A Hymn of Horatius Bonar

Inspired by "Prone to Wander", I thought I'd share a hymn from my morning devotions. My mom regularly writes us inspirational bits from her reading also. Our hymnbook, The Trinity, has several hymns by Horatius Bonar. All of them make for good devotional reading. This one is from the section of the hymnbook on the opening of worship.

Here O my Lord I see thee face to face;
Here would I touch and handle things unseen,
Here grasp with firmer hand th'eternal grace,
And all my weariness upon thee lean.

Here would I feed upon the bread of God,
Here drink with thee the royal wine of heaven;
Here would I lay aside each earthly load,
Here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiven.

This is the hour of banquet and of song;
This is the heav'nly table spread for me;
Here let me feast, and feasting, still prolong
The brief, bright hour of fellowship with thee.

I have no help but thine, nor do I need
Another arm save thine to lean upon;
It is enough, my Lord, enough indeed;
My strength is in thy might, thy might alone.

Mine is the sin, but thine the righteousness;
Mine is the guilt, but thine the cleansing blood;
Here is my robe, my refuge and my peace,
Thy blood, thy righteousness, O Lord my God.

Some new links and their memories

Another of the lovely benefits of the Internet and computers, besides our ability to communicate so easily with so many, is the ability to take virtual visits back to places in one's past. Rocking chair--computer chair--travel. Without jet lag. So I have included some new links from our travels over the Ord and back. A couple are over the Ord and others are much farther south! Those of you who read this that have traveled parts of the road with us will enjoy seeing the sites. Ah, Sperlonga in August what memories we have of that place in this month. The first year we lived there, we parked at the top of the hill and walked FOREVER through the town and down the steps to the beach. Oh, the view through the town is fantastic, white-washed walls, cascading bougainvilla, fountains, the basket weaving stand, fruit stands, gelato.... We were ready for the water by the time we got down there. As the years passed, we found better and better ways to get down there, and we became friends with the people of Lido Grotta Dei Delfini. Koberniks, Arnolds, friends from Scotland and America all spent happy hours with us on this beach. So enjoy it, people!

I tried to find our happy place in Kinlochbervie from 1994. One can find similar places and scenes. We spent a marvelous week in a cottage on the west coast of Scotland with our friend Elizabeth that summer. We are SO in her debt for that week! It had no TV, no computer, only books, games, a fireplace and acres of hillside near the sea. What more could one ask? And we even had great weather. So visit one of the sites and go to the west coast for wonderful views. If you'd like to stay in a lovely spot in Orkney, I've linked a friend's self-catering cottage. I would love to stay in that cozy spot!

So, when it's 90+ degrees here in Nebraska, I can just sit back and take a virtual holiday to all my former homes...over the Ord and back.

I found that tea site on Moot Thoughts and Musings. Really looks like a fun site!

And I found that Quill and Nail while googling our name, maybe I said that already. But it looks good. Today he has something about John Piper. I've only seen the page, not read the article yet.

Comments welcome! Enjoy your tour!

Linnea's HOME!

I know this is dark, but it just shows the duo in action....or not. I'll take a nice one, too, with them ready for the day. It's just so relaxing to get up, eat together, and just hang out on the computer. Linnea had to finish Harry Potter when she got home on Wednesday afternoon. She finished about 8:30, so we can all discuss it now. This book hasn't seem to generate the discussion the last one did. I guess we were guessing what would happen next. This time we have a sense of resolution. So we talk about what we liked and what we think about different parts. We all loved the way JKR pulled all the loose threads together. What a lovely pattern she created!

I've been fairly busy since our princess got home. Yesterday I had tea with my friend Stella, then in the afternoon I had a visit with another friend who came to pick up a book I had borrowed. I ran up to school to take some of our used books to sell, then came home and made yummy pasta with marinated chicken breast for dinner. Sometimes my Italian cooking amazes me.....! *smile* (The boys hate it when I talk that way, even if they know I'm just kidding around.) Then in the evening we watched The Queen. Today I had to go to a Dr. appt. for my nodule on my thyroid. It is just something that hangs around and doesn't do anything. Every Dr. says the same thing, and I just don't do anything about it. This Dr. was no different even if he was off base, meaning in the private sector. Doctors. Yuck.

