My friend Helen in Switzerland had a giveaway on her blog recently, and I was one of the winners. I was thrilled when she emailed to tell me a little something was on its way to Minnesota, and it arrived yesterday.

Helen is one of the most creative, efficient, cheerful people I know but haven’t met. The quilting and knitting projects she completes in just one month would be my lifetime list. She was born in England, met her Swiss husband in the States, and lives in a beautiful part of Switzerland (are there any ugly parts of Switzerland?) with her family.

Here’s the quilted mug rug she made for me:

I shall place my hot cup of tea on this lovely mini-quilt and remember always that Helen made it.

Next, and totally unexpected, she sent this:

Have any of you ever sampled Swiss Hüppen? They’re the thinnest, most delicate wafers rolled around different flavored creams, and Michael and I think Switzerland might be worth visiting just for these. 🙂  His favorite was the Gianduja (hazelnut and chocolate) and mine was the Mocca.

Quirky Mildred is always uneasy with new items in the house. Here she is, purposely not looking at the mug rug, which she suspects might hurt her in some way.

I think you should take a look at the beautiful things Helen creates on her blog, here.

But please try not to think about how when she offers the occasional gifts on her blog, they’re beautiful, handmade, delicious and unique, and how when I offer a gift on my blog it’s a can of bread with a label that says B&M. Try not to compare the two, okay?

Thank you again Helen!

Now I’m off to make a cup of tea, and I’ll enjoy my new mug rug and a Swiss treat to go along with it.

I thought it was fun to read about so many of your breakfast habits, and your opinions on breakfast! Thank you to all who commented.

As promised, one person will receive a can of B&M Brown Bread, and that person is……(drumroll)….Ginny!

Ginny, I will get your can of bread to you very soon, and I hope you’ll report back here to let everyone know what you thought of it, okay?

Have a great week everyone,

Another bitterly cold morning here, way below zero. But things are going to warm up and we may get snow tomorrow, which always lifts my spirit. Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday, and my husband, son-in-law, grandson and some beloved former neighbors will be coming over to watch. If I had a bucket list, “Watch a Super Bowl” would not even make it to the top 300 on my list. But I will make this for their snack and then retire with the Schnauzers to our bedroom so I can read, do my CBS lesson, and perhaps play a game or two of Words With Friends.*Happy contented sigh.*

My friend Kay in Cornwall told me about Susan Branch’s blog several months ago, and I visit there often. I was familiar with Susan Branch’s cookbooks and beautiful watercolor calendars, but had never thought to look if she has a blog. If you haven’t visited, you might like it. It’s like taking a mini-vacation each time you read one of her posts. She’s from Southern California (like me) and lives in a beautiful old home on Martha’s Vineyard (unlike me–boo). I love the beauty and the whimsy she creates on her blog. So when I read this post of Susan’s, I was intrigued. She wrote about what a wonderful treat B & M canned bread is. B & M canned bread? I’d never heard of it, and I wasn’t sure it sounded like much of a treat to me, on more than one level. Canned is so 1950s, right?

But because of the way she raved, I decided to see if I could find any B & M canned bread, and of course since I don’t live in New England, I couldn’t find it in our grocery stores. So I bought some on amazon. I had to buy a case of twelve, but that was okay, because I could use a few for us and give a few away. Well, I think this bread is yummy. You can taste the molasses and the rye, and when Susan says to toast it until the edges are very crispy, she’s right. If you ever try some I would recommend you toast it slowly until it’s slightly crunchy on the edges. It takes longer than you would think.

I like a lot of different things for breakfast but here’s what I’ve been having at least once a week ever since our case of B & M canned brown bread was delivered:

A thin slice of the rich and chewy bread, thoroughly but slowly toasted…

With just a bit of butter melted on it while it’s hot…

And a small dollop of creamy peanut butter spread on top. And I add a juicy orange and some raw almonds. And a steaming cup of tea. Wonderful!

Today will be a paperwork day for me. I hope to have enough self-control (that’s iffy) to work on just paperwork for four hours today. Then I will fix dinner, make Pico de Gallo and let those delicious fresh flavors marinate overnight for tomorrow’s Super Bowl recipe, and maybe fold some laundry. Michael and I were planning to watch Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont tonight, but when our Netflix copy arrived in the mail yesterday, it was broken. Another one will arrive on Monday, they say.

How is your weekend going?

What are you doing for Super Bowl Sunday?

