Merry Christmas

"2000 Decembers Ago"

Did it feel like a night any different?
Then at least a million before
Was there any rare expectation
Like there was some kind of somethin' in store

Did the sky have to hold back the thunder?
Did the moon find new reasons to glow?
Could the children somehow sense the wonder
2000 Decembers ago?

Were the sheep as amazed as the shepherds
At the new star that lit up the sky?
Did the willow trees whisper excitement
To the rivers and streams passing by?

Did the joy ricochet off the mountains
'Til it filled up the valleys below?
Did all the world sense love abounding
2000 Decembers ago?

Was anyone able to look at the stable
And not see a child but a King
I wish, I could hear back over the years
As heaven and nature sing, heaven and nature sing

Did the walls of the barn start to tremble
With a glory they could not contain?
Did anyone wake with the feeling
Of peace that they could not explain?

Oh, the love must have been overwhelming
As it warmed everyone in its flow
For all of the earth is still telling
Of 2000 Decembers ago

Was anyone able to look at the stable
And not see a child but a King
I wish, I could hear back over the years
As heaven and nature sing

Was anyone able to look at the stable
And not see a child but a King
I wish, I could hear back over the years
As heaven and nature sing, heaven and nature sing
Heaven and nature sing

Oh, the love must have been overwhelming
2000 Decembers ago

~ Joy Williams

Even though we're not sure the day or what time of year our Savior was born, this song is beautiful. :)

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!!

"Thank you, God, for Jesus!"

It will always be Christmas to me

Call it what you may; just a winter holiday
Or a season filled with fun and fantasy
Call it anything you wish, but December 25th

Will always be Christmas to me

It will always be Christmas to me
It will always be Christmas to me
This one sacred day will forever stay
The birth of my Savior and King
It will always be Christmas to me

When I see the lights; I still think about the nights
When a wondrous star showed over Bethlehem
In the children’s caroling, I still hear the angels sing
Announcing, “Christ is born” once again

It will always be Christmas to me
It will always be Christmas to me
This one sacred day will forever stay
The birth of my Savior and King
It will always be Christmas to me

Every time I hear you say, “Merry Christmas”,
Those words mean so much more
For they help me to remember
What this celebration is for

It will always be Christmas to me
It will always be Christmas to me
This one sacred day will forever stay
The birth of my Savior and King
It will always be Christmas to me

This one sacred day will forever stay
The birth of my Savior and King
It will always be Christmas to me
It will always be Christmas
It will always be Christmas to me

~Booth Brothers -  

It will always be Christmas to me

 Christmas is Jesus' birthday! So the Christmas tree, the decorations, it's all birthday decorations for Jesus!
Did you know the Candy Cane was even made to represent Christ?
Actually the Christmas tree, wreaths, and many other things also represent Christ. Isn't that cool?!

It's sad how the world has commercialized, and holiday-ified Christmas till almost everyone forgets the "Reason for the Season" as they get caught up in shopping and gift wrapping, children hoping for Santa Claus to bring what they wished for, and some even replacing "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays"or "Seasons Greetings"!

Lets remember to take the time to read the real story of Christmas on Dec. 24th or 25th this year, and gives thanks for the First gift ever given on Christmas. Love. :)

Merry Christmas!

It's that time of year!

"It's the most wonderful time of the year"

I'm Celebrating Jesus, that's what Christmas means to me.

Yesterday we went and got our Christmas tree!!
We usually go the weekend of Thanksgiving, but we all ended up getting the flu that weekend. Yuck..
So.... We now finally have our tree up!
I'm the official tree lighterer, so we had some fun while checking the lights last night....

Peanut was not amused though..... :P

I was thinking, "Hey! It's Tigger!" (anyone remember the old short Winnie the Pooh movies?)
So after having to go get another string of lights as one we had went out, we got the tree all decorated last night!!

We have now watched 3 of our "I've lost count of how many we have Christmas Carols".
2 of which are musicals. :)

My favorites are Muppets Christmas Carol and Albert Finney's Scrooge.
Here is one of the songs from Scrooge.

This upcoming Saturday is the annual Christmas at the Fort!
I can't wait! There will be caroling, Wassail (a type of cider), wreath making, spinning top making, tassel making, potpourri making (my station), games and dancing (Megs and Kai's stations) and other fun things!
The kitchen will be making food so will be warm and cheery!
It's from 10am - 3pm if anyone wants to come. :)


How's your December? Is your house decorated yet?

Christmas Countdown! It is only 21 days away!!!

Prayer

I read this in a book I was reading once a few years back, I think it was called "The Lost Clue".

Oh, tarry and be strong;

Tell God in prayer

What is thy hidden grief;

They secret care.

Yet, if no answer come,

Pray on and wait:

God’s time is always best;

Never too late.

