It's Six O' Clock in the Morning...

And it's so far been a beautiful day!

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For all of you that's been waiting for a new post since April 24:

I have not ONE good exuse to my defence. I hope you still check on this blog from time to time.

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For all of you that's been waiting for a new Norwegian post:

Unnskyld, beklager, sorry, eg skal gjer mitt beste, veldig snart!

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What is exciting right now:

-God has got a plan for exactly THIS day.

-It's OKAY to be EXCITED!!

-My brother is visiting.

-This is my tenth day of making the Amish Friendship Bread (which means that today, it's gonna be put in the oven. How exciting! )

-I'm wearing my favourite hoodie.

-I have recently got 400 bags of Lyon's Irish Tea in a parcel from Nadia =) =) =)

-I'm having tea today!!

-22 days left of working, then I'll be going to A-M-E-R-I-C-A.

-I'm A LITTLE BIT excited!!!!!

Thanks for your attention, ladies and gentlemen,

I will be back, in not too long.

åslaug

I am so....

*Absent from this blog world, that I'm almost ashamed of it. Yet my highest vocation is not blogging, and so I cannot prioritize it as if it was either. I am here now, doing my very best to make up to you for my absence.

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*Thankful for being God's beloved child, resting in His loving arms each night, Him watching over me, providing each and every thing that I could ever need or ask for. I can live the concernless life of a child, a child of the household of Heaven!

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*Determined to go to bed soon, so that I may get up early and spend forever (here meant as a time description, as in "more than just the average 30 minutes") with the Lord.

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*In love with this beautiful Maker of mine, pursuing me in a sweeter way than any man ever could, sweeping me totally off my feet with His lovingkind ways.

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*Tired some days, of going to work each and every day, using all my life, all my energy, all that I am, being there, serving.

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* Glad that I can rest, despite my tiredness, in that this is His plan for me right now, His will.

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*Excited that I am going to be with dearly-beloved-ones-far-far-away in almost no time (four months)

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*Loved by He who bore my sins and slavery up on that cross, and totally freed me from it by doing so.

THE END

*the picture is my window view while I lived in Ireland.

Sorrow in the midst of JOY!!

Christ has risen, just as He promised He would.

This is a day of celebration, a day of joy and worship. The day all our hopes were fulfilled!

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The carpenter who said He was God, who two days ago were turned in and crucified. The disciples' leader, whom they had put all their trust in, left everything for.... crucified? How forsaken they must have felt.

But He truly was the Son of God, His resurrection proves it.

He is Christ the Lord.

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Still, this doesn't prevent sorrowful things to happen around Easter. Sometimes they do.

God is not too busy, celebrating the resurrection,

to care for those whose world comes crashing down.

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God is not like me in the kitchen. He doesn't turn around for a moment busy with other things, to suddenly realise, as He comes back, that the soup is boiling over.

Not even on a busy day.

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Our God is in control.

ALWAYS.

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It is not like if He had too much to do with the earthquake in Italy to realise that

while He was gone

something went terribly wrong in the lives of our friends,

in the middle of losing their beloved daughter these days.

It is not like He does not care. It is not like He does not know.

He knows, and He cares.

Christ died, while we were still sinners, so that we (and our old lives) could be buried with Him, and today, He rose, that we may also rise with Him with our new lives.

Lillian is risen with Him.

We know that and we believe that.

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In all our grief and tears and sorrow, He is there.

Saving us, today and all days.

He is our steadfast rock, the One we cling to in our heartache,

in our compassion,

in our pain.

For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?

Psalm 18:31 (KJV)

(it is verse 32 in the Norwegian version)

There is a reason for that the cross around my neck is empty....

Christ has risen!

Praise Him!!

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Spend some time on your knees in prayer for those who struggle this Easter,

if and as the Lord brings it to mind,

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"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted

and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

Psalm 34:18

(19 in Norway)

Image from: community.seattleu.edu/.../default.aspx

Behold the Lord's Maidservant....

Sunday was Annunciation Day

The birth of Jesus announced.

To a young unmarried girl from Galilee. Her name was Mary.

This is what happened:

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NOW IN THE SIXTH MONTH the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

And having come in, the angel said to her,

“Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.

