Hannah Coulter

I'm rereading Wendell Berry's book
Hannah Coulter . This afternoon I realized
how much of his worldview of the farm
and land is being lost along with the
disintigration of the family. Part of
his worldview is the world we've lost
in Modernity: Family, land , a belonging
to a place ( think Mitford) and perhaps
how we are dependent on each other.
Culture is changing so fast. Our lives are
so filled with schedules and activities.
So what do you do with your free time
that all of the fast technology is to
save us?

Today in class we read Why I don't Have
a Computer and had an interesting
discussion among the 14- 18 year
olds in my class in which one said " This
sounds like a debate." We will read some
more essays and poems before the
semester ends. This is alongside
Amusing Ourselves to Death
by Neil Postman. Wonder if there will be
a shift in any of these student's worldview in
regard to technology. I'll let you know.
We're all to take a media fast during Spring Break.

Too good not to copy

From Dr. George Grant's blog:

Socialism

"The problem with Socialism is that
eventually you run out of other people's money."
--Margaret Thatcher

Did I really hear that?

A story on the evening news
was about monkeys in the Conga
that might becoming extinct.
The story ended with these words:
"If these monkeys do become extinct,
we will lose a part of our human
heritage."

I want to know whose family
tree has monkeys on it......????
Did the news reporter really
believe that and has that on
his family tree that tells his children
their great, great, great......
grandfather was a monkey?

Heritage:
noun

1.	something that comes or belongs to one by reason of birth; an inherited lot or portion: a heritage of poverty and suffering; a national heritage of honor, pride, and courage.

2.	something reserved for one: the heritage of the righteous.

Law. a. something that has been or may be inherited by legal descent or succession. b. any property, esp. land, that devolves by right of inheritance. 3. The status acquired by a person through birth; a birthright 4. Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.

Imagine a letter from this author

Tolkien received letters from readers
all over the world. But unlike some famous
authors, he took time to answer each letter
personally, and sometimes at great length.

Beginning again in the garden

I can help some this year in the
garden after my hip replacement,
but not to plant or get the soil ready.
My dear husband is getting ready
to get the soil ready from the fall
which is piled with leaves and when
I looked this afternoon, very weedy!
A great article in the NY Times from
this blog . She writes about the soil:

So wait patiently for the chocolate cake stage.

Corn will be grown in this summer's
garden. Every few days my husband
thinks about growing corn in South
Dakota when he was 7. It must have
been full of delight for him. He seems
to get dreamy to reproduce it this
summer!

Springtime

Our Lord has written the promise
of the resurrection, not in books alone,
but in every leaf in springtime.
-Martin Luther

Whispering of Love

Fabulous exhibit visit today
to the Mint Museum and this
painting by William Bouguereau
blew us away! Up close you
could see her veins in her hands
and even feel her skin . It was
that realistic and yes, it was painted!
Many of my students journaled on this
which I get to read next week.
Art fills some crevices of my
mind, heart and soul of beauty that can
get there no other way. I sighed as I left.

I had an odd fixation on artist's signatures.
More on that in the next blog!

Beauty of ART

I'll be going to see this wonderful
exhibit coming here from The New
Orleans Museum tomorrow. Big names,
recognizable names and we don't have
to go to the National Gallery or the Met
or MOMA:

Mother and Child in Conservatory
Artist: Mary Cassatt

Dancer in Green
Artist: Edgar Degas

Houses on the Old Bridge at Vernon
Artist: Claude Monet

Several Circles, Wassily Kandinsky, 1926

Seamstress at a window, Pierre-Auguste
Renoir



Composition, Jackson Pollock



Portrait of a Young Woman, Miro

Sun and Gold

The sun has finally cracked through
the clouds and brought us the
Carolina BLUE skies that make us
smile.

Thinking of another GOLD quote
from Amy Carmichael's book
Gold By Moonlight:

"In 1637, out of much trouble of mind,
the Scottish Minister Rutherford
wrote to a friend: IT IS POSSIBLE TO
GATHER GOLD , WHERE IT MAY BE
HAD, WITH MOONLIGHT."

This book is written to any who are walking
difficult places and who care to gather
that gold."

Seems a good reread for these days.

