Monday, January 31, 2011

Double Digits

Ken and oldest son Bryan .......... College Graduation a few years
ago plus a few sons in the background walking in and a nephew
....lot of boys in this family!

We have a cloudy day here after
Spring like weather this past weekend
giving us Hope! Knitting was fun
on Saturday. I had tried to teach myself
how to knit on double points so this
was helpful. I will post what I'm making
as I finish. I did get a baby's hat finished
last night during Masterpiece Theater.
Are you watching?

Today's gratitude is for the gift to me
of a wonderful blessing: my husband.
He turns double digits today!
55. A Senior.
You always dream of
growing old together.
We are living
that dream!
Thank you Lord for Ken.



Friday, January 28, 2011

Because of today , tomorrow is ...


Stopping by The Cottage Yarn
Shop to get soft yarn for a baby
hat ( shower next weekend), I
looked at the fingerless glove
on the counter. As the conver-
sation continued , I signed up
for a class tomorrow morning
to learn to make them: double
pointed needles! Well , these
friends ( Amber and Beth) know
how to use those needles, I am
simple. Give me a chunky yarn
and my wonderful wooden German
size 15 needles from the Amish
country ( trip years ago ~~ best
needles I own and worth the price)
and I am happy. NOW I have to
have 4 needles with double points!
I do want to learn. Socks seem to
be calling this summer ~~ before
I get too old!

I did have one of those mornings
where the Lord had plans ~~ as
I finally found the coffee shop while
Emma was at Beth's
for Field Biology Class AND right
even before ordering , a lady came
up to me. After I realized I didn't know
her, she said I am a funky knitter.
You see I had my felted tote bag on
my shoulder! She inspired me so
much that I went to the yarn shop,
and now I'm going to a class.

You never know what a day holds!


Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Whiteness of the Whale


Have you ever thought about
the color white
like this from Chapter 42 in Moby Dick:

~
whiteness refinely enhances beauty
imparting some special virtue of its own,
as in marbles japonicas, and pearls

~ various nations have in some way
recognized a certain royal preeminence
in this
hue

~whiteness has been even made
significant of gladness:
among the Romans a white stone
marked a joyful day

~ this same
hue is made an emblem
of many touching , noble things:
the innocence of brides
the benignity of ages

~ the white belt of wampum was the
deepest pledge of honor

~Kings and Queens drawn by white
steeds

~ all Christian priests derive the name
of part of their sacred vesture: the alb

~ the celebration of the Passion of our
Lord through the vision of St. John ,
white robes are given to the redeemed

~ 24 elders stand clothed in white before
the Great White Throne

~ the Holy One sitteth there white like wool


Imagine the whiteness.


PS....Second son is engaged!
(not the ring but added to the list
of white!)
http://diamonds.blogs.com/photos/rings/asscher_cut_100_tiffany2.JPG



http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/328/86773660qy3.jpg


An Anglican priest vested as a alb

Monday, January 24, 2011

Gift of Grace


I finished Ann Voskamp's
new book: One Thousand
Gifts in two days. Excellent.
There are a few books that
I have done that to.
Very few.
Consuming
with an appetite like the Holy
Spirit is blowing his wind saying
READ on. It was a feast to "eat "
and then to savor.

I'm thankful for her
tender , eloquent words as she
looks for Grace in moments and
in each circumstance that God
brings to her life.

My journal is filling with numbers
this year as I track to slow down,
see and observe His grace in my
days.


Saturday, January 22, 2011

The Blessings of a Book


Ann Voskamp's book came in the
mail and I am almost done.
Excellent. I am using a journal
from Leslie at Small Meadow Press
for my list of Gratitudes.

A must read book .
Struck and stirred by it's depth of
truth, beauty and goodness.
The best trio...!


Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The Quotable Chesterton


This book is subtitled " The Wit
and Wisdom of G.K. Chesterton.
Indeed that it is. Kevin Belmonte
starts out with his dedication:
To Os Guinness, a cherished friend
and mentor. That alone sufficed to
tell me this will be a good book not
only for a Chesterton lover but Kevin's
tribute that would honor Chesterton.
I think highly of Os Guinness :his
writing and speaking and Schaeffer
roots.

This is an anthology of quotes and
paragraphs from Chesterton's writings.
GKC can write more in one sentence
to make you think or ponder thus using
language in the way it was meant. The
categories are not usual : A starts with
Academia to Z for Zola, Emile. In the
H section is High Places and Valleys,
followed by The High Task. In P is
Private Lives:
" Private lives is more
important than public reputations."

AHA ~~ GKC needs to be read by politicians
today! I love the words Kevin used for
each quote:

OLD THINGS: " And in the darkest of
the books of God there is written a
truth that is also a riddle. It is of the
new things that men tire ---of
fashions and proposals and improve-
ments and change. It is the old things
that startle and intoxicate. It is the
old things that are young."

I highly recommend this book to a
GKC lover and/or one who loves words
and quotes. I have several in my family
who will get a copy of this wonderful new
book for birthdays!

Fun cover that GKC would love!
"Mr. Chesterton talks about God "
in 1916 in a Times review, " because
God is the most interesting subject
for conversation that there is."

http://brb.thomasnelson.com/art/_233_380_Book.349.cover.jpg

Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Review

Monday, January 17, 2011

Gratitude for the KJV


On January 17, 1604, King James
appointed 54 scholars to produce
a new English version of Scripture.
That is something to celebrate with
gratitude. Makes you want to use
this version this year being 400 years
later.

I am looking forward to getting
The Four Gospels by Makoto Fujimura.

Do you have an illuminated Bible that
you read through?

Ann's book is out .
That is coming in the mail .
Aren't you thankful to these writers ~
from the 1600's on........






