Busy at Home

Yellow & Blue by the Seaside

2011-07-07T11:15:00.000-04:00

We just returned from a visit to my parents in Pawleys Island, where we caught up with my sister and her family, participated in the 4th of July golf-cart parade, built sand forts, rode bikes, visited Brookgreen Gardens and the new Skywheel in Myrtle Beach, frolicked in the pool, and just relaxed. In the midst of all this activity, I managed to set a table with my mother's china.

It is Costa Azzurra by Lynn Chase.

Don't you just love the little dragonflies buzzing about on the back of the china? There is such detail in this pattern.

The coffee cup has a scene of seabirds in the midst of the yellow band.

And look what is waiting for you after your last sip!

Scallop shells adorn the salad plate.

The luncheon plate is graced with a starfish in the midst of other sea life.

Scenes of sea birds alternate with scallop shells and vines on the rim of the dinner plate.

A crab, surrounded by shells, crawls across the bread-and-butter plate.

The stainless flatware is Dickinson by Reed & Barton. The yellow-and-blue placemats and napkins were from Pier One. I'm not sure where Mom got the cute pewter fish napkin rings.

The tumblers are Longchamps by Cristal d'Arques.

This beach scene hangs above my mother's dining table. It was painted by a friend.

If you look closely at the sand pail on the window ledge, you can see my mother's three grandchildren: my two redheads and their older cousin.

All in all, a cheerful summer tablescape by the seashore!

For more tablescape inspiration visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-27T19:36:00.008-04:00

This week's tablescape is a festive Halloween setting.
It started with these placemats, which were a gift of my mother. Cute, aren't they?
I used a plain black napkin with a black gingham ribbon for a napkin ring.
The dinner plate is Wedgwood's Nantucket Basket. The orange soup bowls were a purchase this year from Wal-Mart. The flatware is my everyday Oneida Easton, and the water goblets are plain glassware I purchased a few years ago from Wal-Mart.
The centerpiece was this Halloween lantern. It was a gift from my children for my birthday last year. My birthday is the day before Halloween!
This punched votive holder was a gift from my sister one year.

This adorable black cat was a gift from the mother of one of my students back when I was teaching.

Here is a shot with the hutch decorated.

My children's treat bags hang from the knobs of the upper cabinets.
Our candy bucket fits perfectly in the niche below.

For more festive tablescapes, visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Stratford Stage Goes Casual

2010-10-13T19:45:00.007-04:00

Last week my new brown transferware took center-stage in a formal setting in the dining room. This setting takes it casual for another Christian Family Night dinner at the kitchen table.

I used the same centerpiece as the Autumn Family Night.

I started with gold damask-like placemats and napkins that I had picked up last year from Wal-Mart, along with the bronze maple-leaf napkin rings. I then added these gorgeous oak-leaf chargers that I picked up from there this year. I just love that burnished wood look, and I almost hate to cover them up with a dinner plate!

I was convinced, though, when I placed the Stratford Stage dinner plate on the charger.

The Stratford Stage cereal bowl (used as a salad bowl) was added to the setting, along with amber iced-tea glasses in Fostoria Jamestown and Oneida Easton stainless flatware.

Here is a shot down the table with the candles lit.

I just love the scene on this creamer, with its tudor house and an abbey tower in the background. I created a vignette for the sugar and creamer on the hutch.

I haven't been able to find the teapot in Stratford Stage, but I thought my brown betty teapot made a good substitute.

Happy Autumn Evenings!

Be sure to join Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for a ton more tablescapes!

Stratford Stage

2010-10-06T19:00:00.001-04:00

A few months ago I got a great deal on a set of brown transferware for twelve, with dinner plates, bread plates, cereal bowls, creamer and sugar, platter, and serving bowl. The pattern is Stratford Stage by J. & G. Meakin, and it features scenes of a stagecoach among the English countryside. I have been saving it for some fall tablescapes. I have featured it in a more formal, yet still understated, autumn setting here in the dining room.

Here is a close-up of the dinner plate with its Tudor buildings, a church spire in the background, and the stage coach. The dinner plate rests on a silver beaded charger.
The base for each place setting is a white linen hem-stitched placemat. A monogrammed napkin is placed between the charger and dinner plate. The flatware is Reed & Barton Tara sterling. The glassware is Imperial Old Williamsburg iced tea and wine goblets in brown.
A butter knife rests on the bread plate. I love the charm of those Tudor buildings!

My mother gave me this wonderful pumpkin tureen a few years ago. I thought its brown stem, acorns, and vine tendrils complemented the brown of the china and crystal.
The coffee cups feature a wrap-around scene. Here you see the stagecoach.
Cows are grazing near a pond on the bucolic outskirts of a village.
This scene of the cup is my favorite of the whole set. I think that English cottage looks so cozy!

Here are the cups arranged on the buffet for some after-dinner tea. I was going to add the sterling teapot, but I didn't have time to polish it!
Please join Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for many more tablescapes.

Autumn Family Night

2010-09-29T10:54:00.005-04:00

Tonight's tablescape is a cozy autumn setting, just perfect for staying in with family. I have designed a curriculum for Christian Family Night for my church. It is based on the idea of turning off the TV, ignoring the computers, and letting the answering machine pick up, while we reconnect with our families and our faith. Everyone chips in on creating the meal (tonight's was meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, butterbeans, yeast rolls, and sliced tomatoes) and setting the table. Will helped to add ingredients and stir up the sauce for the meat loaf. Emily Anne helped to set the silverware and to arrange the fall leaves around and under the goblets/candleholders. We light candles and read a special liturgy written by our pastor. Here it is by my husband's place setting.Here is a close-up of the liturgy.
After we eat dinner, we pitch in for a quick clean-up of the kitchen and then do some family activity. It is usually a board game like Sorry! or Toy Story Yahtzee, but last night was cool, and we opted for a walk around the neighborhood. After the family activity, we light another candle in the living room and settle in for a short devotional. We use The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos, and we read about the father who intercedes with Jesus for his sick son and talked about intercession. We then made a family prayer list of people we wanted to pray for. We stuck this poster on our refrigerator and will use it as a reminder to include these people in our prayers this week. We also use one of the drawers in the hutch to store Christmas cards we've received. Emily Anne and Will take turns choosing a Christmas card each night before the blessing, and we pray for the people who sent us the card. Here is the hutch decorated for fall.
Now, on to the tablescape details!
The placemats and napkins were ones that I found at Christmas Tree Hill on our trip to Pennsylvania. It has been difficult to save them until fall! The plates are stoneware that my husband had before we were married, and I thought the yellows, rusts, and olives picked up the color from the placemats beautifully. The iced tea goblets are Fostoria Jamestown. I've shared before how my mother had these in pink and how they hold such great memories for me. I wish I had some in every color, but I am really enjoying the amber and the glow they give, especially in candlelight!
I found the maple-leaf napkin rings last year at Wal-Mart, which is also where I scored the pumpkin and gourd salt-and-pepper shakers.

Happy Fall, y'all, and be sure to visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for more autumn inspiration!

Apple Picking

2010-09-22T18:30:00.005-04:00

Although the mornings are beginning to feel quite cool, and the afternoons are not as oppressively hot as they have been, I am not quite ready to indulge in the autumn decorating that I love. As a prelude to the beautiful golds, crimsons, oranges, and browns of fall, I thought an apple tablescape was in order.

Back when I was in teaching in public school, I received a plethora of apple-themed gifts. One of my favorites has always been this apple candelabra that my sister gave me. I love the dark russet colors of the apples dangling from the boughs.

Anchoring the candelabra is a linen tea towel printed with apples that echo the dangling fruit.

The china used is this setting is one of Franciscan's most famous patterns: Apple. My mother's mother was one of three sisters. My mother and one great-aunt had the Desert Rose pattern, while the other great-aunt opted for the Apple pattern. For some reason, my grandmother did not jump on the Franciscan bandwagon. I recently found these four Apple dinner plates and hope to add to this pattern.

The iced beverage goblets are Noritake Perspective.

An Apple teapot, awaiting a creamer and sugar and cups and saucers, graces the hutch.

The flatware is Reed and Barton Tara.

The cotton napkins echo the leaves on the china. The oft used straw placemats pick up the dark reds of the apples.

Be sure to visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for more tablescape inspiration.

A Birthday Tea Party

2010-09-15T10:41:00.019-04:00

My daughter turned 7 on Monday. She wanted to have a tea party for all of her friends and their dolls. We started with invitations and adapted one that a friend had made for one of my wedding showers. My friend had hand-painted rosebuds onto tea-dyed paper, but we opted for card stock and colored pencils. I drew a template for a tea cup and cut them out. I typed up the wording on the computer and let Emily Anne cut those words out and glue them into place on the invitations.

The outside hinted at the type of party we were throwing.

The inside contained a tea bag along with the details about the party.

Emily Anne customized different "china patterns" for each of her friends, depending on their interests and personalities.

Emily Anne requested that I make matching dresses for her and her doll Julia, and she picked out the material. When the girls first arrived, they decorated straw hats for their dolls. Then, they placed their dolls around the dolly tea table, which was the living room coffee table draped with an old lace tablecloth and set with my daughter's toy tea set and some violet demitasse cups and saucers. Up next was a game of Pin the Lid on the Teapot, followed by a treasure hunt that led the girls from clue to clue until they found a teapot filled with strands of pink pearls and fancy rings for their own tea party. A couple of kind mothers who had stayed helped lead the girls on the treasure hunt while my mother and I plated the tea treats and brewed the tea.

We plated the tea sandwiches, cheese wafers, and fruit kabobs on clear plastic plates that could be quickly disposed of once the girls had finished. I made the tea sandwiches (PB&J cut in the shape of stars, PB & Honey in the shape of flowers, and Strawberry Cream Cheese in the shape of hearts) and the fruit kabobs, while my mom picked up the cheese wafers at a local bakery. The teacup cupcakes (also from a bakery) and ice cream were served on the violet salad plates. Harney & Sons Chocolate Mint Tea was served, along with pink lemonade. I had a table set buffet-style for the mothers, too, but I forgot to get a picture. Several of the mothers wanted to know where to get the tea, and I told them to order it from here.

One of the girls' mothers was commenting on how brave I was to use my china and silver with the girls, but they were so well mannered. No one spilled a drop, much less a tea cup! Even if a cup had been broken, it would have been worth it to have captured this sweet seven-year-old smile!

Tablescape Details:

Violet Teapot, with matching creamer and sugar: Royal Crownford, Staffordshire
Violet Teapot with violet finial, dessert plates, and cups & saucers: Crown Trent, Staffordshire
Other dessert plates and cups & saucers and cream & sugar, Noritake Lila
Silver: Tara by Reed & Barton

Visit Susan for more tablescape inspiration!

Red Lantern Tablescape

2010-08-25T19:53:00.009-04:00

Last week our family was vacationing in Pennsylvania. Amid days spent in historical Philadelphia, Gettysburg, Amish Country, and Hershey, I managed a trip to a store that I spotted that looked familiar. I had seen it discussed on some blogs during the Tablescape Thursday meme. That shop was Christmas Tree Hill! I am so jealous of those of you who live near one of these havens of home decor! I managed to score a few purchases, one of which became the centerpiece of this week's tablescape.

This beautiful red lantern was half off! I think it will be so versatile, especially around the holidays, and I'm looking forward to using it in future tablescapes. For this one, though, it took center stage on top of an off-white placemat. The dark red matched nicely with my woven straw placemats and Queen's Rooster dinner plates.

The flatware is my everyday workhorse, Easton by Oneida. Off-white fringed napkins pick up the color from the candle in the lantern and the background of the plates.

The water goblet is Fostoria's Jamestown in Ruby. My mother had this pattern in pink (to match her Franciscan Desert Rose) in juice glasses, water goblets, iced tea goblets, and sherbets. I have such fond memories of this pattern, and I love its swirl and shape. My mom and dad retired to the beach several years ago and downsized quite a bit. She told me this week that her Jamestown was sold at her church's yard sale for $1 a piece. I was sick to hear that, but someone certainly got a deal! I recently found some Jamestown iced tea glasses in amber on ebay, so keep an eye out for them in future tablescapes, along with some April Cornell linens from Christmas Tree Hill!

Join Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for lots of tablescape inspiration, and those fellow tablescapers who live in Pennsylvania and Delaware, take a trip to Christmas Tree Hill for me!

Blue Willow Teapots

2010-08-10T11:06:00.013-04:00

These napkin rings were the inspiration for today's tablescape. I first encountered them at our breakfast setting at the wonderful inn where Joel & I spent our tenth anniversary, Abingdon Manor. I very highly recommend them for dinner and/or an overnight stay if you are traveling along I-95. Besides the inn's beauty and the delicious food, I fell in love with the charm of these Blue Willow teapot napkin rings.

I found some of them on ebay and, upon receiving them, decided that a Blue Willow tea for one was in order. I thought this corner of the living room would make a cozy spot for tea.

I added one of my favorite pillows (a gift from my sister) to the wing-backed chair. I thought it was appropriate to the theme.

Of course, the Blue Willow teapot lamp was perfect for lighting. I also added a bud vase of Emily roses.

One of my favorite things to do when I have a rare cup of tea to myself is to peruse books about tea. These are some of my favorites.

You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me. --C. S. Lewis

With a stack of books at the ready, I prepared the tea tray with a pot of Harney & Sons Chocolate Mint.

I added a teacup and saucer, teaspoon, and butter knife.

The final touch was a salad plate topped with a white linen hem-stitched napkin tucked into a Blue Willow teapot ring!
Enjoy lots of table-setting inspiration at Susan's Tablescape Thursday.

Waverly Valley Plaid & Nantucket Basket

2010-07-28T20:50:00.000-04:00

Today's tablescape was inspired by the sunny plaid that is used in my son's bedroom. I began with extra valances of Waverly's Valley Plaid used as table runners. The blue and yellow is so cheery!
I then built a centerpiece using a salad plate, tea cup placed upside down, a bread plate and a creamer in my everyday pattern, Wedgwood's Nantucket Basket. I hope I didn't give my son any ideas about using my china to build towers!
Into the creamer I placed some grocery store flowers of yellow daisies and lime green mums, along with a yellow zinnia or two from the containers on the patio.

A salad plate is arranged on top of a dinner plate, along with a bread plate for the place setting.

The flatware is my everyday stainless, Oneida Easton. The iced tea stems are just simple, clear glasses I picked up from Wal-Mart. The linen napkins, wedding presents, are bordered with a pretty swiss dot pattern.

All in all, a summery tablescape for these very hot days! How does Imperial Chicken, alongside salad with tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden, and garlic cheese biscuits sound?

Please join Susan for Tablescape Thursday to see lots of creative table settings!

Violet Valentine's Tea

2010-01-27T20:00:00.004-05:00

Inspiration for today's tablescape came from these vintage valentine postcards. Knowing how I loved violets, my husband gave me these postcards while we were dating. Wasn't that sweet?

My love for collecting violet china began with spotting this tea set in an antique booth in the Charleston Market. It caught my eye because violets were my sorority flower. Did you know that the Victorians attributed modesty and faithfulness to violets?

Here is another violet teapot that I was given. It has the same pattern of the violets bound with a white ribbon as are on the dessert plates and cups and saucers. All of these pieces were found at different times and are stamped with different manufacturers. To the left of the tea pot is a violet tea strainer I was given. I love loose tea and like having these as not all tea pots have built in strainers. Two tea pots makes it possible to offer two varieties of tea. Would you prefer Harney & Sons' Valentine's Blend (with chocolate and rose petals) or their Indian Spice?
The lace tablecloth reminded me of doilies pasted on homemade Valentines.

The dessert plates looked a little lost on their own. I tried my formal dinner plates underneath them, but the platinum trim clashed with the gold trim on the violet plates. I pulled out some antique violet handkerchiefs and draped them over the dinner plates.

The different handkerchiefs add a certain charm, don't they?

I added a Waterford Araglin Traditions iced beverage glass for those who might like some iced water. I had to substitute wine glasses at two of the place settings (because of the Great Thanksgiving Smash-up of 2008), but since this is a mix-and-match tablescape, I think it works.

The violet cake plate was a birthday gift several years ago from the great-aunt whose china I inherited (You can see the tablescape I created with that china here.). I think it makes a great pedestal for the vintage Valentines.

For more tabletop inspiration, be sure to visit our hostess Susan.

Toile & Checks

2010-01-21T06:00:00.001-05:00

Today's tablescape is on the breakfast table in the kitchen. I used my Blue Willow china along with a piece of toile material for a runner and blue checked napkins.

I used Blue Willow bowls placed on top of my everyday wedding china: Nantucket Basket by Wedgwood. This pattern is so versatile! I had picked out Nantucket Basket even before I was engaged. Why wait to eat on nice dishes until you're married? My family members were kind enough to give me pieces for my birthday and Christmas until I was able to finish out place settings for twelve with wedding gifts.

I've really enjoyed my Blue Willow pieces, too. You can read about my find here.

The stainless flatware is Easton by Oneida. It is our everyday flatware. I like the simplicity of the design and how the notches echo the wicker rim of Nantucket Basket.

A January meal calls for a warm cup of tea after dinner, don't you think? What about Harney & Sons chocolate mint?

The covered casserole I've used as the centerpiece of this setting is usually displayed in the hutch. I'll be using it today to keep chili warm. A Blue Willow serving bowl temporarily has taken its place in the hutch.

I love checks with the toile. It has such a French Country feel.

Dinner Plates: Nantucket Basket by Wedgwood

Cereal Bowls, Cups & Saucers, Butter Dish, Covered Vegetable Bowl: Blue Willow by Churchill

Water Goblets: ?, a boxed set from WalMart

Flatware: Easton by Oneida

Be sure to join in on more tablescape fun at Susan's!

