Life, and the truth that goes with it

We never know what's going to happen from one day to the next, do we?

When I posted the song by Twila Paris on November 4th, I fully believed those words: God IS in control. He knows all, sees all, is all, is in control of all. His ways are not our ways, and we are not going to understand a lot of why He does what He does, and allows to happen the things He does.

The Firefighter and I, with awesome support from our families and friends, have been through a serious set of events over the past week and a half. While it's something that I don't feel needs to be broadcast all over the Internet, it was a major life event, especially for the Firefighter and I. It was a hard time, one full of concern, pain, questions that will find no answers in this life.

However.

God was still in control. He never got off His throne. He never turned his back on us and said, "Deal with this on your own". He stayed right beside us, holding us through the scary times and has started healing our wounded and sore hearts and body. He is a faithful God, and has promised that He will not give us, me, more than I can handle. Thank you, Lord, for that promise. I am trusting You.

Psalm 37:3-9 I love this version of these verses- especially how it interprets the end of verse 3, and verse 7

Psalm 56: 3-4 What a promise. A foundation assuring promise.

Election Day: God is in Control

"This is no time for fear

This is a time for faith and determination

Don't lose the vision here

Carried away by emotion

Hold on to all that you hide in your heart

There is one thing that has always been true

It holds the world together

God is in control

We believe that His children will not be forsaken

God is in control

We will choose to remember and never be shaken

There is no power above or beside Him, we know

God is in control, oh God is in control

History marches on

There is a bottom line drawn across the ages

Culture can make its plan

Oh, but the line never changes

No matter how the deception may fly

There is one thing that has always been true

It will be true forever

He has never let you down

Why start to worry now?

He is still the Lord of all we see

And He is still the loving Father

Watching over you and me..."*

Do not forget- God is still on His throne, and He can't be voted off it. He is in control over all elections today!

*Lyrics by Twila Paris, "God is in Control"

"It's been a long, long time.."

WOW I can't believe it's been since September that I've posted anything on here! It's certainly not for lack of things to talk about...that never seems to be a problem. Apparently there hasn't been enough time to do it. Several people have been asking me when I'd be putting something new up here, so I guess it's time I got back on the wagon. So to speak.

Here are a few of the things I've been doing while I've NOT been posting...
1. Had a grueling week-long assessment at work. That was not for the faint of heart, let me tell you! Fortunately all went well, and it's OVER. With another one coming next spring. Ugh.

2. Went to the Fryeburg Fair! Please do not tell me that you read my blog and don't know what Fryeburg Fair is, have never been there due to lack of interest, or just don't like fairs in general. Spare me that pain. We were there the first weekend, then back up for the last weekend. A true escape from reality, as Momm calls it! It's a Maxfield, and now Huggins and Nichols, family tradition to be at the fair as much as possible. So many memories..so little blogspace.

3. Went to see Beth Moore live, in Durham, NH! She has allowed God to use her so mightily, and she is quick to give Him all the glory for what comes through her ministry. I had the added pleasure of taking the trip with a wonderful friend from church, which made the experience that much more special. I'm currently reading "A Heart Like His", her book-adapted-from-her-Bible-study on the life of Saul/Paul. Fantastic reading!

4. Had a work weekend at my parents' house, getting them ready for winter and an inspected vehicle. It was an extra- special weekend as both sets of my grandparents were there. Those times have become even more special lately.

5. Co-threw (seriously. Is that a word??) with Momm a baby shower for my sister! She, at that time, was expecting baby #2- a boy! She got many nice things, most of them blue, to prepare her for his arrival.

6. Waited for the Nephew's arrival.

7. And waited.

8. And waited.

9. FINALLY, on this past Friday, October 24, Mason Timothy arrived in this world! He is a very healthy and handsome boy, and Mama is doing well also. Momm and I were privileged to be there for his birth. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life. But I'm so glad the mama said we could be in there.

