Hymn for Sunday

I Sing the Mighty Power of God

Words: Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
Music: From Gesangbuch der Herzogl, Wurttemberg, 1784

I sing the mighty power of God, That made the mountains rise;
That spread the flowing seas abroad, And built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained The sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at His command, And all the stars obey.

I sing the goodness of the Lord, That filled the earth with food;
He formed the creatures with His Word, And then pronounced them good.
Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed, Where'er I turn my eye:
If I survey the ground I tread, Or gaze upon the sky!

There's not a plant or flower below, But makes Thy glories known;
And clouds arise, and tempests blow, By order from Thy throne;
While all that borrows life from Thee Is ever in Thy care,
And everywhere that man can be, Thou, God art present there.

Success!!!

At last I have the joy of reporting that the bridesmaids dresses are finished!!!! :o) Momma and I have have spent the past several days buckled down in the sewing room desperately trying to get these dresses done before the weekend.

"Finished Product"
The picture shows the dresses much much greyer than the fabric really is. It's a beautiful sage green that 'shimmers'...

This weekend will mark two weeks before Trevor and Thelma's wedding which is why we wanted the dresses done by then (we are cutting it close as it is!). There is still a bit of hand work to do; several hems need to be put in, a ribbon put where the skirt and bodice meet, and a few hooks and eyes need to be placed, but these are things that can be done in the evenings while catching up on the days happenings with everyone.

What sweet relief and joy it is to have the major part of this project behind us! I cannot wait to see what everyone looks like in their dress...

"Planting Rose Bushes"
So what does Ashley have planned now that she has a little more free time these days? Gardening of course!!!! I have seeds started, seeds to plant, weeds to pull, and garden stuff to pull out of hibernation. What fun this shall be!

The window here beside the computer is open which is letting in a wonderful breeze... spring is officially here (never mind the fact that we received four inches of snow a little over a week ago) and several of the trees are beginning to bloom! The frogs have come back to life, the birds sing constantly and flit from tree to tree, the grass is greening up, and new life and hope is alive where ever you look! What a wonderful time of year!

Catching Up

It has been quite some time since I last did a post. With all of the things that have been going on and the out of the ordinary projects that are taking place, blogging has had to take a back seat. I need to be available to help and jump in where needed!

So... what has been going on the past few weeks???

"Helping with the laundry"

Normal everyday tasks, such as laundry, have been kept up with! Sawyer loves to be involved in what one is doing and he is learning how to clear the table and load the dishwasher. Here, he is learning how to operate clothespins while singing about it! Doing jobs with a 'happy heart' is something that he is being continually taught.

"What a project..."
The downstairs bathroom has been a work in progress for two weeks now. Sayre scrubbed walls and molding so that Collin could prime and paint for us. If it wasn't for them I doubt this project would have gotten very far.
The bathroom is finished except for the closet which you will see below.

"The house that Trevor is building"

The house at Bull Run is still the lovely shade of green from several posts ago but progress is being made on the inside! The wood floor is down, two rooms are painted, tile will soon be laid, and the water was hooked up! With four weeks and four days till the wedding, work on the house is starting to pick up! Trevor is doing a great job on everything!

"The new and improved closet"

Daddy has spent the last two weekends constructing and putting up shelves in the freshly painted bathroom closet! We are so excited!!!! It looks really good and utilizes all of the wall space. There is going to be a hanging rod underneath the lower shelf for table cloths and such. Momma already has the closet organized on paper.... oh we just can't wait! Sayre will be putting a coat or two of paint on today and tomorrow and they we can 'move in'!

"It's that time of year..."

The gardening bug is starting to bite and it's pulling us out the door to get our hands in the dirt! We have our seeds ordered, have other seeds started inside, have seeds arriving in the mail, and are starting to plant seeds outside! What a wonderful time of year!

"Another work in progress"
Thelma spends most of her Saturday afternoons at our house working on her dress, drinking our coffee :o), and having a wonderful time (well, she seems to anyway!). We had quite the time last Saturday...

