Happy New Year

From our Homestead to yours!

A Slight Rest!

We are together and enjoying each other. "Hoss" is doing well. Please continue to pray for the transition and all of the emotions that encompass it.

I am taking a much needed rest and will be back soon.

Happy New Year to all of you.

Our Favorite Christmas Gift....

...arrived home today.

Our precious son, whom we have missed so much, is home.

The Lord Jesus has done a work in his life. So many of you have been praying for the Ponderosa to be reunited. Thank you.

This Advent Holiday will be like no other.

For my dear mother is not here to celebrate with the family that she and dad nurtured and reared. BUT, she is with the King of Kings, my Mighty Counselor, the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father.

But, God has graciously given our son back to us.

This day we will all be together. Dad and Lindi; my sister, her husband, and their three boys; my brother, his wife, and their four children; 5 dogs; rabbits, horses, chickens.

This will be a year to remember. We miss. We love. We cry. We laugh. Memories are made when we are together.

(Pictures to follow)

A Phone Call

Today, my phone rang. I picked it up and heard,

"Thanks. Mom." (choking up)

This was the best thanks I have ever heard.

"Mr. Cartwright" picked up "Hoss" today and will be headed home tomorrow.

Shhh! It's a Secret!

Today, Mr. Cartwright is leaving.

He is going to get a special present for the rest of us.

"Hoss" is coming home.

After 16 months of separation, we will be together again.

My heart soars!

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

My oldest treasure turns 14 today.

He is missed, but I have a little secret that I will divulge tomorrow!

So for now, we are apart, and this is my heart's prayer.



Dear "Hoss",

Happy Birthday! You are growing (and I mean growing) into a strong man. May your strength not come from your size, but from your Creator.

Your mind is a powerful thing. Your God wants all of it. He desires you be transformed by the renewing of it by His Word.

May your spirit be immeasurably full of His. May He guide you and direct every step. Trust in Him and lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He promises to be your light and life. (Prov. 3:5,6)

May your actions be a testimony to the One who fills you. May your hands reach out to the less fortunate in soul to reach them for the Gospel. May your words speak life, not death.




May your eyes only see that which brings Him glory. Aim high to Him. Guard yourself by His Word.





I love you, son. You are mine forever.

My New Favorite Christmas Book for Children

Library Day is an eventful day at our home here on the Ponderosa. We always have at least 50 books checked out at any time. My little princesses love to sit and have me read to them.

Sometimes for more than an hour.

We happened to come upon a Christmas book that I had never seen or read. It was a fairly large book for a picture book. To sit down and read it in one sitting took at least 30 minutes.

It was the best 30 minutes of our day that particular day.

Ruth Bell Graham is the author of One Wintry Night.

This beautiful illustrated book will take you from before the Creation of the World to the manger. From the manger it will lead you to that wonderful, horrible day of Christ's death. And in the end you peer into the empty tomb.

This is the story I want my children to know deep down into their souls. For Christmas is not just about presents, candy, or even Jesus' birth.

For without His death and resurreciton, his birth means nothing....is pointless.

Job Looks To the Future

As I have read chapters 6 through 19 in the book of Job, I am discouraged. Discouraged by Job's "friends".

Yet, today coming to the inspired verses, I praise God along with Job for the future, eternal goodness of God.

Job 19:23-27
"Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
Oh that with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!

For though, Job is feeling very afflicted and has deeply contemplated his situation and God's hand in his life in the previous chapters, now he acknowledges, no matter what God brings His way, God's faithfulness is from everlasting to everlasting.

He has suffered. He has agonized. He has been dealt blows that seems to be ending his life.

BUT....

He comes back to God's faithfulness. He is confident that if God chooses to allow his death, his Redeemer will raise him up.

Do I trust like this? Do I see God's Hand with eyes of faith?

I MUST!

Bearing One Another's Burdens

I have a dear friend who is in the midst of a very severe trial. Her husband has been taken back to the One who loaned him to her. He has left his eight children as well.

I find myself asking, "Why?"

I find myself hearing this answer:

Psalm 145:14
"The LORD upholds all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down."

John 17:24
"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world."

A.W. Pink reminds us:"Contentment is possible only as we cultivate and maintain that attitude of accepting everything which enters our lives as coming from the Hand of Him who is too wise to err, and too loving to cause one of His children a needless tear."

I thank you, O Wise Creator, that you are more powerful and mighty than anyone or anything else. I thank you for loving my friend so much that you have chosen to shower your presence in her life and allowing your life to shine through her.

Comparisons

Well, it has been 16 months since my oldest little lamb had to go away for awhile. We just received his school pictures. The first picture is from last year. The second from this year. What a difference! There is something "there" that was missing at this time last year. We continue to trust our Lord for the outcome. We pray He does mighty things in our son's life and for His glory.

