My daughter, Joycie sent me this and I just loved it:
The bald headed man singing Puccini reminds me of my Grandpa Oddo. The way he picks up the little boy at the end? Yes. That was my grandpa...He so loved children and he and my grandma lived simply.
It reminds me of this quote, and you can easily substitute he instead of she:
What constitutes success? She has achieved success who has lived well; laughed often and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent people and the love of little children; who has filled her niche and accomplished her task; who has left the world better than she found it;...who has never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty, or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given the best she had. -Bessie Stanley
My grandpa was from Bisaquino, Sicily where Frank Capra was from, my grandma was from Naples.
My grandpa sang opera when he was young and when he would sing to us even in old age he sounded like the man singing Puccini. When Grandpa immigrated to New York around 1915 with his cousin, Jerome, he was hanging his clothes out of his apartment there. He sang so beautifully that a lady walking down the street from the opera heard him and asked him to come sing in the opera. He did until he was called to this southern state to unite with his family who came to America later. He was so proud to become an American!
I am half Italian and half German. *big smile* My husband is also of Italian descent, we met at an Italian wedding!
So there you have it.
Have a blessed Saturday and Sunday as we concentrate on the Lord and rest in Him.
Let these great Italians be a good reminder of how we can make lemonade out of lemons, right?
Love to all, ~Amelia in the Forest.
P.S. Grandpa and Grandma? You would be so proud, I'm living out in the country and gardening too!
Saturday, March 14, 2020
Monday, March 9, 2020
Peace Be With You...
The other early evening I walked into our master bathroom and I heard the most beautiful song on khcb, our traditional Christian radio station, it was as if Christ was giving me soothing refreshment to my soul, it was an ethereal feeling. I was almost stunned and stopped in my tracks. I closed my eyes and just received the refreshment.
Later the announcer made an announcement of the song and specific artist on the variety cd. I now have the cd, Scripture Lullabies, Hidden in my Heart Volume I to play in my kitchen..I also play it on my channel master on youtube on television and it goes from one song to another. There are several volumes, this is the first.
I just wanted to share the Beauty and Peace with you all.
This second selection is just gorgeous, remember when you were a child and there was a special movie on around Easter time? Or just something that struck your soul...a miracle of sorts? This music is the kind of music that would describe that feeling or moment... Enjoy. I like the ten hour version but there is also a single selection by Samuel Barber on youtube as well.
I have the above playing now as I type...
Closing with some special recent photos here.
Cardinals are very special to me, they are God's messengers and comfort. Here is one I spotted through my back screen porch perched on a bird feeder I made with a dollar tree cup and saucer on a metal hook-hanger also from dollar tree.
This is Liesl yesterday evening, she is the sweetest, most affectionate and loyal dog we've ever seen I think. Look at the love in her eyes...She had gone from one home to another and my daughter had her but the surroundings were not large enough so we are so very, very blessed to have this most precious fur-angel here... And she is that, a fur-angel.
Wherever we are, she is there. Whether it's on a walk or a precious heartbeat at our feet in the living room, her sweet little head resting on our knee looking up at us...She is there. Even if the little Dachshund takes her treat she lets him...Oh if humans would learn to be like Liesl. (And yes, I give poor Liesl another treat.)
More photos from yesterday evening and night. It's hard to capture the peace and solace the forest brings... Sometimes I stand and just quietly and being very still...Take it all in...
I saw the moon last night as we sat in the living room watching an old black and white movie. I couldn't let this pass me by...I grabbed my phone and stepped out quickly to capture the Beauty.
Well, I hope things are going well for you dear ones. The nutritionist will be sending an email soon letting us know if further testing through yet another doctor is necessary at this time for my mother. We have a very good report on my mother's heart. She is 90 years old and her heart is in very good shape, the sweet cardiologist with a Christian staff tells my mother...Oh my goodness, you cannot be 90! You are very unique! Thanks be to God. So we'll see how the arteries on her neck are doing and I'm a firm believer in doing things the most natural way possible.
These kinds of things have the ability to be very trying for me emotionally, I've had my feel of bad people in medicine, no, I wasn't always like this, I have good reason to be this way believe me. I know they are not all bad but I have heard some personally, and I know some, some good and some bad. There are a few angels but many are in the system.
I think all the testing is emotionally trying for my mom too and is even causing her to have faint spells even more. I pray that the nutritionist-doctor will get down to the bottom of things and that will be that! *gentle smile*
Prayers are appreciated and special thanks to those of you who have prayed, it blessed my heart and I am grateful.
