Christmas Penguins

I came across this cute project idea, and it immediately got bumped to the front of my projects list!  It's pretty simple, and once again uses normal household items that are otherwise useless - this time, burned out light bulbs!

We happened to have a few lying around.  To start, you paint one side white.  I found that I had to do two coats.

Next, you paint the black, making them look like little penguins.

Then paint the faces.

The winter accessories were a little harder, because I didn't have a pattern.  I just used some yarn scraps, and through trial and error was able to crochet three little toques and scarves.

I used some wire to make it possible to hang these little guys on a Christmas tree.

Then it was just putting the pieces together with a bit of glue.  Meet papa penguin, mama penguin, and baby penguin!

What a cute little family!

Meditation on John 4:1-42

Continuing my series of meditations on John, these are three prayers from reflecting on the story of Jesus and the woman at the well.

“Through Samaria” (v.4)

God, in this life there are many choices to be made.

Some of those choices can be very hard,

Especially when they are between two seemingly good options

Or between two options that both have pros and cons.

But there is one kind of choice that I find very easy to make:

When one option is easy and logical 

And the other is uncomfortable and challenging.

I confess that when I am faced with choices like that,

I rarely even pause to ask your will.

Remind me that there may be times

When the best road is the harder road.

When you are calling me to take the path

Through the land of the people who despise me

Or that I despise.

Where I may not be welcomed,

But have a divine appointment.

“My food” (v. 34)

Buttered bread fresh from the oven

Warm, comforting noodle soup

Strawberries with ice cream

Chocolate chip cookies

Cheesy pizza

Apple pie

God, thank you for food

And give me wisdom

To understand

What truly sustains.

Your word

Your will

Your presence.

“Look on the fields” (v.35)

Busy with their errand,

The disciples missed it -

That the fields were ripe,

That they had an amazing opportunity.

God, give me the eyes to see

When the fields are ripe.

Break through the blindness of my prejudice

My own selfish agenda

My tunnel-visioned hurry

And help me see with your eyes.

Amen.

Plastic Bag Doormat (part 1)

This is a project I have been wanting to do for a while now, ever since I found this pattern for a doormat that is made of plastic bags: http://www.myrecycledbags.com/2007/12/26/plastic-bag-doormat-rug/

We generally use plastic bags in our garbage cans, but half the time they have holes in them that would make a messy leak.  So I thought this would be a great way to use those otherwise useless bags!  Here's how it works:

You start by taking the plastic bags and making them into a kind of plastic yarn, otherwise known as "plarn". (Get it? Pl-arn, plastic yarn)

Flatten the bags and fold them in half a couple of times.

Then cut the bag into one inch strips, discarding the handles and the very bottom of the bag.

When you unfold the strips of bag, they make large loops.

Then you link all of the loops together to make a long chain.

Roll it up into balls, and your "plarn" is ready to use!  I decided to keep the different colours of plastic in separate balls.

The pattern I found online was a fairly simple crochet pattern, but you could probably knit it too.  I found the "plarn" to be surprisingly easy to work with, although it takes a bit more wrestling than normal yarn does.

Having different colours of plastic makes it possible to make a bit of a design.

Finding this recycling symbol made me smile.  Yes, yes I am recycling this bag, but perhaps not quite in the way you were expecting me to!

Here is the mat in its current state.  It is about half of the finished size I would like, and has taken 14 bags so far.  But sadly I have run out of bags!  Our door may have to remain mat-less for a little longer.

I find that the crocheted "plarn" has a very interesting feel, and looks much better than I expected!  I will post a picture of the completed mat once I have the materials to finish it.

Brownie points to anyone who can guess the 5 stores that are represented by the bags I have used so far!

Remembering

Last week I had the opportunity to teach a class at my college as a part of my internship as a teacher’s assistant.  I am a TA for a class called Spiritual Formation and Discipleship, which focuses on the spiritual disciplines.  Each week a different spiritual discipline is the focus.  I was given the opportunity to prepare a full 75-minute lesson on a topic of my choice, provided it fit into the context of spiritual disciplines.  I chose the topic “Remembering”.  It seemed appropriate, considering that it was shortly before Remembrance Day weekend, but I also wanted to expand on the idea of remembering and its importance to our spiritual lives as Christians.  The following is an abbreviated form of my lesson. (Sorry that it's still kind of long...)

