Home-Sweet-Home

Oh, the things we do for house and home,
because a house is the box that holds family and friends
and all the nice winter book and tea memories (if one can stay awake)

Flood update; no concrete evidence as to 'why' but we have the best guys on the job

and they figured out what to do to keep it from ever happening again, hopefully!

and because of this 'event' something to enjoy this winter...
planning a complete over-haul of the west and south-side flower-gardens!

Home;

Its scenes enchant the heart and mind

To cheer our creature care

It fuels Duty’s daily grind

With humble, thankful prayer

It nurtures diligence and dreams

A haven, kind and warm

When life is harsh and cold it beams

Its Beacon through the storm

Far more than a four wall embrace

Enfolds its precious clan

Where progress will never replace

This kind solace for man

A modest box of brick-wood-stone

It frames life’s dearest joys

As we work fingers to the bone

For darling girls and boys

And mother plants a bloom or two

To smile upon the sill

And fills a bowl with supper stew

To ward off hunger’s chill

And finds within its scenes the lines

To living’s sweetest poem

Where family, not house defines

The happiness of home

(…and though its thrills oft come with bills

That keeps the cash-cow thin

Nothing else in the world fulfills

Like Home-sweet-home’s glad grin)

© Janet Martin

When we were traveling this fall I remarked to Jim as we were having the continental breakfast in the motel how everyone in the room has one thing in common; we are all away from home.
Home is always that sweet-solace-goal no matter where we are
and how much we love what we are doing!
The thought that home waits at the other end when we are done is what makes it so worthwhile.
A nice metaphor for Heaven, isn't it, as we travel through life.
Home is waiting when we are done!

This is one of my favourite hymns

Treasure Hunt-Wealth Guaranteed

When our way is littered with the wealth of ‘having had’

And the wind turns bitter where the sun glittered, warm-gold

Then we look around us for new reasons to be glad

Hunting for the treasure that only the heart can hold

Life is like a teacher and a preacher and a thief

We are always not too old to master something new

Nobody outgrows the reaches of gladness or grief

As we dig for treasure where time’s dust and trust runs through

Happiness is not a goal, but takes us by surprise

Right in the middle of a little kerfuffle with ‘no’

It gobsmacks us on the back or startles hungry sighs

With treasures we trampled on until steps had to slow

Nothing is for nothing if we first choose hope and love

Opportunity is often dressed in common guise

We are all prospectors standing on a teeming trove

Where we will find treasure if we open up our eyes

© Janet Martin

On Keepin' Our Chins Up and Keepin' the Faith

All those proverbs and clichés we spout are proof of what life has always been about;

living and learning through life’s troubles and our mistakes.

Keeping our chins up, when the going gets tough, the tough get going,

because it’s always darkest before the dawn

so we just keep on keeping on

because tomorrow’s another day

and every cloud has a silver lining

and if a stitch in time didn’t save nine

we put more water in the soup ‘cause there’s better days a-comin’!

 What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun.

Eccles.1:9

 

Seems we’re never at the end of earnin’ some new learnin’

But the greatest of these, love, just keeps us all returnin’

Pedal to the middle, oh, and old nose to the grindstone

Countin’ blessin’s darlin’, workin’ fingers to the bone

Seems life never tires of the curve ball and the cutter

Work a whole harder for a bit of bread an’ butter

Pray a whole lot longer for a seed of faith to cling to

Come what may the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you

What won’t break us makes us stronger, but don’t try to borrow

That which breaks the donkey’s back (don't worry ‘bout tomorrow)

Strive toward the one reward, jubilant and fervent

Face to face with Christ the Lord, “well done, faithful servant”

© Janet Martin

 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. 

Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matt. 6:34

Always Something (to remind us)

...the 'flooded basement' saga continues (see previous posts)

Trying to find the root of the problem. Day one did not. 

It only made a mess of our poor neighbour's field!

I feel so bad. 

Tonight when I thanked Washing-machine Fixer for coming long after most people's days are in,

 I admitted that the knot in my stomach will be there til the other problem gets solved... 

Not quite as neat, tidy or inexpensive as changing a leaky hose!

 

Always something to remind us life is full of dreams upset

Full of roads sometimes unwanted, that we have not journeyed yet

Full of new ways to surprise us like a roller-coaster ride

Highs and lows, good-byes and hellos thwarting travel-plans mid-stride

Always something to remind us life runs rife with simple joys

Sunrise spills its morning glory over all that it employs

Where the flipside of sheer wonder is time’s hunger, hurt and grind

And the trouble that will find us to remind us to be kind

Always something to remind us of new ways to trust God more

Where, after what lies behind us makes us gladder than before

Then thought turns an eye more tender to a fellow-trav’lers needs

When the heart learns to surrender to the One who intercedes

Always something to remind us there is Beauty all around 

 Disappointment’s let-down sets the stage for triumph’s battle-ground

Teaching us to count our blessings that perhaps we had ignored

And remember it’s the long-run that we ought to strive toward

© Janet Martin

for some strange reason this song keeps going around in my head today...

could it have something to do with water, maybe?😏