On A Drive

In autumn, I often think of Jane Austen's England. I can just see Elizabeth or Marianne walking through the leaves, up a hill, or among the hedgerows.

If I was as great a walker as Austen's heroines, I may have tackled theses hills. Instead I enjoyed a drive through them. 

Where do you think it could be? Looks like a lonely lane in Europe, perhaps? Maybe... England? 

The Yorkshire Dales? 

Could it perhaps be somewhere near Scotland?

Perhaps it is the Lakes district -- maybe we are in Beatrix Potter's country. This could be the pond that Mr. Jeremy Fisher lived in!

Well, I wouldn't really know if it looks like England, as I've never been to England. Didn't you notice the lack of sheep dotting the hills? 

But it's fun to pretend. 

No, it's just the Wide, Wild West. 

Old wagons, houses, fences, corrals...

...old barns...

...and an amazing view. 

When you are up here on top of the world, you think about how vast this land is. There are many thousands of miles of land there is to the east, north, and south until you get to an ocean again (the Pacific is just west of here, though, maybe another hundred-and-some miles).

You know, at one point all this land was claimed by Great Britain. I wonder what they would have done with it? If they had thought of building castles out here, I think the structures would have been quite dwarfed by the landscape. 

We are climbing higher, and looking back can see the Columbia river. 

Oh, look! an old abandoned farmhouse in the trees. All it needs is a new roof, new floor, new walls, windows, doors, porches, and a working kitchen, and wouldn't it be a nice place to come to for a Thanksgiving dinner? 

It is part of an old homestead on a hill. 

The old house is hidden in the trees at the right of the photo. The property looks like a wild-west pioneer- style estate. I'll take it, if no one wants it anymore! 

 

These pictures were taken while driving through The Dalles Mountain Ranch (now a park) in Eastern Washington. 

(These photos are from Thansgiving-time last November, but were never posted. It was such a lovely drive to take on a dull, cloudy day, I thought I'd share it anyway!)

The Card Making Center

As of last week, in order to make a card, I had to run to one room and pull rubber stamps out of a drawer, then run to another room for the paper and ink, and if I wanted to use the Cuttlebug to emboss anything I had to dig in my fabric cupboard for it. It sure discouraged card-making! Just thinking about making a card was tiring! I decided I needed a dedicated space for the hobby. As of today, the new space is complete! This paper crafting space is now along one wall in the dining-room. A corner shelf formerly dedicated to antique china is now housing a combined collection of rubber stamps (mother, daughter, grandchild's). 

The desk top is covered in pretty scrapbooking paper, and then clear plastic over that. The desk drawers house papers and supplies, as do the scrapbook storage drawers next to it. Everything is now in reach!

Our rubber stamp collections are 23 years in the making! I wanted to see every stamp we had, so I commissioned a stair-step shelving system to be made that fit the corner shelves...

...made out of duplos.

And while you're at it, have a "Stamp-a-ma-jig" (A positioning tool) made for you, too. (if you are curious as to what this is, here is a video about it.) 

Bible Lesson & Songs

Editor's Note: I found an old, typewritten Bible class lesson, which may have been my grandmother's. It looks to me like it may even be a "go-to" lesson for those times when she was asked to substitute teach a Bible class. She taught many different Bible classes over the years-- from little ones to ladies' classes.

The lessons quiz the students and helps them to memorize some of the basic facts of the Bible. Most of the lesson part seems to be notes or summaries to be elaborated on. All the songs I learned with different tunes, so I find getting the words to match these tunes a bit hard!

I've typed it out on the order it was given: 


The Books of the Bible (God's Library) 66 Books, 39 in the O.T. 27 in the N.T.

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Books of the Old Testament (Tune: Did you ever see a Lassie?)
Let us sing the books of Moses, of Moses, of Moses, 
Let us sing the books of Moses, for he wrote the Law. 
First Genesis, second Exodus, third Leviticus, fourth Numbers, 
And the fifth is Deuteronomy, the last of them all.

Let us sing the books of History, of History, of History, 
Let us sing the books of History, which tell of the Jews. 
There's Joshua and Judges and the story of Ruth
Then First and Second Samuel, and First and Second Kings; 
Then Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther the Queen.

Let us sing the books of Poetry, of Poetry, of Poetry, 
Let us sing the books of Poetry, the songs the Jews sang. 
Job the patient, Psalms of David, and the Proverbs of a wise one, 
And then Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. 

Let us sing the Major Prophets, Major Prophets, Major Prophets, 
Let us sing the Major Prophets, they wrote five books in all. 
Isaiah, Jeremiah, who wrote Lamentations; 
Then Ezekiel and Daniel were true to our God. 

Let us sing the Minor Prophets, Minor Prophets, Minor Prophets, 
Let us sing the Minor Prophets, there are twelve of them all. 
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah; Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk;
Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah-- Malachi--. 