Remembering may seem like an unusual topic in a class on the spiritual disciplines.  It’s not something that you usually find in lists next to things like fasting and service.  However, I would like to challenge you today that remembering is in fact an important part of our spirituality.   

To begin, it is important to clarify what we mean by remembering.  According to the dictionary, to remember is “To bring to one’s mind an awareness of…”.  However, the Hebrew word for remember expands on this definition: “To remember, recall, call to mind, usually as affecting present feeling, thought, or action”.  So the biblical concept of remembrance does not just involve the mind; it also involves feelings and action.

When remembering is mentioned in the Bible, it is generally in connection with some kind of response or action.  One example is Genesis 30:22, when God remembers Rachel and allows her to conceive.  Another example is in Deuteronomy 5:12-15, when the Israelites are commanded to keep the Sabbath.  They were to remember that they used to be slaves in Egypt and that God saved them, so they should no longer work like slaves but instead should take time to rest.

So today our working definition of remembering is: “Knowledge accompanied by appropriate action”.  We have not actually remembered something unless it affects us in some way.  Remembering is very practical.

Today we will be focusing in on three different areas in which it is very important for us to remember.  The first is remembering the heroes of faith.  This weekend our country will be remembering and honouring the heroes who fought and died for our country.  As Christians, we have our own set of heroes – people who have gone before us in our faith, who worked, struggled, and often died, to pass their faith on to us.  These heroes of faith include people we read about in the Bible as well as people throughout history, and include the great and powerful as well as the simple people who were faithful in small, day-to-day-ways.

Remembering the heroes of faith can inspire us to live lives of faith ourselves.  An example of this is found in the book of Hebrews.  Hebrews 11 lists many heroes of our faith in what could be called the “Faith Hall of Fame”.  Reading this passage, you get the feeling that the list could continue, through the Old Testament, into the New, and then right through church history, up to this present day.  In class we took the time to make our own “Faith Hall of Fame”, writing down the names of people that we find inspiring and that have encouraged us in our faith.

The writer of Hebrews carries on to say:  “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (12:1).  Our heroes of faith can inspire us and encourage us.  As we remember their stories, we can be encouraged in our own story, and challenged to press on in our own walk of faith.  It is so important to remember them.

Secondly, it is important to remember history.  As we remember history, we can learn from it.  One of the interesting things about history is that it often seems to repeat itself.  And in a way, this makes sense.  Even though technology advances, and the context changes, people are not all that different.  We still have the same motivations and needs – for security, love, food and shelter, meaning in life.  It can be possible, through learning about the past, to gain insight into the way our world is today, and we can gain wisdom for how to respond to the events of our time.  When we don’t remember, we can make the same mistakes that others have made in the past.  The philosopher George Santayana once said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  Another way that someone articulated this same message is that “History repeats itself because no one was listening the first time”.

A vivid example of this in the Bible is the story of the Judges.  It becomes almost predictable – the people start worshiping other gods, they become oppressed by the nations around them, they cry out to God, God sends a judge to deliver them, they serve God for a while, but soon turn to other gods and the cycle repeats again and again.  It makes you wonder – would the Israelites ever learn from history?!

Perhaps repetition that is that obvious is not generally evident throughout history.  But while events may not repeat in an exact way, there are remarkable similarities and patterns throughout time.  Mark Twain said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme”.  It is these rhymes, these echoes of the past, that allow us to learn from history in order to live more wisely today.

I gave a couple of examples of this in class, but here I will focus on just one example: War.  On Remembrance Day, we remember those who have been willing to give their lives for their country.  And I think that it is a good thing to honour them.  But have you ever wondered why there keeps on being war after war?  For example, do you know why World War 2 took place?  Yes, Hitler was a significant threat, but why was there a Hitler?  You have to go back a few more years to an event we know of as World War 1; a war that began in 1914 – 100 years ago.  But at that time, that war was not known as World War 1, it was called “The War to End All Wars”.  When it was finally over, many people truly believed that there would never again be a need for war.  However, the result of that war for the countries that lost, particularly Germany, was economic disaster.  Things got so bad in Germany that the German people became desperate, and when someone stood up and claimed that he could change their lives for the better, they followed him willingly – his name was Adolf Hitler.  The “War to End All Wars” simply bred another war; a war that had even more devastating effects, with over 60 million people losing their lives.