May you have God’s peace and hope today….(and if you leave a comment with your first name, what area of the world you live in, and what your favorite breakfast item is, you’ll be entered in a drawing here on the blog and could win a can of B & M Brown Bread! Winner will be announced on Tuesday afternoon.)

I’m so glad you stopped by….

I love how music attaches itself in our brains and never lets go. When we can’t find our keys, remember where that important paper was filed, or recall a person’s name, a song from our past can be heard and every lyric is instantly there. At least that’s the way it is for me.

Below you’ll find a song I played at least 437 times on my car stereo when I was about 22-23 years old. My marriage had suddenly ended and I found myself in straits I hadn’t foreseen. The Lord was faithful to me and to my two little girls and our needs were met, but I remember sort of putting one foot in front of the other during that season, and hoping the emotional hard times would soon ease.

So this old song sung by Jennifer Warnes spoke to my heart back then, and I used to drive my green VW Rabbit on the crowded Southern California freeway system, early to work in the morning and then home again in the evening, singing along with everything in me. When I heard this song today for the first time in years, every single word came back, almost like I’d written it myself. It was really composed by Stephen Foster, and I’m sure the hard times he was talking about were so much worse than anything I’ve ever experienced. But I do believe that this song could be the plaintive anthem of so many hurting people.

You can click here and it will open a new window so you can play it. Then you can just come back to this window to read the lyrics if you like, as the song plays.

Hard Times by Stephen Foster

Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all share sorrow with the poor;
There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh hard times come again no more.

Chorus:
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh hard times come again no more.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more.

Chorus

There’s a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o’er:
Though her voice would be merry, ’tis sighing all the day,
Oh hard times come again no more.

Chorus

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Have a good weekend everyone…

1. After a few days of more reasonable temperatures (near the freezing point), we are supposed to go into the deep freeze tomorrow. Michael and I were talking about it in the dark this morning before we got out of bed, and we both said, “This might be the last of it.” Everyone in Northeastern Minnesota knows what that phrase means — it means since we’re almost to February, these next below-zero dips might be the last ones we’ll see like this until next year. Reason to rejoice!

2. We just learned that our state has foisted another huge paperwork task on all the family foster care providers. What they are requiring of us is almost unbelievable to me. And the friendly phrase, “failure to submit this review by May 31 will result in not being able to receive payment.” I truly wish I could hire a paperwork specialist to come into my home for a few hours a week and do the paperwork for me. It never seems to end.

3. We are just finishing up the book of Mark in Community Bible Study, and will start Ephesians next. We recently learned what our 30-week study will be for 2013-14 and I’m looking forward to it very much: Daniel, Job and I and II Peter.

4. I have been introduced to Norwex products and am trying them out in my home. So far I’m impressed. Anyone out there use them?

5. I picked up a book at the library yesterday that my sister-in-law Christy recommended to me. She said it was the most beautiful book she’d ever read, and since she’s a prolific reader, that’s saying a lot. Have any of you ever read The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey?

6. Edith and Mildred know what the word squirt means now. My friend Diane suggested that we might try squirting them with a little stream of water when they bark so shrilly at passersby, so even though I was pretty sure this wouldn’t deter them, I gave it a try. Well, it works. One squirt stops the Schnauzer shrieking instantly and they slink into the living room to escape. Diane also told me that she needs only to call the word, “Squirt!” out to her dogs from another room, and they stop barking. This would never work with our dogs, I thought. But it does. I can holler “Quiet! Knock it off! No!” and they just keep on happily yipping and wagging their tails at the squirrels, joggers, postman. If I hear them start up and I yell ominously from my office, “Squirt!”, they stop.

7. I love this game on my iPad.

8. Here’s a picture of Michael and Sara at Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida, taken a couple of months ago.

9. We’re having chili for dinner tonight. And salad.

10. My friend Denel told me that for our 2nd Annual Lupi-Soo Reunion this fall, she’s thinking of choosing some place in the Pacific Northwest. I can’t wait.

How about you? What are a couple of your Thursday things?

“Marriage is sacrifice, commitment and work. But anything worth anything, always is.”

Julia Shalom Jordan

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I put my knitting away all last summer and fall, and now since the weather is so cold it seems like the right time to take it out again. I’m still a total beginner, and have not ventured beyond making scarves. I hope to try something more complicated from a pattern someday, but for now I guess making my sixth or seventh scarf is just fine.

In the evenings after dinner Michael likes for me to watch television with him, so we’ve been enjoying a few BBC series lately, and a movie or two. I’ve been picking up my knitting then, and it feels like I’m being a bit productive instead of being a couch potato.