Sunday Family Dinner

2010-01-14T07:00:00.007-05:00

This Christmas I received a wonderful gift: a set of my great-aunt's china. When I was a girl, Aunt Dotsie always hosted my mom's side of the family on Thanksgiving. These dishes bring back pleasant family memories.

The pattern is Noritake Lila, and it has feminine and delicate pink roses and green ferns. It was produced from 1964 to 1973. They have silver trim and will mix and match beautifully with my Lenox Fedral Platinum.

I love having a formal dining room but with young children, we don't use it that much. I thought it would be nice to have a formal Sunday dinner with my new family china.
For the centerpiece, I layered a platter and an oval vegetable bowl in the middle of the table. I had seen a couple of flowers on my camellia bushes and envisioned a bouquet of pink camellias anchored in oasis in the vegetable bowl, but the two blossoms I had seen had turned brown. There were no more flowers, but there are plenty of buds, so I hope to have some in a few weeks. Look for them in another tablescape!

The linens that I used for this tablescape were a gift from my mother last Christmas. She gave me a tablerunner and twelve napkins embroidered with an H for our monogram. I have two other sets of white linen placemats, but I thought that I would turn four of these napkins on the diagonal to highlight the initial.

The crystal candleholders were a wedding gift. They were recently used in our advent wreath. The sterling salt and pepper shakers belonged to my grandmother.

The crystal clarets are Araglin by Waterford. While replacing my crystal in the china cabinet after Thanksgiving dinner in 2008, a glass shelf fell, and all but three of my Araglin goblets shattered. I am slowly replacing them.
The sterling pattern is Tara by Reed and Barton. This is also my mother's pattern, and I knew that I wanted to register it, as well. While I was still working, I found a great buy on place settings for twelve on Ebay, and I bought it. I have never regretted it!

For more creative tablescapes, visit Susan at http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/.

It Skipped a Generation

2010-01-08T14:05:00.004-05:00

I am reading through the Bible for the third time this year. For the most part, I look forward to the truths that God reveals to me through His Word. However, when I see that my chapters for the day include genealogies, I am ashamed to say that I tend to dread my Bible reading. All the repetition of those "begets," seems boring. I came across one of those chapters in my reading this week, and I was none too excited about Chapter 5 of Genesis, which lists the generations from Adam to Noah.

This time, though, something different struck me in this list of fathers and sons. This is how the pattern normally works in this chapter:

Seth lived one hundred and five years, and became the father of Enosh. Then Seth lived eight hundred and seven years after he became the father of Enosh, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died. Genesis 5: 6-8

For six generations, these men's lives were written to the same pattern: they were born; they grew up and had children; and they died. In the seventh generation written, though, there is an aberration in the pattern:

Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. Genesis 5:21-24

Enoch breaks the pattern. He doesn't just live; he walks with God! In fact, he is so in tune with God that God doesn't allow him to die. God simply takes him to heaven. Wow! I wondered in the midst of this lineage what impact Enoch had on his descendants. What must he have taught his sons and grandsons about walking with God?

His son Methuselah had a l-o-n-g life span, but the verses describing his life don't describe him as particularly God-fearing; they pick up the same old pattern, as do the verses describing his son Lamech. Lamech's son, however, was Noah, and do you know what the next chapter says about Noah? I won't hold you in suspense:

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. Genesis 6: 8-9

When I saw the same words used of Enoch to describe Noah, I was awestruck with wonder at the way God uses God-fearing people to influence future generations. I also wondered what happened to Noah's father Lamech and grandfather Methuselah. They had to have witnessed Enoch's walk with God and his righteousness. Why didn't they also walk with God?

Despite not being described as "walking with God," Methuselah and Lamech must have talked about Enoch. What family stories were passed down about Enoch's character, his beliefs, his good deeds? I would love to hear the story that was shared about his being taken by God. In any case, as I read this list of generations, I saw a great-grandson influenced by his great-grandfather's righteousness. That great-grandson then went on to obey God against his common sense and was found to be the only man worthy of saving in the flood.

These "boring" genealogies this week have inspired me to be a legacy to future generations, to not merely live, but to walk with God.

Thirstin' for the Word Thursday--Easter Edition

2009-04-09T08:24:00.006-04:00

"Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him."

Acts 2:22-24

Peter spoke these words in his first official sermon, one which resulted in large numbers of conversions. This short passage contains several phrases that speak deeply to me.

Peter says that Jesus was handed over to be crucified by "God's set purpose and foreknowledge." These words boggle my mind as I consider that it was God's overarching plan for His Son to be killed. It was the only way to save us:

For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eteranl life.

John 3:16

The next phrase pierces my heart rather than my mind. "[A]nd you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing him to the cross." No, we were not part of the mob yelling, "Crucify him!" Nor were we one of the unlucky Roman soldiers who hammered the nails through his body to the cross. We were not even one of those who walked by, mocking, "You saved others. Now save yourself!" Yet, our sins bear witness to our responsiblity in Jesus' death.

Early during the Lenten season, I cut two crosses out of construction paper and lots of small colored pieces to make a mosaic on top of the cross. The children glued these on to the crosses, and then I asked them for some examples of sin in their lives. We wrote these sins on the mosaic "tiles," and then hung the crosses up in the playroom/schoolroom. Our sins on the crosses serve as a visual reminder of our participation in Jesus's death.

Although Jesus was killed, "it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him." Through Him, it is impossible for death and sin to keep its hold on us! Tomorrow, when we read about Jesus and the empty tomb, we'll cover the sins with paper flowers to show that Jesus covers our sins.

Lord, fill us with the joy that Your disciples felt when they realized that You were raised from the dead! Help us truly to understand what this means for our lives, here on earth and in eternity. Thank You for Your plan to save us, and for Your willingness to humble Yourself and endure unimaginable pain on our behalf. Amen.

So, what verses have spoken to you this Holy Week? Pot those verses on your own blog, along with how you see that God wants you to apply them in your own life. Then, provide your link below so that we can all drink from one another's wells of scripture.

Trust and Timing

2009-04-02T06:00:00.002-04:00

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. Now, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.

Here is what spoke to me this week:

So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there was Saul, lying asleep inside the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying around him.
Abishai said to David, "Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of my spear; I won't strike him twice."
But David said to Abishai, "Don't destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord's annointed and be guiltless? As surely as the Lord lives," he said, "the Lord himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. But the Lord forbid that I should lay hand on the Lord's annointed."
1 Samuel 26:7-11

This passage illustrates why David is called a man after God's own heart. Saul has demonstrated over and over again that he is David's enemy. He has hurled a spear at David and tried to pin him to a wall on multiple occasions. Saul has sent him into battle hoping he would die. He has ordered his son, David's best friend, to bring David to the king so that he could kill him. He has had eighty-five priests killed because one had the audacity to help David by giving him bread and a sword. He utilizes his tremendous army to try to hunt down David and his men. In the midst of these circumstances, David has the perfect opportunity to rid himself of his enemy.

David, however, doesn't take that opportunity. Why not? He has the assurance that God has chosen him to be the king of Israel. In fact, he had been annointed by Samuel years before. He has shown himself ready for the challenge by killing the Philistine giant Goliath when no other Israelite had the courage to do so. He has defeated the Philistines, Israel's great enemies, over and over again. When it is obvious that God has left Saul, "In everything [David] did he had great success, because the Lord was with him" (1 Samuel 18:14).

David had every earthly reason to take Saul's life. In fact, he wouldn't have even had to lift his sword against Saul; Abishai is eager for the job! David, however, has enough trust in God to leave the problem of Saul up to God. He reverences God and those whom God has annointed. He knows that one day he will be king, but he trusts God enough not to force his hand.

Can we say the same thing? I know that there have been many times that I have had little reason to initiate something, and yet I plunged in to attempt to speed up God's timetable. The results were not good.

The next time I am tempted to rush things along, I will remind myself how David trusted God and God's timing.

So, what verses have spoken to you this week? Post those verses on your own blog, along with how you see that God wants you to apply them in your life. Then, provide your link below so that we can drink from one another's wells of scripture.

Look What I Got!

2009-03-27T15:46:00.006-04:00

The kids and I met Joel today at Pizza Hut for the lunch buffet. After lunch we stopped by the grocery store to pick up some juice , half-and-half, strawberries, and grapes. When I walked into the produce section, I passed by the display that usually holds some type of promotional items. I paused and then walked backwards to look at the Blue Willow china that Bi-Lo was offering for the next few weeks. Three-piece place settings of a dinner plate, cup, and saucer were being offered at 2 place settings for $5.

I deliberated and then figured out that I couldn't beat this price anywhere. When I reached down to put some of the place settings in the cart, I saw that there were no more boxes out. Emily Anne and Will were getting restless, so we moved on to pick up our items. I asked at the cash register if they were out of the Blue Willow place settings. They found some more in the back, and I got six dinner plates and six cups and saucers for fifteen dollars. What a deal!

I couldn't wait to set my table with it when I got home. In fact, I was so eager that I didn't even iron my placemats (just ignore the wrinkles and turned up corners). I love blue-and-white china and decorate with it in several rooms throughout our house. The bowl in the center of the table is a piece that I borrowed from the living room, emptied it of potpourri and plopped in some apples. This china also matches a favorite lamp of mine in the kitchen.

I do have a twelve-piece set of Wedgwood Nantucket Basket that we got when we got married that we use for every day. Now that the children are getting old enough to eat from real plates (as opposed to plastic dishes)though, I think I'll feel a little safer with them using this Blue Willow. I'd also love to mix and match the Blue Willow with the Nantucket Basket. The Blue Willow salad plates would look so cute with the Wedgwood dinner plates!

The display posted what pieces would be offered at special prices which week, but the kids didn't allow me time to jot them down. I thought I could find them online, but was unsuccessful. I'll just have to make a trip sans children so that I can write it all down and figure out what pieces I'd like to add. I especially have my eye on a teapot in this pattern!

Do you know the story behind the Blue Willow pattern? Here is the story that was on the insert in the box:

Once there lived a very wealthy mandarin who had a beautiful daughter named Hong Shee, who fell in love with her father's secretary, a man named Chang. To keep them apart, the father imprisoned his daughter in the palace. One day she escaped, and the two lovers raced over the bridge to a waiting boat. They managed to elude the mandarin, reach the boat, and sail away. A storm developed; the boat foundered; and the couple were lost at sea. It is said that two love birds appeared immediately thereafter . . . .

If you look closely at the first picture in this post, you can see the palace, two figures on the bridge, a boat, and two birds.

Hearing Voices

2009-03-25T23:52:00.005-04:00

Here is what spoke to me this week:

The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was.

Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, "Here I am." And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." But Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." So he went and lay down.
Again the LORD called, "Samuel!" And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." "My son," Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down."
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD : The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.' " So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

1 Samuel 3:1-10

Have you ever wondered if you were really hearing God's voice? I know that I have. Especially when I have a decision to make, I second-guess myself and try to figure out if the voice I hear is actually coming from God, myself, or the enemy. Oh, how I wish that I had someone like Eli to tell me if I were really hearing God's voice!

I read the above passage this week in my Bible reading. I am always amazed how God sends reinforcement of ideas that He has caused to jump out at me when I spend time in His word.
When I picked up my church's newsletter yesterday from the mailbox, Pastor Phil's weekly message was titled "Listening to the Voice of God." It contained a checklist developed by Pastor Roger Barrier on how he discerns the voice of God and ended with the question: "How can we better tune our ears to to hear the quiet whisperings of the Spirit of God?" Pastor Phil also encouraged us to read John 10:1-5:

"I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice."

I thought it was so interesting that both of these passages deal with recognizing God's voice. Samuel, because he did not know God, had to rely on Eli to tell him that it was not a human voice he was hearing, but the Divine. John's passage states that the Good Shepherd's sheep know His voice and are able to discern between it and a stranger's.

Although I may not have an Eli to help me to determine whether what I'm hearing is truly coming from God, I do have a way to know God's voice. The more time I spend in His word and in prayer, the easier it will be to recognize Him when He speaks to me. I long to say like Samuel, "Speak, for your servant is listening!"

So, what verses have spoken to you this week? Post those verses on your own blog, along with how you see that God wants you to apply them in your life. Then, provide your link below so that we can drink from one another's wells of scripture.

She Speaks . . . To Me!

2009-03-24T06:54:00.005-04:00

Have you ever used the phrase, "It just speaks to me!"? Whether it's a gorgeous fabric that suits your personality and would be perfect for your den "mistreatments," a book that a friend has loaned you that had the perfect message for you at this moment in your life, or a blog whose author seems like a best friend although you've never met her, we all have experiences that simply "speak to us." Here is one of mine.

Lysa TerKeurst announced on her blog this week that she is hosting a contest for a scholarship to a conference sponsored by her ministry Proverbs 31. And the name of this contest? Why, She Speaks, of course. Geared for those women interested in sharing God's story in their lives, it has three tracks: one for Women's Ministry leaders, one for speakers, and one for writers, including bloggers.

As I read over the descriptions of each track, the first question under the Speaker's track jumped out at me: "Do you hunger for the Word of God and long to teach it with authority and excellence?". This question spoke to me, and I felt my spirit rising up to shout, "Yes!" God has been awakening in me a longing for his Word over the past year or so, leading me to take part in Bible studies, lead a Bible study, and create a weekly meme called "Thirstin' for the Word Thursday" on my blog (You can see some of the posts by clicking on the link in my sidebar).

With my foray into the blogosphere, I was thrilled to see that there are sessions that feature such bloggers as Melanie from Big Mama, Sophie from BooMama, the Nester (Do you think we could convince her to do a session on her famous "mistreatments"?), and her sister Emily from Chatting at the Sky. Each of these bloggers has spoken to me through their posts, and it would be an awesome opportunity to receive their advice on blogging face-to-face. I would love to learn ways to increase my readership so that more and more people could be encouraged to share their encounters with God's and His Word.

In addition to seeing the sessions for speakers and bloggers, I was also excited to see sessions for writers. I have always loved reading and writing, and from the time I was a child, I have had the conviction that someday I will write a book. I have the idea for a book related to my decision to homeschool percolating in my head (and I even have the title). These session descriptions have inspired me to continue to brew this idea and filter it into a book proposal.

The Women's Ministry track also spoke to me because last year I helped to plan a women's retreat for our church. You can read more about that retreat here and here (pre-retreat) and here (post-retreat). I even developed one of my Thirstin' for the Word blog posts into a session that I led at that retreat. In fact, I suppose that this session was my first speaking gig!

With these three different tracks and my varying interests, how could I choose which track to take? I shouldn't have worried; although an attendee signs up for a particular track, she will be able to choose from sessions from all the tracks.

The description of this conference really did speak to me. It was a voice confirming God's call to me to share what He has done and continues to do in my life. It was an exclamation encouraging me to hone my skills to better serve His glory. I can only imagine what attending the conference in person would have to say to me.

So, does She Speaks . . . to you? If so, find all the information at the conference website.

Thirstin' for the Word Thursday Is Back!

2009-03-24T06:42:00.004-04:00

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading a nd am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.

After a hiatus of several months, Thirstin' for the Word Thursday will be re-inaugurated this Thursday on March 26. Join in by posting on your blog thoughts about any verses that jump out at you during your Bible reading time this week.

Are you new to Thirstin' for the Word? Check out previous posts under the sidebar category "Thirstin' for the Word." We'd love for you to join us!

Homeschool Mom's Night Out

2009-02-13T08:52:00.003-05:00

What a great time we homeschool moms had last night! I am so grateful that God has led me to these encouraging and fun ladies! There were about ten of us last night. We enjoyed soft drinks and tea and coffee (thanks to our wonderful Keurig machine), as well as delicious mexican dip and tortilla chips, mini quiches, crudites, crackers and cheese, brownies, and blueberry bread. While we were eating our refreshments, I couldn't get anyone to sit down, but it was fun just mingling in the kitchen. After eating, we adjourned to the den (pictured below), where the program portion of our evening commenced.

Faith Markle got us started. She is a mom who has homeschooled several children all the way through school; her youngest is a senior this year. Faith has such a gentle spirit and is also wise and knowledgeable. Many of us homeschool moms benefit from this true Titus 2 woman. She had us put our names in a bowl to draw for which mom would share about her family. Sharon LaFreniere spoke, and I was interested to learn that she is originally Canadian and has been in the US for about 13 years. I didn't know that, but I could hear her accent in her "out"s and "about"s as she continued to talk. She and her family enjoy riding their horses. Sharon shared how her family has moved from an unschooling approach to a slightly more conventional route and what curricula she explores. It was so nice to have this sharing time because at co-op, we mothers don't always have the chance to really get to know one another, as we are all teaching a class or volunteering in a class or keeping up with our kids.

After an open sharing time where we had the chance to ask questions or share concerns or celebrations about our homeschool journey, the presentation began. Cindy Blackwell shared her knowledge of the impact gender differences make on learning styles. I was excited about this topic because I have already seen how differently Will and Emily Anne approach learning!

Cindy shared that from birth girls hear better than boys. Therefore, boys prefer teachers who are louder, whereas girls prefer softer-spoken teachers. There are also gender differences in vision. Boys are more attuned to motion, where girls are more attuned to color. I remember several times where I've tried to encourage Will to use more color in his drawings, and I probably looked right over any action that he was trying to portray!

Stress affects boys and girls differently, too. For example, if you scold or fuss at a boy, his heart rate goes up, his adrenaline is increased, and his attentiveness increases. Stress, however, causes girls to shut down. Boys also prefer cave-like atmospheres, which is why you often may find them under the table! Girls prefer warmer environments (74 degrees F is optimal), while boys are more comfortable when it is cooler (59-65 degrees F).

Joanne Ludwick, who has two daughters, made the point that there are learning style differences even among the same gender. We went on to talk about how much more kinesthetic most boys are and that they need to be moving or doing something with their hands as they learn. Faith made the great suggestion of making play-doh letters or cookie dough letters that they can shape into letters and then eat when making the alphabet. I will definitely be trying that with Will!

