Hosted by Susanne.
It is always great to share all that blessings God has allowed us during the week!
- Earlier this week, our daughter celebrated her 36th birthday... I am saddened we didn't get to celebrate with her, but happily she will be with us starting in a bit over a week! Glory to God! I didn't remind her, but I will, .. when I was much younger I used to wonder, what would be my happiest year of life.. I mean when I in was high school, and I suddenly knew it would be my 36th year. I looked forward to it, and was very hopeful! Praise God, We finally held our adopted daughter in our arms in November 1985, my 35th year.. I enjoyed that whole next year, nurturing and loving our sweet and beautiful baby girl that God had allowed to join our family! I've been celebrating that 36th year ever since!
- We have continued to purge various areas pf our home.. This week I purged the cabinets in the kitchen. It was wonderful to purge at least 3 shelves to make room for other things that had no home of their own! Things really are looking so much better around the house!
- In our new church, ever since the dreaded season of covid finally opened up, it was very difficult to get the Wednesday night regulars to come back for the earlier hour of fellowship. We three families who had most recently joined the church had been dedicated from the beginning to bring our dinner to dine together and reestablish our fellowship with the church at large, But for all this time it was always just the three of us families. This week things changed. Several families came, brought their dinner early, and kindred spirits were getting together once one in friendship and harmony as is so precious in church fellowship!
- As I have been purging new areas around the home, I happened up on a stack of artwork that was standing on end behind the sofa in the den of all places.. Over the years, when new art came into the house, unfortunately some other work had to come down to make room on our walls. We have very limited space on walls in our home.. There are so many doorways and windows... so I decided to work with Lynn and create a gallery wall in the den. It involved actually baring the walls and the whole side to the room to make way for Lynn and his tools,, He began by actually using the swifter mop to clean the dust from the walls, What a great way to do that. It was very quick! Then the measuring began.
It was quite an arduous undertaking... measuring and making sure it was above the chair and below the border... but finally all was accomplished.. We decided the portrait of our daughter would anchor the setting. The rest of the art work rather told a story of our life..
We had the portrait made when Amanda was 7 and was well on her way to becoming a virtuoso on the violin. She had started her lessons at age 4 but really that was a throw away year. Although, it did help grow her maturity in working with another adult!
IN 1979, Lynn and I were most desirous to own a work of a dear friend and distant relative who painted the most exquisite natural and floral paint-
ings using a new medium. I loved the Galax leaves and primal forest look of her work, So we pinched pennies and soon became the owner of this beautiful work.. Over time the painting has faded to some degree, and that was really the reason we took it down previously, but I still think it is beautiful and so we are now still able to enjoy it!
I didn't get a photo of the next two.. but they depict a fabulous oil painting of the apples and an actual photograph of my great great grand father and **grand mother. They lived in the mid 1800's and he served in the south during the Civil War. He actually fought in the Battle of Atlanta. I have a letter he wrote back to his sister during the conflict. He represents the English side of our genealogy. His family hailed from the Cotswold area of England.
There are these two prints of European castles … the top I actually purchased at our church Yard sale for 2 dollars, but it is an actual French Chateau which I thought our grand daughters would love! The other is a Kinkade print I purchased at a gently used sale of a gorgeous English castle. These represent again some our genealogy and how our line actually does go back to theMiddle Ages and our kinsmen served as knights in both those gorgeous countries!
I love now how it looks upon entering the room. There is a presence in there that didnt exist previously! Gallery walls rock!
- Another great benefit of doing this wall today has been the extent in which we took time in between to really deeply clean the room. I organized some items on this bookcase I purged in the beginning over a month ago.. and now the den is in tip top shape for our guests coming soon!
