Wish you could come to dinner and have a visit!

Tonight, we are having some new friends over for dinner at "The Blue Fox on Savannah Lane"....

and we wish we could have all our old friends and our family over, too. Here's the table all set--I'm going home from JBU to cook in just a little while...

See our new chair covers? A friend of ours (Heather Lanker of Heather Hill Children's Clothing!--husband teaches in our division at JBU--2 PRECIOUS daughters and they go to our church, too!)

is recovering the Castleman antique chairs for us in a Fleur de Lis pattern to go in our "New Orleans" dining room!

This dining set was inherited from Breck's dad and dates to the middle of the 19th century, as in Civil War era Kentucky. We think it's mahogany.

Next Friday is our "First Friday Salon" group--and we'll expand the table to seat 10 people. (We have eleven chairs...no one knows what happened to the 12th, but I've decided to begin a family story-rumor about its demise....

The 12th chair was given to the Smithsonian archives for their Lincoln collection in the 1920's. Yes, Abraham Lincoln dined at this table while an Illinois Senator. The visit took place as he returned to his home state to lobby for anti-slavery concerns in the late 1850's. The Castleman family, who lived near Louisville, (the statue of General John Breckinridge Castleman is located near an entrance to Cherokee Park in Louisville) hosted Mr. Lincoln during his overnight stay which is why we did not inherit a bed. (This statue part is totally true and

here's a picture....

This part is also true: John B. Castleman was captured as a traitor

by the Yankees and he was exiled to Canada for the duration of the

war. Less than six months prior to Lincoln's assassination, the

President granted a pardon so that the General could return to

Kentucky and help rebuild the South as the war drew to a close.

This Gen. Castleman did with great distinction. The letter is part of the Lincoln archives.

But, back to our furniture.... the 12th chair was known for decades in the family as "the Lincoln chair" and was held in some honor despite the general political sentiments of the family at the time. Upon hearing the devastating news of Lincoln's assassination, the chair was retired from the dining room out of respect and honor at the request of John B. Castleman himself.

On a side note, it has been a family tale for several generations that the table itself was used during the war as an operating table for the wounded. Many a Yankee did indeed die on that table as did a few "sons of the confederacy".

So, when you come to dinner, you will be feast at table full of history, some true, some not, but all in the family.

"Am I a criminal yet?"

I'm having a hard time really letting my wonderful summer slip away too quickly. Today while looking through pictures I remembered a precious moment with Tyler. We were getting ready

for an outing and she was all dressed and I said, "Tyler, if you got any cuter, it would be a crime!" A few minutes later she was all fancied up with clips and bows and smiled the biggest smile and asked, "Well, am I a criminal yet?" I said, "Oh sweetheart you are a homocide, the biggest crime ever!"

I'm going to Gulfport in October as part of fall break to see the kids. And in November Anna is coming to visit when Dayton comes to JBU to be a chapel speaker. YAHOO!!

I've been reading the collected works of Gerard Manley Hopkins as part of my morning quiet time. The other morning the following poem touched my heart and mind and tongue with a sweet grace. I had to read it out loud. Then I had to read it out loud to Breck.

So, I thought I'd share this with my friends and family who visit our blog from time to time.

It is almost autumn...

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things-

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;

Landscape plotted and pieced-fold, fallow, and plough;

And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckle (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him.

Gerard Manley Hopkins