I'm still speechless...

God has been so abundantly good to me! I am engaged.

Norwegian Fair Isle Socks

I've been so busy making these socks lately that I haven't had much time to write. There is a blog post coming soon on how to make them!

Patience- a quiet virtue

As we were reading in our family devotions yesterday evening I was reminded of this quote. It has been one of my favorites over the years and every now and then I am reminded of it. I first found it in a church bulletin years ago. I immediately saw the need to save it for future reference so I cut it out of the bulletin and pasted it into my journal on Monday October 23, 2006.

As the plant slowly ripens its fruit, so we are to ripen our Christian character by patient waiting and patient enduring. Patience is a quiet virtue. It is apt to be overlooked and underestimated. But in reality it is one of the most precious of the Christian graces. No noisy virtues, the ostentatious graces , have their day;patience has eternity, And while it is the most precious it is also the most difficult. It is far easier to work than to wait, to be active than passive. But it is when we are still that we know God, when we wait upon God that we renew our strength. Patience places the soul in the condition in which it is most susceptible to the quickening influences of heaven and most ready to take advantage of new opportunities.
-H. Macmillian

Purple Poppie Hair Pin

I was recently given this pretty hair pin from my sweet friend Abigail. She makes and sells these kind of hair pins along with her sister in their Etsy shop: simpleSerendipities . Their shop is closing down right now and so everything is on sale 40% off the listed price. Just enter the coupon code JULYSALE at checkout. You have to hurry though since the sale ends August 1st!

Purple is one of my favorite colors and I adore poppies...how did she know?!:) Needless to say I'm having fun finding different ways to wear it. I have waist length hair that is fairly thick and heavy so I often do updos to keep it neat. I divided my hair in half (top and bottom) and then formed the top into a shell bun and the bottom into a regular bun. I got inspiration for this from Rapunzel's Resource .

Here are some other pretty things they are selling:

carnation clips

yellow posies

turquoise rosette headband

Blog: SimpleSerendipities
Shop:simpleserendipities.etsy.com

Our June Garden

 

Our garden is coming along pretty well this year. We have crape myrtles blooming, the grapes are turning and we have been getting basketfuls of tomatoes (around 20 every other day).

the jalapeno is gone

This morning I happened to look out the window to our check on our garden and saw our jalapeno plant completely gone. I looked again and saw what was left of the wilted plant about 18 inches away. Now who, or what would do that!? I have never seen a whole plant completely uprooted like that and can't imagine what would do that...a squirrel?? an opposom? rat? Who knows. It doesn't bother me much though since it was a small plant and hadn't really grown much since we planted it.

Wednesday morning we finally got some rain. I really can't remember when we had last gotten rain and everything was beginning to show it. We've had water restrictions, 100 degree weather, bushes dying, trees turning yellow and bottomless gaping cracks in the ground. So we were all so thankful to wake up in the middle of the night to the sounds of thunder and pouring rain. It continued to rain on into the morning and stopped around 8:00 leaving south Texas cool and fresh. It was wonderful and reminded me of what I had been reading earlier in the week from Isaiah 35."For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah. ⁷ The scorched land will become a pool And the thirsty ground springs of water;" The Lord has given again.

Our peppers keep coming, though not quite as many as last year.

Garlicky Cream Cheese Wontons

 This recipe  for wontons is so good! They might seem like a lot of work to assemble and fry but if you have another person to help they are a breeze. I usually try and make these whenever we have Teriyaki chicken, Szechuan chicken, or any other oriental meal. If I had wonton wrappers on hand I would be in the kitchen making them right now.

To Every Tribe Tuesday - Yemen

Yemen is a country steeped in antiquity and a place which I have always had an interest in. Locals have over history claimed the city of Aden as the location of the Garden of Eden though that is, for obvious reasons, difficult to prove. It is a fertile strip of land at the southern right corner of the Arabian peninsula. In Roman times it was called Arabia Felix (Happy Arabia) because of the lush oases, fruit and vegetables that were able to grow there in comparison with the rest of Arabia.

Yemen is almost entirely Arab in ethnicity. There is a small community of Jews that have lived in Yemen for hundreds of years, some claim since the days of Solomon.
The majority of Yemenis are Muslim with Sunnis slightly edging out Shi'ites. The Christian population is around 1%.

Yemeni Jewess -source: Joshua Project

Yemeni Jews at a wedding

Social life is patriarchal and patrilocal with the average household consisting of  about 8 individuals. Most of the labor force is employed in agriculture with the exception of those living in cities such as Aden and Sana'a.

Yemen is fairly closed to outsiders and disapproves of anything Christian. They have an Arabic Bible but not in any local dialect. Until God, in providence, causes the country to becomes more tolerant Christian witness and work there will be little to none. Yet praise the Lord, "We have a God who delights in impossibilities." -Andrew Murray.

Capturing the Day

It is wholly impossible to live according to Divine order, and to make a proper application of heavenly principles, as long as the necessary duties which each day brings seem only like a burden grievous to be borne. Not till we are ready to throw our very life’s love into the troublesome little things can we be really faithful in that which is least and faithful also in much. Every day that dawns brings something to do, which can never be done as well again. We should, therefore, try to do it ungrudgingly and cheerfully. It is the Lord’s own work, which He has given us as surely as He gives us daily bread. We should thank Him for it with all our hearts, as much as for any other gift. It was designed to be our life, our happiness. Instead of shirking it or hurrying over it, we should put our whole heart and soul into it.
- James Reed

I stumbled on this quote and had to share it. It is easy for me to forget that each day is a unique new day in which we have a choice of redeeming  His time for His glory or letting it fall useless.

photo credit: weheartit

Swedish Cookies

Love these...partly because they look so pretty and partly because of how good they are! I had fun with these cookies, especially since I just happened to have some Swedish family heirlooms to use for photo props.

Our Garden Update

Our garden has simply come alive with growth since I last wrote about it. This year has been really easy growing which I think is partly due to the drought we are in. The lack of rain this year has kept away mold, disease and bugs which is great. Dry growing seasons here usually mean we'll have a good garden.

Our tomatoe plants, as last year, are putting on a show and growing like crazy all over the place. We try to stake them up but they have not stayed put and have turned into a spreading tangled mass of branches, leaves and loads of green tomatoes. About a dozen tomatoes have just turned red this week. (I ate the first of the year after I was finished taking these photos.:))

Our three yellow squash plants are coming along as well and have about three or four squashes growing on them.

We have problems with our peppers though. There must have been some labeling confusion at the nursery because not only was one of our serrano plants not a serrano but a mirasol chile, it looks like one of our "poblano" pepper plants is actually a serrano or a jalapeno. Makes it interesting doesn't it?!
The mariachi pepper plant is growing really well and has about five or so peppers on it. We have never tried mariachi peppers before so I am anxious to see how they taste. They are supposed to be mild.

 

Yellow squash

Mirasol chile

Mariachi Peppers

Serranos?? Jalapenos??

Our 6 cherry tomatoes. To give some perspective this area is about 10'x10'.  I've lost my epazote plant somewhere in the middle of there...and the basil plants, parsley and hyssop are struggling to keep their own ground.

Cherry tomatoes

Hyssop

Concord grapes

Plumbago