Julie Watkins then shared my greatest take-away of the evening. She encouraged us to look at the gifts that God has given our children and not to neglect them or to push them to the side to try to fit in all the curriculum or even to try to do what other homeschool families are doing. She stated that God blessed our children with these gifts in order to help Him achieve His purposes, and we should not squelch them in our attempts to get everything done that we think needs to be achieved. Moms also made the point that these gifts help our children to learn. For example, a child who loves to sing will often learn best by making up songs about the subject matter.

After a touching prayer time where we prayed for each other's requests, we ended the night feeling encouraged and renewed. Most of us will see each other today at the homeschool group's
Valentine's skating party.

I hope that you have a great weekend and a meaningful Valentine's Day, realizing that Christ loves us with an unsurpassing love.

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight . . . .

Philippians 1:9

Do You Like to Entertain?

2009-02-12T16:40:00.006-05:00

I am hosting my homeschool group's Mom's Night Out tonight. It has been so long since I hosted a shindig. We've had only one other time where we've hosted people other than family, and that was at our first Thanksgiving at this house. We didn't have even all of our furniture moved over then. I think that I've been avoiding having people over because there is still so much that we want to do this house to make it our own, but are waiting because our other house hasn't yet sold (God has blessed us with a great couple who is renting, though!).

I have had so much fun getting ready for tonight, though. Here are a few snapshots of what I've done.

Here is the foyer. The camellias in the front yard were in bloom, so I picked a big bunch and have used them throughout the house. My mom always had camellias when I was growing up, and I love being able to decorate with them. Three bushes had deep rose blooms, and one bush had candy-striped flowers, which were perfect for this close to Valentine's Day! I put a small glass inside a blue-and-white china cachepot and arranged the camellias in the smaller container.

Here is the dining room. I arranged camellias in a silver teapot we received as a wedding present. I don't have china laid out on the table because at Mom's Night Out if you serve as hostess, you provide only drinks. Isn't it nice that others volunteer to bring refreshments and the hostess doesn't have to get the kitchen all dirty?

Here's the little set-up where we'll serve ourselves refreshments. I set out my Nantucket Basket dessert plates and created a vignette with Valentine's candies and my Southern Living plate. I wrote "You are loved!" on it with white board markers and wove Valentine ribbon through it.

Here is the centerpiece for the breakfast table. I just folded a piece of pink and red fabric with hearts and laid a platter on top. Then I took various sized goblets and arranged them over gumdrop hearts and scattered some heart beads left over from one of Emily Anne's craft projects.

>
Here is a picture of the living room. I've done a good bit in here to try to dress this room up. You can see a before picture here. I mistreated the windows a la the Nester, and the fabric has really helped to warm up the room. I also picked up that big palm in the corner for $11 at my grocery store. I put it in a big cachepot I already had, and it made a tremendous difference in cozying this space.

Here is a shot of another corner that I've filled with a tilt-top table and some forced tulips in another small planter. It's a nice touch of spring.

Whoops! There's the doorbell. I'll let you know in my next post how it goes.

Week 2 of 52 Books in 52 Weeks

2009-01-14T16:06:00.003-05:00

Two books down, and fifty to go . . . .

This past week's book was The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory. I picked it up because it was one book of historical fiction on Katherine of Aragon that I had not read.

First, I will say that I enjoyed the information about Katherine's childhood. I haven't come across what her life was like as a young girl with her parents Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. However, because of the license I felt that Philippa Gregory took with the rest of her life, about which I had read before, I'm not so sure that I should trust this information about her childhood.

I enjoy historical fiction because I like history and I love how imagination can bring to life someone from the past. However, bringing in too much imagination for the sake of a more interesting story is not my cup of my tea. I felt that Gregory's portrayal of a lying, incredibly ambitious woman was at odds with the facts of Katherine's life. I couldn't shake the feeling as I read this book that Gregory wrote an entertaining book with an unusual plot simply because it went against the grain of most books about Katherine and was therefore guaranteed more interest. It was not a satisfying read for me.

The book for Week 3 of 52 Books in 52 Weeks is Hind's Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard, which was recommended to me by my sister.

Happy Reading!

Reading Fine in 2009

2009-01-08T14:02:00.002-05:00

In my homeschooling journey, I've found the message boards at The Well-Trained Mind (named for Susan Wise Bauer's inspirational and thorough book on classical homeschooling) invaluable. K in Cal from the boards came up with a 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge, and I've pledged to take part. Here are the rules:

Read an average of a book a week - 52 books in 52 weeks
Re-reading a book counts--as long as you first read it before 2009
School related books don't count (unless you want them to)
You can start reading on 1-1-09 at 00:00:01AM

The book I've finished this week was Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. Despite being an English major and having an M. Ed. in English Education, I'm embarrassed to admit that I've not read it in its entirety before. My intention in reading it was two-fold: to complete the reading of a classic and also to inspire me in my spiritual journey. It is amazing to me that the allegory and language did not seem stale to me; in fact, the allegory helped me to see that the journey of the Christian faith is a universal one. Although our individual pitfalls and Sloughs of Despond and captivity in the giant Despair's Castle and battles with Apollyon are each unique, it gives me comfort that every Christian does go through these all. In that comfort I find the freedom to release myself from any discouragement or condemnation I may feel and venture on to the Celestial City! Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2).

My book for Week 2 of 2009 will be a lighter, historical-fiction book. It is The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory and is about the life of Catherine of Aragon.

Happy reading!

Back into the Groove

2009-01-04T16:46:00.003-05:00

After a relaxing few weeks without schedules, we are ready to get back on track, not only with getting back to work and homeschool, but also with regular, planned meals. Organizing Junkie has a whole list of people's plans if, like me, you need some inspiration.

Without further ado, here's our plan for dinners for this week:

Monday: Spaghetti with garlic bread and salad

Tuesday: Herbed Lemon Chicken Breasts over rice, green beans, honey-glazed carrots

Wednesday: Fellowship Supper at church

Thursday: Hamburger steaks with gravy, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob

Friday: Shrimp -n- Grits with salad

In homeschool this week, here's what we're planning to study:

Bible: Moses & Mt. Sinai, The Ten Commandments, The Golden Calf
Math: The next five lessons in Saxon Math, which include subtracting zero from a number and subtracting the same number from itself, as well as measuring
Handwriting: Practice in handwriting will include the Ten Commandments, to reinforce memory work
Phonics: This week's lessons include beginning consonant blends
History: We will be beginning The Story of the World with the Introduction to History and Archaeology

Have a great week!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

2008-12-15T06:00:00.003-05:00

Greetings! Welcome to my Holiday Open House! The festivities begin in the foyer, where a natural swag made from cedar and berries from our yard festoons the mirror. Below, the reason for the season is highlighted with my Fontanini nativity scene. A garland (not natural, and kind of pitiful after looking at the Nester's inspiration garland--oh, well, that's something to aspire to for next year!) graces the stairwell bannister. Here are some close-ups:

These pieces in the nativity scene get rearranged a couple of times a day by creative little fingers. That's okay because they won't break!
I received the creche and Holy Family figures at a Christmas shower before our wedding almost ten years ago, and my mom helps me to add to my collection each year.
Come on in! To your right is the living room, where the formal tree resides.

The children picked out the angel tree topper, which is lovely--except for the fact that it blinks, which drives me crazy!
When we first got married, we had very few ornaments, rather than some of our childhood ones. Here are some of my favorites that we've collected over the years.

Those silver photo-frame ornaments are from Exposures and are dated on the back with an engraved silver tag. My sister has given us those, and they are my favorite ornaments on the tree! (Sorry for the glare of the top one; that frame houses last year's Christmas card pic of Will--he's just so bright!;)) The brass Celtic cross was a gift at my Christmas shower and holds even more meaning because of our honeymoon trip to Ireland. The gold and red crown ornament suspsended by a red ribbon was a souvenir my husband brought me from a trip to London. It commemorates Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. The white ornaments (gingerbread angel and star) are part of my daughter's Wedgwood ornament collection. It is a tradition that each year she and her brother receive a new ornament, as well as a Christmas picture book and a pair of Christmas pjs.

Here atop the piano is a nativity scene that my grandmother gave me. I love the purity of the all white. My mother-in-law gave me the angels that spell Noel, and I think they go together perfectly!

This is our Advent wreath and the book that we're reading each night, Jotham's Journey. This is a new tradition for us and has already become such a special time for our family. Mom found the wreath for me, and I put the candles in various crystal candlesticks I had and just placed them inside the wreath.

Here is the dining room with its holiday decor.
When I was registering my china at a local store, the owner told me that Federal Platinum had Christmas accent plates and mugs but that they were going to be discontinued. If I liked them, she had enough for a setting for twelve. I registered them and am so glad I did. I love the silver filigree ornaments on the white.

Here is the buffet decorated to coordinate. I just put some glass and silver ornaments in a crystal bowl, tied a silver bowl around it and then put it on an upside down bowl to give it some height. I found the sparkly silver branches at Wal-Mart the other day.
Here is a corner of the kitchen that I've filled with an unintended collection of items with the Believe motif. They make me happy to look at them. In years past I've put a small poinsettia in the flower pot, but I thought I might want to put something more kitchen-related in it this year. Maybe some candy canes?

Here are a few pictures of everyday Christmas accent pieces displayed in the hutch. I've accented with cedar and berries again, along with red ribbon.

I love these whimsical Santa frames for the children's Christmas card pictures. Would you believe that I got them from Wal-Mart?
All the ornaments that the kids have made grace this tree in the playroom.

Here is the mantel in the den. I kept the same arrangment from the fall, simply changing out the mini pumpkins for red ornaments.
When I read the Nester's tutorial for a fabulous garland, I had already hung mine and was too lazy to take it down. Instead, I added some fake berries and feathers (Wal-Mart strikes again) and then tucked in some cedar and natural berries from my yard.

Thanks for dropping by! Good tidings to you and all of your kin (or kids, as Emily Anne likes to sing it!)!

We're in the Holiday Spirit!

2008-12-11T16:33:00.001-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Preparing for the Season of Preparation

2008-11-18T08:59:00.003-05:00

Can you believe that it is already so close to Thanksgiving? We are having both sides of my family here this year, and I am definitely getting into the holiday spirit.

Close on the heels of Thanksgiving will come Advent. I have already ordered Jotham's Journey, to be read after dinner with the lighting of our Advent wreath (supplies yet to be purchased!). I have read such wonderful things about this book (and the other two in the series) and was thrilled to find it back in print.

Today I read a post that fueled my enthusiasm for a meaningful Advent season for our family. Shannon (of Rocks in My Dryer) wrote about her family's Jesse Tree. I am so excited to create this new tradition for our family. I am planning to replace our daily Bible reading in Catherine Vos's A Child's Story Bible with the Jesse Tree devotionals and then let Emily Anne and Will take turns hanging the symbolic ornament. I can't wait to start hunting down and creating the ornaments. I'll post when our collection is complete.

So, what does your family do for Advent?

Great Thanksgiving Read-Alouds

2008-11-17T11:11:00.003-05:00

As Thanksgiving approaches, I went on a quest to find some great books that would spark interest in and learning about this American holiday. I used the wonderful tool that is the online libary catalog and reserved many books about Thanksgiving. We read through most of them last week, and I've culled the ones we enjoyed most and have listed them below:

This First Thanksgiving Day: A Counting Story by Laura Krauss Melmed is one of our favorites. It has rhyming text and shows 1 sleeping pilgrim, 2 giggling Wamanoag girls, etc., all the way up to 12 tables brimming with food and friends at the Thanksgiving feast. The illustrations are wonderful, and not only do they help the smallest ones to count up to twelve, there are various other things in the illustrations to find and count, including a tricky turkey on each page. We even counted all the pilgrims and Indians on the last page--146!
Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation by Diane Stanley is narrated by a brother and sister who are taken back into time by their grandmother to experience the very first Thanksgiving Day. The story line really held the interest of my children, and the book is chock full of interesting details about the way the Pilgrims lived. In addition to the regular text, the illustrations also include those speech balloons (like in cartoons), which were a little awkward to read, but they contained such great tidbits of interesting information, I couldn't skip over them.
The First Thanksgiving by Garnet Jackson is a wonderful introduction to the origins of this holiday. This nonfiction book is written in a simple but engaging style with pictures that my children really enjoyed. It is basic, simple, and thorough and would be a great way to start your Thanksgiving read-alouds.
Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving by Laurie Halse Anderson was a learning experience for me. This book, with detailed and humorous pictures, tells the story of Sarah Hale, who persistently petitioned politicians and presidents (How's that for alliteration?) over forty years to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Sarah was an interesting woman who raised five children, was an editor of magazines, and the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb." The book contains a nonfiction addendum at the back with more facts on Sarah's life, the history of Thanksgiving, and what life was like in 1863 (the year Thanksgiving became a national holiday). The theme of one person able to make a difference through persistence is something I am glad my children were exposed to in this book.

Happy Reading! Aren't you thankful for good books?

Instruction in Righteousness

2008-10-09T08:51:00.005-04:00

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16

My daughter recently turned five. It seems as though she skipped eight years and became thirteen overnight. Every request is met with a pouty face, an excuse to delay or avoid said request, or a disrespectful "No!" Complaints are rampant; every tiny inconvenience is magnified to mammoth proportions. Tuesday I had had enough of this attitude.

Before I reacted in the moment, as I usually do, I stopped to consider my own reactions. Often I was responding in kind, complaining about her complaints or serving up my own disrespect in a it's-my-way-or-else command that bulldozed over her feelings. I did not like the image this perusal conjured up, and I decided to try another tack.

I pulled down from the bookshelf For Instruction in Righteousness, a book published by Doorposts. It is filled with scripture on various Biblical character traits and is organized by problems. For each problem, Bible verses are listed that provide a handy reference of what the Bible has to say about this sin, discipline ideas and object lessons are highlighted, and stories of Biblical figures who indulged in the sin or exemplified the opposite positive character trait are given.

I paged over to the Arguing/Complaining section and skimmed the Bible verses listed, stopping at Philippians 2:14-15: Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe. Using the metaphor in these verses, I remembered a basket of small flashlights I used for props in Bible school and grabbed two of them for my own object lesson. I read the verses to my daughter and explained that, as Christians, we are different from those around us. By following what the Bible tells us to do, we can shine. I asked her to turn one of the flashlights on. Because it had dead batteries, it wouldn't shine. I explained that, like that flashlight, we don't shine God's love when we are too busy arguing or complaining. I then gave her a working flashlight, which she turned on. When we choose to keep ourselves from arguing or complaining, we shine God's love through the darkness of others who do choose to argue or complain.

When complaints reared their heads yesterday afternoon, I simply asked, "Do you want to shine?" That question was all that was needed to stop those complaints in their tracks.

I learned yesterday that going to the Word is one of the most effective forms of discipline. After all, the word has at its root the word disciple, with all the connotations of learning. The Bible is useful for instruction in righteousness--for children--and for their mamas!

None of Your Business!

2008-09-18T06:47:00.004-04:00

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.

Here is what spoke to me this week:

Last Sunday evening I attended a church-wide Bible study led by our pastor on the book of Acts. It was scholarly, thorough, and intense, but the most impressive thing about the session was the application that we could make to our own lives. Two powerful points from just a few verses have lingered in my mind this week.

So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Acts 1:6-8

When the disciples asked when the Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah's restoring Israel to its privileged place would be fulfilled, He basically replied, "It's none of your business." With all of the speculation about the end times lately, this statement is a surprising punch. There are signs all around us that the end could be near; however, almost every generation since the time of Christ has anticipated that it would witness the Second Coming.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we shouldn't eagerly anticipate Christ's return. In fact, it should give us hope (Titus 2:12-14). We simply shouldn't let our anticipation overshadow our mission.

A few verses down, the disciples are wistfully staring into the heavens after Christ's ascension, wishing, I'm sure, that He were back on earth to lead them. Two angels appeared and redirected their attention to where it should be--the mission field (Acts 1:9-11).

Christ promised his disciples (and us) power through the Holy Spirit, and this power was to fulfill our mission of witnessing to others. Jesus then goes on to describe three concentric circles of our mission field. Let's start with the largest one first. We know that there are some people who have a heart for missions abroad. These people are attending to "the ends of the earth" mission field. Although we may not be in a situation where we would go abroad, we can still support this mission by supporting missionaries sponsored by our church and participating in activities like Operation Christmas Child.

The disciples' "Judea and Samaria" would be a smaller concentric circle, more locally concentrated, but not immediate. These efforts should be made to share the good news, in word and deed, to those closer to home but not in our everyday sphere of influence. Finally, the smallest concentric circle of the mission field is those with whom we come into contact every day: strangers we come across during our errands, acquaintances, friends, neighbors, and family.

I pass on to you the challenge that was given to me last Sunday: Are you going to stand looking at the sky wondering when Christ will return, or will you find a way to fulfill the mission that He left us?

Giveaway Winner

2008-09-15T08:44:00.002-04:00

The winner of From Clutter to Clarity Kathryn from Pure Wells. Congratulations, Kathryn!

Cast Your Burdens

2008-09-11T08:16:00.004-04:00

Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7

I used to be a big worrier. The smallest things would keep me up at night. I would spend time wondering about the title of a grant that I was writing for school, or if I had chosen the right novel for my AP Literature students to read. I would worry if I sounded silly or dumb in a conversation I just had with an acquaintance. Although I had read the words of Matthew 6:27, I had yet to put them into practice.

When I was pregnant with Emily Anne, I worried even more. I worried about how she was being formed in my womb. I worried about how I would be a good parent. I worried about what kind of person she would grow up to be. I worried about worrying too much.

Then a friend of mine gave me this book. I began praying one prayer a night and gradually found my worries decreasing. Now, I wouldn't classify myself as a worrier; when I do start to worry, I become a pray-er.

