abundance

Welcome to the last day of April, and the last days of separation from Brett, for this is his last full week of class. Only God knows how the next few months will unfold as he considers where to internship, switches over health insurance and bank accounts (for unrelated reasons), and we think of long term housing projects & traveling dreams we would love to save up for now but need patience to pay off student loans first.

Despite the sacrifices we make, this life IS my dream come true. I'm satisfied with under 30K/year for the rest of my life! I'm trying not to regret the educational choices we made to cause our student loans, for without them we would never have met. In the same way, I know God's plan for our family is perfect for us, and I choose to take joy in my one beautiful, precious, spirited Starflower.

 

 See how abundant God's provision is?!

sons of adam, daughters of eve

I love understanding things and making discoveries, but am a finite being, and therein lies the tension. Defaming lies and proclaiming Truth really resonate with me. Classification systems and personality analyses fascinate me but occasionally repel, because they are imperfect. I consider myself a recovering perfectionist, yet mathematical precision does not delight me half as much as diagramming sentences with living, breathing, changing words.

I am an introvert. And, I am an extrovert. I am a human being created in the image of God.

I appreciate Adam Young's 10 Myths. I love companionship. I love sharing. I love diversity. I hate crowds. I hate cities. I hate noisiness. I process by talking/writing and listening/reading.

~

I identify more strongly with the first list. But I prefer the following advice above either:

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor

 Romans 12:10

Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds

Hebrews 10:24

Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

Colossians 4:6

indulge me

While I've rather tried (and failed) to keep my blog more about writing and less about pictures - and let's face it, way more people comment on facebook pics - I just cannot keep from sharing these photographic glimpses here. I am a storyteller, and facebook is not the ideal place to keep record of stories, though it does have more publicity. Three weeks from today Brett will be finished with his class and I hope to spend heaps more time with him, and perhaps at that point I will refocus my internet time to blogging, and telling stories through pictures and words here, and leave the superficiality to facebook.

 here is my beautiful daughter Elanor at Oxbow Park this morning

 buffalo gal

 I couldn't decide which of the following to post...

 one

 two

 three

four

Which is your favorite?

tenacity

I might be a little crazed from going-on-13 weeks of 80+ hours one-on-one with a three year old, but I am wearing a stocking hat, two sweaters, wool socks, and enjoying ice cream. I got some tart local-grown raspberries from last summer out of the freezer and whipped this up in my blender, garnished with a square of Aldi's dark chocolate. But I was in too much of a hurry to get out a pretty bowl. So sue me.

My thoughts swarm more fiercely without Brett to counter-balance me, and I'm pondering my daughter's soul. Today I hugged her firmly while she screamed and struggled for what seemed like an eternity (but may have only been 10 minutes?). I call it a hug-lock, and I've done it before. Like when no other disciplinary method seems effective and she simply won't respect the animals or leave off whining or keep out of danger or listen to her mother. But today, as I lay there enduring her pleas and punches, I wondered what God was seeing. What do You know, Lord? Will this passionate stubbornness cleave to You? Will You bind her strength of will to Yours? Because I sure can't do it. I almost think she's more determined than I am, but perhaps I have just been tempered longer. Was I this hard to reason with, God? I couldn't outlast her, but I held on until her fighting was less enthusiastic, and then I let her go and she stayed on the bed beside me, searching my eyes, but the look in hers was undefeated.

Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."

the deadly faerie

The tool shop was tidy and inviting me to try my hand at building a box for a fairy garden, and I also had a coupon for a free four-pack of flowers, so with my Ela bell's help we made this:

  

I went inside for a mere moment, and I returned to her exclaiming how she "planted pretty flowers" in alongside her dandelions... only she had picked my April 1st Trio of crimson tulips..

Oh Me! How could I reprimand her for unintentionally murdering my favorite bouquet?

Nothing to do but make the best of it, and remember that the grass withers and the flowers fade.