Snow! Well ... Sort Of!

The weather man said that there would be snow and yesterday morning I awoke to the tiniest sprinkling! How exciting to have snow in October. 

I love the look of snow especially if I am all cosy at home! I like to walk on fresh snow and feel that crunch under my feet but once it turns to slush and ice the appeal just vanishes. I really don't like walking and slip sliding on ice! 

It really feels like Winter is on the way! 

Blessings,

Jenny

Queen Victoria.

I am most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of "Women's Rights," with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense on womanly feelings and propriety. Feminists ought to get a good whipping. Were women to "unsex" themselves by claiming equality with men, they would become the most hateful, heathen and disgusting of beings and would surely perish without male protection. 

I love peace and quiet, I hate politics and turmoil. We women are not made for governing, and if we are good women, we must dislike these masculine occupations. 

Queen Victoria. 

Blessings, 

Jenny

If Jesus Came To Your House Today.

If Jesus came to your house

To spend a day or two,

If He came unexpectedly, 

I wonder what you'd do.

I know you'd give your nicest room

To such an honoured guest, 

And all the food you'd serve to Him

Would be the very best. 

And you would keep assuring Him

You're glad to have Him there, 

That serving Him in your own home

Is joy beyond compare! 

But when you saw Him coming,

Would you meet Him at the door

With arms outstretched in welcome

To your heavenly visitor?

Or would you have to change your clothes

Before you let Him in. 

Or hide the magazines and put

The Bible where they'd been?

Would you keep right on saying

The things you always say?

Would life for you continue

As it does from day to day?

Would you sing the songs you always sing

And read the books you read, 

And let Him know on what

Your mind and spirit feed?

Would you take Jesus with you

Everywhere you'd planned to go?

Or would you maybe change your plans

For just a day or so?

Would you be glad to have Him meet

Your very closest friends?

Or would you hope they'd stay away

Until His visit ends?

Would you be glad to have Him stay

Forever on and on, 

Or would you sigh with great relief 

When He at last was gone?

It might be interesting to know

The things that you would do,

If Jesus came in person

To spend some time with you. 

Lois Blanchard Eades. 

I read this today in an old issue of The King's Blooming Rose and it was perfect timing as I was clearing my clutter and trying to decide which of my books and DVDs I should keep. I tend to get attached to things and, to be truthful, I buy too much. If I have had a bad day I will pop into a shop on the way home and buy something that I don't need or have a place for. I am in the middle of an Autumn clean! 

I always try to be honest in this blog and open about my thoughts. Reading this poem was like a shot to my soul. It hurt! I felt sad and ashamed and tearful all at once. I realised that, yes, I would have to put some magazines away and change how I act. I am disgusted with myself and my weakness! There is so much that I do that I know isn't good but I do it and go along with it because it is acceptable and normal in the world that I live in. I hate to stand out among my friends or at work and this leads me into some grey areas. 

I read those women's magazines. The ones that I justify to myself even though I have to flick past certain articles. Do I really want to be spending my money on these things? Do I really need to keep the DVDs that do nothing to educate or improve me? I tend to keep things because they cost me money at the time I bought them or because I used to really like them. This poem helped me so much today! It cleared my mind and made my stay and go decisions so much easier. 

I can't just remove the bad influences as this seems to leave a vacuum. I need to replace them with wholesome and good influences. The kind of books, magazines and films that I would be happy to be found with if Jesus came to visit. I suddenly have a whole lot more space! 

It is so sad to think that Jesus could come to my house to visit me and that I could be more focussed on tucking magazines under the chair than on the huge blessing I was given. I would be one of those that saw Him through the window and then panicked and had to hide all those iffy things that I have. I wouldn't be able to be natural with Him around, and yes, I would probably be counting down the hours until I could get back to normal. But really my version of normal and acceptable is clearly wrong if I am ashamed of it.Even though I have had a physical clear out there is still a lot of mental stuff that I need to work through. It will be a long road of constant effort! 

I thought a lot about whether or not to post this. I wanted to hide my shame away! I didn't want you to see this weakness, this dark side to me. My life isn't all pretty flower photographs though and I would be selling myself short to pretend that it is. 