I do know many of you have experienced the same or similar and the same moon that shines over me shines over you too. It's a comfort isn't it? To know that brothers and sisters all over the world go through these things? I'm very blessed to have good daughters and a good husband to help me with this situation who aren't wired quite like me; in such a delicate way or who haven't been through things to make them quite like me. I do know God works things for His good, if we have been through things? I think it's to help others and to be that understanding one.
God is our refuge.
Thanking God for each one of you! Your comments are a Blessing to me. I think God works greatly through blogs, I really do.
Have a sweet evening, Loves, ~Amelia in the Forest
Later the announcer made an announcement of the song and specific artist on the variety cd. I now have the cd, Scripture Lullabies, Hidden in my Heart Volume I to play in my kitchen..I also play it on my channel master on youtube on television and it goes from one song to another. There are several volumes, this is the first.
I just wanted to share the Beauty and Peace with you all.
This second selection is just gorgeous, remember when you were a child and there was a special movie on around Easter time? Or just something that struck your soul...a miracle of sorts? This music is the kind of music that would describe that feeling or moment... Enjoy. I like the ten hour version but there is also a single selection by Samuel Barber on youtube as well.
I have the above playing now as I type...
Closing with some special recent photos here.
Cardinals are very special to me, they are God's messengers and comfort. Here is one I spotted through my back screen porch perched on a bird feeder I made with a dollar tree cup and saucer on a metal hook-hanger also from dollar tree.
This is Liesl yesterday evening, she is the sweetest, most affectionate and loyal dog we've ever seen I think. Look at the love in her eyes...She had gone from one home to another and my daughter had her but the surroundings were not large enough so we are so very, very blessed to have this most precious fur-angel here... And she is that, a fur-angel.
Wherever we are, she is there. Whether it's on a walk or a precious heartbeat at our feet in the living room, her sweet little head resting on our knee looking up at us...She is there. Even if the little Dachshund takes her treat she lets him...Oh if humans would learn to be like Liesl. (And yes, I give poor Liesl another treat.)
More photos from yesterday evening and night. It's hard to capture the peace and solace the forest brings... Sometimes I stand and just quietly and being very still...Take it all in...
I saw the moon last night as we sat in the living room watching an old black and white movie. I couldn't let this pass me by...I grabbed my phone and stepped out quickly to capture the Beauty.
Well, I hope things are going well for you dear ones. The nutritionist will be sending an email soon letting us know if further testing through yet another doctor is necessary at this time for my mother. We have a very good report on my mother's heart. She is 90 years old and her heart is in very good shape, the sweet cardiologist with a Christian staff tells my mother...Oh my goodness, you cannot be 90! You are very unique! Thanks be to God. So we'll see how the arteries on her neck are doing and I'm a firm believer in doing things the most natural way possible.
These kinds of things have the ability to be very trying for me emotionally, I've had my feel of bad people in medicine, no, I wasn't always like this, I have good reason to be this way believe me. I know they are not all bad but I have heard some personally, and I know some, some good and some bad. There are a few angels but many are in the system.
I think all the testing is emotionally trying for my mom too and is even causing her to have faint spells even more. I pray that the nutritionist-doctor will get down to the bottom of things and that will be that! *gentle smile*
Prayers are appreciated and special thanks to those of you who have prayed, it blessed my heart and I am grateful.
I do know many of you have experienced the same or similar and the same moon that shines over me shines over you too. It's a comfort isn't it? To know that brothers and sisters all over the world go through these things? I'm very blessed to have good daughters and a good husband to help me with this situation who aren't wired quite like me; in such a delicate way or who haven't been through things to make them quite like me. I do know God works things for His good, if we have been through things? I think it's to help others and to be that understanding one.
God is our refuge.
Thanking God for each one of you! Your comments are a Blessing to me. I think God works greatly through blogs, I really do.
Have a sweet evening, Loves, ~Amelia in the Forest
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
Two Weddings, Not Entering Heelotville
Well after my last blog, some may wonder...
What did your daughters do for wedding dresses you may ask? What kind of weddings does your family do? Well, we try to keep it sensible. Probably to a more extravagant person, they may think they are very simple. Perhaps to a family on a very limited budget it may seem very nice.
So far, two of our four daughters are married so here goes.
One thing we did to try to save money and keep things sensible is order the wedding dresses online. We found lovely dresses overseas. Didn't that scare you Mrs. Amelia? There was definitely some trepidation I must tell you! Haha, especially the first one! But for the price we really could not go wrong. We found a vendor with very, very good reviews and rating. The vendor answered our questions within 12 hours and answered them well. The vendor had detailed instructions on how to measure for the wedding dress. They even gave us a choice between a lace-up back or buttons. They recommended lace up back because that was easier to fit but we wanted buttons, we also asked the vendor if we could 'up' the neckline an inch so it would not be low cut. The dress later arrived in a plastic bag and .... It fit! It even had french seams!
