A Lesson From 100 Years Ago - Wild Wednesday

I have died a thousand deaths at the sound of a knock at the door.

And even as I write this, I've got yesterday's mascara bleeding with my attempt of last nights sleep, my bathroom isn't clean, and there is no fresh coffee brewing... oh, and there is laundry that needs folding on my couch.  So by all means stay away.

Have we become so deluded with ourselves and absorbed with our pride?  Yes.  Yes we have.

In the days of ol', they had their share of hardships, but they did get somethings very right.

(Google image)

Hospitality.  Relationships. 

Pop-ins were the norm and living together (community-wise) was expected.  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were a given and all the merrier if someone unexpected showed up.  There were still dishes that needed done, bathrooms that needed cleaning and coffee that needed brewing... there was grace offered by friends when they showed up to something resembling chaos.  After all, in the between of spontaneous joys, there is a whole lot of living.  Especially in this humble home of six, soon-to-be seven.

In today's race of measuring up, we rush and stretch and bend and close our eyes.  We die a thousand deaths at the ring of a phone or, heaven forbid, the unexpected sound of the doorbell.  Is it the subconscious thought, "Who wants more of me now?"  Our homes and our heads are in constant turmoil... our children, alone, hunger for food and for time devoted to more than glances and shoulder brushes.  And now we have to make room for more?

Maybe it's actually a case of making room for less...  less idleness.  Less meaningless.  Less apathy.

Less dreaming and more doing.

Less Facebook and Pinterest - More folding clothes and preparing my day.

Less texting - More intentional, meaningful, human contact....  Realness.

So no more dying... Duties and messes and kids in all their wonder are a given, but despite them, my doors - my coffee pot - my fridge, even! - is always open.

Come and make my day.

*________________________________________*

Wild Wednesday Returns --

Make someone's day.  Open your home this week.  MAKE THE TIME.  It does not need to be fancy in the least, but do make it special.

It can be as elaborate as a 5 course meal with fancy linens and a violinist... or for the more simple-minded like myself, a pot of coffee or a fresh quart of chai concentrate and maybe some muffins or cookies.  Or for dudes: some cans of mountain dew and a bag of chips...

Whatever shape it takes, it's the intention and relationship that is at the heart of it.  If you burn your cookies... that's all the better!  You are a fallable human and there are no fronts or pride you need to hold on to.  Open your home... and you just might find your heart opening too!

Remember it's about being real.  This isn't a time to showcase your biggest and best and get caught up in keeping up.  They have a daughter who won a talent contest (maybe it was even 10 years ago!)?  That is great!  Really great. ---->  .

So, off you go!  Make it happen!  You'll be blessed because of it.

*I do love hearing from you!  If you take on this weeks challenge, comment back and let me know... how'd it go?  What did you do?

Christmas Calm

It is Christmastime.

Amidst the bustle of days and days, there is a driving need for time and peace. Slow down the frantic to see the King of Glory in everyday. In every minute.

Eligh twirls to The First Noel played by a children's toy... like that moment.

But neccessary life?


Errands and lessons and groceries and visits with friends.  Housekeeping and quiet-times and getting presentable-looking.  Schooling and meal-creating and time to just be.

In-between that which must be done there ARE -- precious moments.

Oh, beware my time-wasters.  Joy-killers.  Life-suckers.
 
... I attempt. I'll call it intention. (Here are seven ways to help ensure your ability to see those moments in your day.  And tomorrow.)

Live unharried to see the sweet moment recurring this day.  To see the opportunities to make someone else's day... to reach beyond and reach through and affect their eternity.  Becuase Jesus came. The infinite God made small babe. Christmas. The one  Precious Moment offered you and me.

And eternity awaits.  Remember this each day and in-between what must be done... there is awe. 

Slowness to rush through and miss it.  It is in the effort of calm and intent these days -- the expectation of something sweet...

Kisses for mama.  Dances for Eligh.

(Google images)

Farmhouse life...

We wake up to a chill in the air.

Oh, for the boy that is not yet a man, keeping his family warm.  He slides from his bed, hazy, I am sure.  Throws on his boots and coat and heads out to the white of the frigid morning.  The outdoor wood stove needs filling and The Man is gone to work for hours already.

That kind of farmhouse living.

I had visions of fences, a welcoming drive, a few cows, a herd of chickens and a real homesteaders spirit.  Children building and milking and making.

But this is the life we are living...
We opt for days we can do. Days that include: homeschooling and Internet, whole foods cooking and store bought food, trips to town and a debit card, evenings with our family and movies on Netflix.  Children play in a child's paradise and with a Wii.  Chores, yet don't be surprised if you stop by to a home in chaos.  Time in the hard copy Word and stops by an inspirational blog or two. 
Though, family... working together for the good of each other.

 It may not be the thrashing and grinding of our own home-grown wheat, but the principles remains the same:

wonder, sacrifice, effort, grace, love, service.

family.

Reassessing to live today.  It's not a three week project -- a fleeting finishing... it's the project of a lifetime that will take our lifetime. 

Moving beyond the renovation.

Of Days Gone By

Yep.  The big ol ugly ??? (whatever it was) is going, going...

gone.

Grandma Snyder canned our pears for us this year...  xoxo

A slight problem with venting your dyer INTO your house.

Doesn't look like much to be proud of, but that is how we heat our house.  A little vent cover would do nicely here... yes?

Tea time with my girls...

 Paper scrap creations

Reading and more reading.

 

I love Christmas and that guy. 

And am so thankful for these people that God has given to me!

 Time for sledding...

Time for Jesus with our Daily Advent devotion -- The Jesse Tree

In three months there has been a little more progress... but a lot more life.

Days go by...

