Thanksgiving Week

This is how our Thanksgiving week started out!  Joy, Brenda, and the kids were coming out on Monday and had an accident.  The van was ruined, but the people were safe!  God had His hand over them.  Rowen and Janet went to Oakley, Kansas to get them and brought them the rest of the way.  Randy and Tim got here by Tuesday lunch time.

This looks like a doll, but it is actually Jonathan.  He is almost as well behaved as a doll.

Quil and Micah enjoyed playing with all of our cars, trucks, and Legos.  Most of the time, they had that part of the family room blocked off to keep Charissa from messing up whatever they were doing.  She likes cars and trucks too.

Jason and Jonathan

Grandma with her arms full of sweetness!

Charissa pretending to play the piano, even picking a different page to play!

Beth and Jonathan

We went ahead and opened presents since we were all together.  Jeffrey was only able to be there electronically.  We had him on the computer on the piano on Google Hangout.

Tim is holding a pencil drawing Emily made for them of herself and Charissa.  Brenda is holding a  hot pad Emily made for her.

Beth got a loaded picnic basket from Tim and Brenda.

Quil and Micah got a special art package from Brenda.  Quil wanted to draw without Charissa taking his crayons, so he made a quiet place with the Take-apart tractors he and Micah received and a box.

Micah was drawing something special in the background while I held an attentive baby that was supposed to be going to sleep!

Rowen with a gift to open.

A plaque for Jason's wall.

Micah's masterpiece

 Thanksgiving Week to be continued!

Visit from Shari and Eric Earhart and family Nov. 12, 13

This is Eric and Shari Earhart and their sweet family.  They were on vacation "in the West" and included us on the trip itinerary.  Shari is Rowen's niece.  We hadn't seen them since Mitch was a baby six years ago.  Beth, however has visited them twice in North Carolina, for 3 1/2 weeks at a time when the twins were born, and when Miles was born.  This picture was shamelessly stolen off Facebook from someone else they visited, because we never got them all in a picture at once when they were at our house.

Mitch and Mandi

The twins, Michael and Melissa

Emily supervising Hi Ho! Cherry-O

Beth with the twins as they dressed the wooden bears

Don't Wake Up Daddy!

Miles putting together shapes in circles.  He's pretty smart for almost two!

Beth reading a bedtime story to the kids

Mitch engrossed in a book

Michael with a beautiful smile

Ready to go out and play in the snow

Book Review: A Kingsbury Collection by Karen Kingsbury

Where Yesterday Lives
When the sudden death of her father shakes Ellen Barret’s world, she realizes that each of her four siblings remember him differently.  A week together to plan the funeral brings out all the repressed and unspoken hurts from their growing up years.  To complicate Ellen’s confusion, she gets in touch with her old boyfriend.  Ellen and her husband have neglected their faith and each other, so she could be headed for disaster.  Will an old friend’s prayers for her be answered?

When Joy Came to Stay
Maggie has repressed the lies of her past until depression brings her to the point of desperation.  How can a Christian be depressed?  How can someone who writes advice for families have her own family in shambles?  Her husband, Ben, has to find out what is wrong with Maggie.  She has checked herself into a psychiatric hospital and refuses any contact with him.  Will he be able to forgive and love her when he finds out the truth?

Karen Kingsbury always probes a nerve with her books.  She is not a “happy ever after” type writer, but is realistic with what actual people face, spiritually, emotionally, and relationally because of decisions’ consequences.

On Every Side
I had never read On Every Side before as I had the other two, so I enjoyed it the most—not knowing what was going to happen.  One interesting thing about this book were the characters’ names:  Bob Moses, Joshua Nunn, Faith, Jordan, and the park in town where the well-loved but suddenly controversial Jesus statue was located—Jericho Park!  These names made the book fun to read because the characters got inspiration from the book of the Bible, Joshua.

Jordan Riley, a lawyer for a group determined to rid public places of any references to God, targeted the Jesus statue in the town where he had lived as a boy. To him, it seemed God had failed him when his mother died, and his sister and he were separated.  When he returned to the small town, he found his best childhood friend still serving the God he had left, and they were on opposite sides of the conflict.

This book is so good, and I do not want to give away any of its secrets!  Karen Kingsbury deals with walls the characters had built around their hearts, and just like Jericho’s walls, they have to come down, because as Faith says, “You can’t be angry at God forever.”