I like how it makes you think about, and remember, to talk to God and tell Him your heart.
Just because He knows what you are about to ask before you even utter it, doesn't mean we shouldn't go to Him in prayer.
He WANTS us to talk to Him, He WANTS us to ask Him, to tell him our hidden grief, our secret care.

When we ask Him for something in our life, at times it may seem as if He isn't listening or doesn't care.
But what feels like silence doesn't mean He didn't answer our prayer, His answer was may have been "No, I have greater and better plans for you".
Or, his answer may have been, "Not yet, the time is not right, be patient."
He ALWAYS listen to our prayers, when we talk to Him, no matter how little a matter it is, He listens.
He loves us!

Beauty of Fall

A couple weeks ago Kai and I went up into Cougar, almost to the Ape caves, to trim a friends goats feet before winter.
The sun was out, not a cloud in the sky and the drive up and back was absolutely beautiful!!!!
Next year, I wan't to go to the Ape caves and Lava Canyon in Oct!

Anyways, we took photo's on the way up and back, here are the few I was able to take on our way out the long driveway. :)

Isn't fall beautiful?! Well, when it's not raining, then all the leaves are dull colored and soggy. :P

How you're fall going?
Can you believe it's November already! Wow! This year is going by so fast!
I think it goes by faster the older I get.... must be because now I have lots more responsibilities than when I was little, so time goes by faster.

I think I'll start putting a funny at the and of my posts.
Here is one that fits me. 😉

Oct. Thus Far

So far Oct. been a very busy month!
It started out with the online Virtual goat show I'm in charge of, so I had that to get done.

And we had the Fort Vancouver student selection day, that went really well!
Plenty of new students, I'm looking forward to meeting them all. 😄

Then last week our grandparents came up. For the 2nd time this year!!
They've NEVER come up twice in a year before!
Grandpa helped do some stuff on the house, he and I put up a new ceiling fan in our new living room.
And he and dad did a bunch of other stuff, new lights, light switches, etc.
Now we need to pick out flooring and get trim up and the living room will be done!
We had lots of fun while Grandma and Grandpa were here.
We played Phase 10, Golf (the card game), 10,000 (dice game), and a few board games like Aggravation and Sorry.
We also played Life, I lost, as usual. 😑😉

Oh! On the 1st of the month, we came home from church to find some guy had taken our mailbox and post out!
He had stolen the car and was on the run. The police are guessing he knew the area because he tried to go down the drive next to ours to shake the police as there is a curve in the main road right before our driveway.
Anyways he came in too fast and.....

See the brick in the first pic? That's a piece from the 2 ft. wide 3 ft. high brick base our mailbox sat on.
He took it out right at the ground! Broke it in 3-4 pieces!! There was one large piece farther down too!
After he went through our mailbox, he took out 5 of our arborvitae bushes as well.
But the car wasn't totaled! And the guy got out and ran away! They didn't catch him!
They even brought out the K-9. Nothing.....

Oh, well. At least no one was hurt. 😌

Not much going on the rest of the month for us, we have a fashion show we're going to be in on Saturday.
No other Fort stuff for us this month besides that, we're busy the first night of Lantern Tour.
So we'll go do it next month.

It's been an interesting week for me so far.
Monday I caught a feral kitten at our neighbors as we need a barn cat.
Bit the heck out of my right thumb! Ouch! Blood everywhere. Oh, sorry, hope that wasn't TMI?
Hurt like the dickens! But it seems to be doing alright, both my thumb and the kitten. 😉
Caught another kitten too, it bit Megs, but not so bad as my bites. (she only had 2 cuts and a scratch)
Then last night I sliced my other thumb making dinner. Darn Kitchen Aid spiral veggie noodle maker.
Not much blood and pain was almost nonexistent strangely enough, way bigger cut too the ones the kitten did. Weird....
So far I've made it through today with no blood! 😋

Hope you're all having a great month so far!

Fall is here!

And it still gets too warm in the afternoon's on most days for me to wear sweaters.... 😑
But hey, as long as the sun stays out, I won't complain!

This past Saturday we had our Summer's End Promenade.
It was so fun!! We had more people attend in costume then ever before that I can remember, and had more guys there in costume than ever before!
Which is great because we need them there otherwise those great outfits don't get to be shown off!

I'm ashamed to say that even after planning, leaving early to get down there... I forgot my camera!!
Ahhhh! That was the whole reason we wanted to get there 1 1/2 hrs early!!
Oh well, I was able to help some of the ladies with their hair, and do some others things.

I did get to get pictures with my phone, which I'm glad I got a new one with a better camera than my last phone....
The group shots turned out almost as nice as my camera, but the single shots were a little eh.

So I shall share pictures from the era's we had.