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Jacob's Sons and their Tribes (Tune: Whosoever Will)
Jacob lived in Canaan-- There he had twelve sons, 
Reuben, Simeon, Levi,-- Judah, Zebulen;
Issachar and Asher, Naphtali, and Dan;
Joseph, Gad, and Benjamin--

In the land of Egypt, -- Joseph had two sons.
Ephraim and Manasseh-- A tribe named for each one;
The tribes were twelve in number, -- but the Levites too had one, 
Thus were all the tribes-- begun.

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The 3 religious ages of man:

PATRIARCHAL                  

2500 yrs.                              

Genesis & Job                     

Adam, Enoch, Methuselah,   

Noah, Flood, Babel,

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob

Joseph-Egypt. 

Exodus chapters 1-11, Moses Born, leads them out. 

Job tells of Patriarchal law.

MOSAIC

1500 yrs.

Mosaic Law, Mt. Sinai

Exodus-Malachi

Joshua leads, Jericho

Judges, to Samuel

Saul, David, Solomon, Divided kingdom

Captivity- Came back

All prophets spoke of Christ coming.

CHRISTIAN AGE

Till He Comes

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John Acts-Revelation  

New Testament 

Study, Trust, Believe, OBEY

ALL of God's Word is TRUE. The Old Testament was for the Jewish Nation. The New Testament is for the Whole World and will make all people into one great Brotherhood IF they will all Believe and OBEY IT.

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Books of the New Testament (Tune: More About Jesus Would I Know.)
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John-- Acts and the Book of Romans--
First and Second Corinthians-- Galatians and Ephesians. 

Philippians, Colossians-- First and Second Thessalonians--
First and Second Timothy-- Titus and Philemon. 

Hebrews, and James-- First and Second Peter--
First, Second, and Third John-- Jude and Revelation.

(How many did Paul write? John? Luke? Peter? )

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The Apostle Song (Tune: Bringing in the Sheaves)
There were twelve Apostles, Jesus called to help Him, 
Simon Peter, Andrew, James and brother John;
Phillip, Thomas, Matthew, -- James the son of Alpheus;
Thaddeus, Simon, Judas, and Bartholomew--

But Judas was not true-- and Matthias took his place; 
Then Jesus sent Paul to preach to-- all the Gentile race. 
He also calls for you-- He also calls for you, 
Are you His disciple--? you His work must do.

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Which law are we under now- Patriarchal, Mosaic, or Christ's?

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Let us learn where we read about the different men and women of the Bible.
What book of the Bible do we read about-- Adam & Eve; Noah, Abraham?
What book of the Bible tells us about Moses? About the Hebrews coming out of Egypt?
Which book tells us about Joshua leading his people around Jericho?
Where do we read about the Judges? About Samson?
Who was Samuel? Saul? David? Solomon?
Where do we read about Christ's birth, life, death, Resurrection?
What did Jesus tell His Apostles to do?
Where do we turn to read about the church starting? And how many men and women can be added to the church?
Where do we turn to read how to live a Christian life?
Who does the last book tell of?
How many people will God save?

Remember that ALL of God's book, the Bible, is true. We live under His New Law. This New Law is the Law of Christ. That is why we do NOT offer a lamb, burn incense, use mechanical instruments in our worship.

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Great Songs Chapel

Singing in Church

Buy This at Allposters.com

Here is a good site for learning hymns-- and this song is especially good for learning parts, as they start with Soprano, second verse add alto, then tenor, etc..

How to make your own Family Newspaper

There is now a page on The Pleasant Times with ideas on making your own home family newspaper. I hope my readers will try making their own at least once, it is lots of fun!

Some of you were curious as to how my pattern weights turned out. I found that they were sadly not adequate. The pattern slid around under the weights as I was cutting. Perhaps I did not have enough weight in the weights- perhaps I need to try it with different "filler." I just saw this tutorial for some really cute pattern weights, that sound like they work. The difference I notice between what I made and Sew Can She's is that hers are a bit smaller.  I think the ceramic weights pictured in the first photo look more like what I need though!
 I wonder what the hardware store could lend to the fabric studio....

The News

Three Sisters, a...
Edmund Charles...
Buy This at Allposters.com



If you go over to Homeliving today, there is a good article up about News and the Homemaker. We will always hear about the national news. We can hardly avoid it. If you cut yourself off of internet, television, radio, and newspapers, your neighbor would be over telling you all the latest (at least there are no ads that way). You take what you hear and try to discern the truth of it. You do your part in helping where you are needed. That is just part of life. But as the article says, it is not good to submerge yourself in it to the point where you worry.

The news I like is news of personal victories, of the latest creative project someone has going, of the latest cooking feat of a friend, of a family's success, of mothers who are homeschooling their children and all the things they have discovered. I think some of the best news comes from home-and-craft bloggers! I like news of local things that concern me everyday- how the neighbor gets her chickens to lay more eggs than mine do or what that new building in town will be. I like family news, about what the baby can say now or that one of the children conquered tying shoelaces. I like homemade family newspapers!

We have a clerk in a local store who greets customers with, "What's the news?" If you tell him something negative, he'll say "no, I mean the good news." That makes me think: What better "Good News" can we share, talk about, and dwell on than the Gospel of Jesus Christ?