Mountain Musings

Road Trips ~ Family Encouragement Weekend 2017 in NC and Visiting Sweet Andrew in GA

Last week we headed to Murphy, North Carolina, to attend the annual F.E.W. conference (Family Encouragement Weekend) hosted by the Neely Team.

This was the first time we had attended this particular conference in NC since it's a long 7-hour drive from here in Virginia. Seeing as Sarah, Eric, and Andrew in Georgia live close enough for a quick visit after the conference, we thought this was a great opportunity to see them.

Years ago we attended a couple of the F.E.W. conferences held in northern Virginia and hosted by the Wilkes Team. Here are the links on the blog for those conferences: Family Encouragement Weekend ~ 2010 and Family Encouragement Weekend ~ 2011.

We also listened to special music presented by the orchestra as seen below, and many young people who came to the conference brought their instruments to play together...I didn't get a photo of that entire group. Hannah wished she had known to bring her flute to join them. We enjoyed all the great hymns during the two-day conference: One of the main advantages to attending conferences like this is the fellowship with other families. Here's Hannah with our dear friends (and Sarah's sisters-in-law) Abby and Emma: The ladies' Saturday morning devotional by Mrs. Staddon included fruit, cookies, and tea as we listened to her talk on Mary, Martha, and Hospitality: Tom and Greg talked together during the conference: And, of course, the afternoon included outdoor activities for the young people as shown below: Hannah joined the group and enjoyed the fresh air and camaraderie: The older young adults helped direct the outdoor games while the ladies inside prepared the lunch meal: We enjoyed all the messages, singing, and fellowship times throughout the weekend. My favorite times were the prayer group sessions each day where we gathered as four or five families in a group and introduced ourselves and shared prayer requests with the group. The dads around the group prayed for the requests, and we were able to get to know several families better as a result.

One final singing picture of the Neely, Staddon, and Wilkes families:

After the conference ended Saturday evening, we were back on the road headed to Georgia where sweet little Andrew awaited his Granny Deb to give him lots of hugs and kisses. :)

And here are sweet Andrew's parents, Eric and Sarah. It was so good to see everyone again!Hannah had a great time entertaining her little nephew: And Grampa Tom enjoyed himself, too! How do you like Andrew's camouflage cloth dipe?! Sarah is a cloth diaper lover from long ago when she made tons of them for her future babies.For those of you who have been praying for Andrew, he's come a long way since birth! He continues to need prayer for some issues he's still facing. As you can see, he's still on feeding tubes and just beginning to learn to eat. So many prayers have been answered for this little munchkin!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. He's such an adorable 10 1/2 month old... always smiling and a genuinely happy baby: I can't wait to see him again!

~Deb

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

NCFIC ~ Fear of God Conference

We sadly left Atlanta and adorable little Andrew and headed to Asheville's Ridgecrest Conference Center to check in for the Fear of God conference: The towering conference center looked majestic against the blue sky and is always one of the first pictures I take when we arrive each October for the conference: Here's part of the family headed back to the van after checking in and receiving our packet of name tags, programs, and keys to our room. First, we unpack and then scout around and see who else is arriving: We were looking forward to hearing the speakers at the conference. Here's one of the sessions with Ken Ham, founder of the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter, as a keynote speaker:And here's a view of part of the audience during the presentation: It wouldn't be the same without seeing this sweet family from Virginia. They always make an appearance on our blog. Hi, H family! It's always great to see y'all: We also enjoyed listening to some beautiful music before sessions: We took time out to visit the Vendor Hall and browsed books and other items between sessions. Here are some friends and first-time vendors, Lauren and Kate of Generational Goods. The key verse for their family business is found in Psalm 145:4..."One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts": The days were just beautiful for walking outside and chatting with friends during the conference. Here are Tom, Hannah, and Jonathan during a session break: And here I am with Tom outside the dining hall area: Landmark Events occupied a large vendor booth and advertised their many historical excursions families can take across the United States: The last day several of the speakers answered panel discussion questions to wrap up the conference. If you'd like to read the NCFIC blog recap of the conference, go here for Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3: Sunday morning and departure time arrived quickly. While we were at the conference and visiting in Atlanta, my sister had been taking care of Granny in SC. We rendezvoused that morning for the return trip home, and here's a picture of us with our friends in front of Ridgecrest: If you remember when I blogged about the conference last year, Sarah and Eric were with us and just a couple of weeks away from their approaching wedding. We missed having them with us this year, but we enjoyed being with the rest of Eric's family.

