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GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

Speech at the Dedication of the National Cemetery, November 19, 1863

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated  to the proposition that all men are created equal.  Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.  We are met on a great battlefield of that war.  We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.  But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.  The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to to add or detract.  The world will little note, not long remember, what we say here; but it can never forgot what they did here.  It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.  It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great  task remaining before us, that from those honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that  government of the people,, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

God bless our Soldiers who have fought and died to make us a safer place to live. We give tribute to them on this Memorial Day 2010!

OUR GRADUATES

 This is a picture of the table I fixed for John (our grandson)
to display at church last night.  Our two Seniors were honored
with a big cake and all the ladies brought finger foods.   Notice the coke boxes.  A hole was slit in the top for any cards they might receive.  If you look in the left hand corner you will see John's outfit that he wore home from the hospital.  He was early so the little blue outfit is a preemie. He is funny anyway.  He picked it up and held it to one shoulder and it barely came to his elbow. The had fun with the helium balloons.  They cut a hole in them and breathed in for a few seconds and tried talk.  They sounded like Donald Duck. 


 This is John and Benjamin holding their cake.  We were anxious there lest the cake divide.  But they made it.

  This a closer look at the collage.   It was fun putting it together.  I had some stickers of the little movie Cars.  Guess it didn't suit his fancy.  He ask me about Ninjas.  I ask him what in the world did he want turtles.  He laughed and I knew I said something wrong.  "Nanny, don't you know what a Ninja is."  "Yep ~turtles."   "No, Nan , come here and let me show you."   I found out it was some kind of martial arts or something like that.  Oh well, what do we Granny's know?  This one can't keep up with this generation anyway.


Keep John and Ben in your prayers.  They are both good boys.  Have not gone out in into the world and tried things.  They seem to be happy just serving the Lord.  I know they will face what the real world is like, but they were challenged last night by our Youth pastor to keep their guard up. 
The Youth Choir sang and the Lord move upon the service again.
People praying around the altar. Special singing.  More people going to pray.  Tears were shed and God was there.  We had a lot  of visitors. I'm sure they did not expect a graduation to turn out like that.  But what a blessing..! 

As the message was being preached he brought out that only 25%
of teenagers stay in church.  I looked up the graduates and prayed "Lord,  please let them be in that 25%."   We have to keep a wall of prayer about them.

In Luke 12:15: "Take heed, and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisted not not in abundance of the things which  he possesseth."

I have been thinking again!  Just rambling thoughts about life.  Nothing looks good as far as our nation is concerned.  Seems Christianity is being attacked.  But, hasn't it been attacked through the ages?  Wasn't God always there to see His children through the tough times?  He is still with us today to see us through whatever may come our way!

My husband and I were talking just yesterday.  As a nation all is seemingly being destroyed.  We hear of wars and rumors of things that might come on  our nation.  Earthquakes  and floods. So  many people losing all they have gained materially.  Many losing their lives.  But isn't that exactly what the Bible said would be in the last days?  We are on shaky ground.  But one thing is for sure. Our lives as Christians are build on the Lord, Jesus Christ.

We look around at the material gain.  The more you have the more you want.  We have always tried to live 
within our means. But material gain is not our priority.  In Psalm 62:10, "If riches increase, set not your heart upon them."
Matthew 6:19-21
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust  corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves  do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

The Lord gave us the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12.   He was so prosperous that he did not have a place for all his crops.  You remember the story!  He was full of self.  He even talked to himself.  He said: "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry. "
You know also what the Lord said! "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee:  then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided."

He was no fool concerning material things, but he was a fool because he never took God, nor his own soul,
nor eternity into consideration. 
Just think about what he could have done with his riches if he had used them for the Lord!  Maybe feed some hungry soul or make provisions for the furtherance of the gospel.  Many blessings he missed because he was so self centered.  I'm reminded of the poor little lady that gave her all. Two little pennies! But the Lord said she hath given the most.   The rich men looked around and  thought, what's wrong with Him?  We have brought a grand offering and here she gets the praise that brought just two little coins. But I can hear Jesus say, "You just brought me the lagniappe, left overs.  This little lady has given me her all."

Maybe that's why the Scripture says it is hard for a rich man to  enter into heaven.  Somehow money has a hold on people.  Well, we are far from being rich.  But what we have belongs to the Lord.
Annie Johnson Flint wrote this poem which is so fitting.

THE UN BOUGHT GOD

What would our land be worth to us,

the land we sell and buy,

And fence about and call our own,

without god's open sky

To hold the sunset's rose and gold,

the white clouds floating by?