The one thing we did tweak on daughter3's dress was the sleeves. She wanted the sleeves to be a teensy bit more fitted. We found a precious sewist in uso-town who fixed that problem very, very reasonably. I also had the sewist hem my dress. I could have tried to do all of this myself, I do sew simply with a Walmart simple Brothers machine that I adore and depend on, and I sew by hand, but with delicate fabrics requiring special machinery to get that handkerchief hem....I wasn't equipped to do that unless I sewed it all by hand, the simplicity of someone else doing that for me was wonderful and with the french seams? I don't think I could have attempted to keep the french seams.
The flowers were done by a precious master florist right here in our little smalltown. A hidden gem. A young doc friend of the girls, also a prodigy with his violin, played that violin and it was gorgeous. The cathedral organist was included, a wowee winning combination. The church was a beautiful, an over one-hundred year-old Wesleyan cathedral in downtown where my parents were married but in the chapel back then. The grand cathedral has beautiful stained glass windows with Jesus and His little lambs. Around five years ago, they had a pastor there that I loved, we would sit up in the balcony across from the stained glass window with Jesus with the little lambs...The place just had the breath of the Holy Spirit that whispered to my soul. The first time we attended, my husband and I both had tears running down our faces up there in that balcony. Unfortunately some different progressive thinking hit the place, a different, more progressive in a not-such a-good-way thinking pastor and I'm grieved about that major. We can't support that. (another blog). Please pray about that with me would you? I am counting on God to restore that beautiful place.
We live in the forest but like to step in our Jetson mobile of sorts and go to downtown every now and then. Memories of me as a happy child with my parents are there in the zoo and museum district, also where both my husband and I were born. I guess I'm very sentimental and eclectic... The forest and artsy classic downtown. The suburbs? ...Not so much, not a fan of the busy system of cookie-cutterism. Haha. I've lived there too, and yes there were good points but I missed my forest peace and simplicity.
We had the reception in the reception hall at the church. Why not? *big smile* It was rather neat, dark teal heavy vintage curtains hung as a backdrop that gave it that vintage vibe we so love. The hall also offered low reset lighting and parquet floor so what was there not to like? For our family it worked nicely. We kept the food to finger foods (good, heavy finger foods) we didn't want to make people hangry so to speak! lol We had the hors d'ouevres catered from a Mediterranean place in downtown we love. Lot's of hummus in large cabbage leaf flowers, olives, many cheeses, pita chips, a variety of little mediterranean dainties, fruits etc. We served iced tea and coffee. On the invitations it was printed, "Cake and hors d'oeuvre reception to follow ceremony." This way, no one expected a seated full dinner. The wedding was an afternoon wedding at three. The lady who made the beautiful tiered wedding cake made the most delicious Italian cream cake with a chocolate layer under the white icing! We had so many compliments! For music we had a piano player play background music to give things a relaxing vibe. We used burgundy table cloths with short stacks of old vintage Grace Livingston Hill books placed artfully with a vase of fresh simple fresh flowers atop of each. The bride and her sisters and special friends worked hard I must say on this. We would hire that out if we did that again. Way too much ironing for them. The tablecloths were from...ebay of course! Great value there for the sturdy tablecloths too. We didn't have a ton of tables, just enough for people to land and visit with each other if they wanted to.
You can see where some of our thoughts were running here on my HEELOT entry that may give you some laughs! Probably because it's the truth! lol
In our family we try very hard NOT to be a HEELOT! lol
To save on trauma or money on tuxes when daughter2 got married 2 years later? My husband and groom had the epiphany to buy matching black suits from J.C. Penneys on sale, much, much more economical and and looked stunning on my husband, groomsmen and ushers. White dress shirts, white handkerchief squares and matching ties purchased online. My son in love wore his own suit in grey.
