Mountain Musings

Happy-Scrappy Quilt Giveaway!

The ladies at Marie-Madeline Studio are giving away this colorful handmade quilt, created from some of the fun fabrics they use for their custom-sewn products! This twin-size "scrappy" quilt includes material from the Jennifer Paganelli collection. I have enjoyed the fabric I purchased from Marie-Madeline Studio for my red, white, and blue quilt that is still in progress. They are very pleasant to deal with as well.

The Long ladies have a great business going. Go enter their giveaway and browse their store!

~Hannah

Guess who's coming for a visit?

What I've been reading about...

~Hannah

Pickled Beets

More garden produce preserved...

~Hannah

Boston, MA, July 1st-4th

We had an exciting and edifying trip to Boston as a family for the Reformation 500 conference. We were grateful the Lord provided for us to go. Thank you, Dad, for taking us!

In addition to all the lectures and historic mini-tours, our family enjoyed meeting new people and reacquainting ourselves with others. From quick hellos to spending a meal together, fellowship with other families was a highlight.

Wednesday morning we had our first two tours around Boston before the opening ceremonies of the conference. Thursday was Mom's birthday, and after the day's talks, we spent an evening eating out for supper and ice cream and opening presents in our hotel room. Friday we had another downtown tour then attended the afternoon and evening sessions. Saturday the 4th we enjoyed a children's parade and many closing festivities. We then made our way to see the U.S.S. Constitution before joining 500,000 people that night for fireworks on the Charles River.

You can never take enough pictures. I've finally finished sorting through them all, and rather than post individual entries, I'm going to go ahead and link to the album full of a sampling of them for you to enjoy. Not much description, so if you have any specific questions, ask and we can expand a little!

Keep an eye on Jonathan's blog for thoughtful and/or humorous updates on our Plymouth/Boston experience, coming soon! The following are a few blogs that have been posting on the Reformation 500 in Boston:

• Doug's Blog
• The Serven Clan
• C.S. Hayden's Blog
• Montana Maiden
• Grand Adventure

It has been fun looking at what others are posting of notes from the speakers and photos to bring back memories of the time we spent. Go here to read more on "why we celebrated the Reformation 500."

~Hannah

A July 4th in Boston

On our way to visit the U.S.S. Constitution Saturday afternoon

~Hannah

A Garden in Boston

Walking down a busy city street in Boston on our way to eat supper before watching fireworks, Mom and I spotted this flourishing little spot. Next to a church building, there was a garden growing, full of many different veggies and flowers. Reminded us of home! We snagged a quick photo before hurrying along to our destination.

~Hannah

Introducing...Olde-Books.com!

We'd like to point you to a brand new business begun by a friend of ours, Ben Wagner. Olde-Books.com features out-of-print old books in downloadable e-book format. Ben is a connoisseur of old books and has turned this love for history into an entrepreneurial endeavor.

"Olde-Books.com exists to present 1800's authors to the modern world. We use e-Books to bring the godly authors into your home on your computer or e-Book reader. Olde-Books.com has a Christian flavor and chooses books that present a Biblical Worldview throughout their pages. We also offer e-Books by authors of the past which teach skills that are still applicable in today's world."

Olde-Books.com currently offers e-books for very reasonable prices in the following categories: historical fiction, history and biography, literature for the family, Old West, and skills for the family. There's even an e-book on the subject of knitting.

Good news for all you gardeners out there! Anna is hosting a giveaway of one of the e-books from Olde-Books.com! Go to Gardening for My Family to read the details of how to receive your free copy of The Book of Sports - Gardening by William Martin. This giveaway will end Wednesday at midnight.

Here's an excerpt from this late 1800's book:

The young gardener should make up his
mind before he sets foot in his garden to have no weeds in it; for however assiduous he may have been in other respects, however he may have planted, watered, dug, or attended to his garden, if it show a crop of weeds, he is a bad gardener, and will be sure to get laughed at.

One of my goals this week is to make some headway on removing my "laughable crop" of weeds.....

~Hannah

We're back!

Hello, faithful readers of Mountain Musings! We hope you enjoyed your short vacation from reading our blog--we are now up and running again after a wonderful time away as a family to Plymouth and Boston, Massachusetts for the Reformation 500 celebration.

At least, the blog will be somewhat up and running--after a week of recouping from our travels, Mom and Sarah are headed out of town again to visit Aunt Bet. So, it is my task this week to fill you in on highlights of our trip to New England. We will see whether holding down the fort and writing much of substance here can happen at the same time.

Our drive up north started on Sunday, June 28th. We decided to stop briefly in Connecticut to see family there for a couple of hours, which was a nice spontaneous visit before continuing to our hotel that night.

Today I'd like to share some of our pictures from the first two days of our trip, Monday and Tuesday spent in Plymouth. Vision Forum was hosting a special Plymouth mini-tour before the Boston conference, but our family took in the sights on our own and chose to visit the different historic locations on the opposite day as the large tour group! We still managed to run into them on occasion around town.

We saw the Mayflower replica, Plymouth Rock, Plimoth Plantation, and many monuments and landmarks in the historic downtown parts of Plymouth, such as Burial Hill where many of the Pilgrims were buried. We looked out at Plymouth Harbor from the top of Cole's Hill and the beach near where the Pilgrims first landed.

It was fitting to be in Plymouth before the conference, because we were able to see how the Biblical principles that were proclaimed during the Reformation influenced the Pilgrim Separatists and ultimately the founding of America.

To view the photo album for our 2 days in Plymouth, click here or on the banner above.

~Hannah