New Year Happiness Anticipation

 Ageless hopes for a Happy New Year!

A kiss on Child’s soft, chubby cheek

Or on down-crown of golden curls

Daybreak, all gold and purple chic

And great big hugs from little girls

A brook, earth’s most enchanting crease

A book to feed word wanderlust

A nook in nature’s masterpiece

To worship God with love-awed trust

A winter’s morn, fluffy and white

A shock of corn, forlorn, forgot

Dusk’s friendly fireside delight

Hot soup to ladle from a pot

Crumbs after buttered toast is gone

The yawn and hum of the mundane

The short answer to a question 

Tiny tap dancers made of rain 

Ageless thrills of discovery

The carousel of season-tide

Spring's bud-untethered filigree

Excitement of Here-comes-the-bride

A way to get from here to there

A new Today untried, untrod

Blue heavens to capture our stare

And draw our gaze upward to God

Warm slippers, sweaters, blankets, smiles

Such simple pleasure-treasures, oh

Coffee, clean, folded laundry piles

Gardens asleep beneath the snow

God’s Word to cheer and teach and guide

Unaltered by the change time brings

Beauty's pastoral countryside

To make us feels as rich as kings

Unwalled woodland sabbaticals

A perch beneath trees lofty tress

The happiness that animals

Bring to a world of peopled-ness

The joy that birds and flowers birth

As we behold God’s creature care

The purity of guiltless mirth

The surety of answered prayer

The wealth of family and friends

The hope beyond love’s groans and sighs

Unbeaten path that dips and wends

Wonders to take us by surprise

Two tots for tea, a turquoise sea

The payoff view after the climb

Mist-grist of unpenned poetry

The felling fist of Father Time

And for earth’s very careworn road

Faith’s very Heaven-glorious goal

Because Christ paid the debt we owed

And saved The Very Deathless soul

© Janet Martin

Serenade to Simple-Sweet

Good-bye Granola, Hello Muesli (and a few other taste-bud EUREKA moments)

I was inspired by this video by Kylie Flavell

to make a batch of muesli instead of granola

To a baking sheet of rolled oats add 2 heaping teaspoons cinnamon

 and a teaspoon slightly rounded of cloves. Mix

Drizzle with olive oil (approx.1/4-1/3 cup) Mix.

Spread out and bake at 300F-ish until golden brown.

Toast coconut, nuts and seeds...

I used sunflower, pumpkin and flax seeds (sesame would be delicious as well)

 I used sliced almonds (you can use whole and chop after toasting)

Chop dates or apricots (scissors works well for this because they are sticky)

measure out raisins, cranberries or any other dried fruit

If you are watching sugars remember dried fruits are sugar!

They add the sweetness to this muesli recipe.

No sugar, honey, maple syrup etc.

When oats are finished baking mix all together.

So-o-o delicious!

the next recipe has been saved since I came across it in the summer, 

to try at Christmas

Frosted Cranberry Drop Cookies

Worth the wait. WOW! 

Taste-bud bliss😋

(the only tweak (optional); 

a bit of orange juice and grated rind to the batter 

and a bit of grated orange rind in the frosting)

And last but not least...

Not so exciting to look at but

pure pleasure to eat!

Creamy Soft Caramels

Warning; can cause caramel addiction😅

One of life's sweetest, simplest pleasures

 is homemade goodness.

Makes one kinda want to sing 

a little song of gladness/thankfulness

for life's little treasures...

 

sing a song of simple pleasures

let love's longings leap with joy

count thy wealth of humble treasures

 little puppy, girlie, boy

little home-cooked warmth for supper

little hug-kiss, tuck in bed

little starlight-sparkle cover

underfoot and overhead

like a diamond duvet spread

little book-and-tea vacation

little prayer and little poem

 little patchwork of creation

for our little home-sweet-home

little birdie at the feeder

little butter for our bread

little laughter to make sweeter

little sorrow's scarlet thread

binding wounds with hope, not dread

little lease of little learning

little footfall of today

 little tick-tock's no-returning

always slip-slipping away

little moment-elum filling  

little hold and letting go

little lamp-light softly spilling

little halos on the snow

like an angel's afterglow  

Janet~

(new puppy next door wants to meet his neighbors)

