Mama's Hands

This is a repost that I originally posted on homeschool blogger back in November 2005.

The older I get the more I see the beauty of Mama's hands.

Through a child's eyes, I saw them busy working: folding laundry, making beds, scrubbing the bathroom, dusting, preparing meals, doing dishes after every meal, ironing, sewing on a button, planting and reaping in the garden, canning, more cleaning.

I saw them sharing: offering a handshake, taking meals to others, typing a book for a friend, checking the pantry to see what we could give to those less fortunate than us, putting money in the offering plate.

I saw them making things: crafts with her friends and with the girls' group at church, painting a complete nativity set, sewing curtains, blankets, pillows, later a wedding veil.

I saw them tender: a loving touch, a back rub, wiping tears at weddings, wiping tears watching a movie, bandaging a scrape, brushing hair, caring for my grandmother and my aunt, holding hands with my father.

I saw them chastise in love. I saw them clapping in delight. I saw them holding books: studying God's word, reading to us at night. I saw them folded in prayer.

Today I see them still doing so many things. I see them now when I look down at my own. When did I get Mama's hands? How will my children remember mine?

Lists

I'm thinking I need a list to keep track of my lists. There's the daily list, the long term project list, the school books list, the kids' chore list (not sure where that is currently), the blessings lists, the prayer request list, the music list, practice lists, the grocery list, recipes to try and so on. I even have a "things that come to me when I should be sleeping" list beside my bed. Then there are those lists that get everything crossed off except one or two items, and then I have to decide whether to keep the list or find another list to put it on.

Tune in later for a post on Piles. Did I mention I have a small pile of lists on my desk?

Yikes!

I'm behind again. In short we've been...

going to camps
planning school
making messes
starting some school
rehearsing for a show
preparing for a music camp
making messes
planning a mini-getaway
painting a cabinet (finally)
putting on the show (this week!)
making messes
scrapbooking
reading
playing music
making messes

questionable activities:
gardening (aka weeding 101)
organizing
cleaning
decluttering (HA!)

looking for:
live-in maid
live-in cook
live-in handyman
(all volunteers, of course)
bon-bons (no nuts)
light at the end of the tunnel (no trains, please)
pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (in case I can't find any volunteers)
silver lining (this one is promising)

And truly, we have been praying for all of our family, friends, and friends of friends. There are so many needs right now, but some we pray for just because!

Love to all.

A Mighty Fortress

It's fort building week here. Half of the schoolroom is covered in couch cushions, blankets, and pillows, and a remodeling is currently taking place. A fort has generally been thought to be a place of refuge or safety...or if you are a 6 year old, it can become a place to hide all of your favorite things to protect them from siblings. I could hardly think about a fort without thinking of this hymn:

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.

fortress: any place of exceptional security; stronghold
bulwark: any person or thing giving strong support or encouragement in time of need, danger, or doubt

It's an amazing image really...a mighty God who wants to shelter us as a hen gathereth her chicks under her wings...and never fails!

Coming up for air

Highlights of the past two weeks:

12 pepper plants growing
11 piles of paper
10 books a reading
9 loads of laundry
8 minutes of sanity
7 ballet lessons
6 bills awaiting
Walked a 5K
4 rehearsals
3 concerts
2 many things
and a family to love and enjoy.

So many blessing through all these different things. Thank you, Lord!

Praying for you KayPea! Hope you're feeling better!

Light

Since that last post was so deep, I'll leave you with these lighter thoughts.

We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own. ~Ben Sweetland

Moonlight is sculpture. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. ~Anthony J. D'Angelo

A smile is the light in the window of your face that tells people you're at home. ~Author Unknown

Firelight will not let you read fine stories but it's warm and you won't see the dust on the floor. ~Irish Proverb

Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark. ~Rabindranath Tagore

Friday Rhyming Blues

Here I sit.
Here I Stare.
Shall I flit?
Add some flair?
How 'bout wit?
Who, What, Where?
Shall I quit?
Do I dare?

Sit, flit, wit, quit.
Stare, flair, Where, dare.

Bit, knit, chit.
Bare, mare, hair.

Git, kit.
Chair, lair.

It.
Care.

End of February Update

This is always a busy time for us...birthdays, catching up on school hours, and wishing for spring. My uncle sent pictures of the robins at his place with a message that maybe they are on their way back here. I will be so glad to see them.

My dear blog buddy, Toby, commented that this part of the year is a long one, because all new curriculum has lost its appeal but that the end is still a ways off (paraphrase). We are in the same boat here. There is very little charm left in anything that was new this year, but we are delighted to have another year of Wordly Wise completed, Miss Daisy is completely finished with spelling (no Natural Speller for me for a year or two. yay!). I suppose the good news in that is that they'll now have more time for history and science. :-)

We also just finished The Bronze Bow, and we need to find a new read aloud that everyone will enjoy. Suggestions are welcome.

In other news, our street is still a mess, we still have a backhoe or some other machinery in our yard, and there are pipes in various neighbors' yards. They removed the 4' one from our yard on Friday. They accidently cut our phone line getting the spot ready for that one. *smile* It's certainly been an adventure, but hopefully all will be better, and with the exception of one time, the workers have all been courteous...the gas guys were the only ones who earned cookies though. They were the sweetest, even if they did accidently poke through my sewer line.

One more birthday coming up...Miss Rose will be 6 in just under two weeks. She's made me all kinds of promises for all the things she would do when she turned six. Part of me wants to hold her to all of them, but the other part of me just wants to keep her little a wee bit longer.

