Counting Plants... and Blessings!

Today I am camped out in a room full of plants hiding out from the sub-zero (°F) temperatures coming into the house as a new fireplace and chimney liner are installed. I started counting plants and ended up laughing! Guess how many plants live on our main floor alone (answer below)!

Each plant feels like a smile and gift from our loving Heavenly Father! Each one showcases His creativity and imagination. Each green leaf is a testament to His life-sustaining power.

And I thrill to know that I, Hannah... sitting among all these plants, am an even greater example of God's creative power. But not only that. I am a testament to His love and grace!

And I keep seeing His blessings wherever I look:

From my mug of green tea,

To the sunshine on snow...

From the new fireplace,

To the big air-scrubber my creative Dad built for these years of dusty house projects...

What blessings are you counting today?

Mine include 47 plants in this room!

~ Hannah

Daily Gifts

Our first Easter Lily in years!

Gentle sunrise colors

A new-to-me orchid that I acquired rather than see it thrown out last May and nursed to new life: Once I saw this huge blossom, I named it Kaleidoscope!

Life and memories are finding their way back into our "new" basement. Game night, anyone?!

A Simple Way to Encourage through Happy Mail

I love sending and receiving real mail! How about you?! Snail mail may be out of fashion, but it is still so meaningful that I find it worth the extra effort.

And I love tucking a little gift into cards or letters... something that can continue to encourage long after the letter is read and set aside.

My go-to gift for years now has been a scripture art-sticker. So I encouraged my sister to turn some of her beautiful, loose floral watercolors into stickers I could send to friends for daily encouragement on their water bottle, phone case, computer, or anywhere. 

She did it!

Her newest design features Isaiah 33:6, which is so timely in this unstable world. I also love sending her other two designs and look forward to more in the future!

Who could you encourage with a bit of beauty and truth in an envelope?

Find Elsa's art on Instagram @handmaiden.elsa and on Etsy: Here

Mid-Winter Life

It seems that overall, I have strayed from my original purpose for this blog, which was to help us recognize God's good gifts and the beauty in daily life. I am not sorry for some of the other themes that have crept in. But I do hope to revisit this original vision more often in 2023.

In winter particularly, I find myself looking for life and color around me. So after the Christmas decorations came down and left the house bare, my orchids and last summer's dipladenia began to fill the gap.

This is also a fun time of year to pull out the bright balsa birds we brought back from the edge of the Ecuadorian jungle in 2006!

Plus a few summered-over amaryllis are on their way to bring us joy again.

What life and color is bringing you joy this winter? Feel free to share in a comment below!

Bearer of Good News

We are enjoying getting to know the most special gift our family received in 2021: Evangeline!

Her name means "bearer of good news." May she be just that in our world full of bad news.

Meanwhile, Joseph is learning to be a caring big brother...

...and learning to solve puzzles!

Not Even a Cup of Tea?

"The son said, My heart is disquieted within me. My soul cleaveth to the dust. Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O God.

"His Father said, In My hand are the deep places of the earth. Is there no blue sky? Have roses forgotten how to blow? Have birds ceased to sing among the branches? Hast thou not the sweetness of the love of a single little child? Hast thou no pleasant food – not even a cup of tea? Have tears been thy meat day and night?

"Gather up thy comforts, the greatest, the smallest, and thou wilt be surprised that thou hast so many to gather."

His thoughts said… His Father said…
by Amy Carmichael

Looking Ahead

Have I mentioned that my Auntiehood is growing?! We are anticipating another little gift in December to love and help disciple. While we wait, we pray for a safe time of growth and development.

As soon as I heard about Baby #2, I splashed out a little watercolor sketch in my excitement. While Maren may not look that big until the trees are bare and lakes freezing over, Joseph is certainly looking more and more like the confident explorer leading the way in my sketch.

Photos by Elsa [Reaching to the Skies]

Waiting Room Hymns

 

On my first visit to Dr. V. (see previous post) seven years ago, I was blessed to hear a hymn playing in the waiting room: "Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." Not that they were playing Christian music. Somehow, this one just ended up on the mixed album they were playing that day. Actually, I know how... a loving God was taking care of His hurting, scared child in the way He knew would touch her best.

For years I had forgotten that special moment until I was just now recalling another special gift from just this week. At my final appointment with this amazing doctor (the day before she retired) I was brought to tears by once again hearing a hymn among the variety of modern and classical "background music." It was the perfect hymn for this day of saying goodbye to the doctor who was able to diagnose Elsa and me and help our bodies begin to dig out of a decade of damage, as well as who found my thyroid cancer when it was only stage one. As we moved into a future of more unknowns, I heard notes and harmonies that told me:

"Be still, my soul! the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;"

And then the lines that really got me...

"Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain.

"Be still, my soul! thy best, thy heav'nly Friend
Thro' thorny ways leads to a joyful end."

My doctor called me for a blood draw just then, so I had to explain the tears. As she entered her own season of changes and unknowns, she had to try to keep back the tears too.

P.S. - As a bonus, this last appointment also contained a second hymn: "Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross"

[Pictures from camping near our clinic this week.]

Beauty and Gratitude

6.4.2021 - Took a picture of a bit of beauty to end the day.

Today I am thankful for:

▪︎ a good breeze to ease the evening of a 100° day

▪︎relaxing visits on the deck
▪︎lovely new shades of undyed wool yarn
▪︎dairy-free (coconut) ice-cream
▪︎being able to handle walnuts in small amounts every once in a while
▪︎lovely, hardy roses grown from a root that was being thrown out of a clean-up project in another garden
▪︎great progress made on paperwork to prepare for 6-month appointments - even when I sat down at my computer thinking I couldn't get a foggy brain to do anything today
▪︎window screens to keep out noisy June-bugs
▪︎the book of Ephesians

Four-Hundred Fifty-Six Months

Yes, another birthday rolled around.

I lowered my treatment schedule for a couple of days to be able to feel better through the celebrations than last year.

Joseph was just as enthralled with candle-flames this year...

... and much more disappointed when they were blown out.

Since we celebrated at Maren's house, we got to use the special tea-set which was bought on one of her overseas birthdays.

We enjoyed a flower-bed tour with so many plants we don't grow. How many different kinds of hosta would you guess a hosta-lover/horticulturalist has around his little yard in town?!

And I've loved Lady's Slippers long before I came to raise orchids. They remind me of state parks in June.

Our little guy was nearly 19 months that day (437 months younger than I), so it was time for his first watercolor lesson!

He was so into it, and we love having his art join ours on the fridge!

Later, Auntie E got him interested in stickers. They could have engrossed him all night!

After that photo overload, what can I say but...

Out of all the amazing gifts my family gave me for my birthday, the family members themselves are still some of God's best gifts to me!