'little birdies at the feeder'

'little home-cooked warmth for supper' (or lunch)

 

Autumn's Rainy Goodnight Serenade

 'Simple and quite ordinary but sometimes utterly stunning.' 

from Brenda @ It's a Beautiful Life

The above comment from today's post at Brenda's blog

 aroused a wild desire to draw from the simple and quite ordinary evening, something

(okay, maybe this isn't utterly stunning) 

but something to remember it by...

the beauty of simple things~

The harmony of supper-hour traffic homeward bound through autumn rain evokes a sweet and sentimental tug where gleaming decoupage of leaves, like lamplight on the ground enchants workaday weariness with something like a hug

The lowering of lullabies as dusk begins to fold autumnal red and gold into umbral, blue-gray manteau

Seems to reflect idyllic scenes from simpler days of old as daylight slips and drips into frameworks of long ago

Raindrop tap-dancers dapple driveway, street and promenade, punctuating farewell with silver exclamation tears while we delight in Autumn’s Rainy Goodnight Serenade until the world above and all around us disappears

© Janet Martin

or this...

The harmony of supper-hour traffic homeward bound 

through autumn rain evokes a sweet and sentimental tug 

where gleaming decoupage of leaves, like lamplight on the ground 

enchants workaday weariness with something like a hug

The lowering of lullabies as dusk begins to fold 

autumnal red and gold into umbral, blue-gray manteau

Seems to reflect idyllic scenes from simpler days of old 

as daylight slips and drips into frameworks of long ago

Raindrop tap-dancers dapple driveway, street and promenade,

punctuating farewell with silver exclamation tears

while we delight in Autumn’s Rainy Goodnight Serenade 

until the world above and all around us disappears

© Janet Martin

To Frame a Memory...

Today is perfect cup-o'-java-joy-bottomless-refill weather!

Part of the reason I spent this morning's hours outdoors 

was the promise of a rain-song afternoon!

I began painting another poem this morning, 

then got distracted by duty and beauty

While along came this poem to

 interrupt the previous one...

'composed' by the last 24 hours of life!

A peek onto a poet's 'colour-palette' 😊

If I could I would frame it;

that moment when she and I

stood spellbound by an egret

beneath autumn's brooding sky

That cozy fall contentment

with a coffee-pot between

That season of enchantment;

as bronze seeped through summer green

That solace of the woodland

and its shadow-dappled path

Its palace built with remnants

of butterfly aftermath

The orchard that not long ago

was wreathed in white and pink

Lanes decked in perfumed petal snow

Where now red apples wink

Dawn, as it drew ajar

windows of opportunity

Dusk, as it pinned a star

on pages of fresh history

September's cinnamon-kissed sweeps

we tasted with our eyes

The playful puppy as it leapt

through laughter's paradise

Saturday pitter-patter fueled

by rain-symphony 

Where ink and order dueled

(they will never quite agree)

My mother in her kerchief, warm

against fall's chill embrace

Love, evoking a perfect storm

*for joys so un-commonplace

Wonder, in all its rapture

never snared by brush or pen

I wish that I could capture it

to touch and taste again

...and then I smile, and then I say

Thank God for poetry

A poem is the perfect way

To frame a memory

Janet Martin

* a mother's kerchief-framed

most-beloved-of-all-faces

is anything but commonplace 

so I edited that sentence💖

Another un-commonplace joy today

is my parent's 58th wedding anniversary!

Country Clothesline Contentment

My sister called this morning.

she needed a country clothesline poem😘😊

This can be one long poem or four short!

