Vintage Holiday Devotional

Hello, lovely friends!
I have been saving something very special to share with you for the Holidays...As you may recall, my sister has recently been shipping to me boxes of my mother's things. That is how I came to own...

my mother's bible, gifted to her by my maternal grandmother.
As you can see from the dedication page, my grandmother presented this Bible to my mother and father, Kathleen & Jim, and then signed her name "Mimie" (pronounced "Mimmy"). The date says "Feb 15, 1953".

Saved within the Bible's pages is a yellowing article from a Wilmington, NC newspaper, entitled "Millions Read Same Bible Passage Daily".
According to this article, Thanksgiving Day was the first day of "Worldwide Bible Reading", an annual period in which Christians from all over the world read the same verses.

"The custom was started 11 years ago in World War II when a lonely Marine on Guadalcanal wrote his parents suggesting that he and they read identical scripture passages, a different one each day.

"The nondenominational American Bible Society took up the idea, and it has spread to 40 countries with the suggested list of passages for the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas period, going to more than 15 million persons and groups requesting them.

"President Eisenhower said the custom is the kind of act needed to feed 'the flame of our faith' in a time when that faith is under materialism.

"I prayerfully hope its success this year will be greater-that its imprint in the hearts and minds of the peoples of the world will this year be more pervasive - than ever before," he said."

The suggested readings were as follows:

• Nov 25th: Psalms 1
• Nov 26: Psams 23
• Nov 27: Psalms 27
• Nov 28: John 1:1-34
• Nov 29: Psalms 37
• Nov 30: Psalms46
• Dec 1: Psalms ??
• Dec 2: Pslams 91
• Dec 3: Psalms 103
• Dec 4: Psalms 121
• Dec 5: Isaiah 40
• Dec 6: Isaiah 53
• Dec 7: Isaiah 55
• Dec 8: Matthew 5
• Dec 9: Matthew 6
• Dec 10: Matthew 7
• Dec 11: Luke 15
• Dec 12: John 3
• Dec 13: John 10
• Dec 14: John 15
• Dec 15: ???
• Dec 16: John 17
• Dec 17: Romans 8
• Dec 18: Romans 12
• Dec 19: 1 Cor 13
• Dec 20: 2 Cor 15
• Dec 21: Eph 6
• Dec 22: Phil 4
• Dec 23: Heb 11
• Dec 24: Rev 21
• Dec 25: Luke 2:1-2

I have decided that I am going to use this daily devotional. Anyone else interested in joining me?

God bless,
Elizabeth

Wonderful Mashed Potatoes

• 1 medium head garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup milk
• salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Drizzle garlic with olive oil, then wrap in aluminum foil. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour.
3. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool and chop. Stir in butter, milk, salt and pepper.
4. Remove the garlic from the oven, and cut in half. Squeeze the softened cloves into the potatoes. Blend potatoes with an electric mixer until desired consistency is achieved.

Courtesy of allrecipes.com

A Perfect Turkey!

I got the following from allrecipes.com. It is easy and works beautifully!

• 1 (12 pound) whole turkey
• 6 tablespoons butter, divided
• 4 cups warm water
• 3 tablespoons chicken bouillon
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley
• 2 tablespoons dried minced onion

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Rinse and wash turkey. Discard the giblets, or add to pan if they are anyone's favorites.
2. Place turkey in a Dutch oven or roasting pan. Separate the skin over the breast to make little pockets. Put 3 tablespoons of the butter on both sides between the skin and breast meat. This makes for very juicy breast meat.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the water with the bouillon. Sprinkle in the parsley and minced onion. Pour over the top of the turkey. Sprinkle seasoning salt over the turkey.
4. Cover with foil, and bake in the preheated oven 3 1/2 to 4 hours, until the internal temperature of the turkey reaches 180 degrees F (80 degrees C). For the last 45 minutes or so, remove the foil so the turkey will brown nicely.

Don’t Be fooled my dear –angels are everywhere!
—Faye Diane Kilday

Blessings!



