This writing of blogs

In thinking tonight of what to write
on my blog, I thought that an idea
for a blog had not hit me.

How do you keep blogging?

Is it for a diary or journal
of your life to record events?

Do you wait for an idea to strike you?

Is it like an online magazine article?

What happens to you when you write?



Carl Larsson, Letter writing

Giving Thanks

It is HOT. My husband and two
of our sons are back from a
wilderness trip in the Northwest.
Safely home. A bit dazed from the
travel and time change. Safe.
It is a word we all love.
I am thankful.

Do you find particulars in a day
amazing? They bring awe.
It is even in the
tiny details of finding a book:
from Sara's blog , I just happened upon
"IN and Out of the Garden."
while having coffee at Julia's Coffee Shop
which is in a Habitat Restore, right in
the book room. I wanted to call Sara.
She's on the other side of the nation.
Coast to coast so to speak. We've never met.
Have you ever had that happen with a blogger?!

I'm thankful to have a pool . That is because
it is excellent for my joints and hips. One
needs to become more limber SO I don't have
to have a replacement again. That is what
I'm hoping. So I'm working on those particular
joints. Today they felt better. I am thankful.

Thankful Second Son is graduating on Friday
from the Police Academy. Now to pray more as
he hits the streets for 3 months in training.

Tammy Glaser came into town!
What a blessing! Check out her blog if
you need help with Special Needs. Check it out
even if you don't! Lots of wisdom and good things
to learn in homeschooling.

It's even hot inside with the air on!
How to be thankful for that? Any ideas?

From In and Out of the Garden, by Sara Midda

A Gift of a Day

Out of the blue,
into my email,
can this from Tammy Glaser:
" I will be in Charlotte on Friday.
Would you like to get together
for lunch or anything?"
We are doing both: lunch and
anything!

Check out her blog for a wealth
of information on education,
learning difficulties, Autism,
eating RIGHT, and the beauty of
the Gospel in her life.
We have just seen each other at the
Childlight Conference .

If I was a blogger who carried her digital
camera for blogging , I would have taken
a photo of Tammy holding her daughter's
hand at dinner in the cafeteria on the table.
It is ingrained in my visual scrapbook on
Beauty. I can visualize Christ doing that
to me.

What a gift of a day !

Michelangelo's Creation of Adam
Sistine Chapel
A touch here.......imagine a hand held.

Reading out loud with my Emma

We also started another book
together: The Penderwicks: A
Summer Tale of Four Sisters,
Two Rabbits and a Very Interesting
Boy. Emma has read it already and
the sequel. She really wants to read
it with me. Now what could a mom
who homeschools want more!!!
Plus she made dinner last night for
us. It was all based on mashed potatoes
made from red potatoes. ( with the skins
on....delicious! Comfort) We also had
ground lamb with sweet peppers and
onions...and broccoli. Yum.
Jeanne Birdsall talks on her writing here
on YOUTUBE ...( 5 min) and what books
influenced her: the Bastables, Lewis' books,
Little Women. She started writing at 42.
She is writing 5 books in The Penderwick
Series. That is most lovely to know that more
are coming. She wrote a book that she would
have wanted to read as a child.

Back to Reading ~ she is reading to me
that book and I am reading to her Gary
Schmidt's Pilgrim's Progress. He wrote
The Wednesday Wars and we met him
last Fall at a book signing. This is a
wonderful read aloud.

Ideas floating around

Whenever I get with Amber
I find myself stimulated to think
about how I can do better with
educating now the last one at home.
She has 5 sons. I will have the last of
5 only to teach. Seems like a dream.
She came over to swim with those
boys and now I have several
things buzzing in my head to DO.
( like Julia Child who when asked
what she likes to do , she replied EAT)
There is so much of education which
is finding what you love to DO.
Any thoughts?

Summer Reading:

Giving Thanks

Those of you who have sisters will
understand thankfulness for one.
Mine came this weekend with dinner
in a cooler and her dog and lots of
love to spread around! I'm so thankful
for her. Both of our husbands are out
of town and we had a few days together.
We live 2 hours apart and the time
together is always wonderful. She came
with produce from her garden. That
alone is to be thankful for! Getting
fresh from the garden cucumbers,
peppers , herbs..........! She went
home with my Hannah Coulter book.
Not a trade but a feeding of sorts!

We went downtown to have lunch with
my oldest son and picked up his wife....
and then ended up at a French bakery
afterwards in the arts part of downtown.
I love finding new locales. I'm thankful
for that kind of beauty.

We ran into a friend at the library who isn't
usually in the small town of Matthews.
I love thinking of the Lord's timing in how
my sister would meet this friend. Voila!
There she was and there we were.
A meeting. Now faces to names.
I thanked the Lord.
He cares in these details.
His presence.

Hope and healing

From Ann Voscamp on this
blog : InCourage.

For the ones who come from
divorce or other wounds.
"We all need to forgive our
Parents."

Listening to webcast

I haven't done this before,
but I am streaming a live
webcast from Ligonier:
conference going on right now.
Amazing.
RC Spoul Jr. was excellent on
why we sin? Because we are sinners.
I love that he said: We wouldn't have
grace if there wasn't sin.
Amazing.

Now Derek Thomas with his slight
Scottish or British dialect speaking on the absolute truth
in writing of Scripture. Excellent.
I always love to hear INERRANT and
INFALLIBLE Scripture. Over and over
again. It is the highest authority. No
contradictions but things we don't
understand.
Strong diction which makes me think of how
I imagine Spurgeon sounding!
( close,...he's from Wales!)

Thanks Jennie for the link!

Rereading for Book Club

I have a stack growing for Summer Reading.
In just a few weeks, we will have a Summer
Morning Tea to work out the ideas that transform
us from Tim Keller's Counterfeit Gods.
Have you read it?
What did you think?