Some of the things we’ve been watching are this version of Dickens’ Little Dorrit, which I loved. It took us a while to get into it and really like it, but it was worth persevering through. We’re also watching the series “All Creatures Great and Small” again, and it gives us the itch to go to England. Sometimes I actually think we should try a second trip and other times I’m not so sure. But watching anything in Yorkshire makes me think we might.

My friend Diane texted me recently and told us to watch the movie Bernie with Jack Black. We watched it Thursday. It’s a true story and I’m still thinking about it. Have any of you watched Lars and the Real Girl? That was another one Diane told me about, and when Michael and I sat down to watch, at first I wasn’t sure I would care for it. But I ended up being so touched by it, and have recommended it to several people. Very quirky though! And last night we watched 84 Charing Cross Road and I liked it. Michael thought it was a little boring, but I thought it was worth watching. What have you seen recently that you would recommend?

Anyway, here’s the scarf I’m knitting.

The yarn is from the yarn company my daughter started and eventually sold, Three Irish Girls, and the colorway is “Cooler By the Lake.” A while back our city was visited by the King and Queen of Norway, and in honor of their arrival Sharon designed several colorways that represent notable parts of our city. The yarn was presented to the King and Queen, and then Sharon made it available later as limited editions. This yarn was dyed to look like a prominent tourist attraction in our harbor, the William A. Irvin ore boat and surroundings.

See the rusty/brownish color of the ship’s hull? And the gorgeous blue sky? And if you look you can see another of our landmarks, the gray Aerial Bridge right behind the ship to the left of the smokestack. Sharon combined these colors to make this colorway, and I think it’s unique and lovely.

I think it has a masculine look to it, but I won’t hesitate to wear this scarf if I end up keeping it for myself. Here’s another peek at the yarn that shows a bit more of the gray:

And the phrase “cooler by the Lake” is one heard a lot around here. Lake Superior has a tempering effect on the weather in Northeastern Minnesota, usually making the temps cooler by the Lake in the summertime, and a bit warmer in the winter.

If you would like to see the other colorways Sharon designed for the royals, you can click here to see photos.

Do you work on anything creative or crafty in the winter time? If so, what is it? If you would like to send me a photo of your project/s I’ll post it here too.

Have a blessed weekend…

When I got out of bed this morning at 5:45, it was still dark. I padded down the hall in my Acorn slippers to the kitchen, turned on our outside light to check the temperature, and it was 17 degrees below zero. Or about minus 27 degrees Celsius. I had half hoped we would escape these bitter temps since January is 2/3 over and the globe is warming, but hey. Instead of fretting I started counting my blessings as I fed Edith and Mildred and let them out, laid out breakfast things, and started making lunches.

1. Our house is warm. This alone deserves about 647 thank yous. Thank you… thankyouthankyouthankyou Lord!
2. The flu has now left my body, and I’m feeling human again, and my skin doesn’t hurt at the merest touch.
3. I don’t have to finish An Episode of Sparrows if I don’t want to. I love Rumer Godden and really wanted to like it, but at page 100 I’m still not enjoying the book, so made the very unlike-me decision to take it back to the library.
4. I’ve had Eden’s Bridge on our CD player lately and had forgotten how much their music lifts my heart and touches my soul.
5. Michael and I might watch another episode from the 1970s series “All Creatures Great and Small” tonight.

This morning I also gave thanks that our garage is attached to our house, so starting the car in this weather is never an issue. I drove to Community Bible Study Leaders Council where the company of women, the prayers, the song and the discussion snatched the woe-is-me lenses off my nose and firmly placed the God Lenses there instead. What a relief that always is. The woe-is-me lenses are awful — do you have a pair too?

When I returned home I took my mittens off, hung up my coat, and exchanged my shoes for my indoor Acorns again. I let the dogs out of their kennels and they greeted me in their quirky Schnauzerly ways. Michael and Sara had gone to get some groceries. I did some tidying up, and felt happy that I actually knew what I was going to make for dinner tonight. I defrosted some very lean beef and made an old recipe for tiny baked meatballs with a homemade BBQ sauce, served with brown rice and marinated six-vegetable salad.

Then I decided to rest for a bit, since each day I still feel a little weak even though my fever has long gone, and I picked up my iPad to catch up on my Words With Friends game. Carolyn, Sara, Kay, Pat and I have leisurely games going, and I smiled as I chose the tiles to make my words and thought of the silly little connection I feel with the people I play with.

