Words that smile

The world tips a bit on a summer evening. 

From Ann's blog today. 

It made me think of how summer really arrived this Memorial 
Day Weekend and what I am thankful for:

 rest
good food
work in the garden
good reading
good time in the Word
prayer
friends...many have birthdays
my Literature class is over
a wedding in 19 days
Plan B Mother of the Groom dress found
Childlight Conference next week 
friend home from Austria/ Wycliffe 
movie time with hubby 


Summer arriving.  

                              Monet: Summer Meadow at Bezons

Over. Done.

At noon, it felt like Friday. It is Thursday!
Exams done . Humanities today. My grades done and passed back to students. AMEN. The Doxology and how I feel:

"I shall live forever and ever and ever!" he cried grandly. "I shall find out thousands and thousands of things. I shall find out about people and creatures and everything that grows--like Dickon--and I shall never stop making Magic. I'm well! I'm well! I feel--I feel as if I want to shout out something--something thankful, joyful!"
Ben Weatherstaff, who had been working near a rose-bush, glanced round at him.
"Tha' might sing th' Doxology," he suggested in his dryest grunt. He had no opinion of the Doxology and he did not make the suggestion with any particular reverence.
But Colin was of an exploring mind and he knew nothing about the Doxology.
"What is that?" he inquired.
"Dickon can sing it for thee, I'll warrant," replied Ben Weatherstaff.
Dickon answered with his all-perceiving animal charmer's smile.
"They sing it i' church," he said. "Mother says she believes th' skylarks sings it when they gets up i' th' mornin'."
"If she says that, it must be a nice song," Colin answered. "I've never been in a church myself. I was always too ill. Sing it, Dickon. I want to hear it."
Dickon was quite simple and unaffected about it. He understood what Colin felt better than Colin did himself. He understood by a sort of instinct so natural that he did not know it was understanding. He pulled off his cap and looked round still smiling.
"Tha' must take off tha' cap," he said to Colin," an' so mun tha', Ben--an' tha' mun stand up, tha' knows."
Colin took off his cap and the sun shone on and warmed his thick hair as he watched Dickon intently. Ben Weatherstaff scrambled up from his knees and bared his head too with a sort of puzzled half-resentful look on his old face as if he didn't know exactly why he was doing this remarkable thing.
Dickon stood out among the trees and rose-bushes and began to sing in quite a simple matter-of-fact way and in a nice strong boy voice:

        "Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
        Praise Him all creatures here below,
        Praise Him above ye Heavenly Host,
        Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
                    Amen."

When he had finished, Ben Weatherstaff was standing quite still with his jaws set obstinately but with a disturbed look in his eyes fixed on Colin. Colin's face was thoughtful and appreciative.
"It is a very nice song," he said. "I like it. Perhaps it means just what I mean when I want to shout out that I am thankful to the Magic." He stopped and thought in a puzzled way. "Perhaps they are both the same thing. How can we know the exact names of everything? Sing it again, Dickon. Let us try, Mary. I want to sing it, too. It's my song. How does it begin? `Praise God from whom all blessings flow'?"
And they sang it again, and Mary and Colin lifted their voices as musically as they could and Dickon's swelled quite loud and beautiful--and at the second line Ben Weatherstaff raspingly cleared his throat and at the third line he joined in with such vigor that it seemed almost savage and when the "Amen" came to an end Mary observed that the very same thing had happened to him which had happened when he found out that Colin was not a cripple--his chin was twitching and he was staring and winking and his leathery old cheeks were wet.
"I never seed no sense in th' Doxology afore," he said hoarsely, "but I may change my mind i' time. I should say tha'd gone up five pound this week Mester Colin--five on 'em!
 

When you are.... full of sleep

My college son was watching Helvetica  as I went to bed last night after the Project Presentations. It was late. It was  pouring rain and sitting to learn about a FONT: helvetica..........this font.........was very interesting but I shall have to return. The day caught up with me and sleep fell on my eyes as in this poem:

WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

 ~ William B. Yeats 

Project Evening

   Emma has been cooking. She has a 40 Hour Project with her Humanties course in Antiquity. She choose Jewish Foods. She cooked over 40 hours of various dinners and parts of dinners.  You can see what we've been eating on her Culinary Missions blog here.
 

   It smells wonderful in my kitchen right now. Rugelachs are in the oven  take tonight with bittersweet chocolate on the inside!

not her cookies but they do look like this!

