Merry Christmas!!

Well, Merry Christmas everyone! Can you believe this year is almost over? It is almost 2017!!!!!
I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas,, remembering the importance of this day!
Advent

Our family has a kind-of out of the ordinary Christmas tradition, involving Advent. A little less then 20 years ago, my parents decided to start Advent. My dad did lots of research, and finally came up with a unique Advent tradition. There is a tree, but it's not your usual Christmas tree. It's completely bare, and flat. There are sticks tied and nailed to larger stick, the 'trunk' of the tree. There are 25 ornaments representing Bible stories that we put on it, one for every day up to Christmas. My mom lights the first candle, and, every week, adding another. My dad reads a passage of Scripture, and the Bible story about that ornament, and then we hang it on the tree. 

Now since I've told you about our Advent tradition, I'll tell you what Advent means. Advent means 'The Coming'. Which coming? Well, there are three. First, the coming of Jesus into the world that night in Bethlehem. Second, the coming of Jesus into your heart, and third, the coming of Jesus in the end times, when He comes to take us to heaven. Those are the comings that we celebrate in this Christmas season. There is only one coming that is still I personally have not experienced. That is the third coming, When Jesus will take me to Heaven.

Rane
My brother has the cutest puppy ever! She is a blue tick hound, and pretty much the most adorable dog on earth! We are dog-sitting her over Christmas, and we all love her!

What have you been doing over the holidays?

(This is my adorable little sister!)

Mary

10 seasonal facts about me

Hi there, I know I haven't posted in a while, but good news, you happen to be reading one. So, read on.

I've been thinking, and I really don't have a lot of facts about me on this blog. So today is a 'get-to-know-me' post. 

10 of my favorite things in winter

i. Drinking tea.

ii. Being lazy and reading a book rather than doing laundry.

iii. Watching snowflakes falling in the evening, and then going to bed, waking up to a 'winter wonderland'.

( I'm getting into the Christmas spirit.)

iv. Going to ballet, and even if the day is cold, coming home warm.

v. Seeing the trees branches laden with snow, and then watching it drop off.

vi. Building a snowman, or a huge igloo with my family.

vii. Listening to my sisters' Christmas album on Pandora.

viii. Starting Advent with my family.

ix. Putting up our Christmas decorations, like our Dicken houses, and our little stable for the manger.

x. Putting together pretty outfits with all my cute sweaters, although I do need to get some more wintry shoes.

So, tell me a couple of your favorite things!

Mary

Cake decorating

My new interest is cake decorating, and I'm hoping that I can get good enough that I could actually start doing it professionally! It is a lot of fun and I'm pretty sure I'm going to like it! There are some things that make it hard sometimes though. 

• It takes a lot of patience to be slow and steady. It has to be just right.
• It can be challenging when you just can't get it right. No matter how hard you try it just doesn't turn out perfect. But 'practice makes perfect'. 
• My hand isn't the steadiest yet, so I shake as I'm going, and it might not turn out as smooth as it might have.

These are my first four try's and I'm actually kind of proud of them!:) I didn't expect to be able to catch on so quick, but I think I'm improving a little each time. The cupcakes with roses on them were my very first try, the second picture was my second try, and so on. It's rewarding, and my family is always happy to have a cake around! What's your hobby?

Mary

Psalms: Let Him Lead The Way

I am going to a girls bible study, studying Psalm 37, learning about parallelisms, and starting prayer journals. It is inspiring to have other girls (including my sister) studying the same thing, so that we can help each other along. I just wanted to share a little about what I've been learning. First, I know a little bit more about what a psalm is. A psalm is a prayer, a praise, a song, a expression of worship, and a poem. I'm pretty sure that all of the psalms were to God, making them a prayer. I think that most of the psalms were praising God, or end up praising God after doubt or despair. And most of the psalm say' to the choir directer', or something that give indication that it was sung or had something to do with music. Psalms is a way the people in the bible times talked with God, one of their ways of worship. It is also written in a way to make it sound like a poem, not necessarily rhyming though. Prayer is or should be a big part of our daily lives, but not everyone honers that. When you start a prayer journal, it makes you want to be almost constantly praying. So, I would encourage you to start one and tell me about it. Knowing God, and learning more and more about Him should be a life goal. Don't give up, you have a stronger Friend who is more than willing to help if you will only ask. Try letting God be in control, let him take the wheel, He knows where we're going better than us. 

Mary

Autumn: Tea on Cozy Afternoons

 I have to say that autumn is my favorite season. It is so beautiful! I love the crisp, dewy mornings, and the sound of rain. It is the middle of October, and I am really trying to post more, so this is the perfect time to post about autumn. (Because it just happens to be autumn!) I love to curl up with a book and a blanket, on my bed to read, and completely forget about little siblings, and all my regular things to do, and bury myself in a fairy tale or a story of any kind. I might even throw a cup of tea in there for good measure. ( I am, at this moment, drinking the cup of tea in this picture.) I am going to make cinnamon rolls this afternoon, for tomorrow morning! Mmm...!

 I love pictures of raindrops on leaves!

