Quiet Joys

This is my story; this is my song

Praising my Savior all the day long . . . 

~Fanny Crosby

The Summer is already ripening toward August and I thought that I would share some pictures with you of the quiet joys and scenes from our lives here over the past few weeks. . . :-) These are some of the things that have brought happiness to my heart or just some happenings here . . . there is joy in knowing His presence in the quietness in a very precious way --

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him
He also will hear their cry and save them.
Psalm 145:18-19 NKJV

Zinnias from the garden . . . their bright faces gladden my heart . . . 

The strong, steadfast beauty of the sunflower, lifting its great face toward the sky . . . my sister planted these all around her tiny house last year and she inspired me! :-)

Corn and the other vegetables ripening remind me of His faithfulness to provide for mankind . . . 

My daughter eats these little cherry tomatoes as fast as they ripen! :-) I have to beat her to them! ;-)

She will eat these too as soon as they ripen; she loves to bite into them like apples .. . :-)

. . . then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

Leviticus 26:4 NKJV

The cone flowers delight me and remind me of my Mom's beautiful perennial garden back in RI . . . she placed a love for the beauty and preciousness of flowers in my soul . . . 

The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.

Isaiah 40:8 NKJV

These little ground squirrels love to eat underneath our bird feeder--the ones below are part of a litter of baby ground squirrels . . . 

But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you;
And the fish of the sea will explain to you.
Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the Lord has done this,
In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind?
Job 12:7-10 NKJV

I love Autumn; it is one of my favorite times of year, so in anticipation we planted a lot of pumpkins :-). Now if only the resident groundhogs don't eat them all . . . ;-) 

My Mom planted a cherry tree for the birds . . . unfortunately a raccoon also likes it and the fruit is just too tempting for him ;-). He broke the trunk twice now--we are trying to protect it with this fence . . . 

Last year, there was a soybean field across the street from us; this year it is corn. Truly, all of creation points to a merciful Savior . . . may He give us eyes to see it . . . 

Have a blessed week, dear friends! 







You might find me on these link-ups:

Inspire Me Monday, Literacy Musing Mondays, The Modest Mom, Raising Homemakers, Classical Homemaking, A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Woman to Woman Ministries,  Testimony Tuesday, Tell His Story, Messy Marriage,  Imparting Grace, Thought Provoking Thursday, Soul Survival, Good Morning Mondays, The Weekend Brew, Counting My Blessings, The HomeAcre Hop, Mommy Moments Link Up, Grace and Truth Linkup, Faith Filled Friday, SHINE Blog Hop, RaRaLinkup, Word of God Speak, Booknificent Thursday, Living Proverbs 31, Coffee For Your Heart Weekly LinkUp, You're the Star Blog Hop, Homesteader Hop, Fresh Market Friday, Heart Encouragement Thursday , Sitting Among Friends Blog Party, Fabulous Warm Heart Party, Oh My Heartsie Girls Wonderful Wednesday Linkup, Writer Wednesday, Tea and Word

How We Have Been Doing and a Ministry Update

Be assured, if you walk with Him and look to Him, and expect help from Him, He will never fail you.

~George Mueller

As I write this, we are in the throes of winter in the Midwest. We are beginning to get used to the "long" (in my opinion 😉) winter season here and to adapt to it. I'm thankful for a warm home and the closeness of family and friends during this time of year. We are inside a lot and I am (still :-)) *trying to get used to not hanging up my laundry outside as I had become accustomed to that pleasure during the warmer months :-) I hear that the Amish people who live near us hang their laundry in their basements during this time of year, but for now, I think that I will use my dryer. :-) 


My Mom feeds the little birds and we see the sweet little juncos and chickadees and cardinals outside the window on these cold snowy days. The birds are hearty around here--I think that they have to be! I don't feel so hearty! I'm trying to get used to wearing two sweaters in my house and keeping myself supplied with a steady stream of hot coffee to sustain me and to keep my fingers from freezing. My two children, ages 3 and 5, are longing to play outside again. We have tried to play a little outside, but it is a challenge to keep the blood circulating . . . 😉. 

