love

Favorite Revisited – 31:7

~ Teresa ~ 7 Comments

(If you’ve been here already, this post has now been updated with a link to music at the bottom of the post.  Enjoy!)

Last Monday when I posted the introductory post to the 31 Days of writing, I mentioned that on the weekends I would revisit one of my favorites and write about it on Mondays.  On day three’s Random Favorites I said that one of my favorite things was my husband’s hands when he plays the piano. I love to watch him play.  Every time I hear him play a concert I fall in love all over again.

This weekend, Sunday morning, He had a concert at a church in the next small town over from where we live.  His hometown.  He did a phenomenal job.   Several people told me they knew I must be proud of him.  Of course I am. I am proud of his talent, but I am more proud of the fact that he uses it for the Glory of God.  He knew when he was fifteen that he wanted to use his music for God.  And he always has given back.  Whether for a large crowd or small, paid or volunteer he gives his best. So Sunday I added another favorite memory of him playing piano to my collection.  And his hands?  Beautiful instruments proclaiming God’s grace and love.

Fact is, a lot of my favorite memories have to do with my husband playing the piano and they center around our falling in love.  The first time I met my him it was at a Youth Rally at one of our local churches when I was seventeen.  He played a very rousing rendition of Onward Christian Soldiers on the piano and I was mesmerized.  I think I fell in love with him that night.  My mother did too.  She claimed him (unbeknownst to him) right then for her future son-in-law.  At the time she thought it might be my sister who would nab him though, since my sister was more of a pianist than me (I was a lazy piano student).  What she didn’t realize is that I was the one who needed a pianist, but God knew. It all worked out as it should and a few years later I got the piano guy. As far as I know, my sister never wanted him – she was much too young. My mother’s gut was right though – he did become her son-in-law.

That evening after the rally, my (future) husband had a good time flirting with me, but he told me years later he thought my glasses were too big!  What did he know about fashion?  Anyway, a few years later we were in college and I stalked ran into him at the music building where I was pretty sure he would be.  I was with a friend and her mom.  We asked him to play for us and he obliged.  He made a big show of explaining the piece he was going to play – something about a gondola and a couple in love.  I’m pretty sure he was letting me know he was interested.  On the way back to the dorm my friend’s mom told me he was the guy I was going to Marry.  I’d already decided I was going to marry him.

A few days later we talked again and he eventually asked me out and we began dating.  Most of our dates consisted of him having dinner with my family and then serenading us at the piano.  Something about playing for his supper.

After a couple of years of dating we were married.  When we were first married there would be times that I’d feel like I had been punched in the gut and it would hit me that I was the lucky girl that caught the guy that everybody loved.  He chose me.  And when I watch his hands caress the notes I feel like the young girl in the gondola falling in love with her guy.  All over again.

If you want to hear him play – Rocky playing his arrangement of Danny Boy.  This song is on Tindeck.  If you can figure out how to download it you may do so with my permission.  However, if you use it in any way on your blog or another public forum you must link back to this post and properly credit the song as being the property of Rocky Hardymon.  Thanks.

Ah yes, relief - all went well - Prof called him later that evening to say he had an A! As if I was worried about that one!

Loving in Grace,

Teresa

If We Live

~ Teresa ~ Leave a comment

Little House 010.1

“Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
                                     And Immortality. ”                                                                                                                          Emily Dickinson

We live our lives in fragmented pieces and unfinished sentences.  We struggle to be what we think we are supposed to be – what we think others expect of us. We listen to the cacophony of voices around us clamoring to be heard and forget to stop and listen for the one, still voice that matters.

Some die too young while they’re right in the middle of the clamor, and they leave other’s to figure out the pieces of their lives.  I believe if they could come back they would tell us to forget the pieces, forget the chaos, forget expectations of others.  Instead, they would tell us to slow down, let the sentences be finished.  Listen to the one who knows us best.

Soul living begins with listening to the still voice in the quiet of our heart.  It requires a down slowing and an attitude of waiting, of clinging to the good and settling into peace. Making room for love and living.  Realizing that living your faith, making time for others, savoring the everyday is far better than existing to chase a dream that you can’t take with you.

Since the first of the year, it seems that we have had one funeral home visitation upon another.  A couple of these were men who died too young.  Both my age, one in a car accident and one in his sleep.  Both Christian men who loved their families.  Seeing them in pictures with their families and hearing others speak about them was a testimony of lives well lived.  Lives that made room for love and living.

Death is no respecter of age, and it will come to all.  When my time comes, I want those left behind to be able to say that I listened to the Still Voice, that I settled into the Peace that only he can give. I want them to see the finished sentences.  I want them to know they were loved by my living.

Little House 010.2

Living in Grace,

Sadie

Simple Christmas

~ Teresa ~ Leave a comment

Hope, Peace, Joy and Love – Wrapped in swaddling clothes – a gift for all who will receive.  This is Christmas.  This is the focus.  No need for gaudy adornment, or lots of ribbons and bows.  Just a few simple reminders that we are in a special season of light.

