Homemaker's Prayer

Last night I started reading this book.

 (lent to me by a friend who knew I would love it, and I do!)

I fell in love with it from the first paragraph (pictured below)! 

reflections on the value of home, 

timeless good advice for homemakers,

 prayers, stories and recipes

connected to the stories!

In the first chapter, (written in the '60's) she is contemplating the 

increasing breakdown of homes,  the foundation of strong nations!

Even more relevant now! 

Lord, help me to make home a haven of kindness and grace

For nothing else in all the world can take home-sweet-home’s place

Then fit me with Thy joy and strength, fill every task I do

With thankfulness and love, so above all, I honour You

Lord, help me guard the heart of home with fierce, yet tender care

Lest some ruinous habit leaves it in sad disrepair

Keep me aware of what may harm or wreck its shielding wing

For the heart of the home is like a living, breathing Thing

… And never let the barb of discontentment tear a hole

Into the fabric that ought to protect, cheer and console

Lord, when my home begins to feel like a fragile, chipped cup

Still, let no failure foster the temptation to give up

Lord, teach me with humility to tend with mother’s pride

To details that kindle a glow that reaches far and wide

So that, no matter how far from its happy hearth we roam

The flicker of love’s Candlelight instills a sense of home

…and always draws us gladly back to where we long to be

To nourish us with home-sweet-home’s familiarity

Where welcomes are never worn thin, where love attends life’s woes

In, pray what grants a glimpse of Home beyond time’s curtain-close

© Janet Martin

I love how the beginning of the second chapter

 is in sync with the season I am in;

slowly tucking Christmas away, bit by bit

Books like this kindle in me 

a sweet contentment for the domestic 'mundane'  bliss

For things like 

mending...

ironing...

folding laundry...

tidying clutter...

making cabbage rolls...

(enough to freeze some for convenient suppers-for-one))

Cabbage Rolls...

Psalm 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

For Our 'Happy-in-Waiting' (in Happy New Year)

I started this poem a week ago,

snaring lines as they bobbed by...

This week I finally had a chance to collect more fragments

from my trek through impending happiness-es!

I splashed through brooks, 

went on a picnic,

 laughed at a silly, fat robin,

and SO much more!

Happy Whatever Happy-in-waiting is waiting for you!

Winter’s canvas to be tickled with giggling snow-angel throngs

Below, one of my all-time favorite shots from days long gone

Victoria and her cousin...

Hush! plush-pink peony pom-poms wait to pop nature’s green cork...

Chill winds to be charmed and taken by soft zephyrs, blossom-sweet

Gardens to be warmed and ‘wakened by the banter of bare feet

Barren branches to be garnished with whispers of God-spun lace

Snowy hillsides to grow tarnished as sunbeams give winter chase

Dust to stir as fields are planted with both seed and farmer’s prayer

Hearts and souls to be enchanted by glory, heavens declare

Buds to burst with petal-plunder, miracles in every pod

Happiness immersed in wonder by the handiwork of God

Sassy robin tugging dinner from a grassy smorgasbord

Scrumptious supper-soups to simmer, coffees to be brewed and poured

Into fav’rite mugs, hand hugged and ever so blissfully sipped

While the bashful morn is tugged across skylines, pink and gold dipped

Summer’s harvest to be pickled, autumn to dwindle leaf-songs

Winter’s canvas to be tickled with giggling snow-angel throngs

Cheese and whole-grain cracker-stackers to pack in a picnic lunch

Bunch ‘o please-and-thank-you-happy snackers munching carrot-crunch

Steps to slow to walk with children, innocence to steal our breath

While we point the way to Heaven from earth’s thoroughfares of Death

Cozy snuggle-with-me twilight while outside the world grows dark

Foibles turning into hindsight as discernment meets its mark

Solemn Last Post and Reveille Remembrances-lest we forget

Fires to be stoked and fences to tend to, not mended yet

Hush! plush-pink peony pom-poms wait to pop nature’s green cork

Rush of seasons waits to romp and vex wild wanderlust with work

Payments to be made and worry to teach us to use our knees

Patience to test ‘we’re late’ hurry, as we search for phones, shoes, keys

Kindness to be shown, ink-hunger to be fed with books, books, books

Inner child to rediscover as we wade through fields and brooks

Cakes to bake and decorate for birthdays yet to celebrate

Beach to stroll and hand to hold; don’t wait until it is too late

Silver poplar’s shiny shivers, tap dancers made out of rain

Waltzing on impromptu rivers gushing down the street and lane

Naughty puppy to be scolded, antics by Mr. Mischief

Laundry to be washed and folded, to-do-lists-achieved-relief

Days to drain of exultation to God for blessing-heaped trays

Thought to tune with adoration, heart to overflow with praise

© Janet Martin

Scrumptious supper-soups to simmer,

(instead of scrumptious supper-soup, last night was scrumptious, supper-stirfry!)

Chicken and veg stir-fried and served on a bed of stir-fried/steamed cabbage and black beans

More than It (December Dawn) Seems...

