Our Fake Little Tree…..

What the Christmas Bulb sees….

Mom’s New Hamilton Beach Mixer which we have needed since June…quite a long ways to wait…but during all of our loaves of bread we have created muscle by kneading and mixing by hand

Dad’s new version of Halley’s Handbook arrived in the mail…a smile bringer to everyone

Since this is Thanksgiving week, Mom and I decided to take the week off of school and lounge, sew, watch movies, string popcorn and cranberries to make a garland, and cook. It is a horrible schedule, but it must be completed by those willing.

Monday~ Surprise visit to the eye doctor because of the incident, watch Wall.E

Tuesday~ piano lesson, library, pick up straw for our birdies, gather cooking ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner, watch The Patriot

Wednesday~ clean the chickens’ pen, cook with fury and excitement as we battle the harsh untamed land of Stove and Recipe -3 dishes, make napkins

Thursday~ head over to Granny’s to annually mingle with relatives for a special occasion known as Thanksgiving, where it is protocol to break the rules of civility and talk with your mouth full…sorry

Friday~ Mom will race to JoAnn’s at 6 in the morning to get a fight for good deals on patterns and some fabric, drag our stuffed little bodies over to Granny’s again to repeat the prior statement whilst having to engage in the rules of civility for the post holiday table manners, come home and string cranberries together with popcorn to have homemade Christmas ornaments, BTW here are some more good ideas for Homemade Christmases

This is our week without school showing our dependency upon its schedule. But after a glorious display of food upon a table and a few nights rest, we shall be back on our regular days.

Last night, a horrible crime that fouls every consequence it makes was committed. I, the little half blind girl, stepped most accidentally onto my spectacles. Oh what horror awaited my eyes, as I tried to place them back upon my head, but only to discover that they were crooked and had no further purpose.

There is no consolation when you are forced to walk around in ignorance due to circumstance, and only allowed to see just a vague hue that was once a thing with your ‘helpers’.  There is an unquenchable annoyance that you can not just slide a lens between your eye and the world and see everything more clearly, but now, this morning, I must only look at unlovely things, for they are big and easy to identify, for I can not see across the fields, nor notice the happenings around me. Even to look upon my computer screen is torture, for I have to bend my head into contortions while I sit unnaturally close just to read what I am writing.

Oh the holiday of Thanksgiving is near, and God has showed me through this small hiccup, that I am blessed and should be thankful for spectacles. And I should be thankful again that they are going to be repaired.

A few days ago I took a personality quiz…and I kind of enjoy them, even though sometimes they come out way wrong, but when it comes to Literature quizzes, I enjoy them all the more.

I recently visited a friend’s blog who displayed this quiz with the words, “I am Jo March. Which Classic Heroine Are You?” Intrigued, I followed the link.

After a few minutes of placing little green dots inside open ones…signifying that I agreed with that line, I came back as Maid Marian. And really it just told me that I am waiting wistfully for my beloved Robin Hood, nothing about the assumption of my countenance.

It seems I am :

Beautiful and strong-willed, Lady Marian Fitzwalter is the lady love of the dashing outlaw, Robin Hood. She is skilled with a bow, but can match the manners of any lady of the Queen. She waits earnestly for the day when King Richard will return and wed her to Robin.

You can take the test here.

If you go to the test, come back and let me know who you were.

This Wednesday, Mom and I left after school to go visit a new vintage store that had opened up. The hostess had been collecting treasures that she couldn’t let go to waste from rummages and other vintage areas and storing them up. And she prayed to God, that one day she could glorify Him through her love for  old items. And after a few years, she opened up a little antique shop, that she is able to witness to others that share her passion.

So we went, and immediately the place was adorable. There was a little pink fence, well it was really just the gate on the entrance of the sidewalk with absolutely no fencing. It was a cute idea…somehow retro. And then in the inside, it looked like a house / shop. The decorations are arranged like a house, except a few small display cases for the hundreds of small antique jewelry and powder boxes and oodles of things that I wanted to purchase. Mom had to remind me of discretion I became so excited.

