Never Alone

I'm finding it hard this just-turned Thanksgiving morning to find words...

This is our first without Sam, and it surely feels like something vital is missing...laughter, noise, and that greatest of all holiday accessories, the teenage-boy-eating-machine!!  :-)  I've dreaded the holidays this year, knowing these "firsts" will be difficult. Funny...we anticipate with such impatience the firsts of life's beginning. First teeth, first steps, first words.  Not so much those firsts of life's end.

I spent some time earlier this evening looking at photos from last Thanksgiving...

We traveled to Mississippi with "adopted" family -- ties forged between children and mothers who share adventures and hobbies, and time and treasures. What a blessed, sweet time we had together! 

And I find myself thankful for friends and family and times that can never be recaptured but can always be remembered. 

And thankful for here and now...

And all that is to come.

As I shed a few tears tonight, a Word came to me from Joshua...

The book of Joshua in the Old Testament begins, "After the death of Moses..." and God gives a charge to Joshua as he is to be the leader of Israel.  "Be strong and courageous" God tells him, three different times!

The final time He says, "Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."  (Joshua 1: 9 NIV)

Perhaps I can find words, after all.

Thank You, Lord, for so many blessings.  Beautiful children that You entrused to me and Jeff, one who has already accomplished all You purposed for him and who is with You now!, a wonderful home, memories that are not only precious to this momma's heart, but include testimony of Your goodness and mercy and what You can do with a life given to You.

And thank You for Your Presence and Your promises to never leave nor forsake.  How well I know You keep Your word!!

May God richly bless YOU this Thanksgiving!!

Blessings,

I'm Thankful for Family!

I'm traveling this week with friends to the Deep South -- Mississippi! crashing the family reunion of some very dear friends of ours.  We'll be away from it all in a cabin -- no internet :-( -- but Jennifer is a quilter (YES!! :-D) and we have a bunch of boys that are very nearly the same age to entertain each other (and probably us! LOL) along with my college-age daughter and pre-teen son.  It's gonna be a hoot!  Especially after ten hours in a van with this wild crew.... I'm either crazy or very, very patient.  Can you guess which!?!

So I thought I'd share a little of what I'm thankful for this week.

I'm thankful for family! 

My Jeff is alive and well on foreign soil; that he is alive and well is a major blessing!! That he loves his family and his country enough to participate in her defense, is an honor and blessing beyond words.  And I have three fantastic, beautiful, healthy children, who continually amaze me.

I'm thankful for family!

My sister, Marlene, came over on Saturday -- knowing I was under a deadline she deep-cleaned my kitchen, dining room and living room 'til they absolutely glow! Don't you just love the smell of Pine-Sol and Pledge and Windex!?!  I have a great sister!! And I'll come home from Mississippi to a clean, fresh house.

I'm thankful for family!

I have such a great group of friends who are like family to me -- supportive, encouraging, loving, direct, fun...I've heard it said that friends are the family you get to pick for yourself.  

And that family has extended this year through blogging!  I have met a so many wonderful, loving, generous people who are enriching my life and stretching me as a quilter.

I'm thankful for family -- a local faith family whose mission is to love God and love people and lead them to become disciples of Jesus Christ through relationship with Him -- not religion. 

And on-line people of faith who love God and love people and share the Good News in word and in deed.  And still others who have not decided what they believe, yet, but are seeking.  What a pleasure to be a part of their journey!

I'm blessed beyond measure!

I'm thankful for family.  I have a heavenly Father whose love is everlasting, whose mercies are new every morning.

I so much want the blessings I have been given to spill out to others! I pray God's richest blessings on you during this Thanksgiving Season!!

"Praise the LORD.  Give thanks to the LORD for he is good; his love endures forever!"  Psalm 106:1

"Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things."  Psalm 107:8-9

Blessings!!

Another one bites the dust...

The fifth one done!!
I'd planned to get "five in a row" quilt tops completed by the end of the first week of November.  I'm only a little behind that goal.  The three tops for a family who lost a mom to breast cancer will be delivered for quilting on Saturday.  The Sun Bonnett Sue is awaiting its owner's pick-up.

And late Sunday night (well, actually, early Monday morning! :-D)  I finished the t-shirt quilt!! YAAAAYYY! LOL

Finishing feels so good, doesn't it!?

I've got more in the works to be completed.  I'm super busy, so many things to do this week as I get ready to travel to Hattiesburg, MS for Thanksgiving (how cool is that! I and my 3 children are crashing my friend Jennifer's family reunion with about 150 people and some of the best southern cooks in the world!!).  I've got house cleaning, and homeschooling, and bookkeeping work to do. Yet, I'm also in some kind of sewing frenzy.  (I promise I'm not on any kind of stimulant except Pepsi and truvia-sweetened tea!!!!!)

Rack 'em, stack em' and pack 'em!  Head 'em in, and move 'em out!!

Another one bites the dust!!

Isn't that an interesting phrase?  I "googled" it ("Google is the source of all wisdom," I say with tongue in cheek.).  Here's what I found at UCLA's Daily Bruin:

Strangely enough, “bite the dust” has been around since the King James Bible was published in 1611. According to the Bible, “They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him; and His enemies shall lick the dust” (Psalms 72.9). While “lick the dust” is a variation of the phrase we know today, it still contains the similar meaning of falling to the ground in defeat.

One of the first uses of the phrase as we know it today was in Tobias Smollett’s translated version of “The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane,” published in 1748, as it appeared in a quote: “We made the two of them bite the dust, and the others prepare themselves to fight.”

But one of the more familiar associations is with Samuel Butler’s translation of Homer’s “The Iliad,” as Butler uses “bite the dust” to describe the death of Roman soldiers in battle. Probably the most recent uses of the phrase (not counting the Queen song) occur in old Western films to describe fallen cowboys.

So from the Bible to Queen, “bite the dust” has been making a reputation for itself for more than 300 years. With phrases that have histories like “bite the dust,” it is a wonder that they are still in use today.

Cool, huh?

But I prefer that first prophecy of the coming of Jesus in Genesis 3:14-15:

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."



Rosalinda Celentano as Satan in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.
Mel did a great job of portraying how Jesus crushed the head of Satan!

The Lord bascially told the serpent (the devil, himself!), "Eat my dust!"  And with every enemy He defeats in our lives, He says, "Another one bites the dust!"

Freddy Mercury and Queen got nothing on Jesus! LOL

Now, back to my sewing frenzy!! (Oh! and I'll sweep and dust while the iron heats.)  I've got 9-patches, and sashing, and LeMoyne stars to work on!! And Circuit Rider blocks to prep to take with me on the ten-hour drive.  Maybe I'll have another finish to share before leaving for M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I ....

Blessings!

Crooked letter-crooked letter-I humpback-humpback-I. (Does it ever end!?!)