Advent: Day 17

I really like this one. It is just a couple of verses in the middle of a longer story. Elisha keeps on telling the King of Israel what an enemy king is planning to do. The other king gets so upset he sent a troop of soldiers to capture Elisha.

Here you can see the troop approaching, but Elisha is not looking at them, he is looking up to the heavens. I counted, there are twice as many angels in the clouds as there are troops coming up.



I have a friend who was told that someone invisible was protecting him; he always wished he could have seen that angel.

(The sampler is actually square, it was just on a lumpy surface when I took the picture.)

Advent: Day 16

The story today is Elijah under the broom tree. Elijah has just finished a "mountain top" experience, and is having the inevitable blues afterwards. All he wants to do is die. God had other ideas. The first step was for Elijah to eat and sleep. The angel in this picture is providing bread and drink, and with the angel's help he slept the clock around a couple of times.

When my dad was training beginning missionaries, he used this passage to warn them about the inevitable down times they would face doing their work. The prescription was the same as the treatment for Elijah: eat enough and get some rest. And then go ahead with the next step of the story.

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Elijah traveled to the mountain of the Lord and discovered that God speaks in a still, small voice, and that he cares for those who serve him. While we were discussing this story C decided that she wants the still, small voice in her heart too.

On this page, I love the fire and pot of water, it's a kitchen!

Advent Calendar: Day 15

The story today is David and Abigail. David and his men protected the people who lived in the wilderness near them throughout the year, so when the harvest time came, they expected to be included in the festivities. One guy, named Nabal, didn't see it that way, and was very rude about it, calling David a run-away slave/ruffian. So David decided to act like one, and kill Nabal and his whole house-hold. Nabal's wife, Abigail, caught wind of what Nabal had done and immediately packed a generous gift on donkeys and went to take it to David. They met in the wilderness while David was on his way to the attack. (You can tell it is the wilderness by the thorny plants all along the road.)

I wondered, when I saw this page, what this had to do with Advent, but again, David was Jesus' ancestor.



Abigail's quick thinking kept David from making a fatal error in judgment. If David had carried out a massacre, he never would have been accepted as King of Israel!

The story has a happy ending. As soon as Nabal sobered up from his "harvest party" Abigail told him what she had done, and he fell over dead. (That is not the happy part! This is:) Then David sent for Abigail, and he married her. He could see the wisdom of marrying a smart woman!

Advent Calendar: Day 14

Last year my New Year's resolution was to finish more than 1 page of my advent calendar (from Mary Beale). I did it! I finished 4, and there are just enough days left before Christmas to share them with you.

This is David and Goliath. I really like the sheep on the hillside, but David is supposed to be ruddy and handsome, which doesn't quite come across in this picture.



You can see though, the foolishness of David in thinking he could take Goliath, and Goliath's confidence that this was going to be "no problem." So this fits into the theme of the Advent stories, that every day focuses on God touching the world to bring about his purposes. David was Jesus' ancestor, so things had to be right with him for the plan to carry through.

I am having so much fun, and no trouble at all, coming up with 15 projects for next year. Only about 1/3 will be new projects. I want to start sharing now what they are, but I will be good!

Weekend

We had a nice weekend. I wrote about the Christmas program yesterday, but Saturday was fun too. DD1 spent the day down from "the city" and she and her dad got some Christmas shopping in. I got in a little shopping, plus some time on my own for stitching, best of both worlds!

I remade this temari because I liked the first one so much (this is one of the ones I did not get a picture of before I gave it away). This one is stitched with Vatican Gold and Silver braid, and is not as sparkly as the first one, but still turned out very nice. There are 8 different 6-point designs, hopefully mindful of snowflakes.



Then I got a little tired of Christmas and snow colors, and picked a couple of more spring-like hues for this one. It is just 12 stars stitched "najiri" or interlocked style. The original was more complex, because they filled the space with the stitching. I was not precise enough in my placement of the first row of stitching for each color, so I quit while I was ahead, and it looks very lacy.



DD2 suggested that I take a picture of the tiny temari I have been stitching next to a regular sized temari, just to give an idea of how little and how cute they are.



I got some stitching in on my Alphabet sampler as well, completing these letters. Quite a bit of progress for one weekend, I think! The blue letters take much longer to stitch than the teal letters.



Last night C came up from the basement asking why the floor was wet (?!). After some investigation, it came to light that the hot water heater had sprung a leak. DH is on vacation this week, but the intent was for him to have some peace and quiet, not to be wrestling with a hot water heater. Of course, the extra bill at this time of year was not welcome either. But the Lord provides, miraculously! Ten minutes after arranging to have the heater installed, we found out we would be receiving a bonus, plus back pay! God is good.

There is a project group on-line that is planning on stitching something new every day for the first 15 days of January, with the plan of finishing all 15 items by the end of the year. The idea is very intriguing, but I cannot face 15 more WIPs (works in progress) plus the pressure of having to get everything done in this year. I am going to modify the plan, and stitch on something different every day for the first 15 days of January, but I will include current WIPs as well. That way I will be clearing out old projects as well as beginning new ones. I will work up a list, and let you know what the final plan is.

Christmas Program

Everyone is prepared for the Christmas program. C and P are all dressed up.




(I could not get a picture of a nice smile from P.)

C got all dressed up in her costume and looked very cute. Can you see her holding the donkey tail?



Here is the nativity tableau: two sheep, a donkey, Mary, Joseph, and the baby.



Then the song afterwards. They sang very well!



This is DH's favorite position, in the background, playing music.



We had a beautiful service for music. There was a French Horn prelude, a trumpet offertory, and organ, piano, keyboard, drums, bass, violin, and another trumpet with the singing, plus a solo for special music.




Then treats and presents afterwards. Very nice day.