(And as soon as we can find our SD card (grrr)... there will be pictures of curtains and a Christmas tree and other curtains that don't cover windows...)

In the Beat of a Heart

Here we are, now on the brink of Autumn.

Not for even a moment does life grant us a stand still.  And as much as I know life  must be on the move, I, almost daily, try my best to freeze frame my favorite sights and sounds of the day.  Those priceless moments with my gifts from God. Though, I can't recall them even five minutes later, I hope the Lord is preserving them in my mind for precious recollections down the road.

I look forward to holding our newest gift for the first time -- March can't come soon enough. But from the same place in my heart, as I watched my three-year-old walk away, obediently to bed last night... oh, my heart...  someday, sooner than I wish it, my little boy will be a great big man.  No longer with the greatest little boy's belly laugh that I've ever heard... though, I reckon it will just be the greatest great big man's belly laugh I've ever heard.

I look so forward to being old with my husband... but what about when it finally hits us that we are getting old too?  When we look back on how many Autumn's of our life together have passed?  When the day arrives that our children start off on their own journey's apart from us?  A lifetime lived in but the beat of a heart. What a life we will have lived together, Lord willing.

 (I so completely adore that man the Lord made for me.)

"I look forward to each new season with the anticipation of what it will hold. But as I go, I can’t help but look over my shoulder with the warmest sentiments toward the season I am leaving behind." -Stacie at Beautiful Things

My sentiments exactly.

12 weeks.

It is all His grace that has given me twelve weeks.

...and all the more grace when I make it to thirteen.

My dearest friends...

We are having another baby

-Nevermind the tired Sunday afternoon appearance!-

What could be more "100 Years Ago" than having a baby...

Well, that is, having a baby the way we have babies.

At home

 with an experienced midwife.

It has been hard for me to tell people.  I'd much rather wait until I was 20 weeks for the majority of the world to know, but as it is, I already look... well, I don't know how far along I look exactly, but --people are starting to talk...

So there it is.  I've told.

There is this mama, for those of you who are thinking,

"Well, that's just nuts!!  5??" that says,

"If you think my hands are full... you should see my heart."

I love that.

My difficulty with telling people so early stems from five years ago...

I lost two babies (separate pregnancies) about that long ago, both at the 2nd trimester mark (which is what I've hit today, although it appears as if the professionals have moved that mark to 13 weeks...), but since have had two healthy births.  However, even those last two pregnancies were troubled in those transitional weeks from the 1st to 2nd trimester, which contributes to my hesitation to let the world know, for fear that I may have to un-let the world and then some know only weeks later.

This one is the smoothest of the three, but I've been so deeply scarred and conditioned for trouble and dooms-day events, that it is making it difficult to relax and enjoy, while not the morning sickness, the knowledge that there is a precious little life, now around three inches from crown to rump, growing inside me.

I do have one consolation. 

 The Lord has given our baby a name.

"Light"

I take that as a promise of God that my baby will be given life.

And not only that, but that he, or maybe she, has a clear and defined purpose for his life.

I began jotting down names that popped in my head as soon as we found out we were having another baby.  And as experience has proven, Ben and I have a slightly differing preference for names. 

This time he said, "I don't care what the name is as much as I care that it means something."

Probably because our girls names are picked out of thin air just because "I like it!"  So, I thought that before I go any further with the list making, I should make sure of what the names-so-far mean so as not to have a child whose name means, "beast" or "..." well, I can't think of some of the other's I've come across now... I am pregnant remember?  On #5 no less... I have no mind left at this point!!

Anyway!  Point being... I had one boys name on the list, first and middle, along with four girl firsts and middles (girls have always been so much easier for us to agree on!).  I started looking them up.

(Actual names will be revealed later -- these are just the meanings)

Boy: First -  Light  Middle-  White

Girl #1: First- Protected by God (Is he trying to tell me something here?)  Middle-  shining brightly with light

Girl #2: First-  Light  Middle-  Light

Girl #3: First-  Light  Middle-  Light

Girl #4:  First-  Light  Middle- Jewel (and who here knows that precious jewels are nothing with out light?)

So our baby was named.  We (I) stopped looking there.  His or her name is on this list.  We don't know boy or girl yet, nor will we until the birth.  But the Lord gave me a verse for our, presently 3 inch long, Light.

Isaiah 42:6-7 

 I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness,

And will hold Your hand;

I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people,

As a light to the Gentiles,  

To open blind eyes,

To bring out prisoners from the prison,

Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.

I think our baby is just fine.

  Armfuls of gratitude to the Giver of Grace

and Life.

My Sweet Jesus... He Loves Me All the Same

Last week was a tough week.

... Last year has been a tough year.

I had some real self-pity goin' on when I said, "I know you are God and all, but...

 I don't like you right now."

This morning in church I was thinking about the cross and His gift to me, and I couldn't believe I had so recently said that.  However, I continued:

Forgive me, Jesus.

[BUT]

I am so weary.

I am so hungry.

I know my walk with you is my responsibility... but it's a the Mojave out here!

Not to mention how hard life has turned out to be...

[Remember the good ol' days?]

We had time.

I knew Your presence.

All was right.

[So]

Please return Your hand of blessing on our family.

As if His hand had ever left us. 

I am such an Israelite.

                     Complain.  Whine.  Create for myself.

He reminded me of a passage I had just read on Friday.  In passing, I read a portion of Scripture (Luke 17-  See what the Lord can recall to you if you just take it in??)

   “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep.

Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field,

‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 

Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink;

after that you may eat and drink’? 

Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 

So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say,

‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

God is a great giver -- it is not our right to receive.

Will I only offer praises to him in the times of abundance and apparent blessing?