Harvest Lane Cottage

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAN OF GOD! We love you, Michael.  We're proud of you.  You have a wonderful future full of hope and promise. God bless you as you draw closer and closer to Him. Happy birthday, Mom, Dad, Matthew, Emily, Amy, Tiger, and Penny

I'm not sure where this week has gone.  I've been doing something.  I'm sure of it.  Oh well, here's what I remember. ~smile~ ~ I used a sweater shaver to remove the pills from one of my husband's sweaters. ~ My thirteen year old had a homemade birthday party with lemonade and cupcakes she made and decorated with her sister . She used some leftover streamers and balloons that she found in our gift wrapping box. ~ We used that yard sale box of wrappings so that we didn't have to buy any. ~ We gave her several small inexpensive gifts . ~ We stayed home and ate homemade sauce from the freezer with spaghetti instead of going out for pizza. What have you done this week? Have a thrifty week! Blessings, Laura ~~~~~ May I suggest? A Thrifty Week at Harvest Lane Cottage #14 ~~~~~

"Smells of earth and  dung drifted slowly past the  fog in Errol’s brain. His skin prickled with cold. Water  and ooze soaked his threadbare garments and he shivered. Cruk  had thrown him out of the tavern. Again."   A Cast of Stones  by Patrick Carr Don't you just love it when a book draws you in from the very first lines? That's what Patrick Carr did with A Cast of Stones and countless other authors have done as well.  I had to know what on earth had just happened.  So I read another line and another and another until he had me hook, line, and sinker. What are some of your favorite first lines? Blessings, Laura Happy at Home

Healing, Hope, Faith, Trust, Believing In all these, the Lord is my strength.  In Christ alone, I put my trust. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Too many times, we get our attention focused on the wrong thing. When it comes to healing, we consider our own bodies and the symptoms that try to attack our bodies. That is what we are thinking about and looking at, and the more we look at the symptoms, the worse we get."    "Center your attention and your mind on what Jesus has done for you and what He is doing for you as your High Priest. Jesus is doing something for you right now. He is seated at the right hand of God right now making intercession for you. (Hebrews 7:25)"    I'm feeling some symptoms in my body that shouldn't be there.  I read these quotes in Kenneth Hagin's Bible Faith Study Course tonight.  He sights many scriptures about believing not just wishing or hoping.  Believing is faith.  Hoping is wishing.  These are some...

Make your own at Tagxedo. “Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard  is the best evidence   for what sort of man he is?  Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in the cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly.   But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an  ill-tempered man;   it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am.”  ~ C.S. Lewis There is so much truth in this quote.  Perhaps this is why it's so easy to be nice to strangers and folks we meet in church.  It's much harder to keep that facade up when we're suddenly confronted with a negative word or deed or tone of voice from a family member. Kara wrote about it over at Time Warp Wife recently. Father God, please help us to become women of virtue who are steadfast and...

Penny It's been a little while since I've written A Thrifty Week.  That little pound puppy I got back in the last installment has taken quite a bit of my free time!  Since then, I realized Lucy didn't fit her.  I named her Penny instead.  She's the color of a penny. I've scored some great bargains at the thrift shop and yard sales this summer.  What I have not done is make jam and jelly like I usually do each summer.  We especially like Harvest Peach.  I do hope I get another chance to find a good deal on some kind of fruit before summer's over. ~ I received a new book in the mail to review for Bethany House.  It's called $10 Great Dates .  As a book reviewer, it was free to me in exchange for a review. ~ I signed up to review a movie called Holy Ghost.     ~ I took a box and a bag of things to the Salvation Army.  I also threw out two bags of stuff that I found while decluttering.  How is that thrifty? ...

~ I had a little lamb named Mary Lou when I was a little girl.  I was four.  When we moved to town, my mom talked me into trading her for a turtle!  That's back when little turtles were considered pets and could be bought at the store.  Boy was I gullible.  ~grin~ ~ The song Bye Bye Miss American Pie was popular when I was in first grade.  I listened to it on a small transistor radio in my bedroom after school.  I remember humming it at the dinner table. My father told me to stop.  I didn't have the self-control. I soon was humming it very very quietly to myself.  My father responded by sending me to bed without supper.  I was in tears.  My mommy later brought me a little spaghetti in my bed.  It was my favorite, I was hungry, and she had a soft mommy's heart.  I never hummed or sang at the table again.  I don't allow my children to do so either.  No one's missed a meal though.  ~smile~ ~ When I was a...

Autumn will be here before we know it! Carpe Diem! Seize the Day! Blessings, Laura