It is difficult to define Hiraeth, but to me it means the consciousness of man being out of his home area and that which is dear to him. That is why it can be felt even among a host of peoples amidst nature's beauty. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
. . like a Christian yearning for Heaven. . .
Friday, November 6, 2009 at 06:36AM 
I talked to my brother on the phone for a long time last night. It was a lively conversation and I enjoyed it immensely! I'm glad to be reconnecting with my brother. Say what you will about Facebook--I'm glad to be connecting again with my cousins and nieces and nephews and especially, my brother, Kevin.
Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 07:47AM 
This morning, I'm thankful for the thankful posts I've been reading. Each one resonates in my heart--either as a reminder of my own blessings for which I must give thanks or as an invitation to enter in to a friend's thanksgiving to God on her behalf.
I'm thankful, too, for our friend, Rebecca, whose hard work and commitment brings all our thanksgiving posts together in one place.
Thanks, Rebecca!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 07:36AM 
The first thing that came to mind when I began to think about what I'm thankful for this morning is a small thing. Jake got a haircut yesterday. That made his mother happy! A simple thing, a small thing. Doesn't seem like a big deal.
The truth is, though, that as much as I don't like the long hair--as much as I bugged him to get it cut--as irritated as I became as time marched on and he didn't get it cut--I'm thankful that momentary irritations have never really become more than that.
Hair is vitally personal to children. They weep vigorously when it is cut for the first time; no matter how it grows, bushy, straight, or curly, they feel they are being shorn of part of their personality. --Charles Chaplin
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 10:26AM When we were in Ohio last weekend, my mother-in-law served these scrumptious sandwiches--and they couldn't be easier! I've got mine in the crock pot for tonight's supper and I can't begin to tell you how good it smells in this house! You really need to try this super, couldn't-be-easier recipe!
Easy BBQ Beef Sandwiches
Cook in crock pot on low for 8 - 10 hours:
3 lb. rump roast
1 jar DelMonte Chili Sauce
1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup mix
1 can cola
Shred and serve over buns.
What could be easier? Not sure how many it serves, but I'm guessing about 2 dozen.
Kim from Hiraeth
UPDATE: I just shredded my meat. I could tell there was a lot more 'juice' than I needed, so I poured the juice out of the crock pot before returning the meat and then ladled juice, one ladle at time, until it was the right consistency. Perfect!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 06:34AM 
I had something already in my mind to write about today, but something happened last night to change that.
It was time to take the dogs outside to do their business one last time before going to their crates for the night. We called Ivy, who was fast asleep with me on the couch, and, as usual, she sprang into action. She ran out in the cold, did her business in record time and scurried in. Eve took her time waking up, as usual. (Have you ever tried to wake up a deaf dog?) Once awake, she obediantly shuffled to the front door and waited while Tom put the leash on. She did her business in record time and got back to the porch without too much trouble.
But that's when the trouble started. She couldn't find the wide open door that led into the house. She kept trying to get under the table on the porch. She may have thought the space underneath the table was her crate. Tom tried to redirect her, but it was no use. Then she planted her feet and would not move. She began to tremble and shake and no matter what we tried, we couldn't get her to move in the right direction. It was clear that she was confused and afraid. Tom tried pulling her into the house with the leash, but that didn't work. She just planted her feet like an old mule. Tom, Jake, and I were all coaxing her and trying to calm her down. Finally, Jake ran for a couple of potato chips (she can still smell, apparently!) and eventually we got her into her crate, where she obediantly curled up and went to sleep.
It doesn't seem very dramatic in the retelling, but at the time it was so upsetting. Similar things have happened before but this was different. She didn't seem to know where she was or who we were; she's been confused plenty of times but she's never seemed afraid and unresponsive. Maybe she had a seizure. Maybe it was a stroke. Maybe she just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and she was simply confused.
She didn't wake up this morning when I got Ivy up, so I waited until Tom was up before we went in to wake her up. I wasn't sure what we'd be facing. She was sleeping hard, but she was alive and she seems to be 'normal' or as normal as is possible for the old girl. There seems to be no lasting repercussions from last night's events.
