Gathering the Moments | February 2025

🎔 In February, we gave our bedroom a little love.

First, we hung a clock that Kati had found when she went antiquing on her birthday in November. She had texted me a photo, saying that she thought of me when she saw it. She did the same with a sweet pumpkin pillow. I asked her to buy both items for me and I dubbed her my personal shopper! She mailed the pillow so I'd have it in autumn, but the clock she brought at Christmas. I hemmed and hawed about where to hang it and finally settled on this spot in our bedroom. 

Then we (re)hung this picture in our bedroom with its new grain painted frame. (You can read more ~ here ~.)

🎔 Ron continued working on our first big house project of the year: the conversion of our pink half bathroom into a main floor laundry closet. 

🎔 Are you surprised that my friend Barbara and I went to a coffee shop and then antiquing?  (You're probably not.) 

🎔 February brought more snow . . . and more. 

🎔 This seems like a very "February" thing to do! 

🎔 Soup was on the menu in February. 

🎔 I don't think I told you that I did a little chair switch-a-roo.

I put the recently upholstered mustard-colored chair in the living room (yes, even though I chose that fabric specifically to coordinate with the love seat fabric!), and I brought the red-checked chair back to its former place in the library. I love the red checks against the green trim, and now I love the rug too (the rug that I had doubts about with the mustard chair). 

You can see the mustard chair in the library in ~ this post ~.  Don't you think the red-checked chair looks better against the green? 

By the way, I made the switch months ago, but it was February when I took this photo with winter morning light shining into the room. 

On the other side of the library is a real life look at Bekah's study corner. She is working hard this spring semester of her junior year. 

🎔 Also in February . . . 

At Mom's house, she and Linda and I are sorting through old (and a few new) family photos. This one captured my attention recently: Thanksgiving dinner at Mom and Daddy's house, circa 1984. But there is a mystery that no one has been able to solve. Who took the photo?! We don't remember! 

🎔 There were a few Valentine splurges in February: 

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Crème Frappuccinos. Yum! 

I cobbled together a new recipe for a Valentine luncheon at church. 

A new heart was a small non-caloric splurge. 

🎔 Late afternoon light on a February day. 

Do you see misty light and shadows? 

I feel this as representative of life. Oh, there is light . . . the light that is from The LIGHT OF THE WORLD! I know that light! But sometimes - in the dark, in the shadows - that light appears misty. Yes, life is full of shadows and misty light. There is much that looks shadowy and misty and unclear and mysterious. And yet, the Light is always there! 

And so, when I am troubled, I need not try to understand the darkness. I need only look to The Light and understand Who He is. One day, all that is mysterious will be clear. All that is shadowy will be illuminated. All the darkness will disappear in His glorious light! 

A Grain Painted Picture Frame

This was one of those "one thing leads to another" kind of projects. 

When we bought the poster bed from Marketplace in October, we had intended to store it to be used in a future guest room.

But when I saw it, I wanted to use it in our bedroom (at least for now), and Ron agreed. 

But the picture we had over the bed looked too big between the bedposts. 

Too big and too high!

Ron really wanted to keep the picture. We had seen one in a Cracker Barrel restaurant a few years ago and it had rekindled a childhood memory for him. He believes that it was hanging in his grandparents' house. Our son-in-law Andrew tracked it down online, and Ron had ordered a colored print and made a frame. 

So we cut the matting down and Ron made a new frame. 

Then there was thinking/planning time . . . and the holidays . . . and some plain old procrastination.

But in February, I determined to get that frame painted and I wanted to try my hand at colonial grain painting. Although I was able to find examples of grain painted frames online, I was unable to find any real "how to's," so I just jumped in and tried to replicate a simple design. 

I painted the frame with two coats of barn red. Then I did the design in burnt umber, using the beveled edge of a foam brush to dab the little lines. I finished with a coat of Briwax stain.

Ron had already had a piece of glass cut at Lowe's, so he quickly put it all together and we (finally) hung the picture over the bed! 

It looks so much better than our first try! The proportion is right, and, as a bonus, I think the colored frame suits the colored print more than the plain wooden one did, and it complements the other colors in the room. We think it was quite worth the do-over! 

A Winter Chat

I thought I'd pop in with a little this-and-that!  

First of all . . . HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! 

I gathered a few hearts and scattered them here and there. I made the two coverlet ones. The calico hearts with buttons I purchased (several years apart!), one of them on a recent antique shopping adventure with my friend Barbara. 