After about 15 minutes I got up and took this picture:

This apothecary cabinet holds our CDs and sits in a corner of our living room. The plaque on the wall behind it reads:

Blessed is the home where each puts
the other’s happiness first

You might be thinking that since we have this hanging so prominently, we live by this maxim in our home. But you would only be thinking that if you didn’t know me very well. If you know me at all, you know that this is something I strive/yearn/long/attempt to do, but alas, still struggle with.

I’m learning, though. And I know that the Lord is showing me how profound this admonition is in ways I never expected.

I’m not saying that people shouldn’t take care of themselves or make their own needs a priority, or that wanting our own joy and happiness isn’t a good thing. But just think if everyone in a household tried to live this way for a month. In order for it to be the biggest blessing, everyone would have to do their part, but imagine how wonderful it could be.

In a family with a mom and dad and some children, think of what might happen if the husband put his wife’s happiness before his own. Then what would happen if the wife responded to that kind of sacrificial love and decided that she would put her husband at the top of her list that month? Then what if the children saw the harmony, tenderness, and the servant-hearted love between mom and dad, and they caught on in their own way, sharing their toys and helping out without being asked? And what if this became a habit, or at least the way things went in that household more often than not?

If I could go back and live my life over, this would be one of the things I would pursue most wholeheartedly, trying to live this way with God’s help. Since I am basically a very selfish person by nature, I would need God’s help to live this way for even one day, much less one month.

My daughters are grown now, and I’m not sure I modeled the words of this plaque very consistently for them when they were little. I think I did sometimes, but oh, how I wish I could undo a few words and actions that should have gone unsaid and undone.

But I do have today. There are still people in my home and in my life. And I have reached a point where I think the happiness of others in my care and in my family is a very worthy aim.

Do you ever listen to a song over and over again because you like it so much? I do that once in a while. When I was a little girl I had a very modern and hip record player in my bedroom. I took the white poodle lamp (with an umbrella as its shade) off of my round, pink-painted metal nightstand and put the record player there, and listened to music as I read Nancy Drew books. I bought long-playing albums sometimes, but I mostly chose the smaller 45s – they cost 99 cents at The May Company, the large department store in the mall near where I lived. Some of the 45s I owned and played repeatedly were: Venus by The Shocking Blue, Angel of the Morning by Merilee Rush, and Love Is Blue by Paul Mauriat. If I hear these songs today, the seasons and views of my Southern California youth come rushing back, sometimes accompanied by warm memories, sometimes not. And the lyrics are still engraved in my mind and I can sing along without missing a beat, although these days I’m more careful about what I put into my head.

I’ve been listening to a song a lot lately, on an older CD called City on a Hill with various artists. I have it in our van, and everyone knows it by heart now because I play it so much. The song is beautifully done, truly a prayer, as you will hear. It is so far removed in scope and portent from the songs of my childhood that there aren’t words to convey the contrast.

Here are the words, which should be very familiar to most, followed by a link so you can listen.

Hallowed

Our Father
Which art in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
Hallowed… hallowed…

Done on the earth as it is in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Give us this our daily bread,
Hallowed… hallowed…

And please forgive all of our debts
Hallowed be Thy name
As we forgive our debtors
Hallowed… hallowed…

Lead us not into temptation’s lair
But deliver us from the evil snare
For Thine is the kingdom
Power and glory

Forever and ever, Amen…
Forever and ever, Amen…
Forever and ever, Amen…

Hallowed… hallowed…

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Click on the red word, then once it opens, click on the play arrow:

Hallowed – by Jennifer Knapp, accompanied by Phil Keaggy on guitar.

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These are the words of Jesus. Even though all believers know this prayer, this song helps me grasp in a fresh and powerful way what He wants for my life, and what His desire is for the lives of my children and grandbabies. This is what is on His heart for all of us this very day.

God bless you!

(updated from the archives…)

I thought I’d share with you a book I recently bought for each one of my grandchildren. I absolutely love it and think you might like to know about it too — it would be a wonderful gift, and an even better resource to keep at your house for when the little ones in your life visit.

It’s Sally Lloyd-Jones’ newest work, (along with the artist Jago), and it’s a devotional book for children.

I bought a copy to have here as well, and have almost finished reading through. The one-page, simple devotionals are powerful and tender and unique. They’re meant for children, but they have ministered deeply to my heart.

Here’s a short video about the book, with some of the illustrations:

Have a blessed week, dear family and friends….