So, again, this morning, I'm thankful for my sweet old girl, Eve. She is a treasure and we will continue to treasure her for as long as we are blessed to have her.
To read more thankful posts, visit Rebecca.
Monday, November 2, 2009 at 06:28AM 
After we arrived home from our weekend trip to Ohio, I sat down with the computer and started to work my way through a boatload of emails and peeked at a few of the other thanksgiving posts and Sunday hymns (my Google reader was bursting at the seams--you have all been busy! I may have to resort to hitting the dreaded 'mark as all read' button because I don't know how I'll ever read through them all !) Anyway, I got up this morning and was greeted with even MORE unread posts, but instead of sending them all off into cyberspace, I decided to scroll through them first.
I am so glad I did because I discovered a true gem--my friend, Rosemary, is blogging again! Rosemary's had always been one of my favorite blogs because Rosemary is one of those delightful, uplifting, encouraging, and 'iron sharpens iron' friends I have met online.
So, already this morning, I am rejoicing and thanking God for Rosemary, and for all my treasured blogging friends.
I know this isn't particularly scriptural, but this is the song running through my head this morning:
Make new friends but keep the old,
One is silver and the other gold.
Perhaps Paul put it better:
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you! Philipppians 1:3
Don't forget to send your thanksgiving links to Rebecca and then visit the rest of the thankful posts! You don't want to miss out on an opportunity to join into the praises and thanksgiving of God's people! I'm pressed for time today, but even just looking through the list of yesterday's thanksgiving posts has reminded me of many things for which I must give thanks!
Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 05:00PM 
Having just returned from a quick trip to Ohio to visit our families, I am so thankful for the love of our families, for the closeness we experience whenever we return home for a visit, for safe travel, and for coming home again!
On the trip home, I was reflecting upon how much I enjoyed being with our parents, our brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, and I was also thinking about how much I had missed being together with our brothers and sisters in our church family for worship this Sunday morning.
God has blessed us with the most wonderful, loving families and church family!
November is the month for giving thanks and Rebecca at Rebecca Writes is rounding up our thankful posts each day on her blog. It's amazing how reading others' posts spur us on to greater and greater thanksgiving, so join us! What are you thankful for today? Leave a note in the comments or if you write about it on your own blog, send your link to Rebecca!
Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 05:00AM October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rains and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy drafts that bit at exposed hands and faces.
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 19
Friday, October 30, 2009 at 06:22AM First--Rebecca is hosting the 4th Annual November of Thanksgiving at her blog. You can find all the details here. I've been participating since the beginning and I really do look forward to it! To be thankful should be the natural state of a Christian! All it takes is to stop and think through your day and look for the blessings and provisions, protection and presence of Christ in your life!
Next--I've retired Bookworm Bookmarks. It has gone into the back storage closet of cyberspace. You may see it again in the sidebar from time to time as I enable it to collect images I want to keep before removing it altogether, but for the most part, it'll be invisible.
Next, next--I've started a blog for my calligraphy website, The Constant Scribe, called Scriptorium. It's a place to roll out new projects, chat about the progress of this new venture of mine, talk about materials and techniques and whatever else comes to mind. Not sure if anyone will be interested in it, but you are welcome to check it out. I've added a bunch more images to the gallery and will be working very hard to add more next week.
And last, thanks for visiting The Constant Scribe. I'm now showing up in Google and other search engines and I've had quite a few local hits--no jobs resulting from the website yet--but it takes time!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 08:22PM Today was an Elliott day. I've been picking him up from the sitter's on Tuesdays while Beth takes a class.
It's really fun to go get him and bring him home with me. We read books and sing and do finger plays. We name all the pictures and magnets on the refrigerator. We get out all the toys and have a snack--and two weeks ago, we started a new routine.
You see, Elliott has discovered TV. Two weeks ago, he walked up to the TV, pointed, nodded vigorously then sat down on the couch expectantly. But there was one problem. Grandma had never learned how to turn on the TV in the living room.
