Beautiful...

How I come to merit such a sweet gesture from two dear friends is beyond me as I seem to have fallen off the blogging bandwagon during this current season of life, but maybe this is just the incentive I needed to get my butt back on here and share a little something with y'all.  It's not that I've lost the desire to write, or that I don't miss the beauty of connecting, just that I am seeking to keep my eyes in tune with the beauty around me in real time, and real life.  This place will remain a haven for me to slip away to when nothing else beckons and as the Spirit leads.

Thank you Berry Girl and Chris, for the gesture of affection.  I love you girls.

I am to list seven things about me and pass it along.  I find the seven things about me really hard... I mean, there are seven million things about me to be found in any one of the many entries in this little cyber place of mine, but I guess I can come up with seven more.  I think in honor of the "Beautiful" Blogger Award I will choose seven things that I find beautiful in my everyday existence.

One.  Silence.  Surreal moments like this one where I sit alone, in a gently lit room, with only the hum of appliances and the knowledge that the people I love are lying still and quiet and warm in their beds.  Nearby, but not in my face. 

Two.  Chaos.  Seven people around an oval table, laughing, talking, making animal noises, banging utensils, yes, even crying.  How sad it would be to eat alone.

Three.  Order.  A place for everything and everything in its place.  When this is accomplished, I feel I can breathe, relax... enjoy my home and family to the utmost.

Four.  Cleanliness.  Seeing light spill across a freshly mopped floor.  Knowing my laundry is all clean and put away.  Walking into a room that is CLEAN and orderly.  Then sings my soul.

Five.  Friendship.  A phone call from a friend "just because".   Believe it or not I don't get many.  Not that I'm complaining, because I don't make many.  I know that it is part of this season of life, but feeling warm and loved and "thought about" is a gift I want to give to my friends as well.

Six.  Renewal.  Impromptu invitations to do something out of the ordinary.  At this point in my life it seems to be a pretty predictable "day in, day out" grind where I have my hand to the mill and turn, turn, turn.... and I like the steady pace and the familiar gait, but the odd invitation to escape and let my hair down are precious and lovely.

Seven.  Community.  Sitting in a padded pew with six other squirming bodies (my husband is as bad as the kids) surrounded by one hundred other breathing souls who live and love and worship as family not just within those four walls on Sunday morning, but out here, all week long, on these wide open grasslands under this glorious prairie sky.  God is good.

And seven people and places that I find beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, from the inside out....

Miss Jen at Blessed Femina
Jennifer at Getting Down with Jesus
Ann at A Holy Experience.
Emily at Imperfect Prose
Aimee at Living, Loving and Learning Simply
Heidi at Mt. Hope Chronicles
Andrea at The Flourishing Mother

Someday…

"... but someday I will wake

in a body that won't break

on ground that won't shake

not here.

and someday I will live

in a house that's built by hands

that hold the world. "

 

Alli Rogers, Tanzania.

Coat of Arms

Today we were studying the Coat of Arms of Canada. I learned alot. I sometimes wonder what I actually LEARNED in school, even though I was an avid student. To borrow the words of a very endearing author, "What DO they teach in those schools?" *grin*.

After studying the Canadian Coat of Arms in detail I gave my daughter the assignment of making a coat of arms for our family and told her that if she could come up with the motto and maxim, I would help her translate it into Latin. I urged her to think of the things that define us and when she brought me her Coat of Arms I bawled like a baby. I have tears springing to my eyes again as I just try to type this.

She gets it. She really gets it. And I am not talking about the Coat of Arms. I'm talking about who we are. Where we come from. Where we're going. What we stand for.



The cross of course is the emblem of our identity. We live through Christ. The Living Word is our firm foundation. The quiver of arrows is our family, with seven arrows, for seven identities. The earth (bottom half) and sun (top half) that encircle the cross show that we live on earth, but are destined for heaven and as such are called to be a light on earth. The Italian and Canadian flags on the arms of the cross show our family's national heritage. I told her she could pick a motto and also some individual words that she thought should/would define our family. She picked "In Christ we Trust" as our motto and the words faith, hope, love and joy.

A+ from this Momma. I couldn't be more impressed or moved.

In Light of Eternity

a note in my inbox from the director of our former mission agency.

A few years ago, a friend observed a family who had been called to leave the UK to serve God literally on the other side of`the world. There were still a few months left before they were to leave, but now they knew that where they were living was not permanent and all their choices were made with that in mind. As they considered buying items, the questions they were asking were, "Can we take this with us? If we buy this, is it going to be wasted?"

Our permanent home is actually right now being prepared for us but to what degree are we living and ministering as though this is our permanent dwelling? How many of our decisions are made only with this age in mind rather than the eternal age?

George Müller wrote,

"There was a day when I died to George Müller, his opinions and preferences, taste and will, died to the world, its approval or censure, died to the approval or blame even of brother or friends, and since then I've striven only to show myself approved unto God."

There is a man who knew what it was to live for God and in light of eternity.

Peter Maiden, Operation Mobilisation

“There are many rooms in my Father’s house, I would not tell you this if it were not true. I am going there to prepare a place for you. After I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” John 14:2,3

ps. from me… the way to the place where he was going. death. I think there is the seed of a secondary spiritual lesson in there…. this life is a training ground for eternity, and as such, we must die daily to the desires of self in order to live by the will of the Spirit.

photo credit, anissat.

Cranberry Wassail

I can’t think of a nicer way to spend a wintery Sunday afternoon than alone, in my cozy  house with the Weepies playing, cookies coming in and out of the oven, a peppermint bark jar candle permeating aromatic comfort through my home and hot drinks simmering on the stove.

This drink has become a new Christmas favorite in our home.  Enjoy!

6 cups cranberry juice (or cocktail)

2 cups unsweetened apple juice

4 cups pineapple juice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon cloves

Mix.  Simmer.  Serve.

Now… I’m off to enjoy a cuppa and cookie before the family gets home!