When we returned to homeschooling this year, my husband generously gave up his desk space in our dining room so that we could have an additional work area for the kids and me. It was so fun to set up, and has fit the bill just right. Let me show you...
These old napkin holders of my mom's serve as flags for when the kids need help with their independent work. They are labeled with my brothers' initials and my children have great fun with it: "Oh yay! I get to be Uncle Tim today!"
Some of our beloved books we are using this year!
Inspired by Ann's ugly-beautifuls... more reasons to give thanks!
ugly: a project I'd wished to have completed by now .... beautiful: a reason to sit down and create in snatches of freetime yet today - so enjoyable!
ugly: a gray, rainy day .... beautiful: feels comforting, like God's tears
ugly: a broken, temporarily fixed chair .... beautiful: such fun for sweet kitty
ugly: a morning marred by strife ... beautiful: art soothing
ugly: urban jungle ... beautiful: dancing ladies in the midst of it all
ugly: gray foxes in a red dining room (??) ... beautiful: somehow so pleasing to the eye (work on display at Denver Art Museum)
camera-shy ... beautiful: surrounded by God's breathtaking majesty
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10
Sometimes if I'm trying to get a point of discipline across to one of my older kids and they don't seem to taking it in, I have them write about the lesson they need to be learning. I think it helps them to really think about things to put it into their own words. Anyhow, a few days ago I was sorting through papers and found this that my son David, seven, had written after complaining about his lunch one day. As a parent sometimes you just have to laugh.
(Posting in response to a show-and-tell invitation on Andrea's blog.)
This is a spot in my home that I love. I curl up under the quilt in the early morning if I manage to be up before the others, or more often, in the evening. It is a great place to read, or think, or pray, and I especially like that there is a big window overhead that provides a great view of the sky above. I can do some star-gazing here!
Today I saw you through a chat with my children. Tattoos were the subject at hand! I told them about henna art, and we agreed that it would be a good sort of tattoo for us. Plans were made to do it someday... I think I'd like a rose on my arm, eldest girl said. It would be nice to write the word love, little brother added. Was it a coincidence, dear weaver, when a few hours later I came across Renee's story? Her arm, though raggedly scarred by abuse, now also shows forth a rose. Friends took her in and wrote love on her arms. What is it about arms? With skin so tender, they often bear the brunt of anguish and self-hatred. Not so many years ago, my arm knew that hurt too. So would you come, Lord, to your broken ones? Would you cover the scars of life gone wrong like only you can? You, my God, give beauty for ashes! You sing redemption songs. And me, I am in your workshop. I thrill at your invitation! Rise from your loom and pick up your pen and come write love on my arms. * * * Photo: Margo Conner Sometimes I find you at work with your loom, weaving away in my thoughts, creating a beautiful pattern in my understanding. Always there's a loving smile curling your lips as you bend over your craft. Look at that! Listen to this! you seem to say.
To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.
I had to smile when we received an email today from one of our pastors, Ben, who keeps Christ Community abreast of happenings on the church calendar. Today was the Feast of Saint Francis, patron saint of animals and the environment. Ah... that's the why behind the blessing this weekend.
A delightful children's book we came across earlier this year: The Song of Francis and the Animals. So very beautiful.
(Photo taken on a recent trip to the mountains of Tennessee.)
"When our depravity meets His divinity it is a beautiful collision [...] It is the collision of our fallen state and our Maker's transcendence. It is a rendering of our mortality and eternal life. It is about the tension that exists in the living of life, here, where the sky meets the broken earth." - David Crowder
"Suffering, pain, sorrow, humiliation, feelings of lonliness are nothing but a sign that you have come so close to Jesus that He can kiss you." - Mother Teresa
"All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy." Romans 8:22-25 (The Message)
"Popular Christianity says, 'We must succeed.' The book of Revelation say that success cannot be marked, it is impossible. the New Testament conception of spirituality in the world is a forlorn hope always, by God's design. Take the parable of the sower, only one-forth of the seed sown brings forth fruit in this dispensation. We are determined to be successful; the apostle Paul says we are called upon to be faithful (1 Corinthians 4:1-2). In this dispensation it is a day of humliation in the lives of the saints as it was in the life of our Lord. We have to remain steadfastly patient to God through the whole thing." - Oswald Chambers
"Once heaven has our attention, a fervid anticipation for God's ultimate reality begins to glow, making everything earthly pale in comparison. Earth's pain keeps crushing our hopes, reminding us this world can never satisfy; only heaven can. [...] Suffering keeps swelling our feet so that earth's shoes won't fit." - Joni Eareckson Tada
"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Psalm 30:5
Our Happy Home ~ Hallelujah, we are on our way. Hallelujah, we are on our way to God. From Egypt lately come, where death and darkness reign to seek our new, our better home where we our rest shall gain. There sin and sorrow cease and every conflict's o'er. There we shall swell in endless peace and never hunger more. Jerusalem, our happy home. Would God I were in Thee. Would God my woes were at an end, Thy joy that I might see. We soon shall join the throng. Their pleasure we shall share. And sing the everlasting song, with all the ransomed there. There in celestial strains enraptured myriads sing. There love in every bosom reigns for God Himself is King. (Anonymous folk hymn, from 1616.)
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The Sower. Vincent Van Gogh
You! Who is like you?
In you I spin in circles of paradox, like a skater with that move: dip down low in arabesque, then stretch up high. Caught up in a whirl of motion, but not lost within the swirl.
You. You lay me bare and reveal that there's no good thing within. But just as I bow down low, you lift up high. You tear down to rebuild, strip to dress. And sometimes, it happens in a moment. I'm caught up in a whirl of you, Gracious One. Breath taken away with the motion, but not lost. I am alive!
Like the lamenting man with his face in dust found:
"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22,23
And I live for the praise of your glorious grace. All wrapped up in you, I spin.
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Related posts from the archives:
I was talking with a friend the other day and discovered that she had not yet heard of Etsy, a website for buying and selling all sorts of handmade things. I love it - too much! I like to help support artisans with small businesses, and you can find the most unique, beautiful things there. I think it's a great place to shop for gifts. Anyway, I thought I'd post the link in case there are others out there who haven't discovered Etsy yet.
A few of my favorite shops I've found over there:
Image: Make Words Grow by Linea Nongrata