"Re-rolling fabric"

As I am ready to start the bridesmaids dresses, the first step in getting them cut out was to take all of the fabric off of the 'bolt' that it had been rolled onto. The fabric had not been folded before being rolled so we had to do it ourselves. About three quarters of the way through re-rolling it we realized that we had folded the wrong sides together and had to start all over. It was a fun time though; I don't exactly remember what we were laughing at but it was so funny that we had to stop what we were doing and try to regain our composure!

We've also had some things occur that bring a little more joy into our days...

"A daily delight"
My orchid began to bloom two weeks ago!

There are now three flowers open four more set to open in the next several weeks! One thing that I really enjoy about orchids is that their blooms last for several weeks.

"An unexpected surprise"
Mommas amaryllis has been blooming! What a surprise this was for us as it wasn't supposed to bloom this year! We've been enjoying it's cheerful colors gracing the kitchen window.

"Guess who"
Sayre has been our comic relief these past several weeks! He made this mask out of cow bones that he found at Bull Run and has enjoyed wearing it around. He is so funny and does some of the goofiest things! What would we do without Mr. Sayre???! :o)

There are more painting projects in the works, bridesmaids dresses to be sewn, spring cleaning to be done, and everyday tasks that must be tended to, so I will most likely not be posting very often. I will try to post something once a week (maybe more as time permits) but if I don't it's probably because I'm busy.

I hope y'all have a wonderful week!

A Hymn for Sunday

The Love of God

Words & Music by: Frederick M, Lehman

The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;

His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measure less and strong!

It shall for ever more endure,

The saints' and angels' song.

When years of time shall pass away
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God's love, so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam's race-
The saints' and angels' song.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forever more endure,
The saints' and angels' song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made;
Were ev'ry stalk on earth a quill,

And ev'ry man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Tho' stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure,
The saints' and angels' song.

In the Sewing Room

There have been many projects that have come through the sewing room during the past several months. Many of them were successfully completed and others were, well... cut apart by little hands that delight in experimenting with scissors!
Several of my projects have turned into "favorites"; items that I enjoy to the fullest!

"Exhibit#1"
Meet "Bea"... we adopted her when she was left at our former home by her previous owner. She is the exact size of Mrs. B. (the owner) who was around four foot eight or so. She was tiny!
I have really enjoyed this skirt both beause of the style and because of the color! I just finished the blouse last week and am very happy with how it turned out! The tucks were taken from another pattern and added here to give the blouse a little character. I'm quite pleased with the results!

"Exhibit #2"
I made this apron quite some time ago but have neglected to post a finished picture of it. The cheerful colors make this one of my favorite aprons to wear although I do try to stay away from spaghetti or pizza sauce when using it!
There are two amusing aspects about this apron... the first one is that when I cut it out I made sure to make it over an inch longer than it needed to be, but upon putting the last stitch in, I found that it was an inch shorter that the other apron! I'm not sure what happened! The second interesting feature is that the pocket stripes don't line up with the apron stripes. They did when I pinned them down...

"Exhibit #3"
Thelma and her two sisters, who are bridesmaids in her wedding, came for a fitting this past Saturday and had a blast in the process! You should visit Thelma's post for more details on it.
We are now ready to get their dresses started and should begin work next week, hopefully!

I still have quite a stash of fabric so I know there will be much more coming out of the sewing room in the next several months!

A Sneak Peek...

Would you like to see what a few of us have been up to since Monday? This will by no means be an exhaustive commentary on what we're up to, but will rather show what several of us have our minds focused on at the moment!

"Sanding"
Momma is so very anxious to have her newly painted bathroom closet back in working order. Daddy was able to install several shelf 'holders' over the weekend, while also thinking through the logistics of putting shelving on a long wall. Momma spent Monday sanding the putty that was used to fill the nail holes and then scrubbed the closet trim which is prep work to getting it primed and painted.

