Happy New Year

How quickly life can change!

Today I have two new jobs, substitute teaching and working at the local deli!

I'm still a home-school mom and a housewife, the mother of five and grandmother of one! Daughter, aunt, sister---in-law!

I'm still a flautist, pianist, organist, guitarist, and singer---artist and writer.

We just needed a bit more income to handle this new life with a new home and a son with cancer.

So this will be quite a new year.

I hope I can handle it, but we'll see. Life changes can be good, inspiring, helpful. We can get into ruts, we can struggle with bad habits! Sometimes a big shake-up can be just the trigger for new and improved routines!

I'm also a cousin, and one of mine passed away on Christmas day. So sad. We were never close, but it is remarkable how much we shared. Life is so fleeting, so unexpected. Treasure each day, and be sure you have your eternity completely SURE.

My cousin did. He was a believer in Jesus Christ. He called Him LORD.


The Christmas stuff is put away for next year. I reflect on this past week with sweetness.
We really had wonderful fellowship with friends and family. Blessings.

I wish you, dear friend, a very blessed 2017. I hope it is the year our LORD comes back to get us!
Maranatha! Maranatha!

We have everything to hope for, look forward to, expect. God is so good.

My cartoon:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well, Friends, another year to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ, Ya-hu-wah Messiah, LORD OF ALL.

I firmly believe that Jesus was not born on December 25, and I hope that doesn't spoil Christmas for anyone, much like learning the truth about Santa Claus.

The truth is Jesus came. He was born in the flesh. He was born somewhere where animals were kept, as Mary put him in a manger.

Was it a place for sacrificial lambs to be birthed, there in the hills surrounding Bethlehem?

God is a person of detail. Atoms, strings, moments. I believe Jesus was born at the proper time of the feasts, a perfect and timely appearance on every level.

God is not surprised.

We may be. We may have believed traditions and stories over truths, and one day we will see how "off" we were.

But the things that matter are found in Scripture, and that is all that really matters.

The LORD GOD approves of our times for feasting, marrying, celebrating. He is in the midst of this, and He prepares a banquet of dynamic proportions even as we ponder this truth. He is coming. He came, and He is coming again.

He is our Messiah, and we are called to believe in Him and trust in Him. He is forgiving, merciful, and just. He sees us celebrate His birth, at the time of the feast of lights, Hannukah.  We can celebrate with confidence the feast of lights, and Christ's birth. The point is that He came, and He is celebrated.

I love the music, the sweetness of fellowship with loved ones, the recapping of the year, the expectations of the little ones. There's also a sense of completed blessing as I look back at the many provisions of God throughout my life, especially recently.

I think of the fire in the fireplace, the cupboards full of food, warm clothing and a roof that doesn't leak. I think of the black dog that lays at my feet and the memory of two other sweet pups that graced my life. I think of the children God allowed me to bear. They are the greatest blessing I could ever ask for. What a wonder! I'm thankful for a husband that has walked beside me and shared all of my interests and joys for 27 years, through hardship and ease. One who has been faithful to me and our marriage vows.

I think of our parents who are healthy and doing well. What a tremendous blessing. Praying grandparents are vital to our children's lives! My father-in-law pointed that out to me yesterday, and I totally agree. We are never useless, spiritually.

I think of the tools and devices, cars and trucks, technology and appliances, electric power that make our lives more efficient and livable. I'm thankful for these things and their service to us. I'm thankful for music and devices that help us to hear it.

Are you still with me? I'm counting my blessings this beautiful evening. I'm listening to MPR and the beautiful Christmas Eve music they play. We just finished a meal of Swedish Smorgasbord, meatballs, sausage, rice pudding, fruit soup---at Grandma and Grandpa's home. Delicious.

We drove home from a gathering in Iowa this morning. My husband's parents had a family celebration with a tasty meal and great company! It was fun to celebrate new engagements, prospective futures, and present good cheer. Generosity all around!

And the joy continues.

