Showing posts with label love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label love. Show all posts

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Wrap Them in Love - Making Baby Quilts


What a whirlwind!
 
 
The last two weeks have been filled with anticipation, preparation, and organization to get ready to welcome our two new baby girls to this big world.
 
 
But the desire to love and welcome them makes it all worth while.
 
Even when one has to borrow a sewing machine (since hers is broken), one has extra furry help (though it is not requested), and one has to shuffle to meet all those little deadlines so all could enjoy the parties.


Baby quilts are my favorite gift to make for newborns. The last go-round included several boys, so this crafter was excited to add some pink and flowers!
 
 
Love them, snuggle them, wrap them in quilts.
 
Congratulations mommy's, daddy's, sisters, and brothers
(and grandmas and grandpas).

 
Wrapped in love. 
 
Way to go, Amplify!

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Love is Spoken Here


Are they more than just words on a card?

Love is spoken here.

These words could be trite, overused, or just a pretty saying.

Are they more?

Maybe those who send or utter, "Love is spoken here," are well meaning and sincerely offer encouragement, love, and affection.

Do words speak louder than actions? Or is it the other way around?

Do my actions shout in agreement with my quiet words or engage in battle between what I want to do and say and what I actually do and say? Sometimes the answer is both.

Love is spoken here.

Love is shown here.

Love is experienced here.

Love grows here.

Love is here.

Love is.

Love.


These thoughts remind me of the often used love verses for wedding ceremonies, though I think love is not just for marriages. You can read them in 1 Corinthians 13.

What do you think of when you consider love?

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Hugh's Photo Challenge: Week 13 - Love

 
 
Love
 
 
partnership of years
 
evidence in rings worn thin
 
remembrance of love
 
 
Haiku
by Angie Quantrell
(2-17-16)

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Aged



Children's children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.
~ Proverbs 17:6 (NIV)

I am aged. Like cheese, wine, or moldy haunches of meat.

The gift of grandchildren transforms me into the category of 'aged.'

Does that make you feel old? It does me. Just yesterday I was considering how 52, soon to be 53, is not that old. 53 is a good respectable number. Now 60, that is approaching old and sounds much more mature.

LOL. Do you remember when people in their 30's were old in our young teenager eyes? No? Me, neither.

Truly, only old people accidently hit publish instead of save and throw out an incomplete post without any photos or edits. Sigh. Said the grandmother sitting at her computer blogging.

Aside from the fact that I, a grandparent, am aged, I am also crowned. My children's children are the crown of blessing deposited on my head.

And, oh, is my crown large and beautiful!

I choose to feel special and prized, just like that old cheese and wine. Prized and valued and claimed.

After all, I have a crown, gloriously brilliant with bright shiny faces, bubbling lips, gleeful hearts, and heartfelt hugs.

I am a grandparent.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Imperfection


Gumpies.

That is what my gifted glass blower friend calls her mistakes. Gumpies. What to my eye is beautiful, she finds undesirable. Her eyes see the tiny flaws. For her business, these gumpies are not worthy for jewelry.

During a recent beach gathering of friends, there sat the mistakes. The gumpies, relegated to the tub of shame. Imperfections were barely discernable to my untrained eyes. The fascinating, shiny, colorful, irresistible tub of gumpies called me again and again. Dipping my hands in the cool glass, pulling out fascinating designs, sorting and making patterns. I couldn't stay away.

Despite the imperfections, these gorgeous glass baubles are desirable as sources of beauty and inspiration.

Are we not like that?

Gumpies?

Imperfect, flawed, full of mistakes.

Gumpies remind me of God. I am the above. Add to that list sometimes unlovable, irritating, sharp edged, critical, lazy, uptight, selfish. I can easily see the flaws in this messed-up human.

But God still desires fellowship with me. In spite of my 'gumpie-ness' He sees me as fascinating and worthy of purchase. He also finds me beautiful, irresistible, colorful, and fascinating. He doesn't stay away. He wants to sort and refine and create in me.

From the muddle of bright shiny jewels, He chose me. He paid for me. He loves me and wants to shine through His creation. Me.

God loves gumpies.

Signed,

A gumpie.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Happy Valentine's Day!


Happy Valentine's Day!

"Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."

~ Franklin P. Jones

Have a wonderful day with those you love. XOXO


The best Valentine I ever received? John 3:16

Saturday, February 7, 2015

The Strength of Love - Wordsworth in Word and Photo


"There is comfort in the strength of love;
'Twill make a thing endurable, which else
Would overset the brain, or break the heart."

~ William Wordsworth
"Michael: A Pastoral Poem," Lyrical Ballads

Celebrating 25 years of love (almost 5 years ago) - quickly approaching our 30th anniversary.

Chunks of glacier in Alaska, icebergs now.

Strength and comfort with my best friend.

I never imagined that we would so quickly reach 30 years of marriage. We are blessed.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Love is in the Air - Wacky Wednesday



Why art thou silent! Is thy love a plant
Of such weak fibre that the treacherous air
Of absence withers what once was so fair?

~ William Wordsworth, British poet
1832. "Why Art Thou Silent!," Yarrow Revisited and Other Poems (1885)

Maybe he was talking about red onions that look like hearts. They are a plant of weak, yet burning, fibre. Oh, yes, treacherous air! As my eyes burn while cutting the silent plant that once was fair, the absence of fumes makes me silent. And, I might add, onions are withered plants. Just look at the dried up stems.

Tongue-in-Cheek

Angie Quantrell loves onions and plants. Love is in the air this month of February. Have a love-ly day.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Lord, Love a Duck, Or Better Yet, Two Kitties

Where there's a chair, there's a cat.

Have you heard that saying? Lord, love a duck.

