Alphabet Thanksgiving (what did I forget?)

A - apples, aunts

B - Bible, beads, books, brother-in-laws

C - cats, coffee, chocolate, Cammie, cousins

D - Dad, dogs (equal time!), donuts

E - eating!

F - family, friends, flowers, fruit

G - God, gardens

H - home, health, hypertufa

I - income, internet

J - Jesus!, jewelry, job

K -Kettle Corn

L - love, Little Man, life

M - Mom, mosaic, marbles, music

N - nature, nieces, nephews

O - old age

P - piano

Q - quarters (in the year, in the dollar, in a game)

R - reading

S - sugar, salt, Spirit, snow, sisters, sister-in law

T - tea

U - unlimited long distance minutes, uncles

V - voting rights

W - water

X - x-rays

Y - youth

Z - zillions of mind-boggling stars, named and placed by God.

Another reason to love the internet

Acting on a tip from my brothers-in-law (2 separate occasions), I checked out www.pandora.com. It is TOO COOL for words. It is a music site that customizes your radio to your personal preferences. They have analyzed zillions of songs for all sorts of characteristics that you would never even think of (like excessive vamping, which I apparently like since it shows up a lot in the songs they choose for me). You choose an artist or a song and they start offerings possibilities. You can vote yes or no or not at all. If you choose no they delete the song from the playlist. I'm not sure what doing nothing does, but a yes vote hones their choices.

Just for fun, I tried an experiment. I love the song All My Tears by Julie Miller. It has been recorded by her, as well as by Jars of Clay, Selah, and Emmy Lou Harris. I haven't done the Emmy Lou version yet, but I created stations based on each of the other versions. It's very interesting to see how the different versions give rise to different playlists. I spent the most time with the Julie Miller version. She has a spare, Appalachian sound with folk instruments. Some of the subsequent offerings were Allison Krause, the main song from O Brother Where Art Thou, and many artists and groups I had never heard of.

What a great way to explore music. And - it's free! I don't know how they do it, except they have links for every song so you can buy the song or the album, which must generate some kind of revenue. According to their FAQ's, they add about 15,000 songs per month. They take suggestions (so I suggested Lianna Klassen and Damaris Carbaugh) and submissions if you are an aspiring musician.

The Ball that Started It All!

Here is the first bowling ball I ever decorated. It only sat in a corner for 3 or 4 years waiting for me to grout it. Well, last month that finally happened. If you want to see more pictures, check out my other blog: bowlingballsiveknown.blogspot.com. There you can also see the rest of my bowling ball endeavors, as least as many as I have posted so far.

Things I Learned the Hard Way

1. Everything
2.
3.
4.
5.

C.A.S.E. or Copy and Share Everything

I learned this lovely acronym at Stamp Camp. My teacher said it was from www.splitcoaststampers.com, a wonderful site to get ideas for paper crafting. My teacher retired from school-teaching about 10 years ago. Just before she finished, she was introduced to Stamping Up, a home-sales company for rubber stamps, inks, papers, and other supplies for paper crafting. Since then she has made a wonderful stamp camp studio in her basement. The usual drill is that about 9-12 ladies gather around and she shows us each project. The sample and materials for each are on a tray. Once she has demonstrated them all, she turns us loose! After about 2 or 3 hours of controlled chaos, we each come away with 5 or 6 completed items. The pictures are my finished projects from three seperate camps.

What I especially enjoy is seeing the final results. Even though we all start with the same ingredients, each person puts their own spin on things, so they are all slightly different. I've also learned that you can cover a multitude of sins with sponging and glitter!

Get 'Er Done!!!

I read a suggestion somewhere about reading the chapter in Proverbs that coincides with the day of the month. My efforts are hit and miss, but yesterday was a hit. Low and behold, what did I read but God's version of "Get 'Er Done", my uncle's favorite saying. (Which, by the way, he was saying years before Larry the Cable Guy made his catchphrase popular." Anyhow, here it is:

Proverbs 14:23 All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Makes me think of my uncle's other favorite saying also: "Less talk, more work"!

Couldn't have been more timely, since my plan was to take the AM off from work and finish painting our front porch before the cold weather set in. We put the first coat on over the weekend, so round two didn't take long. I was helped along by some good tunes on the CD player, pointed out the window, and supervised by Little Man, who meowed encouragingly and kept a close eye on all the proceedings. The side tree did its best to fling leaves into the wet paint, but in the end, I got 'er done!!!

Sweet Contentment

This week I enjoyed listening to the CD "Love in the Ruins" by Lianna Klassen. She has an angelic voice and deeply inspiring lyrics. Here's a song that really spoke to me:

Sweet Contentment
words and music by Lianna Klassen

There's a place of sweet contentment
But that place is a harder journey than it seems
and the journey is a mystery
'til Messiah, He lights the way for eyes to see
and though I'm as a child
and quickly lose my way
I know that place of sweet contentment
grows closer everyday.

And the character I'm building on this journey we call Life
Is the Character that gives me hope and that it'll be alright
and the hope I find in Jesus, is the hope of better things
So I will wait in sweet contentment, for the next step that He brings.

In that place of sweet contentment
The Father, he whispers gently in our ear
But on the journey to contentment
and through the breaking , His voice it shouts loud and clear
Oh the pain that I have known
Has brought me closer still
To that place of sweet contentment
In brokeness fulfilled.

And the character I'm building on this journey we call Life
Is the Character that gives me hope and that it'll be alright
and the hope I find in Jesus, is the hope of better things
So I will wait in sweet contentment, for the next step that He brings.

The song notes include this quote from C. S. Lewis: God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

www.liannaklassen.com