Weekend Reading

Rebecca at Renaissance shared this post a couple of weeks ago.  It included this link.  Beautiful!

I'm always fascinated by what can be found in the world that accurately depicts the past.  Even dinosaur bones...besides some of you might like to share with your grandchildren...

Not necessarily fun information but there are to be changes to social security next year.  This slideshow has information on these changes.

I'm always fascinated by unusual structures.  These underground ones area amazing.  Personally I like slide number 2.  The color contrasts alone are gorgeous.

Short and sweet this week...It was all I had time to save in between my work sessions. 

The Proverbial Woman: Woman of Prayer

31:15  She rises while it is yet still night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens.

The letter Vav (vahv) represents this verse.  The pictograph for this letter looks like a tent peg or the hooks used to  fasten the curtains of the tabernacle.  It  means to 'be fixed', in the sense of not being moved, of holding something together.

The first word in the Hebrew verse is 'vatakom' but it was not in the lexicon.  The word used in the lexicon was quwn  which means to rise, stand up, to establish, continue.  I had to research how vatakom  was used in other verses to gather a full understanding of what it means. 

Genesis 24:61: Rebecca arose and her maids and they rode upon camels and followed the man.
In this instance, Rebeccas is arising with a certain purpose.  She has made the choice to leave her family home, to leave immediately, rather than delay her marriage to Isaac.  She is leaving her family and her home forever.  She is leaving all she has ever known to travel into an unknown country, to unknown people where she will live the rest of her days.  I can't imagine this was an easy choice but it certainly took a lot of faith to make it!

Frugal Friday: Fresh Change

Moving the wingback chair to the mantel wall allowed us to shift John's chair over a little...and pushing back the other two chairsa little closer to the bookcases made the living room look way more spacious.  It's amazing how a little change can create square footage.  Of course, it was always there, but now we're getting more use of it.

Saturday:  I did not have time last week to prepare food ahead for today.  I kept it fairly simple and made chili and rice with a pineapple salad for our dinner.  I used a full pound of ground beef but we'll easily two meals from this with a little leftover for a couple of plates of nachos. 

I made up John's work lunch while I was prepping food.

Josh loves jello.  I boiled water and made jello, then refilled the pan with more water to make mac and cheese, rinsed the pan well and put in water and rice to cook to go with the chili. 

I find rice with chili offsets the spiciness and increases the satisfaction of the meal.  Not to mention stretching it to go further.

Put a full load of dishes on to wash.  I used a shorter cycle and air dried.

When a two year has a melt down, a rocking chair is mighty handy in restoring calm.

Coffee Chat: Golden Autumn Daze

Come in...Forgive the mess.  The house, sigh, is the way the house is mostly these days.  John says it's 'in flux'.  I feel like I'm running from one fire to another and not putting a single one out fully.  But it's lovely, truly, to have this time to play house .  My goal is to make spaces calmer and clearer. 

There are Spekulaus cookies to go with the coffee.  Not so terribly sweet but lovely spicy, crisp cookies.  They are seasonal at Aldi and I was so happy to see them in stock.  I'll buy them routinely from now until they are no longer available just about the end of the holiday season.  They are just perfect for dipping.  I sat down last week with a cup of coffee after I finished putting away groceries and dipped one in my coffee.  It made me think of Granny.  She often had windmill cookies at her house and she always dipped them in her coffee.  I sighed a little and said "Oh Granny!  How you would have enjoyed these cookies!"    For half a moment it was as though she'd joined me. It made me smile.

Last week was a little hectic and a little confining.  We were super busy on the previous Sunday with two engagements: a Newcomer's breakfast before regular church service and that evening a Newcomer's small group at the pastor's house.  We came home for just 4 hours in between service and the evening engagement and I put John to work moving small items that I'd not gotten to on Friday. It took the two of us another hour or so of work to get down to just the largest bits of furniture in each area.  And it's a good thing we did do it then because we didn't get home until late and I was so weary! I washed my face and crawled into bed with the book I was reading.

The Proverbial Woman: A Laden Vessel

Proverbs 31:14  She is like merchant ships.  She brings her food from afar.

The Hebrew letter associated with this verse is the letter 'Hey' (prounounced hay).  It means 'look! behold!' and the pictorial representation is the figure of a man with his arms raised skyward. It represents the divine breath, revelation and light.  It is said by the Jewish sages that the sound of breath leaving God's mouth refers to the sound hey.  Holy Spirit is called Ruach Hakodesh and the word Hakodesh means Holy Breath, so Ruach Hakodesh is the breath of the spirit of God.   It is in many ways the source of  inspiration.

In our verse, the word associated with hey is haiteh and it means 'she is'.  You might have already noticed, but most of the words we'll be studying are verbs.  It certainly shows how actively involved the Proverbial woman is...and I do say 'is' in the present tense because all of the verbs used to describe her are present tense.  Surely a sign that there are still Proverbial women!

Sneak Peek

 After weeks of slowly moving things out of the rooms, we were down to the big pieces of furniture.  John and I had a very busy day on Sunday and I worked him in between our obligations to move the last of all we could move that day.  The house fairly echoed with the lack of furnishings.

We were up early last Monday morning and I barely had time to get breakfast cleared off the table before the workers arrived.  I kid you not, within an hour the four guys had the big pieces of furniture moved and the floors looked like this:

And by lunchtime the floor in the entry was laid.  Oh it was pretty!

Formerly this area was just a little 2 foot x 2 foot space. There was carpet against the wall there.  I think it looks so much nicer and so much more intentional.  The space didn't allow the planks to be laid in a way that looked like a wood floor without a lot of waste.  I liked the way they worked this space.

In My Home This Week: A Fresh Start

In my home this week:

...We will continue to work away.  The rearrangement of furniture is almost done.  I have to clean the guest room in order to shift the work table and then fit the chiffarobe into the space where I want it.  It's been an exhausting month and I mean it.  And it ain't over yet.  There's no ornaments of any sort anywhere yet, no pictures hung (except in the dining room).  Our closet is still packed, and the pantry closet is, too.  It took the better part of 8 hours to sort and place books on the shelves.  I culled five boxes.  It was not the most painful thing I've ever done.  The truth is, I think I could cull a few more.  I seem to just be ready to let go of a lot of things at present.  Good thing... there are more books in the pantry closet.

 John is caught up in his own thing.  He started painting cabinets and doors.  The master bath is very nearly done, the guest bath is about half done and the kitchen just started.

Somehow the house is urging us onward.  We've asked for a tentative quote for the two back bedrooms and bath.  It feels like the right time to move forward with that, but we're thinking it will be after the holidays.