Alaskan Cruise

About a year and a half ago or so good friends of ours asked us to go on an Alaskan cruise with them. In the meantime they had a sweet baby girl with complications that didn't allow them to go in 2015. So this Sept. the day FINALLY arrived for us to cruise!! We had a delightful time, and God ordained that it was their 20th Anniversary coming up and our 30th!! We drank in beauty till our souls could hardly contain any more! We laughed till our sides and stomachs HURT! And ate sumptuously every day!!!
 WE were waited on hand and foot by people who served like they loved every minute of their vocation, on OUR vacation!! We were met at the one restaurant we frequented,with a spray bottle and "washi-washi" to keep the germs at bay. The food was absolutely amazing! And I have this closed-minded idea that Lancaster County food is pretty much the best!! (You can tell I don't get out much!)
Of course the seaports all cater to the cruise ships with their wares and entertainment! We shopped for Alaska t-shirts, lingered at local coffee shops,and walked in the rain. Some parts of Alaska get 300 days of rain,but their lives need to go on , and they do, and interestingly enough,so does the beauty! The mist,low hanging clouds,and even the rain just add to the magnificence! We sat in on a Lumberjack show in Ketchikan, rode the tram to the top of a mountain in Juneau, and strolled around town in Skagway.The next couple days we cruised slowly around the glaciers namely, Hubbard and Glacier Bay. We had beautiful weather there, albeit cold and windy. But the majesty,splendor, and grandeur of the snow-capped mountains and glaciers, magical sunsets,and the ever rolling sea...well...words cannot describe!! May it ALWAYS draw us to our Faithful and Loving Creator! I thought to myself- if I don't go home with a bigger trust in God than I ever had before, I have a SERIOUS lack of faith!! We finished out our stay in Alaska by train thro the wilderness from Seward to Anchorage with indescribable beauty once more!! And then hours on end in airports and aircrafts, and finally Home Sweet Home...still trying to find our land legs!! What wonderful memories made with dear friends, and my incredible husband! All glory to our Awesome God!!

Leaning...

Well...another pillar taken out from under me, has left me feeling like I'm leaning...My elderly Aunt, who my cousins and I have been caring for, over 5 years,has passed on! She definitely grew more precious, as we invested more time and energy into her, but the load also felt quite heavy at times! I felt like high-fiving all the caregivers! We actually outlasted her!! Sometimes it almost seemed like she had more energy than we, kinda like a baby can go on less sleep than the parents some nights!  I really feel as we were caring for her, we were actually laying up treasures in Heaven, as the Scripture says..
 I will greatly MISS her and our chats about life,people, and happenings! Of course i already thot of questions i should've asked her. I'd love to be the one to tell her the juicy news about our son dating! And surely we would talk about how many green beans i got out of my garden and other trivial things.
She missed going to her friend's funerals the last few years.And she would ask for the CD so she could at least listen to the sermon... I'm pretty sure she'd want to listen to her own!
  She enjoyed immensely when any of her 20 neices or nephews would stop by to see her, and took a special interest in her 97 great neices and nephews and 122 great-great neices and nephews!

Some of our last signs were painted at her house while we were doing 24/7 care for her. The very last one -"Bind my wandering heart to Thee" was after she was bedfast, and a needy,dependent prayer she'll never have to pray again!  She's with her Father forever!!

A chorus she wanted us to pray with her at bedtime went like this...
Let us pray for each other,
not faint by the way,
in this sad world of sorrow and care.
For that home is so bright and is almost in sight,
and I trust in my heart ,
WE'LL go there! (instead of the usual "you'll" go there.)


Another favorite of hers was "I'll fly away". It was a real tearjerker for me, as it was being sung at her funeral...thinking of sitting across from her at the kitchen table, and her in an awed,curious kind of voice, asking about how it's gonna be- to actually fly away?? Well, now she knows!!

What a lady! She really has drawn me to God in the way she lived her life! And isn't that how He meant it to be??? I think it significant that her very last words  when given a sip of water were...Thank-you! I pray that gratefulness would become such a very real,and evident part of me as I live the rest of my life! And that leaning on Him would be an all day-every day  reality...forever and always!!

You are sovereign over us!