In the end I purchased a lovely book on Flowers, written in the early 1900’s with watercolour pictures and adorable descriptions, and two postcards. Both are foreign, but one is printed with a scene of a lady and man picking flowers in the garden (also early 1900’s), and the other is a postcard with the Teddy Roosevelt Family dated in 1911. The language is Swedish, so I am thinking maybe an immigrant wrote it to his family back home. Just a guess.

But THEN, the most exciting part came. She said, “Did you see that lovely old book, that is in really good condition about Decorum?” I replied that I had not. And she brought the book over to me and showed me its pages. I fell in love….with a book. (Partly because I can never get over the image of Hetty King. of R.T.A. , spelling out to her rambunctious class “You shall all write a two page essay on decorum- D-E-C-O-R-U-M.) It is a decorum book dated 1880’s that is in perfect condition. No pages ripped, the binding still the original, I believe. And the greatest thing is, a wanna-be writer like myself, can catch up in personal detail about the rules and regulations that applied to my imaginary characters! I have been giddy since the book became my own. Mom has heard me say over and over again “I love this book!” And  I am determined to read bits and pieces on the way into town, piano lessons, visits, anything.

Now for the title of this post. As you can see in photograph #2 it says “Love a Universal Passion”, yes they even have a section on how to have a decorum filled romance, which I personally think everyone needs to have a crash course in. Well underneath the title it says

“We are all, at one time or another, conjugating the verb amo.”

To some that may seem like jibberish, but those who have studied Latin, can say for certain what amo means. It is the latin verb for love, and to conjugate means to add together, or saying “I love, we love, they love” etc. I read that to Mom, and we both chuckled ourselves silly. The saying is simple but so true. God has placed that ability and desire in every human (being created in the image of Him) to love another.

After reading my cousin’s post about little crafty things to accessorize your little dolls and stuffed animals…I felt compelled to sit down and give my dear Marjorie something other than a dress. So I started working on a little knitted scarf and then decided to give her some hair. The poor little girl didn’t even have hair! Ugghh! What kind of steward am I to my poor creatures!

First I knitted her a very soft little scarf, to match her spring dress…which is her only formal dress at the moment. I also added tassels…for I must admit that I didn’t bind off very well. So I needed a distraction basically.

Then I gave her some hair…which is really some really fuzzy yarn that I sewed into her head. She had some hair drawn onto her for a few years, but then I decided she needed some proper hair.

It took me one day to completely cover her drawn hair…while Mom read to me during school…watching movies…free time. I think she looks adorable, personally, but I am probably biased.

And here she is with both her new scarf, and bundle of rich blond hair. I am now in the process of making her a little hat, and adding a few inches of lace to all areas of her dress.

And just a little note. The button that acts as a pin to her scarf is actually super glued onto an old earring, that holds the two pieces of the the scarf together…keeping her comfortably warm and stylish.

I am Feeling:

Creative

Many of us know that Barack Hussein Obama’s campaign was marked as eloquent and steady from the beginning. He was a good speaker, and was a crowd winner by his smooth words and ideas of change.

These past days Americans flooded to choose their candidate that would lead them through this crisis; the war in Iraq, the stock market, hundreds of jobs being lost, unborn children being deprived of life for the sake of someone who does not want them, and now Barrack Hussein Obama will come to office, and will help determine this country’s future as he sees fit.

As Christians, this candidate will seem scary because of his politics and ideas about morality, and sometimes we will be tempted to break down and cry about what might happen- I know I have wanted to. But sometimes our fear of what might become, keeps us from hearing what God said he would do. God did not leave us in a lurch about the future- He wrote it out  in His word, and gives us the Holy Spirit and peace to see us through. I get nervous about my future in this country, but somehow I don’t get too excited because in the midst of my trifling fears, God is always  whispering that His plan is coming to pass, and what man uses for evil, God will use for good.

This is the time in this country that we will have to work, like the persecuted Christians in Acts, harder to see God’s kingdom come. Instead of assuming that our nation still depends on God, we will have to walk straight out of our comfort zone to witness, and be persecuted for Christ. We will have to go against evil to see people’s eyes light up at hearing the name of Jesus. I would rather see my Christian walk grow, than sit at home waiting for the outcome of what will happen.