Love,
Elizabeth

Show and Tell Friday

Kelli, at There is No Place Like Home, is hosting Show and Tell Friday...My Show and Tell today is...my antique purses..
I got the one above about 30 years ago at a thrift store in Provo, Utah. I routinely found antique items back then at this one particular store (not so much anymore).
The bead work is very lovely.
This purse was given to me by my sister, Jeanie, who knows my affinity for very feminine things and for pastel colors.
The beadwork on this bag is much more intricate.

I love to wonder about the ladies who carried these bags before me. Were they in the bloom of youth or were they older ladies like I am now? Did they make a special memory, meet a special someone, while holding them? Did they pack them for travel and visit some far-away place with them? Did these purses ever hold hankerchiefs that dried a tear or were given to someone as a remembrance?

I, myself, carried both of these purses in the bloom of my young womanhood. I held the flowered one in my lap when I went to the ballet to see the Bolshoi and another time, the Kirov. They went on special dates with me when I felt young and beautiful. Now, they grace my bedroom wall, now that I am older and rarely dress up the way I use to. Someday, I will pass them down to my daughter, while she is a young woman. Hopefully, they will help her to feel feminine and pretty, because beautiful things affect the way we feel about ourselves.

Love,
Elizabeth

Adorable Snowman!

Isn't he a cutie? Tomorrow, I am getting together with a friend to work on our different craft projects together and this little guy is what I will be making!

Where did I get the idea?

Dawn, over at The Feathered Nest (HERE), has a wonderful group of tutorials for craft originals she has created and which you can buy and then create for yourself at home. (Click HERE for her tutorial blog and scroll down to see the snowman.) You will be surprised at all the wonderful things she has offered on her site and they are perfect for holiday gift-giving, especially this year when many people's purses are very tight. Homemade gifts go a long way.

Have a wonderful day!
Elizabeth

Christmas Giveaway!

Yvette, over at The Charm House, is having a Christmas Giveaway. All you have to do is enter a comment HERE. Tell her your favorite Christmas song to win this beautiful set of Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus!
Blessings,
Elizabeth

Visit my friend, Alexandra, at Happy Hearts at Home, for her link to free vintage Thanksgiving (and Christmas) clip art.

Love,
Elizabeth

Hey, lovely friends of Blogland!

Today is my birthday! I am ** years old (ancient), but I feel like a kid...and I love to celebrate! This year, we are lite on funds, but we are having fun anyway. This afternoon, Mark and I played hookey from our chores and went to see a movie. It was my choice, so I picked "The Duchess", with Keira Knightly. It is an historical drama with gorgeous costumes and sets. The acting is first rate, too. It is an incredible movie, though a bit sad. I highly recommend it!

Then...Mark and I went on a drive in surrounding neighborhoods, pretending that we were house-hunting and looked at all of the homes that are for sale. We didn't find our dream house, but that's okay, because we couldn't buy one right now, anyway.

Upon an arrival back home, I found a treat on my doorstop - a gift from a neighborfriend. It was some wonderful-smelling shower gel and a bar of Godiva chocolate!!

I opened cards from the mail and am looking forward to going out to an Asian buffet, opening a few gifts and watching "Dancing with The Stars".

Fun, fun, fun!
(Tomorrow, the fun starts again with Mark's birthday!!)
Love,
Elizabeth

The last of the Fall leaves are turning here. It has been a beautiful Fall. Can't hardly believe that Thanksgiving is in less than two weeks away. We have had snow, rain and cool, beautiful weather. This next week will mostly be the latter. I will take many walks because I know there won't be much more of this.

My father has been visiting from Virginia. He leaves today. I have much to post, but will save it for this coming week.

Have a wonderful, blessed Sabbath.
Love,
Elizabeth

Show and Tell Friday

Kelli, at There is No Place Like Home, is hosting Show and Tell Friday...My Show and Tell today is...
...a little china snowman, actually he is a salt shaker, about 4" high. Several years ago, at Christmastime, my daughter, Sarah, and I were visiting our favorite thrift store, Deseret Industries. I happened to see this cute little guy, and oohed and aahed over him. I didn't buy him for myself, because Christmas pennies were tight and I was in the store for other things. However, when Sarah saw my delight, she grabbed him, while trying not to let me see (the eye in the back of my head, which all mothers have, saw her do this). I gave her privacy at the checkout...And guess what was wrapped up nicely under our tree on Christmas Day?..