Then the angel said to her,

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

Then Mary said to the angel,

“How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

And the angel answered and said to her,

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.”

Then Mary said,

“Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”

And the angel departed from her.

(Luke 1:26-38 KJV)

Mary, the mother of Jesus, have always been special to me as God's plan for her life have always given me much to ponder. I've often been reminded of her courage, her obedience, her yes, whenever I myself had to face "possibly life altering" choices in my own life.

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Mary gave up everything. I'm sure she had dreams for her future until that day the angel Gabriel appeared,

I even think that in her dreams, future looked quite different.

I don't believe that Mary fully grasped what she really agreed to when she answered the angel

"Behold the maidservant of the Lord..."

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But her yes was

a yes to God,

a yes to laying down her own dreams,

comforts, plans and purposes,

her very life,

for the sake of His will being carried out.

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She might have known or not known what

Hannah Whitall Smith knew when she wrote*:

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"-His lovable, lovely will, which only means loving-kindnesses

and tender mercies and blessings unspeakable to their souls. [...]

better and sweeter than health or friends or money or fame or ease or prosperity

is the adorable will of our God."

*The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, 1875, page 45,47

Whatever Mary's thoughts on the subject, she heard His calling.

And she answered

Yes, Lord,

Thy Will be done.

When He asks me...

What will I say?

What I have learned today...

(I'd love to illustrate this with updated pictures, but unfortuneately and by accident I broke my mother's camera beyond repair (sorry, mum) and this is not the appointed time to buy a new one.)

* When you joke about a passing cat to be a tiger, you might suddenly realise it was really a lynx.

* When you get very excited (from like seing a live lynx ten meters away from your breakfast table), people (here I refer to my one and only beloved brother) grow tired of it and start teasing you (like referring to a small black lynx called "kitty").

* Dishes should be done before people see them, at least before they've finished dinner. If you haven't done the dishes, people won't get that you love them. No matter what you say or do.

* The word "defile" means spot, stain or pollute and is in use in Markus 7:20-23 (in KJV and NKJV that is)

* My mother likes to teach me things (and is the only one who jumps up from a comfortable chair and a good book to find an English grammar to tell me how I use "whom" in English)

* This is a funny video

*Sewing a broom skirt may very well take three days or more (especially when you just pull yourself together enough to sew one part a day and you have four of them)

* A letter doesn't write itself.

*Even if you do something fun (like tidying/unpacking/organizing your room) you will eventually get tired after a few hours of work

*Chocolate-chip-cookie-sandwiches-with-ice-cream-in-the-middle DOES taste heavenly when you're up in the middle of the night having fun and writing a blog post.

*Base your decitions on facts and not feelings

*God is so beautiful

*God is good

*Abide with me is a hymn with much meaning.

*There is a time for everything, and THIS is the time for going to bed

(and get up early in the morning to make your precious mommy pancakes for breakfast)

Sleep tight people,

much love,

åslaug abi

In Honor of Sophia, Aimaija and Celeisa

-Because I love those girls so much =)

I didn't have a diaper pin (since none in my household wears diapers), but we do wear clothes, so I used a clothes pin instead.... =)

This morning the landscape was still covered in snow (this is the view from the kitchen window).

Flowers on the table. When you have no flowers in the backyard, you'll simply have to do with potted ones... They're still beautiful, though (even if they in real life are purple, not blue)

A clean kitchen =) such a pretty sight, isn't it?

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And after cleaning the kitchen, it's time to be ambitious about everything that should be done today (should probably have been done yesterday as well, but was never completed).

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It's time to be brave and jump right into sewing a blouse from a pattern (when you've hardly used a pattern before, and never by yourself). And after falling asleep on the couch (accidentially), ending up sewing both sleeve pieces together to one big sleeve (in stead of two normal sized ones) and having a good laugh (and lots of stiches to take out in the evening), it's time to make dinner (guess who...).

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Well, you take a leek...

And start sharing the recipe for

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OVEN BAKED TOMATO FISH

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300-400 g fish filet (cod, coalfish etc.)
1/4 teaspoon (american teaspoon) salt

1/4 teaspoon (still american) pepper

2 tomatoes (I didn't know this, I always use 3-5), sliced anyway

1/2 leek (it's sort of obvious that you'll have to cut this one, isn't it?)

