I went to meet with the raven brothers,

Five of them there be…

I had some important questions,

about the Acorn King…

Instead of answering me in words,

A singing response they gave me…

This particular group of ravens,

Is a troupe of Gospel Singers, you see…

I asked them where the King had gone,

and the answer they called out as one…

was not what I expected to hear,

and I left with more questions than when I’d begun:

The Acorn King

by The Holy Rollin Raven’s

Once there was a great squirrel, you see

one day a great king, they knew he’d be.

But his heart grew cold, when his pockets began to fill

He forced all within the valley

to pay for all his expenses, and honor all his bills.

One day the squirrel banished his only grandson,

To the countryside far beyond his great hall…

but, the cruelty and rejection dealt to the babe,

will now become the king’s downfall!

The squirrels of acorn valley,

have been taken far away,

and until the king learns his lesson,

that’s where they all will stay…

I’m going to be pondering the meaning of the words to this song for a time, I think, in order to understand what it meant. If you have any ideas, I would love the help with this particular song… riddle… singy thingie. If you can come up with anything, I would be incredibly grateful, not to mention how much Squagon will appreciate any help.

Thanks

Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to memorize a thing, if you put it to music? Ever since I was little, if I wanted to remember a special thing, I would sing it to myself, making up a tune to go along with it. I know it probably sounds silly, but I think they say that you learn better when you read, write, and speak the thing you are seeking to put to memory.

Anyway, the same still holds true for me when it comes to memorizing scripture, which is incredibly useful for keeping a healthy relationship with my Father. That’s the best place to go for encouragement, insight, wisdom, discernment, and a myriad of other knowledgeable things.

I can sing a hymn as good as the next person, but I can honestly say that from where I’m sitting at this moment, I couldn’t tell you the names of any of those songs, nor their verses. Out of sight, out of mind, I suppose.

I thought I would share several really beautiful versions of several of the Psalms, and if you want a quick way of memorizing them, just listen to the music and learn them in that form… scripture is scripture, and I for one wish to learn it the best way I can…

Psalm 23, by Leanne Crawford:

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
²     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
³     he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

Psalm 24, by Keith and Kristyn Getty:

Psalm 24

1 The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;2 for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. 3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. ^[1] 5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob. ^[2] Selah 7 Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.9 Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.10 Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty– he is the King of glory. Selah

Psalm 46, by Shane and Shane:

Psalm 46

¹ God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.^[c]

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
⁵ God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.
⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

⁷ The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

⁸ Come and see what the Lord has done,
    the desolations he has brought on the earth.
⁹ He makes wars cease
    to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the shields^[d] with fire.
¹⁰ He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”

¹¹ The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Psalm 91, by Renew Collective:

Psalm 91

¹ Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.^[a]
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

³ Surely he will save you
    from the fowler’s snare
    and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his feathers,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
    nor the plague that destroys at midday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only observe with your eyes
    and see the punishment of the wicked.

⁹ If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
    and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
    no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
    you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

¹⁴ “Because he^[b] loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”

Psalm 139, by Ellie Holcomb:

Psalm 139

¹ You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
    Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
    your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
    and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
    I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

This should getcha started… try it out, if you’re of a mind to work on your memory verses.

God Bless you all, today, tomorrow, and every day that follows… Hugs!

Years back, in my ‘eating out in public restaurant days’ I had one of the best Italian dishes I’d ever tasted!

I literally sat through the entire dinner, picking my dish apart like a 4 year old, tasting each and every little thing I found in the hopes of adding it to my DIY ingredients list. I fully intended to PIRATE the goods out of that plate, if it were the last thing I did!

The dish’s actual name on the menu was “Chicken Alfredo with Artichoke hearts and mushrooms, in a white wine alfredo sauce… AMAZING!!!

I went to the grocery store that very week, buying the freshest boneless, skinless Chicken Breast they had, a large can of Artichoke Hearts, a huge tub of fresh mushrooms, and the best jar of Alfredo sauce, one could buy in a Safeway store. Oh yeah, and a loaf of French bread… I ain’t eatin pasta with out a good stiff dipping bread… duh!!!

I nearly left the grocery store with my DIY ingredients, before I remembered the wine… so I grabbed a fairly decent white wine, in part for the fettuccini sauce, but also for the scientist who’d be creating this At Home Masterpiece!

Trust me when I tell you, if you pay close enough attention to what you put in your mouth, your brain can successfully determine most any of the ingredients in the item.

I do it all the time…

It’s been raining off and on for several days now, which I love!

