Where Did October Go?

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your continued friendship and prayers; we so appreciate them! Looking at the calendar today, we are amazed that there are only a few days left of this month! It certainly does feel like the end of October here, as we have snow in the forecast and it is "colder than Toby's leg outside" (as my mother would say).

Becky Button Nose will be five months old on Sunday!

In a week from tomorrow, we will go to the shuttle bus stop and pick up Mr. Graham and his father, who has happily volunteered to drive the moving truck for us. Then begins the end of our adventure living here in our Merry Hearts Cottage (we are wondering, what will our next cottage be called?). We have mixed feelings at leaving my mother and siblings, as well as all our neighbors, but we are excited to explore Missouri and see all that it has to offer.

Frankie looks so dapper these days!

This season of my life has been one of great growth~ not having my husband around, I have learned how much I really can do, when I thought I couldn't before! As Emily Dickinson says, "We do not know how high we are until we're called to rise, and then if we are true to form, our statures reach the skies." I even learned how to get to the pharmacy for AnnaMarie's insulin! :)

Good thing I have such big helpers!

I have found deeper peace than I thought imaginable, and have learned first hand (or rather, RE-learned) that no matter what we are called to do, if we have the right spirit, we will be supported, uplifted, and given direction every step of the way. How good is our God!

 The girls decided to make one last doll village before the move~

I hope you will forgive me if I am not around Beloved Blogland much these next few weeks, but know that I will be thinking of and missing you!

May the Lord hold you in His almighty hands at this time of your life.

Love,

Marqueta

Old October

Dear Friends,

"Old October"

Old October's purt' nigh gone,

 

And the frost is comin' on

Little heavier every day-

Like our hearts is thataway!

Leaves is changin' overhead

Back from green to gray and red

Brown and yeller, with their stems

Loosenin' on the oaks and e'ms,

And the balance of the trees

Gettin' balder every breeze-

like the heads were scratchin' on!

 

Old October's purt' nigh gone.

I love Old October so,

I can't bear to see her go-

Seems to me like losin' some

Old-home relative er chum-

'Pears like sort o' settin' by

Some old friend 'at sigh by sigh

Was a-passin' out o' sight

Into everlasting night!

Hickernuts a feller hears

Rattlin' down is more like tears

Drappin' on the leaves below-

I love Old October so!

  
~James Whitcomb Riley 

Do You Have an "Idea Bank"?

Dear Friends,

A pleasant day to you~ We seem to be getting our "September weather" in October! We are staying warm and snug inside, while watching snow clouds envelop the hills behind our home. Along with packing and sorting in anticipation of our move (which was been updated to November 5th), we have been taking time to harvest what herbs we can, as well as a few plants that we want to take starts of from the yard.

(Lots of ideas get banked at Grandma's house!)

 

We have been reading Helen and Scott Nearings' book, "The Good Life", and Sterling W. Sill's "The Best of Sterling W. Sill". Both books are very thought-provoking! The Nearings make me want to be more organized in my daily schedule, and Mr. Sill gives me the desire to make an "idea bank", so I don't forget what I learn from my reading!

Mr. Sill says, "One of the most important businesses in the world is the banking business. A bank is a place in which we keep things safe for future use. We have money banks; we have blood banks; we have soil banks. And it has been suggested that everyone ought to have an idea bank.

"One of the reasons why we have banks to put our money in is to keep it from slipping through our fingers and getting lost. That is exactly the reason for an idea bank. The pocket is not a very suitable place to keep valuable possessions, nor is the head a very good place to keep ideas. In the first place, the brain was never intended as a warehouse; it is a workroom. The brain does not serve very well as an idea bank because it is so full of leaks. Ideas in the brain are like water in a leaky cask. Just try holding a lot of ideas in your mind over a long period and see what happens.

"One of our difficulties is that the forgetting process is an unconscious process. The moment of learning is a conscious moment, but that of forgetting is unconscious. It is like the moment of birth. Presumably we never know that we are being born until some time after it has happened. It is like that with forgetting. We are not conscious of the thoughts that are slipping away from us, and therefore we fail to take adequate precautions against their loss. For a great many people old ideas are being lost far more rapidly than new ones are being acquired. We can easily figure out where this will lead us. . . ."

That one quote alone has my wheels turning quite a bit! We are advised to carry to books at all times, "One to write in, and one to read," as well as memorizing as many quotes as possible so that the important thoughts stay with us more easily. Let us all be more diligent in acquiring and retaining the knowledge that will only serve us when it is in the "bank"!

Love,

Marqueta

Don't Give Up!

Dear Friends,

A blessed day to you, and thank you for your continued friendship. Our lives have been blessed a hundredfold by all of you whom we have "met" through this blog~ You have enriched our lives!

I feel impressed today to give a little note of encouragement to all of you, in whatever your situation you may find yourselves, You are doing a great work. The world may misunderstand you, your friends and family may question you, but the Lord knows you and the value of all that you are doing each day, and it is for Him that you do every little thing, when you do it with love.

So, let's pick ourselves up by the bootstraps, take a deep breath, say a prayer of gratitude for all our wonderful blessings, and give it our best today!

Love,

Marqueta

"The Chambered Nautilus"

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sail the unshadowed main,–
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,–
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn;

While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:–

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea! 

~Oliver Wendell Holmes