And World War 2 – did that bring the final solution?  Was that the “War to End All Wars”?  No – since then there has continued to be war after war: The Cold War, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, The Gulf War, war in Afganistan, war in Iraq… we see history repeating and repeating and we have to wonder – does war actually help?  Can war stop war from continuing?  History seems to say no.  Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars… Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”  But we can only learn that lesson if we remember.  And may our remembering also be practical, as we seek for ways to break the cycle of war and violence that is in our world.  In the words of the MCC Remembrance Day pin: To remember is to work for peace.

Finally, it is also important to remember what God has done in our lives.  While remembering the heroes of our faith can encourage us, and remembering history can be insightful, this is remembering at a very personal level.

This concept can be found throughout the Bible.  The Old Testament is full of passages where God’s people are urged to remember what he has done.  Remember that you used to be slaves in Egypt.  Remember that God saved you.  Often the Israelites were told to set up visible reminders so that they wouldn’t forget what God had done.  One example of that is in Joshua 3:14 - 4:7.  After the people of Israel crossed the Jordan, God told them to take rocks from the riverbed and make a monument so that they would remember.  The New Testament also contains the instruction to remember.  One famous instance is at the Lord’s Supper: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). 

While it is vitally important to remember what Jesus did for us 2,000 years ago, he is also active in our lives now, and it is important to remember that.  We all experience ups and downs; times where everything seems great, and times that are really hard.  When we are in those harder times, one thing that can help us get through is remembering what God has done in our lives.  It can remind us of how God does care for us and how he is present with us, even if it doesn’t feel like it.  It can also give us hope that the future will be better.

Now I want to give a little disclaimer.  When we reflect back over our lives, it can be easy to feel a lot of regret.  We see all of the things that we did that we shouldn’t have done, or that we should have done and didn’t do.  It can be very tempting to beat ourselves up and try to punish ourselves over and over again for those failings.  But that is not healthy remembering.  It is true that just as we can learn from world history, we can also learn from our own personal histories.  It is good to learn from the mistakes that we have made.  But God does not want us to live in shame and regret.  When we dwell on the past, he is inviting us to dwell on what he has done - on his faithfulness to us.

In class we brainstormed different ways to help ourselves remember what God has done in our lives.  Ideas included journaling, talking with close friends, going through old facebook posts, and setting up a pile of rocks like the Israelites.  What ideas do you have?

Remembering is important.

Remembering the Heroes of Faith leads to encouragement in our own faith as we step out to do what God is calling us to.

Remembering History leads to wisdom, and we can engage what is happening in our world in an effort to change things for the better.

Remembering what God has done in our lives leads to hope when we’re going through hard times.

So this Remembrance Day… remember!

Harvest Box (aka "What do I get to try cooking with this week?")

Living in Abbotsford, we get to take advantage of a program that is offered here called the Harvest Box.  Basically, the Harvest Box is a 10 pound box of fruits and veggies that costs $8 and that is available bi-weekly.  There are several things that I have enjoyed about this.  First, it helps stretch the grocery budget a little father.  Second, it mostly contains local produce.  And third, you never know what is going to be in the box!  So it's a little like Christmas... kind of.

But my favourite part about getting a box of random produce is that I am getting a chance to try different vegetables that I haven't cooked with before, and would never think of buying at the store!  Here are a few examples from the past couple of months, and what I tried making with them.

Leeks.  This leek went into a "Cock-a-Leeky Soup" - basically, chicken soup with veggies.

Fennel.  I had no clue what this one was - I had to look it up online!

The fennel chopped up a lot like an onion.  I sauteed it and put it in spaghetti sauce.

Baby bok choy.  This went into a stir fry.

Eggplant.  Along with the zucchini and some other veggies, this was grilled, diced, and served on pasta.

And I'm sure there are more interesting things that are going to show up in future boxes!

For anyone who is interested in more information on the Harvest Box, here is a link to their website: http://www.vibrantabbotsford.ca/projects/food-security/harvest-box/

Meditation on John 3:1-12

“Born again”

Said so tritely

Religious jargon

What do we mean by it?

What did he mean?

Does our theology

of “praying the prayer”

affect our idea

of rebirth

rather than the other way around?

Perhaps

being “born again”

is more like 

birth

than our simple

feel-good religiousness

is comfortable with.

