Blueberries, Peaches, and Blackberries!

I must say this summer has been one of the busiest summers of my life!  My camera and I have loved every minute of it, and I have been torn by the fact that I haven't been able to share each part of it with you.  :)  Each day has been a wonderful, hot, adventure in harvesting, canning, baking, blanching, freezing, etc....  

I will now share with you our latest episode...Berry picking!

Matthew was absolutely thrilled by the experience and loved every minute of it!  I was constantly finding myself turning aside from my bush to hear his voice, "Look at this 'purple' one Johanna!".  It was the sweetest thing!

My lovely mother in her white linen dress and straw hat...her hands busily moving while smiling at Matthew's find. :)

Grace found so many yummy fat ones...

They were just too irresistible to not pop in her mouth!

Emma worked her way into the fullest part of a large blueberry bush and picked and picked!  I simply stuck my camera in between the leaves to snap her photo whilst she told me that she really did not enjoy her seeing pictures of herself working....but did I listen to her???  Oh dear, my real self is coming out!  I am ever so sneaky and conniving to post her picture for all of you to see!!! 

Sarah Anne loved to hide from my camera behind bushes...

And behind her hat ;-)

After an hour of picking, we 9 headed home and froze all our blueberries in bags to be used later in the year for cold cereal, muffins, berry crisps, and pies!

A few days later brought us girls (minus Emma) a trip to a peach farm...

Lovely Grace in her sun hat...

Grace and her buckets.

Sarah Anne decided she needed a rest...

On a log =)

Matthew wanted to show me his "acrobat moves".

"Who goes there?"... ;)

Those peaches were too full of flavor to resist!!!

Watching Grace lusciously take each bite from her peach...

Matthew decided to be brave and take a bite himself! =)

"Oh my word Johanna!  This peach is really good, you should try a bite of it!"

By the time we headed back...

Matt was still eating! =)

Time to pick blackberries!

Grace and Sarah Anne needed a rest before starting another perspiring job.

After this point, my fingers became much too sticky to be handling my camera. ;)  We brought our trillions of peaches and blackberries home to make jam, pies, cobblers, cakes, etc.  Now all those yummy things are either in our pantry or freezer.  It is such a wonderful experience to really work hard for something, and then enjoy such wonderful, healthy results.  I am so blessed to be a part of learning all my Mom teaches me and is learning herself:).  We learn together!  Summer has been such a wonderful, blessed season for us.  I have enjoyed it immensely, God is so good!  I hope you enjoyed peeking in on us;).  

On another note, I wanted to thank each of you who have kept me in your prayers.  It blesses me so much to know I so much support.  (even though I was quite surprised and my cheeks became rather pink by Emma's post;))  It gives me determination to keep going, knowing that the Lord is going to bring me through.  Practicing for a concert on limited time and recording a CD, can be so stressful and really draining, but we keep pushing ahead with the Lord's guidance.  Now, everyone needs to mark their calendars for September 13th and come listen to us! =)

Thank you again and many blessings on you all!

~Johanna

A Request

Dear ones,

My sister Johanna has a lot on her shoulders right now.  She probably isn't expecting me to share this with you, but I can see the burden that is on her and how it is weighing her down.  I felt, suddenly, a need to ask for prayer for her.

Here are the details.  We are doing a concert, my family and I, on September 13th.  Johanna has only just begun learning the bass guitar this year, and she has been given a huge amount of songs to learn for the upcoming concert, more than seem possible.

It's hard on her, knowing Sam, our brother, needs her to learn them and do them well.  A sister strives to please her brother, strives with all her heart.  This is what makes the assignment even harder, this need to do her very best despite the difficulties.

So, dear friends, could you pray for her?  That the Lord would give her peace and strength and wisdom, the tools for the journey ahead?

I love you, Johanna!

Emma

I Have A Dream

*picture taken by Grace Ramsey*

It's only a small one.