I'm trying to get dinner done so I can go read out by the swimming pool. I've put a couple of pictures on Flickr. Denny should be home from Colorado any minute now! Then our WHOLE FAMILY will be together! Yeah!

Finished!

I just finished HP#7! Ah, great story! We've been sharing the one book among the three of us. I started reading it aloud to Andrew (Will didn't want to listen) when it arrived on Saturday, then I let Andrew read it. He had it Sunday afternoon and evening, then I got it yesterday morning. Will took over at 1:30 yesterday afternoon when I relinquished it to go to an appointment and then out for dinner. When we got home at 9:15, Andrew had it and said he'd only had it about a half hour. So he read it until nearly 11 (he has to get up for work before 5!). Then Will got his chance again. I happened to be awake when Will went to bed about 4am! Then I started it again this morning about 8:30 and finished about 11. So satisfying.....

Will talk about it later when more people have finished. Will just took over. Maybe he'll finish it today. (Kinda confusing when verbs are the same as my child's name!!)

A Sunday evening visit to the Shire

I love visiting the quiet Iowa countryside. I love the rolling hills of corn and soybeans. I love the still, reflecting ponds beside neat farmhouses. I love hearing lowing cattle and the buzzing of cicada. A Sunday evening spent in this setting fills me with nostalgia. I used to ride my bike down our gravel road before sunset, a green and golden evening. So last night we got to spend the evening with our friends at the farm. We ate, went for a walk down this road (and back up, puff, puff) and then sat beside their little fishpond by the house. It was so peaceful! Quiet. The scent of the corn silk or tassels, one or the other, is strong and sweet this year. I don't know why, but I've noticed it more. Every time I go out there I think, oh, I would love to live way out where it's quiet all the time and I can look out over these hills. But then I think more realistically, and I realize I would probably get lonely, and all those snowy days trying to get around...and how long it takes to get to the store and back...and what about being alone at night... Anyway, it does seem like a lovely place to spend a lifetime! Our friends were saying that they look out and see the neighborhood almost like Bilbo saw the shire. They know the farmers all around and their families. Who used to live there, where they are now... It's all very peaceful and friendly. We just hope that Saruman and his henchmen never arrive! On the other hand, not too far away, closer to Council Bluffs, they are cutting down the trees, stripping the topsoil and building huge houses. But don't let me spoil this peaceful post with that!

Communicating

My blog, as well as most blogs, is about communicating. I use this for staying in touch with family and friends without having to write a lot of different emails. I can express myself, relate what I'm doing and send pictures all from one space. It also helps to communicate with people who either don't check their email or their email boxes are "full". BTW, Melinda, I can't email you for that reason, but I wanted to tell you that we got the family photos! Thanks! I've tried emailing you a couple of times, and they all come back. I don't know if my other sisters read this or not...
And blogs help me stay in touch with my grown up daughter. I know she's still doing all right if she writes in her blog, and she knows what we're doing if she reads mine!

At least we're doing SOME kind of communicating!
Maybe I'll go write in my journal before my HP book arrives...I try to keep a hard copy journal, too. And I'm NOT reading anything about HP until I'm finished!!!

Scotland Trip photos

Since I signed up for Flickr pro, I figured that I might as well get the most out of it by uploading other albums in case the computer crashes or something. So this morning I put up most of the photos Linnea and I took in Scotland the summer of 2005. It's been fun to go back and look at them. Now all of you on the other side of the pond can see my view of that trip. For me the trip is all about people. I have great friends there! The only bad part about it is that I hardly ever get there to see them. And Scotland is beautiful! I never get tired of the views, the sky, the sea, the sheep, the flowers...I love to go walking there breathing in that fresh cold air! *smile* At least I know I'll get to come back here and get warm again! Refreshing to look at these photos today when it is in the 80's and 80% humidity!

By the way, I finished HP#6. I'm ready for the next one!