Much better ...

Our family room is finally finished, and it is an improvement ... not of the extreme home makeover variety ... but an improvement nonetheless. I've snapped a few pictures to show you.

Mr. Jones relaxing and enjoying our new TV and remote (thank-you Adam and Emily!) ... I'm going to have to shut the drapes though because there is SO MUCH SUNSHINE (shock) coming through window that it is making a nasty glare on my pictures ... so here we go ... We painted the walls a light moss green, which I thought was going to be a bit more green than it ended up being ~ but that's OK. I like the drapes/curtains very much more than the ones we had up for all of the 11.5 years we have lived here (and came with the house!). They slide really easily and I like how they match the furniture too. I also like the much smaller corner TV stand as opposed to the MONSTER entertainment center we had in here.

Mr. Jones made a new Thomas-the-Train layout for our table, and although I'm not crazy about where we've situated it in the room, it's where it ended up and ... that's where it is staying!

And remember the toy shelf that sat rather kiddywampus against the entrance wall to the family room? I moved it upstairs to our bedroom (where it STILL sits kiddywampus next to our bed), and switched it out for the smaller shelf I had in my room. I've put just an assortment of children's books and some toys on that shelf. It's kind of a flimsy and unstable unit, so until it has been tested out by toddlers (to see if they do or do not pull it over on themselves), it might eventually have to be replaced by a sturdier piece of furniture.

I cleaned almost every cupboard in this kitchen and found room to store the too-many VCR tapes and DVD's we have ...

I feel good about the room. It feels better defined and definitely more cozy. The fresh paint looks nice. We shampooed and spot-cleaned the carpeting, and although it is not stain-free, I at least know it is clean. One of these years, we are going to tear up this carpeting and put hard-wood floors in the family room and replace the linoleum throughout the house with the same. But Mr. Jones says that is "several years away." Well, with the economy as it is and many people really truly hurting to make ends meet, I am very thankful for these small improvements in our house!

What we've been doing around here ...

We received a very nice gift for Christmas, a 26" LCD HDTV ~ completely and totally unexpected ... I was absolutely shocked (but pleasantly so). We've been trying to figure out where to put it. We have a room in this house that we CALL a family room and that's how it's been used. But the original builders of this house used this side of the house as an "in-law apartment." So this room we use as a family room was actually the in-law combination living room and kitchen area with a bedroom and bathroom off from that. It's an odd room, both in its size and its layout.

We decided to paint, but a lot of wall repairs were needed before we could start. Before I go any further with this description, I have to tell you that I don't know anything at all about painting a room, repairing walls, or anything having to do with that line of work! Mr. Jones has done all of the work in here by himself. I have been absolutely no help at all. He scrunched all of the furniture in the middle of the room, taped all of the woodwork off, repaired the wall cracks, and finally painted the room and Monday and Tuesday of this week.

I guess I did help out with a few things ... the fun stuff actually. I went on-line and ordered a smaller corner TV stand and WATCHED Mr. Jones put it together the other night! And yesterday, I went over to Bed Bath and Beyond and picked out some very pretty drapes for the doorwall! Today, I used graph paper to re-arrange the furniture. Each square on the graph represented one square foot. I made little model furniture and moved it all around on the graph paper until I had it just right ... if anything can be described "just right" in this odd room! Tonight, I'm going to clean all of the cupboards and hopefully make better use of that space. We have a bit more spot cleaning to do on the carpet, and tomorrow we hope to take apart the old entertainment center, hook up the new TV, hang the new drapes, and put the furniture in its proper place. I'll take pictures and show you the finished result once I have re-hung all the pictures ... that's MY job.

I like it not ...

I’ve been thinking about trying contact lenses for years and years now. I really only need glasses for distance vision and used to joke that I put my glasses on “only when I need to see.” I didn’t start wearing glasses until my late 30’s and for the last 15 years or so have hated every time I’ve had to put them on! They feel foreign on my head and face! So, of course I didn’t wear them unless I HAD to … like when driving the car, or if I absolutely had to see WHO was singing in the choir on a Sunday morning.