Blessings,

Jenny

Art Group Update.

A few people have asked me if I am still going to the art group so I thought I would do an update. I am still attending but missed one week, the next week was the AGM, and the week after that was a pastels demonstration. So I haven't been drawing much! This last week was back to normal though so here are my latest doodles. 

I love the style of Beatrix Potter. Her adorable animal drawings just jump off the page! They all have so much character and life. Plus her pictures are quite small and detailed so I thought they would be ideally suited while I am attempting to improve my sketching skills. 

Not much to show for two hours drawing time! Well ..... two hours less time spent chatting! 

Alien bunny! This one didn't go very well. The head looks odd and the proportions just don't look correct.

Mummy and baby bunny. This one went a little better. I tend to jump from one bit of the drawing to another quite a lot and, in this picture, my rabbits ended up too far apart! 

Peter Rabbit! This is the one that I really took my time on and thankfully the pose and proportions worked out quite well. I think he looks a little shocked! I thought that a similar drawing perhaps with some festive additions would make a nice Christmas card. Not exactly time effective though! 

Do you make your own Christmas cards, tags or wrapping paper? 

Blessings,

Jenny

Pink Scarf.

I am knitting (yet another) scarf! This one is alternating rows of knit and purl which is giving me plenty of opportunity with purling. 

The wool is really easy to knit with and I am using big needles. Hopefully it will knit up fast! The weather is really cooling down here and this will make such a cosy scarf. The wool feels almost like marshmallow! 

I have just finished one in the same type of wool but in midnight blue for my Mum. That was all knit stitch though. I didn't want to go wrong on her scarf! I am almost to the point where knitting is relaxing now but I am still nervous about tackling a pattern! 

Blessings,

Jenny

God's Creed.

Man's creed is apt to be a long one; God's creed is very short. Short as it is, however, you will have no time to spare if you shape your years according to its requirements. 

Love, Faith, Peace - these are the golden keys which hang at the girdle when man is his best self; they unlock the mysteries of the present, and draw the bolt in the door of the future. 

G. H. Hepworth

How often do we complicate things, especially things that should be simple? Love, Faith, and Peace. Not easy things to live by and they would provide constant challenges. So hard and requiring constant self correction but complicated? No. 

Love all, live in Faith, and promote Peace. Loving all is tough for me. I tend to make snap judgements about people, I can be drawn into gossip and a sarcastic tongue is something I battle with. I feel that my faith is strong and yet I still have a lot more learning and growing to do. I still get faith wobbles and times of doubt. Promoting peace is another tough one! How often do I get involved in gossip? Not even by actually saying anything but by being present during such conversations and not speaking out against them. Promoting peace to me means not taking sides and seeing all points of view. 

I don't know why I try to complicate things! Perhaps the goal sounds more worthy when it is complicated by pages of rules and regulations. It all serves as a distraction though and clouds the true path. Getting caught up in the day to day niggles of life without cutting through to the heart of the matter. We are instructed to love one another and, with God's constant help, I am working on this. He won't give up on me so I won't give up trying and searching and striving. 

Blessings, 

Jenny

Aeroplane.

Seeing an aeroplane in the sky always makes me wonder where it is going, who is on it and sets off imaginings of holidays and business trips. Are the people filled with excitement over a dream holiday? Are they visiting family? There are so many possibilities! 

I don't like to fly and I really don't like heights. A bit of random information for you! I have been to Florida which is an amazing place. Disney World was truly magical! The last time I flew was about 10 years ago now. Luckily for me I love England and there are so many beautiful places to go and interesting sites to see that I really don't have any need to fly. 

So it really doesn't take much to send my thoughts off on a tangent. Just a white arrow across a brilliant blue sky! 

Blessings,

Jenny

Purple Sweet Peas.

I just love the colours of these sweet peas! They look so unusual! The seeds were sent to me by a lovely pen pal and I hoped and hoped that they would grow. All of my other sweet peas are a single colour and they have mostly died off now so these are the final remnants of a Summer garden. 

I am hoping that I can collect some seeds from these ones once they have finished flowering. Something else to read up on! 

Aren't they beautiful?

Blessings,

Jenny