Lately, though, I've been coming across 1 Peter 5:7. It was the key scripture verse for the Weight Management breakout session at our Spa for the Soul Women's Retreat. It is on a CD put together by our Youth Pastor, and we play it constantly in the car. It came up in a conversation with a friend the other day. Okay, what is God trying to tell me?

Am I worrying about how much the children are learning in homeschool? Am I choosing to teach the right things? Am I choosing to share the right things on this blog? Am I spending too much tiime with it? Am I going to be able to keep up with the housekeeping and homeschooling, too? Am I worrying too much? . . . Okay, let me take Stormie's advice again.

Dear Lord, Thank you that we can cast our cares on You. Thank you for the assurance that You care for us. Lord, I place our homeschooling in Your hands; we trust You to guide us in what You would have us to learn. Give us wisdom, Lord, not the earthly wisdom that surrounds us, but the wisdom that comes only from You. Lord, guide me in my sharing my stories with others, so that they might be used to glorify You. Lord, help me to manage my time so that You are my first priority. Let the other things that need to be done fall into place after I have first spent time with You. Thank you for relieving my burdens and taking up your yoke, which is not heavy. Amen.

So, what Scripture has spoken to you this week? Post those verses on your own blog, along with how you see that God wants you to apply them in your life. Then, provide your link below so that we can drink from one another's wells of scripture.

Also, don't forget about the giveaway for Nancy Twigg's book From Clutter to Clarity! Clutter is a burden, too!

A Simple Little Giveaway

2008-09-09T08:15:00.004-04:00

The other week, I reviewed Nancy Twigg's great book From Clutter to Clarity: Simplifying Life from the Inside Out. In addition to this book, Nancy has also written Celebrate Simply: Your Guide to Simpler, More Meaningful Holidays and Special Occasions; and A Month of Mites: 31 Devotionals on Simple Christian Living. Nancy has graciously agreed to answer my questions, and the interview is below.

Nancy, you seem to have a mission to live simply. Could you please share with us how you were led to such a mission?

I have always been interested in simplicity, but that inclination to live simply became a necessity to live simply in 1997 when my husband, Michael and I both left our jobs to begin working at home. The initial plan was not for both of us to quit; I planned to stay at my job. But when my already stressful job became intolerable, we agreed it was best for me to quit, too. As we learned more and more about being good stewards of our resources and keeping our lives focused on what is most important, I felt called to begin sharing what we had learned. That "sharing" took the form of writing and speaking.

In addition to being a published author, you have created two Internet ministries: Creative Frugality and Counting the Cost. Please tell us about these websites.

The Creative Frugality is really just a hobby site. In fact, it is actually being phased out and will soon be replaced with my new work-in-process, Frugal-Living-Tips.net . CountingtheCost.com is my main Internet presence. Counting the Cost began as a printed newsletter. I started it in 1998 when I began feeling called to help others live simply too. After almost 3 years as a print publication, Counting the Cost became a free, twice-a -month email newsletter in August, 2000. The website is simply an extension of the newsletter. All the great reader tips as well as the back issues of the newsletter get posted online.

Did From Clutter to Clarity grow out of these two ministries?

Yes and no. My first book, Celebrate Simply, definitely got its start in my newsletter. I had addressed the ideas of simplifying holidays, saving money on gifts, etc., many times in Counting the Cost. My second book—a self-published book called, A Month of Mites: 31 Devotions on Giving God Your Very Best—also started there because it is a collection of all the "Scripture Thought" columns that ran each month in the printed newsletter. When I wrote From Clutter to Clarity, I definitely drew on all of my experiences with living simply but I believe that book would have been written with or without Counting the Cost.

How did you first begin speaking and writing? Which came first for you?

I have been speaking all my life—I helped teach children’s Sunday School classes and VBS when I was still a child myself! Also my church had a wonderful program called "Lads to Leaders/Lasses to Leaders" that helped young people learn at an early age to speak in front of groups of people. However, my "professional" speaking began after I wrote my first book. The first edition of Celebrate Simply was self-published (later republished by Kregel Publications). To promote the book, my family traveled all over the eastern part of the country. I spoke for free anywhere they’d let me sell books. After a year or so of that, I began to actually get invitations to speak for a fee or honorarium.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

I would say, "Just do it." In other words, find a way—any way—to use your writing to bless others. When I first began Counting the Cost, I wasn’t thinking about writing a book. But now, ten years later I have written three books and had freelance articles published in national magazines. At the time I was just finding a way to use my gifts for God’s glory. With the prominence of blogging and self-publishing these days, it is easier than ever before to share your message for the world. Keep writing. Keep blessing others with your gift. Eventually God will open doors for you to reach bigger and bigger audiences.

You homeschool your daughter. What do you find most challenging about homeschooling? What do you find the most rewarding?

We are "part-time" homeschoolers. Lydia is part of a homeschool co-op that meets three mornings a week. I teach her at home (following the teacher’s lesson plan) the other two mornings each week. The biggest challenge for us is that our personalities (mine and Lydia’s) are so different. I am a focus, get-it-done kind of person. I want to check each thing off my To Do list so I can get on with the rest of my day. Lydia tends to be more spontaneous and less focused. Unlike me, she is not driven by a need to accomplish! We clash sometimes when I feel she is moving at a snail’s pace and she feels I am steamrolling over her as I try to plow ahead. The most rewarding times come when we really connect and enjoy the process of learning together. On those occasions when I am able to plug in to her preferred learning style with a particular activity or lesson, the difference is amazing. I have no trouble keeping her on task because she has so much fun.

Nancy has graciously agreed to provide a copy of From Clutter to Clarity (her last copy from the publisher, no less!) for one of you!

Just leave a comment, either telling us about a way that you have found to live simply, or telling us why you feel the need to live more simply. I will draw a winner on Saturday, September 13.

Rejuvenation at A Spa for the Soul

2008-09-08T06:15:00.005-04:00

I just wanted to report that the Women's Retreat was a great success! We had 74 women at the retreat, of diverse ages (from teenagers through nonagenarians). How often do any of us take the time to sit and meditate? We may take time out to pamper our physical bodies, but we just don't do that for our spirits. We remedied that this weekend!

At registration, we donated toiletry or spa-related items for our local domestic abuse shelter.

Suzy Speas created opportunities for reflection and meditation and prayer within the general sessions held in the sanctuary, where the lights were dimmed and a fountain trickled serenely in the background. (I am sorry that I did not get good pictures of the general sessions; it was too dark).Her presentations were based on the idea of a cup, one that holds our lives with both their positives and negatives. We must make the decision to hold our cups, in a sense accepting ourselves. Then we must be willing to lift our glasses and share our lives with others. Finally, we must be willing to drink our cups, as Jesus drank the cup the Father gave him.

Lest you think these sessions were too heavy, just imagine a group of women--from teenagers to young single women to mothers with young children to empty-nesters whose children have just flown to college to grandmothers, and even a great-grandmother or two--dancing in the aisles to a variety of music! There was also a lot of fun in the drawing of pampering doorprizes!

Our times of fellowship were truly special. On Friday night we enjoyed sub sandwiches and discussed light-hearted, spa-related topics at our tables, such as what we do when a bad hair day strikes. Bernice Blackwell, a 96-year-old charter member of St. Luke, confessed that her favorite nail polish shade would be the coral OPI shade "Where's the Party?"!

This is Miss Bernice with her daughter, Molly Williams.

Saturday's lunch over boxed meals from Saffron Catering (huge portions of delicious pasta, grilled chicken salad, fresh fruit and the best focaccia bread) provided the opportunity to bond with other women. A Walk 'n' Talk then allowed us to walk off that wonderful lunch and address some deeper topics; it was amazing to see how God had opened our hearts to one another!

Participants had preselected "preferred spa appointments" (breakout sessions) on topics such as Facials (how our attitudes shape our expressions)by Merri Scarborough, Face (Faith) Lifts by Trish Lunn, Weight Management (casting our cares on the Lord)by Joanne Merck, Manicures (making our hands beautiful for the Lord's work) by Alison Evans, and Pedicures (what makes for beautiful feet--Romans 10:15) by yours truly (You can see a basket of the goodies for our feet I put together below).

I heartily recommend a day or two at the spiritual spa! And now, back to the reality of everyday life; we need to figure out to take our spa with us!

Be sure to check back tomorrow for an interview with Nancy Twigg and a giveaway!

Menu Plan Monday

2008-09-07T17:03:00.003-04:00

Here is my menu for the week:

Monday

Crockpot Pork Chops Supreme

Green Beans

Tuesday

Chicken Tetrazinni

Salad

Wednesday

Fellowship Supper at church

Thursday

Poppyseed Chicken w/ rice

Glazed Carrots

Friday

Extra-Easy Lasagna

Salad

Extra-Easy Lasagne

1 lb. lean ground beef

4 cups pasta sauce (We like Classico 4-Cheese)

6 uncooked lasagna noodles

1 (15-oz.) container ricotta cheese

2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup hot water

Cook beef in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring until it crumbles and is no longer pink. Stir in pasta sauce.

Spread 1/3 of meat sauce in a lightly greased 11 x 7 x 2-inch baking dish; layer with 3 noodles and half each of ricotta cheese and mozzarella cheese. Repeat procedure; spread remaining 1/3 of meat sauce over mozzarella cheese. Slowly pour 1/4 cup hot water around inside edge of dish. Tightly cover baking dish with 2 layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes; uncover and bake 10 more minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

A Spa for the Soul

2008-09-04T08:55:00.003-04:00

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Psalm 51:10

Who wouldn't love a day at the spa? It had been a long time for me, but a group of childhood friends met at a new spa here in our hometown to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of one of our friends. We had our choice of spa treatments, and I chose a manicure. Experiencing a hand massage, having my nails shaped and laquered--the pampering did me good!

Just as sometimes we need a physical spa treatment, we also occasionally need a spiritual spa treatment. When we indulge in pampering our bodies, the result is relaxation, renewal, and refreshment. Doesn’t our soul deserve the same treatment?

This is what our Women's Retreat this weekend at my church is all about. Our keystone verse for A Spa for the Soul is Psalm 51:10. This event will exfoliate the rough patches in our souls, moisturize us with Living Water, and create beautiful hands and feet to do the work of Christ in our world.

I'll be sharing more on the retreat next week. In the meantime, share the Scripture that has spoken to you this week. Post those verses on your own blog, along with how you see that God wants you to apply them in your life. Then, provide your link below so that we can drink from one another's wells of scripture.

Falling into Autumn

2008-09-04T06:30:00.000-04:00

Although I seem to be jumping the gun here in South Carolina, I've been inspired by Melissa over at the Inspired Room. She is hosting a Fall Nesting celebration where we can post pictures of our autumn decorating. This has been such fun, and, now that I actually have furniture back in my house, I've had such fun cozying it up.

I began falling into autumn decorating when Kimba posted this on her blog A Soft Place to Land. You'll see in the pictures below that it was my main inspiration for fall decor. Here is the centerpiece I made for the dining-room table. I pulled out my Southern Living at Home plate and found some fall ribbon on an old basket and threaded it through the spaces. I turned over a wine glass and two of my grandmother's cordial glasses, putting them over silk autumn leaves and faux berries. I added a pumpkin but felt like it needed a little more and pulled out some doo-dads from a bowl of potpourri I had in the living room. I placed the centerpiece on a fall kitchen towel and folded it square (No, I didn't bother to iron it! In the Nester's words, it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful!). Here's the arrangement I made on the sideboard in the dining room, using the same idea but mixing in a crystal bowl and some crystal candlesticks.
I arranged the sideboard late last night (when the kids were asleep), and when I came downstairs this morning, it struck me as a little cluttered. We'll see if I leave it like this or not (Who am I kidding? When will I find the time to do this again?). Although I know that it is a deocorating no-no, I much prefer decorating with symmetry, so this arrangment is different for me. The other day at Wal-Mart I saw two really pretty hurricanes on top of bronze bases; I would have loved to have filled them up with small pumpkins, gourds, and berries. I figured, though, I should just work with what I have this year; maybe I can find them on clearance at the end of the season!

Moving from the dining room on into the kitchen, here is my centerpiece for the breakfast-room table. We got this pewter bowl and tray as wedding gifts. I thought the fruit motif played into the harvest theme. I plunked a wine glass over a silk leaf, placed three small pumpkins around the glass and added a sprig of faux berries in between each pumpkin.

Here's how I decorated the china cabinet housing my Liberty Blue china (sorry for the picture quality. How do I avoid glare from windows?). Please ignore that horrible wallpaper; I am really hoping to paint soon!

I just stuck little pumpkins, gourds, and leaves in the nooks and crannies and added small votive candles in makeshift candleholders (the one on the left is actually for tapers, and the one on the right is really a vase).

And finally, here is the mantelpiece in the den. I replaced a Christmas cactus and mother-in-law's tongue with these flowerpots filled with pumpkins.

I haven't done much outside yet; I think my neighbors would be a little perplexed if I started with autumn wreaths when it's still 90 degrees outside! I am already overhauling a wreath for the back door, though. I'll be back with more autumn decor later in the season. By the way, I am looking for two wrought iron stands that would hold ferns (or pumpkins) for my front porch. Does anyone know where I could find them (for a reasonable price)?

A Spa for the Soul

2008-09-02T12:51:00.003-04:00

This weekend my church is hosting its first Women's Retreat in many years. The title of the retreat is "A Spa for the Soul," and the keynote addresses and breakout sessions carry out this theme.

In fact, I have expanded upon this post and will be leading a breakout session entitled "A Spiritual Pedicure." I haven't spoken to a large group (of adults) since I quit teaching over five years ago.

I would covet your prayers for this weekend, specifically, that I am able to conquer any nervousness or anxiety that I may feel and that I humble myself to be a conduit for the Holy Spirit. I would also ask you to pray that the weekend is a time of renewal and rejuvenation for the women of St. Luke, that hearts would be touched, and that the event is the impetus for closer friendships among the women and closer relationships with God.

Thank you in advance for your prayers. I will take pictures and post on the retreat next week. Also, stay tuned for an interview with Nancy Twigg and a giveaway!

From Clutter to Clarity

2008-08-29T17:14:00.005-04:00

Clutter--got it? Want to get rid of it? This problem seems to be one that many people deal with. In fact, I wrote a post today on my homeschooling blog that is part of the Heart of the Matter's meme about how to control clutter.

Nancy Twigg has written a book that cuts right to the heart of clutter. In fact, she sees clutter as an outward symptom of a heart issue. From Clutter to Clarity: Simplifying Life from the Inside Out creates "a new definition of clutter: anything that complicates your life and prevents you from living in peace as you live out your purpose."

Nancy's book is innovative in that it deals with clutter, not just as the physical things that crowd our spaces, but as the attitudes and mindsets that prompt us to collect these items. In addition, Nancy states that clutter for Christians is even more problematic than for other people. She says, "We simply cannot make room for him [Jesus] when so many other things are in the way." Wow, that's convicting, isn't it?

The structure of the book makes it easy to read. Its 17 chapters are divided into three distinct sections: "From Cluttered Thoughts and Attitudes to Inner Clarity," "From Cluttered Lifestyle to Outer Clarity," and "From Cluttered Money Matters to Financial Clarity." Although Nancy includes many Bible verses throughout the book, the touchstone verse for the book is Hebrews 12:1-2:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

When I had read this verse before, I concentrated simply on the race metaphor. I had not thought of this verse through the lens of simplification, but this view is so liberating!

Nancy's personal stories and those from others which she includes at the end of each chapter are inspiring. I lack the innate gift of clutter control--physical, emotional, or spiritual--and it was encouraging to read accounts of others' success in purging their clutter.

Although all the chapters contained wisdom, the one that made the biggest impact on me was "Letting Go of the Untrustables." Seeing misplaced trust as clutter that gets in the way of our One True Source of trust has been transforming for me.

Beginning a new school year seems to bring out the need to organize. Why not read Nancy's book and get to the root of our clutter?

He Shall Bring It To Pass

2008-08-28T06:30:00.003-04:00

Joel and I attended a wedding this past weekend in Blowing Rock. The weather was much cooler there, the views were beautiful, the town was charming, and the stone church was straight out of Mitford. The bride was a childhood friend, and the experience of seeing her and other old friends prompted much nostalgia. The bride looked elegant, attired in a satin and lace sheath originally worn by her mother on her wedding day. The sit-down dinner at the country club was delicious, and dancing to the band was great fun. Among all of these delights of the weekend, though, there was something more.

Trust in the LORD, and do good;

Dwell in the land,

and feed on His faithfulness.

Delight yourself also in the LORD,

And He shall give you

the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD,

Trust also in Him,

And He shall bring it to pass.

--Psalm 37:3-5, NKJV

Verse 4 was printed on the wedding invitations, and these verses in their entirety were printed in the Order of Service and figured prominently in the homily. It was obvious that Mimi & Steve's wedding and marriage would be a testimony of their faith in God.

You see, the bride is 37 and the groom is 43, and this was the first marriage for each. After watching most of their friends marry and have children over many years, they never wavered in their belief that God would eventually lead them to the one that He had planned for them. They never settled for less than God's best out of impatience, they never tried to force their own agendas, they never gave up on their desire for a Godly spouse.

Over the years they did continue to ask their friends to pray for a Christian partner for them. They did continue to commit their single lives to God, and to delight in the ways that God showed them that He cared about them. They recognized God's hand in their lives and sustained themselves with His faithfulness.

Thank you, Mimi and Steve, for allowing us to celebrate with you on the day that God have you the desire of your hearts!

As I have meditated on these verses this week, the words "feed on His faithfulness" have lodged themselves in my mind. My sister's ministry is sponsoring a 40-day fast, and I'm taking this opportunity to commit my way to God. Although I'm not sure what form this fast will take, I look forward to the adventure of deepening my relationship with Him.