What would our fields  bring forth for us,

Without the gifts He sends,

Without the sunshine and the rain

On which our bread depends,

s little water brooks to flow,

His birds to be our friends?

  

Oh, as the land without the sky

That ever bends above,

So barren and so desolate,

Our lives without His love;

The blessings that no gold can buy

Our greatest riches prove.

Amish Loaves

This is what I have been doing the past couple Days.  I made 14 pan loaves of these. I finally decided to try the bunt pan and see if that would not be better.  One batch will make a regular bunt pan.  It turned out nice.  I started another batch.  You have to mash it for ten days.  During that time you feed it more sugar and flour.  On the tenth day you divide the bag, (I put it in a zip lock bag) and you should come out with 4 batches.  Each batch makes 4 small loaves or a regular cake.  Since I am making  some of these for desserts at camp I find the bunt pan will be just right.  I fooled around with the flavors this time.  It takes a large box of pudding mix per batch.

I got chocolate pudding and made chocolate.   They don't last long around here since our grandson  loves chocolate.  Not to say that grandpa loves it too. If you noticed you saw where one chocolate cake was shorter than the other.  That was grandpa's sampling. When these cooked loaves cool you put them in zip lock bags and put them in the freezer.  Just putting them in the fridge overnight makes the moisture come out.  

We have gotten several cooking's of yellow squash out of the garden.   We have other kind of squash planted but these bloomed early.  Right now we are getting a nice shower of rain on them,

which we needed badly.  Tomatoes are coming on, also.

We have a yard long cucumber coming on.  I am anxious to see if they grow that long. 

Tomorrow is the sabbath. Are you anticipating going to the house of God?  I am getting my Sunday School lesson all together.

Pray that all of you have a blessed Sabbath Day.     

Rejoice

This is the day that the Lord hath made.  Let's be glad and rejoice in His Love and Grace.  Grace is given each of  us each and every day.  Mercy is what we deserve to get but instead we get grace. Aren't you glad He made that possible? 

My blog has been messed up but thanks to a friend I can at least post now.

Still have to get my sidebar up from the bottom. 

I am in the midst of baking Amish loaves.  It is a process and takes time but well worth it.  I have the recipe for the starter.  So I started at the very beginning.  If you get tired baking you can always put the dough in the freezer and get it out when you want to bake.  I did that ten days ago,  You have to

mash it and feed it twice in the ten day process.  One batch makes four batches.

You are suppose to bake three and give one to a friend.  But most don't want to take the time. 

 I am making these for our camp meeting that is coming up at church.  It starts Father's Day and goes through Thursday night.  We have facilities to sleep and bath and and enjoy.  It does not cost a thing.  If you are close by why don't you consider coming a couple nights.  You will go away blessed in your soul.  Three meals a day, a place to stay with a/c, and one service in the morning and one at night.  Where else can you get a deal like that. Would be nice to meet some of you. 

Have a blessed day and remember to rejoice in His mercies!

Messed up Bad

I guess I have messed up bad and don't know how to fix it. Guess I won't be bloging much until I can get someone to tell me how to fix the problemn. My background and sidebar and topper are all messed up.

Need Help!

Can anyone tell me how to get my sidebar back to the top? It is all the way to the bottom. I know it has something to do with the hmtl but I am hesitant to play around with it since I don't know the first thing about it. If you can tell me what to do please ,let me hear from you . Thanks!

CENTURY PLANT

Do any of you have a Century Plant? I have some young ones. I have seen them around a lot for years. I heard that they only bloom once a century.

Never expected I would see one in bloom but maybe I will this year. This is a picture of one down the road from us. You can see it is way above the house. We keep looking for the bloom but so far all we see is the stalk.

It is very unusual plant. I look it up and this is what I found.