It consists of several pictures, pictures of gentle images and sentimental emotions. I dream of one day walking up a lovely, quiet country lane, or a short, quaint walk, to a small house, an old fashioned, sweet little house, with yellow walls and white curving swirls of wood framing the edges of the porch. The white planks of the porch floor echo beneath my feet and the summer day is washed in a dreamlike stillness.

Inside, the forms of the walls, the antique furnishings, and quiet coverings of the floor are laced in vagueness, like a blurred picture, waiting to be sharpened with the advent of time.

There are warm, comfortable rooms, and quiet, sun drenched ones, sitting rooms with braided rugs and bedrooms with homey quilts. There are windows everywhere and the sun pours in to fill the air with light. Curtains hang before them, to shield the furniture and soften the shape of the walls.

The clarity of the interior of my little house remains in obscurity.  I can't see precisely how it will look. But I can see the dim outlines of the people that will be there, and the things that will fill my shelves. I can see a small kitchen table and a small kitchen chair, a figure there, awaiting the care I so long to give him, smelling the smells of my kitchen, smiling when I smile at him.

*picture taken by James Ramsey*

That is my dream, only a simple one. It is a dream of quaint little house, and the man of my heart's longing within it.

-Emma

To Distract Myself

I'm having odd back pains, and strong aching pains throbbing all in my left arm.  I've no idea why.  My sister's back pain has been attributed to a past injury in a car accident, and to a recent fall down the stairs.  I think the frequent chiropractic visits are beginning to help her and this sudden back pain of my own is rather disheartening.

I am posting as a way to distract myself physically, as the pain reliever seems to take quite a while to take effect, and pleasant and relaxing activities such as reading are hard to keep my mind on.  The pain itself does seem to take so much out of me.  Dear, dear, just when I've got a good Agatha Christie short story awaiting my perusal too:(

I think, perhaps, I should attempt sleep now.  May God show me His grace and peace and warmth.  And may this trial give me a glimpse of the glory of God to share with you!

Thanks for reading my less than happy musings.:)

Emma

Repetitive Lateness

For some odd reason I keep posting late at night. My days are so full of life and learning that despite the lateness of the hour at which I finally reach my bed, my mind is still alive with thoughts and the urge to share them.

Today began gently, with a quiet waking at seven, and the sound of my feet crossing our wooden floors as I went to Mom's room to weigh myself, hoping the nearly two weeks of fasting from my favorite things had succeeded in some loss of poundage. I lifted myself onto the scale and stared down at the waving needle. I shook my head for a moment and rearranged myself, waiting to see it move, telling me I'd lost nothing. But it didn't. It lay quiet where it was. I had! I had! I had lost some weight! Yes, it was a mere five pounds, but enough to make me smile broadly with the joy of it.

I slipped downstairs to a cup of warm Earl Grey tea and a long awaited slice of dark, moist, flavor infused zucchini bread and a page of War and Peace.

Then Mom, Johanna and I laid out our sewing and slipped into the gentle cycle of cutting, pinning, and the whir, whir, whirring of the sewing machine. I was cutting neck binding for a nightgown for Grace, and adding a wide stripe to the bottom of the gown for length, smiling at the effect of the pink floral fabric against the green gingham. The advent of Johanna from the sewing room, shrouded in the soft, floral bodice of her old fashioned nightgown, brought more happy, excited sighs from Mom and I, my eyes seeing the full picture, complete with the floor length skirt flowing from the delicacy of the loose bodice.

Lunch slipped in with the scent of fresh bread, and ripe, red tomatoes sliced in bright rings of scarlet loveliness. The cheese, between the folds of my slice of warm bread, touched my taste buds with its country simplicity.

In the afternoon, with my sewing finished, I lay on my bed to sleep away the weariness my body felt from the late nights and early mornings that had been crowding in around me like weeds in upon a rosebush.

We went to a birthday party this evening, at the city pool. I still can feel the warm, wet weight of Matthew on my back in the water, his life jacket pressing against me, and his laughter filling my ears as I bounced through the shallow water on my toes, laughing with him. Now I am lying in bed, my face clean, my hair still slightly damp, and the echoes of a new song filling my head, the high sound of Samuel's guitar and the words God laid upon me....

