Friday's Favs... beautiful things used in daily life

Okay, I may have a bit of a problem.

I have this many mixing bowls in my wee little kitchen.

But, I do have a place for everything and everything is in it's place!

I just find bits and bobs of things used in ordinary life so appealing and beautiful.

Be it bowls or boxes, quilts or linens, old blue canning jars or white ironstone pitchers and plates,

they all have a homey charm that I find hard to resist.

This lovely set of mixing bowls with their pink and blue stripe was a wedding present

 given to us over 36 years ago.

I see bowls just like them in antique stores now!

These stoneware Marshall Pottery bowls came home on the plane with me on a long ago trip to Texas.

This was long before all the security and carry-on luggage regulations.

A set of matching stoneware canisters came home with me on that trip too.

I carried everything on board with me for fear they would be broken.

The canisters were given away quite some time ago, but I've hung onto these sturdy bowls.

These beautiful bowls are a set of Emile Henry mixing bowls from Williams Sonoma.

The Hubs got them for me for Christmas one year after he saw me admiring them in the store.

This set of white bowls with the red stripes were a gift from oldest daughter.

She bought them for me at Kitchen Kaboodle.

Red is my go to accent color.  Love it.

I found this heavy duty, white, Roseville, Ohio stoneware bowl at the Goodwill.

It seems to be the perfect sized bowl and the one that I probably use most often.

This wonderful old bowl used to be my mother-in-law's.

OOPS!  I forgot that here are a few more bowls on top of my kitchen cabinets.

Two Mason Cash mixing bowls and one little antique, burgundy colored bowl.

My "collections" tend to all be things used in daily life and work in days gone by.

There is something about finding beauty in the ordinary that speaks to me.

What do you collect?

It's almost FRIDAY, friends!

Have a HAPPY, HAPPY Friday

and

a BLESSED weekend!

              

                                            

Also linking to Jennifer Rizzo's Fabulously Creative Friday

Two years ago this week...

Two years ago this week, Mama took her last gasping, gurgling breath,

her 85 year old heart and lungs no longer able to pump the fluid out of her system.

Two years ago this week, Jesus stood up on His throne, clapped His hands with joy, 

tilted His head back and laughed with pleasure when she entered into His presence.

Two years ago this week,  Jesus cupped Mama's face in His hands and she looked into His fiery eyes of love for the first time.  

Those eyes in a flesh and blood Man there on the throne of heaven looked at my Mama and the voice that thunders with majesty and sounds like many waters told my Mama, "You're so beautiful!",

and for the first time in her life, my Mama had to really, truly believe that it was so, because He said it.

Two years ago this week, Mama danced and twirled and spun with delight and freedom and joy, 

set free from all sin and sickness and sadness and fear.

Two years ago this week, Mama who had seen more than her share of sorrow and sadness and struggle and disappointment and pain in this life, looked at the Lover of her soul and said, 

"It's true!  It's true!  It was worth it all to see You, to be here with You!   All of that struggle was just for a moment and now all of this glory of being with You forever and ever and ever,
it was worth it, it was worth it all!"

I still miss her.

The grief still hits at random moments.

Last Sunday afternoon in the Winco grocery store,

 a little white haired lady walked toward me pushing her grocery cart.

Her eyes had that same overwhelmed, confused look, 

that Mama used to get in her last years whenever we went to that overcrowded store.

Right there, standing by the cooler filled with Tillamook cheese, 

I was tempted to hug a complete stranger, because I saw Mama in her.

I miss my Mama.

But never once, not even for a second, would I want her back here.

Not now that she's tasted and seen pure wholeness, pure happiness, pure love, pure joy.

Not now that she's seen Him.

Sometimes I wonder what our resurrected, eternal bodies will look like.

Jesus is the firstborn from the dead, the Only One who already has His resurrected body.

It looked different enough that some of His close followers didn't recognize Him at first.

When I go by the cemetery where Mama is buried,  sometimes it bothers me, her body there in the cold ground, wearing the fusia colored sweater that my sister had bought her for Christmas,
just the month before.

I know when Jesus comes back, the dead in Christ will rise first, their resurrected bodies coming up out of the grave to meet their eternal spirits that are already with Him.

If I had one request, I'd ask Jesus to keep my Mama's hair pure white and soft as cotton.

Two years ago this week, my Mama went to heaven.

I miss my Mama.

Sometimes I still cry.

Still following,

Hyacinth for the soul...

"If I have but 2 pence, with one I will buy bread, with the other, 

hyacinth for the soul."

My sister put this comment on my facebook after I posted a picture of this little hyacinth that I brought home from the grocery store with me.  

I guess it is an old proverb, but I had never heard it before.

However, its beauty captivated me.

It describes the need of my heart for little touches of beauty here and there.

My conviction is that beauty, especially the beauty found in nature,

 is essential to a healthy spirit.

God created man to live in a garden of perfect beauty,

 one planted and designed by Him.

He made the beauty of nature for us to enjoy.