I've heard it from English speakers (as in England) and from context clues, it means something akin to, "Lord, please give me patience to deal with this insane situation/person/animal/disaster."

My office assistant.

The Urban Dictionary says "1. an exclamation uttered when nothing else will fit...often used when stunned or dismayed." (urbandictionary.com)

I think it is most appropriate to use this phrase when considering the gray kitties. The disastrous yet adorable ones that live in my home. We are beginning to label them with if they can do it, they will do it. And it usually means naughtiness of some sort.

A few excellent examples of how my personal response time is improving due to hourly disaster-avoiding-impulses with the kitties:

1. I was painting pink swirls on paper for a craft project I needed to send in with a manuscript. RAN to get my camera, thinking surely not...But surely yes. Came back in literally less than 10 seconds and Mabel was standing IN the pink paint. For reals.

2. I walked through the kitchen to find the counters and tops of things covered with little muddy kitty prints. Because I always let them walk all over the counters.

Mabel, haunting the sink in the you-can't-see-me mode.

3. Kitty #1, Mabel, is insanely interested in dripping water. Hence, she is found always hiding in or near the sink to watch the drips go down the drain. Or in between the shower curtain and outside curtain when I pull back both after a shower. And then she spends inordinate amounts of time watching each drip run down the tub.

Fishing, anyone?

4. It used to be only kitty #1 brought in wriggling worms. Nope. After the last rain, kitty #2, Monet, also brought us a prize. Double the fun and squiggles. And let's not forget the rat. Concerned for winter birds that love our back yard.

5. Mabel has a food fixation, much worse than sister. She joined a baby shower by leaping on the table and helping herself to the sliced ham.

6. We have the cleanest kitchen on the planet. (Except for kitty footprints.) We clean up and put away food before we even sit down to a meal. Otherwise, trouble #1 (especially) and trouble #2 (not so much) will be on the counter having their own second and third dinners.

See? The kitchen clean-up crew. Who needs a doggy vacuum when you have 2 kitties?

7. The beautiful trees are slowly being undecorated. One in the living room and one in the TV room leaves ample running space for thundering hooves. I mean paws. For kitties that weigh about 6-7 pounds each, they sound amazingly like elephants.

Bag kitties

So, Lord, please love these kitties.

In their defense, they are exceptionally cute and inquisitive. More often than not, they snuggle in our beds through the night. Monet especially is my lovey lap girl. Mabel would rather we keep a hands off approach unless she is feeling up to some attention. And when they wrestle, the fur flies. Tufts and piles of gray.

Kitties. They make a house a (lived in, clawed, toy-scattered, enjoyable, cozy) home.

My snuggly girls, the gray kitties

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

A Month of Thanks - November 19 - Mission Friends (aka Preschoolers)

The well-loved (talking) piano

Today, November 19, I am thankful for Mission Friends (also known as preschoolers).

I can't help it. They are so cute, inquisitive, hysterically funny, naughty, inventive, playful . . .

Take my Khloe, for instance. Yesterday we were rearranging the living room to make room for the Christmas tree. She wanted to move the kid piano over to the fireplace. This is the piano that has been loved and ecstatically used by generations of my family.

I told her it would be better to leave it where it was (in my mind, the play section of the living room). She disagreed.

(Insert squeaky piano voice) "No, I want to move over there," said Khloe, speaking for the piano.

Khloe is three. I busted up laughing. She felt quite pleased with herself.

Khloe is not the only preschooler that draws and keeps my attention. They all do. I can't help it. I love preschoolers. They bring out the best and the worst in adults, depending on what type of day they are having. They remind us of the innocence and child-like faith of being young. They love with abandon and absolutely mimic those around them (a lesson and a warning for us, right?). Energy and fun rule their days.

I am thankful for Mission Friends
, preschoolers that exhibit all of the above, and want to learn about people from other cultures and parts of the world. And Mission Friends love those people. And the workers that go all over the world to love. Mission Friends exhibit that love as they learn and experience. They pray. They share. They give.j

What is not to love and be thankful for when I consider these little children?

Mission Friends Leader Mag

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

14 Days of Valentines


I did it different this year. Instead of letting my man pursue me and sprinkle romance all over my day, I started early to shower him instead.

Beginning February 1, I made it a goal to do something special for him each day, without telling him why or advertising my intent.

Ever short of funds, most of my love showers were homemade or gifts of time and effort. Some things I did were a love letter, a lipstick message on his mirror, a back massage (without asking), couple time, special dinner, flowers, chocolates, a funny movie, a hand massage for his winter hands (including my hot wax), a reload on his Starbucks card, candy hearts in the shape of a heart on his pillow...

By the third day, he was suspicious. That does make a statement about how much I love on him daily. Ouch.

I'd say he had it figured out around day 10. "So, do I quit getting the special treatment after Valentine's Day is over?"

Thought this was supposed to be for him. I think it was for me. Lesson learned. I need to show my love for him everyday. Make him feel special.

Sprinkle some romance.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Not Forgotten


This year (and last) has given a personal and close link to Veterans Day. With our son safely home from Iraq, we deeply appreciate and respect the hard work, sacrifice, and personal cost given willingly by the soldiers who elect to serve our country. Thank you, veterans. Regardless of the political climate, elected officials, or media viewpoints, you are loved, remembered, appreciated, loved, missed, awesome, prayed for, cherished...Don't forget that we know the cost and embrace what you have given to us.

It seems too simple for such acts of unselfishness, bravery, sacrifice. But, from the depths of our hearts, thank you.

Thank you.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Thoughts of love

"As high as the sky is above the earth,
so great is His love for those who honour Him.
As far as east is from the west,
so far does He remove our sins from us."

Psalm 103:11-12 (Good News)