On that same antiquing trip, I picked up the vanilla latte candle and the colorful penny mat under it on the sideboard. The heart on the tea tray I made many years ago, seventeen years ago to be exact. I remember because my granddaughter Eve was a baby when I sent a similar one to her family, and Eve will be eighteen this summer! Oh, how the years fly by! 

We had some more winter weather this past week. The snow fell quickly and was so pretty. All activities were canceled. I lit my candles, made a pot of chicken noodle soup and homemade biscuits, and enjoyed the down time. The snow was mostly melted within twenty-four hours and life resumed. That's my kind of snow! 

Manzy enjoyed the snow from his cozy perch. 

When Kati was visiting at Christmas, she introduced me to Elevate, an app that offers "brain training games" to boost cognitive skills. I only use the free version (you can subscribe for more games), but I love the challenge and have just completed a 50-day streak. 

I made these chocolate cherry scones for my Bible study group yesterday. They are the same scones that I made last year (Cherry Vanilla Valentine Scones) except that I drizzled melted chocolate on the top instead of the vanilla glaze. 

I came across this quote this week and it really made me think. Oh yes, there is so much that we do not see!

But I also want to take note of God's blessings that I do see, and with that in mind, I began a gratefulness journal this week. My friend Carla has been doing this for years and recently hit the 12,000 mark! Inspired by Carla, I am taking a few moments each day to simply list things that I am grateful for. 

We decided that we didn't want to compete with the crowds for Valentine's Day dinner this evening, so we have ordered carryout from our favorite Mexican restaurant. Ron will be here any minute with our meal . . . 


I hope that your week has been filled with simple delights, gratitude, and a knowledge of God's immeasurable love for us!

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." I John 4:10 

P.S. I wrote a Gathering the Moments post for November, but just finished it published it last week. So I backdated it and sneaked it into the blog, but if you're interested in reading it (Thanksgiving pictures are there), you can find it ~ here ~. 

Memory-Making Moments: A Christmas Recap

 

If I don't show you any other pictures from our Christmas this year, 

I must show you this one ⬇️

Ron and I,
our four children and three children-in-law,
our fifteen grandchildren, 

my mom, and my sister

. . . all in one place at one time!

It was the first time that we had all been together at Christmas since 2021. 

What a gift!

And there were a host of memory-making moments!

Some were recorded and some escaped the camera,
some are special and some are ordinary,

but all are treasured and stored in my heart.

Unhurried time together.
Hugs. Little footsteps. Guests.
Coffee. Lots of meals. Lots of leftovers in the fridge. 
Unplanned dress-alikes.
Christmas movies. Christmas jammies.

Music of all kinds . . .
Christmas carols,

impromptu karaoke that went on for hours
(Peter singing "It's a Wonderful World" as Louis Armstrong had us all in stitches!)
violin, piano, guitar, singing.
I was thankful that my voice recovered enough that I could sing in our church's Christmas cantata.

Little grands decorating cookies. My mom made her sugar cookie dough, I cut most of them out (until the littles came in and cut out a few), and the littles decorated them. With LOTS of decorating sugar. Spoonfuls, in fact. They were true sugar cookies!

Little cousins doing crafts, playing Duplo, "playing" the piano, and eating breakfast together in the kitchen.

FAMILY CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION!
Joy. Togetherness.
Hors d'oeuvres buffet.
Gifts for all. Piles of wrapping paper. Ribbon "necklaces."
Ryan's prize of a $50 Amazon gift card to the person who most closely guessed the number of Jolly Joes in the jar. (Gavin won!)
Family photo.
Gammy's trifle, Bekah's fudge, and lots of cookies.

Christmas Eve candlelight service.

CHRISTMAS DAY. 
A very special rendition of "Joy to the World."
Christmas breakfast. Orange rolls.
Aunt Bekah opening her gifts.
Caleb and Ellie enjoying Aunt Bekah's new rug. 
Visiting a friend who is in rehab.
More feasting.

Visiting Gammy. Goodies.

Good-byes . . . one group at a time . . .
until our gathering of 26 people was back to the 3 of us . . .
and then Bekah went to a conference for five days
and Ron and I were alone in the house. 

Photo by my friend Carla

Photos by Kati

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We had eight days full of memory-making moments!

And then there was one more celebratory day when Ron's siblings and their spouses joined us for a post-Christmas gathering.

Photo by my sister-in-law Pat

Now Christmas season 2024 has past . . . but the memories linger . . .