Messy

Painful

A time-consuming process

Hard

Life-altering

Beautiful

Why do we reduce it

to a tidy sinner’s prayer?

mental assent to an ideology?

When a child is born

their life changes forever.

Their world expands.

New adventures and experiences become possible

in a world of deep suffering

and even deeper love.

Having Jesus for Dinner

You know what is one of the most exciting things ever?  Having Jesus for dinner.  And I don’t mean the Lord’s Supper – I mean having Jesus over, as a guest, for dinner.

Over the past few years, hospitality has been gradually becoming a more and more important part of my life.  I always knew that hospitality was important – after all, the Bible tells us to practice hospitality – but it wasn’t something that I thought about much.  After Jesse and I got married and we had our own place, we developed a habit of having people over frequently.  We found that we both loved hosting potlucks and movie nights and games nights.  It was simply a part of who we were; I didn’t really think about it being hospitality.

Then one day I heard through a friend that someone else had said that I was one of the most hospitable people they knew.  Naturally, I appreciated the compliment (who doesn’t love getting compliments!), but it also stuck with me.  “Hospitable” just hadn’t been a part of my picture of who I was.  But it made sense.  Hospitality doesn’t have to be anything fancy, it is simply welcoming others, whether friends or strangers, with warmth and kindness.  And that is something that I love to do!  Since then I have heard it from several people – that I am very hospitable – and it has become a part of who I understand myself to be.  The neat thing about learning more about yourself is that you can become even more who you already are.  I have become more intentional about opening up my home to people and trying to make my home a place that feels comfortable, safe, and welcoming.

One of the newest things that my husband and I have started doing is what we call “Sunday Dinners at the Wingers”.  It’s actually an idea I got off a random blog on the internet – I don’t remember which one.  I was just looking up a recipe for something and followed a link that looked interesting.  It was about a family who opened their home once a week with an open-invitation supper for whoever wanted to come.  I loved the idea!  So did Jesse.  So we decided to give it a try.

We took the idea and adapted the details to make it our own.  Here’s how it works for us:  Every Sunday at 6pm we have an open-invitation supper.  We simply ask people to let us know if they are planning to come, and to bring something to share if they are able.  We will always have a big croc pot of soup or something on, and we look forward to sharing it with whoever decides to come!  We have spread the word around our college and church, and so far there has generally been a varied assortment of people on any given Sunday.

I have found the various responses that people have to this idea to be quite fascinating.  There are some who get very excited – they love the idea!  Others seem hesitant (Are you sure I can come?  I won’t be inconveniencing you?), or they have questions about how it will work:  What if you get tired of having people over every week?  What if there isn’t enough food?  What if too many people show up?  I’ve found that Jesse and I don’t really have any of those concerns.  We have found that God always provides, and there are always plenty of leftovers.  And we aren’t worried about space – probably because we are still at that college stage of life where sitting on the floor and reusing dishes are perfectly acceptable options!  (And anyways, we haven’t had to improvise like that yet.)

But what does all of this have to do with having Jesus over for dinner?  To explain, here is a short story.  The other week we were getting ready for Sunday dinner, and we got a call from someone who had heard about our open invitation and wanted to take us up on it.  We had never met this person before, and didn’t know who they were.  That made me really excited!  I would love for our Sunday suppers to get to the point where people feel welcome to come or invite their friends, even if they don’t know us.  As I continued with the preparations for dinner, a thought rose in my mind:  Jesus is coming for dinner.  I couldn’t shake the thought from my mind – our mystery guest was going to be Jesus.

And I was struck by how true that thought was.  Beyond the idea that it is possible to “entertain angels unawares”, in a very real way everyone who comes through our doors is Jesus.  As his people, Jesus dwells within each of us.  When I show hospitality to my brothers and sisters in Christ, I am showing hospitality to Jesus.  Beyond this, Jesus tells us in Matthew 25:40 that whatever we do for the “least of these” we do for Jesus.  That is part of why I love hospitality – I get to welcome Jesus into my home!

