift from God. ~"Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above,coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow, " James 1:17 ~ The best gift is from God, who gave His Son that we might have eternal life. This is the gift for all eternity - free, bought with the shed blood of Jesus. You cannot do anything to earn this gift, this pearl of great price. You have nothing to offer at all. Truly, this is the undeserved, unmerited, gift that keeps on giving. "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Ephesians 2:8 ~ "....the proof of your faith , being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls." I Peter 1:7-9

Tea Time Tuesday , From My Sister!

My sister Joni travels a lot and when she is in towns that hold special family significance she often picks up a souvenir. When she was in Minnesota she decided to travel to Little Falls to see the town that was part of our Mother's heritage.She stopped at an antiques & collectibles shop and bought me this teacup! Thank-you Joni. On this day I picked some grapes from our vines and served myself a piece of Black Walnut Pound-cake I baked using a recipe from blogging friend Mildred. ( delicious!) I made a pot of Red Rose tea and took some time to catch up on some reading.

Mikasa Bone China~ Chippendale.

During this week of Thanksgiving I am hoping you remember all the many blessings you have , no matter your circumstance, there must be some blessings! I am thankful for my family, for sisters, children, grandchildren. I am thankful for my dear husband, for a home and food to eat. I am thankful for my God, and that He showers His blessings on the just and the unjust, that His love for me is unconditional.I could go on & on but you get the picture. Happy Thanksgiving to you ! ~"You say "if I had a little more I should be satisfied'; You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled." Charles Spurgeon ~"In everything give thanks.." I Thess.5:18

Visit the ladies below to see more things Tea!

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

Comfort Comes In Dog & Cat

My Bea, she loves me, she lives for me.I love her.

~Our granddaughter's cat Blizzard who lives with us.A dog in cat form.I love him too.

These two cuddle on the hearth in front of the wood stove, adding an air of peace and comfort to our home. Who can measure ,really, all the company of a beloved pet adds to our well-being, our sense of contentment? The world may be scary, our personal trials many, but the cat purring against our heart, the beloved dog leaning firmly in at our side gives a comfort words cannot describe. "A cat improves the garden wall in sunshine, and the hearth in foul weather." Judith M. Riley