What do you need to go on with?

"In spite of everything I shall rise again:
I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing."

Vincent van Gogh, Letter 136, September 24, 1880

Leonardo da Vinci, Study of Arms and Hands. c. 1474.
Pen and Ink with white chalk on brown paper

Still filling up..........

Make haste slowly.

Great words to think upon.
Think before you do anything is
perhaps behind the words.
Organic is like that.
Being organic takes time.
Slow time.
Making compost.
There's an urgency to haste.
There's patience to a pile of compost.
How about in education?
Think upon that one and you will find
yourself slowing down to ponder, wonder,
and meditate.Reformation.

Jean Drawing (1901). Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). Jean Drawing is a portrait of the artist's young son Jean drawing.

Filled ....

We are trying to describe today:

my husband : the sky was blue but
on the horizon , grey and black clouds
were gathering. Meetings filled his day
at home ( he works for the Big Blue from
home) so we saw him a little bit.

Emma: filled with people.
We had a poetry class today, high school
students here for the Humanities class,
she sang at a nursing home and then
had an End of the Year Party for the choir.

Me: I laughed at Edward Lear.
We read The Jumblies, then The Dong with
the Luminous Nose. Well, there at the start
of my day, were the Jumblies IN the next
poem. Wow. How did that work out so well?
A friend read from Julie Andrew Edward's
book ( which is so funny like Edward Lear)
The Last of the Great Whangdoodles.
Very funny and feed the imagination.
Thanks, Anita!
AND it is near to the end of our study of
Christendom in the Humanities Class.
It is a hard curriculum and I still love using
it and teaching from it. We lose one of our
teachers next year who is moving back to
Franklin.( Anita will take her place!!)
Here is a great quote from today's
lecture on the Founders and the Classics:

"A classic is a book that has never quite finished
what it has to say." Italo Calvino

The skies did rain and the day filled with rain
off and on.Up in Boone, Evan said snow up in the higher
elevations.

BRAD: got tazed today. YIKES. ( in the
Police Academy). Pepper sprayed later in the
week.



Painting: Breton Children Reading
by Emile Vernon

Being Blessed right in front of my eyes

As children grow up , more things
come in the way of a family sitting
down and playing a game. We do that
on vacation but not so much now as
when they were younger. Most of my
children can beat me at Scrabble , even
when they were young. It also was
something we would do when school
days became frustrating and we just
needed to do something different for
a morning or afternoon! SO when
Gordan, who is 18 , said "Let's play
Scrabble out on the porch after dinner,"
I was blessed.

I did win both games too.
Just a fluke as Gordan beat me at age 11
and I didn't even let him win.

The ones not playing came out to help.
There's something contagious about
wanting to find a new word.

There's something contagious about
thinking about Gratitude every Monday.
Read Ann's blog who started it all!
Join if you have a blog.

JOY . That's what it was.
Surprised me.

finding the name of the gorgeous flower

I got to Winghaven's Plant Sale
today. It is a 3 acre garden of a
husband and wife. Here are some
photos from a friend's blog of a
wedding there. Here are some flowers
we saw today. Do you know what
they are ? I think they have gotten on
my list of most beautiful creations of
our God!





They were out of the blue so I had to
buy the red.

Beatitude on Books

" It is an old and healthy tradition
that each home where the light of
godliness shone should have its own
bookshelf. Blessed is the man or woman
who has inherited such a cultural and
spiritual bequest."

John Macleod ( 1872-1948)

READ this article:

Home library .....

Local foods

We ate well this weekend up in the
N.C. mountains! I was thinking today
how good food , homemade food ,is a
gift. All the restaurants we ate at were
locally owned. So the cooks were local.
That makes it different when you order!
You know that a chain restaurant tastes
basically the same no matter where you are.
( Read The Geography of Nowhere if you
like thinking about that!)
But you need a local to say : Their basil pesto
pizza is out of this world OR everything is
homemade and served with her homemade
wheat toast! YUM. It made our trip wonderful.
It made celebrating Evan's 21st so fun.

We came with a Guinness Ginger Cake made
by a friend of our family. YUM again.
When I get the recipe I will post it because it
was out of this world! We put lemon curd and
whipped cream on top. The above photo is
from this blog and recipe.
Take a look!

So on this Gratitude Monday , I am
thankful for all those cooks. All the
good food they presented to us in their
local restaurants and my dear friend who
has a way with ingredients!

Bon Appetit!