1933 Botanists realized again last week that "century plant" is a complete misnomer for the American aloe (Agave americana). In Mexico where it is called the maguey it takes only 15 years or so to store up the energy to bloom. Unblooming, it looks like an ordinary ground-palm: a rosette of long, pointed leaves spreading out from a central core. When its time comes it hastily pokes up a huge flowering stalk, thick as a tree trunk, from 15 to 40 ft. high, tops it with a huge cauliflower sprig with hundreds of little white or yellow tubular flowers. After holding this climax for a month, the tall stalk withers, the whole plant dies. Mexicans commonly intercept the climax by cutting out the stalk bud as soon as it shows, hollowing out a basin in the central core. The plant pours its banked energy into the place where the flower-stalk ought to be, produces a basin of sweet sap from which Mexicans make their national drink, syrupy pulque. By distilling fermented pulque they make mescal, a potent liquor. By letting the flower stalk grow, drying and slicing the firm pith, they get natural razor strops, insulating material. The legend that, north of Mexico, the maguey blossoms only once a century existed largely on lack of observation. The plant blooms naturally in the sunny Southwest. But in northern States the maguey requires the comforts of greenhouses. No northern specimen is known to have bloomed outdoors. Last July a 50-year-old plant belonging to Charles Curie of Cornwall, N. Y. began pushing a stalk bud up through its central core. At once he had the plant dug out of his greenhouse and trucked to the Bronx Park Botanical Gardens where experts could replant it in the open and study its blossoming under natural conditions. Last month the stalk began to grow at the rate of an inch an hour, grew 15 feet high, put out 600 grey-green buds. For four successive weeks experts announced the century plant was about to bloom, but no bud opened. Crowds came to gape at the monster stalk, the sulky buds. Director Elmer D. Merrill apologized, "This plant is 50 years old and I guess it's got a right to be temperamental. When a Park botanist saw one bud opening last week he was afraid to start premature hopes again, but two days later there were 20 blooms, next 43 more. Visitors were disappointed by the little yellowish blossoms, scarcely more spectacular than the buds. Last week's New Yorker, going to press before the four-weeks-overdue plant had put out its first blossom, beat Manhattan newspapers by printing a cartoon of a silk-hatted committee timing the blooming of a century plant with the cracker, "It's been a hundred years and ten minutes exactly."

I find this plant interesting. I am waiting for the blooms. the plant is so high I honestly don't know how we will be able to see. But we will be looking. I will post the bloom if I get to see one.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

MAY 9, 2010

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY'S TO ALL YOU THAT ARE MY BLOGGING FRIENDS AND TO YOU THAT PASS BY SOMETIMES ~ MAY EACH OF YOU HAVE A BLESSED DAY. IF YOUR MOM IS STILL LIVING ~MAKE A SPECIAL EFFORT TO SEE HER. SOME OF US DON'T HAVE THAT PRIVILEGE ANYMORE. BUT I'M SURE THEY ARE LOOKING DOWN AND SMILING ON US.

GOD BLESS YOU EVERYONE!

Our Grandson!

May 7, 2010

Isn't he a handsome dude? This is John, our grandson, that is graduating tomorrow. I told him yesterday that he had those 12 long years behind him. He informed me that kids these days have 13 yrs. Kindergarten! He is running on adrenaline right now. He was having trouble with Algebra 2. Who wouldn't? I remember I had trouble with Algebra, also. Anyway, he made it and he gives the Lord the glory. John is a level headed kid for his age. He will be 18 August 21. But he is serving the Lord. He told my husband yesterday that back in September when Br Bryan Sharp was at church with a study on Revelations that the Lord really spoke to him about how important it is to a stay in church. He will not miss a service unless it is absolutely necessary. Comments on the messages all the time and just loves it when the Holy Spirit just takes over the services. We are really proud of him. Pray that the Lord will direct him where to go from here. This is a big step in a young persons life.

Quilt Cover Finished.

I finally got all the squares of Bonnet Girl blocked . I could not get it all in one picture but it is ready to be put together with the batting and lining and quilted. It is for a queen size bed. Then I guess the pieces from Mom's box will be done. I did not do anything on it this week but I am hoping that I can get it put together and start quilting. I don't know how long that will take since I am quilting by hand. I will show you the finished product as soon as it is finished. My husband ask me what I was going to do with it. He thinks quilts are made to use. I might let him use it a few nights but I have not figured out yet just how to display it. Guess I will figure that out when the time comes. 05-07-2010

My Success Story

5-5-2010

Aren't these Amaryliss beautiful? My Mom had a big pot of them. They were gorgeous. After they bloom they make a big pod full of seed. I have never had a green thumb but one year I took a pod, took the little seed out and fixed up an old

cast iron Bar-B-Q grill. I just sprinkle the seed and left them along. In the spring of the next year we noticed little sprigs that looked like grass. We let them grow and finally knew my seed had come alive. This is the product of my one success story. My husband has plenty stories. He just naturally has a green thumb.

The pink one is a double. Makes four blooms on one stalk. I had gotten my Mom one for her birthday last year and I got one for myself.

Mom commented on how she enjoyed watching them unfold. When she passed away in July I got the one I gave her and put them in a bigger pot. Now I will need to re-pot again. Every time I look at this beautiful pink I think of Mom watching them every day. She couldn't get over how they kept blooming. They have mutiplied and now there is about 4-5 new stalks coming up. I am going to put them on a big planter and give them plenty room to grow.