Here's Alex talking with Granny while we say our good-byes. Granny is everyone's favorite!:And here's Hannah posing with Aunt Bet before we leave: And finally, the mothers-in-law (aka Granny and Grandma) getting a picture together: I hope you enjoyed traveling along with us in the previous post to Atlanta and in this post to Asheville.

Did you travel anyplace this fall? Enjoy the rest of your beautiful fall weather!

~Deb

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Sunrise Senior Living Concert

A couple of weekends ago we had the wonderful opportunity to attend a concert at a senior living facility when we visited our daughter, Sarah, and her husband, Eric, and his family in Georgia. Eric's four siblings have been giving concerts for a number of years and are scheduled monthly to present an hour of music for the residents at Sunrise.

While Eric was with Sarah at the hospital, we took a break from the medical scene and were delighted to have the chance to attend! As you can see, this was an upscale assisted living facility: Quite a large number of residents were gathered to hear the music. We all mingled a bit and talked to various folks as the musicians readied themselves for their themed presentation on Songwriting Duos: Abby started the musical afternoon with a piano piece titled It Might as Well be Spring by Rodgers & Hammerstein: Abby's brother, Alex, played several classical pieces on piano...a top-notch performance: Hannah joined Abby and Emma to sing a hymn written by Fanny Crosby and William Doane, Rescue the Perishing, for the group: Emma was featured playing a violin concerto that she's been practicing for an end-of-school-year recital. It was wonderful!: And what's a concert without an accordion added to the mix? Alex on accordion, Aaron on penny whistle, Abby on piano, and Emma on violin playing My Favorite Things, also by Rodgers & Hammerstein: As the concert came to a close, all the residents and guests joined in on God Bless America.

I thoroughly enjoyed being able to attend such an excellent and well-planned concert, and it certainly was apparent that the musicians played for an appreciative audience!

Thank you, everyone, for an enjoyable afternoon in Georgia!

~Deb

Saturday Night Serenade & Sunday Hymn

Hello on a snowy day-before-spring-arrives Saturday...I thought I'd pop on the blog while we await Sarah's next post that lets us all know whether the girl that most folks voted for is indeed due to arrive in August. Or whether the other guys guessed right. :)

This is National Quilting Day...and I haven't done anything quilty..only in my dreams. What about you? Did you do any quilting or visit a quilt shop? I am expecting a fabric delivery...it even could have arrived today in honor of Quilting Day, but we never made it out to the box to check.

I've mostly been occupying myself today with second priming Jonathan's first 10 cabinet doors.

Back-side prime, sand, prime, sand. Front-side prime, sand, prime...sand. Next up is the real painting job. Back-side paint, sand, paint. Front-side paint, sand, paint. Soon it will feel like we're getting somewhere. Move these out, move more in: And notice the snow outside the windows? Here's today's photo I sent Sarah in Georgia to make her a little homesick...no, not really...it was just in case she was interested, haha: And here's the photo she sent back taken from her front porch. Aaah, slightly different scenario. Which scene would you pick? The springtime one for me, please!: And here's my serenader who likes to pluck out some tunes for us some evenings: Jonathan's playing from The Shenandoah Harmony, a Four-Shape tune book, page #77 titled Collins. And here are the words for our Sunday Hymn post:

1 O hearken, sinners, we have cause To warn you of your danger,

We pray be reconciled with him Who once lay in a manger.

2 A glorious throng have gone before Who shout and sing hosannah;

They stand around the tree of life, And always gather manna.

