Mountain Musings

Children's Children & Beyond

I've mentioned the Stonebridge Newsletter occasionally in past posts, and I especially enjoyed reading Ken's email yesterday. I will quote some of it here because I really like the idea of praying for our children, our grandchildren, and even their children--multigenerational praying.

Sometimes it seems that our prayer lists are long enough already with praying for our immediate family, extended family, friends, missionaries, daily trials and our growth through them, our pastor and church, children's future and their prospective mates, husband's work, health, traveling safety, and tons of other requests. Why would we want to prolong our time in prayer and add our unmarried children's children or our grandchildren's children to the list--we don't have any idea who they are, how many they are, or what to pray for them?

The stories I've included below are taken from Ken's recent newsletter and are worth noting as reasons to pray for the generations that come after us.

"Many, many years ago George McCluskey had a multigenerational vision for his family. He believed that every member of his family for four generations would live for God. He prayed every day during the noon hour for that. God answered his prayer. One of his great grandsons is Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family. Powerful things happen when we exchange the small dream of a lifetime of faithfulness for God's great vision of generations of faithfulness.

"Years ago a farmer from Aberdienshire, Scotland, would gather his family at the end of the day and hold hands and pray for his children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations to live for God. His grandson was H. A. Ironside, who became the pastor of the historic and influential Moody Church in Chicago. Pastor Ironside kept a picture of his grandfather on his desk to remind him of the powerful influence of prayer through the generations.

"Most of us have desires and dreams for our lives and for our families, but something powerful happens when God gives a man a vision for his family. When a mother and a father look beyond their personal desires and a conviction of truth begins to form in their souls and a picture of a heritage of godly living begins to form in their heart, things are going to change. They will begin to pray in that direction. That God-given vision will begin to influence their decisions, choices, and convictions. Their lives will change; and as a result, generations will eat fruit from the trees they planted. Beyond what they can do, God will act on their behalf."

After reading these thoughts, I'm thinking it would benefit us all to go back into our prayer closets this morning and stay awhile longer praying that the unknown generations who come after us will be used of God to powerfully influence their world.

Do you already pray for your grandchildren's children? I'm thinking that it keeps me plenty busy praying for the four children we have, for their future marriage partners, and that God will bring faithful spouses around in His timing. How about you? What do you think about this subject?

~Deb

Home and Family

"The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family."       ~ Thomas Jefferson

Our Thanksgiving holidays were quiet and mostly relaxing.  We've enjoyed the Lord's bountiful blessings to us and thank Him daily for the gift of family.

Today starts a new week, and the busy month of December is almost here. Lots of projects are in the works around Mountain Musings, and everyone's keeping secrets behind closed doors. It's a fun time of year.

Micah made it home safely from his time in Ohio and Georgia and is back in class this morning with lots of studying for exams looming ahead of him the next two weeks. Tom is back at work after some workshop escapades (which he will blog about later). And Jonathan is back at school involved in his electronics studies.

The girls and I will continue the decorating today and hopefully get all the big storage boxes emptied and back out in the garage. The house is beginning to look more and more like Christmas will soon be here.

After being sick most of the weekend and missing church yesterday, I am gradually getting back in the swing of things this morning. The family brought home the tape from yesterday's sermon on "Blind Bartimaeus," and I'm looking forward to hearing it while I work. It's a foggy, dark, dreary Monday morning--just perfect for inside work!

~Deb

Tradition, Tradition!

"Shop til you drop!" That's about what Sarah and I did today! She and I left the house at 6:30 a.m. headed to one of my favorite stores--Kohl's--for the after Thanksgiving Day sales. We were there with the rest of the crazy crowd, but we were successful--I was able to purchase my own Christmas present from my mom; I'll wrap it myself; and I'll act surprised when I open it--that's what you have to do sometimes. :)

Since we were up so early, we were ready for our lunch by 10 a.m., and Harrisonburg's new Target store has a Pizza Hut Express; we grabbed a personal pan pizza before completing the rest of our shopping--it was great to get off our feet for a few minutes after standing in Kohl's long line.

I dropped Sarah off here at home mid-afternoon, hopped back in the car, and left again headed to a couple of stores more locally this time; I returned back home in time to pull out the turkey leftovers for our supper. I can see why online ordering is so popular, and I'm planning on doing some of that tomorrow, too.

Tonight was our traditional trimming of the tree. We've always gone the artificial route since we like to enjoy the tree for a month or more. I've been fighting a terrible cold (in and out of the 18 degree weather this morning didn't help my voice, and it's now barely a squeak), so I lay on the sofa and watched everyone else put the tree together, tangle with the lights, and sort the ornaments. We have a "Miss Christmas" who lives in our house, so she very ably took charge.

Our annual "Trim-the-Tree Party" consisted of our traditional orange danish rolls and hot apple cider. We've had the same menu for dozens of trim-the-tree parties now, and we wouldn't think of not having the exact same thing each year.