You may laugh, but it's more complicated than you would think. For one thing, someone who lives in my house used to like to lay on the floor in front of the television and turn the on/off button on and off with his foot. In fact, he liked to do it so much that the button became firmly fixed in the on position. We got around that problem by plugging the TV into a power strip that has an on/off button on it. That's not the hard part. The hard part is knowing which of the three remotes works for which thingy (TV, cable box, or home entertainment thingy) and in what sequence one must use the various remotes in order to change channels and avoid creating the dreaded blue screen error. (which I have done more than once)
Lucky for me, Sam was home and he was quickly able to find Winnie the Pooh and Elliott was happy. Sam has been working with me and now I pretty much know how to turn on the power, turn on the TV and change the channel--as long as it is already on '003.' If it says 'Video 1' or'Video 2' or 'Color Stream' or any of the other choices, I'm cooked.
Well, apparently, Elliott was paying better attention than I was! Last week, he marched right in, pointed to the BACK of the TV where the powerstrip is attached to the cabinet and picked up the correct remote. Today he did the same thing, but this week I had the camera ready. Little Mr. Business walked into the living room, pointed to the powerstrip, picked up the remote and patiently waited for Winnie the Pooh while I fumbled with the remotes. Once he was sure the TV was really going to work, he crawled up on the couch, ready to watch.
That's not all he did, though. He took a bath (he LOVES taking a bath at Grandma's house!), played with Uncle Sam, ate a man-sized dinner (ham, sweet potatoes, rolls, broccoli, apple and cantelope), read books and generally charmed us all with his cuteness.
John comes to pick him up after work and they stay for dinner. When it was time to get his coat and shoes on and get ready to go home, he climbed up in my lap and layed his sweet little head on me and snuggled. He wasn't quite ready to leave, but Daddy put his coat on and he waved bye-bye. Kisses and whispers of "Grandma loves you" at the back door and he was gone, waving and smiling.
I walked to the window and waved and blew kisses. He waved and threw kisses back.
Sigh. I love that boy!
About five minutes later, John called from the car. He said he hadn't realized that Elliott had seen me waving at the window until he said, "Ga-mo! Ga-mo! Bye-bye!"
I guess I'm no longer Ga or GaGa! I now have a new syllable!
Just call me Ga-Mo.
Monday, October 26, 2009 at 09:01PM Who can resist books? Not me! So I was interested to learn about Devotional Christian's promotional book giveaway. If you're interested in entering, just visit their site to learn about their re-launch, then write a blog post! What could be easier?
While you're there, be sure to poke around and see what they have to offer! It's a great site to bookmark and return to so go check them out, won't you?
Monday, October 26, 2009 at 12:38PM 
Today I'm kicking off the website for my calligraphy business, The Constant Scribe. It's still under construction and I've still got a lot of work left to do but there's enough there to get started!
Would you do me a favor and check out what I've done so far and come back and leave me a comment?--I'd love to have some feedback--and getting some hits for the old Google bots would be a help! If you like what you see, feel free to link!
I'll be retiring Bookworm Bookmarks soon, but I will continue to offer bookmarks, blog buttons, and banners at The Constant Scribe. Thanks so much to those of you who placed orders with me at Bookworm Bookmarks! (You know who you are!!) It was great fun working with you all and I look forward to creating gifts and bookmarks for you at The Constant Scribe!
Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 07:13AM Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 06:19AM GREAT GOD, WHAT DO I SEE AND HEAR!
Great God, what do I see and hear!
The end of things created!
The Judge of mankind doth appear
On clouds of glory seated!
The trumpet sounds; the graves restore
The dead which they contained before:
Prepare, my soul, to meet him.
The dead in Christ shall first arise,
At the last trumpet's sounding,
Caught up to meet him in the skies,
With joy their Lord surrounding;
No gloomy fears their souls dismay;
His presence sheds eternal day
On those prepared to meet him.
