Christmas Tree

Christmas parties, dinners, and fellowships are a perfect time to express kindness and love to family and friends.  Why wait? Show love every day.

"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep in all the year." 

Charles Dickens

Earlier this month, Jerry and I enjoyed a  Christmas celebration at a friend's home. 

This formal dining room feels so cozy with the candlelight. 

Every ornament on the tree was hand stitched. Ginny is so talented. 

Monday Musings…A surrendered life

 What does a surrendered life look like? Ouch…This question was posed yesterday to our Sunday school class. Just hearing those words made me say, ouch! If I want to grow more in God, I will need to make some changes... 

Shane Idleman addressed this issue in his article titled, “Don’t Fear The Fully Surrendered Life” Here is portion of the article,

“In today’s culture, there are countless enticements that pull us away from a fully surrendered life. It is my firm belief, that, second only to salvation, the fully surrendered life is the most important aspect of the Christian life...to truly know God: “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). Sadly, very few of us ever experience this close relationship with God. This isn’t meant to discourage, but to convict. Conviction is a wonderful gift from God used to turn the heart back to Him.

The puritans used the phrase, “The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay.” In the same way, we can allow the word of God to soften our hearts, or we can resist and become hard as stone.”

This entire article is worth taking the time to read it in its entirety.  You will be challenged and encouraged to life in total submission to God and not our culture. 

If you are interested you may search for Shane Idleman 's entire article here. It may take a bit of searching…. it is well worth the search… look here:  Fully Surrendered Life

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

University of Kentucky School of Music has recently received national attention as the result of the performance of the AcoUstiKats on NBC’s The Sing off program.

I recently become aware of another group from the same  School of Music. Each of the students are working toward advanced degrees at the university. They sang at last week's  Newcomer’s Quarterly Luncheon. Dressed in period pieces, they sang beautifully.

They sang several traditional Christian hymns. 

Here are two lyrics from one song.

Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel

 O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer

Our spirits by Thine advent here

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night

And death’s dark shadow put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Pets of the week, Pugs in Pairs

Are pugs happiest in pairs? I think so. For example, do you remember these two pets of the

2nd Sunday on King Street
Great time to visit Charleston. 

week, Clinton and Dudley? Or you maybe you saw this year's pugs, Oscar and Hugo? Pugs are lovable. They are so cute, I want to squeeze them.

Whether pugs live in Kentucky, New York, or South Carolina, pugs seem to be happy in pairs. 

This week's pets are pugs that live in South Carolina. We spotted  these pugs last month in Charleston. 

Double cute
All afternoon, we saw so many pets… it was like a pet parade.

What is in my mailbox?

Every afternoon, I look forward to going to the mailbox. I love reading Christmas letters.

My mailbox needs to have a little Christmas decoration.

"I love the rebelliousness of snail mail, and I love anything that can arrive with a postage stamp.  There is something about that person's breath and hand on that letter." Diane Lane

New Threads…. for Common Thread

Gail is a member of
UK's Alumni  Iota Chapter
Phi Upsilon Omicron

I am so excited that members from the Iota Chapter of Phi Upsilon Omicron have gathered materials for the Common Thread Group.  Each of the women will receive a tin that will be filled with thread, pins, floss, scissors, and other sewing notions.  I know that each of the women will be happy to receive their tins.

How do I know this?  Since the group began earlier this year, each of the women were have been thrilled to receive new supplies. They have been keen to gather items to take home.

Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes.   These small boxes will be treasures to each of the women. Prior to their arrival to the United States, most of the women have spent decades living in refuge camps. Some of their children were born in the refugee camps.

Listening to their stories is humbling.

I look forward to our first meeting in January of 2014.

This is a close up picture  of the items that were collected.
 A special thank you to the members of
University of Kentucky's Iota Chapter  ~ Phi Upsilon Omicron
National Honor Society in Family and Consumer Sciences
Special thanks to Gail's family for providing the pictures. 

Monday Musings, Secrets

Have you ever entered a room and suddenly the room became strangely quiet?  Or maybe there was an uncomfortable stillness.  Did you wonder about the source of the silence?  Was there a secret?

 These are not the secrets I have been thinking about. I have been thinking about the secret things of God.

This week's study is in  the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus addresses the issues of secrets... 

“The disciples came to him and asked, Why do you speak to the people in parables?’

He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.  Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:

St. Matthew 13: 10 - 13 (NIV)

I am grateful of this year's  Bible Study Fellowship's  study in the Gospel of St. Matthew. It  has been a life changing study as I continue to dig deep into God's Word.  I am grateful for the lessons that the Lord is teaching me.

I looking forward to when the study resumes in January 2014.