Glorious ... Happy Homemaker Monday

Holy Week is emerging into full bloom with the day showing forth His glory in great display. I have always been especially delighted when the days before Resurrection Sunday are glorious in sunshine and warm temperatures.

The old routines of daily household duties continue on as any homemaker knows, but it appears I am developing other routines too by posting on Happy Homemaker Monday,though today is looking quite different around my house. We met up with Rose at a rest stop in the next state (yes, the rest stops are still open) and we enjoyed a quick picnic together. Ivy is now with us for the entire week.

Weather:  Perfect. Yes, we could do with some rain and the week's forecast (which is ever changing) predicts that it will rain on Resurrection Sunday, but today is sunny and warm which allows us to be outside and to sleep under opened windows, and later in the week to garden and lay mulch. Every day a springtime gift!

This Morning: After our trip to pick up Ivy, I was tired. Riding in a car seems to do that to me. I was sleeping rather soundly when into my consciousness I heard my husband say,"Cathy, Ivy has come downstairs and she is standing by your side of the bed". It was dark and it was early, but not too early to get up. So you could say I was abruptly awakened and my day began immediately with a talkative four year old. Now I remember why I purposely chose to get up by five o'clock when my children were younger in order to get some quiet time. 

I am thinking: About buying shoes for Ivy in spite of not being able to go to the store and have her growing feet fitted. I used this site for fitting her here at home. I plan to order her shoes online from local the Target and stop by to pick them up later today.

On My Breakfast Plate: I began with coffee, hot and strong! Ivy was given two sweet dried plums( yes, prunes... but we call them sweet plums because doesn't it sound much more lovely?) sprinkled with powdered sugar and a small glass of almond milk. When husband got up I prepared a breakfast of toast with butter and honey with fried eggs.

On My Reading Pile: When my boys were growing up evening Read Alouds were the norm. We read through so much great literature. There were times that we would be so absorbed in the chapter books and if I even seemed to suggest stopping until the next time, my eldest son would exclaim,"Please don't stop Mama, I will rub your head!"
We finished reading The Hiding Place the other day; I literally wept as I read the last chapter. Now we are onto reading the Little Britches books by Ralph Moody. So good!
My own personal reading is the same as last week. Other than this book, which I read every morning, another excellent group of devotional readings for this season.

Menu Planning: These weekly menus are subject to change and usually do take a bit of a turn and curve.
Monday- Chicken and Dumplings and green salad
Tuesday-  Lemon Tuscan Chicken on the grill
Wednesday-Hamburgers
Thursday-Mac and Cheese and Salad
Friday-
Saturday-
Sunday- Usually we have lamb, but this year we might have turkey since I am cooking the foods in my freezer and there is a turkey breast needing to be roasted.

On My Camera: In the playhouse...where little girls play.

Around the House: I am now remembering what it was like to live with a preschooler!  My days are completely, but satisfyingly aroused with activity of a disparate sort. But I am enjoying having her help me fold the laundry, and  I am managing to get a few things done here and there while always being engaged with her. Right now I am in the guest bedroom while she is napping. I am having a quiet moment too😊.

Devotional: "Then they spit in His face and struck him" Matthew 26:67
Charles Surgeon uses this verse for a sermon and  I am sharing just a briefest truth here, "There are two thoughts that come to my mind when I think that these wicked men did actually spit in Christ's face-in that face which is the light of heaven, the joy of angels, the bliss of saints, and the very brightness of the Father's glory. This spitting shows us first, how far sin will go. If we want proof of the depravity of the heart of man, I will not point you to the stews of Sodom and Gomorrah, not will I take you to the places where blood is shed in streams by wretches like to Herod and men of that sort. No, the clearest proof that man is utterly fallen, and that the natural heart is enmity against God, is seen in the act that they did spit in Chris't face, did falsely accuse him, and condemn him, and lead him out as a malefactor, and hang him up as a felon that he might die upon the cross. What evil had he done?"