We really enjoy the family traditions we've developed over the years. What is one of your favorite holiday traditions? How did it start? Do you think your kids will continue some of your family traditions when they start families of their own?

~Deb

A Time to Give Thanks

"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts,...and be thankful." ~Colossians 3:15

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Free Shipping at Vision Forum

Hot off the press--just found out from Kim that Vision Forum (for the first time ever) will be offering free shipping on any orders placed this Friday and Saturday.

• Free calendar with all orders over $100
• $10 gift certificate toward your next order when you spend $150
• Vision Forum clearance outlet

Spread the word, and if you haven't already joined the email list to receive notice of Vision Forum specials, do it here.

Our Vision Forum catalog is marked up and dog-eared in so many places! And I've already received a big box from them that, unfortunately, didn't get in on the free shipping; I was an early bird! Guess I will have to make up for that by ordering again (free shipping is hard to ignore)!

~Deb

Cranberry Relish

If you've been scouting the internet for ideas, you'll find that lots of cooking blogs have posted various holiday recipes this week. Elise at Simply Recipes has posted her cranberry relish version here. Below you'll find the one we use year after year. We don't have a grinder as she recommends so we just chop, chop, chop!

• 1 12 ounce package fresh cranberries
• 1 green apple
• 2 large oranges
• 1 cup nuts
• 1/2 cup orange marmalade
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

At least 5 hours before serving or the day ahead, coarsely chop cranberries and apple. Place in large bowl. Coarsely grate peel from oranges and reserve. Cut off white membrane from oranges and discard. Chop oranges.

Add orange peel and chopped oranges to cranberry mixture. Stir in nuts, marmalade, raisins, and brown sugar. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight.

~Deb

Cooks in the Kitchen

As in most kitchens, ours will be bustling with activity later today and tomorrow. With three females, we usually divide the cooking duties. I'm the main dish preparer; Hannah is the vegetable/side dish cook; and Sarah is the dessert queen.

Too many cooks in the kitchen? I don't think so; I love it!

And actually, we haven't formalized the menu yet--which means later this morning after deciding exactly what we're cooking, I will be out there with the rest of the town crowding the aisles at Walmart.

Our holiday will be just the 5 of us--Micah's in Georgia, and no other relatives or company will be coming to visit this year. So I'm having a hard time getting motivated. But I'm sure with a little nudge from the girls I'll be raring to go by tomorrow.

I'll be posting our favorite traditional Cranberry Relish recipe which Hannah will prepare today so the flavors will blend overnight. Enjoy!

~Deb

Old Paths Newsletter

I signed up for an email newsletter this morning that I'd never heard of before. It's called Old Paths, and I think it will be interesting. I heard about it over on Biblical Womanhood blog because Crystal was interviewed for the newsletter this month. Just wanted to pass the link along.

~Deb

Four Words on November 22

Americans will always remember: "The President is dead."

"On Friday, November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot as he rode in a motorcade through the streets of Dallas, Texas. At his death, the 35th president was 46 years old and had served less than three years in office."

I'm sure if you are old enough to remember, you know exactly where you were and what you were doing when you first heard the news that President John F. Kennedy had been shot.

I still remember it well--C. H. Friend Elementary School, 6th grade, going out for recess, hushed silence, kids walking quietly and soberly out to the playground--the memories I have of that fateful day.

A couple of years ago Hannah and I were in Dallas attending an IPS photography class. One of the photo shoots in which we participated took us to the downtown street where the President was shot. We saw the building where the gun was fired and where the red "X" on the street marked the spot. We stood in awe that we were actually right there where history took place. Needless to say, we snapped many pictures of the surrounding area, and we will always remember our trip.

November 22--42 years ago: What were you doing? Will you always remember?

~Deb

Before & After

I appreciated Susan's (FLYing By Grace) recent post on using "just 15 minutes" to good advantage. Sometimes I feel that I really need a big chunk of time to get something done, but I'm sure I'd be surprised if I set a timer for 15 minutes once every morning and once every afternoon (or even just once a day) just to see how much I could accomplish in that short amount of time.

Before - As you can see in the picture above, I'm thinking specifically of my messy desk! I didn't get around to organizing it on Saturday--just ran out of time. It's so easy to pile catalogs, newspapers, or anything on the corner and just leave it. After seeing this mess, I resolved to clean it up TODAY!

After -  I do love a clean house, and we're trying to get it that way early this week especially with Thanksgiving looming in a few days. (As you can see, I have a large mirror over my desk so I can look up and keep track of any other family members in the same room--whether on their computers, reading the paper, or whatever they happen to be doing. It helps me feel a part of what's going on rather than being turned away from them in my own little computer world.)

If you had "just 15 minutes" to clean, organize, or do something constructive you don't normally do, what would it be? How would you get your house in order?

~Deb