This morning kicked off its tick-tock shaped sun-kissed socks and shoes

before I was able to complete the poem 

that burst into wanting-to-be shortly after waking...

The beauty of meditation 

and the duty of obligation

 always com/posing stiff competition!

Sometimes a poem culminates best 

not pressed/suppressed by sheer determination

but by releasing its fragments until they return

in whispers begging to be penned.

So it was today...

I began dipping chocolate bars and maybe because my

fingertips were chocolatey and my mind at ease

lines teased and flickered,  begging me to wash my hands

and capture them before they waft irretrievably away 😂🙏

On Saturday's post I forgot to flip over the recipe card 

for homemade Chocolate Bars, to show dipping instructions.

I am sharing the dipping instructions instead,  from Jim's (husbands') aunt.

(who makes perfect chocolate bars every Christmas)

Melt your preferred variety of chocolate (I used semi-sweet blocks)

over LOW heat. 

(put water in a pot and set another pot on top and let  the chocolate melt at 

around 3 or 4 temperature on the burner.)

(add a bit of shortening or Paro-wax for glossier finish.)

Dip and cool!

This morning showcased a most welcome sunrise after a stretch of unsunny dawns!

Dawn seems to wear a prayer-like solemnity where new mercies spill

As heavens pale and lift the veil that yester-dusk lowered until

We couldn’t see December’s close-cropped lea, the dark and leafless copse

Etched in stark magnificence against brilliant, westerly backdrops

That dimmed and disappeared; earth’s tiered sweeps shrouded by a sea

That drew away Today laden with ample opportunity

Dawn seems to sing! Every morning the old is reborn and made new

As mercy grants rekindled chance to learn to love as we ought to

Humbly aware of He who cares and helps us bear our shares of Must

Before we pass through that last door of Soul-to-God and dust to dust

And thus, because life is precious and Time a Very Fleeting Flow’r

Dawn seems to wake an urgent ache to make the most of every hour

….each moment rife with unlived life becoming lived; the untouched, touched

And often we forget what we beget as dawn is crudely crushed

By hands and feet; demands compete and how we meet them will become

Without disguise, the ink that dries in a Book tabling each day’s sum

While ticking clocks keep kicking off the shoes and socks at dawn reborn

And sometimes we are prone to see nothing at all but 'morn-to-morn'

…and often dawn seems here and gone without a second thought or prayer

A gift from God we barely nod at as it drifts, not to thin air

But to a page, where age to age is recording daily reply

Its telling proof spelling the truth that will be futile to deny

Then, pray that want may be subdued by gratitude as mercy streams

Renewed; where dawn is like a glimpse of Heaven bursting at its seams

© Janet Martin

And, let we forget!!!

As true now as in the days of Jeremiah's lament...

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

Lam.3:22-24

O Morning Star

Because Life's Best Things Never Change...

The innocence of tot...

The sacred charge of we

Who train their tender chain of thought

By what they hear and see...

(below, the beginning of what I hope is a long, friendly acquaintance

with gramma's fridge...😂💗)

The pleasures nature grants

Where every season-lease

Spills spectacles of birds and plants

Each its own masterpiece...

Life’s best things never change

The beauty of the earth

And sky, where the heavens proclaim

Day’s demise and rebirth

The innocence of tot

The sacred charge of we

Who train their tender chain of thought

By what they hear and see

The pleasures nature grants

Where every season-lease

Spills spectacles of birds and plants

Each its own masterpiece

A soulful melody

That strikes a chord so dear

Its fond familiarity

Evokes both smile and tear

The comfort and delight

Of squash-soup in a bowl

To satisfy the appetite

Of both body and soul

The good of lessons learned

The woods frost-kissed, or awed

Spectators with faces upturned

To feel the kiss of God

The bliss of coming home

The love of family

To share and bear the grin and groan

Of mirth and misery

Laughter, free from pizzazz 

Of vowels and consonants

But lilts and peals and sparkles as

It teaches hearts to dance

The thrill in simple things

Good books, a favorite mug

New mercy as each morning brings

God's warm handshake or hug

The gift of growing old

To taste the sweeter truth

Of joys time designs to withhold

From fairer green of youth

Moment-bubbles that break

In breathtaking surprise

A candle-spangled birthday cake

Or lake full of sunrise

The possibilities

Where ingredients start

To tickle taste-bud fantasies

With culinary art  

God’s word, infallible

Unswayed by vain dispute

No mortal verdict can annul

His Sovereign Absolute

Though seasons/eons may estrange

So much that cannot stay

Because life’s best things never change

We will not lose our way

…supper table to set

Dusk’s shadow-hallowed death

Hellos to kindle wicks not yet

Snuffed by farewell’s last breath

© Janet Martin

The possibilities

Where ingredients start

To tickle taste-bud fantasies

With culinary art 

 The comfort and delight

Of squash-soup in a bowl

To satisfy the appetite

Of both body and soul

For We, Four-Season Lovers

 

As 'winter' descended with a vengeance this week

conversations turned season-ward...ready or not, winter always comes!