Here you shall start in the 1840's and go forward by decade (except we didn't have any 1850's) until you reach our final era of the 1940's.
Isn't it amazing how the styles changed over 100 years!

1840's outfits

The 1860's (the 1850's are very similar, but with bigger and rounder hoops)

The 1970's, from hoops to bustles.

1880's, still bustles, but they're getting smaller

1890's, practically no bustle left, they are more of a roll seated at the top of the hips.

And now we start into the Anne of Green Gables era, the early 1900's!

The 19 teens, these outfits are all from 1917, 100 years ago this year!! The boy-scout uniform is in the front. :)

The Roaring 1920's

The 1930's

And the 1940's! This era seemed to be the most popular this year!

 And then of course we had to get all the guys together for a guys only picture!

Only missing 1 of the guys! we had 18 guys this year!! Yay for all the outfits they got to show off!! :D

And now we are on break for the main events until Christmas at the fort on Dec. 9th.
We do have the schools to prepare for, including going over and accepting applicants this weekend.

Then we have the 2 orientations for those new students where us adults and 2nd year+ students show them the do's and don't of how to interpret and they get a "what to expect" from the leaders of the schools. :)

So how's your Fall going so far?
Hope studying is going well for those who are in school or collage. :)

Mac

Yesterday marked 1 year since we went and got Mac!!
Our trip to Spokane and back in a day for him was so much fun!
I can't believe it's been a year already and yet it seems as if we've had him forever!
He is such a good boy!

Here are some pictures from when we got him last Sept. in and some from this year to show how much he has grown!

Mac when we first got him:

Mac this year:

Isn't the difference amazing!

"Stick boy"! He likes to chew on stick and lay on his back. :P

Mac and Belinda playing, Mac is so happy he can be faster than Belinda now!

I would have taken pictures of him today, but the lighting inside isn't the greatest and it is raining buckets outside.
But I'm not complaining! (yet) ;)
We've needed this rain, especially with all the fires, hopefully this will either put them out, or greatly decrees it and help the firefighters. :)

September... Already?!

As I saw a funny the other day:
Summer should get a speeding ticket!

I cannot believe Autumn will be officially here in only 10 days!


This last Saturday we went to the Campfires & Candlelight event at Fort Vancouver.
It was very fun as it is every year.
I was in the WWI camp again, I like to call it "my WWI camp" as I've been stationed there for the past 4 years now. 😉
This year though was different.
None of the others that have been in that camp with me were there this year!
I had 5 new "re-cruets"!
Micah & Matty were dough-boys (soldiers) representing the mill workers and loggers of the Spruce Mill.
And we had a couple and their son, along with their 1917 Model-T ambulance!!
Wish I had pictures, but I didn't take my camera with me this year and my mom forgot to bring it when she came to visit. 😑
It rained on us!!!!
The weather had 3 weeks before to rain and put out nearby fires and relieve the fire ban so we could have fires to cook over at the event, but did it?
No, of course not! so we got damp/wet and had cold dinner!
But, at least it was a good dinner and even though the rain made us a bit chilly, we all enjoyed it very much. Well, I know I did anyways. 😊


Our next event will be Sept. 30th, 1pm-3pm on Officers Row at Fort Vancouver.
I'm looking forward to it as we will have 30+ people there in era's from the 1840's-1945!

I shall now share a few funnies to end this post as I cannot think of anything else to say and I have written a lot already.

I do wonder this.... I'm afraid to find out! ;)

I did this while doing this post! :P

My family & friends can attest to this.

Even If...

 ~~~~~~

 

They say sometimes you win some
Sometimes you lose some
And right now, right now I'm losing bad
I've stood on this stage night after night
Reminding the broken it'll be alright
But right now, oh right now I just can't

It's easy to sing
When there's nothing to bring me down
But what will I say
When I'm held to the flame
Like I am right now

 

 

I know You're able and I know You can
Save through the fire with Your mighty hand
But even if You don't
My hope is You alone

 

 

They say it only takes a little faith
To move a mountain
Well good thing
A little faith is all I have, right now
But God, when You choose
To leave mountains unmovable
Oh give me the strength to be able to sing
"It is well with my soul"

 

 

I know You're able and I know You can
Save through the fire with Your mighty hand
But even if You don't,
My hope is You alone.
I know the sorrow, and I know the hurt
Would all go away if You'd just say the word
But even if You don't
My hope is You alone

 

 

You've been faithful, You've been good
All of my days
Jesus, I will cling to You
Come what may

‘Cause I know You're able.

I know You can.

 

I know You're able I know You can
Save through the fire with Your mighty hand
But even if You don't,
My hope is You alone
I know the sorrow, I know the hurt,
Would all go away if You'd just say the word

But even if You don't,
My hope is You alone.

 

It is well with my soul.
It is well, it is well with my soul.

 

 

 

~Amen~