Our Farm

Tom & Lena's grandkids enjoyed a day of exploring at the farm--here they are eating apples. If they only knew how many apples Lena ate when she was little. She left her apple cores everywhere (piano, side of the bathtub, window sills, etc.).

Thursdays at Zamma's

Today's project was making flower arrangements. Can you guess which is Lili's? Let me tell you, she did not want ANY help. Sophie's is the one on the right--it had to be a perfect bunch and all of the flowers had to be alike. Then Lili took pictures of them with my camera. The blur in the 2nd picture is Sophie trying to get in the picture.

Lili made a circle on the floor with a necklace and said, "Let's play like these are my rainboots and this is a puddle."

Zamma turns ??

Flowers from KT (delivered by Don Sweet)

Strawberry Chantilly Cake (Bagatelle Bakery) from Lena
Chocolate Sheet Cake made by ❤Chloe❤
It all added up to a perfect day!

Chloe turned 14!

Part IV -- The back of my Genogram Valentine

(click to enlarge)

Valentine (Part III)

My sweet Chloe--the first of my God-sent Valentine grands:

My favorite picture of Mason ever, hangs next to my Grandma Jost who died when my Dad was only 2 years old. That is her next to my Grandpa in the red heart. How perfect to have her embellished with pearls--some people believe that pearls form when angels pass through the clouds of heaven. I have always heard that she was a wonderful person who could sing like an angel. I knew 4 of her 5 children, so in some ways, I feel like I knew her. She lived on through them.

Part II "Concatanare"--I love my new word!

We are never too old to learn new words. My new word to describe my genogram is from a Latin word, "concatanare", which means "to link together". I look at this line of people who I love dearly and realize that most of them never met each other. The only common denominator is ME! I love them all--and I have even never met some of the people on my family ribbon.

Sophie Juliet starts out my genogram on the left side. Next to her are my great-grandparents (Jost) who died before I was born. My relationship to them is the same that my relationship will be to Sophie's children. It is so hard to believe that I know so little about them. I only met 2 of my great-uncles in that family picture.

My sister, Lena. Love the red jewel that Melanie added:
This next part of the chain is interesting.

My brother who died at age 27 (37 years ago),

My little grandson, Miles,

and my great-grandfather Priebe, the father of my dear grandmother--my father's mother. I never met my grandmother or Great-Grandpa Priebe. They were gone too soon from this life...

My Amazing Genogram Valentine! from Melanie (Part I)

Who in the world would think of creating a genogram for Valentine's Day for her dear old Mom? An 8' long Valentine--embellished with crystals, pearls, wax seals, and glitter? She and Matthew are conspicuously absent on my strand of concatenation*. I must add them ASAP. Oh, she also forgot another important person (my Dad). I must add these 3 people soon, as the line is not complete without them!

* - Concatenation (from Latin concatenare, to link together) is taking two or more separately located things and placing them side-by-side next to each other so that they can now be treated as one thing.

Today I have been studying my Valentine. I took pictures of it in segments. I LOVE this segment: Lili Ruth and Ruth. 2 people who I love dearly. I surely do hope my Mom is able to look down from heaven and see this little angel who shares her name! I love them being next to each other on my genogram Valentine. One meaning given for the name, Ruth is, "vision of beauty". I just know my Mom would love this little girl to pieces!

This is a precious segment of my lineage--the 3 grandparents I had in my life. I was only 4 years old when my Grandpa Jost died, but I have carried my love for him in my heart all of my life. I remember that he loved to hold me. My Grandpa Ensz lived to almost 100--I loved him and Grandma with all of my heart!
I still have a lot of my Valentine to share...

Sweet Little Lili

"The light of the righteous shines bright..." Proverbs 13:9

Lili had so much fun taking pictures with my camera. She would take a picture of her dolly and then preview it saying, "awww...that's so cute!"

Sounds like a perfect resolution for 2011:

"I’m tired of theological debate. Let’s go out: go and live deliberately; love deeply; serve humbly; laugh wildly; embrace kindly; share without measure. You are the package the Gift is wrapped in. Rivers of living water will flow from your innermost being. Christ is in you: the expectation of glory." - Willem Boshoff

YOU ARE THE PACKAGE THE GIFT IS WRAPPED IN!

Quote by Betty Smith

"Look at everything as though you were seeing it for the first time or last time.

Then your time on earth will be filled with glory."

"They come through you but not from you..."

