This is for Doreen

I sat on the front porch yesterday talking on the phone to my friend, Doreen. As we talked, I saw the Mama and Papa bluebirds going in and out of the bluebird house in the front garden, taking food to their babies. Doreen mentioned that she hadn't seen bluebirds where she lives. We have lots of them in our neighborhood. I frequently see a flash of blue in a swooping arc over the yard. Sometimes one will sit placidly on the stop sign at the top of the hill. Each year they nest in our bluebird boxes in front and back. Just last week, one came and ate at the suet feeder and I was able to get a nice picture. So, here it is for you, Doreen!

"Can World's Strongest Dad"

If you are needing courage to press on in anything, I encourage you to watch this amazing video. I thought lots of our dear friend, Aiden, who has now gone to be with the Lord, and of his incredibly courageous parents, Mo and Sam. They are an inspiration to me in their devotion to their precious son, who had very severe developmental disabilities. They showed many of us the meaning of sacrificial giving, day in and day out, as they cared for Aiden. And the children who participated in Mo's summer backyard clubs experienced so much more than crafts and stories. Compassion and love blossomed in those fun-filled days with Mrs. "Sprite", Aiden, and the others. We will never forget Aiden...and Mo, we can't wait to see you this summer!



[HT: Tonia at study in brown]

Home again

Jonathan made it home this morning around 8:00 after a 15 1/2 hour overnight drive from Boston. We are thankful for his safe arrival and happy to have him home again for a little bit. Thanks to those of you who were praying for his trip. God brought him home safely. He'll be heading back north in little over a week to spend the summer living on campus at Gordon and working.

Saturate and Linger

This past Sunday, Pastor Fred taught on prayer in our core seminar. Two words that he used to describe the place prayer should have in our lives as well as the way we should pray stayed with me.

Saturate - he said that our day should be saturated with prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says "Pray without ceasing." Our whole day should be a continual turning of our thoughts, hearts, and will to God. This doesn't mean that we stop everything we are doing and go into our prayer closet for the whole day. Rather, it means that everything that goes on in our day is a matter for prayer. Do I have a very full day ahead? Pray that God would order it to accomplish His good purposes for the day. Am I tired and grouchy? Pray that God would give me a rest and a cheerful heart. Am I frustrated about something I have messed up on? Pray for forgiveness if sin is involved and for His redeeming hand to take my messes and use them for my good and His glory. Have I just received a phone call from a hurting and confused friend? Pray for compassion and words of tender wisdom. Have I just seen a bluebird flit across the front yard or discovered a particularly lovely foxglove blossom in the garden. Thank Him for creating such beauty and giving me the gift of eyes to see. The point is that God is always with us and wants us to carry on a continual conversation with Him through the day. To fail to do that would be like going somewhere with someone you love for the whole day and failing to speak to him the entire time. We'd never do that. Why do we go through entire days sometimes without talking to the One who loves us more than any other and to whom we owe our deepest devotion, highest praise, and most heartfelt thanksgiving. Saturate.

Linger - Fred's example was of a friend who comes to visit and you say good-bye but you stand at the door, talking. And you walk out on the front step, talking. And you stroll down the sidewalk to the driveway, talking. And you stand by the car, still talking. You don't want to part. There's still more to talk about. You linger in conversation. Fred encouraged us to linger with the Lord in prayer, to keep praying until we really pray - not just listing off requests, but really talking, praying Scripture, and listening. Praying long enough to remember all the things you have thought you needed to pray about but never seemed to get to or couldn't call to mind in the hurried prayer time. The Lord is not in a hurry and there is so much to pray about. If you have ever attended a prayer meeting that was supposed to go on for two or three hours and wondered how you would ever pray for that long and then realized that the time flew by, you will appreciate the sweetness of and need for longer times set aside for prayer. Linger.

Those two simple words give me handles for focusing my prayer life. Thanks, Pastor Fred. I want this week to be one of saturating and lingering. Reader, will you join me?

Tagged

I was tagged by Kelly. Like her, it is hard for me to think of eight things that at least some of my readers don't know about me, but I'll try. First the rules, though: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. My favorite candy bar is Almond Joy. My other favorite candy is Necco wafers.
2. I am picky about the mugs I use for coffee and tea (they all have the color blue in them and are nice ceramic), and I don't like flavored coffees or creamers. I do love a good black tea like Lifeboat or Yorkshire Gold.
3. My favorite vacation spot would be a cabin with a porch on a lake in the mountains with a porch for reading, a dock for jumping off of into the lake, and a canoe for exploring.
4. I love to hear owls and coyotes at night. One night on safari in Kenya, I heard hyenas yipping and barking and will never forget the feeling of being close to something so wild.
5. I love art history.
6. I would like to hike the Mountains to the Sea trail across the state of North Carolina.
7. I sang in the Singing Christmas Tree in Greenville, SC, in high school.
8. I started my gardening adventures in college when I helped a group start a community garden in Davidson. Then I worked at a bio-intensive research garden in Palo Alto, CA; then started a market garden in Menlo Park. Next it was on to Kenya and starting a demonstration garden in a slum in Nairobi, then home gardens in Virginia, Massachusetts, Cameroon, and now back to NC, where I first got my hands in the dirt. I love gardening in NC best of all!!

I now tag
Erin and maybe she'll start writing again!
Amber
Michelle
Jacob, Karen, Isabelle, and Ezra
and Sallie

On finishing "Out of Africa"

I finished reading Out of Africa. I loved reading it again. Here is an assortment of favorite quotes. There is no common thread, really, except that Dinesen's writing is so evocative for me that when I read her, I not only see the ploughs, but smell the oxen and feel the red dirt, I reach down to stroke my cat, and I recall being awakened in the night in California with a bang and a shake, amazed that I had felt an earthquake.