The only down side, if one were to even consider it to be a bad thing, is that the sound of the pitter patter on my roof allowed me to sleep til nearly noon. Can you imagine? Noon?!

I have my face in a cup of hot coffee, while trying to simultaneously write this post. Truly, if I so desired to do so, I believe that I could go back to sleep for a few hours.

Sleep has always been one of my frenemies, sometimes there for me and sometimes absent from the scene, so you’ll have to forgive me for carrying on like I’ve found El Dorado, or something of that caliber.

When I lived in New Mexico, as a child, at certain turns of the colder seasons arrived, one could be driving down the road and have one half of the street raining, and the other half either sunny or snowy… no joke! When my family moved to Oregon, and I told my new class about it, during one of those elementary class show and tell’s… they all laughed at me and said I was making it up. I was crushed. Unfortunately, back then we didn’t have the internet or smart phones to look up interesting facts, or I could have shown them.

Anyway, I guess you could say that I’ve always loved the more stormy, windy and cold seasons.

In a way, I think that the rain brings the comfort of that thing we call ‘Nostalgia’. Hang on… let me look up the definition of that word, cause now I wanna know if ‘Nostalgia’ is actually what I’m feeling, for certain.

Let’s check it out!

Dictionary

Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more

nos·tal·gia / nəˈstaljə

noun noun: nostalgia; plural noun: nostalgias

1. a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.”I was overcome with acute nostalgia for my days in college” h Similar:wistfulness

regret, regretfulness, reminiscence, remembrance, recollection, homesickness

1. sentimentality
   • something done or presented in order to evoke feelings of nostalgia.”an evening of TV nostalgia”

So, I guess I was correct in my choice of descriptive words. Huh…

Who’d a thunk it?

To any other nostalgelite out there, hehe (like my new word?), may you enjoy this sleepy saturday, as I intend to do…

Hugs!

Willy Wonka ain’t got nuthin on me!

I woke this morning with a direct message from my heavenly Father, reminding me that it doesn’t matter what others might think of what I write, or how perfect my audio recordings may or may not be..

MY CREATOR IS SO PROUD OF ME!!!

Regardless of the outcome of things, I know that if God is proud of my efforts, everything else will be just fine! No, I didn’t say that my life would roll out perfectly from now on, simply because I wrote a story that God finds beautiful… I don’t usually even know if I’m doing the things he wants, until after I’ve done them and he blesses me for it!

AND… if God has, is, and I believe in faith that He will continue to provide all of my needs… everything beyond that is just what it is… extra blessings. If I don’t meet success with this book, or even the ones that will follow… why should it matter to me? The books success won’t really provide me with much more than earthly pleasures. Why should selling it for a profit even matter?

What I truly desire is for others to clearly see what I see, imagine something along with me… something I find beautiful and good!

I’m not carrying a coin purse into heaven when I leave this world, but what I will take with me are my memories, my deeds, both good and bad… and my character! I am a daughter to the Most High, and I would hope that I might display even a hint of Him throughout my earthly life; Christ like behavior, heartfelt writings and a faithful obedience to the one who made this child. I owe my everything to the one who designed me, the One who chose me… even before the very foundations of this world!

Nestled deeply within all of the above dreams, desires, hopes and prayers that I’ve shared with you, is the mention of a story… one that will hopefully become a part of something far more reaching than just a simple tale. My actual dream, is that by the time I’ve finished with all the volumes of this saga, you, the readers, will have discovered the truths that are threaded throughout all of it.

I know that’s a lot to hope for, or expect of those that read these stories, but I’m eternally committed to completing something that I pray will bear good fruit… far more than I desire gold and silver…

… for you, my friends, are far more precious to me!

This picture should sufficiently describe what it felt like this morning.

Let me explain…

I had this grand plan to wake up at 4 a.m. this morning, in order to have peace and quiet for the audio recordings of my book.

Yes, I did indeed arise at the brain breaking hour of 4 a.m., and yes, I am finally finished with the main edit of my novel. All that is left for me to do, is the audio cuts, the printing of the manuscript, and then mailing it to myself for the Poor Man’s Copyright.

I got up… made coffee, and had my quiet time… and set to work!

Literally, just as I hit the record button for the first read, my neighbor in the RV next to us started up his big diesel truck! It was barely 5 a.m. folks… why?????

Add to that, we lost internet early on and it didn’t get restored until about 45 minutes ago, ergo, the reason why this post is so very late in the day.

All problems aside though, it’ll get done… one way or the other, right?!