Like other Kingsbury books, there is a historical basis for the main plot—to remove the Jesus statue from public view.  She is my favorite Christian fiction author.  I was thrilled to have the opportunity to receive this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishers in exchange for blogging my opinion.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the Blogging for Books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

2012 Block of the Month Quilt top done!

Christmas House Tour

This is an ad for the Christmas House Tour the Historical Society is sponsoring this year.  Beth is the designer of the ad, flyer, and tickets.  God has given her an amazing talent for designing on the computer.

2012 Johnstown Historical Society Quilt Show

October 20 was our Quilt/Craft/Demonstrators Show.  It is the biggest fundraiser the Johnstown Historical Society does all year.  There were 184 quilts or quilted items entered in the show, which I believe was the most ever.  Attendees were allowed to vote on their favorite quilt and at the end of the day, the following were the Viewers' Choice winners:

1st Place is called "Staci's Lighthouses" by Patricia Lamfers.

2nd place was made by Barbara Moore and called "Pacific Rim."

3rd was "Queen of Hearts" and belongs to Jean Sinclair.  My understanding from visiting with Jean was that some loved ones made this for her, because she had collected so many Valentine handkerchiefs.  She and her family came all the way from Albuquerque, New Mexico for the quilt show, because their dear friend, Barbara McNabb, was featured quilter.

This is Barbara McNabb, a wonderful lady I got to interview and write an article about for our local newspaper, The Johnstown Breeze.  Being our featured quilter, she had 65 quilts in the show!  All of them were beautiful.  She is standing in front of several of hers.  There were four rows of her quilts.

This is a special wall hanging that Rowen especially liked.  It is appliqued with lots of little pieces of fabric to look like a photograph of the quilter's granddaughter's horses.  It was also made by Patricia Lamfers.

This shows several visitors enjoying the quilts.

Emily and I manned the baked goods sale for two hours in the morning.

Rowen was examining the many items donated mostly by businesses for the Silent Auction.

This was set up night after we had hung all of the quilts.  

Rowen and fellow Board Member, Roy Hucke looking at the quilts after we were done hanging them.

It is impossible to picture all of the quilts at once.

Several of us hanging quilts the night before the show.

Another row of beautiful quilts.

This was the raffle quilt made by a local quilting club "Sew Flakes" and donated for the benefit of the Historical Society.

This quilt is one I made this year and it will go to my grandson, Quil, as a Christmas gift.  It is very similar to his brother's below.  There are two fabrics that are different between them, and Quil's animals are paired up, rather than randomized.

This one will be Micah's Christmas gift.  I had a lot of fun making these, and they were my first quilts to have mitered borders.

This is the Facebook 2011 Block of the Month quilt that I  finished in March and gave to Emily for her 14th birthday.

This is a practice quilt I made that lives on our guest bed.

There were so many beautiful quilts in the show.  We have lots more pictures of them, but can't put them all on here.  Every year, I see the intricate and fancy work others do and I think mine are so plain.  But mine are beautiful in a simpler way and they are used and loved, not just for display, but for warmth and practicality.

29 Wonderful Years... and Counting!

Mother and Daddy have given their children a truly beautiful picture
of how blessed and sweet the grace God can make a marriage.

October 22, 1983 was a very special day.  It was the day that the Rowen Albertson family was established before God, family, and many friends.  Today is the 29^th anniversary of when my parents began their life together.  Of course the twenty-five year old groom and twenty-two year old bride could not have imagined all that would transpire through these years.  But as they have experienced each joy and sorrow, rest or worry, blessing or testing, friend and foe, they have drawn on the grace of God: they have gone in His power, His strength, His will, His love.  They have been a conduit of God’s presence, of His love.  They have shared His light to those in despair.  They have given of their time, energy, money, home, resources, talents, to many who needed a friend, a lift, an encourager, a word of wisdom, or life changing salvation through Christ.  Mother and Daddy have poured their lives out for us, their children, giving and giving and giving again so that we can be ready to be and do what God wants for us.  They have shown us through example and purposely taught us to be prudent, to have balance in our lives, how to use money wisely, to get out of our comfort zone if necessary to do the right thing, to not conform to the world’s mindsets and behaviors, and to love God most of all!  If we can learn that, everything else will be much more easy to learn!   Here are some pictures from their wedding day. ~ Beth Albertson, October 22, 2012

Janet and Rowen were united in marriage...

Rex and Wanda Scoles with Janet.

Janet with Sherry Wampler (Scoles at the time), sister  and maid-of-honor.

Herbert and Alice Albertson, with youngest son, Rowen on his wedding day.