Rain, rain, go away

Rainy weekend

Waiting in the car for three hours while the girls had piano lessons and were picked up from carpool. Packing good books, snacks, and crayons when our electronic limits were reached, and it was too wet for a trip to the park.

Carving things out of soap from hotel rooms. This was a great rainy day activity. I had envisioned the end-products as being little carvings of elephants or something recognizable. However, we learned that it is harder to crave soap that you would think with a plastic knife. Most of the bars crumbled, but it kept the kids engaged in the creative process for a while, and any moments without arguing with one another are a success in my book.

We're keeping the crumbles in a container by the tub for reuse.

I was able to tell the kids about a man from Africa who started a ministry recycling slightly used bars of hotel soap to bring health to poor villages. We heard him speak once at the Catalyst conference in Atlanta. Inspiring.

See Soap for South Sudan: Global Soap Project

http://www.christianchronicle.org/blog/2011/10/soap-for-south-sudan-nonprofit-donates-10000-bars-to-ministry/

 

Last Days of Summer

 

Our first kid headed out with her satchel full of school supplies for the new school year. The others have 8 more days before they begin.

 

Thus, we are officially in the last days of summer.

To make the most of these in-between days, the kids have:

Finished up their summer reading challenges at the library and celebrated with ice cream.

 

Washed the car with a hose in their bathing suits.

 

Gone to the park where I played as a kid and enjoyed the splash pad. (It used to have a wading pool, but I guess that's been replaced for safety reasons.)

Learned to rip stick...and learned not to rip stick on wet pavement. Gotten lectures about wearing helmets and good shoes. Gotten band-aids and antiseptic spray.

 

 

Taken a broken coffee maker apart to look at the insides

Made hand "tattoo" puppets (Hooray for Dollar Store finds!)

Organized last hurrah play dates and sleepovers to shoot each other with Nerf guns and build things with Legos.

Spent time with the Grandparents learning to drive go karts.

We are:

Swimming some final laps.

Dusting off some fall ball equipment and practicing some forgotten scales.

Catching a few summer movies.

Goofing around on the electronics

Carpool madness has already begun.

 

China

In the last few weeks, we have been able to visit with a dear friend who has moved to China to teach English.

 

My husband also needed to travel for business. So, since we were not traveling, we pretended with Asian week. We ate Chinese take-out and took pictures of Asian art from the restaurant. We read Chinese stories and learned a little about the Great Wall, and watched Kung Fu Panda and a documentary about a seeing eye dog set in Japan. We were surprised to learn that just because something says "caramel" on the outside of the box, does not guarantee that it is the same brown sugar caramel you envision when you purchase the box. Our Asian candies were purple and had the consistency of Starbursts. Taro maybe?

 

Surrender

"Surrender to the demands of this season."

Priscilla Shirer- Gideon Biblestudy

I have enjoyed studying Gideon with some women from my Sunday School class this summer. I have been familiar with the "mighty warrior" portion of his three chapters in the book of Judges, but I have been discovering other layers of his story that apply to where I am now, smack in the middle of child-rearing years, and piles of groceries and laundry.

There is a part of midlife that I struggle with. I love my children. I love being able to stay home with them plan adventures for us in the summer and teach them about our God and our world. I delight in them. But sometimes I get lost in the day-to-day never-ending duties that this stage of life requires. I stare at the groceries I have just bought and wonder what to make for dinner. I wish I had had more inspiration to plan menus before I ran to the store, but I had to go when the moment availed itself to shop alone (without my five begging for more sugary cereals and honey buns on every aisle).

I tire when they squabble with one another or show ingratitude or disrespect. I forget that they are not adults and are still reasoning and functioning as children. "When I was a child, I reasoned as a child..."

I forget that this IS a big important job instead of wishing for some ministry to call my own that seems like it would be more exciting or fulfilling. Something that I could point to to say "I did this with my life" instead of "I'm doing what billions of other people are doing."

I need to surrender - daily, hourly, to the demands of this season, when I drive the carpool, when I wash the clothes, when I break up the squabbles. I need to remember that I have been entrusted with these young lives. I need to remember that He can change my perspective when I'm spent.

