Count My Many Blessings, Name Them One By One...

Miss Emma came home! Miss Emma is a gypsy, coming...and going...at will. Some years ago, I was a participant on a boomer women site and someone excoriated me because I allowed my cats outdoors. I attempted to explain my situation wasn't remotely similar to her situation (she was a self proclaimed phone sex worker in Las Vegas...count my many blessings!...) yet she refused to believe her opinion could be wrong. Yes, I did leave that group...are you surprised? Dave had New Yorker magazine note cards...a drawing of a dog, sitting at a computer with the caption, "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog"; click here for the cartoon, printed in 1993...so very long ago. Let's face it, sometimes, in internet groups, one is thrown together with people with the faint smell of sulfur; it pays to be ultra cautious.

These lads are on their way to work...Charles, the middle rider, knows me and wasn't too surprised when I swerved to the ditch, jumped out and began taking pictures. They pulled up and stopped as I said, "One of these days I might get my clocked cleaned but I want this picture!" They were on their way to gather up cattle; see their big smiles? I'm thinking the smiles were for the camera and not laughing at me...ya think? lol

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore... November's super moon is the first in decades and the last until 2024. It was lovely!

The gift of getting oldER means when I over-exert myself, it takes longer to bounce back regain strength with reduced pain levels. Within the past two months, I made the comment my body was about 90%; I've since had plenty of opportunity to regret making that particular comment. Ahem.

A great blessing is the nephew of a friend who has been helping prep the farm and house...particularly the house. When Dave and I moved here, the house was in dire straits...several broken toilets stored upstairs as well as other debris. (I've continued to ponder storing broken toilets...I mean WHY?) The house was, probably, five years from being uninhabitable so we got here just in time to start re-claiming the house and farm. As soon as my desktop is fixed and returned, I'm going to start blogging Thistle Cove Farm Epistles (with photos and from newsletters and journal) but in the meantime, the house is warm, even without the wood stove which may, or may not, be put into use this year. I've been trying to caulk the space between bedroom toe molding and floor but E. was able to do the job better. God bless him! He's also done things to make the house safer so more blessings.

This Pottery Barn pillow was purchased at a thrift store and while pretty, I decided to tart it up a bit.

This crochet piece was purchased at Noravank Monastry in Armenia but I've never known quite what to do with it. In 301 A.D. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its national religion, a very rich tradition!

The big yellow button was added, but not so sure it adds very much except texture, then, everything stitched down.

The finished piece is now living in Thistle Cove Poppet; with her dining room sunflower theme, looks right at home. Next, I'm working on Poppet's kitchen theme which is roosters. The bedroom theme is luxe comfort and, having my priorities in order, is complete.

The sunsets have been beautiful and today we have rain...thank you, Lord!...with an expected 1 to 3 inches of snow tonight. Winds are howling at plus 20 mph, outside temps are dipping into low 40's and my contentment level stretches for the horizon. The American Legion is serving Thanksgiving lunch and I'm braving the storm to partake; blessings upon blessings upon blessings. To count only three per day seems churlish so I don't.

Ponder this ~ "Beware the barrenness of a busy life." Socrates ~

Sabbath Keeping

 ~ Nomads, waiting for court, Tanjer, Morocco ~

"He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbors no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman. ...He who does these things will never be shaken." ~ Psalms 15:2-5 ~

"The real corrupters of society may be, not the corrupt, but those who have held back the righteous leaven, the salt that has lost its savor, the innocent who have not even the moral courage to show what they think of the effrontery of impurity--the serious, who yet timidly succumb before some loud-voiced scoffer--the heart trembling all over with religious sensibilities that yet suffers itself through false shame to be beaten down into outward and practical acquiescence by some rude and worldly nature."
~ J. H. Thom ~

  "There are only two kinds of men: 

the righteous who believe they are sinners, the sinners who believe they are righteous." 

~ Blaise Pascal ~

"All men's souls are immortal, but

but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine." ~ Socrates ~

"There are slaves who fear to speak

For the fallen and the weak,

They are slaves who will not choose

Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,

Rather than in silence shrink

From the truth they needs must think;

They are slaves who dare not be

In the right with two or three."

~ J. R. Lowell ~

"We don't need to go very far in any given day to find a need, hear a request, face an enemy, or encounter a situation that calls for a righteous application of our God-given power as women."
~ Jan Dartagz ~

"If you see oppression of the poor, and justice and righteousness trampled in a country, do not be astounded." ~ King Solomon ~

"All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth." ~ Colossians 1:6 ~


Blessings ~ righteous men and women after the heart of God ~ You, beloved ~ justice ~








Dei Gratia,
Sandra