A love poem ...

Oh Lord, I do not ask for much ~

eternal beauty or youth or such
Just give me a little hand to hold
and I'll forget that I'm growing old
I do not ask for cloudless skies
a life that's free from tears and sighs
Just give me a little face to kiss
and anxious moments will turn to bliss

For what is there, really, that means so much

as little hands that reach and touch

As little eyes that search and see

only the best in fragile me?

So let me grow more loving and wise

by looking at life through their wide eyes

For through these little ones, You have given

this grateful grandma a glimpse of heaven.

A GRANDMOTHER'S PRAYER by Barbara Burrow

Wishing happiness to Rachel ...

It's Rachel's birthday today ... so, Happy Birthday way down south there in San Antonio! We send you our love and prayers that this year might be filled with great joy in your marriage to Nick, and with your 3 beautiful young children, and that each day will be "sweeter than the day before" as you continue your walk of faith with the Lord.
I've cheated and stolen this picture off Rachel's blog ... but it's such a nice one of her pretty smile, and I just love that hat! We are counting down the days until our trip to Texas to make some memories with this dear family ...

Our winter thaw ...

This is day three or four of a glorious winter thaw here in West Michigan. I know it will not last. I know that the snow and frigid temps will return for another four to six weeks (minimum) ... but today I determined to take a deep breath and just enjoy ...
Come! Take a walk with me! I took 100 pictures ... but have only posted 18 of them. I was surprised by the variety of color I saw today ... perhaps that was because of the clear blue sky and almost 60 degrees.

I walked up the block from our house about five minutes and made my detour into the woods. When I want to "get away" but not have to take a long drive, this is where I go ... and today, it was an amazing shadowland ...

Once spring comes, this woods get SO thick ~ usually, I can't get this close to the creek because of all of the thorns, briars and brambles ...

See?!

But this sparkling, meandering stream was calling to me, and so I got as close as I could without falling in! I did get two soakers before my walk was over ... but it was entirely worth it.

I listened to a song of the wind blowing through the trees and the creek spilling over the rocks ...

... and the most enchanting shadows and reflections were ... everywhere!

I followed the tracks of deer, rabbits and even horses here in the woods today. See the tree blind? And the colors of the day were not just dirty gray snow that midwinter usually offers, but I found all kinds of beautiful shades of green and brown ...

and even red!

A golden leaf ...

... and that blue blue blue sky ...

... patches of ice on a tree stump ...

... pine cones ...

and even moss!

The snow has almost all melted in front of our house and the grass is even kind of green! Having finished my walk, I can say I am completely content. How kind of the Lord to give us a refreshing break to this severe winter.


"Praise the LORD, everything he has created, everywhere in his kingdom. As for me ~ I too, will praise the LORD." Psalm 103:22


I can smell Mr. Jones baking his "healthy" chocolate chip cookies ... he sneaks all kinds of wheat germ and fiber in with the regular ingredients, but they are very yummy. I'm going to go and grab a few while they are fresh from the oven. It's supposed to rain tomorrow; and with the rain, flood warnings ...

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