"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit,
not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that
is stable."

-- Kahlil Gibran

✿✿HaPpY BiRtHdAy, Miss Sophie✿✿

You stole our hearts the first time we laid eyes on you...

5 years old! Ta-da!

for Melanie-Pearl:

For the Artist at the Start of the Day

May morning be astir with the harvest of night;
Your mind quickening to the eros of a new question,
Your eyes seduced by some unintended glimpse
That cut right through the surface to a source.

May this be a morning of innocent beginning,
When the gift within you slips clear
Of the sticky web of the personal
With its hurt and its hauntings,
And fixed fortress corners,

A Morning when you become a pure vessel
For what wants to ascend from silence,

May your imagination know
The grace of perfect danger,

To reach beyond imitation,
And the wheel of repetition,

Deep into the call of all
The unfinished and unsolved

Until the veil of the unknown yields
And something original begins
To stir toward your senses
And grow stronger in your heart

In order to come to birth
In a clean line of form,
That claims from time
A rhythm not yet heard,
That calls space to
A different shape.

May it be its own force field
And dwell uniquely
Between the heart and the light

To surprise the hungry eye
By how deftly it fits
About its secret loss.

John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

Old photos

Melanie gave me this picture on Christmas Day of my Grandfather Jost and his 7 brothers. I just love seeing pictures I have never seen before--especially of people I love. I was only 4 years old when he died, but I remember being held by him. He was 6'2" and he is the shortest one in the back row. Must be where my brother got his height. I love to look at this picture because I can see my Dad in Grandpa--I can see my brother in him--and I can see my nephew in him. Grandpa died in 1954 and I still love him. Love that amazing feeling.

Grandpa is the 3rd boy from the left, 2nd row

Was Jesus Born on December 25? (from Perry Stone Ministries)

Jewish Holy Days: The Making of a Baby

Zola Levitt discovered an amazing correlation between Jewish Holy Days and the gestation of a human baby, from conception to birth. While preparing for writing a book for new parents, Zola contacted a gynecologist for some help in understanding gestation. During that session, the gynecologist showed him a series of pictures, pointed to the first one (an egg and a sperm) and said, "On the fourteenth day of the first month, the egg appears." The statement struck a chord in his Jewish mind because that was the date of Passover. He remembered the roasted egg on his family table every Passover. Now, for the first time, he knew what it meant! Not wanting to lead the gynecologist off from the subject at hand, he didn't say anything, but continued to listen.

The gynecologist continued: "The egg must be fertilized within 24 hours, or it will pass on." This reminded Zola of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the seed or grain that "fell into the ground and died" in order to produce a harvest, the first-fruits of which was presented to God.

Next, the gynecologist said, "Within two to six days, the fertilized egg attaches itself to the wall of the womb and begins to grow." And, sure enough, the Jewish evangelist thought, "The Feast of First-fruits is observed anywhere from two to six days after Passover!"

Next, he was shown a photo of an embryo showing arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes, a head, eyes, etc. The caption said, "Fifty days." The gynecologist continued, "Around the fiftieth day, the embryo takes on the form of a human being. Until then, we don't know if we have a duck or a tadpole." Zola thought, "That's Pentecost!"

The next picture showed the embryo at seven months. The gynecologist said, "On the first day of the seventh month, the baby's hearing is developed. For the first time, it can hear and distinguish sounds outside the womb." Zola knew that was the date for the Jewish Festival of Trumpets.

The gynecologist continued, "On the tenth day of the seventh month, the hemoglobin of the blood changes from that of the mother, to a self-sustaining baby." Zola thought, "That's the Day of Atonement, when the blood was taken into the Holy of hollies!"

Next, the gynecologist said, "On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the lungs become fully developed. If born before then, the baby would have a hard time breathing." And Zola thought, "That's the festival of Tabernacles, a time of celebrating the Temple, home of the Shekinah glory or Spirit of God." In the New Testament, the Greek term pneuma, normally translated as "breath," is applied to the "Holy Spirit."

Birth takes place on the tenth day of the ninth month. Eight days after birth, in Jewish families, a son is circumcised. Zola noted that the eight days of Hanukkah are celebrated right on schedule, EIGHT months and ten days after Passover.

does this kid ever stand still?

Sophie's Christmas Program @ Hope

❤❤Christmas 1954❤❤

❤❤HaPpY BiRtHdAy, Lili Ruth❤❤

Some of my favorite pictures of Lili...