twirl mommy twirl

"Twirl, Mommy, twirl!"
(when Mama comes home with a new dress and tries it on)

"Can we watch it at 10:30?"
(this is the only time reference she ever makes)

"40 pounds, 40 pounds."
(using a tape measure to measure several different objects)

And when she finds a tiny copper pot in with Papa's coin collection:
"Papa - is this pan for cooking money?"
"That's too small for you to play with, maybe when you're bigger."
"When it grows bigger, I can play with it."

splintered

One of my favorite poems, by J.R.R. Tolkien, expresses how we create because we were Created:

Although now long estranged Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed
Disgraced he may be, yet is not dethroned
And keeps the rags of lordship once he owned
Man, sub-creator, the refracted light
Through whom is splintered from a single White
To many hues and endlessly combined
In living shapes that move from mind to mind
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
With elves and goblins, though we dared to build
Gods and their houses out of dark or light
And sowed the seed of dragons, twas our right
Used or misused, that right has not decayed
We make still by the law in which we're made.

fairylicious

thank you Andrea for thinking up this treat for our resident 3-year-old

radicality

...reading The Radical Disciple, by the late John Stott:

"Life on earth is a brief pilgrimage between two moments of nakedness."

"We are all designed to be a burden to others. ...the life of the family, including the life of the local church body, should by one of 'mutual burdensomeness' ...Galatians 6:2 ...dependence does not, cannot, deprive a person of their dignity. If dependence was appropriate for the God of the universe [Christ's dependence on the Father], it is certainly appropriate for us."

"What then should our attitude be to ourselves? It is a combination of self-affirmation and self-denial--affirming everything in us that comes to us from our creation and redemption, and denying everything that can be traced to the Fall."

more beautifuller still

I woke up today in the arms of my love, after two weeks away working in Iowa. I missed him ...so ...much.

Now it is thundering out. I am meditating on the blessedness of a similar day three years ago, when the blue-eyed starflower that is Elanor Zeforah came into the world and, subsequently, our lives. Happy third birthday to my beautifulest beloved Norah <3

Quelling the frantic anxiety that threatens to surface because of impending obligations, I am thanking God for the tension He has sovereignly placed me within and the Help He has supplied.

July 27 2008

to live

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far."

-the apostle Paul, Philippians 1:21-23

No matter how much discouragement or failure is a part of your life (or mine), we can be certain that every day God allows us to live is to glorify Him, even if His glory comes by our suffering. If we are alive, it is to His glory. I really have no reason to complain about anything. If I am alive it because He has not yet completed His work in me, and there is still fruitful labor to be done.

the tide of time

my sister painted my nails and then picked these flowers for me in a ditch

I turned 27 today. My own mother wasn't even married when she was my age, and I have a college education, a husband, a daughter, and a home. I've lived on two coasts and traveled overseas, and I have seen the last Harry Potter movie. I worked in the corn fields with all six of my siblings today and now we're about to sing some praises with the guitar. I am blessed. Thank you Lord.