I hope/try to be a four-season lover both literally and metaphorically!

For everything we love in seasons that never stay,

each season holds so many unexpected and lovely surprises

if we keep our hearts, arms, ears and eyes open!

Yesterday I lingered over this tray of autumn-gourds,

aka, the Creator's creations

I was reluctant to trade them for more Christmas-flavored décor...

...but then, Christmas joy cheers autumn sorrow!

though, subconsciously I am already preparing for the pangs, when the time comes 

of tucking away dried orange slices and cookie-cutter stars,

(however, it feels like I just did that and here we are, hanging them once more!!!)

For we, four-season lovers

Of green, gold, red and white

Of constantly bowled over

By waves of sheer delight

Of shamelessly confounded

By annual buffets

Of creation unbounded

To enchant and amaze

Of thought, agog with wonder

Of hearts taken by storm

As God turns mortal thunder

To worship’s purest form

Of love’s aleatory

Hymn, from we, humbly awed

At fringes of the glory

And majesty of God

For we, four-season lovers

That grapple with heart-ties

Tangled in fields of clover

And colors of sunrise

And friendships, forged with flits of

Petalled and feathered things

And all the lovely bits of

Beauty each season brings

From spring’s green-misted bowers

To summer’s butterflies

To autumn’s tattered flowers

To winter’s wooly skies

We find fresh exclamations

Of gladness to console

Farewells. Joy heals abrasions

Where love had left a hole

For we, four-season lovers

Imbibed with glints of time

As thankfulness discovers

Life’s commonplace sublime

To startle us with laughter

Rather than vain laments

As God regales both rafter

And deep, with excellence

His goodness fills each season

With His marvelous ways

To kindle perfect reason

To praise Him all our days

To give Him more than merely

Religion’s austere nod

But rather worship dearly

Our four-season God

© Janet Martin

To give Him more than merely

Religion’s austere nod

But rather worship dearly

Our four-season God...

Ps.147

Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; 

for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.

The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

The Lord lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.

Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:

Who covereth the heaven with clouds, 

who prepareth rain for the earth, 

who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.

He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.

He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.

The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.

For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee.

He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.

He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.

He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.

He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?

He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.

He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.

He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them.

 Praise ye the Lord.

Rejoice and Be Glad Kick-off to a New Week

The passage below can't help but kindle holy hope and joy in our hearts!

Ps.130:1-5

Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD!

2O Lord, hear my voice;

let Your ears be attentive to my plea for mercy.

3If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities,

then who, O Lord, could stand?

4But with You there is forgiveness,

so that You may be feared.

5I wait for the LORD; my soul does wait,

and in His word I put my hope.

***

This month's Sunday School Verse

for grades 1-6 is pretty awesome too!

(Picturing this scene is rather beyond thought's comprehension, isn't it?!!)

Every living thing shouting God's praise!

Rev.5:13

Then I heard every creature in heaven 

and on earth

 and under the earth 

and on the sea, 

and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne 

and to the Lamb

be praise and honor 

and glory and power,

for ever and ever!”

The above verse, and

 Saturday night's sunset...

...and a lot of unexpected beauty and joy

 in the middle of love's/duty's muddle...

helped to inspire this poem💝🙏

This is the day the Lord has made

Let joy and gladness brim

As we pick up our tools of trade

To humbly honor Him

Because no matter what we do

However great or small

It is enough when offered to

Our gracious Lord of all

Today unfurls love’s living rooms

Let’s make them fit for kings

Where each season profusely blooms

With joy in simple things

And life’s secret to happiness

Is not for favored few

But for each heart when thankfulness

Runs every corner through

Behold, goodness and mercy’s fount

Its measure, who can trace?

Where none could stand if God would count

Our sins without His grace

But He forgives all who repent

His pardon never fails

Thus, joy and gladness cease lament

As thankfulness prevails

This is the day the Lord has made

By His sovereign command

Majesty's grandeur is displayed

On sky and sea and land

And only a fool dares to boast

In what God grants to we

Who are at best, need’s uttermost

Subjects of love’s decree

Then, in light of God’s faithful love

That, through good times and bad

Replenishes Reason Enough

To rejoice and be glad

Surely hope’s undeterred reply

Is to fill all our days

Not with the bitterness of ‘why’

But with joy’s thankful praise

© Janet Martin

today's tools of trade at my house include

empty jars and apples,

paring knife, peeler, bowls and pots etc.!

The goal?!

Canned apple pie-filling😋😊

Our apple tree receives no extra TLC besides

what the Good Lord grants in sun and rain.

 So whatever I preserve with apples are usually apples I have purchased.

This year (due to lots of rain?)

 our tree has a bumper crop of mostly un-wormy,

what I have dubbed 'play-apples'.

Last week I dried some ...(google how to oven-dry apples)

...and also did my first ever batch of pie-filling!

It is delicious! 

I hope to share the recipe on a future post!