I love snowmen. I also love white and blue, so this was a perfect gift for me. I retired him from being a salt shaker and now he graces the table next to my bed....a precious reminder of my daughter's sweetness.

Blessings,
Elizabeth

Am I obsessed, or what? I took a look at the photos of "Bentley" (whom Sarah has gingerly suggested should be re-named "Emily") in my previous post and decided that he/she looked a little plain, so I added Sarah's baby clothes...
Ain't she swanky? I am having so much fun!

(My car broke down tonight, so I'm trying to keep my spirits up!)
Love,
Elizabeth

Mimie's Pretties

As most of you know from reading this blog, my mother passed away December, 2006. It fell to my sister, Jeanie, who lives back East near my parents' home, to go through all of my mother's belongings. Recently, I received a substantial shipment. I was so thrilled to open these packages and to find, not my mother's stuff, but her mother's linens and costume jewelry. My maternal grandmother, Claudia, was known as "Mimie" (pronounced "Mimmy") to everyone. She, like most women of her generation, never sat with her hands still. She was always crocheting, or tatting or embroidering...

My now owning these beautiful works of art have inspired me to beautify my surroundings. I am ashamed to admit that I haven't done much with my bedroom in recent years. I started our marriage with lots of lovely things, but many financially difficult years followed and so most of my nest feathering has been done in the common living areas and in the children's rooms. Not so, anymore. I want as much as possible to display these beautiful linens and momentoes that have come to me.

Following are just a few of Mimie's lovelies. I will be sharing more in the coming days.
I guess that I should show you before and afters but I am too shy to do that. So, above is Bentley. He is a stuffed bear that I keep on my bed for the children to cuddle when they come in for a love at night. He is now all fixed up with a beautiful lace scarf, some fancy ribbon I had on hand and one of Mimie's faux-diamond pins. He is atop one of her doilies.
Isn't he a cutie?
This is my bedside table, with my antique lamp...An antique shawl is on the lamp shade (this was actually given to me by a friend). The table is draped in linen table covers. The doily under the little snowman figurine is Mimie's too and her Bible is next to my bed.
Another view of the table...AND the beautiful bedspread she hand wrought. Isn't it lovely?
I will be topping that with crisp white, embroidered pillowcases, but I need new pillows, first. I have much to do and am very excited about it.

Can't wait to show you the finished product of my room!!
Blessings,
Elizabeth

What Was Lost Is Found

Hello, Blogland Friends!

For days I have been searching the house for my camera. Smaller hands had gotten a hold of it and I could not find it anywhere. I wanted to take pictures for my blog - there is so much to show and say about the last few days...My sister, Jeanie, has been going through my mother's things and mailing me boxes of her stuff and much of it is too wonderful not to show you: old linens, handiwork, pictures. Oh, I was sooo frustrated. Tonight, my daughter (perhaps the culprit?) found the camera in the linen closet, no less. What it was doing in there, I will never know.

So, once again, I am armed with my trusty camera. However, I am much too tired tonight to take any pictures, so I will leave that for tomorrow and end here by wishing all of you a wonderful Autumn evening. I look forward to catching up on your blogs tomorrow. That is a high point to my day.

Goodnight,
Elizabeth

What A Week!

I have been looking back over the events of this week and my heart is very full...

The elections have come and gone and we have a new president-elect, Barak Obama. Although I have had my differences with him politically, I believe that he is a decent man and will do his best. God bless and help him in these troubled times. The fact that he is our first African-American president has not been lost on me, either...

As many of you know, I partially grew up in the segregated South. I was very, very fortunate, because both of my parents believed deeply in the Civil Rights Movement. They raised me to look at people of color as being of equal worth to whites. They took advantage of teaching moments to get across to me the foolishness of prejudice.

One such moment came when I returned home from First Grade with a new word. I had learned it in a little rhyme from the other kids. Remember, "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe"? My sister and I always followed that with, "Catch a turtle by the toe. If he hollers, let him go. Eeny, meeny, miny moe." The new version I learned didn't say, "Catch a turtle by the toe". It said, "Catch a n****r by the toe." I had never heard that word before and figured it was just another way of saying "turtle". So, I sing-songed that rhyme with my new little word all over the place...until, I got home.