We are only ever to live one day at a time---Give us This Day our Daily Bread! We don't know what tomorrow is going to be like----a Christmas Day like many others?

Or does Yeshua come again to take us home?

Ice storm predicted for our area tomorrow, so please stay safe on the roads!

Wherever you are, reading my message, I pray you are safe and complete in Jesus Christ. He is the reason we celebrate this feast time.

Come to Him, all you who are weary! Heavy laden! He'll give you rest! His yoke is easy---His burden is light. He is the one who gives life and hope to the spiritually dead and the hopeless.

Finally reading Rosaria Butterfield's engaging book "The Secrets Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert." I love her descriptions of believers. We can laugh at ourselves and how we appear to others---but there is a seriousness to telling the truth and doing it in a way that reveals the vital lessons of God's ideas to those that don't have a clue about the Messiah.

It's worth a study. We need to be willing to critically assess the way we share our faith. Ultimately it's up to the power of the Holy Spirit and His eye/ear opening ability.

Let's pray eyes and ears open to the truth of Jesus and His birth.

Why did He come? Why did He die? Why does sin reign in our lives until we accept the gift of eternal life from God alone?

Good questions. ASK THEM!

It's what it's all about, the very meaning of life.

Absolutely Hilarious: (MUST Watch this montage!)

https://news.grabien.com/story-montage-medias-10-most-mortifying-moments-2016

Parent's Battle

http://nypost.com/2016/12/17/kids-turn-violent-as-parents-battle-digital-heroin-addiction/

Krumkaka

Krumkaka

This Techie World

I listened to an interview with a man who talked about our future form of government---a technocracy, he said. I think there is an article in Time magazine about it currently.

It's sort of alarming, but as I apply for a new job---substitute teacher---with an educational service provider I am taken aback by the technology I'm supposed to be able to navigate through, and I'm woefully technologically illiterate.

It's alarming.

Ed is gently helping me handle some of the devices I'm currently using

A Chrome Book
My moto XXXXXphone
Moto sport watch 33333
my tablet
my old moto x

It's insane.

I get a new device and I have to figure it out even as the old ones blink into obscurity. It's like vacuum cleaners---you have to buy a whole new machine because they quit making the filters your old one used.

If this is technocracy I'M DONE!

What about all the older generation who cannot figure out how to turn the computer on?

I did finish the 100 + page online application and I fell like I should reward myself.

I'm going to pick up my KINDLE and read ----

My home is full of paper and hardback collections of printed leaves----old fashioned books, and I really prefer these infinitely to the stuff on line.

I do like being able to type on a beautiful keyboard again. That is a blessing.

Allow me to rant. I am concerned about the future and what is coming into being. I'm concerned about the developments and how to keep abreast of them. I want to keep up, but I am reaching my limits.

How about the kids? They just naturally keep up, it seems.

Or do they? Are they controlled by the technology already?

I think I want to go and eat a Christmas cookie.


Cherie and I made many kinds of treats this season of holiday preparation:

Chocolate Crinkles
Spritz
Lefse
Butter Cut-outs
Cooky Jar Cut-outs (with orange rind)
Gingerbread Cut-outs
Shortbread (with cornstarch)
Cornflake wreaths (green with cinnamon red-hots)
Peanut Butter blossoms
Chocolate dipped oreos and Ritz peanut butter sandwiches
Peppermint almond bark

Tomorrow my friend is coming over to make Russian/Swedish/Mexican Wedding/Teacakes----you know, the delicious little balls of butter, flour and walnuts or pecans rolled in powdered sugar?
So simple, so tasty. They must be on every Christmas cookie plate.

Yesterday my nieces and their friends were over for dinner and we feasted on these Christmas delicacies. It was fun to be with my nieces. One of my nieces is an artist in Italy, and she is painting a chapel in a castle. It's fascinating.

My own Margaret has left Munich, and our dear friends there, for another German city and other dear friends. She's going to the Wiesbaden/Mainz area now. By all accounts she's winning hearts all around.