But sinners, filled with guilty fears,
Behold his wrath prevailing;
For they shall rise, and find their tears
And sighs are unavailing:
The day of grace is past and gone;
Trembling they stand before the throne,
All unprepared to meet him.
Great God, what do I see and hear!
The end of things created!
The Judge of mankind doth appear
On clouds of glory seated!
Beneath his cross I view the day
When heav'n and earth shall pass away,
And thus prepare to meet him.
Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 07:04AM All the purposes of man have been defeated, but not the purposes of God. The promises of man may be broken—many of them are made to be broken—but the promises of God shall all be fulfilled. He is a promise-maker, but He never was a promise-breaker; He is a promise-keeping God, and every one of His people shall prove it to be so. This is my grateful, personal confidence, "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me"—unworthy me, lost and ruined me.
Charles Spurgeon, A Defense of Calvinism
Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 06:24AM Rain in the downspouts on a dark morning with a cup of steaming hot coffee.
Thinking of fingerplays with Elliott:
The itsy bitsy spider went up the waterspout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again
I hope the sun will come out today. The leaves need raking. The windows need washing. But for now I'll enjoy rain rattling in the gutters and images in my mind of Elliott and memories of my own boys when they were delighted with the itsy bitsy spider.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 06:13AM One of the very best things about blogging is the way kindred hearts seem to be able to find each other!
Yesterday I was contacted by a very talented poet from Canada who found my blog because of its name, Hiraeth, and shared a poem she had written about hiraeth. Erica has given me permission to share her poem with you. If you've got a drop of Celtic blood, it will stir your soul and, perhaps, bring tears to your eyes.
HIRAETH
by Erica Dawn Lewis
Upon the green hills of Cymru
I stand arrested by the veiw
of cryptic sea and ancient shore
that stood ten thousand years before
they met my callow eye
and will remain for many more
long after I die
I'm solemn above the briny stew
with thoughts of kin I never knew
fishing the sea, mining the coal
or mining the depths of a poet's soul
A nation's buried history
revived once more because it knows
the blood that flows through me
Blood that fed this fertile soil
with the Celtic tears and toil
of Warriors dead b'neath the peat
that pads the soles of anglish feet
the true Princes of Wales
rule no more upon this shore
except in children's tales
The epic song of Arthur's quest
or Madoc's journey somewhere west
stories of the Mabinogion
or family tales of distant kin
who fought so hard, but failed
to keep their ancient birthright
so to distant lands they sailed
Centuries pass, now here I stand
a stranger in this native land
welcomed by the foe of yore
that chased my people from this shore
leaving me a world apart
from the Cymru pulsing through my blood
and beating in my heart
Monday, October 19, 2009 at 07:10AM Not all of it is bad, mind you, (being a grandma is FANTASTIC!!) but somedays it feels as though I am falling apart at the seams.
A month or so ago, I was diagnosed with stage II arthritis in my right thumb and tenosynovitis in my right wrist. I have to wear these goofy looking orthopedic gloves (the heavy-duty one of which I call my gladiator arm!) and take naproxin and a glucosamin/condroitin supplement twice a day. It's painful and inconvenient, but I was getting better by depending upon my left hand for many of the more painful tasks. Yesterday, however, my left wrist started really acting up and now, this morning, I can hardly move that wrist without intense pain. I would bet money it's tenosynovitis in that wrist now.
I just learned last week that my cholesterol is approaching the 'high' zone and my triglycerides are up, so I've got three months to get those numbers down in order to avoid having to take medicine for that.
Sigh. . .
I don't like feeling as though I'm wearing out! I have too many things I want to do to fool around with physical problems that slow me down!
Well, that's enough complaining for one day. I have a full schedule today and I'm looking forward to tackling it--as soon as the naproxin kicks in!
Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 07:43PM All progress in the spiritual life comes from personally apprehending a fact that is already true. To put it simply, we must see what we already are by God's grace, in order to manifest that fact by godly behavior.
Ray Stedman, Commentary on Hebrews, Chapter 10