Sunday, with sunshine and perfect weather

It was a beautiful day.

The weather was perfect.

Sunshine but not hot, such a rare day, so nice.

I had a hamburger and sides, delicious.

It took a long time to get home...traffic was a bit nuts.

We went shopping for some things and now have

the groceries we need for my parent's coming to visit us.

So that's really nice.

***

Tomorrow DV I am going to liturgy and then breakfast and then

house cleaning... that will be nice... and I may go to the farmer's market

and have a little farmer's market date with my Husband... 

and maybe pick out a plant or two there!

***

I am aware that I am struggling a bit more than usual with anxiety...

I know why (the unbloggable) but knowing why and then having

the ability to not experience the anxiety that stems from it are two 

different things and all I can keep doing is trying to pray

and do what I can to not dwell on it (the unbloggable and the anxiety)

I am reading the Healing Presence book and hope to re-read read it 

after I am done in hopes that the hope and gentle instruction I find in it

can really be of help and, indeed, healing, to me.

I think the biggest thing I need to do is to try to dwell more

on the love of God and that His love is everlasting and is mercy is forever.

God's love is not easy to understand and I am still working all of this out

but I have hope with God to grow in this. 

***

Well, for now, then, it's time to sleep and hope to wake in the morning

to sunlight of God's mercy and love...

A lot of beauty seen and found today

 Well, what a lovely day has been had!

The end table we ordered came nearly fully assembled,

and my Husband and I got it out of the box and in place

early this morning!

(OK early means about 9 AM or after, it is Saturday after all,

and I was in need of a good night's sleep!)

I just love this end table, way better than I even thought,

with magazine rack at back, plug outlet back top, a shelf 

inside the door/cupboard area and the drawer with spots for 2 cups

+ pens/bookmarks/small things.

And it's handsome and goes well with our other furniture. 

I am super pleased with this piece. 

It replaces the table in the first picture, which we will keep

as it folds up and is handy to have...

***

We got delivered, another answer to prayer because it came before vespers,

is the sideboard which will go under the window where our

plants and silver-plate tea set is.

This needs to be assembled and my Dad hopes to do it this week!!!

***

My Husband and I also got the office more cleaned up

than it had been in a good while, with our old shoe shelf

going under the window in the office

and things put in better places.

***

Had a lovely lunch of pizza 

and later I read books and had a good bath, such a blessing. 

And I enjoyed lots of tea and some delicious cookies!

Our church picnic is tomorrow and 

I am really looking forward to this.

***

Vespers was lovely and the light on that top window

was really special... I don't understand why more people are

not in church, just basking in the beauty of it.

A confused world we are living in, where people are

not only not running to Christ but not even running towards beauty.

I feel propelled towards beauty, and to making my home 

beautiful and having everything to make a beautiful dinner, luncheon or breakfast,

not to mention tea and cookies, mind you :)

and I am excited to go to the VNA rummage sale DV this Friday

with my Husband and my parents.

It's fun because one never knows what one will find!

***

My Husband took me out for a burger tonight,

it was so very nice.

A real treat!

***

My parents come Tuesday, I am really looking forward 

to seeing them.

I am reading another Miss Read book and that's so nice.

I find I need to fill myself up with things that bring peace,

beauty and order...

***

I hope to resume having friends over again,

but this week I will enjoy being with my parents and hosting them! 

It's a real blessing for us to have them come

and for my Husband's parents to have just visited us as well!

***

There is a lot of hard in this world and in our lives,

things we can't write about in our blogs but that we 

at times suffer/endure/struggle with.

***

I know that we have more blessings than troubles

but I also know that some days and weeks are really difficult

and because I live through this reality as well,

I am even more grateful for days like today,

when we get something beautiful that really improves our home,

a church picnic to look forward to DV tomorrow

and my parents coming DV Tuesday and a nice week ahead,

DV (means Lord Willing in Latin).

***

I hope no matter what trials and sufferings you are in,

that you are given days and moments of beauty to help you

in the struggle, the often long, hard and lonely road that we find ourselves in.

***

May God have mercy on us and save us! 

Made it another week

Well, whew! made it through another week!

Today I folded laundry, did dishes, 

got 3 deliveries (including the new end table for my Husband!),

and finished re-reading Madeleine L'Engle's Certain Women.

I am not sure what drew me to read it again; 

NYC, Theatre, the 1950s-1960s; interesting that she placed it so much in the past,

as it was written in 1992.

It's funny how some decades of one's life one returns to....

I am glad I read it though; esp for the phrase friend of the heart

for friendship of deep kinds that one can have with another, 

like I have with my sister-friend.

I don't know what I would do without books.

Though I know that there is more to life and to prayer... 

***

I talked with my Mother, my Grandmother, and texted with my sister

and also my sister-friend.  

When my Husband was back from NYC, it was a delight to see him.

I managed to get the counter and the island clean.

This week had 3 fast days in a row (Wed-Friday) because of the 

Feast of the Cross being on Thursday.

So tomorrow having tea with milk will feel like an extra treat!

Another treat was that today a card and a letter came in the mail,

such a blessing.