Of course my heart is deeply lonesome for her, but I'm incredibly glad she can do this travelling and adventuring at her age. We are all on this life path, and travel is surely one of the most rewarding and expanding experiences any of us can ever hope for.

I may never travel again, and I'm completely alright with that, but on my bucket list still; the Seychelles, and to go back to Israel. Israel is so different now from when I went in 1983. It has bloomed since, and I'd love to see it.

There is something about a turquoise ocean beach that is healing to a Minnesota mind, and I hanker for the sun on my skin and the waves lapping peacefully and warmly at my feet. Perhaps I'll get to see the ocean again someday. I have a wonderful memory of the Aegean Sea and a small resort at Ayvalik, in Turkey. It's a memory that I will enjoy for the rest of my life.

I'm truly happy to be here, though, in my own little world. My Corgi grief is still sharp. I can't quite get past it, but I look at Blackberry and her neediness since Misty's passing, and I love her all the more. The cats are content. They are cats.

Perhaps someday I'll have a Corgi again. I'd love to rescue one. Corgi Hollows is CERTAINLY open for any Corgi that needs rescuing.

It's warmed up today. It was bitter yesterday, so we enjoyed the fire and warm company. Today the sun shines on a 20℉ improvement.

I'm savoring the freedom of a slow day as I realize they are going to be few and far between as I age. But house payments must be made. New homes are like that.

I've been blessed with a life of amazing blessings.

I'm thankful.

End Times Economics

http://www.raptureready.com/featured/hahn/h156.html

Testimony--consider what he says:

https://youtu.be/aFO-v59v6bQ

Hope

Yoga Again

http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/61880-ex-witch-reveals-connection-between-yoga-and-satan

Winter Storm Warning

The sun is casting shiny beams on the pure white snow cover. More snow is coming, and the clear skies right now indicate the bitter cold this day.

It's cold out there!

Ed finished his finals. We go back to swimming today as a celebration----at least it feels like that. Swimming can be a chore, especially on negative temperature days, but the resulting prevention of headaches for me and limber muscles for Ed is worth the pain.

I am still wrangling with the three packages I have to mail. I'm totally incompetent when it comes to administration skills, so having had to go to three post offices and one DHL shipping office with NO PACKAGES THUS FAR SENT is quite the Waterloo for me.

It was either too expensive ($244US), wrong packaging (Needs to be in a priority mail box for cheapest rates), and the line was once too long, waited 1/2 an hour, had to leave.

Next year I hope to get this all done in October. Will I learn my lesson?

I have stacks of stamps and Christmas cards here to address and mail. Will I get it done?

I have a stack of presents I've gleaned over the year to give to my loved ones that need wrapping.  Will a backache ensue?

I'm sounding like a Scrooge. I'm really not, but there are things about the holidays that I have never really learned to do well.

I have excellent intentions, but little result.

Cherie has been helping me with baking. We've done little shortbread cookies, peanut blossoms, gingerbread cutouts, cooky-jar cookies with orange rind, cornflake wreaths (bright green!), and several more kinds are planned.

Swedish meatballs are made and in the freezer. The Swedish potato sausage is purchased. The ham is procured. Potatoes and anchovies for Janssen's Temptation are bought.

Fruits for the fruit soup are on the counter.

Things are coming together.

Ed made a fire this morning in the wood fireplace. It is a joy to have that device to warm that half of the house! It is cozy and smells wonderful.

Must be off.

There's a winter storm headed our way. Maybe I'll spend it doing cards and wrapping presents. Baking.

The joys of a Minnesota storm.

The Elite's Plan for 2017 ???

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/pessimists-guide-to-2017/

Peace Church

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9454/united-church-of-christ-terrorism

I'm Back

My generous husband gifted me early with a "Chrome Book" this Christmas season. It's exactly what I needed in a technical device, but I'm still getting used to it.

It is NOT a tablet, nor a phone, so I have a real keyboard, and a big screen!

Yay!

I can actually type again!

It still needs to become my feeling, and that will take time. Do you know what I mean? I can't figure out how to cut and paste and share any links yet, but that should come.