What We're Using

2008-08-22T07:58:00.002-04:00

The Heart of the Matter is hosting an online meme today about what you're using this year for homeschooling. Here's our list:

Bible: A Child Story's Bible, by Catherine Vos--We're reading a small section each day and then doing a related craft. We're also doing memory verses.
Math: Saxon 1--Emily Anne is doing first grade math because her 4K preschool class last year used the 5K Saxon math curriculum. The first two weeks have been review, and the daily meeting time is a little too repetitive for us. However, we are getting into adding and subtracting, and EA loves acting out the "some, more, less" stories.
Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting, 1--The first section of this workbook includes many review lessons. EA needs them, but they are quite long. This subject is our struggle, as EA requires continual prompting to stay on task with these long review lessons. Once the actual lessons begin with the shorter practice and the incentive of mailing out a finished Bible verse, I'm hoping the struggle will end.
Phonics: An Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, by Jessie Wise--I love, love this book! We had started last spring to supplement the phonics she was receiving in 4K but used it only sproradically. Now that we've been using it every day for about three weeks now, Emily Anne's reading has really taken off. We just started the section on consonant blends yesterday.
Science: From Mudpies to Magnets--We actually haven't used a lesson from this book yet. I think I'll choose one to do per week.

Check out what other home educators are using at The Heart of the Matter.

Memory Verse

2008-08-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

Since we've begun homeschool, we have been memorizing a verse a week. So far we've memorized Genesis 1:1, John 3:16, and this verse:

It is the LORD your God you must follow, and Him you must revere. Keep His commands and obey Him; serve Him and hold fast to Him. Deuteronomy 13:4

I have been thinking about this verse so much, partly because it is not as familiar to me as some of the others, and also because it happened to be the Old Testament scripture read last Sunday in church. I leaned over to Emily Anne and whispered, "That's our memory verse!", and she had recognized it.

As I've been meditating on this verse, I've broken it down into parts and have decided that these are excellent spiritual goals for my children (and for me!)

Follow God. So often it is too easy to run ahead of God. When we do so, we miss out on God's best for us. Instead, we should follow God as Abraham did, not always sure where we're going but confident in our Leader.
Revere God. Being reverent is something that seems to be lacking in our society today. So much is casual and geared to our comfort. We should never forget how awesome God really is. Holding God in awe checks our own too prevalent pride.
Keep God's commands. To keep God's commands, we must know them. God has given us the Holy Spirit to impress His Word on our hearts, but we must make the first effort to open the Bible and read with the intent of applying it to our lives.
Obey God. Once we know God's laws, we should intentionally fulfill them. We should obey, not just the ones that are easy for us or the ones that are socially acceptable, but all of them, even those hardest for us. Of course, with our sinful natures, we will miss the mark, but with true repentance comes forgiveness.
Serve God. God has made each of us with special gifts, personalities, experiences, and specific purposes. We should be aware of those to better work for His glory.
Hold fast to God. We should cling to God. We should hold fast to Him during crises, but we should also not loosen our grasp when the going is good, lest we open ourselves up to our own sinful natures and attacks by the enemy.

She Makes Coverings for Her Bed (and Walls and Windows . . .)

2008-08-20T06:30:00.001-04:00

I have had a fun couple of days looking at the blogs on Nester's Mister Linky for mistreatment posts. I don't think I'm even halfway through with the list! If you don't know Nester or her definition of mistreatments, check out her blog.

My earlier post on homemaking got me thinking: is putting so much thought into decorating your home frivolous? Isn't there something else that I should be doing (like cleaning?!), as busy at home as I am?

Is decorating something that the Proverbs 31 woman would do? Apparently, so. This section states that "a wife of noble character" makes coverings for her bed (and we can assume, her windows, and walls). Making a home comfortable is something that God wants us to do. Granted, a home consists much more of the atmosphere created by loving words and actions rather than that created by paint and fabric, but the physical atmosphere is important, too.

This weekend we finally moved over the rest of our furniture to our new house. Although our old house is not yet sold, we have had an offer to lease it for eighteen months. This arrangement should help to relieve some of the stress of attempting to keep up two homes and paying for them! We should sign the contract this weekend, and we would covet your prayers that all goes smoothly.

It has been an interesting nine months or so living without most of our furniture. I am so happy to have it back and to see the potential of this home and be able to truly make it our own.

You can see the before pictures of the empty living room and dining room here. Here are pics of the living room now, in progress.

Here is the far wall of the living room looking in from the foyer. Those needlepoint pillows, which were a gift from my sister, are two of my favorite things. I love blue-and-white china, and they are just perfect! The two pictures are actually French tapestries. The one on the left I brought back for my grandmother, and the one on the left is mine. They were framed and matted separately, so they're not exactly the same size, but I figure that one day I'll eventually get mine reframed to match my grandmother's. The lamp is one that my parents picked up at an estate sale; I need to get a longer lamp shade for it. It rests on a drum table that we were able to salvage when my paternal grandmother's house burned. As I write this post, it occurs to me that much of my furniture is "please and thank you."

Moving counter-clockwise in this room, is this wall. On either side of the sofa is a pocket door into the den. That lamp on the small chest is not staying; I don't think it even still works. It was just something to see how the chest works with accessories. That chest is just a little high for the sofa, but I think I'll still use it there. I haven't accessorized the coffee table yet but will probably add some books on tea and a tea cup and saucer. The portrait above the sofa is my wedding portrait; the small pictures on either side were large postcards of Florence, Italy that I had framed. They're a little too small to flank the portrait; I just added them on a whim. I'll probably eventually replace them with some blue-and-white china.

Continuing to move counter-clockwise in the room, you see this wall leading into the foyer. Above the painting is my favorite print, called "Charleston Rooftops." It's not the ubiquitous Charleston prints you see of Rainbow Row, but is still evocative of that city's charm and history. I need to find a pretty needlepoint pillow for the dark blue wingback chair and a print for that corner. Excuse the teal green carpet by the front door; that is the same carpet that we have upstairs and can't wait to replace (although it will probably be a while!).
Here is the last wall, the one that looks out into the front yard. I nestled my secretary between these two windows, but other than that, this wall is pretty bare. I think the windows are ripe for a mistreatment; some fabric would definitely cozy up this wall. Does anyone have any fabric suggestions? That tassel on the secretary is a luscious mix of rose, yellow, blue, peach, and light teal, and I would love to find some silk buffalo check fabric in those colors. Do you think buffalo checks would clash with the plaid sofa?

Here's another solicitation for advice: What color would you paint the walls in this room? They definitely need cozying up with the beige paint and beige carpeting!

Homeschool Co-op: The Agony & the Ecstasy

2008-08-18T17:13:00.003-04:00

Today was our first day of our local homeschool group's co-op. Emily Anne was enrolled in Opening Assembly (public speaking in a show & tell type format), Chemistry, Election Fun, Historic Artists, and Creative Math. Will was enrolled in a general Preschool class, Bible Time, Zoo Animals, and Rest and Relaxation.

As a part of the co-op, parents who are not teaching a class are teacher helpers. I volunteered to help in Will's preschool class and the R & R class. I thought that Emily Anne would be fine without Mama nearby and that Will might need some help adjusting to a schedule, especially at the beginning and end of the day. It turns out, I was right!

Throughout the day, whenever I had a chance to see or speak with Emily Anne, she was smiling and telling me how much she enjoyed co-op. She made fast friends with another girl just her age. Several teachers and parents told me in passing how smart and polite she was and that she had told them all about finding fossils in Tennessee. Who doesn't love to be complimented on their children? I was positively beaming!

Of course, at the time that I received these accolades, I was chasing after my other child. Will had a hard day. He is 2 1/2, which is too old for the nursery but not quite ready for the 3-year-old classes in which he is enrolled.

To top it off, Will was up at 6:15 this morning. We had to be at co-op at 8:00 to register and get EA to opening assembly. By the time his first class started, he was already asking about snack. He was great in this first class; he listened to the story, identified shapes and made a collage with them, and participated in the music. After this class, there was a snack, with time to play on the gym floor with basketballs. Will did not want to leave the basketballs to go to Bible Time. I finally convinced him to go to class (with me, even though I was not a volunteer), and he was okay in this class--not perfectly behaved, but not unmanageable either.

It was a great ordeal to get him to get to his next class; the basketballs were still beckoning. He enjoyed the zoo animal puppets that he colored when we finally got there, though. Next on the schedule was lunch, with the Rest & Relaxation class after that. We had brought his sleeping bag, with which he was delighted. My hopes were high, but, unfortunately, I was too soon hopeful. By the time the class actually started, he was tired of his sleeping bag and over-tired and over-stimulated. With my best efforts, I got him settled down, and I looked up to see Joel peeking in the window. Will and I went out to see him, and I learned that he had had to put our older cat to sleep (Booker had a fast-growing facial tumor). Joel wanted to confirm what time we would be home so that he could arrange to be there to explain to the children. After seeing Daddy, Will's efforts at communal naptime were exhausted (pun intended) After struggling with him, I finally went out to the car, brought in a few books and read to him. In ten minutes he was asleep in a noisy gym.

I learned a good lesson today. One of the reasons homeschooling seemed so appealing was the flexibility of time and learning experiences it offered. Co-op is a great fit for Emily Anne at her age. The number of classes are too overwhelming for Will right now. Rather than try to fit to the schedule, I should adapt it to fit to our needs.

Check in later in the week for a post about moving my longed-for furniture and a book review.

Golden Anniversary: The Key to Lasting 50 Years

2008-08-14T06:30:00.001-04:00

"[L]ove covers all transgressions."
Proverbs 10:12

Last week my husband's parents commemorated their golden anniversary in the presence of their four children, three in-laws, and six grandchildren by reaffirming the vows they made fifty years ago. It was not a pretentious event; the ceremony took place on the steps of a lovely country church that was scouted out the day before. There were no flowers and no music. This celebration was pared down to its essentials, and was all the more meaningful for it.

My husband's brother-in-law performed the ceremony, and in his short sermon, he distilled great marital advice down to its core. He made the point that Nancy and Eugene had lived out Proverbs 10:12: "Love covers all transgressions." Through five decades of want and abundance, tragedy and triumph, they were able to overlook the other's transgressions because of their love. Putting aside their own pride and selfishness, they let their love for one another blanket any shortcomings.

The message struck my heart. Yes, I want to be able to celebrate fifty years of marriage one day with my own husband. Do I, however, allow my love to cover my husband's transgressions? Am I able to put my wants and hurts on the backburner for the good of our marriage? Am I easily offended, quick to mistake an innocent remark for a caustic one, or do I allow love to cloak my husband's words?

No spouse is perfect, especially me. I want Joel's love for me to put me in the best possible light. In turn, I want to view him through rose-colored glasses, putting a positive spin on every word and action. Now, I don't want to ignore any possible trouble spots, as we are to "rebuke and exhort," but we are to do so with "great patience" (2 Timothy 4:2). I just want Joel and I to love one another so that we can overlook the imperfections and encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Nancy & Eugene, congratulations on your Golden Anniversary! Thank you for the example of Christian marriage that you have given your family.

We Are Family!

2008-08-11T08:01:00.003-04:00

We're back! We got back around 9 pm last night from a great trip to Tennessee. The impetus for the trip was the celebration of Joel's parents golden anniversary. Their request for a celebration was simply to have all their children and grandchildren around them for a week of vacation. As the family is spread from the Near East to South Carolina to Tenneessee to Oregon, this gathering was no easy feat! Seventeen of us gathered in the Great Smoky Mountains to reconnect with one another.

It was wonderful, in particular, to see Emily Anne and Will get to know and play with their cousins and aunts and uncles who live so far from us but are close in our hearts.

Here Emily Anne and Will are playing with their cousin Aiden. Aiden and Will are only a few months apart in age.

Here are the three older cousins each holding a younger cousin above their heads. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the delight in the little ones' faces!

This time together showed me that no matter how far-flung we may be, when we come together, the miles melt away. Our spiritual family, too, is connected by bonds that hold us together despite our physical distance and differences (Ephesians 3:15).

A Spiritual Pedicure

2008-08-07T06:30:00.002-04:00

Edited to say: I extended this post and presented it as a breakout session at my church's Women's Retreat.

"How Lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, 'Your God reigns!'"

Isaiah 52:7

Yesterday, we spent the day at Dollywood. Yes, that's right, the whole day, from about ten in the morning to six at night. By the time we got home, my feet had seen better days. "Lovely" was not the word I thought of when I freed them from sweaty socks and overheated tennis shoes. A
spa pedicure would have been welcome! That's why this word stood out when I was catching up on my Bible reading last night.

When this verse was first written, the good news and salvation referred to the Israelite's return to Jerusalem from Babylonian captivity. Paul, however, alludes to these verses in the context of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ:

"How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!'"

Romans 10:14-15

Of course, these verses echo Jesus's Great Commission (Mark 16:15), but I wasn't sure why the feet of those who spread the gospel are considered lovely. Why not the mouths of those who spread the gospel? After all, the mouth utters the words of our testimonies.

As I re-read the verses in Romans, I began to see the importance of the word sent. Yes, our words are important, but without God's intended audience, our words are just emptiness on the air. Those who need to hear the Word won't come flocking to us; we must go to them. Our feet take us there.

This week we have been blessed to spend time with Joel's extended family in Tennessee to celebrate his parents' fiftieth anniversary. We haven't seen many of these family members in a while. One of his sisters lives in Oregon. Another, along with her husband and three children, serve as missionaries abroad. About nine years ago, they pulled up roots and left their comfort zone to spread the gospel to those who had not heard and had not had the opportunity to believe.

I think that their feet were far lovelier than mine last night, pedicure or no pedicure.

Look to the One

2008-07-31T08:41:00.003-04:00

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)
Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment! I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.

Here is what spoke to me this week:

[T]he defenses of Judah are stripped away. And you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest; you saw that the City of David had many breaches in its defenses; you stored up water in the Lower Pool. You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall. You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.

Isaiah 22:8-11

Today's verses recount the Assyrian encampment around Jerusalem during King Hezekaih's reign. As the Israelites anticipated a siege, they feverishly set out to do what needed to be done. They took inventory of their weapons and made new ones. They repaired and fortified the walls that surronded their city. They made sure to store water since their main supply was outside the city gates. None of these things were inherently bad; in fact, they were prudent. The problem was that in the midst of their preparations, they failed to seek guidance from God.

How often do we forget about seeking God in the midst of a crisis? How often do we put our preparations ahead of our meditations?

Do we take inventory of our talents and strengths without remembering that God has equipped us with these gifts? (Hebrews 13:20-21) Do we not consider that God has planned this situation and has given us this gifts "for such a time as this"? (Esther 4:14)
Do we put up walls of our own making to protect ourselves from being hurt, while forgetting that Christ calls us to suffer for Him? (Romans 8:16-18)
Do we try to quench our thirst with physical water while forgetting that it is Christ and God's Word that truly satisfy our craving? (John 4:12-14)

Making preparations from our strengths is not wrong; we simply must remember that those strengths are from God and to look to Him.

The Cultivation of Beauty

2008-07-29T06:30:00.000-04:00

Around the beginning of the year, I read Jill Savage's Professionalizing Motherhood. In this book she quoted Holly Schurter on the difference between housekeeping and homemaking:

Cultivate the skills, not only of housekeeping, but of making a home for your family. As you know already, they are not always exactly the same.

Housekeeping consists of the laundry, the dishes, the toilets, and floors that need to be scrubbed, but homemaking is something else. The difference between housekeeping and homemaking is the difference between a barren field and a lovely fragrant garden.

Homemaking is the deliberate cultivation of beauty and productivity in family relationships. Homemaking is about helping your family feel loved and comforted. Homemaking is about celebrating each other, and about caring for each other, as well as for your friends and extended families and even the occasional stranger. Anyone can keep a house. Not everyone bothers to make a home.

Hmmm. I'm not so sure about that statement that anyone can keep a house; Holly obviously hasn't seen my kitchen floor. I am getting slowly but surely better in the housekeeping department, probably just a little too slowly to suit my husband's (or 90% of the population's)taste!

Now, this homemaking thing--those words strike right at my heart. This area is the one in which I always thought I would excel, especially the part about the "deliberate cultivation of beauty." I remember looking through issues of Victoria magazine as a teenager and cutting out pictures of rooms I loved. Surely I would be adept at creating a beautiful and comfortable home for my family.

Lately, ten years into my marriage with two children under the age of five, I haven't felt up to homemaking either, especially the decorating of our new home. For about a year now, we have been living with just the bare minimum of our furniture so that we could stage the house we're trying to sell. God has been definitely teaching me something about contentment during this past year. Philippians 4:11 has been my touchstone verse during this time, but I am not so content that I won't be happy to have these rooms filled again with our things.

Don't you just love that Boring Beige? I am so excited that within a month or so I will be able to put our stamp on this house and provide real comfort in our home.

In preparing for the imminent return of our furniture, I have been doing serious research in interior decorating, and I'm sharing that research with you! I have compiled my favorite home decorating blogs; the authors of these blogs definitely know a little something about the cultivation of beauty. I hesitate to do this because it may cause you to spend way too much time in blogland, but these blogs are just too good to miss. Here we go!

Nesting Place: Thoughts on Feathering My Nest: I absolutely love the Nester's sense of style. She uses a lot of buffalo checks and toile, two of my favorite types of fabric. She is all about decorating on a budget, which also fits my circumstances, especially right now. Her window "mistreatments" are not to be missed. I also love her motto: "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful!"
Southern Hospitality: Rhoda had her own decorating business and generously shares her tips and great rooms on her blog. Just look at her gorgeous laundry room! Maybe I could get more towels folded and more ironing done if my laundry room looked like that! Rhoda also loves thrifting and going to tag sales, and you could often see her latest finds on her blog.
A Soft Place to Land: I love where Kimba explains how she got the name for her blog in her "About Me" section. She has articulated what I'd like to create for my family. Also, check out this bench she refashioned. It's too cute!
Dana Moore Designs: Dana is a professional decorator and shares her fabulous designs and ideas on her blog. Look at this guest house she designed. Gorgeous!
The Handmade Housewife: Hayley has post after post filled with her cute projects. Check out these adorable pillow shams she made from place mats!
New Every Morning: New Every Morning is a kindred spirit; she has latched on to The Nester's philosophy, too! And just look at what she did with this old door in her laundry room (I love the fleur-de-lis hooks below it, too!) and how she tied it into a spiritual insight!
Pure Wells: Kathryn is my sister and has just made her debut into the blog world. I am putting her in this list because if she ever posts any pictures of her house, you would think that she does interior design for a living. Even if she doesn't post pics, you will be blessed by her posts!