So, when daughter2 got married, we took the same path. We ordered her dress from the exact same vendor. She also took her dress to a sewist to have it taken in, and the day before she even decided to make it sleeveless so daughter2 did that herself by hand! The dress was made with excellent construction and once again, french seams. The venue was a lovely glass conservatory, part of a historical museum from the Victorian age. More of a garden feel this time. The food was once again, heavy finger foods from our own provider, iced tea and coffee, and we used the same lady to bake the same exact cake. We picked some of our beautiful favorites from 'To Kill a Mockingbird" instrumentals as the bridesmaids and myself were coming down the aisle. Congregational hymns were sung before the ceremony started. A professional young musician friend played violin as a gift. We were to have a trio to play old time 40s background music such as Nat King Cole selections but the wedding had been canceled because of a huge Hurricane so was postponed one week. So we forfeited the trio and played Nat King Cole and other old charming classic cds overhead for background. The conservatory was so loud with visiting no one heard anyhow so there ya go. The guests seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. After the ceremony, before the reception, the guests were able to browse the historical museum as the conservatory chairs for the ceremony were being set to the side. The museum in the huge old Victorian home actually at one time was an orphanage for Christian and Jewish children long ago. Very beautiful grounds.
When I was looking up past entries finding pics and such I came across this quote. I know it's a bit off-topic but in lieu of this day and age of churchdom, it can be quite fitting depending on what we are personally dealing with or have dealt with. The one thing I try to get over to people that have been hurt by churches though...It's not Jesus who hurt you, it was some manmade thing or person who hurt you. It's not Jesus who did that and trust me, it grieves His heart too.
'When any church will inscribe over its altar as its sole qualification for membership the Savior's condensed statement of the substance of both the law and the Gospel, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself” that church will I join with all my heart and soul.'
-President Lincoln
And one of my favorite all time favorite quotes!
I hope you all are doing well, I try to keep up with others' blogs as I am able and I do enjoy them.
Please pray for me right now and our family, my mom is being taken to the nutritionist and cardiologist and it is entailing a lot. Way more then we bargained for. Lot's of pressure going on of various degrees. Our heads are spinning. Prayers please!
What a Friend we have in Jesus is what comes to mind,
Love to you all, ~Amelia in the Forest
What did your daughters do for wedding dresses you may ask? What kind of weddings does your family do? Well, we try to keep it sensible. Probably to a more extravagant person, they may think they are very simple. Perhaps to a family on a very limited budget it may seem very nice.
So far, two of our four daughters are married so here goes.
One thing we did to try to save money and keep things sensible is order the wedding dresses online. We found lovely dresses overseas. Didn't that scare you Mrs. Amelia? There was definitely some trepidation I must tell you! Haha, especially the first one! But for the price we really could not go wrong. We found a vendor with very, very good reviews and rating. The vendor answered our questions within 12 hours and answered them well. The vendor had detailed instructions on how to measure for the wedding dress. They even gave us a choice between a lace-up back or buttons. They recommended lace up back because that was easier to fit but we wanted buttons, we also asked the vendor if we could 'up' the neckline an inch so it would not be low cut. The dress later arrived in a plastic bag and .... It fit! It even had french seams!
The one thing we did tweak on daughter3's dress was the sleeves. She wanted the sleeves to be a teensy bit more fitted. We found a precious sewist in uso-town who fixed that problem very, very reasonably. I also had the sewist hem my dress. I could have tried to do all of this myself, I do sew simply with a Walmart simple Brothers machine that I adore and depend on, and I sew by hand, but with delicate fabrics requiring special machinery to get that handkerchief hem....I wasn't equipped to do that unless I sewed it all by hand, the simplicity of someone else doing that for me was wonderful and with the french seams? I don't think I could have attempted to keep the french seams.
The flowers were done by a precious master florist right here in our little smalltown. A hidden gem. A young doc friend of the girls, also a prodigy with his violin, played that violin and it was gorgeous. The cathedral organist was included, a wowee winning combination. The church was a beautiful, an over one-hundred year-old Wesleyan cathedral in downtown where my parents were married but in the chapel back then. The grand cathedral has beautiful stained glass windows with Jesus and His little lambs. Around five years ago, they had a pastor there that I loved, we would sit up in the balcony across from the stained glass window with Jesus with the little lambs...The place just had the breath of the Holy Spirit that whispered to my soul. The first time we attended, my husband and I both had tears running down our faces up there in that balcony. Unfortunately some different progressive thinking hit the place, a different, more progressive in a not-such a-good-way thinking pastor and I'm grieved about that major. We can't support that. (another blog). Please pray about that with me would you? I am counting on God to restore that beautiful place.
We live in the forest but like to step in our Jetson mobile of sorts and go to downtown every now and then. Memories of me as a happy child with my parents are there in the zoo and museum district, also where both my husband and I were born. I guess I'm very sentimental and eclectic... The forest and artsy classic downtown. The suburbs? ...Not so much, not a fan of the busy system of cookie-cutterism. Haha. I've lived there too, and yes there were good points but I missed my forest peace and simplicity.
