Friday's Fav….Back to School Mantel

I'm letting go of summer reluctantly.

While I love fall, I'm not quite ready to embrace it fully.

I'm easing into the season's change with a nod to back to school time.

Here's my back to school mantel.

Pencils fill a zinc container atop a Webster's dictionary.

An old "B" alphabet card with a picture of a school bus is propped against my mirrored window frame.

An apple for the teacher is the theme in these apothecary jars.

Flash cards with appropriate school themed words hang from an old branch above the mirrored window.

The weather here in Portland is hot this week, but the mornings are cool and the trees are already starting to turn color here and there.

Fall is on the way, whether I'm ready or not.

Well, it's almost Friday friends.

HAPPY, HAPPY Friday

and

have a BLESSED weekend!

Elizabeth

 

A Journey of Forgiveness - Part One

It’s strange how the details of my surroundings at that moment are seared into my memory. The sun shone through the upstairs bedroom window of our tall yellow house, its warmth spreading across the quilt covered bed that Daddy told us kids to sit down on. He sat on the other twin bed facing us. The paint on the bedroom wall behind him was flat, minty green, scuffed. The closet door was ajar, the interior was dark. What I don’t remember is even more strange. I don’t remember the words he used to tell us he was leaving Mama and us. I don’t remember the expression on his face, or if he cried. Stranger still, I don’t remember my own emotions. I don’t remember if I said anything in response or if I cried. I think something inside my nine year old heart just went numb and shut down.

In a large family like ours, spending money wasn’t just handed out willy nilly. But that day, Daddy handed us kids some spending money and told us to walk the couple blocks to the variety store on the main street of our little town and buy ourselves something. I guess that he didn’t want us kids to see him filling up cardboard boxes with his belongings or driving away in our big, old Oldsmobile station wagon.

I remember the details of the sidewalk as we walked to the store, so I guess my head was hanging. The sun was warm on my neck and back. I felt like I should be more excited about getting to buy something and numbly picked out some modeling clay. I remember the smell of the clay and the way it stained my hands reddish brown when I played with it. But I don’t remember if I cried myself to sleep that night or not.

The next couple of years, the memories are all foggy with only a few clear memories bobbing up to the surface of my mind, rather like those red and white floats Daddy tied to our fishing line when he took my little brother and I fishing in the nearby river. Sometimes we’d spend the night camping by the river, me, my little brother and Daddy, sleeping in the back of the old station wagon snuggled together. I remember another overnight stay at a little apartment Daddy must have rented. One cold, rainy night, I was in the very same upstairs bedroom that Daddy had sat us in to tell us he was leaving. Unable to sleep, I leaned my head against the cold windowpane and stood there crying, straining my eyes as I looked out into the dark night in the direction that I thought Daddy’s apartment was. I cried and prayed for him to come home. I remember my youngest brother and I sitting together on the old wood floor of our enclosed back porch, talking together about if there was some way we could get Mama and Daddy back together. And I remember Mama standing in the dining room of the tall yellow house, talking on the black dial rotary phone with the curly cue cord that always got hopelessly tangled up, and telling whoever she was talking to that she’d take him back if he’d just come home.

The day Daddy drove up in the station wagon to pick us kids up for our Sunday afternoon visit with a lady in the front seat next to him, the weather was dark and gray. He told us that this was his new wife. I had seen her before. She and her husband had been friends with Mama and Daddy. So this was who he had traded my Mama for, I thought. (to be continued…)

Still following,

Elizabeth

Little White Cabinet...

I stumbled upon this little white cabinet at the Salvation Army last month.

Only she wasn't white, she was painted with a 1980's checkerboard design and chickens.

But for $4.99, I knew I could "cuten" her up.

And, because I had just turned 55, I received my first ever senior citizen's discount.

(To be honest, I didn't know whether to be teary or cheery about it!)

Anyway, all that to say this, she was cheap!

When I got her home, I covered her with a quick coat of primer and white paint, did a bit of sanding and distressing, then dabbed on and wiped off some dark wax, and then gave her a good coat of clear wax.

She's sitting on top of the antique library table in the living room, and is filled with a few apple themed items since it is back to school time.

She has a little wooden piece that turns to keep her door shut.

I think she's going to be a versatile little addition to my home decor.

Still following,

Elizabeth

Labor Day 2012...

Savoring this time with all of my daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren here.

Still following,

Elizabeth

Goodbye Summer...

G randchildren, all four of them, together

O ur only alarm clock is the sunlight streaming through the window

O pen windows and humming fans

D airy Queen cones good to the last lick and best enjoyed with the above mentioned grandchildren

B lackberries made into jam and backyard wading pools

Y ellow roses and yummy summer fruits and veggies

E venings around the backyard fire pit and everyone we love near

S 'mores and sticky smiles and sandy kids on summer beach trips

U mpteen pitchers of iced tea

M aking ice cream

M emories of summer road trips to the beach and the California Redwoods

E venings long and energetic kids playing outside late

R ainfree days, running through the sprinkler, rivers nearby to wade and swim in

   

************

I’ve taken the Joy Dare.

I’m counting one thousand thanks in one year.

I hunt for thanksgiving using the prompts Ann gives us each month.

If you are interested in joining in, click the link above or at the bottom of this post.

I continue to count my thanks

piling up gratitude day by day

in my little black journal…

#2247-#2267

3 gifts new-

-new jeans

-new slippers

-new mercies every day

3 gifts long awaited-

-being with all of my siblings at our family reunion

-all my kids and grandkids together

-our new church building

a gift one-

-One True God

a gift two-

-two grandkids camped out on our bedroom floor

a gift three-

-our three daughters, right near the top of the list of greatest blessings God ever gave me

3 gifts very small-

-youngest granddaughter just turned 9 months

-her grin with her tiny teeth showing

-her sweet dimpled hands

3 miracles-

-all four of our grandchildren, each one a real miracle story

-the miracle of His grace in my life

-God's provision for our new church building, built debt free

3 gifts summer-

-sun!!!

-beach days, (oh, how I love the sea!)

-bbqs and s'mores

3 gifts cut-

-fresh peaches sliced up to snack on

-cucumbers and tomatoes in our salad

-fresh cut flowers from the yard in aqua canning jars

Still following,

Elizabeth

Psalm 96:12

What a lovely time I had with my daughters and grandkids on our trip this week to the redwoods, near Crescent City, California.

Can you believe some of these trees are over 1000 years old?

You really can't tell how huge the trees are in a photo.

I love this verse, because I really do believe that all of creation praises the Creator.

Doesn't the Bible say that the trees of the field clap their hands and that the stars sing together?

I love that!

I find it interesting that the verse I used in my photo is in the context of when Christ returns to judge the world in righteousness.

Even creation longs for the day when God makes wrong things right, when even the effects of sin on creation is dealt with.

What a day that will be!

Still following,

Elizabeth