Enjoy, and let me know if I've missed any great inspiration blogs!

I Am Fearfully & Wonderfully Made

2008-07-28T08:14:00.002-04:00

So, last week, we began homeschooling. It was a great week, and my favorite part of the day has become our "circle time" at the beginning of the day where we begin with prayer, a reading in The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos, discussion, Bible songs, Memory verse, and a craft based on the Bible story. We started at the beginning with Creation.

Our study of Creation has fit in perfectly with Elaine's (Peace for the Journey) series about what she saw at the zoo. Elaine is a beautiful writer, and her blog is filled with deep posts about the glory of God. Today, I saw a powerful, powerful video clip from Louie Giglio about how we are "fearfully and wonderfully made." I haven't yet figured out how to upload videos from Youtube, so here's the link.

It's about nine minutes long, but it is a nine minutes that cause you to praise God for His awesome Plan!

Altars to Achievement

2008-07-24T06:30:00.000-04:00

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.

Here is what spoke to me this week:

"Their land has been filled with idols;

They worship the work of their hands,

that which their fingers have made."

Isaiah 2:8

Isaiah spoke these verses to the people of Judah seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, yet they are appropriate to our lives today.

In my last Thirstin' for the Word post, I wrote about the Bible study that I was doing and how it intersected with the sermon given by my pastor. This concept of idolatry is still on my heart, and this verse stood out to me this week in its treatment of one of the most prevalent and insidious idols in our culture.

Isaiah was referring to actual graven images in these verses, which to modern-day readers seem foolish. How could these people put their faith in statues that they had made?

Despite our incredulity at these people's misplaced faith, we have our own tangible idols: diplomas, certificates, trophies--all the evidence of our own achievement. How often are these items arranged in a place of honor in our homes, shrines, if you will, to what we have accomplished. In contrast, it may be difficult to find any physical evidence of God in our homes, other than a Bible coated with dust.

Sometimes these idols of our achievement are less readily seen. They may be the note that congratulates us on a job well done that is tucked away to be re-read one day to give us that "needed" confidence boost. Even less apparent, it may be spoken words of praise or approving glances that we treasure in our heart, raising our sense of worth.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that what we accomplish is worthless or that to have a healthy sense of self-esteem is wrong. However, like so many idols, achievement is a good thing that can become bad. It is when we have confidence in ourselves and what we can do to the exclusion of confidence in God that our achievements become pride and idolatry.

Back in my teaching life before I had children, I had my own little altar to the accomplishments of Celly B. Behind my desk at in my classroom ranged my diplomas from college and graduate school and a certificate proclaiming my National Board certification. I had paper weights and clocks engraved with laudatory words for teaching awards. I saved notes from students, parents, and colleagues that reminded me that I was a good teacher. Notebooks from workshops and presentations I had led were stacked on display in my bookcases. Whenever I walked into my domain, I was surrounded with evidence of what I had achieved.

When I left teaching to stay home with my new baby, God effectively tore down that altar I had created to myself. Those things that I had accomplished were unimportant in my new role as a mother. My former sense of identity and confidence were demolished. Slowly, I came to realize that what I thought I had accomplished on my own I had done with God's help and that He would provide me with what I needed to be a good mother:

"Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God." (2 Corinthians 3:5)

When we rely on ourselves and what we do to define ourselves, we will ultimately be disappointed. When we tear down our altars to achievement, we allow God to step in and reclaim His rightful place at the center of our worship.

1st Day of Homeschooling!

2008-07-21T12:59:00.005-04:00

Okay, so I have known for a while that we were going to do the homeschooling thing, yet I have had a hard time deciding exactly when to begin! At first, I made up a detailed year-round schedule that would basically be three weeks on, one week off throughout the year. However, once summer got here, things got too busy between Vacation Bible School, swimming lessons, and vacations and my schedule was wrecked! So, then, I decided to wait and just begin when our local homeschool co-op would begin--the week of August 18. I went ahead and planned out our first week of homeschooling and made copies of everything we would need.

Then, Emily Anne began asking about when we would begin homeschooling. One of the things that I originally loved about homeschooling was the flexibility to homeschool when we wanted to, and also the enthusaism for learning that EA was showing. So, since, we had everything ready, I thought, Why not begin Monday? It would keep me from anticipating and getting too nervous or get my expectations hyped for the ideal situation.

Today began with circle time on the floor of the playroom. We said a prayer, and then I read aloud from the first section of The Child's Story Bible: "God Was and Is." Emily Anne thrilled me by making an unsolicited connection; when we were talking about the fact that God loves us even more than our parents do. She said, "Mom, that sounds like that song that we sang in Bible School" and proceeded to sing it--"If you ask me how much God loves me, I'd say, 'deeper than the ocean, wider than the sea!'"

We then sang "My God Is So Big" and "God Made Me" (The lyrics are "God made me, God made me, God made everything, and God made me." It's sung to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell."). We had fun substituting our names, our pets' names, and other nouns for "me."

We then made self-portrait paper-dolls, with the theme of "God Made Me." Will really got into this! I helped him cut out the pieces and drew the eyes and mouth when he got frustrated, but he enjoyed coloring the clothes and taping them on to his figure. Emily Anne did all of hers except the cutting out of the figure. I was really impressed with her cutting skills, especially around the shoes!

Next, we practiced our memory verse for this week: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1. We'll be studying Creation for the rest of the week in Bible time.

The next subject was Math. We completed Lesson 1 of Saxon Math. Will played with foam number puzzles while Emily Anne and I talked about calendars and numbers. The days of the week, months, year, and dates were all review for her; she knew them without my going through the "script" for the lesson at all. She surprised me, too, on the number chart. The lesson called for counting only up to 30, but when I stopped at 30, she continued counting by herself up to 100!

Snack break was next on the agenda (I was able to put clothes in the dryer during this time), and after snack, Emily Anne worked on the first review lesson of handwriting in Level A of A Reason for Handwriting, while Will colored a worksheet. After I went over the form and direction of the letters (EA does need some help in this area; she wants to make the letters her own way), she was able to do a lot of the practice by herself, and I was able to help Will coloring in objects that were the same on his worksheet.

Emily Anne and I then worked on the first lesson in Section 3 (Lesson 29) of The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Reading (We had already been working on these lessons during 4K). After Emily Anne's lesson, we all played with the alphabet letters on the magnetic white board, encouraging Will to pick the correct letter from the board.

We went outside, along with Addie, to have some unstructured play time, and lasted about thirty minutes in the heat. Emily Anne was pulling up weeds and then planting them in pots!

In the time before lunch, I was able to clean the carpet in the playroom.

When Daddy came home for lunch, the kids were extra excited to see him, and the first thing Will did was to take Joel by the hand to the refrigerator and say, "Look, Dad! Will made craft!"

Emily Anne recapped the morning for him, and then later, Will took him by the hand to the white board in the playroom where our schedule was written out. He pointed at Bible and said, "We had Bible," and then pointed out the other words and had Joel say them for him. Apparently, Will was more acclimated to the schedule than I thought!

After lunch, we had some read-aloud time with various books. I would like to have themed books for the week for read alouds, although I'm not sure that I want all our lessons pulled from them. I'll have to check out some FIAR websites and see what's there.

So, all in all, it was a great first day for homeschooling, and I'm glad I didn't have the time to stress out beforehand. We'll see how tomorrow goes . . . .

Beach Portraits

2008-07-21T12:40:00.004-04:00

Over July the week of July 4th, Emily Anne, Will, and I went down to my parents' place at the beach. My sister, her husband, and their daughter were also visiting. My mother has been wanting one of the ubiquitous beach portraits of our family for a long time. July is a busy time at work for Joel, so he had to drive down on Sunday, the only time he had. My mother's father also joined us for the portrait session.

During the session, my sister, who is a great photographer herself, snapped these pictures. I think some of these are as good or better than the professional shots.

Here is Will playing in the sand. He was much more interested in playing in the sand than posing for pictures!

Here is Emily Anne with her cousin Katy.

Here is Emily Anne with Daddy.

Can't you tell she's just the apple of his eye?

Emily Anne and Mommy

I think this picture is so sweet!

EA already knows how to work the camera!

In August we are vacationing with Joel's extended family and will have portraits made of his side of the family, this time in the mountains! I think we'll have our choice of pretty backgrounds for
Christmas cards this year!

What's at the Top of Your Priority List?

2008-07-17T08:06:00.003-04:00

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.

Here is what spoke to me this week:

"For the wrath of God is [being] revealed from heaven against all impiety and wickedness of men, who by their wickedness suppress the truth.

Since what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.

So they are without excuse;

for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.

Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen."

Romans 1:18-25

Two weeks ago I belatedly joined the study of Kelly Mintor's No Other Gods, hosted by Beth Moore on her Living Proof Ministries blog. Although I'm still behind in the study, I have been convicted of having gods other than the One True God in my life. Kelly points out that most idols in our society today are not the graven images of "man or birds or animals or reptiles," but rather those things to which we devote our time and attention, and which put God in the background. In other words, we give idols a higher priority in our lives than we give God.

In the midst of taking inventory of my priority list, our wonderful new pastor, Rev. Phil Thrailkill, gave a sermon on idolatry, using the above passage as part of the Scripture for his message. Now, Pastor Phil would never in a million years be described as a minister who "tickles your ears" (2 Timothy 4:3) and people were squirming in their seats across the entire congregation as we realized that we were all guilty of one (or two or three . . .) forms of idolatry and were convicted of to whom or what we were giving our devotion.

Pastor Phil went on to explain how this passage from Romans illustrates the result of idolatry. Because God's majesty and sovereignty is evident in His creation, ignorance of (or ignoring) God is deliberate. Because we fail to worship our Creator, our attempts to think for ourselves without relying on His wisdom are futile and ultimately, our plans for ourselves do not turn out the way we had hoped (Proverbs 16:25).

As a result of our futile attempts to rely on our own wisdom, we begin to justify to ourselves why our sins really aren't sin. As sin breeds sin, we continue into idolatry, and we push God farther and farther into the background of our lives.

Verse 25 of the first chapter of Romans holds an insight for me. When I first read the verse, I passed over it quickly, thinking the "creature" was more of a kind of physical idol, a graven image that ancient people might have worshiped, but not really relevant to me. As I have meditated on these verses, however, I find that they are all about me. When we worship idols rather than God, we are really worshiping our own selfish desires. Whether those idols are money, food, our possessions, our achievements, or even our children, they reflect what our heart desires more than God. When we are guilty of idolatry, we are guilty of serving ourselves rather than serving God.

In order to tear down the idols in our lives, we should heed Jesus's words in Matthew 22:37 as he quotes Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy 6:5): "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

Praying for Enlightenment

2008-07-10T06:30:00.002-04:00

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.

Here is what spoke to me this week:

I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws.

Psalm 119:7

A couple of years ago, when I became really serious about my quiet time each morning, I began reading Rick Warren's Bible Study Methods, which is a great resource for studying the Bible by topic, book, chapter, etc. One of the ways that it really changed my Bible study was his suggestion of praying for enlightenment before reading the Bible. One of his suggested prayers was Psalm 119:18, which I've previously written about here.

To guide my Bible reading, I've been following Charles Stanley's devotions in In Touch magazine, and, according to this schedule, I was in the Psalms and revisited Psalm 119 this week. I was amazed at the number of verses I could use in Psalm 119 to ask for God to reveal His truth to me. Here is a list:

Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. (Psalm 119:12)
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. (Psalm 119:18)
I recounted my ways and you answered me; teach me your decrees. (Psalm 119:26)
Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders. (Psalm 119:27)
My soul is weary with sorrow; strenghten me according to your word. (Psalm 119:28)
Teach me , O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end. (Psalm 119:33)
Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. (Psalm 119:34)
Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. (Psalm 119:35)
The earth is full of your love, O LORD; teach me your decrees. (Psalm 119:64
Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in your commands. (Psalm 119:66)
You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees. (Psalm 119:68)
Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands. (Psalm 119:73)
Accept, O LORD, the living praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws. (Psalm 119:108)
Deal with your servant according to your love and teach me your decrees. (Psalm 119:124)
I am your servant; give me discernment that I may understand your statutes. (Psalm 119:125)
Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees (Psalm 119:135)
Your statutes are forever right; give me understanding that I may live. (Psalm 119:144)
May my cry come before you, O LORD; give me understanding according to your word. (Psalm 119: 169)

These verses are just those that directly petition God for His help in understanding His Word. There are many more verses in Psalm 119 that could be used for prayer in Bible study, too.

VBS Edition

2008-06-26T07:47:00.004-04:00

This week has been VBS at our church, and I have been the Bible Storyteller for the 2K-5K classes. We have had a blast, and I have been so inspired by how eager these little ones are to drink up the stories from the Bible. We have been focusing on a different scripture each day, but the overall scripture for the week is:

Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.

1 John 3:18

This verse has had such an impact on me in the context of VBS this week. It is so easy for me to talk the talk but not do such a great job walking the walk. I am very verbal and do not always find it easy to truly act on my lofty ideas. These young ones, though, haven't learned about hypocrisy yet. They want to really put into action what they have learned.

Our mission project for the week is collecting items for the Billy Hardee Home for Boys. It is amazing to see the joy they have in dropping soap, toothpaste, wash cloths, and money into giant tubs and knowing that what they are doing is making a difference for someone else.

These preschoolers have inspired me to put my love into action more often.

It Just Slipped My Mind

2008-06-19T06:30:00.001-04:00

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.

Here is what spoke to me this week:

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

Deuteronomy 4:9

These words were spoken to the Israelites before they went into Canaan to take possession of the Promised Land. What had they seen? They had seen God send ten plagues on Egypt to convince the hard-hearted Pharaoh to let His people go. They had seen the Red Sea parted to let them pass and then watched that same sea cover the Egyptian chariots. They had seen manna fall from heaven and water spring from rocks after they grumbled and complained about the lack of food in the wilderness. They saw God's glory reflected in Moses' face as he descended the mountain. They saw the Ten Commandments carved into stone. Still, were these scenes indelibly written on their minds? No, they eventually slipped from their hearts so that future generations were not taught the greatness of what God had done for His people. The result was a turning away from God and continued oppression for the Israelites.

Lest we be too judgmental of these ancient people, don't we do the same thing today? How often do we remind ourselves of what God has done for us? If we don't cherish these things in our hearts, how will we pass along what God has done for us to our children? How will we create a legacy of faith in God?

Today's verse has caused me to become more intentional in recording my thanks to God: for a church rich with the promise of transformation, for new Christian friends who are pilgrims on this homeschool journey with me, for healthy children, for a providential husband, for a God whose eye is upon me and will teach me the way I should go (Psalm 32:8).

Watering the Plants

2008-06-12T06:41:00.004-04:00

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.

Here is what spoke to me this week:

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

or stand in the way of sinners,

or sit in the seat of mockers.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD,

and on His law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever he does prospers.

Psalm 1:1-3

Whatever is the opposite of a green thumb, I have it. My four-year-old has grown sunflowers from seed this summer; they are blooming beautifully outside my kitchen window. I, on the other hand, have killed a promising pot of basil. Everyday I would check the soil on the surface of the pot. It would feel and look dry, so I would water it. By the time the leaves started looking limp, I figured out that I was overwatering and that the excess water was rotting the roots. I held back on the water, so much so that I succeeded in finishing the basil off (Of course, the stinky fumes in my house could have contributed to the basil's demise, too!).

Today's verses provide the image of a tree that always has just the right amount of water because of where it is planted, by a brook. Its leaves, unlike my basil, never grow limp or shrivel up and brown. It provides fruit in its proper season.

The analogy is drawn between this tree that draws upon the wellspring of the water near it and the person who draws upon the wellspring of God's Word. This person doesn't consider it a duty to read the Bible; he thinks about it day and night. As a result, he knows to keep away from the company of sinners and scoffers. He is able to recognize false or worldly advice from the Truth. Therefore, "whatever he does prospers." I could certainly handle having whatever I do to prosper. Of course, by immersing myself in God's Word, the "whatever I do" might change just a little bit so that the "whatever" is more reflective of God's will than my own selfish will.

I want the leaves of my life to be verdant and lush, not barely hanging on to the limbs. I want the spiritual fruit I produce to be a luscious, bountiful harvest, not a few shriveled up fruits. I want God's Word to nurture and refresh my soul.

Mama Said There'd Be Hours Like This . . . .

2008-06-11T17:24:00.004-04:00

Don't you ever wonder why the last hour or so before Dad arrives home is the time when everything falls apart? I'd love to hear some theories on this phenomenon. We had one of those today, after a relatively idyllic morning filled with helping Mommy with her Sunday School bulletin board and a trip to the grocery store and an early afternoon of making homemade chocolate-chip cookies (from scratch, no less!). Here's the play-by-play:

4:10: Will awakes from his nap. Emily Anne automatically asks if he wants to play Hide-n-Go-Seek. Will nods his head and says, "Yes, Anne."

4:12: After Will has "hidden," Emily Anne says that it is his turn to count. I hear, ". . . nine, ten. Heah I come!"

4:13: I call Joel at the office to fill him in on this endearing experience. Joel talks with Will briefly, and we hang up.