It is written from the passer-by's vantage-point

Something ‘bout a country-clothesline

makes a body feel content

Happiness sparked by the flutter

of sun-kissed accomplishment

Where the carefree waltz of towels

tossed against the big blue sky

Seems to sing a home-sweet chorus

to the winsome passerby

***

Something ‘bout a country clothesline

speaks of domesticity

An appealing, ageless hallmark

of a happy family

Of dear father and kind mother,

dash and dance of girls and boys

In a hymn of meek thanksgiving

for sunshine and simple joys

***

Something ‘bout a country clothes-line

feels like endurance unfurled

Images of rural living

grounded in a changing world

Framed in blue sky without borders,

cotton rainbows pirouette

Kindling a sweet, kinship-feeling

with friends we have never met

***

Something ‘bout a country clothesline

speaks of honest, humble folk

They, the kind that do not mind

a bit of wholesome dirt and work

And though, not hon’rably mentioned

in the list of finer arts

Something ‘bout a country clothesline

captivates both gaze and hearts

© Janet Martin

Gift Over Gift or Ode to Loveliness

 Look! Loveliness is like a Rembrandt of Reason Renewed!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, 

coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, 

who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

And if all else fails...Earl Grey Tea😋

Look! Loveliness is lilting in lyrics of sound and sight 

It spills in sweet surprises, stirring sighs of sheer delight 

Where ‘we’, the best word in the world, are altogether bound 

By high and low, wonder and woe bestowing common ground 

Look! Loveliness is lavishing the way from here to there 

(Without the love that authors it we wouldn’t have a prayer) 

But God, so rich in mercy knew that we would need a lift 

From time to time, so ushered to life’s climb/clime, gift over gift 

Look! Loveliness is lending what soon farewell will enfold 

Where brokenness would break us without beauty to behold 

Where hope and heartache tug and war and weather tethered strings 

And we are never very far from what tomorrow brings 

Look! Loveliness is leaving so much to be thankful for 

In spite of all we lack or wish we could take back, the door 

Is always open leading to where we have never trod 

Ah, look! The Hand that holds it open is the hand of God 

Look! Loveliness is like a Rembrandt of Reason Renewed 

It rouses from the rubble, humble hymns of gratitude 

And beckons us to better what we can, no more, no less 

Then entrust all the rest to He who grants each loveliness 

© Janet Martin 

Wishing you lots of loveliness in your corner of creation!

Uncomplicated...

Shall we share a picnic

Bit o' bread (scone) and tea? (coffee)?

Shall we go together...

 

Shall we go together? 

Come whatever may 

Life is so much better 

When weathered this way 

Shall we sit a little 

Underneath the sky 

While the jot and tittle 

Of time passes by 

Shall we share a picnic 

Bit o’ bread and tea 

Marvel as a minute 

Makes a memory 

© Janet Martin 

Compositions...(from many a common afternoon)

above photo credit Emily Curry; used with permission from tot's mom

below photo credit;  Victoria Martin

 

The passage to the past is strewn

With many a common afternoon

The melodies that echoes play

Composed on bars of day-to-day

As seasons spill the ilk of hymns

Where beauty with the broken brims

As hurt and hope of high and low

Composes from wonder and woe

The words that learn to be more kind

Where awe and angst are intertwined

Composing haunting harmonies

Like rain that falls through August trees

Where leaves like large, lush platters splay

But cannot hold the silver lay

That drips and slips into the earth

The tomb of death, the womb of birth

While we stand on its teeming sod

And contemplate the ways of God

That none can thwart or circumvent

As we escort with wild lament

The mercy that flows faithfully

To the plain likes of you and me

Where opening to curtain close

Can’t help but tenderly compose

A humble hymn of gratitude

For many an afternoon, soft-strewed

As moments so casually cast

Compose the passage to the past

Where none can hold for long the part

That writes the song that tunes the heart

That pray, before its anthems fade

We heard the music as it played

© Janet Martin

So disappointed this pic blurred.
I handed Jim the camera while I was doing dishes after Melissa's birthday supper on Saturday
before we drove her back to the city. He isn't up to all the tricks of my only-half-working camera...
but I treasure this one all the same of the girls hanging out on the porch laughing and talking and talking and talking

We are not shaped by our future, but by our past which is shaped by our present!
Makes the moment we are in feel kinda sacred, doesn't it?!!


Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.
Psalm 19:14