But I am also challenged by this realization too, as I think about stories in the gospels about Jesus and hospitality – especially the story of Mary and Martha.  Like many who enjoy showing hospitality, I can have very strong Martha tendencies.  I want to make sure the apartment is clean, that there is plenty of food, that the table is set nicely… etc.  And it becomes easy to be all hustle and bustle, busy serving my guests rather than simply being with them.  That is part of why these Sunday dinners are so good for me.  They are, in their very essence, meant to be informal and relaxed.  This isn’t the time for fancy place settings and centerpieces (as much as I love those things).  Supper is a simple pot of soup – no frills, not even any dessert!  (Unless someone brings some.)  While I love the elegant and fancy, and there is a place and time for that (I’d love to host a gourmet multi-course meal someday, I think it would be so fun!), this is not that time.  It is a time to simply be – to be with people, to slow down, to not worry about the messy kitchen or the piles of homework that have been shoved into the corners.  People, relationships, become the most important thing.  To look in the eyes of each person and see Jesus.


P.S. Please join us some Sunday, you are most welcome!

I Don't Want To

I've been thinking a lot lately about how often what I do in a given moment is dependent on what I feel like doing or don't feel like doing.  I am guessing I am not the only one, so I thought I'd share my ponderings.

I find that I generally have a decently long list of things that need to get done - more than I could realistically do in a day.  I think we're pretty much all in that situation.  In any given day my list involves home tasks like sweeping, washing the dishes, watering the plants and making supper.  Since it's Fall, I also have a list of canning and preserving projects that I haven't had time for yet, including canning spaghetti sauce, drying apples, and freezing apple pies.  Then there are all my school responsibilities - the paper that is due next week, the marking I need to do for my TA position, and I should really be practicing piano every day to keep up with my lessons.  And of course there are all the projects I am in the middle of: a braided rug, sewing projects for baby, and this blog that I don't like neglecting for too long.  And then on top of all of that, there are friends I want to catch up with, my relationship with God to nurture, spending quality time with my husband, and an increasingly needed nap time.

So where do I begin?  Generally with what I feel like doing.

I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with that - I mean, it is good to do things that I enjoy and have motivation to do.  And it is not always the "fun" things that I find that I want to do - sometimes the desire to have a clean bathroom puts cleaning at the top of the list!  However, I have begun to notice that this approach leaves me consistently postponing certain things that I should really do.

You have probably seen this grid before:

	Important	Not Important
Urgent
Not Urgent

Our tasks can be placed in a quadrant depending on how important/not important and urgent/not urgent they are.  The idea behind looking at our tasks this way is that without realizing it we often do the things that are urgent (whether important or not), but neglect to do the things that are important but not urgent.  (Note: I don't remember where I heard this from, so I'm not able to give credit.)

I wish I could add a third dimension to the grid, including "what I feel like doing" and "what I don't feel like doing".  Unfortunately, I'm not that tech savvy, so this will have to do:

	Feel like it	Don't feel like it
Urgent/ Important
Urgent/ Not Important
Not Urgent/ Important
Not Urgent/ Not Important

I'm not going to fill in this chart with my "to do list" for you, but you can probably guess where this is going.  Generally, what I get done in a day comes primarily from my "Feel like it" column, regardless of whether it was important or not.  Often I will get things done from the "Urgent/Important/Don't feel like it" category, but after all, those things are urgent and important - they NEED to get done!

Through all of this reflection, I have particularly been challenged by my neglect of the things that I don't feel like doing and that are not urgent yet are important.  For example - practicing my music.  I don't know why, so much of the time I just don't FEEL like practicing.  And while I know it is important, it is just not urgent, since I still have five more days till my next lesson (or whatever).  Another neglected part of my life is taking time alone with God.  Again, I know (in my head) that it is important, but it does not have the sense of urgency attached to it that other things do, like getting supper on the table or homework, and most of the time I don't FEEL like it.

So what should I do?  Here are some thoughts on breaking out of the "Don't feel like it" cycle.

Schedule:  When I notice that there are important things getting neglected, I could try scheduling them in at a certain time each day.  For example, always practice piano right after breakfast.
Just do it:  Even if I don't feel like it.  The funny thing about not wanting to do something - starting is often the hardest part.  Once you get started, it usually ends up being way better than you expected.
Keep it up:  Get into a habit of giving priority to the things that are important - both the urgent and not urgent ones, the ones you feel like doing and the ones you don't.  I don't want my days to be defined by "filler" that I just do because it was easy (facebook and internet browsing can suck so much of my day away if I let them).  I want to me more intentional in how I spend my time, and not be ruled by my fickle feelings of what I want to or don't want to do.
Ask why:  Why don't I feel like doing this thing that I know is important?  For example, I sometimes don't feel like writing something for my blog because I feel like I don't have something worth sharing.  However, that is generally because I'm being hard on myself, rather than it being true.
Get encouragement:  I find I often forget about this, but asking for help is actually a good thing!  Once I told Jesse that I was finding it hard to practice my music, he started asking me to play for him, and telling me how much he enjoyed it.  Sometimes some external motivation is all we need when we can't find the internal motivation.