We had the reception in the reception hall at the church. Why not? *big smile* It was rather neat, dark teal heavy vintage curtains hung as a backdrop that gave it that vintage vibe we so love. The hall also offered low reset lighting and parquet floor so what was there not to like? For our family it worked nicely. We kept the food to finger foods (good, heavy finger foods) we didn't want to make people hangry so to speak! lol We had the hors d'ouevres catered from a Mediterranean place in downtown we love. Lot's of hummus in large cabbage leaf flowers, olives, many cheeses, pita chips, a variety of little mediterranean dainties, fruits etc. We served iced tea and coffee. On the invitations it was printed, "Cake and hors d'oeuvre reception to follow ceremony." This way, no one expected a seated full dinner. The wedding was an afternoon wedding at three. The lady who made the beautiful tiered wedding cake made the most delicious Italian cream cake with a chocolate layer under the white icing! We had so many compliments! For music we had a piano player play background music to give things a relaxing vibe. We used burgundy table cloths with short stacks of old vintage Grace Livingston Hill books placed artfully with a vase of fresh simple fresh flowers atop of each. The bride and her sisters and special friends worked hard I must say on this. We would hire that out if we did that again. Way too much ironing for them. The tablecloths were from...ebay of course! Great value there for the sturdy tablecloths too. We didn't have a ton of tables, just enough for people to land and visit with each other if they wanted to.
You can see where some of our thoughts were running here on my HEELOT entry that may give you some laughs! Probably because it's the truth! lol
In our family we try very hard NOT to be a HEELOT! lol
To save on trauma or money on tuxes when daughter2 got married 2 years later? My husband and groom had the epiphany to buy matching black suits from J.C. Penneys on sale, much, much more economical and and looked stunning on my husband, groomsmen and ushers. White dress shirts, white handkerchief squares and matching ties purchased online. My son in love wore his own suit in grey.
So, when daughter2 got married, we took the same path. We ordered her dress from the exact same vendor. She also took her dress to a sewist to have it taken in, and the day before she even decided to make it sleeveless so daughter2 did that herself by hand! The dress was made with excellent construction and once again, french seams. The venue was a lovely glass conservatory, part of a historical museum from the Victorian age. More of a garden feel this time. The food was once again, heavy finger foods from our own provider, iced tea and coffee, and we used the same lady to bake the same exact cake. We picked some of our beautiful favorites from 'To Kill a Mockingbird" instrumentals as the bridesmaids and myself were coming down the aisle. Congregational hymns were sung before the ceremony started. A professional young musician friend played violin as a gift. We were to have a trio to play old time 40s background music such as Nat King Cole selections but the wedding had been canceled because of a huge Hurricane so was postponed one week. So we forfeited the trio and played Nat King Cole and other old charming classic cds overhead for background. The conservatory was so loud with visiting no one heard anyhow so there ya go. The guests seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. After the ceremony, before the reception, the guests were able to browse the historical museum as the conservatory chairs for the ceremony were being set to the side. The museum in the huge old Victorian home actually at one time was an orphanage for Christian and Jewish children long ago. Very beautiful grounds.
When I was looking up past entries finding pics and such I came across this quote. I know it's a bit off-topic but in lieu of this day and age of churchdom, it can be quite fitting depending on what we are personally dealing with or have dealt with. The one thing I try to get over to people that have been hurt by churches though...It's not Jesus who hurt you, it was some manmade thing or person who hurt you. It's not Jesus who did that and trust me, it grieves His heart too.
'When any church will inscribe over its altar as its sole qualification for membership the Savior's condensed statement of the substance of both the law and the Gospel, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself” that church will I join with all my heart and soul.'
-President Lincoln
And one of my favorite all time favorite quotes!
"Too many people are buying things they can't afford, with money that they don't have... to impress people that they don't like!"
-Will Smith
Need encouragement avoiding the Heelot syndrome? May I suggest my blogging friend, Mrs. Sharon White's delightful book? An Old Fashioned Budget. I've enjoyed all of Mrs. Sharon White's books, they just bring a song to my heart. It's like having a sweet neighbor to have coffee with.
I hope you all are doing well, I try to keep up with others' blogs as I am able and I do enjoy them.
Please pray for me right now and our family, my mom is being taken to the nutritionist and cardiologist and it is entailing a lot. Way more then we bargained for. Lot's of pressure going on of various degrees. Our heads are spinning. Prayers please!
What a Friend we have in Jesus is what comes to mind,
Love to you all, ~Amelia in the Forest
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