I read it when it came out last fall and knew
it needed a study reading. Here I go soon
with my journal in hand to write and copy
and think. Think and pray for the Spirit's
transforming of my mind, heart and soul.

What book did Wendell Berry suggest ?

My husband brought me the mail
last Weds. as I was still packing!
" A letter from Mr. Berry!"
It was noon. I was leaving at
2:30 to stop by the airport and pick
up two California ladies on my way
out of town to the Childlight Conference.
I had written Mr. Berry asking him what
fiction book he would suggest for my
Am. Lit. Honors Class. He said to read
"Andy Catlett: Early Travels"
as it will read like history!
There's something to show my students!

Doesn't timing amaze you.
It does me.

Then I read this and she is ahead of
me in reading this book.
My book arrived today.

"No one who has gratitude is the onliest one. Let us pray to be grateful to the last." Wendell Berry in Andy Catlett: Early Travels

Great quote Beth!~

Giving thanks

I thought today was tomorrow.
I opened Morning and Evening
by Spurgeon this morning and read
June 15th. I soaked in these words
concerning this verse:

“And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.”

Genesis 21:6

I would have all those that hear of my great deliverance from hell, and my most blessed visitation from on high, laugh for joy with me. I would surprise my family with my abundant peace; I would delight my friends with my ever-increasing happiness; I would edify the Church with my grateful confessions; and even impress the world with the cheerfulness of my daily conversation. Bunyan tells us that Mercy laughed in her sleep, and no wonder when she dreamed of Jesus; my joy shall not stop short of hers while my Beloved is the theme of my daily thoughts. The Lord Jesus is a deep sea of joy: my soul shall dive therein, shall be swallowed up in the delights of his society. Sarah looked on her Isaac, and laughed with excess of rapture, and all her friends laughed with her; and thou, my soul, look on thy Jesus, and bid heaven and earth unite in thy joy unspeakable.

I am thankful school days are over and summer
is here. We had a graduation party for Gordan
on Saturday night , just as I got back from
the Childlight Conference that day at lunch!
I am so thankful for friends and family who
came from afar to celebrate with us.
AND for an excellent conference that touches
my soul in it's nourishment. More on that soon.


Gratitude Monday from Holy Experience.

does this machine make you dumber

"Whereas the Internet scatters our attention, the book focuses it. Unlike the screen, the page promotes contemplativeness."

Read in The Wall Street Journal:

Does the Internet Make You Dumber?

Studying up on Wendell Berry

I've read alot of Berry and he's one
writer who is all over the library and
a bookstore. Essays, poems, environmental
issues, fiction, even a children's book.
I love Whitefoot which is about a mouse.
I've been listening to this farmer poet
online , hearing his Kentucky drawl and
learning about his work. I love this:
He carries a notebook and a pencil when
musical words hit him. The mind then
has to make those lyrical phrases potent
to become a poem.

Like Snow

• Suppose we did our work

• like the snow, quietly, quietly,

• leaving nothing out.
  

Looking forward to

Monday Gratitude:

I'm thankful for you who read
this. I love the way a blog can
be corrected once it is posted.
I love a pen most and beautiful
paper. I have started corresponding
with Tonia at Study in Brown.
That is on paper crossing the nation
as she lives in Oregon. Read her
blog if you haven't. Right now she
is cooking vegetarian!

I head off to the Childlight Conference
on Weds. afternoon. I meet up with
several women who I only see once a
year. They have become dear sort of
friends. Friendship has so many levels.
These are the ones who are working
towards Education. Education is a Life.
I look forward to see Melanie from
Red Mountain Community School in
Birmingham. There is a lovely new
website.
She is a Wendell Berry fan and one of
those person's that I heard speak and
I had read so , so many of the same books.
I tend to gravitate towards like mindedness!
I'll see her this week! We love to examine
time and living unhurried.

Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.

And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we’re asleep.

When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.

Wendell Berry The Sabbath Poems

I am thankful!

Tidying up

Great post by Leslie at The Bower
on a book called Wise Child by
Monica Furlong. I just found it
for 1.00 online. I need some reading
like this to bring some impetus to
tidying up! Then I need to find some
beautiful tiny things of beauty like
her doorknob!

Tidying to the soundtrack from Wicked!

If you read Wendell Berry, check the
next entry below. Any ideas?

Have you used a Wendell Berry book or poem in your teaching?

If you have, let me know what
you used. I am coleading a workshop
next Friday at the Childlight USA
Conference on Wendell Berry's writings.
Or have you a favorite book of his that
you would highly recommend?
Any thoughts?
He is a voice to listen to and hear what
matters.

This is from a wonderful article on Berry
called "Field Observations":

As we begin to descend, I am thinking about boyhood and Berry's poetry, and I ask Berry if he agrees that school children should be reintroduced to the lost institution of memorizing and reciting poems.

"Yes," he replies, "you've got to furnish their minds."

The idea of poetry as furniture expands within my imagination and for weeks, I think about a poem committed to memory as an old chest of drawers in the corner of a child's room. At first the thing is simply a place to put clothes. With time, the grown man, or grown woman learns to see more of it: toolmarks left by the hand of a long-dead craftsman, a cornice molding around its top in a shape found on ancient Greek temples. And by gazing at its sturdiness for so many years, he or she knows something about how to make things that last.

Streams

of the Desert........

We often pray to be delivered from calamities; we even trust that we shall be; but we do not pray to be made what we should be, in the very presence of the calamities; to live amid them, as long as they last, in the consciousness that we are, held and sheltered by the Lord, and can therefore remain in the midst of them, so long as they continue, without any hurt.