Anne Lamott 's new book

It is called "Imperfect Birds"
and you can read a new blog
I found which is lovely:
Tangled Sky Studio

She went to hear her on Tuesday
night. I had this blog address in
my little notebook that a certain
friend gave me. I know I wrote it
down at the big bookstore looking
through those wonderful magazines
on blogging or mixed media.
Enjoy!

A New Word: Swink

This interesting word is from Amy
Carmichael's "Thou Givest...They Gather"

"An old book that has come down to us from
the 14th century says, "Verily it is perilous for
a soul not to seek to make any further progress."
And it speaks of being in dead earnest to go on,
and uses a word that sticks in the mind like a
burr: 'Get to thee meekness and charity, and if
thou wilt, then travail and swink busily to
have them. You should enough to do in getting of
them.'

Swink means 'toil.' In one sense we do not have to
toil any more than the flowers of the field must toil.
But in another sense, there is a going on , with what
that implies of toil. 'I press towards the mark.'
(Phil 3:4) The mark is always on before, and to press
on means to swink. "

Another milestone

He's studying
for an exam tonight
on his 21st birthday.
We are all teasing him.
Well,there are a few things
you can do when you turn
21. Most of us know that.
So does Evan.

We'll go up to Boone to celebrate on Friday.
Hopefully Spring will be blossoming in the
mountains.

Happy Birthday Evan!
( Number 3 son)

Photo by Emma at Topsail Beach,
Summer 2009

Monday Sings

Blossoms
are
popping out.





This azaela is old and
dawns such glorious deep
color like a lady
dressed up for a party. Spring's cooler
weather has returned to us after a few
Summer days. ( HOT)

Today ,prayer is in my heart and mind.
Great needs around us , especially for one
particular friend who is again out of work.
No unemployment this time.
We pray and wait . I watch her strength as
she, a single mom, sees God provide.
He provided a free place to stay.
He provided a job for 18 weeks. A good job
too!
I watch her faith grow.
I watch her work hard
in her prayer life and
her daily grind of pressing
these buttons to fill out applications.


We bow down and worship.
It changes everything.
Sort of like the azaela. She spreads her
cloak to the ground!

Spring Returns

A good spring rain last night
has cleared the air and brought
back Spring weather. It seems like
everything is singing!

Makes you want to see things grow.
Makes you want to plant.

Thou Givest......They Gather

The Lord
direct your
hearts into the
love of God, and
into the patience
of Christ.
2 Thess. 3:5

Amy Carmichael writes in Thou
Givest....They Gather:

Is there ever a time in any life, that is
wholly laid on the altar, when these
words are not spirit and life? ( Way's
translation: May our Lord pilot your
hearts into the haven of the love of God;
into such calm patience as was Messiah's)

Then, vs. 16 of the same chapter:

"Now the Lord of peace Himself give
you peace always by all means",

"in all ways and at all seasons",

"always, under all conditions".

"continually, whatever comes."

Each rendering the force of prayer.
which is charged with effective power.*
PEACE ~~ how the word finds us where
we are ~~ peace under all conditions.
May that blessed word be fulfilled in
us all this day....

* prayer being charged with power!

(photo by Emma)

Odd heat

So very odd to put on the air
conditioning now.
Where did the heat come from?
It was a source of comment everywhere
I went today, except the library.
That was a quiet solemn place.
Many had lost their jobs last week.
It just seems odd too. Shorter hours.
Day closed in the week now. The workers
have a harder time getting the hours
they need.

It is hard when it is a favorite place.

We watched The Blind Side tonight.
That story has HOPE written all over it!
Better yet. It is true.

Easter Gratitude

This work is one of the 5 passion paintings by Rembrandt for the stadtholder Frederik Hendrik. The Raising of the Cross, the Descent from the Cross, the Entombment, the Resurrection, the Ascension. . Easter was joyous as we went to church and sang. My eyes filled. Easter should do that. The beauty of the Gospel. Excellent sermon on Psalm 2.The beauty of worship. Have you kissed the Lord Jesus? 12Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. The term kiss refers to the solemn token or sign of honor which subjects were wont to yield to their sovereigns. ( Calvin's Commentary)

Holy Saturday

Descent from the Cross
Rembrandt
1634

Raising of the Cross

Rembrandt.
He's even in the painting.
I like that.
Our sin nailed him to the cross.

The Smell of Spring

The mere smell of the earth in a Spring morning,
he said,
always made him praise God.

What's Mine's Mine
by George MacDonald