I hope to get back to writing cards and letters again soon;

I wrote one last night and hope for more done soon.

My parents DV come on Tuesday!

***

I am slowly getting small details finished in things,

from putting away bags,

housework done and thinking about 

what I hope to find at this October's VNA rummage sale.

My parents DV will be with us again and I have a list

of things I am looking for, including some things

for dinner parties that are move involved... 

luncheon/salad plates are one of these 

and will be perfect for various uses.

***

Our unbloggable worry has had me in some transition that

I am feeling overall better about

in terms of dealing with the actual change, but I find that

I still struggle with feelings of anxiety, even though 

I have dealt with harder things in the past than what we are 

dealing with, as hard as it is now.

Anyway, all I know is that I have a long way to go spiritually 

but I still have hope of arriving.

***

Meanwhile, I am really appreciating that I am 

getting our home in both better order and also

with more beauty and added functionality that 

adds to the beauty of our home.

Now that was a blessing

Today was a quiet day.

I talked to my dear Romanian friend who is in Bucharest

and that was really nice. 

Groceries were delivered.

Laundry, dishes. I rested. Dinner with Mr Husband.

It was lovely to listen to this series of pieces by Bach

while my Husband worked on paperwork,

I folded laundry, put wet laundry on racks, other laundry in dryer

and then prayers and then, one of the best moments,

doing reading in Fr A. S.'s Journals that my Husband gave me recently.

I am also reading through this book on becoming a healing presence

and am learning a lot, am finding it a gentle encouraging book.

When I have guests I don't have much time to read such books

and it was nice to have those moments today.

And so we go

We were at vigil tonight for the Feast of the Cross.

We are not able to go to liturgy tomorrow 

but are so glad we were able to go tonight.

My Husband's parents left this morning,

after a simple hearty breakfast including

Granola, Yogurt, English Muffins, boiled eggs in egg cups,

PB + Jam, butter, decaf coffee for my Mom-in-law, 

tea for me and water, juice, as one wished.

They arrived back in MI safely, and we are so thankful for their visit.

***

And we are already gearing up for my parents visit,

which is next week!

We are hoping to go the VNA rummage sale end of next week

and one of the big things I hope to find are salad/luncheon plates.

***

I am feeling more focused and less worried about what I am looking

for and I now think that my wish for the thicker stemmed drinking glasses

was really the way to go and am trying to get out to get more at some point.

We are getting two small pieces of furniture to round out our living/dining room.

That will be nice and eliminate the need for folding tables

and add storage.

***

I am glad that the next few days I can be home and have some quiet.

It's wonderful that I have such nice visits.

I am hoping to make a new recipe on Tuesday for my parent's arrival

and that will be really nice.

A wonderful last day of my Husband's parents visit

It was such a rainy day, there was flooding in nearby towns and in NYC today.

My Husband was in NYC but made it home safely.

It was such a blessing to have my parents-in-law home with me today.

My Mother-in-law did a large part of the collapsing of boxes we did not need,

and later I organized our new now not crazy 'crazy closet'

and it is going to mean that a bunch of boxes that were in our office,

that we really needed to keep but had no 'home' for, 

are now properly shelved.

This is such a blessing!

My Mother-in-law bought this cake for us last night! 

We had a thin piece at lunch and it was nice!

Lunch included chicken burgers, salad, and fruit salad!

My father-in-law's Bible, a real treasure.

Lots of leftovers made a really good meal tonight!

The meat I reheated in the toaster oven, 

everything else was done in the microwave, with all of my 

metal pan lids to keep things warm...

I set out our pretty blue and white dishes..... and nice water goblets too!

I managed to clear the island!

It was lovely to eat by candlelight!

My father-in-law called this 'romantic'! :)

A delicious meal and a fun dessert!

The cake was not too sweet and finished the meal off nicely.

Tonight we talked about many memories my father-in-law has of 

immigrated at age 13 from Holland to BC Canada, way up North.

It was a joy to hear these stories.

I am so glad I have my Husband's parents as my 

parents too... and to think my own parents are also coming soon,

next week Tuesday, is a great blessing. 

Progress is ongoing

It's been wonderful to all be home today!

My Husband, his Parents, myself, all home working on projects.

We did so much today!

A tile in our shower is nearly done,

grout in our kitchen is put on, 

caulk by our windows,

shelving in our 'crazy' now 'sane' closet,

reorganizing our Christmas ornaments and other Christmas decorations,

putting together various banker boxes (they sure are handy! and 

much cheaper than buying fancy boxes) for closest organization,

new plug things for where our twinkle lights are, so now

all are on using a switch so no more unplugging every day,

the master bedroom closet had a lot of it reorganized already,

I made lunch (spaghetti!) and my parents-in-law treated us to a meal

at a restaurant tonight! 

***

It's amazing, the transformation that shelves do to a closet...

I had been wanting shelves in it for a long time, 

so this was a real blessing!

***

I've ordered more boxes for further closet organization

and we are even considering water filter systems for the sink

and that would be so nice.

***

And now the Christmas decorations are much more easy to get,

as they are all in one place and much consolidated! 

***

It's been so nice to be with my Husband's parents and 

have nice meals, visits and projects.