I Am Blessed!

I am a dumb sheep, but have a Great Shepherd.

I have been blood bought and forgiven.

I have been redeemed out of a life full of sin and self.

I have a Maker who molds me into His design for His glory.

I once was lost, but now I'm found.

I don't have to be controlled by others or my idols. I am fulfilled by Christ Alone.

I was loved before the foundations of the world.

I never need to fear, for I am following the Light of the World.

I must press on. I must trust. I must fight the good fight until the end.

Arguing with God

As I have been reading through the book of Job, I continue to be challenged in my acceptance of God's ways to refine me.

Today I read through chapters 12 and 13. Thus far, I have been exasperated by Job's "friends". They knew Job, but not his heart. So this begs my questioning: "What kind of a friend am I when those I love enter the pit? Am I compassionate and are my words timely?" His friends' words were truth apart from Job's circumstances. They were at the best untimely; at the worst prideful and full of "head knowledge" of God.

Job answers in between a couple of monologues:

(Job 13:15)
"Though he slay me, I will hope in him;
yet I will argue my ways to his face."

Essentially, Job's whole heart trusts in his maker, yet he knows God is the only one who truly knows his heart. He is willing to make a defense to the Lord. And I believe the Lord was pleased with this defense. For the heart motive is the most important consideration.

In the end, Job was willing to die, if this was his Maker's will. He was willing to give up everything.

"Suppose you are a gardener employed by another. It is not your garden, but you are called upon to tend it. You come one morning into the garden, and you find that the best rose has been taken away. You are angry. You go to your fellow servants and charge them with having taken the rose. They declare that they had nothing to do with it, and one says, “I saw the master walking here this morning; I think he took it.” Is the gardener angry then? No, at once he says, “I am happy that my rose should have been so fair as to attract the attention of the master. It is his own. He has taken it, let him do what seems good.”

It is even so with your friends. They wither not by chance. The grave is not filled by accident. Men die according to God’s will. Your child is gone, but the Master took it. Your husband is gone, your wife is buried—the Master took them. Thank him that he let you have the pleasure of caring for them and tending them while they were here. And thank him that as he gave, he himself has taken away."
- Charles Spurgeon

A Wonderful Christmas Song

This is the heart of the Advent Season. I praise my God for my King.

A Fun Photo Shoot!

Preparing for Christmas

The Puebla Ponderosa prepared for Christmas the night of Thanksgiving. The children enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree. The littlest angel put the star in place. We then watched "It's a Wonderful Life".

My biggest angel was not present. He is missed. We are praying for a return to the corral soon.

Motives of My Heart

This week I have been challenged with the question, "What are my motives in doing all that I do?"

When I love, is it for the glory of Christ?

When I worship is it for the glory of Christ?

When I clean toilets is it for my Savior's glory?

When I teach my children is my Jesus magnified?

Asking these questions get to the heart of all I do. Colossians 3:23,24 give us a simple, yet very precise prescription for loving Jesus. "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ."

Loving God with all my heart reigns in my emotions.

Loving God with all my mind keeps my thoughts pure and directed upward.

Loving God with all my soul enables me to be committed to my first love.

Loving God with all my strength...well, this one ultimately comes from my Master. For I am weak. He is strong.

Keeping the cross central brings me to my knees. For I am nothing without him.

Daddy's Fishing Buddies

Daddy and two of the three "Cartwright" young'uns went fishing this last week. They had such fun; came home with wonderful tales and yup, you guessed it, smelled like fish.

(Notice the littlest's fishing attire:)

Mr. Smith, Thank you For Refocusing us.

A Prayer About Advent Loving from the Heart

More Remembering...

Christmas brings all sorts of memories here at the Ponderosa. My heart holds many that cannot be put into words. But this memory I can taste. Here is another recipe my Mom made each year. This may be one I try myself this year.




Almond Crescents

Ingredients:
•2 sticks unsalted butter
•2/3 cup sifted powdered sugar, plus more for rolling
•1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•1/2 teaspoon almond extract
•1 cup coarsely chopped almonds
•2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350° and line baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat baking sheet.
Cream together butter and 2/3 cup of sugar until fluffy. Beat in extracts, then add almonds. Stir in flour and beat til well mixed.

Divide dough in half and roll each half into log 1 inch thick in diameter. Cut each log into 3/4 inch pieces, and roll each piece into cylinder 2 in. long. Place 1 to 2 inches apart on baking sheets and form into crescents.

Bake 15-20 minutes or til lightly browned. Let cool then roll in sifted powdered sugar.