Saturday, January 15, 2011

Be sure to see The King's Speech


Everyone has said this movie is
excellent. It was!

There I was watching the wife of
the Speech Teacher ( Lionel)
wondering who she was ~~ what
was she in. THEN in the credits
was Jennifer Ehle ~~ aha , Elizabeth
Bennett. So there was Mr. Darcy
( Colin Firth) and Elizabeth in a movie
together again.

I highly recommend it as one of the best
movies I've seen in a long time! I hope
it wins awards. It deserves many, esp
Firth for an Oscar. I thought that about
Meryl Streep in Julie and Julia, so we'll
see~~!

Firth in an interview says King George was
not cured of that stammer.



Geoffrey Rush, Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in The King's Speech



The music made my Emma stop and listen,
saying listen~~

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Carl Larsson


I will hate for the snow
to melt.

Some winter paintings
from this Swedish
painter:

Preview


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Carl_Larsson_Brita_as_Iduna.jpg/250px-Carl_Larsson_Brita_as_Iduna.jpg

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

What do do when snowed in


A friend's mom did a blog
on this . She lives in the
works with NC mountains.
You will see her work with her
hands. She teaches art
as well as being the grandmother
of 5 fine boys.

What I did: knit a hat which is almost
done, read Moby Dick, made soup,
matched socks, wrote letters, drank
tea in front of the fire, and watched
a movie.

A quote from her home page:

All good human work remembers its history.
.
-Wendell Berry





Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Four Gospels

Take a look
at them........


Epiphany



I've been using a definition of an
epiphany from Luci Shaw:

showing, accompanied by light

That is what happens when some-
thing DAWNS on you. The morning
light: his mercies new every morning.
\
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/raim0007/gwss3307_summer2008/pride%20and%20prejudice%201%20.jpg
}
}
It happened today with orphaned
Socks ~~ capitalize all of that:
ORPHANED SOCKS.
I'm determined.

Even after four sons have left home
( some not completely), I am still
finding their socks, well, one sock
to find the match.

Now with my daughter , the epiphany
( something that dawned on me)
is to just give HER all the orphaned
socks and perhaps the other one will
show up . Then she can feel the
satisfaction of putting them together.

What do you do?

Those who knit: a sock pattern without
using double pointed needles.
Thanks.
One day I will knit a pair.

}







Monday, January 10, 2011

Winter Snow Gratitude


Two photos from the last snow taken in front
of our street.
Second one is photoshop but that is what it
looks like today with another BIG SNOW STORM
today. I love being IN for
the day or many days! The world stops and rests.

I'm having my students write a metaphor , one line poem
from Wendell Berry's haiku:

Like Snow

Suppose we did our work
like the snow, quietly, quietly
leaving nothing out.

How about you trying?!!


Stay warm, cup of tea, a journal,
a book, even FIND Larkrise to
Candleford Season 4 that aired
in the UK last night. We did last
night and stayed up to past midnight
as a new person comes to town!




Friday, January 7, 2011

Gratitude in the mail

I got a sweet note in the mail today.
It quotes Spurgeon:

" God's eye is thus tenderly observant
of the work of the believer, which he has
begun. Sometimes we cannot see the light,
but God always sees the light and that is
better than seeing it............The Lord sees
"light" in your heart, for He put it there,
and all the cloudiness and gloom of our
souls cannot conceal your light from His eye."
( Weds. evening's mediation: Jan. 5)

words in a letter from a son's sweetheart ~~
to me. May the mail bring you some sweet words
of encouragement! Or send to someone else and
make their day!


Tuesday, January 4, 2011

New Poetry books and poets

From Books and Culture:

Poetry Roundup, 2010

A look back at some highlights of the year.

If you are lucky enough to have work, then an average holiday may help you relocate a stillness. It's a time to take a few breaths, blink a little. Good holidays allow for conversation, communions of various sorts—with friends and family missed and neglected, and if it's really good, with voices from books, too. They can sometimes sound almost as keen as you are about your newfound attention, your extra stretch of time spent in just this way. They call out to you from the white winter of their pages.

( read on......find some new poets )

This one looks very , very interesting:

At the end of the year, in closing, I must also make mention of Deborah Digges' The Wind Blows Through the Door of My Heart, the last book by a poet who fell silent too soon. Digges died, at 59, in April 2009, and this volume represents the book she was then preparing for publication, with the efforts of editors and her literary estate to establish its final form. (Some poems were in multiple copies or had marginal notes, others had not yet been added to her in-process table of contents.) This collection of twenty-seven poems, so consumed with other losses, becomes a more deeply sad but brave testament as a posthumous production. Births and deaths recur often: in one poem, a lover suddenly stops the car when he notices a cow groaning and trying to give birth:

I watched him thrust his arms entire
into the yet-to-be, where I imagined holy sparrows scattering
in the hall of souls for his big mortal hands just to make way.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

New Year awaits



It's been a week of quiet
and time. "Time out of time."
I always want to know how to
hold onto this kind of time.
It breeds slowness and even
cultivates energy. I feel like
doing because my days are not
scheduled. Scheduled life and
its pace leers ahead. Moby Dick
to be caught! I'll be spending the
next month going out to sea
on the whaling ship to find that
Big White Whale! I'm determined
to make this one a great trip! The
wide ocean is before me ~~ a long
book to read through with 15 high
schoolers. Above is my Christmas
present to inspire us: Altered
Book by Penny Arrowood, a mixed
media artist from Fayetteville, NC.
Of course, there is a story when I saw
the book (for another day ) and now
the magical journey with it.

( click on her name to see two pages
of the inside of the book)


We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.
Moby Dick