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front of mantel

My fireplace is cast iron with a slate mantel.  The previous owners had painted it white and we thought it was wood, when we discovered that it was cast iron my brother refinished it to it’s original color.  It is beautiful, but due to the inadequacy of my camera and my photography skills, pictures don’t do it justice.

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my large hurricane candle holder full of silver Christmas balls.
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You will notice that there is a candle missing in this picture, the lighting was much better and it shows the fireplace better, so I included it anyway.

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Wreath I made for my front door a few years ago. I bought a simple green wreath at Michael's and embellished it with Dollar Store ornaments and bead garland. Used a hot glue gun and just started gluing. I thin it turned out ok.
Wreath I made for my front door a few years ago. I bought a simple green wreath at Michael’s and embellished it with Dollar Store ornaments and bead garland. Used a hot glue gun and just started gluing. I think it turned out ok.
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The window above my kitchen sink. i just added a string of colored lights.
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Back entry – found this at Hobby Lobby, one of my, if not the, favorite places to shop.
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A few or our “childlike ornaments” Mr Piano got me the Curious George last year, his mother got him the little red fire engine, because the real one like he used to have is way too expensive to buy these days, and we got the Schroeder and Lucy one this year – it is a vintage Hallmark keepsake ornament from 1996. That’s pretty much who we are – he plays I bask.
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please ignore that the window could use some windex. You can catch a glimpse of my neighbors house in the background. I love looking out this window – it feels like we’re in the country even though we aren’t.

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The little dining room off the kitchen. This room was supposed to me my mostly white little french dining room, but due to cramming two houses of stuff into one temporarily it has some elements that weren't meant to be in this room. The table cloth hides a multitude of boxes that are still unpacked. I just threw some ribbons and lights on the bookcase and a few ornaments on the table - and put out a crate of Christmas books.
The little dining room off the kitchen. This room was supposed to me my mostly white little french dining room, but due to cramming two houses of stuff into one, temporarily, it has some elements that weren’t meant to be in this room. The table cloth hides a multitude of boxes that are still unpacked. I just threw some ribbons and lights on the bookcase and a few ornaments on the table – and put out a crate of Christmas books.
I have several Children's Christmas stories - I love to put them out at Christmas. The usually keep the message of Christmas real and simple.
I have several Children’s Christmas stories – I love to put them out at Christmas. They usually keep the message of Christmas real and simple.

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Did you miss the tree?  Me neither.

Simplifying in Grace,

Sadie

Linking up over at the Nester’s Christmas Tour of Homes 2012.  Lots of beautiful Christmas decorating going on – go take a look.

Joy Came Down At Christmas

~ Teresa ~ Leave a comment

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,                          so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”                    Romans 15:13

The joy of Christmas is set against the bitter cold of no room at the inn.  It is reflected in the brightness of the star that shone into the starkness of the stable only to become a mere reflection compared to the great love that was lying in the manger.

Joy catches the light of the Savior’s love and penetrates deep into our soul to fill us with unspeakable majesty.  We cannot fathom it, but even in our deepest despair it is there as the foundation on which all our hope is built, pointing the way to eternity.

An eternity made possible by the darkest hour in all of history, when the love born in the stable was hung on a cross and joy sliced through the sorrow of our sin and brought freedom to our souls.

Joy and sorrow have always resided on opposite sides of the same coin.  You cannot have one without the other.  Joy remembered makes sorrow bearable and sorrow reflected in the pool of joy rides on wings of hope and restores our faith.

Even when the world doesn’t see joy, there is comfort in knowing that it is all around us in the presence of the one who came so long ago for the very purpose of bringing us the gift of joy.  That is why we can shout from the depths of our souls: “Joy to the World”.

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Joy in Grace,

Sadie

Love Speaks in Everyday Moments

~ Teresa ~ 1 Comment

Today I had a date of sorts with my husband.  It wasn’t planned.  He needed an ink cartridge and one was not to be found in the small burg in which we live, so a trip to the neighboring college town was in order.  I decided to go with.  So, it was an impromptu date.  I’m calling it a date because:  1.  It was just the two of us and 2. It involved our new favorite Italian Restaurant for lunch.

It wasn’t romantic – we didn’t  hold hands or kiss or flirt or anything like that.  We were just together.  The fact that it was just the two of us was not all that remarkable since we don’t  have kids and often it is just the two or us.  The fact that we ate lunch out doesn’t really make it all that special either since we tend to eat out often.  And, even the fact that we were together was not all that remarkable, because, these days we spend a lot of time together since neither of us leaves home on a regular basis to go to work.   So, maybe it wasn’t really a date.

That doesn’t matter.  What matters to me is that we are together.  We still count.  We  go with the ebb and flow of life with each other and even if we’re not officially on a date we can still enjoy each other’s company.  We have settled into a rhythm of life.  We can know what the other is thinking without saying a word.  Sometimes in the silence of just being together there is magic.  Being together is like being wrapped in a blanket on a cold winter’s day.  You feel safe, cozy, protected and blessed.  Your eyes meet, you smile and you know your world is right. You know that love speaks in the everyday moments of life and even an ordinary trip for an ink cartridge is something special.

 

And every time he plays, I fall in love all over again.

Loving in Grace,

Sadie