I love the vibrant colors of the trees. Scarlet red, rich green, golden orange, soft brown, and even deep purple. So unique, yet they blend and make beautiful combinations.

Thanks so much for reading this post, and now its your turn to tell me some of your favorite things about autumn!

Mary

Our summer life

Well, here is another post, but I'm out of ideas, at about 30 posts, while my sister is still going at about 350 posts! Now, I feel small. This happened to be the inspiration of the moment, and I hope you enjoy our summer life description!

(This is Rosetta!)

Really though, we do have a smallish farm going, including several gardens, mostly tomatoes and beans. My dad is our gardener and has planted pumpkins,( several kinds) peas, squash,( several kinds) broccoli, corn, kale, carrots, lettuce, radishes, tomatoes and beans.:) As you can see, we are going to be stocked up on veggies this summer. Our orchard is not doing very good, except for 1 tree of Asian pears. Just to let you get a glimpse of how much it produces, we are all completely tired of them at the end of about 2 weeks. In case any of you don't know what Asian pears are they are shaped like a apple, but taste like... Um, they taste like Asian pears! Anyhow, we have apples, cherry's,( That the birds got before us.*Sniff*) and another kind of apple tree. But they don't produce as much as the Asian pear! And for our animals we have, dogs, Sunny and Jessa, 3 goats, including the baby, Rosetta, about 10 pigeons, about 12 chickens, 4 ducks, 6 rabbits, and a cow. Well, I think I have completely run out of  descriptions of our 5 acre farm!

Thanks for reading this post, and please tell me what you thought!

Mary

My summer

Okay, this is going to be the first of many ( and closer between) posts!

I know lately they have been few and far between, but that is hopefully going to stop. 

Now, for the post.

Do any of you enjoy spring and summer as much as I do? Probably not!( Though I would have loved if this summer had more warm days!) Well, this spring I planted flower bulbs, and this flower just below is a gladiola. ( From the bulbs.)There were some purple ones too, but I kinda didn't get around to take a picture of it before it died. But the rest are just ones that I thought were pretty, except the blue one. It's called a hydrangea. I think those are just gorgeous! Well, I do hope to have a more interesting post coming soon.:) Maybe sometime next week!

( Sorry the yellow one is little fuzzy!)

Anyway, enjoy the pictures and tell me what you thought!

" I am the vine, you are the branches;he who abides in Me

and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."

John 15:5

Mary

Book Review :Audrey(Cow), by: Dan Bar-El

This book was very cute, ( which is saying a lot because I usually don't like books about animals.) and I thought I might just tell you, so that if your brain is fried, you can just pick this book up and read! Its super easy to follow, but I still liked it.:) This cow, Audrey, ( I happen to love that name, after I read the book!) is destined to the meat section of the grocery store, (as her mother was, only her mother didn't escape) but that is not okay with her. So, with the help of a best-friend-from-birth kind of friend,Eddie the dog, and the grumpy pig, Buster, whose brain can hardly fit his head, she develops a plan to escape. When a purposely planted flat tire halts the truck that's taking her to 'Abbots War', as the animals call the slaughter house, Audrey slip's out the back of the truck, using a unlock-the-door-latch trick that Buster the pig taught her, and with the help of two crows escapes to the forest. In the forest she finds many different kinds of animals, some she wants to meet and others, well, you wouldn't want her to meet them...ever. You'll have to read the book to find out the ending. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
What books have you been reading lately? I'd love to hear about them!

Mary

Here we go again!!!

Hello there!

I really am going to start doing more posts, but I need some suggestions.( Meaning I need someone to comment and tell me some ideas;) This post really has no original plan, so I'm going to call it my catch up post, that will mark the beginning of more 'about one thing' posts. But I will do a little paragraph of each picture so that we are not reading a jumbled mess about a ton of stuff!

Lydia was so tired, she forgot to cry to be put in bed. 

Or else she was to cozy to leave. 

Cute, huh?

We have a silly bush in our yard that blooms in Dec., Jan., and Feb.

It was blooming when we had our only snowfall that was more than 1/2 in.

I like how its focusing clearly on the flower, but you can still see 

that the white stuff in the background is snow.

This child won't stop growing even though we have told her to. 

She say's 'bop' as she bops the balloon with her head. She loves it!

She also loves jewelry, that's why you see that necklace around her neck.

She loves attention too.:) Of course!!

She will dance, as in stomping her feet, and twirl if you will just look at her.

 She has a temper, and if you don't get her what she wants, she will stomp her feet and yell.

Quite a lady!!

It finally cleared up enough now that you can go outside without being drenched.

It has also cleared up enough that you can take pictures of the sunsets!

I think that the winter down pours are finally over, but here come the spring showers!

I went on a bike ride with one of my brothers, to a lake about 3/4 miles from our house, and I lugged the camera along.There were ducks and this heron at this lake. There were about 10 ducks swimming, and all this lazy heron was doing was sitting there!! Naughty little thing!:)

Well, I think that's about it, but I will post again soon. 

It won't be another 2 months!

Mary