4:15: The Hide-n-Seek-Game is now defunct. Will asks, "Mama, where my pirate puzz (puzzle)?" I look in his puzzle drawer, but it's not there. As I make my way to their stairs to see if it's in his room, he says, "Mama, I want popcorn."

4:18: I take a bag of popcorn out of the brand-new box and put it in the microwave. I haven't made popcorn in so long that I can't remember how long it takes. I know that it doesn't take as long as it says on the box, so I press the timer for five minutes and figure that I'll listen for the popping to slow down (You see where this is going, right?).

4:18:30: I hear hysterical screams from the playroom and run in to see what is the matter. Addie, our Goldendoodle, has chewed up a plastic tupperware container (one of her favorite pasttimes), which contained Emily Anne's newest pet, a cricket she caught herself in the yard. I grab another plastic container and set about to catch this varmint, which is still alive and hoppin'.
4:21: I take the cricket and its new habitat to the kitchen, which is enveloped in a choking haze of smoke. I open the door to the microwave and, with teary eyes, remove the hot, charred remains of the popcorn bag. I ensconce it in a plastic garbage bag and run it out to the outside garbage can.

4:24: I remove the glass carousel from the microwave and scrub it, stopping to turn on the exhaust fan (a little late). Once I get that cleaned off, I start to attack the browned inside of the microwave, but the fumes are too strong. I open the doors to the screened porch and plop myself down on the wicker loveseat.

4:32: Will comes out to the porch and says, "Mama, I hungy." I ask him if he wants a cookie (I know, I know--it was too close to dinnertime, but I was desperate). He says, "No, Will don like cookies" with a pout.

4:32:15: Will says, "Mama, I want cookie." We go inside to get a cookie and some milk. I try to coax him onto the porch so that his lungs won't be damaged by smoke inhalation while I tackle the inside of the microwave.

4:38: I've gotten the microwave as clean as I can get it. I vacillate on the idea of getting started on my ironing. Will my clothes all smell like they were dried over a campfire?

4:40: I decide to start on the ironing and get everything set up.

4:42: Emily Anne comes in to the laundry room and announces that she thinks she has sprained her ankle. I stop ironing my first item, turn the iron off so that no one will get burned and examine the ankle. There is nothing wrong with her ankle. I iron three items of clothing.

4:54: Emily Anne comes into the laundry room and announces, "Addie pooped in the playroom." I go in to investigate and discover that EA's announcement was, in fact, an understatement. Our huge dog must have an upset stomach because she has created a trail of diarrhea through our playroom.

4:55: Muttering under my breath a word very appropriate to the situation, I clean up the mess. I follow through with carpet cleaner and a feeble attempt at freshening the air with Febreeze. Can you just imagine what my house smells like now?

5:20: Joel walks in from work and says, "What is that horrible smell?"

It is times like this when I feel ill-equipped to handle the myriad demands of raising children and keeping a home, which I know to be His will for me at this season of my life. I am reminded of 2 Corinthians 9:8:

And God is able to make all grace abound to you,

so that in all things at all times,

having all that you need,

you will abound in every good work.

So, in acrid popcorn smoke amidst escaped hopping crickets at the last hour before the reinforcements arrive, God will provide. Through his grace He will equip me with the patience, endurance, forbearance, compassion, and olfactory powers to deal with any situation that should come up in my good work for His glory.

Tomes for Totes--Father's Day Edition

2008-06-10T07:29:00.005-04:00

Are you looking for a great book for Father's Day? One that celebrates the bonds between fathers and sons? Look no further than You Can Do Anything, Daddy by Michael Rex.

My husband came back with this book on a trip to the library with the kids, and it has been my two-year-old son's favorite book for about a month now. He calls it his "pirate" book and asks for it to be read first at everytime bedtime reading session.

The simple story deals with a young boy who asks his father if he would rescue him if a band of pirates snatched him away. The father answers confidently that he would. The scenarios become increasingly dire (in the imagination of a young boy), and the father successfully meets each challenge with the reassurance that he would dare anything for his son. The ending turns on this situation with the young boy taking care of his father.

The pirates, gorillas, and robots from Mars hold the attention of any of the most adventurous boy, and the illustrations are humorous. My son identifies the young boy as himself and the father as "Daddy," a most heartwarming scenario for Father's Day.

Happy Reading!

How We Schedule

2008-06-06T07:12:00.005-04:00

Today's Heart of the Matter meme asks us to explain how we schedule. Back in March when I ordered curriculum, I came up with a great plan of how we would organize our school year and our school days.

First off, I decided we would do a year-round schedule, "doing" school for three weeks and then taking a week off. I tweaked the schedule here and there so that the weeks off would coincide with the two weely vacations we would take (one with my familly and one with Joel's) and major holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter). With this schedule we would be beginning our school year next week.

My reasons for coming up with a year-round schedule were that Emily Anne was so excited about learning right now (and I was so excited about homeschooling) that I hated to wait just because traditional schedules start in the fall. I've had a couple of misgivings since March, which include the fact that the vast majority of people in my local homeschool group follow a traditional schedule and my worry that breaks so often might seem arbitrary to EA when those breaks don't coincide with a vacation or holiday (and they would be, wouldn't they?). Also, I'm not sure how the Saxon math curriculum I'm using will work with year-round scheduling, but I'm sure we can adapt it. I also forgot to include Vacation Bible School in my planning, and it occurs the third week into our schedule.

Since next year will just be 5K for EA, and SC doesn't require reporting during that year, I think that it will be a time for experimentation for us. We'll go ahead and try out our year-round schedule and see how it works for us.

Back in March I also came up with a schedule for each day, complete with times for each subject. Knowing that children complete some assignments that we had thought might take more time quickly, and vice versa, I think I'll go with a more relaxed agenda approach. A white board would be like our To-Do List, with each subject and/or activity written on the board, along with a magnetized picture of each one. We'll start each day around 9am, which will give us some down time and chore time before the school day begins.

How do you schedule your homeschool days? Share your schedule and check out other schedules at The Heart of the Matter.

Sipping with a Hole in My Straw

2008-06-05T07:40:00.003-04:00

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.

Here is what spoke to me this week:

"Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law."

Psalm 119:18

Despite my best intentions this year really to glean application from my Bible reading, I don't always do so. Sometimes I just feel that there is nothing to glean from a passage. I feel as dry and parched after my reading as I did before. Does this ever happen to you?

Thinking about this situation, I realized that the amount of wisdom I receive from a passage usually coincides with my attitude as I begin reading. Lately, I've felt that my Bible reading is a duty, and my attentnion to it has been perfunctory. Consequently, it hasn't been easy to figure out what God wants me to do with these words in my life.

I contrasted this with a particularly fruitful time in my life spiritually. I was waking up early and spending time with God, reading His word and writing in my prayer journal. Also, before I began reading, I would pray Psalm 119:18. These words gave me an expectation that the verses I would read would speak to my particular condition on that day and would lead me to a truth that God wanted me to discover. It awakened me to Hebrews 4:12!

I realize that simply reading the Bible for the sake of reading is like trying to sip water through a straw with a hole in it. Little of the life-giving water makes it to my parched mouth. By acknowledging that God will speak to me through His Word, I am able to drink down this life-giving water.

2008-05-29T06:30:00.000-04:00

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)
Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.

Here is what spoke to me this week:

In those days I saw in Judah some who were treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sacks of grain and loading them on donkeys, as well as wine, grapes, figs and all kinds of loads, and they brought them into Jerusalem on the sabbath day. So I admonished them on the day they sold food.

Also men of Tyre were living there who imported fish and all kinds of merchandise, and sold them to the sons of Judah on the sabbath, even in Jerusalem.

Then I reprimanded the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this evil thing you are doing, by profaning the sabbath day?

Did not your fathers do the same, so that our God brought on us and on this city all this trouble? Yet you are adding to the wrath on Israel by profaning the sabbath?"

Nehemiah 13:15-18

This week at the playground, I ran into a mother in the local homeschool group in which I'm beginning to make friends. This lady is one of those rare people who just radiate Christ. I knew from our first meetings that the Lord had placed her in my life for a reason. This post is about one of them.

We were talking about summer activities and the scheduling craziness of children's sports. She said that one main reason her husband is coaching is so that he can schedule practices so that all the traveling to and from the fields is not so onerous and so that they can avoid practicing on Sundays. She was lamenting the fact that so many activities are on the sabbath.

She went on to state that her daughter's state championship for gymnastics was on a Sunday, and she and her husband had to sit down and talk with her and explain why she couldn't compete. She said that it was really hard, especially when the girl who won one of the events was a teammate whom my friend's daughter had consistently beaten throughout the season. She said that it was tough, especially considering that her daughter could have been a state champion, but that it was a great lesson for her whole family.

This conversation has really given me pause. In her place, I would have found it so easy to rationalize that God's law from the Old Testament didn't really apply to us in this day and age. All the tears and disappointment would be ample incentive to allow Sunday participation in something which was worked hard for all season.

In fact, we just made a major purchase a Sunday or two ago. After all, didn't Jesus do work on the Sabbath? Somehow, though, I don't think that buying a new computer on Sunday and healing someone on Sunday is really comparing apples to apples!

Last night the Holy Spirit continued to convict me on this subject when I came across the above verses from Nehemiah in my scheduled Bible reading. Not only was Nehemiah condemning the Jewish people for working on the Sabbath, he was condemning foreigners who were selling on the Sabbath. Why would he be concerned about what foreigners were doing on a day holy to the Hebrews? Well, who would be buying their wares? On a day holy to God, the Hebrews would be concerned with obtaining material things, allowing consumerism to crowd God out of the picture, even on the day set aside for His worship. Hmmm. That sentence hit a little too close to home!

I remember as a child that there were few stores open on Sunday. Now it is so convenient, especially with things as busy as they are during the week, to leave shopping for Sundays. It's a little too convenient and not a change for the better!

What is the purpose of keeping the Sabbath? Is it just a legalistic hoop through which to jump to prove our devotion to the Lord? Not according to Jesus. He said, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 3:1).

In his sermon "On the Sabbath," John Wesley states, "one reason why they were [to] keep his sabbaths was that they might be holy as God is holy; that by constantly dedicating to him one day in seven they might be enabled to spend the other six as became those who acknowledged their Creator and Sanctifier, to be of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; that they might ever be mindful of taking him for their pattern, not only in one particular, but in the general course of their lives, which after his example should be holy, just, and good." Wesley makes the point that setting apart one day of the week to focus on God refocuses our attention on how we should live the rest of the week.

Although around this house we tend to be "busy at home," I think that one day of the week will begin to be a little less busy!

"If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the LORD, And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth . . . ."

(Isaiah 58:13-14b)

William Steig--An Unexpected Find!

2008-05-27T08:05:00.004-04:00

Tomes for Tots

A few months ago, my children begged to go to the library (isn't that music to any mother's ears?). In our rush to get out of the house, I forgot my notebook that has my spreadsheet of titles recommended by various experts in children's read-alouds (Aren't I organized--ahem, anal?) So, although we usually have a few books that Mommy picks out and some that are chosen by the kiddos, this visit resulted in books that were exclusively child-chosen.

In our cache of picture books, I expected to find mostly duds and perhaps one or two good reads. I pulled out one book, which I wasn't particularly interested in, but which my daughter asked for and asked for again and again and again . . . .

As we first read the book, I wondered at my daughter's reading choices. Solomon, a rabbit, has the ability to change himself into a rusty nail. He first uses this ability to trick his friends and family and feels the rush of superiority in knowing something that they don't. He then finds a real use for his ability when he is kidnapped by a menacing cat with an even more menacing knife! Solomon changes himself into the rusty nail but returns to his true self too quickly; as the cat heads back toward him, he must change back into the nail, which saves him from being eaten, but the cat now knows his magic trick. He takes Solomon back to his house, where he cages him and waits for him to turn back into a delectable bunny. Frustrated at never being able to catch Solomon in his true form, the cat nails Solomon into his house. Finally, when the house burns, Solomon is able to change back into a rabbit and is joyfully reunited with his family.

I asked myself what it was that my daughter found enjoyable in this book. I recognized that the magic was a great pull for her as well as the joyful reunion with the family at the end. I also saw that the book's style did not condescend to children but had great vocabulary and sentence structure. I looked back at my handy-dandy spreadsheet and saw that William Steig (although not this particular book) was recommended by every book on children's literature I had consulted.

Although I didn't care for Solomon and the Rusty Nail, I decided to try others of William Steig's books. Spreadsheet in hand, we've checked out Amos & Boris from the library, along with Dr. DeSoto, The Amazing Bone, and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. Dr. DeSoto is delightful and also deals with the theme of outwitting a villain. Amos & Boris is reminiscent of the Aesop's fable of the lion and the mouse, but instead involves a mouse and a whale. The Amazing Bone and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble both have very similar plots to Solomon and the Rusty Nail but are without the darkness that makes reading that book uncomfortable for me. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is my favorite so far, and my daughter said last night that she wished that we owned this book. If you want to delve into William Steig's world, this is the book I would start with.

We are looking forward to discovering some of William Steig's other books: Brave Irene, Abel's Island, and Shrek are on the top of our list.

Happy Reading!

It's Like an Archeological Dig!

2008-05-22T11:25:00.002-04:00

I actually did clean out my car this morning, even before I saw Shannon's hilarious meme! It was a little difficult, what with trying to keep an eye on Will who was driving his battery-operated play golf cart with his play lawn mower that he had somehow rigged up behind it like a trailer and with Addie running across the street to check out the neighbors, but I did it.

Here's what I found:

one memory box made at Lowe's workshop
one stuffed animal
one plastic package of fiberfill for some toy
one purse that was taken to Sunday School
Sunday School papers
Sonic straw wrapper
candy wrappers
gift wrap from a hostess gift from a party last weekend
a nametag
Wendy's prize (Arthur Art Board Game)
A Burger King prize (Iron Man)
a catalog of Jim Weiss audio CDs (great stuff!)
a nightgown I'm smocking for Emily Anne (kept in the car for when I'm in line for picking her up from preschool)
a Thomas the Train book
another Little Golden book
several DVDs & CDs
many, many, many crumbs

Try a Little Tenderness

2008-05-22T06:30:00.000-04:00

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life. Here is what spoke to me this week:

"'Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,' declares the LORD" (2 Chronicles 34:27).

These words were spoken to King Josiah after he discovered the lost Book of the Law and showed his remorse regarding how far his people and ancestors had strayed from following God's commandments (2 Chronicles 34).

The thing that really stood out for me in this verse was the word tender. How often do we use that word in our culture today--other than to describe a succulent cut of filet mignon? Doesn't our society prefer toughness over tenderness? Aren't little boys trained not to cry and to be tough little men? Why do we look at tenderness as a sign of weakness? Does God?

Apparently, He doesn't. Tenderness, at least in Josiah's case, was the prerequisite for learning from mistakes, making amends, and escaping God's wrath. Had he followed the example of his predecessors, he could have hardened his heart and pretended that God's Words didn't apply to him. Josiah, though, chose tenderness and humility and was rewarded with God's rapt attention and a revival among his people.

Another example of tenderness in a tough society is, obviously, Jesus. Just read the words of the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6:20-38) and you can see the disparity Jesus' commands and the expected response in our society. How many of us can say that we are truly able to pray for our enemies? It is so hard to tear down the walls that we construct to protect ourselves from the hurt of this world. With the Holy Spirit's help, however, we can ask the Lord to help us "put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience . . ." (Colossians 3:12).

Lowe's--Who Knew?

2008-05-16T08:47:00.003-04:00

Today's Heart of the Matter meme asks us to talk about an exciting field trip that we have recently taken. Ours takes place at Lowe's, of all places.

We were informed by a colleague of my husband's that Lowe's has free how-to clinics for children every other Saturday morning. My daughter was so excited about going to the first one, where the project was an ant farm. Emily Anne and Will attended this one when we were out of town visiting my parents. Other projects that the kids and my husband have completed are a land cruiser (sort of like a sailboat with wheels) and a memory box. The next project on Saturday, May 24 is a planter. You can sign up for the workshops at your Lowe's and view other upcoming projects here.

Although these have mostly been "Daddy" projects so far, I've been impressed with what I've heard when they've returned and with what they've returned with. In addition to their free project materials, they receive an apron and a badge for each completed project (You can tell from the picture that I've sewed Emily Anne's badges on, but haven't made it Will's yet!). They also receive a little booklet of information about each of their projects.

Kudos to Lowe's on their chidlren's how-to clinics! They're a great free field trip.

For more great field trips, visit the Heart of the Matter meme.

One is Greater

2008-05-15T08:22:00.002-04:00

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.
Here is what spoke to me this week:

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world"
(1 John 4:4)

It is easy sometimes to become discouraged with our spiritual development. We feel that we are not maturing quickly enough. We feel disheartened by the carnality of the world and the gullibility of people who believe what is so far from the Truth.

John wrote the above verses almost two thousand years ago to people who felt, perhaps, the same discouragement. What a comfort it is to know that we don't have to tend to our spiritual growth all by ourselves. Our Gardener, the Holy Spirit, will nurture our development, along with the water of the Word. God is greater than any weeds of the world or the devil who try to choke out our growth.

Isn't it wonderful that John refers to our victory as already having happened ("have overcome them")? That victory began at the cross.

So, what verses have spoken to you this week? Post those verses on your own blog, along with how you see that God wants you to apply them in your life. Then, provide your link below so that we can drink from one another's wells of scripture.

2008-05-13T06:30:00.001-04:00

Tomes for Tots

Lately I've been thinking about adding poetry to our read-alouds. We've already been through that wonderful collection of Mother Goose nursery rhymes illustrated by Rosemary Wells, but I didn't think my children were ready for any of my poetry anthologies from college, either. Although Shel Silverstein is often touted as a poet who grabs young readers' attention, I'm not a big fan. I wanted a collection of poems that captured the innocence of youth, had imagery that would capture the imagination of preschoolers and contained meter and rhyme scheme that would expose Emily Anne and Will to the wonders of poetry.

