Focus Friday!!!

This week wasn't to exciting...no fun shopping trips to write about! ; )  I needed to take a picture for this week's, "Focus Friday," so I decided to use this little notebook that Grandma S. gave me to look at.  It was my Great Aunt Edna's who I don't remember because I think I was really little when she died...she put in the notebook a bunch of stories and poems, songs, articles and play scripts.  Some of them are cut out and pasted onto the pages, some are typed out on the paper using a type writer, some are just laying free in there and some are hand written...I think maybe she wrote some of the stories?  I wish I could read hand writing better...so I could read the hand written stuff.  I may have to get mom to help me!!!  : )  Mom said, "see, Aunt Edna was notebooking!"  Putting a notebook together of all her favorite poems and stories.  I have started to do something like that too!  One of the Wissmann Family's (Singing group)  daughter's, Bethany is now married and has a blog that I read.  I love her...she is a photographer and likes taking pictures so she has some amazing pictures too...love reading her blog!  She and her husband are so cute and so in love!  They have a little girl now too and she has the biggest blue eyes!!!  I have thought that I want to be like her!  : D  Anyway, one time she posted that she found a journal that her Mom had made when she was younger, where she had written down little sayings and stuff that she had found interesting, inspiring and encouraging.  So, Bethany was then inspired to do the same...and you can read her post to see what happened! ; )  I thought that was a good idea, so I think I then bought a journal and started to do that too! : )  And this was before I had even know about this book that Grandma gave me to look at..she had done this too!  There are some really good poems that I am going to have to copy out of it...I will copy the one that I read before I took this picture and that the note book is opened up to. This idea of writing these things down is so cool because anything here or read and think, "that is such a neat way of putting it", or "this really encouraged or blessed me," or "this is one of my favorite verses"...you can write in down in ONE place and you can always go back and look at just those things you found delightful...or "striked your fancy," as Grandma S. might say! ; ) 

: )

My Favorite Sayings

a piece of me...

*click on the picture to see it much better!

I am going to try and type it out just like it is on the page....This one was typed with a type writer and some of the words are underlined...I think maybe she underlined the parts she like...but maybe it was just her critiquing it?  Not sure but the very next page she underlined too and it looks more like just parts she liked...

Then at the end of the poem it is handwritten, "Song."

The Refiner's Fire

He sat by the furnace of sevenfold heat,

As He watched by the precious ore,

And closer He bent with a searching gaze

As He heated it more and more.

He knew He had ore that could stand the test

And He wanted the finest gold,

To mold as a crown for the King to wear,

Set with gems of price untold.

So He laid our gold in the burning fire,

Tho' we fain would say Him, "Nay";

And watched the dross that we had not seen,

As it melted and passed away.

And the gold grew brighter and yet more bright,

But our eyes were dim with tears;

We saw but the fire--not the Master's hand,

And questioned with anxious fears.

Yet our gold shone out with a richer glow

As it mirrored a Form above,

That bent o'er the fire, tho' unseen by us,

With a look of ineffable love.

Can we think it pleases His loving heart

To cause us a moment's pain?

Ah, no! but He sees thro' the present cross

The bliss of eternal gain.

So He waited there with a watchful eye,

With a love that is strong and sure,

And His gold did not suffer a bit more heat

Than was need to make it pure. 

{ Song }

I'll post another great poem next week!  There are sooo many good old ones out there!

~ Sarah

Focus Friday!!!

Another week is gone!  It is kinda weird, it seems like time moves so slowly...but then once the week is gone it was like that didn't seem like that long! ; )