My chief technical geek, Ed, is busy prepping for his last two finals. After these I can infringe on his time to help me out with my own technology.

But I can write again. And people who don't write can't quite understand the urge we writers have to express. It's part of our nature. We talk about things.

Have you seen "Sense and Sensibility?"
The one with Emma Thompson?

It would make a nice holiday movie night. We quote this film often at our house.

Very quotable quotes.

I am quietly checking off items on my lists. I have multiple lists that I operate from. They include everything from dinner ideas to major needs like repairing the roof. It's been a mild fall weather-wise, which has helped the outside projects become completed in a fashion not yet known to Corgi Hollows.

I'm still in shock/grief/denial about Misty and her death.

There is not a happy Corgi face to greet us every time we look up.

Blackberry still mourns. She goes out and howls to the North several times each night. We all miss her quick little patter and warm furry presence.

I still can't believe she's gone.

There is a darling Corgi puppy across the field from us, and she visited us (serendipitously)  two days after we lost Misty. She was full of life and cuteness and it just had to give me peace that God is indeed in charge of our days, and the days of our loved ones, which include pets.

I totally believe that God cares.

I still cry.

Cold, cold temperatures have hit our Minnesota landscape this week. It's below zero, and my fingers get numb bringing in the wood for the fireplace. We keep a fire burning all day. The furnace is set low, and we use the fireplace wherever we are reading or sitting. Cozy.

There are four winters' worth of wood in the newly furbished shed. My husband is SO happy about that. I am grateful to my parents-in-law for their ceaseless help in splitting the wood and getting us snug for the cold temperatures. Country living is lots of work!

My parents are also happy for children and grandchildren next door to them, eager to run over and help set up a Christmas tree or prep for an event. It's such a good thing.

I sound like Martha Stewart, but really, good things are all about living well.

There are some concerns, the things that wake you in the middle of the night, that dog your mind and thoughts and tense your neck muscles. We do have trouble.

But I am daily reminded about God's provision. He cares about these things MORE THAN I DO!

I'm responsible to be a good steward, to have a clean heart and conscience before Him, but He has promised to do the rest.

Lessons we must learn over and over. It never stops.

I think I will be starting to substitute teach after the holidays. I don't look forward to it, but financially I'm going to have to start helping out. Moving to this place has added a financial burden that is too heavy. So many things that have needed attention and fixing, broken pumps, sheds, driveways, equipment to manage this land---it just doesn't stop.

Cherie has her grandparents next door to keep track of her school days, they are part of the home-schooling team, but she is so far ahead in school that it is unnecessary to worry about her. Subbing leaves the flexibility to schedule homeschooling activities in.

So, I'm off. Hoping for a possibility of being hired by a nearby school district. Please pray with me.

Ed will have the spring semester at the community college, but we are scheduling his knee operation for early June, leaving maximum recovery time. The first knee can be done then, the other one later. It's hard to make these decisions.

He had a spinal tap on Friday with his favorite doctor, and it went very well. I'm in awe of how well his recovery is going, and attribute it rightly to a great medical team----AND GOD!

God is good, all the time. He provides, heals, helps, gives, leads, directs, calms, empowers. He is everything I need, until my last breath.

Margaret is traveling in Europe with a dear friend, visiting dear friends. We are happy for her, but sorely miss her beautiful face this Christmas season. God has so blessed us with our children. They are all so precious and wonderful. God is so good.

God has blessed us with amazing friends, too. I thank the LORD for each one. Amazing relationships, amazing friendships. I thank God for you.

I hope to still get presents wrapped, cookies baked, CARDS SENT OUT!

Plus feasts to prepare, and snow to shovel.

I'd like to get my skis out. The snow is about six inches deep and pure fluff. It's glistening gorgeous.

That was the news. I wrote a Christmas letter. If you want to have me send it to you please email me at Corgihollows@gmail.com.

I have some of you in my Rolodex. I hope to reconnect with you after  several years!

