Playing Gramma



Her baby is playing the piano.



This is what I do on Monday evenings. Helen comes over for a few hours while her mom and dad go to a class together.

The whole family gets in to baby time! She loves this book, There's a Mouse in the House. A little paper mouse with a long yarn tail fits through little slits in each page.

She goes straight for that book when she comes!

Jenny Johnson 100 years

 Gramma would be 100 years old on January 26, 2011. I've been scanning, printing organizing and archiving a couple hundred old family photos. In these few weeks I feel like I've been getting to know these ancestors like I never knew them before. It's almost like a time travel experience. I see my grandmother and grandfather and their siblings, my mother and her siblings and I feel like I am their contemporary. They are so lovely young and fresh. Reminds me of the scene at the end of the old BBC Voyage of the Dawn Treader where King Caspian is "dead" in the water and Aslan's blood makes him a young boy again. A picture of resurrection. So these "elderlies" have been resurrected for me! Even the ones who are still alive.

I posted this before I was finished.

Just have to say a bit more about this Gramma. She is the youngest of four. Her mother died when she was not a year old yet and she was raised by a neighbor. Her older siblings were raised by an aunt up the road. She married very young and had seven children in nine years. All in the '30's. Her husband left her (she probably refused to go with him!) and she raised the seven alone, with the help of the "village". Sometime during those years she met The Master. As she followed Jesus she continued to teach and train those seven children to know and follow Him. I am so thankful that she was so special to me. I still wish I could talk to her and ask her things. I'm thankful for my mom and her siblings who continue to be such a wonderful source of spiritual encouragement to me. Never let us think that the role of a godly mother is not a great one!

The Kings Speech - Official Trailer

Friday night I went to see this movie. Ever since I've been reading and watching what I can find about George VI and this period of history.

Besides the main story, that of the king's stutter, the movie portrays with more detail than I ever realized or knew about the abdication of Edward VIII. We all SAY he abdicated, but we never really think about how it came about and what that impact was on George VI and the nation at the time.

Super movie! I highly recommend it. Don't be scared off by the R rating. A series of words in one scene is what gives it that rating. Rather funny, if you ask me.

Finally, a decent snow!

We had to run our little snowblower three times to keep up. Once on Sunday evening, once on Monday morning and once last night. The final time has kept the paths clear.

Finally the grass is covered! Today is clear, 3 degrees F. and windy. Think I won't venture out at all today!

Reclaim the room

Hilda had to have one last "sit" under the tree even after I took the blanket off the bottom. Must be a cozy spot!

Siblings, this is where we put the big mirror from Mom and Dad's. It says "Made in Italy" on the back. Fits what's on the rest of the wall.

This is the Christmas tree corner on the left. The chair on the right can swivel to face the big area for watching TV or to make a corner conversation. Drop in anytime!

New link added

One of our favorite teachers at Columbia Bible College, now Columbia International University, was Mr. Hatch. Recently CIU has made his classes available online on a new website called Buck Hatch Library. I've added the link in my "Other interesting links.." I would like to just post it top, front and center of my blog for the importance and helpfulness of it. Dennis and I have watched a couple of the Progress of Redemption videos and have learned (again) and been blessed so much (again) by this godly man's teaching!

If you get a chance, go to the website and check it out. There is the marriage class, a parenting class, as well as lectures that he gave on different topics not part of a class. I suppose one could use these as part of a Sunday School class, and we all know some Sunday School classes could use a little help!! :) We have enjoyed watching them on a Sunday evening.

Try it out. It will bless your socks off!

(I'd post a picture, but blogger isn't cooperating.)

Sometimes a light surprises

We've seen so little sun lately, I just had to catch it first thing this morning!  Unfortunately, clouds came over soon after and made the light rather thin. But what a beautiful sunrise.

I sure do appreciate the reminder of God's faithfulness every day, and every new year. Sometimes, our faith is a choice, not so much a feeling. But sunrises can evoke feeling! If I had been born pagan (and you know what I mean) I'd be a sun-worshiper!