It had been almost five years since I’d had a vision test, so last Thursday I scheduled one. And while I was at it, I told the optometrist to go ahead and fit me for contacts. The very next day, I had an hour-long instruction session regarding the use of contacts and practiced putting them in and out. Have you ever seen the new thin cellophane kind of contact lenses? Yikes! They’re practically invisible! There is an INside and an OUTside to them as well, and very difficult to ascertain which is which! I was able to get them in and out, but not without a great deal of resistance from my eyelids! I had NO idea eyelids could be SO STRONG. Anyway, I walked out of SVS Friday with a two-week trial pair of contact lenses and successfully wore them four hours that day! Wow. It was great to see long distance without those annoying glasses!

One problem though. I could see just fine far away … but oops! What happened to all of the stuff up close?! Like words on a page, the letters on my keyboard, my face (!) when I was putting on my make-up … well, I went out and purchased a cheap pair of reading glasses to solve that little problem.

Except, it wasn't a little problem at all! I need to see UP CLOSE a lot more often than FAR AWAY! So now I was stuck with those really annoying reading glasses hanging off my nose … ALL DAY!

The last straw came last night when I was at our Super Bowl party and got my camera out to take a few pictures of our friends. I couldn’t see the little screen on my camera … not unless I wore my reading glasses. No way. I refuse!

Thankfully, I paid zero for this trial pair of contact lenses. And those reading glasses? I’ve kind of needed them for years! But I will wear them only when I am reading!! I guess I’ll just go back to SVS with my prescription and order a new pair of frames that I will wear only “when I want to see.”

... more pictures from my week

"May all who search for you be filled with joy and gladness. May all those who love your salvation repeatedly shout, 'the LORD is great!'" PSALM 40:16

It's been cold and snowy up north here in Belmont all week long. Each day, we got about 2" of fresh snow. I took some short drives around our neighborhood, as well as a drive out to Grand Haven (on Monday) and saw some beautiful sights. These horses over at Krupp Farms were very interested to come and see me, thinking perhaps I had a special treat for them. I don't know enough about horses to even begin to bring them the right thing!

I never get tired of Grand Haven! I hope some time I'll go out there on just the right day and get the photographs I really want ...

Mr. Jones took this picture of me shoveling the driveway from the upstairs front window ~ don't worry ~ he does most of shoveling around here.

Just a few blocks from us up on Samrick there is the quaintest house, small barn, and even a few horses ~ except they are fenced off and I couldn't get very close to them.

I think horses are some of the most beautiful creatures God has created ...

I found this beautiful farm off from 7 mile ... I love the fences ~ and what a great barn!

I've had fun taking pictures this week and I've made a bunch of cards as well ... just trying to hang in there until spring ...

"Shout joyful praises to God all the earth! Sing about the glory of His name! Tell the world how glorious He is! Say to God, 'How awesome are your deeds.'" PSALM 66:1

Mmmm ... a quick and delicious dinner!

I readily admit I am not a good cook. I just don't have that special sense for it! But if I have a good recipe, I can deliver a good dinner!
Last week, Mr. Jones picked up some frozen haddock fillets, four packages of them ~ on sale of course. Since I LOVE fish, I decided to thumb through my cookbooks and see if I could find a decent recipe to try. I found a simple-looking recipe in my Betty Crocker Cookbook called, Pecan-Crusted Fish Fillets. I hope it's okay with Betty if I share the recipe with you ... it's really easy and very tasty!

Pecan-Crusted Fish Fillets (serves 4)
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 pound fish: sole, orange roughy, walleye pike or
other delicate fish fillets, about 1/2 inch thick
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1. Mix pecans, bread crumbs and lemon peel in shallow bowl. Beat egg and milk with wire whisk or fork in another shallow bowl.
2. Cut fish into small serving pieces. Sprinkle both sides of fish with salt and pepper. Coat fish with egg mixture, then coat well with pecan mixture, pressing slightly into fish.
3. Heat oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add fish. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook 6 to 10 minutes, turning once carefully, until fish flakes easily with fork and is brown.