Sometimes life seems so out of control!!
And right now is one of those times!! I have so much on my mind...it just wants to whir! And there seems to be about 4 hours less in a day than what I "need!"
A close friend is moving out of the area, and I don't do well with long distance relationships. I don't even remember life without her! Our children are good friends too, plus they're our closest couple friends! 
It feels like God is taking a pillar out from under me, and I cry out WHY GOD??
And my answer from Him was that I need to depend on Him more, but also that i myself need to be more of a pillar for others, and not always be the taker,the one who needs help so much of the time (tho i still need others desparately). It's time for me to buck up and GIVE! To be strong for other people...to be a pillar! 
And this is just my little world...i know there's a much bigger world out there with all it's pain and brokeness, that God can hardly wait to redeem! And all the while, even now...God is sovereign over us!! Take a careful look at the suffix in the word-sovereign! Yep!! HE REIGNS!! He's GOT it!! There's no need for me to stew,fret, or worry...even when people are hard to love, when you don't feel like you're enough to reach around, when you feel alone, when you struggle with some personal issue, when you're feeling insecure...He is: FAITHFUL FOREVER
                                                                      PERFECT in LOVE
                                                                      SOVEREIGN OVER US!!!

It felt really swell to unload a bunch of furniture at Metal and Crate last week! That means we can move around in our basement garage again without facing an obstacle course! I was pleased how the ancient desk turned out...don't ask me to ever come up with that same color paint again, but i loved it! It's a blue...yet masculine. i especially like it with the stained top! A few other peices... a cedar-lined waterfall wardrobe, a chair, and an old chest of drawers that a friend wanted to get rid of, and i gladly took off of her hands! A bench I had got custom made for our children was not so easy to hand off!! I painted it a lime green...it would look nice in a toyroom or you could use it like we did at your dining room table. it has a little height to it so it brings them closer to the table and we would've had 3 chilluns sitting on it at once during a cetain stage of raising our family. Nostalgic? YES!

Planting, dying and losing...

I teach a young ladies Sunday School class, and last Sunday's lesson was on planting seeds. We all know seeds need to die, then they need moisture and sunshine if they're ever gonna grow and produce lots of fruit.
Jesus died, and brot forth LOTS of fruit because He had eternal life! Now MANY people can have eternal life!!
Jesus has asked US to die..to lose our lives, so we can REALLY LIVE!!! Losing our lives means releasing control of my life  and transferring control over to Jesus!! Lk.17:33 If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go,you will save it. It was Mother's Day morning, and I gave them this simple illustration of Emily getting up early out of her cozy,warm bed to make a coffee cake for me...Bless her heart! In that way, she "lost" her life!
 God has been teaching me about these things, and it's for sure His way of showing me His grace and reminding me of Him!!
Someday i want a sign something like this in my livng room to remind me of this Biblical principal OFTEN!!                                                                                                                

Painting Hobby

This brother hook already was sold at Metal and Crate.

Off to Metal and Crate in the today...

A wedding gift for Daniel n Sarah....Shh .They haven't seen it yet...

 It's Spring and it just feels right to be painting again! 
I was all about planting flowers there for a while, and now its too dreary outside for that. BUT...I AM getting very excited about my green beans sprouting,potatoes poking thro, eating rhubarb crisp, and our very own asparagus! Someone in our family brought home asparagus from Costco cuz he wanted some TONITE, and I had just picked mine off the day before and it was terribly hard to use that instead of my own,but i tried hard to be gracious and grateful!!:) So tonite we ate it side by side to see which was the best! (They were both great, but one did't have ANY chemicals!:) At any rate we're enjoying our fresh garden produce immensely!
It looks like the weather will remain unsettled for a few days,and I'm fine with that! We need the rain, and it will make things grow profusely! In the meantime I'll be painting up a storm as time allows. 
There's a few big items in the garage that have been on hold thro the winter months-mostly auction items,but also our old Hoosier which has BEEN  waiting on a re-do for long enough now. I was especially anxious to get to an ancient looking desk that I bought at the Beiler sale! Its got some damage but it's in progress and looking just swell!! Someone will appreciate it, if they like vintage and masculine! It IS authentically OLD!! I will be posting pics of it SOON... and if there are any interested buyers, I would be happy to sell it to you! I'm again amazed at how paint can transform a ragged old peice with little or no appeal, to something people can appreciate and use in their home!!
I love my painting hobby ...I'm not making a  lot of money..but I sure am having a lot of fun!!

A shower gift for one of my oldest neices whose baby is coming in about 16 days or so...

A reconstructed "clothestree" for our foyer.

It's CREATE time!! I've been feverishly painting signs and furniture...
 gearing up for King's Homestead Christmas Open House on Sat. Dec.5!!
Come for refreshments  and Jane's tasty Chicken corn soup! There will be fresh Christmas wreaths  made on site. Rustic Little Roost will be displaying her signs,and you have all of King's Homestead to shop!
A few of the outdoor stands will be contributing their funds generated, to a local return missionary who is currently fighting cancer.
"Christmas is love in action.Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas." -Dale Evans