1/2 teaspoon basil

some grated cheese

15 ml whipping cream (I use milk)

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Well, you actually start with the fish (not the leek). Cut it in pieces the size you'd like to get on your plate, put in greased pan and sprinkle salt and pepper over it (I never ever measure salt or pepper or basil, just so you know...). It should now look about like this:

Slice tomatoes, as many as you want...Put on top of the fish and sprinkle with basil

Cut leek and make a second layer of vegetables upon that poor fish (it doesn't mind, it's dead). See how small my family is? I can hardly fill half the pan (and that's a small pan). Little pretend to be-housewife-and-homemaker-and-other-things-she's-not putting this lovely fish-dish in the oven, and realising that the family is perfect in size (she truly couldn't manage another one!) But she does love her family, not despite, but even because of the small size and quiet ways. God has blessed her with something He knew would be perfect for her, only for her. Who is she to complain?

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Fish dish (not family) is baked in a 200 celcius and 392 fahrenheit oven, for about 35 minutes

Meanwhile, use that beautiful, super-convenient apron sewn you by beautiful, super-convenient, dearly beloved and so missed friends far far away to carry some potatoes out to in the kitchen. Cut them, put them in a frying pan on the oven, put a lump of butter in the pan, sprinkle onion powder, salt and pepper over them, stir once, cover and leave (now, do remember to turn the heat on).

Get back in a few minutes later and stir again. Repeat this till potatoes are cooked (soft in the middle).

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Set the table and give thanks to a lovingkind God who provide you with food, love, family, snow, laughter, friends (though far away) joy, peace and happiness, every single day =)
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He is the Saviour.

The Messiah, the Lord.

Praise Him!

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åslaug

Sweet February Morning

I woke up this morning from my alarm clock,
after turning it off about six times, in between dreaming of being around beloved people in far-away-places, I opened my eyes.

Six o'clock.

The view outside was simply beautiful. Snow fell yesterday, and in the dark of morning and glimps of lights from the shopping centre the hills were shining. Such a pretty gift to receive when you just woke up =)

What you see if you look out the sitting room window

I put on my apron (yes, of course I got dressed first)
sneaked upstairs and made a batch of muffins. I cut oranges, pears and apples, I made coffee, my father made bread (in the bread-baker, so it was just to pop it out). In other words, I made breakfast. I lit the candle and listened to "Fairest Lord Jesus" while working away by myself.

I did the dishes. By hand.

Tasting the first muffin, yes, it was quite nice, never mind my expression =)

Breakfast....

The kitchen this morning, my mother is hiding (or reading)

After walking my mother to work, I stood for what felt like an eternity in the snow enjoying the sight of beautiful snow covered hills, drizzeled with morning rays giving them a slightly blushing pink color.

I thanked God, for the beauty, for all my beloved ones, praying for them and for me, singing to Him, smiling, silently conversing with Him. Knowing that I don't have the answers, thanking Him that He has.

I walked home, trying to be frugal by not buying colored paper for a birthday card-to-be, and again when the yarn store (I was planning to knit a few dish cloths) was closed till ten o'clock.

Now, I've been alone in my house a few hours.

I am the only person here, the only living thing (except for plants, which there are plenty of).

I might be the most noisy person of my house

(which says more of the rest of the household than of me),

but in myself, I've discovered I make very little noise at all. So it's quiet.

Me and my father's Yucca palm

Who's doing the dishes?? Mmm, excactly...

But she's doing a good job =)

Dishes go quickly. But I do them alone.

Talking is non-excistent. Who should I talk to?

I read aloud, I pray out loud, I play music. I sing.

Loneliness is lonely. I miss beloved noisy people, in beautiful noisy far-away places.

But I would rather miss them for the rest of my life, than never meeting them... And I will see them again.... soon.

God is so good, so loving, such an expert at removing the all-consuming feeling of loneliness. Such a perfect friend. So good at removing worries, anxiousness, troubles and hurt from my heart and instead fill it up (to overflowing) with peace. Perfect peace.

He is so precious. I love Him so much.

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He is where you are, as you read this,

watching over you,

kissing the top of your head.

Whispering I love you,

and I thank Him for that.

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lovingly,

åslaug