Thoughts for Sunday

I realize I've been sharing more comical quips from our family's life, but that doesn't diminish the daily impact of Christ in our lives. We do struggle, we do fall, and we most definitely look upward. We have so many friends in need right now, and we continue to pray that the Lord's presence will be in their lives and see them through these trying times. He is our hiding place. Our place of refuge.

Scarfy

The latest fashion around our home is a scarf. Sometimes this is worn outside to help keep warm, and sometimes it is worn in the house...like today for instance. No, it's not because we are Texan transplants who find the 64 degree indoor temperature cold. Nope. It's because school is in full session, which means that practicing is also in session. For Mr. Al, this means his delicate ears must cope with the increasingly high pitches of Miss Daisy's violin. The scarf wrapped around his head was his solution to blocking out the sound. It worked rather well as he also didn't hear me calling for him, but he had an amazing reflex to remove it from his person when a camera confronted him. So sorry I missed catching it for you. I also have to wonder why I didn't think of this over break when I was about to plead insanity after hearing Star Wars music for three hours.

Sadness

Today we mourn the loss of our dear, sweet Ebony...part of the dynamic rodent duo, Ebony and Ivory. She was missing this morning, and after some worry of escapage, we were relieved to find she had passed peacefully in the cage. So far everyone has held together, but that has been somewhat challenging with Miss Rose asking several times if Ebony's going to come back and visit Ivory in her really nice cage, and that she (Miss Rose) needs to have her back so that she can practice holding her without getting bitten. ;-(

Do or Dye and Question Why.

A few weeks ago I purchased what I thought was a botttle of 100% juice. It was only when I tasted it and discovered it was really pretty good and quite sweet that I checked the label. It was only about 10% juice and loaded with sugar and dye. This explained why Miss Rose was completely bouncing off the walls...she'd just finished her third glass.

Fast forward to yesterday...I was at the store, and I decided to do a little closer inspection of all of the V-8 products. I feel partially redeemed, because I was not entirely nutso buying their fruit juice. They DO have several that are a mix of fruit and veggies and no added sugar, dye, or preservatives (I believe there are seven varieties in all). It's called V-Fusion. I'd mistakenly bought their drink for the less hearty drinkers...V-Splash. Amazingly enough, my kids all like the hearty one, too. V-8 has tarnished their name by creating the latter. Of course that's JMHO, but I expected more from them.

Birthday Blues

Mr. Tech welcomed in his 40th birthday with a stunt that could have injured a younger man. For simplicity, I'll copy from another post earlier today:

Dh is home painting the high walls, and he'd just moved the extension ladder over. The paint was on the top rung, and he was up quite high. The ladder slipped backwards across the floor, stopping when it the hit the wall, the paint (3/4 full) fell off of the top rung and landed on the ledge! It did spill some, but it landed as if he had placed it there. Dh was flailing, and I was wondering if we were going to have a trip to the ER, but he is quite agile, and he did some funny motions in the air to catch himself and managed not to crash to the ground. Once I saw he was fine and that the mess wasn't too bad, I burst into laughter.

So tomorrow the family gathers to celebrate this momentous occasion. I'm being nice, because I have next year to think about.

In other news, we are almost 1/5 through the school year. That's right. The countdown has already begun. By mid next week, we'll only have 800 hours to go. Yahoo!

The big announcement at ballet this week is that the show will be Rigoletto based on the Feature Films for Family. Now we only have to wait 10 months till showtime! It's going to be a fun year!

And last, but not least, the painting continues (as you might have gathered from Mr. Tech's stunt). Maybe, just maybe, the kitchen will be done by next weekend. I keep saying that, but surely it will be true one of these weekends, right?

Makeover

Take 2 on the blog post. Miss Rose decided to reboot the computer while I was teaching a lesson.

So it's day 455 of the living room and kitchen remodel, and if you find any errors in my counting, just know that you are wrong, because I'm quite sure I have my facts straight. Every day that you live in disorder counts for more that one day. I'm sure it's even higher for Mr. Tech, because he's having to live with me living through this.

See that little teeny light way far off? That's the light at the end of the tunnel. It's barely in focus, but I'm sure it's there and that I'm going to love these rooms when they get finished. Since it was my bright idea, I'm attempting to keep from being frustrated, but it's going SOOOOOOOO slowly. I'm finding how much I really appreciate order and how it balances my sanity. Knowing this, you might be surprised that I'm already thinking about the next room to be made over. I've decided that the garage and basement must get cleaned before that happens though. The good thing is that the next room will have a door on it that can be closed, and I can pretend that everything is normal in the house.

I don't remember what else I said in Take one of this little post, so I'll just call it good and close.

Shadows

Do you ever have one of the mornings when you know the Lord is trying to get your attention? This morning on the way to music camp, there was a song on the radio playing just what I needed to hear. The chorus goes like this:

Here I am, Lord send me,
All of my life, I make an offering,
Here I am, Lord send me,
Somehow my story, Is a part of your plan,
Here I am

Shortly after that I turned onto a road, and the sun was behind me. I was looking off to the grassy area on the side of the road, and I noticed that each street name sign had cast a shadow...every one was a perfect cross.

In preparation for school...

I nearly have my desk cleaned off. I also have completed a few loose ends that I've been putting off, although there are several more to deal with. Maybe tomorrow. It's hard to believe July is drawing to a close and that school will soon be starting. The year is shaping up to be a challenging, but good one.

I enjoy pondering some times. Tonight I remembered that my guardian angels are watching over me. I love to think of my grandparents that have passed on and the legacy they left me. Here's another family's tribute with The Judds singing "Guardian Angels."