Chorus:

Ho! Every one that thirsteth! Come ye to the waters:

Freely drink, and quench your thirst,

Ye Zion’s sons and daughters.

 

 Happy 1st Day of Spring tomorrow!

 
~Deb

Blog Catch-up ~ October ~ Friends Visit

Our friends from over at Farming the Carolinas stopped by to see us this fall for an overnight visit on their way up north to see a new grandbaby. We were so glad they took time out to spend an evening with us.One of the first things we did was meet them over at Jonathan's house-in-progress, since they were interested in seeing the construction. It's always fun to give a tour to folks.

I have to admit though that our home wasn't "fit for guests" as Sarah's moving boxes were crowding the living room with very little space to sit! But, they didn't seem to mind a bit! We had a wonderful evening of music, and it was fun to see newlyweds Matthew and Kelsey together: Jonathan brought out his guitar for some fun entertainment as everyone looks on: And...is there a third guitar player in the group?  Yes! Tom joins the music makers: And more singing--that's Hannah and Mrs. Hammond in the background while Tom and Sarah sing up front: Matthew and Jonathan brought out their whistles and played some Irish folk songs together: Later in the evening while the Hammond ladies were readily available for sewing advice, Hannah picked their brains for some tips on how to adjust her mock-up bridesmaid's dress for Sarah's wedding: The time as always passed way too quickly. What a wonderful visit with our friends!  Thank you, Hammonds, for stopping by Mountain Musings!

~Deb

Spring Break ~ Atlanta! ~ Days 3, 4, and 5

After the History Tour concluded, Day 3 of our Spring Break trip was spent with our friends in Atlanta...eating out at The Varsity (ever been there?), visiting an antique shop, psalm singing, and lots of good fellowship!  We had never heard of The Varsity but found out that the main branch of the chain in downtown Atlanta is the largest drive-in fast food restaurant in the world, and many U.S. presidents have visited the chain when they've been in Atlanta.

We ate at one of the six branches of the restaurant in metro-Atlanta:It's true! We heard, "What'll Ya Have?" a lot when we were there:Here we are deciding what to order: We all had a good time enjoying lunch together: First-time visitor Sarah put on one of The Varsity chef hats:Next up was a trip to Queen of Hearts Antique shop, with 500 dealer booths!: This was the scene just inside the front door. I could tell this would be a great shop, and it definitely was!I loved all the gardening items in many of the vendors' booths:I especially liked the red antique gardening tools but didn't purchase them...so sorry afterwards: Although I did bring a watering can home with me:We all had a fun afternoon of shopping, even the guys...I think!  While we were visiting our friends, one evening we enjoyed a Psalm Singing. Here we are sitting around the living room in the next few pictures singing from The Book of Psalms for Worship.Abby took a turn on the piano:And here's the other side of the room: Then Alex took a turn on the piano:If you'd like to hear one of the songs we sang, Sarah recorded some of the music that evening. Click here to hear us singing Psalm 98! The pianist plays through a verse first, and then you'll hear all of us singing. It was very enjoyable!

Other times were spent playing games and talking together: Here are Emma and Sarah posing together in their matching shirts with big smiles: Well...all good times must come to an end. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Georgia and staying with our friends! Thank you for the hospitality!

Spring Break ~ Day 4:  Leaving Georgia, we headed to South Carolina to visit my sister and Granny.

This was supposed to be the occasion that we'd bring Granny back to Virginia with us, but she's still not recuperated enough from her fall in January. Her broken back is still healing; and unfortunately, she's not up to a 6-hour drive quite yet.

Here we are visiting with Aunt Bet and Granny. It was so good to see them: My sister took me to a gardening center and antique shop while I was there, but I didn't get pictures of those special outings.

Again...all too soon it was time to head for home.

Spring Break ~ Day 5:  Whenever we have a chance, Tom finds a church for us to attend if we're out of town. We always enjoy meeting new families in a new place.