You made me, like a painting. I am a work of art.

You stained me, with the crimson, power of Your heart.

Yours,

Emma

Harold and Judy

It is late, nearly midnight, but my thoughts are full and I feel much like writing.  We spent time, tonight, with a dear elderly couple who love us to pieces and make one's face an explosion of rosy embarrassment.

Harold is a pianist, an amazing one.  He played many of our favorite Broadway songs, his fingers rolling fluidly over the soft keys, his voice rising from his chest while his chin bobbed up and down in the effort of his vibrato.  His long fingers would flip through the worn pages of his music books, stopping on a song to glance up at us with delighted eyes, then launching into the rolling chords of the tune.

Judy stands beside him, singing with composed abandon, relishing the fun of the songs.  She knows the words by heart.  The melodies are wrapped like an endless yarn ball in her head.  Her eyes are glittering, alive with song, as if even her thoughts rang with melody and music.  She loves old books and old music, loves the sound the piano makes when her husband sits at it, loves her husband, and loves us.

It was their first visit to our house, a house whose walls and floors and furniture were dusted and tidied to the best they could be, a house ready and waiting for them.  We had spent the whole long day and the day before preparing for our guests.  Now we sat within its walls, mixing our hearts and voices.

We sang Judy to their car, our voices loud under the stillness of the night.  The moon glittered down, lifting the sound of our voices like stars from our hair, carrying us into the velvety depths of the sky. 

The car doors closed after them all too soon.  Their voices cried good bye.  Harold's hand waved from behind the clouded car window.

And Johanna, Grace and I sang out way back into the house, closing the white door behind us whilst our voices faded to happy whispers.

Something about me

I was browsing through the blogs in my blogroll and found that both Shannon's blog and Tiffany's have posted on them a "meme-ish" sort of thing. I want to do both since they sound so thrilling but have decided to do Shannon's first. It offers so much "scope for the imagination".:)

Note:  After I wrote this I found I'd just been tagged by Tiffany!:)  Thank you.

I am: ever so blessed.

I think: aloud.

I know: him who lives in me.

I have: so, so, much to be grateful for, more than my simple, human words can describe.

I wish: that I were less of a bumblehead.

I hate: hardly nothing in the real sense of the word.

I miss: my dear ones scattered all over the country.

I fear: human judgement... I must blush here, but it is true.

I feel: thoughtful.

I hear: My little brother and sister rough-housing in the living room and the sound of my sister Johanna's fingers flying over the keys of the computer keyboard.

I smell: only the clean warmth of the rug before me. Anything deeper my stuffy nose keeps me from.

I crave: being in a room with all my family, smiling at one another.

I search: for peace and strength in my mind and soul.

I wonder: how the rest of my day will pan out.

I regret: saying thoughtless things.

I love: My Creator and the world he has given me, my dear family and my dear friends, warm, savory food, and all my lovely books.

I ache: deep inside.

I am not: as graceful as my sister daily reminds me to be. :)

I believe: in the hope God has given me.

I dance: when my heart is light.

I sing: with all my heart, because my voice shares so much of what I am.

I cry: because it comforts me when I am sad, because joy warrants tears, and because God fills me with emotion.

I don't always: say the right things, but I will never stop trying.

I fight: to resist the temptation to read, though far less than is good for me.

I write: with everything that is in me, with fury and vigor and heart and soul.

I win: as much as I need to.

I lose: my train of thought much too much.:)

I never: know what a day will hold.

I always: am dreaming, of things real and unreal... :) silly me

I confuse: everyone because I talk much too fast.

I listen: to the sounds of life being lived around me, to every tiny sound in reach of my ears, unless that is, I'm buried in a book.:)

I can usually be found: thinking.

I am scared: when I think I've hurt someone I love, or when I wake from a nightmare

I need: nothing but the Lord of all.

I am happy about: a package coming in the mail.

I imagine: stories.

I am wearing: my blue dress

I look forward to: seeing my Daddy smile.

I must go now..... see you soon!


Emma