"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, APPOINTING me to His service." 1 Timothy 1:12

Help me, Father, to see these "days of small things" as being truly valuable in your eyes. Help me to accept your assignment for me with grace, and share that grace with others. Pour out your grace on me abundantly (14) when I tire....and display your "unlimited patience" in me too. (16)

May I faithfully "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." 2 Timothy 2:1

 

I am reminded

I liked this quote from life:beautiful summer 2013 magazine -

 

" I am reminded of the war for my soul, the quiet, subtle, and alluring current pulling me toward doubtful independence."

Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked God and My Soul

Satellite image of ocean currents

I am certain that my soul is safe and secure within the arms of Jesus, yet something about this sentence draws me. There IS a war for my soul (emotional well-being and security). I don't feel drawn away to doubt (in the sense of eternal security) but I daily feel the "quiet, subtle, and alluring current" pulling me towards something that is not peace and wholeness. It's hard to put a name to it. Restlessness? A sense of wondering if I am doing enough with the treasures and gifts that I have been given. A Christian female version of the mid-life crisis? Doubt that I am doing (and being) all that I should do (be) on any given day.

 

 

Sometimes I want to stop and make a list just to see on paper that our life is full and full of good things. To take inventory and see if we're missing anything. Let's see, at this stage in our life:

We are a part of these church activities and serve in these capacities

We give to these ministries

We seek to glorify God in our family businesses

We've been obedient in these areas

I can see that God is working in our individual lives and through our family, yet within me is a great desire to live life well. Very well. With excellence. Yet, it's hard to discern what exactly an excellent life looks like.

It's like Arthur Schindler at the end of Schindler's List saying, "I could have done more!" but being unclear on what that more could or should look like.

I'm undecided on whether this soul-searching is a weakness or a strength. If out of balance on one side, this looks like graceless perfectionism and dissatisfaction with the small tasks I've been entrusted with. Properly brought before the scrutinizing eyes of Jesus, this looks more like a holy passion to hear the words "Well done, good and faithful servant." A desire to use the life I've been given well.

Several of my close godly friends are wrestling with this too. What is right and good to enjoy, and what is over-indulgence? What is taking on too much, and what is pouring your life out for others? What can our family invest in that reaches beyond ourselves and our own entertainment and well-being? When is it ok to just take a nap and let someone else take responsibility? When is it ok to let your kids glut on electronics while you freshen your pedicure?

Jesus, I pray that the strongest current in my life would be drawing me back to sit at your feet and listen to your directives for each day. May my satisfaction be found only in You, and not in a sense of living well for You. May I begin to see that the small jobs You are giving me are the ones You want me to have. May I be found doing them with excellence and a happy heart. May I trust that if I am not hearing a clear directive to take on something else, then my life is full enough for the time being. And should You call us into further action, may we trust You on those ventures too.

 

Worship Week

I love the theme of this year's worship week. As the kids took exploratory classes in dance, guitar, voice, percussion, and electric violin, they were taught to first LEARN the material, then LIVE it, then LEAD it.

What a great pattern for our entire spiritual lives.

 

 

The Chambered Nautilus

 

 

Fragile beauty, super-glued back together

 

I have a lot of natural items on display around my house: ostrich eggs, peacock feathers, dried flowers, bundles of wheat, seashells and turtle shells, geodes and interesting stones. I have always been drawn to the beauty in nature and like to have reminders near me.

 

This is a section from one of my favorite poems from high school.

 

 

Year after year beheld the silent toil

That spread his lustrous coil;

Still, as the spiral grew,

He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,

Stole with soft step its shining archway through,

Built up its idle door,

Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,

Child of the wandering sea,

Cast from her lap, forlorn!

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born

Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!

While on mine ear it rings,

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:—

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,

As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,

Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!

 

From "The Chambered Nautilus"

-Oliver Wendall Holmes, Sr.

 

 

I love the idea of growing, exponentially, over time.

I love seeing the fingerprints of Creator God in nature...in things both delicate and infinite.

 

I love knowing that He lives within me because of Christ, and is helping me grow more into His image, one stage at a time, one season at a time. I love being a part of His order.

 

 

The inner ear

 

 

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