From My House to Yours ~ Merry Christmas

~~~ Christmas Greetings from Plum Cottage ~~~

Dear Folks ~ Forgive me for being away so long, the longest I've ever not posted. Time is zipping right along. Things have been happening here, the load on my shoulders is being lifted and I am oh so thankful. There's still a lot to do, but forward progress is being made. I  'plan'  to get back into blogging more regularly in the new year. 

It's hard to believe Christmas is a week from tomorrow. May you have times of love, joy and peace during this holiday season. May the Hope of the season fill your hearts to overflowing. Jesus, God with skin on, was born because of His great love for us. He came to save us all, so that we could spend eternity with Him. No more pain, death, sorrow, or sin, all will be peace and joy forevermore. If you don't yet know Him, my prayer is that you will come to know Him and love him. You are precious to Him. Seek Him and you will find Him.

******

Now here are some glimpses from my home sweet home, the little haven that we created here through the years. We moved in here in 1973. It was built in 1950-1951. A tiny house before the movement of tiny homes began.

 

 

Jesus said,

“Come to me,
all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.

Matthew 11:28-29

****** 

May your Christmas week be peace filled wherever you are, whatever you are doing. 

May 2022 be a better year for all, all around the world.

Love, prayers & hugs, 

FlowerLady

Resurrection Day dinner and Reggae Resurrection Service

Good morning Folks ~ It is Monday here at Plum Cottage. It is breezy, partly cloudy and a new day to be thankful for. 

I watched you tube on Resurrection day, being blessed by msgs and music. The day went along, and as I started to mash potatoes for my dinner, using the potato masher brought tears as it was part of a utensil set from when we got married in 1969. I've not used it much since God called my dear husband home 7 1/4 years ago, as I don't cook meals for me like I did when he was here.  Idaho instant potatoes work fine. But this special dinner I wanted 'real' potatoes. 

Dinner was yummy, lamb meatballs with apricot preserves heated and served over, and served with the mashed potatoes and asparagus. The grocery store didn't have any mint jelly this year, so I had to improvise and had these preserves in my stash and it was fine.

 

 Every Easter we drank our merlot in celebration of what Jesus did for us with His dying and resurrection. We found a pair of these glasses at a local flea market many, many, many years ago, $1 each. 

To me they symbolize the rooster crowing right after Peter had denied knowing Jesus three times. Peter had proclaimed that He would never leave Jesus, and Jesus had said Peter would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed twice and it happened. 

You can read the story here 

Peter went out and wept, he was deeply sorrowful. Jesus forgave Him and Peter became one of Jesus' greatest followers and preachers of the Gospel of salvation.

We all have sinned, and when we repent, Jesus gladly forgives us and calls us His own.

After dinner, I watched one more Resurrection Day video, this one was by 'Christafari', a Christian reggae 'musicianary' group. I had watched their music videos before and been blessed. DH and I have enjoyed all kinds of music. I may be 71 but I'm still a 'rock n roller', have enjoyed and lived the 'blues', and 'reggae' has always been a favorite or ours.

I was totally blessed and encouraged by the music  and the message by this wonderful group. They love Jesus and preach His gospel to third world countries around the world. I sat here singing, clapping and enjoyed myself, with Jesus right here beside me. I was even blessed with a guitar run that sounded like my DH playing his guitar and my heart soared. It was a gift from Jesus to me in this time of isolation. 

(You can hear the guitar run starting at 1:04:32 -1:04:58.)

 

I had communion with this group and was thankful to have had communion on Resurrection Day.

So, after that, my heart was lifted and I felt so thankful to Jesus for blessing me in this way on this particular Resurrection Day. 

Today is a new day, a gift from Him and I want to thank and praise Him as I go about my day, whatever I do, from washing dishes, to folding and putting away clean laundry, to vacuuming and dusting, etc. All done for Him, for His honor and glory.

May you all be drawn to Jesus, either for the first time, or as a long time believer, put your trust in Him.

Love, hugs and prayers ~ FlowerLady

Have a blessed Resurrection Day

Hello Folks ~ May tomorrow, Easter or Resurrection Sunday, be a lovely day even though we are all in isolation. This holiday has been my favorite for a long time. I love Christmas, but not like I do Easter. The one celebrates the birth of Jesus, King Messiah, the other celebrates His resurrection. He was crucified because he dared to say who he was, the promised Messiah. Death could NOT hold Him in the grave. He is the Creator of all life, He is Life. It is because of His life, death and resurrection that we can have life forever and ever with Him. 

This virus is not the end, it is an experience we can grow through. It is a time to call out to Him, to trust Him in all things.

Last night the word cocooned came to mind as to how Jesus' love is toward us. I looked it up to see what the definition would be and this is what I found, which was just how I felt.

"enveloped or surrounded in a protective or comforting way". Trusting in Him is an every day opportunity, to believe that He is in control, and all things 'will' work out for our good  for those who love Him, and for His honor and glory.

We can't be together, but we can still celebrate. There will be many, many services to view online tomorrow. May our hearts be blessed, our minds calmed and may we draw closer to Jesus.

******** 

Below are some songs found on you tube. May you be blessed as you listen.

'Risen'

 

Up From The Grave He Arose

 

Love, hugs and prayers for all,

FlowerLady

 

 

The opposite of more...

Hello Folks ~ Here we are into the first of April. Here at Plum Cottage it is on the upper side of warm and the a.c. is on. Skies are partly cloudy, and we've had a few sprinkles. It really is a gorgeous day with a stiff breeze from the west and I'm thankful for this blessing of another day of life.

 Quote for each and every day, "the opposite of more, is enough." I recently read or heard this quote and I don't remember where but it really struck a chord with me. It is so easy to get caught up in wanting more, more of this or that, instead of being content with the 'enough' that we already have. It came to me the other day when I was thinking about what to eat and what if I run out. 

In the Lord's prayer it says, 'give us this day our daily bread', that daily bread is 'enough'. We are not to worry but fight fear with faith. I am not immune to attacks of fear and anxiety, it is something I pray about daily. The evil one wants to crush our faith, to see us cower in fear. Standing in faith in God, we are strong. He gives us His peace.

If I should die from this virus, I will be instantly with Jesus, no more fears, sickness, no more sin, all will be well. A beautiful translation of scripture found in Psalm 62:6-8 for living each day is this:

For he alone is my safe place.

His wrap-around presence always protects me

as my champion defender.

There’s no risk of failure with God!

So why would I let worry paralyze me,

even when troubles multiply around me?

God’s glory is all around me!

His wrap-around presence is all I need,

for the Lord is my Savior, my hero,

and my life-giving strength.

The phrase that really touches my heart is this ~ 'wrap-around presence'. We are talking about Jesus, who is God in the flesh, the Creator of the universe, who loves us so much He gave His perfect life for our sinful life, to save us from everlasting hell. He wraps His loving presence around us in every circumstance of our lives. He cares deeply about every thing, little or big that we go through. He never promised that bad things wouldn't happen, but He has promised that He will be with us 'through' it all, good and bad. May we learn and grow through this rough time in history.

This world wide situation is one that calls us to draw close or closer to God. We all need a Savior and he paid the price once and for all so that we can live forever with Him in glorious wonderfulness now and forever.

Below are some blessings of beauty from the past couple of days including this morning.  No descriptions again as there are so many pics.

 

 

 

 

Ok, that's it for now. My right fingers are cramping up from so much time spent on editing pics and writing up this post. No more pics to share anyway. Also time for lunch.

Love, hugs and prayers for all ~ FlowerLady