Picture Memories - Part II

I present my great grandparents, Oscar and Elizabeth (Groden) Melcher.  Both first generation Americans born to immigrant parents from Germany and Ireland.  I'd like to step back in time to visit with them.  She passed away when I was only two;  I have a very vague recollection of visiting her in Salt Lake City, Utah ... I remember a beautiful decorative floral tin with a little knob on top that she let me play with ... my mother said this grandmother enjoyed watching boxing fights on TV (LOL).

They were married on March 21, 1903 in Madison, Nebraska ... residing the early years of their marriage in Osmond, Nebraska.

Picture Memories - Part 1

... are currently scattered on top of my desk.  I have been blessed with an abundance of faded, time worn heirloom family photos ... handed down by my mother, via her parents, via their parents ...

These memories are my connection to a different era.  The past that steps so close to .. but is no longer touching ... the present.  Some memories are stored in my mind from stories told by my dearly departed relatives about their youth; though most of said memories are of when my ancestors were my age and older that I remember from years ago.  To see them as youngsters full of mischief in a different era makes me want to step through the boundaries of time ...

To possess my grandparent's wedding announcement and marriage certificate makes me long to see them again.  Time is passing all too quickly.  In the blink of an eye ... so many changes ... inventions ... modes of transportation have come and gone ... and yet, we are still connected by heart strings and family genes.  How will I be remembered by my descendants?   I hope to one day print out my blog journals and bind them with a pretty cover.  Then little Jacob's grandchildren can read about their great grandma's family and remember from whence they came.

... to be continued

Mrs. Mac's family photos:         Click on photos to enlarge

Top, L-R Maternal Great Aunt Theresa & Grandma Donna taken on their First Holy Communion day.  According to a story told to me by Grandma Donna ... Auntie was mad at her for getting to wear the pretty gold locket ... and she had to wear the old pearl necklace;) ... you can almost imagine that just before the picture was taken, they were in a tiff with each other as is evident on their pretty sad little faces.

Center photo:  Mrs Mac's Great Grandmother Myra's beautiful Victorian farmhouse parlor.  She was well off with house servants and fringe lined buggies to drive.  Great Grandma Myra had the latest modern furnishings for her era (according to my mother) ... including an electric stove before most anyone else.

Bottom photo:  Mrs. Mac's Great Grandparents, Myra Grigsby Hodges, and their family.  My grandfather is the cute little boy; the baby of the family.  He married the little girl with the pretty gold locket.  This is the same family in the new blog header .. years earlier.  It is this grandfather that I led to Christ when he was in his 70's ... (When Grandpa Got Saved)

... to be continued

Full Circle

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea ...

Geneses 1:26a (NIV)

abstract photo-art: spawning salmon, by Mrs. Mac, October, 2009 'Full Circle'

Good Morning Monday ...

Loving the time change ... a whole extra hour alone in the morning when everybody else is using their external alarm clocks ... I'm still using my internal one .... coffee in the stillness of the morning ... before the rush of the day .... ALONE ... aaaah, reason to rejoice!

Photo: Orange Marmalade Sunrise by Mrs. Mac 2009

Carpe Diem

Aaaah, Saturday!

1. sleep late
2. be less strict with Nathan's diet
3. trip to the public library
4. make 'sticky chicken wings'
5. Nathan's friend to come over for the evening. Menu: self made mini (English) muffin pizzas, salad, and the above referenced wings, hot apple cider, visit a few local neighbors for treats, and a spooky kids movie
6. clean the guest room and bath
7. change beds and wash sheets/towels
8. call my parents
9. write two thank you letters
10. respond to being the winner of a blog contest!

Photo: By Mrs. Mac, October, 2009, Lake Okanagan, BC

THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL

by: Robert Louis Stevenson

NAKED house, a naked moor,

A shivering pool before the door,

A garden bare of flowers and fruit

And poplars at the garden foot:

Such is the place that I live in,

Bleak without and bare within.




Yet shall your ragged moor receive

The incomparable pomp of eve,

And the cold glories of dawn

Behind your shivering trees be drawn;

And when the wind from place to place

Doth the unmoored cloud-galleons chase,

Your garden gloom and gleam again,

With leaping sun, with glancing rain.

Here shall the wizard moon ascend

The heavens, in the crimson end

Of day's declining splendour; here

The army of the stars appear.

The neighbor hollows dry or wet,

Spring shall with tender flowers beset;

And oft the morning muser see

Larks rising from the broomy lea,

And every fairy wheel and thread

Of cobweb dew-bediamonded.

When daisies go, shall winter time

Silver the simple grass with rime;

Autumnal frosts enchant the pool

And make the cart-ruts beautiful;

And when snow-bright the moor expands,

How shall your children clap their hands!

To make this earth our hermitage,

A cheerful and a changeful page,

God's bright and intricate device

Of days and seasons doth suffice.




Photo Art: By Mrs. Mac, October 2009

Psalm 118

Psalm 118

¹ Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

² Let Israel say:
"His love endures forever."

³ Let the house of Aaron say:
"His love endures forever."

⁴ Let those who fear the LORD say:
"His love endures forever."

⁵ In my anguish I cried to the LORD,
and he answered by setting me free.

⁶ The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?

⁷ The LORD is with me; he is my helper.
I will look in triumph on my enemies.

⁸ It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in man.

⁹ It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in princes.

¹⁰ All the nations surrounded me,
but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

¹¹ They surrounded me on every side,
but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

¹² They swarmed around me like bees,
but they died out as quickly as burning thorns;
in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

¹³ I was pushed back and about to fall,
but the LORD helped me.

¹⁴ The LORD is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.

¹⁵ Shouts of joy and victory
resound in the tents of the righteous:
"The LORD's right hand has done mighty things!

¹⁶ The LORD's right hand is lifted high;
the LORD's right hand has done mighty things!"

¹⁷ I will not die but live,
and will proclaim what the LORD has done.

¹⁸ The LORD has chastened me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.

¹⁹ Open for me the gates of righteousness;
I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.

²⁰ This is the gate of the LORD
through which the righteous may enter.

²¹ I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.

²² The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;

²³ the LORD has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.

²⁴ This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.

²⁵ O LORD, save us;
O LORD, grant us success.

²⁶ Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.
From the house of the LORD we bless you.

²⁷ The LORD is God,
and he has made his light shine upon us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
up to the horns of the altar.

²⁸ You are my God, and I will give you thanks;
you are my God, and I will exalt you.

²⁹ Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

I received this Psalm in an email today from Felisol. It spoke to my heart in many areas, especially in regards to our bankrupt political system.

Photo: by & digitally 'mastered' by Mrs. Mac. October 24, 2009. Taken aboard a fast moving train in Northeast Washington State.