"Our Nut Man"
Daddy bought Sayre a handy-dandy pecan picker-upper last week which for him was relief! He has been picking the nuts up on hands and knees and I suppose doing it this way became rather tiresome after a while! The tool is made of wire "bands" that force the nuts into a holding area of sorts (there is a picture further down in the post). With two pecan trees in the yard there are allot of nuts on the ground!

"May I Help You?"
We are so glad that Bee-Moo is feeling so much better these days! The little tyke had a bad cold for about a week but he is now well on the road to recovery! I love walking out to the pen and find him curled up just out of reach of the gate... it's almost like he's waiting for someone to come see him!

"My Poor Garden"

The gardening/spring fever has been gathering force this past week so I made some time to go out and 'putter' yesterday, thus relieving some of my pent up "garden fever" that I have. It's been quite some time since I devoted any energy to my garden and it was in a rather sad looking condition.

"Pecans in the Garden"
I spent most of my afternoon blowing out the leaves and picking up the pecans that were scattered around. I gathered a little over a half a laundry basket full of the nuts... shells and all!
The red thing is the 'handy-dandy pecan picker-upper' that I had mentioned above.

"Transplants"
I also had a little time to divide and replant the iris' that were growing 'en masse'. I cannot wait to see how these iris' do this spring: last year the blooms were rather small although they were still beautiful!

"All Done!"
With things all cleaned up, I can begin the monstrous task of weeding. This is one downside to living in the south... weeds don't die off in the winter. Oh well, at least I can plan where to plant flower seeds as I weed and enjoy being outside!
My arbor blew over in all the wind that we had yesterday. This is the second time it's done this, so I guess we need deeper holes to anchor it down!

Momma and I have spent the past several days combing through the seed catalogues deciding what we want to plant and where. After much thought we have our orders placed and are eagerly anticipating everything to arrive!! I love this time of year!

Over at Bull Run

The past few days have been spring like with temperatures reaching the fifties; working in the sun has been a delight! Momma and I took a walk through the woods yesterday afternoon, and as we strolled along I couldn't help but think of how quickly spring will be here. Many of the early spring blooming plants are already beginning to 'bud out'... I do believe I'm ready for spring!

"What a life..."
This scene is becoming more and more common of late... one has to admit that a nice toasty step in the warm sun just begs for something to take an afternoon nap on it! I still can't believe that he was sleeping with-in six feet of me "wielding a hose". Buck hates getting a bath or being sprayed with water!

"Working on the four wheeler"
This four wheeled contraption is Collins' way to get around. Be it working on "the farm" (the neighboring cow farmer) or getting over to Bull Run, this is the vehicle of choice. Yes, Sawyer usually begs for a ride as well!

Oh yes, the title of this post concerns Bull Run doesn't it...

"Working with a will"
Trevor began laying the hardwood floor last Friday. The house is beginning to look like a home!

"View from the kitchen"
He was able to get most of the floor layed over the weekend and I know he's pretty excited to see the place begin to come together. It's just fifty-four days until the wedding!

"It's great being little!"
As the afternoon began to wind down, Daddy and Tristan closed up 'shop' on their projects and filtered towards Trevor's house. Sawyer wanted to be in the pasture with Daddy, Tristan, and the cow so... he was pulled under the fence!
It was mentioned recently that someone has cows' in Trevor's front yard. Yes, they are in his front 'yard' but he has plenty of 'yard' before the fence starts! I have a feeling this is going to turn into a joke around here. :o)

"Relaxing after a hard days work"
It was so interesting to watch 'the girls' interact with Tristan. Soon after this picture was taken he managed to get all five cows clustered around him either for attention or out of curiosity. They are so curious, but it takes one of them to go investigate before any of the others will venture near enough.
Do you see the row of trees that runs to the right in the picture? Tristan has been working on fencing in the area above that row for several weeks now and is nearing completion. He has done nothing but fence for the past several months. One has to wonder what he will do when enough pasture is fenced in.

It is always a treat to head over to Bull Run each Saturday and see the progress that is being made over there. It sounds like Collin and Sayre have been given work to be done there this week, so I am eagerly anticipating next Saturday's trip to Bull Run!