Tomorrow!

Tomorrow, we find out whether our first grandbaby is a girl or boy!  Hannah asked me to accompany her and Justin to her ultrasound appointment.  Can't wait, can't wait...

Of course, I'll be jumping on here to tell the world!

"The Trouble With Scotland..."

...is that it's full of Scots!" (line from the movie Braveheart)

Actually, we love Scotland and her Scots. This precious man and his equally precious wife will be staying with us here at the cottage all of next week. This time, the blessing is mine!

::cheers, confetti::

I'm preparing what is, in this case, a literal "prophet's quarters". Knee deep in meal planning, guest room fluffing, birthday preparations (my girls' birthday is Saturday) and preparing my own message for the Master Builder's International Conference next week, I am busy in a blessed-and-highly-favored sort of way.

All the way from Scotland, Joe and Yvonne Ewen will be at Harvest Church on Sunday, August 8th. If you are anywhere within the vicinity, you won't want to miss it!

Mid Life Constancy

con·stan·cy . n. 1. Steadfastness, as in purpose or affection; faithfulness. 2. The condition or quality of being constant; changelessness

More than once, my husband and I have shook our heads at someone who recently turned 45 or 50. The whole "mid life crisis" thing. Believe-you-me, it is real. There but for the grace of God, go I! So many people lose their flippin' minds when they hit about 50.

They think they are hearing God, and they aren't. They think they're entitled, and they're not. They think they need to change things up, and they don't. They need to dig in and practice constancy.

The surest predictor of a mid life crisis is the soul-withering boredom that can set in. After all, it isn't how you begin that counts. It isn't how you end. Those two points in the process are exciting. It is what you do with yourself in the character-defining middle that totally dictates your finish line. It is easy to begin a race.

Almost all races are quit in the middle.

More spouses and churches and friendships and families and careers are left in mid-life than eleventy-hundred people can shake their collective sticks at.

I promise you that, smack dab in your middle, there will be a "tree of the knowledge of good and evil". There will be the awareness that nothing is turning out quite like you imagined. You will feel the urge to prove yourself. You will feel the urge to quit. Or to do something silly like move for the sake of moving, leave for the sake of leaving, buy a sports car or motorcycle, build a McMansion you can't afford, start a band, or raise Nubian goats.

Change! Any change feels like it might do the trick - it might make you feel alive again. Let's spiritualize it, while we're at it, and say we "feel led of the Lord".

Friend. Friend, friend. Sit down here beside me and have some Tension Tamer Tea. We are so in this thing together. I feel it, too.

Your enemy (who, by the way, is not me. Ahem.) will always approach you one of two ways. Only one of two.

Your enemy will either attack you, to try to get you to retreat...or he will try to get you to make peace with him. It is the making peace part that worries me. It is very tempting to make peace when you are so exhausted from the war. It is very tempting to change course abruptly, at the next sign of crisis, and then justify your retreat.

You will find yourself making every excuse in the book for why so many of your relationships are a wreck, for why you do what you do, for why your passion is gone. Every excuse is a justification for making peace with the enemy. The children of Israel were faced with this very thing in their "middle"...that place between Egypt and the Promise. (Ex. 34:11-14)

Beware of that sense of mid-life entitlement. When you don't live daily outside your comfort zone, when you make personal peace and affluence your idol, you end up making a covenant of false peace and false provision with an enemy.

You started out serving the Lord with abandon. Let me tell you - the same grace that saved you, is the same grace you absolutely must function in every single day. Notice I said "function". When there is no apprehension and appropriation of grace, there is dysfunction.

You began well. Stay the course. Don't let the heart ache and disappointments and exhaustion of the middle make you dull and cynical and jaded. Tap into the newness of life that is yours in Christ Jesus!

Underlined Bits

"Despite God’s call to be free and His earnest admonition to resist all efforts to curtail it, there is very little emphasis in Christian circles today on the importance of Christian freedom. Just the opposite seems to be true. Instead of promoting freedom, we stress our rules of conformity. Instead of preaching living by grace, we preach living by performance. Instead of encouraging new believers to be conformed to Christ, we subtly insist that they be conformed to our particular style of Christian culture. Yet, that’s the bottom line effect of most of our emphases in Christian circles today.

For example, many people would react negatively to my quoting only part of Galatians 5:12, “You, my brothers, were called to be free.” Despite the fact that this statement is a complete sentence, they would say, “But that’s not all of the verse. Go on to quote the remainder: ‘But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.’”

The person who reacts this way has made my point. We are much more concerned about someone abusing his freedom than we are about his guarding it. We are more afraid of indulging the sinful nature than we are of falling into legalism. Yet legalism does indulge the sinful nature because it fosters self-righteousness and religious pride. It also diverts us from the real issues of the Christian life by focusing on external and sometimes trivial rules.”

– Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, pp. 121-122

Summer Flavors and Fragrances

A pile of these were shucked today...

Then grilled...

...and became this...

Fry up lots of this...

Add diced red potatoes, red onion, celery, milk and cream...grilled corn chowder! The fresher the corn, the better and sweeter this dish. YUM!

Serve with home made bread.

I'm typing away with my laptop, sitting propped up on pillows in my bed. These sheets and pillowcases were put back on my bed, fresh from the clothes line, just a couple of hours ago. I promise you, I can smell sunshine. The fragrance is unbelieveable.

Have a blessed weekend, friends! Enjoy summer's fleeting delights.

A Day of Simple Pleasures, Indeed

Today is our son-in-law's birthday...


Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing...


...on a great, big platter.


Found him the perfect card...


...and a nice, wooden artist's box.


When the laundry was tossed onto the guest bed, earlier today, I noticed how all the colors pleased me. All the textures were beautiful to my eye. Sounds silly, but I thought to myself, "We all purchase tea towels and wash cloths and towels and sheets and pillowcases. Why not buy these things in all the colors that make us happy?"

That way, there is beauty, even in an unfolded pile of linens. (Pillow added, since it was already on the guest bed, and looked adorable. Guess you can say I "styled" this picture!)

In Love With Antique Ticking

This has been the Summer of Many Projects. A time to create. The cottage is coming together - one finished project, however, begs for another to begin. My living room is next, I believe. The kitchen is nearly done, except for the knobs and drawer pulls. Dining room is finished. The adjacent wall and hallway finally got painted last week, with the most whisper-lovely shade of bluish-gray. Very French. Or Scandinavian. Or something.

Today, I found an antique ticking tablecloth. You must know...I need another tablecloth like I need a hole in my head, but this one called to me. This sort of thing is pricey in the antique shops. Easily a nice ticking antique-vintage tablecloth will set you back $50. That is on a good day. When I saw the price on this beauty, I think I got lightheaded. Extremely reasonable, but with just enough splurge-factor to make it special. That's all I'm sayin'.

It is made of a heavy weight blue and white ticking, complete with fabric slubs, and fading. It even smells old, much to my delight. (Though I am running it through the washing machine and dryer tonight to remedy this...)

It also has upholstery-weight cording at the hem. And it is round! I told you it was calling my name. I could not have dreamed or designed a more perfect thing for my home.



Heavy-weight cording, all around...




falls beautifully, almost to the floor...


Think I'll try layering it with another piece...


Oh....sigh! Love!

The whisper-blue of the hallway only shows up well on the camera against the red of my $6.99 second hand shop Kate Spade purse.

::Big Barney Fife sniff::

Hey...it is only indecent to talk about price when you over pay! I strut my deals. I parade my treasures, because each one has a story of conquest and a pennies-on-the-dollar price.


Blessings to each of you, friends...