On this particular Sunday, we met several families in this church, but one family stood out to us in particular...Todd and Barbara, who had adopted two little children. They began to tell us their 5-Day Adoption story. It was amazing!

You can find information and watch a 5-minute trailer about their story here: 5-Day Adoption. I'm sure they would appreciate your interest and support.

Spring Break was fun! Now that we're back home...it's time for many gardening chores!

~Deb

Also in this series:

Spring Break ~ Atlanta! Day 1

Spring Break ~ Atlanta! Day 2

 

Sunday Hymn

A Mighty Fortress is our God

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

Here's the view this afternoon from our front porch after we received 15 inches of snow yesterday. The temperatures are up to the mid-40s today...so some has melted already...a good thing for the guys who need to traverse our steep hills to get to work tomorrow!

The gang spent quite a bit of time snow-blowing and shoveling towards the end of the day yesterday even though snow was still falling heavily. It made today's shovel-up-the-rest-of-the-snow easier.

Our church services were cancelled again this Sunday, and the above hymn was one of our selections picked for our family time of singing and listening to a sermon together this morning.

Do you like customized ring-tones on your phone? I'm a fan of them...and have selected certain songs to play when a certain person is calling. Every time I hear the above song, A Mighty Fortress is our God, I know my friend Jan is calling because that's what's programmed into my phone for her ring.

So this morning when we were singing this song, I felt like my phone was ringing off the hook! Ha!

And in case you're interested, Tom's ring tone is Be Thou My Vision (I love when I hear that song if he calls on the way home from work!); Jonathan's is There is a Fountain; Hannah's is Amazing Grace (The Water is Wide tune instead of the normal one); Sarah's is Oh, Shenandoah, because she loves this area of Virginia so much; Granny rings in as At Calvary--because it reminds me of her church back home; my sister's ring is The Cleansing Wave; and anyone else who calls without a customized ring plays as Come Thou Fount.

Well, enjoy your week, even if you're digging out like we are! We should have an enjoyable week as Tom's sister is arriving tomorrow from Connecticut for a few day's visit...and she thought she was getting away from all their snow! Haha!

~Deb

Sunday Hymn

And it shall come to pass...that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains.  ~ Isaiah 2:2

Behold! The Mountain of the Lord

Behold! the mountain of the Lord
In latter days shall rise
On mountain tops above the hills,
And draw the wondering eyes.

To this the joyful nations round,
All tribes and tongues, shall flow;
Up to the hill of God, they’ll say,
And to His house we’ll go.

The beam that shines from Zion hill
Shall lighten every land;
The King who reigns in Salem’s towers
Shall all the world command.

Among the nations He shall judge;
His judgments truth shall guide;
His scepter shall protect the just,
And quell the sinner’s pride.

No strife shall vex Messiah’s reign
Or mar the peaceful years;
To plowshares soon they beat their swords
To pruning hooks their spears.

No longer hosts encountering hosts,
Their millions slain deplore;
They hang the trumpets in the hall
And study war no more.

Come then, O house of Jacob, come
To worship at His shrine;
And, walking in the light of God,
With holy beauties shine.

This is one of the hymns we picked to sing here at home this morning. Many churches in our area, including ours, were closed for Sunday services due to the extremely low temperatures, high winds, and forbidding traveling conditions for our friends who would be driving from over the mountain.

Whenever a Sunday like this happens, we still get together as a family to sing, pray, and listen to a recorded sermon. This morning Tom downloaded a message given by Phil Johnson from Grace Community Church in California speaking on Effectual, Fervent Prayer.

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

~ James 5:16

Jonathan first read James 5:7-20 for us before the message began. Then Mr. Johnson spoke on Elijah from I Kings 18. Elijah prayed Privately, Passionately, and Persistently. If you'd like to listen to his sermon or just read what we heard today, you can go to this link.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday...if the power doesn't go out here and Tom's not called in to work the outages, we're expecting guests for supper tonight. Should be some good fellowship, even though we didn't meet with our regular church group today.