Grandma and Grandpa S. had this idea and offered to come over and the watching the kids, and then Mom taking just one of us kids by our self and going to do something special!  So the past several weeks, every friday they have come over and Mom has taken one of the kids and went and did something with them that they wanted to do!  Sooo...yesterday was my day!  I wanted to go antique shopping so we ending up having Grandma with us and we went to Salina to one that they had been to....they have been to pretty much all of the antique stores around. ; )....they have had SO much fun!  I had a chiropractor appointment that morning too at 10:10, so we planned it that would leave early at 9:00, and go to Orschein first.  I wanted to look at belts and cowboy boots!  I think it would be fun to get a pair!  So, that's what we did and the belts were pretty expensive and not really what I wanted or good quality, so I think I may just order one from the place online where Dad, Jonathan and Grandpa G. got theirs.  So as we were leaving...I think I saw on the end of a couple isles they had some soft blankets for 10 dollars.  So I went over to look at them...I just love soft stuff!  And 10 dollars isn't a bad price!  The blankets were really soft and Mom looked at them too thinking maybe she should get one so we wouldn't always be fighting over the nice soft blanket that we have on the couch!  There was two different purple ones....I thought I could put in on bed, and I could get rid of that old green blanket that I use when I need another layer.  Right now I have my quilt that Grandma S. made me, and the extra blanket that I fold up on the end of my bed that I usually use for another layer, Grandma G. crocheted for me one Christmas!!!!  I think that is neat that I have something that both Grandmas made! <3  Anyway I usually use the green blanket too if I need it, so getting this blanket might be perfect for that!  I decided to get the plain light purple one, and not the other one that had a flowery patter on it, because it made the top not as soft! : )  The back side of the blanket has the texture of sheep wool and is sooo fuzzy soft!
So, then we headed over to my chiropractor appointment and then headed north...Evy had said something about a thrift store in Linsborg that was pretty nice, so we stopped there on the way to Salina.  There was a couple very little antique stores and an art gallery that smelled like cinnamon rolls! I think they were bakeing some sweedish thing...Lindsborg is sweedish town. We wend into a little gift shop too...and the lady was nice but she couldn't hardly figure out the change for Grandma!  (she bought some little potato chips with sugar on them)

We went to the big antique store in downtown Salina, and it was huge!  We were in there looking for around an hour and a half or two hours!  There was the huge main floor with little rooms off of in, a partial upstairs and some downstairs!!!  When we were about done, Grandma said if we were looking for shelves, (we want to do something above Mom and Dad's bed) that we should go in the basement.  I was like there's a basement too! ; )  There was a ton of stuff to look at with all kinds of nooks and little rooms where they had stuff!

So, my picture for this week was all of the stuff I bought on our, "girls shopping day!"  I got really good deals and I love what I got! First I found this little watering can that was made of pottery and made to be used as a vase or planter.  It was marked down to one dollar, I was said, that is almost to good to pass up!"  So went and picked it up and said, I guess I'll just carry it for now...and you know what that means! ; )  I was looking for a mirror to put in my room...I have a display above my dresser with a shelf high on the wall, then below that in the center I have a photo canvas that has a ballet picture of me from my senior pictures, and then on the left of that I have my pointe shoes in a little wood shelf that they fit perfectly in...and I think Grandma said that my Great Uncle Mark, made that shelf and another one that the kids have in the closet for there "house" stuff.  So I needed to put something on the other side to complete the display and I couldn't figure out what to put there...then I thought of a mirror, so that I was going to look for one when we went shopping!
I found one towards of the beginning of shopping it was pretty much want I wanted although we would have had to fix the wire hanger on the back so it would hang up and down. It was I think $21.  So, we kept looking and if I could't find anything else I could come back later.  Now back to when we were going to go to the basement...we didn't really find anything that would work, and Mom remembered that we were going to just use on that we had so we went ahead and looked around in the basement.  I found this mirror that looked like a window, but had a mirror behind it!  I remember standing in front of it and saying out loud, it's perfect!!!  Then I remembered there was a lady in the other room across the hall! ; )  I always thought those were cool...and this mirror was only 9 something!!!  Then by the mirror was a table with some stuff on it and on of the boxes that was there was a little Lane cedar chest!  Grandma said that it was a sample.  She said that all the girls that graduated form high school would get one, or get a card and they could go to the company and get a small sample for free...probably trying to get then into the store to buy a, "hope chest."  How things have changed!!!  The only thing they get in the mail now are college invites and  cellphone advertisements! : (  The box and a lot of scratches on the front and the bottom had splits, but the stamp on the inside of the lid was so cool, it was only 4 dollars!!!  There was another one in much better shape and like 8 or 9 dollars, it still had the lock on it, but the hinge didn't work and good and I liked the stamp on the first one a lot better..and Grandma like the first one too! ; ) So, I got that and got the mirror of the wall and we headed out!  So I ended up paying 16 dollars for EVERYTHING that I got and that was still less then the first mirror that I found!!!  Love the basement!  So glad we went down there!!!!!  We then ate lunch in the car, stopped at got pizza...yep FRIDAY NIGHT, and drove home...we had so much fun!

I had fun taking these picture too!  They turned out great!...it was all natural light coming from the windows on the left!!!

*Remember you can click to enlarge them!!!

Until next Friday...or Sat, or Sunday...whenever I get the post done! ; )

~ Sarah Jane