10. Spent lots of time wondering what to do with a baby that's a boy. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm from a family where overwhelmingly there is more pink than blue. And we're not taking the light fluffy delicate pink- oh no, we're talking screaming electric fuschia pink, baby! We are proud of our womanhood! So I've been wondering how my sister would know what to do with a baby boy. And I'm reading a book right now on how to be an aunt to a boy. Seriously people- I'm at a major loss.

11. Saved myself from serious bewilderment for a few minutes and played pocketbooks with the Niece. "Train up a child in the way SHE should go..." Aunt Laura felt much better after that.

12. The Firefighter and I decided to build a new bathroom in our house! He can do just about anything he sets his mind to, and thankfully has experience in building/remodelling, so starting tonight- yes people, tonight- he begins to demolish a portion of our porch and begins building our new and VASTLY improved bathroom! Thank you, Firefighter, for seeing how important this is, and making it happen. Come Christmas... or as he always says after I say that, "hopefully by the end of the year", I'll be ridiculously happy bathing in a new- and NOT BLUE- bathroom.

13. We bought oil for $3.74 a gallon- thankfully we didn't lock into a price plan this year, like so many others did. We'll be filling the tank shortly, with prices hovering around $3 a gallon- we didn't see that last winter even! So much for the media's cry of "PANIC OVER YOUR OIL!!". Pfffft.



Well, I think that's enough catch-up for now. There were lots of other things that went on, including warm dinners with close friends, near and far, an extending of our arms as we welcomed a fun, new group of people into our home and life, and a few new recipes that I won't be making again.



Let me leave you with a picture of the Nephew. Isn't he handsome?!

Summer Days Part Two

When the Firefighter and I went on our honeymoon, we went to a little mountain cabin on the side of a hill in Northfield, Vermont. We absolutely loved it and have talked about it frequently since then. We decided that our vacation this summer would be spent back in that cabin. So, we took a long Labor Day weekend and headed over. We did all the "must do" Vermont things: Cabot cheese factory (please do not ever tell me you don't like cheese- I'd rather just be blissfully ignorant that there is anyone who could utter such words), Cold Hollow Cider Mill and had cider donuts, went to Quechee Gorge, where I fell in love with Danforth Pewter, watched a glass blowing demonstration, ate more Cabot cheese, and scoured the gigantic antique mall. We went to Northfield's Labor Day weekend blowout event- which ended up being a bust in our minds. We were expecting a great huge event, but it was several little tents set up selling local people's junk (glorified yard sale), several food booths, and a big yard sale at the local fire department. At least the Firefighter got to see their firetrucks, and just about fell over when he found a Gaithers Homecoming board game. I wanted to end the trip at that point- it had been a pretty slow day, and him finding a boardgame about a Southern Gospel singing group was the final straw. He was ecstatic. I was dumbfounded someone spent the time to make something like that.

We then drove up onto a ridge and watched the sunset. It was so beautiful up there.

One of our very favorite...ahem...new adventures that we've decided to do during our lifetime is visit the gravesite of every US President. I was all for the idea as it meant travel throughout the country. On this trip we hit gravesite #2: Calvin Coolidge. It took us a little while to find it; we had to stop and ask directions at the Calvin Coolidge historical village- and there was no parking space to be found! Who knew it'd be such a popular spot! IT really was a pretty little village, frozen in time. Thankfully we got directions to the cemetery and soon marked this site off our list.

So, we had a good weekend away. We were glad to get home on Monday night, but all in all it was a good end of summer trip.

Summer Days

Summer is almost over. The leaves are quietly changing their colors, daylight is giving in to darkness more easily, there's that specific fall chill in the air most mornings now. I have mixed feelings about this time of year. Fall is my absolute favorite season- I love everything about it. Colors, smells, fairs, apples, baking, sweaters, warm pajamas... but it also means the end of summer- no more swimming, shorts, sunburns, beach days, camping, gardens to tend, long summer evenings spent outdoors.