I'll be writing again----SOON!
Thanks for stopping by.

VD Hanson:

http://www.nationalreview.com/

Battling Fake News

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-orwellian-war-on-skepticism-battling-fake-news/5559949

Truth Topics

I'm preoccupied with thoughts about truth since the US election.

I read many articles from conservative websites. I listen to NPR, read Huffpost, and stay linked to several leftists. I rarely look at any mainstream media, but will read articles from major newspapers.

We all know bias exists, and we should read accordingly.

Wikileaks is an interesting subject. Do we believe or not?

Freemasons, the Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Bilderbergers, Conspiracy Theory, Flat Earth, Climate change, Chemtrails, GMOs, Vaccines, Pedophilia Rings, Sex Trafficking, Slavery, Globalist Elitists, Pagan Trends, CERN, Transhumanism, Aliens, Artificial Intelligence, Yoga, Demonic Activity, The Matrix, Mind Control---

----the list goes on---

Things that may have truth, shreds of truth, or complete deception.

We are in this world, but not of it. Humanists would like for us to ignore the spiritual. They are materialists.

I am not a humanist.

I do see a vast spiritual conspiracy. Two, actually, working against each other ---good and evil.

All of these things I listed above can easily be analyzed and unpacked in light of this Vast Conspiracy.

It's not a problem.

It all fits.

Truth is what The LORD of the Bible declares it to be.

You are safe with His Holy Word.

Be sure you are spending time in it daily.

There are too many voices out there competing for your allegiance. It rightfully belongs to the one who made you.

Run the things you hear through the grid of God's truth.

Da King is Born

https://youtu.be/yEB5VFI2kAE

The Lord is my Shepherd

https://youtu.be/vDPf1oyFn-A

:D

https://youtu.be/Ahp2yyCPZUA

Terry James ABC---

https://terryjamesprophecyline.com/2016/12/05/the-a-b-c-questions/

Wow. One to Study:

http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=8932

Climate Truths

http://www.wsj.com/articles/my-unhappy-life-as-a-climate-heretic-1480723518

The Jesuits

https://youtu.be/PYOZY-DqodI

Three Things That Get My Goat

1. Social Justice Warriors that are pro Socialism

2. The war against Christian beliefs

3. The false portrayal of Breitbart News

I just hope millennials are reading the accounts of Cuban dissidents this week.

It's easy to only believe evidence that backs up your personal paradigm. We're all guilty of that.

That someone from BuzzFeed would attempt to slam a couple of Christians for believing Christianity is ridiculous.

I've read and known of Andrew Breitbart for years now. I've followed Lucianne Goldberg's site since the internet exploded. I have never seen an anti Jewish statement, or any racist comment. Never.

Conservative things, YES, but not racist.

I am pro Israel, pro Jewish. My Lord is a Jewish builder. And, like Ken Ham, I believe in one race. Human.

There is a beautiful diversity of cultures, and that is only wonderful. The sin of valuing a color of skin over the person is from the pit of hell, and Darwinism/Eugenics is to be fingered in the blame.

People tend to be prideful sinners, and Satan has infiltrated the church for decades. Racism took root in the mainline denominations right after Darwin published his Origin story.

Slavery and prideful superiority of peoples is as old as the human race. That doesn't justify it. Sin is always sin, since Adam and Eve.

It was wrong then, and it is wrong now.

No one can control the sinner. The KKK can throw its support around all it wants. The accusations of racism must be tried and true to actually stick.

The biggest racists are those who promote abortion. Abortion proponents have publicly declared their intentions of targeting African communities. That's true racism, and they will burn in hell for it.

Repent! Before it's too late!

All and any sin separates from God. All need Christ for reconciliation.

That includes racism.

Stick to the Word of God.

Atheism kills. Christ Jesus saves.

Fear

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2016/11/30/cubans-fear-reprisals-if-dont-show-grief-over-castro-death-dissidents-say/

Attack

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442644/buzzfeeds-chip-joanna-gaines-gay-marriage-beliefs-story-willfully-ignorant