I am fascinated by the animal prints that we see around our home --foxes, rabbits, deer, etc., and I often think of these creatures struggling for survival around me. We frequently see deer in the cut-down fields of corn. They try to eat the leftovers until the Lord provides a fresh supply of green for them in the spring. They are such sweet creatures. One day (before winter) a fawn bounded over our lawn during the day. I don't know if it lost its mother or was running from something . . . but these are the kinds of things that we occasionally see.

We replaced the windows in one of the rooms in our home--we live in a circa mid 1800's farmhouse and I am not sure how old the windows were . . . at any rate, the wind is not whistling into that particular room anymore. :-)  Our Pastor replaced them with my husband helping him. So I am very grateful for that--and it made for a bit of a warmer winter--at least in that room! :-)

I began homeschooling my little 5-year-old daughter this year and that has been a wonderful experience for me . . it actually breaks up the long winter days and warms my heart as I see her learning and enjoying her little workbooks (for the most part :-)). 

My kids and I constructed a "chariot" for Queen Esther and King Xerxes out of these boxes from Aldi's :-)

Food warms us up and promotes general well-being and good-will, so we have been doing a lot of baking. 😉 My kids enjoy it, especially my little daughter who loves kneading bread. My son can always be counted upon to put in the salt (for some reason he loves that particular ingredient!) :-). 

We are all longing for spring . . . it will come soon enough--and I think that the long winter will make our hearts gladder to see the spring come in all of its beauty. Praise God that He brings the springtime and softens the icy wind and sends the warm spring winds of His comfort and goodness. 

In terms of our ministry, the Lord has been placing our "attic" room upon my heart. This is a large sloped-roof room in our home that I would like to convert into a guest room. Initially, I had been focusing upon our "Missionary House," a building on our property that I would like to convert into a guesthouse to use for ministry purposes (if you are not familiar with the ministry that I am referring to, please visit the posts at the bottom of this page to learn more about why our family re-located from New England to the Midwest! ) But I thought that maybe we would "start" with this large attic room . . . and so I am praying for the Lord's direction as we take steps forward in this "small thing." It is exciting to look back and to see how the Lord has led us to this point and to trust in His wisdom and provision and love for the future. We truly believe, as Hudson Taylor says, that "God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supplies." And so we trust Him and fix our eyes upon Him by faith. We are building a place of rest for Him, and He is our Hope. 

Please pray for us. 

We are as always, so grateful for your love and continual prayers. 

This is where we take shelter during the really tough days of winter when we have no food or electricity. . . haha; just joking! My sweet, spunky nephew, Simeon built this fort/shelter in our yard :-)

The following blog posts detail why we moved to the Midwest and our purpose here:

Update 1

Update 2

Flying to A Summer Land

The Gift of Quietness

Grace in the Midwest Wilderness

When You Just Can't Do It

An Impossible Prayer Request

Midwest Ministry Update

How the Lord Answered My Prayer of Sixteen Years

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You might find me on these link-ups:


Inspire Me Monday, Literacy Musing Mondays, The Modest Mom, Raising Homemakers, Classical Homemaking, A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Woman to Woman Ministries,  Testimony Tuesday, Tell His Story, Messy Marriage,  Imparting Grace, Thought Provoking Thursday, Soul Survival, Good Morning Mondays, The Weekend Brew, Counting My Blessings, The HomeAcre Hop, Mommy Moments Link Up, Grace and Truth Linkup, Faith Filled Friday, SHINE Blog Hop, RaRaLinkup, Word of God Speak, Booknificent Thursday, Living Proverbs 31, Coffee For Your Heart Weekly LinkUp, You're the Star Blog Hop, Homesteader Hop, Fresh Market Friday, Heart Encouragement Thursday , Sitting Among Friends Blog Party, Fabulous Warm Heart Party, Oh My Heartsie Girls Wonderful Wednesday Linkup, Writer Wednesday