When my mother and father heard it, they sat me down. I was only 5, but I remember very clearly what my father said. He said that "n****r" was a mean way of saying "negro" and that "negro" came from a Latin word which meant "black". That's what they are, black; not "colored", or "darkies" or "n****r". Then he held up his arm and grasped some flesh between his thumb and index finger, to show me his skin. He said that skin pigment was to protect the skin from the harmful rays of the sun. People who come from very sunny, hot places have more pigment than people like us, where our ancestors came from cloudy, cold places. That's all the difference is, he said, pigmentation. Skin.

I took it for granted that my parents were wise and would never behave in an ignorant manner towards another person. It wasn't until I was an adult, living far away from home, that I realized how fortunate I was to have the parents that I did. Knowing where they came from, and how many other members of our family felt, it was a miracle that both of my parents were so enlightened about race issues.

Years later, we moved back to the South. First we were in Memphis, just after Dr. King was shot there and later, back home in NC. It was in Wilmington that I experienced bussing for the first time. We had terrible riots that were on the national news. I saw the worst of both sides, the R.O.W.Ps (Rights of White People - similar to KKK) and the Black Panthers. Both spewed hate and vengeance. All the while, I sat side-by-side with my black classmates and we got on fine. In fact, I had my first crush on a boy who sat across from me in Art Class. He was a senior, while I was a softmore. He knew I liked him (while I was kind of clueless) and was extremely kind to me. His name was Isaac. I think he may have even liked me, but neither of us would have dared something like that in those days. The world around us was way too violent.

On issues of race, in those days, I hoped for peace...The possibility of one day having a black president was nowhere in the realms of what I could see.

Fast-forward to today...We have a young, black president. All politics aside, I can hardly believe my eyes. What a blessing and a miracle to have an election where other issues, such as the economy, are more important that the skin color of the candidates. I am happy for my African-American brothers and sisters. I am happy for myself. I am happy for those I've loved, like Isaac, who can tell their children that they can grow up to be anybody and it will be true.

Have a wonderful Sabbath!
Elizabeth

Election Day

Ladies,
Make sure and exercise your right and privilege today and vote according to your conscience.
God bless you and God bless our country.
Love,
Elizabeth

Favorite Things Monday

Sarah over at Everyday Elegance invited me to be a part of "Favorite Things Monday". This is when and where we share "one of your current "favorite things" that cheers you up when life gets you down".

One of my very favorite things which gets me out of the dumps is...
My sweet little birdie friends which line up along the backyard fence for their turn at the birdfeeder. I get mostly sparrows and chickadees, like the one above from Google Images. Occasionally, though we get a big mountain jay. Anyway, they are such characters, fussing at each other over whose next in line for the viddles. They make me laugh. A little time spent watching the birds lightens my mood and helps me to remember that life is good.

Bird-watching also reminds me of my mother. Mama was housebound mostly with a disability, but she would spend hours in her rocking chair, watching the birds out at the numerous feeders in her backyard. My mother, however, only liked the birds which she thought had "nice manners", such as sparrows, chickadees, finches, doves, etc. Blue jays, starlings and crows, in her opinion, had "bad manners", because they would chase all the other more courteous birds away. Mama was something else!

I would show you pictures of the birds at my feeder, but they are very shy and whenever I come outside with my camera they all fly away...They are modest birdies who prefer their anonymity.

Have a great day and watch some birds!
Love,
Elizabeth

Angels Among Us

A sweet friend of mine gave me a note today that said the following:

"God does notice us, and He watches over us. But it is usually through another person that He
meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other.

"Succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees."

Isn't it so true, that we are like angels for one another? Haven't we all had experiences where someone has said just the right thing that we have been needing to hear? Or we have been the recipient of kindness at just the perfect moment to help us? Through acts like these, others can become angels in our lives.

Consequently, we are angels for others when we reach out in love and in kindness. It is my prayer that we may all look for ways to help and bless those around us that they through our kindness may be reminded of the incredibly tender and personal love that our Father in Heaven has for each and every individual on this earth.

Have a beautiful, blessed day!
Elizabeth