Enter A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, recommended in several sources, including . These poems, first written in 1885 by the author of Treasure Island, are relatively short, most short enough to hold the attention of a four-year-old and two-year-old. The poems are charmingly old-fashioned but contain the never outmoded joy of imagination.
Honey for a Child's Heart

We have had great weather lately and have enjoyed the spring-like temperatures on our screened porch, which is an idyllic setting for poetry reading. After about four poems, it was idyllic no more, as my children began to get restless. Becoming attuned to the nuances of poetry, though, is not an instant process, and reading even just a few poems once every week or two will help them to develop an ear for the magic of language.

Here were some of our favorite poems. Emily Anne's favorite was "The Land of Counterpane" because she recognized it from a Little Bear episode. "Bed in Summer" was certainly one poem with which they could identify, and I, too, can remember feeling the injustice of having to try to go to sleep while it is still light outside. "Block City" inpsired a request to get out the wooden blocks and to see what kind of a village we could construct. We also liked "The Land of Storybooks," and I find myself in the midst of this glorious weather wishing for winter so that we could read "Picture Books in Winter" by a cozy fire.

Happy Reading!

How We Socialize

2008-05-09T05:12:00.003-04:00

Today's Heart of the Matter meme asks us to share the ways in which our family socializes. I dealt with the issue of socialization and how the word doesn't always mean exactly what we think it means earlier in this post, so today I'll just list the ways that our family socializes.

Church & Church Activities: Our children participate (or will participate) in Sunday School, Children's Choir, and Rainbow Ringers (children's handbell choir). We also socialize at our Wednesday night fellowship suppers.

Homeschool Organization Activities: Next fall we will begin co-op classes with our local homeschool group on Mondays. We already participate in play dates and field trips sponsored by this same group.

Extra-curricular Activities: Emily Anne particpates in dance, Upward soccer & basketball. In a few years she will also begin to take piano.

Get-Togethers with Friends: We participate in play-dates with friends, birthday parties (4 so far this month!), cookouts and dinners with several families, etc.

Family: If socialization is learning to interact with people within an accepted framework of behavior, then family is the natural way to socialize! From our immediate family to grandparents to great-grandparents to aunts and uncles and cousins, our children are experiencing intergenerational socialization.

Have a great weekend!

The Battle Is Not Yours . . .

2008-05-08T08:01:00.004-04:00

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.

Here is what spoke to me this week:

He said: "Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the LORD says to you: 'Do not be discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow march down against them. . . .Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.

(2 Chronicles 20:15, 17)

Have you been struggling with something, fighting to make it come out right? Are you exhausted from the battle and afraid that you will never succeed?

Jehoshaphat was frightened, too. He had been told that a massive army was headed toward Judah to defeat him and his people. He immediately decided at the first sign of this imminent tragedy to look to God. After all of Judah prayed and fasted, the Spirit revealed the above verses to Jehoshaphat and his people.

Notice that, as at so many other times in the Bible, God's first message was not to become disheartened. No matter our circumstances, God is in charge. In fact, the next point is that the battle is not King Jehoshaphat's, nor even Judah's; it is God's battle. So many times we, who are so wrapped up in ourselves and our circumstances that we forget that God is working all things according to His purpose, and He will cause them to work out that way.

Knowing that God is in charge can sometimes make us passive. We throw up our hands and say to God, "Okay, if this is Your battle, I'll just sit back and watch You do Your thing!" God's instructions to Jehoshaphat and his people did include idly standing by, however. Instead, He tells them to "march down," to "take up [their] positions," and to "stand firm." Going out to face the enemy, you see, requires faith. We must do our part, knowing that ultimately it is God Who will be responsible for our success. In fact, Jehoshaphat demonstrated his faith in God by sending men to sing praises to God at the head of the army!

God responded to Judah's faith by causing infighting among the enemy, and when the army of Judah saw what they expected to be a great army ready for battle, they saw only dead bodies on the ground. God showed that it was His battle in the way that He defeated Judah's enemy, and also in the result: "The fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard how the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel" (2 Chronicles 20:29).

No matter how overwhelming our circumstances, it is not our battle. God will fight it for us in His way and for His glory if we place our faith in Him.

Mmm. . . Strawberries!

2008-05-08T07:48:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we went to our local farm and picked strawberries with Emily Anne's preschool classs. Here are a few pictures:

Hope your day is a sweet one!

Elsie Dinsmore

2008-05-05T21:03:00.002-04:00

Tomes for Tots

This week we went to a play date organized by our local home educators association. As I was pulling out packages of goldfish and juice boxes for snack time, another mother caught sight of the book that I had brought along in the vain hope of reading while my children were happily playing independently on the playground equipment.

"Oh, you're reading Elsie Dinsmore!" she said. "Aren't those books wonderful?"

"Oh, yes," I agreed. In fact, this was a book that I would stay up late that night to finish and pull out whenever I could the next day to revisit passages.

Elsie is a girl who is currently living with her grandfather and step-grandmother. Her mother died shortly after Elsie is born, and Elsie has never met her father, who at the encouragement of his father (the grandfather with which Elsie is now living) had left for Europe and has never seen Elsie. Because Mr. Dinsmore, Sr. never approved of his son's union with Elsie's mother, Elsie is slighted within the home, particularly by Mrs. Dinsmore and Arthur, her son.

It is how Elsie deals with the many slights and disappointments that is intriguing in this book. Having been brought up by her religious nanny Chloe, she has a staunch faith that is surprising in a child so young. Indeed, in parts, Elsie's conviction and repentance seem almost too good to be true, but she is a model for those of us struggling to live out the Christian life. The way that Scripture is applied to real-life incidents and hopes and disappointments is a true lesson.

One of the main struggles in Elsie's life is dealing with her dashed hopes of being warmly accepted by her father upon his return from Europe. Poisoned by his father's prejudices, he is cold toward his daughter who desperately and pitifully yearns for his affection. Even after there is a rewarding reconciliation between the two, the fact that her father is not saved dims Elsie's pleasure in the father-daughter relationship.

The English teacher struggles within me as I feel the need to note that this book is not great literature. Its message is too didactic, and the characters tend to be melodramatic in the goodness of Elsie and the villainy of Miss Day, the governess, and, at times, Arthur and Elsie's father. This melodrama and didacticism can be accounted for, but not excused, by the Victorian era in which it was first written by Martha Finley.

Still, it is an entertaining read, and its message of relying on God's Word is important. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series. Life of Faith has updated the Elsie books and has created additional series based on other characters and has created dolls to match a la American Girl (The book that I am reviewing is the original text, not the updated version). If, in this age of Bratz dolls, you are looking for a Christian role model for your daughter, step into Elsie's life.

Happy Reading!

Fire in the City

2008-05-02T07:43:00.003-04:00

Trumpet and Torch Ministries has organized ten days of "praying & fasting, praise & worship, teaching and intercession" from May 1, the National Day of Prayer to May 11, the Global Day of Prayer.

Believers from churches and ministries in the greater Fredericksburg, VA area are joining in an 8,000 s. f. tent to lead two-hour shifts of worship, teaching, and prayer around the clock for these ten days.

My sister, who is instrumental in Trumpet and Torch Ministries, emailed me to say that yesterday at the 2 pm igniting of Fire in the City, Fredericksburg officials tried to close them down but were unsuccessful because all the necessary permits had been obtained. I know that they would covet your prayers.

You can read more about Fire in the City here at Trumpet and Torch's website, where you can also download the free ten-day devotional guide.

Have a great weekend!

He Will Do It

2008-05-01T08:01:00.003-04:00

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.

Here is what spoke to me this week:

Be joyful always; pray contniually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.

(1 Thessaloninas 5:16-24)

I've been feeling discouraged lately in my spiritual growth. It seems as if every time I've had the opportunity to do something that would make a difference to others and myself spiritually, I've failed. Rather than holding back words of anger to my children, I've let them out. I've been sarcastic to my husband rather than guarding my tongue. When two different friends shared moments of frustration and disappointment with me, I've been at a loss to provide comforting words for them. When gossip confronted me in a car ride, rather than gracefully changing the subject, I joined in. I know that it is the Holy Spirit gently convicting me of my sins to help me grow stronger in my faith, but I feel sure that it is the enemy who is making me feel discouraged.

God's Word has once again come to my rescue with these verses from 1 Thessalonians. At first the admonition to always be joyful seems insurmountable, but it becomes doable with the advice to be thankful in any situation because it is a part of God's larger plan. Praying continually and being joyful creates in me the right heart to live victoriously.

I also realize from these verses that when I refuse to test my choices and make sure that I am holding on to only the good, I am in danger of quenching the Spirit. The weaker the Spirit becomes within me because of my refusal to listen to His voice, the easier it is for the enemy to attack me with feelings of condemnation. By choosing the good and avoiding evil, I strengthen my relationship with God.

The most important point from these verses is that it is not I that can sanctify myself; it is God, and He can do so through and through. He has called me, and it is His desire to see me mature spiritually. My faith is made stronger each time I admit to myself that God is the one who will refine me.

The Bronze Bow

2008-04-29T08:09:00.004-04:00

Tomes for Tots

Historical fiction with Christianity as its theme, The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare is a gem of a book. The 1962 Newberry Award winner deals with conflicting loyalties, making sacrifices, overcoming prejudices and anger, and finally submitting those feelings to Christ.

Daniel is a young Jewish boy whose parents have been killed by the Roman oppressors. Fleeing an abusive situation as the apprentice of a cruel blacksmith, he is taken into the band of Rosh, a zealot and an outlaw who says that he is taking from the rich in order to build up an army to fight the Romans. This aim appeals to Daniel and his consuming revenge for his parents' deaths.

Daniel has left in his village his elderly grandmother and his sister Leah, who was traumatized by her parents' deaths and never leaves the house. When their grandmother dies, Daniel must make a tough decision of whether to abandon his rebel life or to abandon his helpless sister.

Adding to the intrigue of this book is Daniel's unlikely relationship with Joel and his sister Malthace. Joel, expected to become a famous scribe or rabbi, is also taken in by the romantic notion of Rosh and his vengeance on their oppressors. The three of them form a band whose symbol is the bronze bow, taken from Psalm 18:34: He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. More people are added to the band as the action intensifies throughout the book.

Interwoven throughout the incidents in Daniel's life are his encounters with Jesus, some taken from scripture and some fictionalized. This book does an excellent job of allowing one to see and feel what Galilee must have been like when Jesus walked there, and also shows how his teachings were revolutionary in a way different from what most Jews would have anticipated.

I would recommend this book for tweens or teenagers (there is violence); I myself enjoyed it and never found myself thinking that I was reading a book written for children. The Bronze Bow would make an excellent read-aloud and should spark some great discussion on what Jesus means to us.

Happy Reading!

Happy Habits of a Homeschooler

2008-04-25T09:19:00.002-04:00

I thought that today's Heart of the Matter meme would be ideal for getting intentional about habits I'd like to incorporate into our upcoming official homeschooling. When I think about our homeschooling, so many thoughts and activities swirl around that it's hard to carve out and prioritize what we should be doing and what will make it run more smoothly. Of course, I'm sure we'll discover many more habits to incorporate as we go through the process. Here is what I've thought should become habits at Seven Pillars Academy.

Having devotional time to start each day. Reading aloud Catherine Vos's The Child's Story Bible, prayer, and Bible songs would help to instill Biblical values and would start each day off with God.
Doing scripture memorization. I think that I'll combine the verses we'll do with A Reason for Handwriting with the scripture memory system I wrote about here.
Keeping a daily agenda on a whiteboard. I know from teaching high school and attending a myriad of meetings that things go much more smoothly if everyone knows what to expect. I'll write our daily schedule on the whiteboard so that Emily Anne (and eventually Will) will know what the day will hold.
Reading on long car trips. We have gotten too much in the habit of plugging in a DVD for the children on long car trips, and I would like us to share the experience of hearing a book read aloud, whether read aloud by me while dad does the driving or a book on CD. I think this shared reading would make for great memories!

For more Happy Habits of Homeschoolers, visit the Heart of the Matter.

Thirstin' for the Word Thursday

2008-04-24T08:12:00.002-04:00

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37b)

Feeling a bit parched? Searching to quench that thirst with an iced tea or Diet Coke? Dive into the Word for real refreshment!I try to be diligent in my Bible reading and am often rewarded by God's speaking to my heart through particular scriptures. I pause and sometimes even write them down. The reflection usually ends there, however. This year, I would like to pursue the verses that God lays on my heart by pondering how He wants me to apply these verses in my life.
Here is what spoke to me this week:

Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. He went up to the tempe of the LORD with the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets--all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the LORD. The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD--to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. (2 Kings 23:1-3)

I find this story of Josiah, found in 2 Kings 22-23, fascinating. The temple of the Lord had been so neglected that King Josiah had to arrange to have it repaired. During the refurbishment, the Book of the Covenant was found. Do you understand that? The Bible had been lost, and no one was even looking for it! Not only had the kings not been reading it as they had been commanded, but apparently it wasn't even being used in the temple!

Josiah decided to correct this neglect by reading the Book of the Covenant to everyone and followed the reading with a recommitment to follow God's laws. This recommitment led to a purging of sin from the land.

We can see what effect the neglect of the Word had on Josiah's society. Josiah did away with pagan priests and tore down the shelters of the male shrine prostitutes (which were in God's temple!). He destroyed the altars used to sacrifice sons and daughters to Molech and destroyed other pagan altars. Josiah got rid of mediums and spiritualists and idols. I think we can see the parallels between a neglect of the Word in Josiah's culture and in our own today.

In microcosm, I can also see the effect of the neglect of the Word. On those days when I am "too busy" to get in my Bible reading and prayer, I lose my sense of priority. Often neglecting to read my Bible one day leads to another day without the Word and then another. Then my zeal for the Lord cools off and I find it all too easy to excuse sin. A famine of the Word in my life quenches the Spirit in my life.

How wonderful, though, that when we make that effort to return to our Bibles that God rewards our effort. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. (James 4:8a)

Tomes for Tots--Second Edition

2008-04-22T06:00:00.000-04:00

Today's second edition of Tomes for Tots will again feature an adult book about reading and a children's book: Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever by Mem Fox and Fancy Nancy: Bonjour, Butterfly by Jane O'Connor.

You may recognize the author of Reading Magic as the Australian author of many children's books. One of our favorites is Time for Bed, a book that I would recite from memory in a soft voice to lull my children to sleep. We would still have to (and still do) read it in the daytime for the beautiful animal pictures. What I didn't know about Mem Fox was that she has such a passion for reading aloud to children and that she was an Associate Professor of Literacy Studies for twenty-four years. This book is a parent-friendly volume of fifteen chapters, that focuses on the need for making time to read to our children, the three components of reading, and how to read aloud. Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book that sums up the magic of reading aloud to our children:

As we share the words and pictures, the ideas and viewpoints, the rhythms and rhymes, the pain and comfort, and the hopes and fears and big issues of life that we encounter together in the pages of a book, we connect through minds and hearts with our children and bond closely in a secret society associated with the books we have shared. The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading. It isn’t achieved by the book alone, nor by the child alone, nor by the adult who’s reading aloud—it’s the relationship winding between all three, bringing them together in easy harmony (10).

This insistence on the emotional nature of reading aloud, the unabashed passion for reading aloud to make a tremendous difference in a child's academic achievement, the solid advice on the three components of reading, and the how-to glimpses of Mem's own read-aloud sessions made this an informative and enjoyable book. I must admit that as much as I enjoyed this book, there was one section that gave me pause.

We should not suddenly become teachers of our children. We must be ourselves. . . . We absolutely must not attempt to teach our children formally before they start school. For parents to teach their own preschool children is the last straw. Teaching is the flip side of what works. Teaching before school kills the fun. Preschool children like their parents to be parents, not teachers. The roles are quite different, and it’s precisely the laid-back, hang-loose, let’s-have-fun, relaxed-and-comfortable role of a parent that is so powerful in helping children first to love reading and then be able to read by themselves (53-55).

When I first read these words, I felt my chest tighten in apprehension as I feared that the author might be writing a diatribe against homeschooling. However, as I finished reading the section and the book, I realized that she was not attacking homeschooling but the attitude that we all sometimes take toward learning to read. Too often we look at learning to read as a process that must be mastered in a particular formula, and too often we transmit our own anxiety to our children so that reading does not happen naturally as the result of being saturated in print and read-alouds but by a hard, dry, scholarly approach.

Another of the parts of the book that I loved was the chapter entitled "And Do It Like This," which, without intimidation, showed parents how to master the art of reading aloud. Imagine my glee when I found that on Mem Fox's website, she reads aloud this chapter, giving a real-life example of exactly what this is. Now admittedly, we may not all have Mem's charming Australian accent, but we can learn to use our own voices to capture our children's attentention.

Turning toward the children's book today, Bonjour Butterfly is the latest in the Fancy Nancy series. Fancy Nancy is very popular at our house. Of course, Nancy's utter fanciness--boas, canopies, French phrases--appeals to Emily Anne (and, I must admit, to me). However, there is a sweet solid underpinning of lessons learned, larger than frills and frippery, that makes even my husband a fan of these books.

Bonjour Butterfly is, of course, about butterflies. Nancy and her friend Bree love butterflies and are over the moon about Bree's butterfly-themed birthday party that is coming up soon. Unfortunately, Nancy soon discovers that the party is the same day as her grandparents' fiftieth anniversary celebration. The pouting that ensues in the next few pages is so real to life! Just as the other Nancy books do, though, this book ends with a renewed appreciation for family. It also ends with a trip to a butterfly garden, making the book a great introduction to a butterfly unit study (Check out this site with lots of information on butterflies and a bibliography of fiction and nonfiction butterfly books suitable for kindergartners!).

Happy Reading!