~Deb

First Hymn Sing at Jonathan's Future Home

Tom and "the kids" were over at the new construction site recently and recorded the first hymn sing in Jonathan's future home. Jonathan said he hopes it's the first of many that will take place in the years to come. I thought this would be a good time to post their song as today's Sunday hymn.

Here's an impromptu version of Come Thou Fount by Jonathan, Sarah, and Hannah recorded in Jonathan's future living room:

The house is coming along but not under roof yet, as the trusses were delayed in arriving. House building is slow going sometimes, but work has definitely come a long way since ground was broken!

In other hymn news...

My friend, Carol, stopped by for an overnight visit on her way from Texas to Pennsylvania. Since she's been a long-time lover of hymns and given many hymnology talks over the years, she asked if she could speak to a group of friends I might invite over to learn more about hymns and to sing!

Here are some of our guests we enjoyed hosting. I was very encouraged that my friend Kim came for the evening with her girls to participate: Carol treated us all to a very informative evening learning about hymn writers, hymn trivia and history, and finishing with a hymn sing. Here she is teaching the etymology of the word doxology: Below: our family singing...thankfully, Jonathan was able to join us after getting home late from working on his house. Since we don't own a piano, we brought out an old keyboard for Carol to use for accompanying the singing:  As part of the evening, we enjoyed hearing Carol's list of her 50 top hymns. If you're interested, over on Tim Challies' blog, you'll find his choices of the 10 Greatest Hymns of all time with commenters chiming in on their top favorites.

Do you have a favorite? I'm partial to Come Thou Fount which you heard at the beginning of this post and also There is a Fountain. Thank you, Carol, for such a delightful and informative session. Here's a photo of the two of us that will go in our guest book as a record of her visit: ~Deb

**Stay tuned for our next post...Dayton Days Craft Festival from this past weekend

Blowing the Cobwebs Off the Ol' Blog!

Hello, hello! Welcome back! Our blog break has been good and a much needed one!

We hope 2014 has been treating you well and that you've kept warm in this cold winter weather! We've been thanking the Lord each evening in our family devotions for the provision of warm clothes and a warm home...and the togetherness of family snuggled inside!

Since we last wrote in December, we've celebrated Christmas with Granny here and then traveled to very cold Canada and back where we celebrated New Year's Eve with friends! You didn't even know we were gone to the northern-lands for a few days, did you?

Before I write a post about Canada, I must post a picture of Granny since many of you have asked us about her and how she's doing down in South Carolina. She and my sister spent Christmas week here in Virginia, and we thoroughly enjoyed having them with us: And here are a couple of pictures of our annual family Christmas Eve program; we always look forward to hearing the musical selections the kids pick. Here are Hannah and Sarah playing In Dulci Jubilo: And Jonathan chimed in on his wooden flute with the song Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day (words can be found here if you're unfamiliar with this carol):Hannah read a selected portion of Scripture for part of the program: We enjoyed many delicious cookies that Hannah and Sarah made this year including Peppermint Meltaways, Gingerbread Trees, Cherry Chocolate Kisses, Chocolate Turtles, Peppermint Bark, Chewy Coconut Oatmeal (my favorite), and Crispy Almond Thins: Hannah was a good chocolate drizzler on the Crispy Almond Thins! Here's a link to another cookie post from five years ago with some recipes we tried that year: And it looks like Granny kept busy making baskets in South Carolina. This year she surprised Jonathan and gave him his first basket ever...a Jeremiah basket! Here he is inspecting the bottom to make sure she wrote her initials and the date on it so he'd always have a reminder of a basket she made:  As you can see, we had a very enjoyable time together! Three days after Christmas...Granny was headed back to my sister's home for another three months, and we were headed the opposite direction to Canada! It's probably a good thing Granny was headed south!

The below shot was taken through our friends' house window, but it gives you some idea of one of the grey, cold, and snowy days when we visited our friends near Ottawa: Stay tuned for that post soon!

~Deb