During her last years in Africa...

If I know a song of Africa...of the Giraffe, and the African new moon lying on her back, of the ploughs in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Would the air over the plain quiver with a color that I had had on, or the children invent a game in which my name was, or the full moon throw a shadow on the gravel of the drive that was like me, or would the eagles of the Ngong look out for me?

Speaking of a friend...

He walked as noiselessly as a cat. And like a cat, he made every room that he sat in, a place of comfort, as if he had had in him a source of heat and fun. If Berkeley had come and sat with you upon the smoking ruin of your house, he would, like a cat, have made you feel that your were in a picked snug corner.

After feeling the shock of an earthquake...

The heavenly bodies, in their courses, have it in their power, to move human minds to unknown heights of delight...Kepler writes of what he felt when, after many years' work, he at last found the laws of the movements of the planets: 'I give myself over to rapture. The die is cast. Nothing I have ever felt before is like this. I tremble, my blood leaps. God has waited six thousand years for a looker-on to his work. His wisdom is infintie, that of which we are ingnorant is contained in him...' Indeed, it was exactly the same transport that shook me all through, at the time of the earthquake.

An aside on taking a book to bed in the midst of a crisis on the farm...

In Africa, when you pick up a book worth reading...you read it as an author would like his book to be read, praying to God that he may have it in him to go on as beautifully as he has begun. Your mind runs, transported, upon a fresh deep green track.

I didn't want this book to end. I never want good books to end and I usually feel like starting them all over again, right away. I knew, sadly, that I would finish reading Out of Africa and that it would have a sad ending. Dinesen had to leave her beloved farm, after all. I think, however, that I have read this book as she would have liked it to be read. Indeed, my mind has run "upon a fresh green track."

Graduation from The Pinckney Family School...a family affair

On Saturday, Thomas was the first Pinckney homeschool graduate to actually “walk” in commencement exercises. He graduated with 12 others in the Cabarrus County Homeschool Association. It was a fine day. Long, but fine. The graduation meant a lot to us personally mainly because of what Thomas had to say. (Squidge is working on getting the video ready so stay tuned). There was a nice reception afterwards with cake, punch, etc. and folks stayed around to visit and view the displays that each graduate had set up with pictures, awards, and other memorabilia of their lives. It was sweet to hear the congratulatory words and encouraging comments that lots of folks had about Thomas. Made a mom’s heart happy!


It was a family affair because Andrew played the cello and served as a Junior Marshall...

and Matthew (Squidge) filmed the proceedings and is producing a DVD for the families.

Good work, guys!

We had a graduation pool party/cookout with Thomas’s closest friends and some of our family in the evening. The kids swam, played music, ate, and just generally had a good time. The rain didn’t dampen our spirits a bit and our grillmasters (thanks Rob and Fred) did a great job! What a joy to celebrate the completion of Thomas's homeschool career. Thanks to all of you who helped make it a special occasion!

Wing Haven

Awhile back I'm promised a post on another garden I had visited. While Coty's sister was visiting a few weeks back, we made a trip to Wing Haven and were richly rewarded with a peaceful walk in a lovely garden, a bit of history, and inspiration for future gardening efforts. Check out the link to learn a bit more about Wing Haven and it's creators, Eddie and Elizabeth Clarkson. If you are a gardener or a bird lover, you will be inspired. And here are a few pictures to encourage you further to make a visit one day soon....

On a picture study and storms

One of the things we do in our little Charlotte Mason homeschool co-op is study the work of famous artists. This year we have focused on American artists. We spent the fall getting to know Winslow Homer. This spring we have learned about Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, and Gilbert Stuart. We recently started learning about the Hudson River School. Our first Hudson River artist was Thomas Cole. Last week we looked at his painting, The Oxbow. While reading a little about Cole later, I came across this quote, which he wrote in his journal the year before he painted The Oxbow,

"I would not live where tempests never come, for they bring beauty in their train."

I thought about this quote for awhile in light of some things that have been going on in my life. I remembered these words, "And clouds arise and tempests blow by order from Thy throne," from the hymn "I Sing the Mighty Power of God." I was reminded once again that God can use anything, including a homeschool lesson planned long before my own storm, to remind me of the truth of His indwelling presence and work in my life.

Thank you God for sending the storms. Your voice is in the thunder, your power in the lightning, your cleansing in the downpour. It's true...I would not want to live without the storms you send...storms which reveal ingrained sin, discontent, idolatry, and fear in my life. Thank you for the beauty of Christ and the forgiveness He purchased for me, for restoration and sanctification. Thank you, indeed, that the storms subside, leaving Your beauty in their train.

The biggest team sport of all!

Andrew participates in what his cello teacher calls the biggest team sport of all...orchestra, that is...100 plus team members all playing together to achieve what none of them could do on their own. Last Friday was his final concert of the UNCCYO season and a memorable concert it was with both classical and popular selections. Our favorites were Mars from The Planets by Gustav Holst and the music from Jurassic Park.


His next performance will be the Bach Cello Suite, Number 2, which he'll play as one of the prelude selections at Thomas's homeschool graduation ceremony. Nice to have our dear friend, Jenn, also a cellist, here from China right now. She's helping Andrew polish his piece and it's bringing back memories of the early days of our friendship when she helped a much younger and shorter Andrew with his beginning cello pieces.

The season so far

Joel's baseball team is having a great season so far. They are 4-0, and improving with every game. Joel pitched for the first time on Saturday. After two innings and only two runs scored against him, he was relieved the be relieved! He moved to shortstop and then center field for the rest of the game. He's not hitting as well as he'd like, but even if he hits it to the infield, he's so speedy (see blurry picture!) he usually beats its out to first base. Then he steals his way around the bases. Very fun to watch!