Thankfulness...

We Gather Together

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;
He chastens and hastens his will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing,
Sing praises to his name: He forgets not his own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, wast at our side, All glory be thine!

We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,
And pray that thou still our defender wilt be.
Let thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!
Amen.

-Traditional Thanksgiving Hymn
(A translation by Theodore Baker: 1851-1934)

(Reformation Day Post *hopefully* coming soon. ;))

To say that I'm BUSY would be a huge understatement. I've been so tempted to just complain about everything I have to do but I'm attempting to stay cheery. Reformation Day is JUST around the corner...which explains the stress. ;) Right now, I've finally finished deep cleaning the basement (company this weekend!), William is sitting down watching "Toy Story 2" & I've got some flan in the oven so I figured I'd sit down and write a blog post. :)

I picked up a delightful book at the library. Tiff recommended it to me...I'm so glad she did. :) "Damsels in Distress" by P.G. Wodehouse. It really cracked me up, because I finally sit down on the porch to read this book after putting dinner in the oven and soon after find out that that very day was P.G. Wodehouse's birthday. So I guess I celebrated just right. :) Anyway, it's a hilarious book so far...I love his writing style. He's simply brilliant with words.
Oh, and we've been watching Doctor Who in the evenings. It's my brother-in-law's fault. Really. He got us totally hooked on it. :) You know those annoying fans of "LOST" that would not stop harping on and on about the show? Those people that annoyed you to death? Those people that made you think "Who could like a dumb TV show so much?!" Well, that's us...*cough* But I"ll tell you, it's a fun way to spend an evening after working all day & stressing about Ref day. :)




Random conversation I had with Moosh recently:

Me: I'm stressed!!
Melissa: How can you be stressed? You're eating popcorn!!
Me: *British accent* Well, I can hardly eat popcorn in an agitated manner!

I love my ability to bring Oscar Wilde into regular conversations. *grins* ^^

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So anyway, I'll stop boring you with my ramblings and show y'all a few random pictures from my very random life. :)

a lovely day spent at the Niesen's house! ^^

a lovely afternoon at the Mitts' house! ^^
(playing telephone pictionary and having a fantastic time. :))

driving in the car with Moosh, Marie Michelle, Kasey & William. ^^

william & emma on hay bales. I love fall.

my beautiful little sisters at the apple orchard in the apron's Tiff made for them. :) ^^

visiting with Mrs. Sanford, Sarah, Melinda, Jennifer & Mooshy. ^^

Moosh & I love doing dishes. ;) ^^

Had a great time shopping with some of my favorite girlfriends. :) ^^

Emma turned 8 this month...gosh, where is the time going?

Just because I like this picture. *grins* ^^

"Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
- Philippians 4:4-7

"Life is but a quick succession of busy nothings..." - Jane Austen

If I said "life is crazy" at this point, I think it would be an understatement. But, just so you know it's a *good* crazy (for the most part. ;)). Between juggling life, life's changes, cold weather, sick friends, Church events & various other activities one can almost forget to breath.

But I will say, I'm pretty thankful for this afternoon. Yes, if you think about it the day has been stressful (also known as, our well ran out of water *again*.) but it's been quiet as Melissa took the kids out for the day. I was sitting here thinking how thankful I was for the beauty of the day (in spite of the things that have gone wrong, it's been a great day - week & past few months.) and I wondered to myself - why not write a blog post? So anyway, here I am. :)

Do you ever wonder why God blesses us like he does? I don't know about y'all, but I find that my blessings usually come when I least expect them. I *try* to know what's going to happen. I guess, I imagine, I romanticize, but in the end, guess what? God ALWAYS surprises me! I love it, truly. Because, I can't *not* guess & imagine but I want to be surprised (fyi, I love surprises...most of the time. ;)) and God knows this, and he does it every time. :) I'm just so thankful for all the ways he's surprised me with blessings over the years. I certainly don't feel a bit worthy & yet the Lord made the decision to bless me. I praise Him. :)

So with Reformation Day around the corner and no new costumes to wear the future could look very bleak. ;) But with my imaginative mind (*coughcough*) & Melissa's practicality we'll figure SOMETHING out, I'm sure. So if you thought that because Tiff has moved out of the house that the McDonald family will no longer show up to historical events in costume - NEVER FEAR. Nothing could be further from the truth! Who says we can't RE-WEAR old costumes? ;) So, that's decided. Moving on...

Martha Washington has the cleverest quotes. Get this: "The greatest part of our happiness and misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances." I love that. Right now, I have some things I'm struggling with - things that tempt me to be gloomy & worrisome, but that quote gave me such a good perspective on my struggles! I don't have to mope - what can I do to change circumstances? Nothing! So it's time to put a smile on my face and get out there and cheer myself up!! As I always tell my little siblings, "Don't cry over spilled milk!" It's time to trust God, understand that He's got everything under control, seek to learn from your struggles, see what the Lord is trying to teach you and LIVE JOYFULLY.

So yes, life is busy. Life is good. And blessed. And a little stressful. But I'm going to try and make it a point to turn that frown upside down.