Now excuse me, I'm going to go play piano or read my Bible or something...

What are some different ways that you have found to help yourself find motivation?

Meditation on John 2:1-11

The first sign recorded by John is when Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana.  What I find fascinating is that so few people knew that the miracle had happened.  Jesus' disciples knew (since it is recorded that as a result they believed in him), perhaps Jesus' mother knew, and the servants who drew the water knew.  The wedding guests did not even know that there was a problem, let alone that Jesus had provided a solution.  The hosts of the wedding - the very ones who would have been in disgrace because the wine ran out - had no idea what happened.

I wonder if it is often like this in our lives.  We are so busy and distracted that we don't notice the miracles that happen all around us.

There are three characteristics of the people who witnessed the miracle:

• They were aware there was a problem.  If there are no problems in our life, we have no need for a miracle and we won't be looking for one.
• They were the outsiders.  The only ones that we are directly told were aware of the miracle were the servants.  I think that it is often the outsiders - the lowly, the outcasts from society, that are able to see more clearly what God is doing.  Christians in parts of the world where they are persecuted report frequently witnessing miracles, whereas in our comfortable, affluent culture where we easily fit in, we say that God doesn't do miracles anymore.
• They were close to Jesus.  Jesus' disciples were with him.  The servants obeyed what Jesus told them to do.  Because they were close to Jesus, they were witnesses of the miracle that he performed.

I drew this drawing to express these thoughts.  I desire to be a person who witnesses the miracles of Jesus.  I don't want to be so busy, caught up in my own pleasures and pursuits, that I miss the miracles that are happening right in front of me.  I want to be aware of the needs around me, be willing to be on the outside, and be close enough to Jesus that I can see what he is doing.

"Perfect Pony"

My latest project has been another stuffed animal for baby, but this time a crocheted one.  I found a free pattern online for a stuffed animal horse, called "Perfect Pony".  Here is the link if you want to check it out:  http://members.optusnet.com.au/we2/perfectpony.html

I used a bunch of random yarn that I picked up at MCC last year, and used a crochet hook that seemed comfortable.  Since the pattern didn't have a tension gauge, I really had no idea what size my pony would end up being!  I also decided not to make the saddle and bridle that was a part of the pattern.  Here is a peek at the process, although really the most time-consuming part was all the crocheting, and I didn't take any pictures of that.

It's really quite amazing how a bunch of random yarn can become something so cohesive, beautiful and useful.

There were definitely moments when I had to just hope that the pattern was telling me to do the right thing!

The pieces of one pony - ready to be assembled!

I am always impressed by how easy it is to sew crocheted pieces together.

Then all there was left to do was make the mane and tail, and add the facial features.

All finished!  Overall I found it to be a very easy pattern, and since I was able to use supplies that I already had (yarn and the stuffing from an old pillow) it was an inexpensive project too.  Sorry about the overabundance of pictures, but I think it's just so cute!

Thanksgiving 2014

As I pause and reflect on my life, I cannot help but think about how I have so much to be thankful for!  God has provided abundantly and my heart overflows.

Praise the LORD!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
The Lord builds up Jerusalem; 
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.
The LORD lifts up the humble;
he casts the wicked to the ground.

Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
make melody to our God on the lyre!
He covers the heavens with clouds;
he prepares rain for the earth;
he makes grass grow on the hills.
He gives to the beasts their food,
and to the young ravens that cry.
His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.
...Praise the LORD!

~Psalm 147:1-11, 20b

A Thanksgiving centerpiece, complete with fall leaves from Ontario that Mom Winger sent us

A final blossom

A lovely visit with Charlotte, and getting to go hiking again

A visit from Caleb, and our church's yearly retreat at Camp Squeah

A little one on the way

Another baby bump picture :)

God's beautiful creation

So blessed!

What are you thankful for today?