True Freedom in knowing NO is an answer

Got to hear Denis Haack of
Ransom Fellowship on Saturday
on The Great Escape ( use of
media with that) and Calling
which always is in community.
Just a thought today that I've
been pondering from his talk:
Saying NO to needs that you might
fill for someone or in church may
be the way to freedom in Christ.
You may not have the gifts or the
calling. Sometimes you need close
community to tell you THIS is not
what you are really good at but you
are good at something else ( and name
it if you want to keep that friend!).
I have thought more about the freedom
it is to know what you can do well
and what God wants you to do. Sometimes
that has to do with passions, talents,
and the Lord saying to YOU to do something.
As one who likes to please people and to be
liked, that is empowering and definitely
full of grace and yes , freeing.
Contemplate a love that helps you live
what you were made for.

His mercies are New Every Morn.........

But with the morning cool reflection came.
Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832)

Gold...........

"Love is what carries you, for it is always there,
even in the dark, or most in the dark, but shining
out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery." ~
Wendell Berry from Hannah Coulter

cold winter returns

Photo of last week's snow before
Spring arrived. Winter is holding
on as we get some cold air and rain
coming our way. Looking out from
my front porch which is on the second landing. As my son Evan said
today, this is not cold. You should be in Boone to know COLD.
Could have fooled me as I grabbed my vest to wear to keep warm as the air is dropping in temperature.

William Merritt Chase

Isn't that a gorgeous painting!
We have a wonderful exhibit
coming to our city this coming
weekend from New Orleans:
Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cassatt,
O'Keefe, Picasso, Kandinsky,
John Singer Sargent, Miro,
....oh my, sigh. I've been teaching
my class about these artists. Even
a Pollack who splattered paint
and made a living from that! No
William Merritt Chase from my
headliner, but I love the green in
this painting and would love to
be there breathing the air of freshness
and hearing it too.
Reminds me of this Wendell Berry
poem:


IV
Ask the world to reveal its quietude—
not the silence of machines when they are still,
but the true quiet by which birdsongs,
trees, bellows, snails, clouds, storms
become what they are, and are nothing else.

Have to hold my tongue

And pray as I listen to the news.
Any lessons to be heeded?
Good article here on what the cities
will do. Skim it. Then pray.

17 years ago

I had my 4th boy!
I think back to how full my
days were with all of them
and homeschooling and would
not trade any day in for a different
kind of life! What a blessing my
children are to me and my husband!
Keep on if you are in the midst
of a housefull of children to educate.
There's a legacy to pass on to them.
Happy 17th Gordan!


“You are the heirs of a remarkable legacy—
a legacy that has passed into your hands
after no little tumult and travail; a legacy
that is the happy result of sacrificial human
relations, no less than of stupendous human
achievements; a legacy that demands of you
a lifetime of vigilance and diligence so that
you may in turn pass the fruits of Christian
civilization on to succeeding generations.
This is the essence of the biblical view, the
covenantal view, and the classical view of
education. This is the great legacy of truth
which you are now the chief beneficiaries.”
—Arthur Quiller-Couch

Don't Forget to send YOUR RED Envelope

Vermeer's Woman in Blue Reading a Letter



To the President to remind
him that each envelope
represents a child who died
because of abortion.My first
one goes out tomorrow. Thankfully,
I had a RED envelope. I think
I may have some more to send
by March 31st.


( can't get rid of this space!!!!)
(Help!)

The perfect word from the Lord

We awoke to snow and no
school. The neighborhood kids
big and small came out to make
snowmen and then to see each other.
We don't live where everyone goes to
the same school : public, private and
homeschool. I've watched these kids
grow up ( well, for the past 11 years) so
I love snow days.

After praying with a friend this morning
on the phone about the state of affairs
in our nation, I read these perfect words
from the Lord in MORNING by Charles
Spurgeon:

“But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock.”

1 Samuel 13:20

WE are engaged in a great war with the Philistines of evil. Every weapon within our reach must be used. Preaching, teaching, praying, giving, all must be brought into action, and talents which have been thought too mean for service must now be employed......

Most of our tools want sharpening; we need quickness of perception, tact, energy, promptness, in a word, complete adaptation for the Lord’s work. Practical common sense is a very scarce thing among the conductors of Christian enterprises. We might learn from our enemies if we would, and so make the Philistines sharpen our weapons. This morning let us note enough to sharpen our zeal during this day by the aid of the Holy Spirit.

Snow ...snow...snow

We woke up to SNOW this morning
in Boone. It stopped and then as
we left my niece's All State Orchestra
Concert, more snow. Driving down the
mountains was treacherous, but then
as we descended it stopped again. Then
miles down the highway we hit a blizzard.
Snow coming down so hard. Back home
it was wet. Now we have SNOW!
Wish I had those snow flakes on my
blog headliner!