Friday Fave Five

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!