(photo edited with Kim Klaussen's mirabella and laura textures)

Still following,

Homemade Granola Bars...

Leslie at The Cozy Little Kitchen is a sweet, lovely blogger with a blog as lovely as she is.

She posts lots of delicious recipes.

Last week she posted a recipe for Dark Chocolate and Walnut Granola Bars.

I just had to try them, but....

if you know me, I never leave a recipe well enough alone...

NEVER!

Seriously.

So, here's Leslie's recipe with my tweaks.  

Click the link above for her original recipe.

My version:

 (makes a 9x13 pan)

Preheat oven to 350.

3 cups of old fashioned rolled oats

2 heaping tablespoons flax

1 generous cup other stuff 

( I used some sliced almonds and some of this trail mix with pumpkin seeds, 

sunflower seeds and dried cranberries.)

Toast all of the above in oven for 5-8 minutes, being careful it doesn't scorch.

In mixing bowl:

6 tablespoons peanut butter melted in microwave for about one minute.

2/3 cup honey 

(I deleted the brown sugar from Leslie's recipe)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Stir together.

Add oat mixture and stir together.

Add 1 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips and stir again.

Line 9x13 pan that you toasted the oats in with parchment paper.

Dump mixture into pan and "smoosh" down with spatula.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Cool completely.

When completely cool, cut into bars.

Good for breakfast, snacks or dessert!

Here's the recipe in an easy to copy and print version:

 (makes a 9x13 pan)

Preheat oven to 350.

In 9x13 pan combine:

3 cups old fashioned rolled oats

2 heaping tablespoons flax 

1 generous cup of your preferred trail mix and nuts

Toast in oven for 5-8 minutes

In mixing bowl:

6 tablespoons peanut butter melted in microwave for one minute

Add 2/3 cup honey

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Stir together.

Add oat mixture and stir.

Add 1 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

Stir.

Line 9x13 pan you toasted oat mixture in with parchment paper.

Dump mixture in pan and "smoosh" down with spatula.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

When completely cool, cut into bars.

Enjoy!

Still following,

              

also joining the linky at Adorned from Above

Anticipating the goodness of God...

It's so simple, but such an important foundational truth.

God is good and He does good. (Psalm 119:68)

The enemy uses the same tactic today that he did in the garden.

He lies and deceives and gets us to doubt that God is good. 

(He's good through and through with not one iota of darkness in Him).

The enemy gets us to doubt that God does good.

In fact, he'll stir up the will of man to do all sorts of horrendous things,

 and then point his slimy finger at God and blame Him for it.

Start counting God's goodness in your life and you'll stop believing the enemy and start believing the Truth.

In fact you'll start anticipating God's goodness.

After all, His goodness and mercy are following you,

 chasing you right down to overtake you, 

every day of your life.

**********

In 2012 I followed the prompts in Ann Voskamp's Joy Dare in counting my thanks.

In 2013 I'm going back to the way I did it in the beginning,
just noticing and recording the many extraordinary blessings in my ordinary life.

And so I continue to count my thanks

piling up gratitude day by day

in my little black journal.

(and capturing some of them via my camera or iPhone)

#2684-#2712

1/14/13

-watching the snow fall outside my office window

-the whole family over for dinner

-homemade chili and homemade broccoli cheese soup

-Jon Thurlow's music

-listening to my two oldest grandkids read aloud

1/15/12

-having fun changing a few things around the house

-being able to run again after last month's sprained foot

-getting the grandkids ready for bed

1/16/12

-texts from the Hubs

-encouragement

-watching a favorite older movie with the grands

1/17/13

-a gorgeous day after two gray and rainy ones

-feeling better after a flu bug

-a friend's daughter giving me some great second hand clothes

-being able to share some that didn't work for me with another friend

-the Hub's meeting with his mentor

1/18/13

-sunny again!

-date day with the Hubs!

-the two youngest grands spending the night while mommy and daddy are away

-all the grands, (except baby granddaughter), watching an old, funny Jerry Lewis movie

-making some yummy, homemade granola bars

1/19/13

-baby granddaughter slept 13 hours straight

-her loving when I whisper in her ear

-only grandson and almost 4 year old granddaughter playing outside and having lunch and hot cocoa out on the patio in the cold 

-the Hub's help cleaning the house when the grandbabies went home

1/20/13

-a very special water baptism today

-praying and God helping me to find something that I thought I had lost

-a beautiful afternoon

Gratefully yours,

Revelation 4:8...

I've been enjoying dabbling around with watercolors lately.

In my devotional time I like to turn on worship music and meditate on a verse or truth that stands out to me in that day's reading by doing something creative with the verse in an art journal.

I've been joining She Reads Truth for my daily Bible reading selection.

It's been fun to Instagram with others using the hashtag #shereadstruth and see what and how they journal about that day's Bible reading.

 (You can also comment on the She Reads Truth blog.)

I'd love to hear if you're following any particular Bible reading plan.

Do you journal?  Do you do any art or visual journaling?

I'd love to hear about it!

Still following,