Library Books

                               
                                      This is all his poetry in one volume.

   I got the audio because Anne and her son Sam are the readers. I want to see the book too. Not sure if it has photos? 

 

laundry and the last week of school

“The ordinary activities I find most compatible with contemplation are walking, baking bread, and doing laundry." ( Kathleen Norris from  The Quotidian Mysteries)

 Somehow the baskets are overflowing. Last week was "getting ready for Dr. George Grant to dinner with students/ parents" in our Kings Meadow Charlotte tutorial. It was at my house.  He shared, among many other things, about journaling and how the brain must tell back what it knows.  I am continual struck by his vision, wisdom, and orthopraxy. He always reminds  me of the Schaeffers. (L'Abri) 

Not making bread today. Hope to take a walk. Having coffee with a friend. Doing laundry and contemplating as I go.

L'Abri Winter Newsletter Online

It is Centennial Year of Francis Schaeffer. 
Another online resource:

Winter 2012  International Newsletter. 
Focuses on Dutch L'Abri. 

another online magazine

I did see this magazine at Anthropologie yesterday but thought it was a book. 

Here it is online to look through:

Anthology

AN ONLINE MAGAZINE

Sweet Paul Magazine

Till We Have Faces

Bareface was the original title for Till We Have Faces  by C.S. Lewis.  Lewis changed the title and it  comes from this line in the book: 

"How can [the gods] meet us face to face till we have faces?"

Another good line is :

"Why must holy places be dark places?" 

It is a retelling of Cupid and Psyche. 

It is very similar to the book of Job.

Transformation happens to Orual. 

Layers of themes abound. 

You can listen to Peter Kreeft give a lecture on the book 

here.

  

Endings and Beginnings

Yes, you read that right. Ending of classes. 
Ending of activities. Ending of the school year.

IN homeschooling, Emma finished Biology  today with this friend.   She commented on this being the last day of class too!  Choir party over. Testing done. CAT. Now for Humanities / English / lit to be over. Two more weeks. 

My daughter-in-law is done too! Grad School is over . YEAH Ashley. Masters of Education ~ concentration in English. 
She taught 8th/7th graders  full time while taking courses online or in the classroom up at the university. I am so proud of her!

College son (#4) is home from college. Finals done. Laundry running right now!

Then onto summer, Childlight Conference  ( speaker : Makoto Fujimura)  and a wedding. 
I just thought about my two plus their cousin ( wedding in August) having the same number of years of marriage from 2012! This Year of Weddings.Beginnings.

                      Graduate/ Middle School English Teacher with  Bride to Be/ Physician Assistant to be
                                                          at the March Wedding
                                                         Soon to be Sister-in-laws

Flat yellow shoes arrived today for the bridesmaid who lives here!

Words are powerful

Meditating on these words from Psalm 18:

 
19 He brought me out into a spacious place;   he rescued me because he delighted in me. 

Darby Bible Translation
And he brought me forth into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in .

Words are powerful

 Emma's wonderful Choir Director, who is also a voice teacher. wrote  to the singers these powerful words  after performances this year. The choir had 90 high school students. She would tell them to sing in colors. Close their eyes and think about GOLD. Sing that color. Be encouraged with the red words:

I felt His wonder. 

I so wanted you to step into that place of knowing and feeling His wonder.  God is so good.  I will cherish the moments we shared tonight glorifying our magnificent father and his beloved son.

Sweet blessings to all you. I love sharing music with you. My heart will be singing with you and breathing with you and sending you all my love.Enjoy the fruits of your hard labor.


God's sweet blessings to you all, may you sing through the weekend because you touched heaven and then touched others!

Emma is in the left section , 3rd row from the bottom ( microphone is in her face from this angle) , second to the right next to Ben. Gwen's mother playing on the piano. Her father conducted and arranged  the last song.


Here is a fabulous version of Birdland from last year's concert . Emma was in Musical Heirs last year. We were all tapping our feet and smiling as the sanctuary became full of such glorious music!

Rumer Godden

I collect many authors books. Many.
One is Rumer Godden. 
On a shelf is Kitchen Madonna which I need to move to a reading pile  (don't you have those too?) and read it. 
It is not long. This sentence from Here in the Bonny Glen 
moved me to think about things bigger on the inside.
IF you are a Dr. Who fan, this will make sense to you!


Like the stable in Narnia, some things are bigger on the inside than you’d ever guess from their (old, worn, drab) exteriors.