Tonight was the second time I used this recipe. Last week when I tried it, we didn't have any fresh lemon to grate. However, I think the lemon part is completely optional and I actually prefer it without. Mr. Jones disagrees and said it was much more tasty tonight WITH the lemon.

I started fixing dinner tonight at 4:15 and at 5:15 we sat down to eat. I served the fish on top of a heaping mound of brown rice, lemon wedges on the side, as well as some veggies and fruit. Not at all fussy, but a very enjoyable meal!

my arctic Grand Haven afternoon ...

I drove over to Grand Haven this afternoon especially to photograph my almost-favorite lighthouse encased in ice ...

The first time I ever laid eyes on the lighthouse at Grand Haven was January of 1972. The weather had been much different that year ~ much warmer ~ and only a touch of snow. I was a freshman at what was then Baptist College and a few friends drove out to the lake, walked to the end of the pier, and went inside to shield ourselves from the wind. Yes! You used to be able to get inside the outer structure! We stayed inside for more than an hour and when we opened the door we found that the wind had picked up, a blizzard was upon us, and waves were crashing right over the pier ... we couldn't walk back!

We actually walked back on the ice-covered catwalk (the catwalk used to have a floor to it, but the flooring was removed years ago), climbed the high fence at the end, and made it safely home. Oh the folly of youth! I have loved this place ever since!

Last February when I spent an afternoon in Muskegon taking pictures of the lighthouses there, the temperature was in the low 20's. I remember thinking how completely invigorating and exhilerating it was to be outside that day! This morning in Grand Rapids, however, the air temperature was -4 degrees. Look how far out the ice is on Lake Michigan! I couldn't see water at all!

Good thing I dressed in lots of layers because the air was SO frigid ... a sharp, cutting, take-your-breath-away, icy, piercing, penetrating, numbing, teeth-chattering kind of COLD! There was so much ice on the walkways, I really didn't walk very far today on the pier.

The sky was very grey and overcast all afternoon. I was hoping the sun would break through at some point; the photographs would be more interesting that way, but it was not to be! The wind was pretty brisk, but at least there was no snow falling.

I went around the Ferrysburg side and took North Shore Drive to the end to get this view. I have only been on the north pier one other time in my life, more than 15 years ago ...!

It was getting pretty late in the afternoon when I took these pictures. I was going to stay until the sun set, but with the sky so dark with clouds, I wasn't very hopeful of seeing anything worth photographing; besides the fact that it didn't look safe to be out there in the dark!

I'm thankful I got to do this today. I've been wanting to for several weeks, but we've had so much snowfall and quite a few bad storms. I don't like driving distances in that stuff. I was actually blown right off the highway into a deep snowy ditch between Grand Rapids and Grand Haven that same winter (but a different day) of 1972 ... I wasn't the driver, but it was pretty scary! We hitchhiked all the way back to town ~ the only time in my life I have ever been that stupid! Well, enough reminiscing.

I'm always looking through Scripture trying to find more "light" verses. I like this one very much from Isaiah the prophet: "Feed the hungry and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as day." (Isaiah 58:10). A pretty poignant description ... I want my life to shine like that ...

wonderful, happy news!

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!" PSALM 139:13
It was unusual to have our phone ring last night at 9:45 p.m., and I thought perhaps something newsworthy had happened ... and I was right! Adam and Emily called to announce they are expecting a baby ... perhaps at the end of August ... or maybe not until September. What happy news!

What will this baby be?! Grandchild #10! If they have a girl, we will have six granddaughters to four grandsons! If they have a boy, everything will be even. But of course, this is their very first little one and so it is especially special to them, and it will be very precious to us as well.

So, remember when I was wondering WHOSE picture would fill the little bugle photo-ornament (the empty one underneath the tree) on our miniature family tree? Lord willing, it will be this beautiful child, born to Emily and Adam ~ congratulations you two! We couldn't be happier for you. :)