The Faith of a Little Child

Do you ever feel like this?

Sometimes life feels crazy and out of control, and you wonder if you'll come through alive. That's when you need the faith of a little child. You can learn a lot from little children. Like being happy with something as simple as mashing bananas. Maybe your idea of happiness is not mashing bananas, and that's perfectly understandable. But you can enjoy whatever simple joys life offers you. (Such as watching your delighted little brother mash bananas.)

 Take a deep breath and enjoy the happy moments. This is the coat of many colors that Danny drew to illustrate his Bible lesson.

An illustration of Joseph in the pit. When I asked Danny what the pink squiggles were, he answered, "Worms". Love his imagination!

This picture reminds me of a line from a song: "I give Thee back the life I owe, that in Thy ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be."

Back to work.

Oh dear. What do I do now?

Sometimes we just want to hide from all the problems of life.

But you can't stay under the table forever. Just keep going and laugh at the cameras.

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."
                                                                                          (Heb. 12:1-2)

Keep looking up to our faithful God. He will see you through. 

Paint Mines

The day after the hayride, we took a friend to the Paint Mines. The Indians would make paint out of these formations.

The boys climbed around up top.

The colors are very pretty. And so is our friend in front of them!

We had so much fun exploring.

I loved the pink and orange against the blue sky.

Big brother carries little sister up the trail.

This butterfly was sitting on the trail.

We had a good view after coming up the trail from the formations.

Hayride

Our annual fall hayride. It was the sixth or seventh. (I've lost track.) The girls made some cute decorations.

Our neighbor let us have some cornstalks, and the girls decorated with them.

Getting ready to go on a ride! We had about 53 people in all.

We saw beautiful scenery and had a fun ride.

My lovely cousin plays with the baby of our friends.

The little ones had a sack race.

When it was the older children's turn, Mom and my aunt decided to race too.

Here they come! My aunt and Mom were some of the last on, and they only went halfway! Aunt Iva fell down soon after starting, and laughed and laughed. Better laugh than cry, right? 

Pickles

Lots of cucumbers gotten from the Falcon produce stand.

Rose slices.

I add diced pepper and the onions Carrie cut into rings, then sprinkle in a bunch of salt and cover with ice cubes.

I also wash pint jars. I like to get them out of the rinse water all squeaky clean.

The next morning, Mom pours water in a pot to sterilize the jars while Hannah stirs the pickle brine, made mainly of vinegar and sugar, along with mustard seed and celery seed for flavoring, and turmeric for color.

Making the second batch.

Bread-and-butter pickles are so easy to make. After putting them in the jars, all we have to do is turn them upside down for five minutes, then wait for them to seal.

Yum yum! Good eating for the coming months!

A Day in my Life

It's five o'clock in the morning. I jump out of bed bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. No, actually, it's almost seven, and I am trying to decide if I should get up or hit the snooze button on my alarm clock. Either way, soon I'm up and ready to start the day. First I make Dad's lunch.

Breakfast is scrambled eggs and granola.

After breakfast, I do housework, such as ironing;

help Danny with school,

and make lunch. 

After lunch, it's time to practice piano.

Occasionally, I get out on a walk. On the way out, this is what I see. This year Carrie planted a wildflower mix around the mailbox, and has carefully guarded it from pigs, goats, and bad weather. Now her work is being rewarded.

 Our family uses this trail a lot.

Usually in the afternoon I have devotions and just take time to rest in Jesus' presence. This spot at the top of the hill was my spot to be still this day. 

Sometimes, sometimes not, I have some time to write in my diary, 

or write emails to friends.

Then it's time to help again.

After supper it's my job to do dishes. 

After dishes and family devotions, I usually take a few minutes to do something I would like to do. Then it's bedtime.
I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them! 

What's in a blog?

 I've been musing about the purpose of my blog and came up with a couple reasons to blog. 

reason number one: To keep in touch with friends. 

reason number two: To help me look for beauty.

It's really easy, going through the same mundane chores day after day, to become blind to the beauty around me. After looking at a friend's blog, I was inspired to try taking pictures just of the ordinary things in my life, to help me keep a positive outlook. Just looking for things to take pictures of really brightened my day! I never really thought of apples as beautiful (I put one in Dad's lunch nearly every day), but they are! What's more, they are good food.  A lot of people don't even have apples! 

This is what we have for breakfast every morning. (Usually they are scrambled.) Our own home raised eggs. Mmm.

At least someone in the family likes his picture being taken! 

 Grandma and Grandpa let us pick up apples from their trees.

To earn a little money, I made several pies for Dad's work crew. These apples are not like the ones from the store. They have rotten spots and wormy spots that take a lot of cutting to get rid of. But you just cut out the bad spots and throw them away, and keep the good parts. Isn't that what you have to do in life sometimes? Just let go of the bad and savor the good.

And sometimes it takes some sour lemon juice to help us become sweeter.  It's one of those paradoxes of life.

Now the work is almost done! 

  Writing a birthday card to a friend. Doing something for someone else helps keep me out of the dumps.

 I enjoy piano classical pieces and arrangements of hymns.

 The rewards of my (and Mom's) labor. It took us all morning and part of the afternoon, but I got some money for it. Dad's crew loved the pies. One man bought three and ate them in two days! And I have an order for another pie and two loaves of banana bread!

I am just starting to learn to look at the positive, and I am enjoying it! Get ready-- for the blogging brainstorms of Crystal Lucas!