So, as sort of a last hurrah for summer, I'm posting pictures of the recent ventures of the Firefighter and I. We've had a busy last few weeks of August, soaking up all the summer we could.

Our first adventure was camping, just the two of us, in a tent. Mind you, it's our new tent, and we both love it, so I've come to appreciate tent camping as opposed to camper camping. That's still my favorite, but this tent camping thing is OK too.

We went to a campground in Union that has a separate camping area for tenters. We walked over a bridge over a dribbly little stream, full of big boulders, and continued up a path strewn with tree roots, and finally reached our tentsite, which was right on the edge of the lake. This was the view the first morning there:

Not too bad, huh? We slept until we couldn't sleep any more, then got up and started a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and corned beef hash. All cooked by the Firefighter in our little hibatchi grill. Which, he found out, had one problem:

Yes, that's a hole in the bottom of the grill. But, being the Firefighter Extraordinaire that he is, he found a way to make it work, by piling kindling in the stove and putting the charcoal on top of that. IT was great! He then proceeded to make our bacon- YUM

Then, after we ate, and cleaned up, we got ready for our day, then left to go yard saling- and found out it was only 8:45!! Apparently when you tent, you get up earlier than usual. As a result, this was a needed activity that afternoon:

Pretty good, huh? This came after an arduous late morning kayaking trip into what we dubbed the Everglades of Maine. We had beautiful weather and a very restful time.

Next post: Labor Day Weekend in Vermont! Stay tuned!

Rest

As I roamed about my list of blogs I check fairly regularly, I came across this post. I was so moved by it. No, I don't have any children, but I've seen enough of them soothed to sleep that I can understand the beginning of this one. And the rest of the story- well, it speaks of rest. Deep, reassured, foundational rest.
Read about it here.
May you know the abiding rest.

I always used to be drawn to the kitchen when growing up. I loved to bake or cook, or be there while Mom was working her magic over our daily food. I'd kind of gotten away from that love in the past few years, but have recently re-discovered it. I'm not sure what brought it on. Was it having people over for supper and not wanting to make the same old thing? Was it wanting something sweet, but sick and tired of brownie mixes? Just what was it?
And my cooking selections certainly have been made deliberately, after long-thought through planning, since being married, so as to please the Firefighter's most picky palate.
(OK funny tidbit: I wasn't sure how to spell "palate", so looked it up. One of the choices that popped up was "pallette"; so I checked it...and the meaning is "one of the plates at the armpits of a suit of armor". The Firefighter's not that picky about his suit of armor pieces).
Anyhoo.
One of the biggest struggles I have in the summer months is trying to find meals using the abundance of fresh produce available to us, that the Firefighter will actually eat. No easy task, let me tell you! I can't serve zucchini, summer squash (might I say these are NOT the same- they're definitely different in texture and taste), broccoli, beet greens, cauliflower, on and on, and know that he'll eat them.
So, I've decided that I can just make the things that I want to eat that showcase the most delicious summer vegetables, and bring that food with me for my lunch during the workweek. Brilliant if I do say so myself! We'll still eat cucumbers, tomatoes in all forms (including the most awesome fresh salsa recipe I tried this weekend), and string beans, but I'll get to savor my zucchini and broccoli recipes all by myself.
Except for zucchini bread. That, I must share with him. :)

If you're looking for ways to use up some summer produce, check out these recipes:
Impossibly Easy Zucchini Pie (this is great with or without tomatoes)
Fresh Salsa - this is not the recipe I used, but it's awfully close. I just used half a super hot pepper, 2 tomatoes not 3, and lemon juice instead of lime juice. Sooooo good
Zucchini Gratin Just making any Ina Garten recipe makes me feel like a master chef

Happy summer eating!

UPDATE: The Firefigher just emailed me to remind me that yes, indeed, he does get picky about his body armor at times. This is what he said:
"The firefighter can be kind of picky when his wife purchases some ridiculous looking suit of armor at "The Gap" ".
Oh be careful, little mouth, what you say, for the past will soon be haunting you! :)