Today Was Good Because...

• Got up at 5:45 to practice quartet
• Went upstairs to snuggle the Twinkles awake, and ended up getting snuggled asleep - so I got to get up early and sleep in, all in the same day!
• Actually had Ben at home all day. He came downstairs to write his thank-you notes and played the kind of music I like all morning on his o-so-cool-of-a-speaker-system computer. So sweet to me... :)
• Made marionberry jam
• Read Psalm 29 and was reminded to give all my energies to Jesus, not just as much as I think I can spare...sometimes I'm tempted to conserve some for myself, to make sure I don't get all-tired out, but He reminded me that He will give me all the strength I need!
• Taught a violin lesson to an adorable 6-year-old
• Drove with the windows down - warm air pushing and tugging on my hair, the radio with Aaron Copland turned way up (I have to be able to hear it when the windows are down! :)
• Saw grandma and grandpa
• Worked in my garden
• Listened to the Twinkles journey away together to a make-believe garden in a make-believe world while they were "helping" me weed
• Saw God miraculously provide again at the Lord's Gym - this time with the groceries that we handed out after dinner

Today was good because our God is good, yes? :)

My Week - Part Two: Class of 2011

Saturday, July 23rd.
Benjamin's high-school graduation. (Took place on the Twinkles' real birthday). I am so proud of him!
First, his actual graduation pics...such a handsom bro I have!



Er...how did this picture get in there??

And now, the graduation pics...Yes, I know they're not the best quality.

But better poor pics than no pics at all, right? :)

 

It was a good day. :)

My Week - Part One: Birthday Party

Wednesday, July 20th.

Joint birthday party for Megan, Madeline, and Elizabeth, three days before the Twinkles' actual 6th birthday.

No Slug Left Behind



Photo Credit

Theirs is a miserable existence. They slime out a living in flower beds, vegetable gardens, and gravel driveways. Ever hunted by the unrelenting Sluggo, ever wary of the deadly saltshaker, they creepy-crawl along their ways, outcasts of the world. They are slugs, and they can do nothing to change the fact.

Two weeks ago, I began to be in constant contact with this love-starved slime species when mama signed all garden duties over to me. The Littles had planted rows of veggies while I was in Utah, but between the "wascally wabbits", slugs, and careless Little-people footsteps, we were left with six (6) plants. Rather a sad prospect on the whole, don't you think? So, I hoed up the entire garden (going carefully around our few brave growths) and re-planted, hoping for the best, despite the lateness of the year.

Returning from California, I was greeted by rows of corn, green beans, pumpkins, and zucchinis (the herbs have not quite popped up yet...if they plan to). How exciting! However, I am determined not to have a repeat of the first planting's problem, so Saturday night I picked up some chicken wire for a rabbit fence, warned the Littles that they were not to wander at will in the garden, and instituted the No Slug Left Behind Act.




Photo Credit

You see, despite the fact that they make me squirm, are slimy, and are already making a meal out of my rows of corn and beans, I bear the slugs no malice. I will not cut them in half with a trowel, like Zachary likes to do. I will not salt them and watch with deep-seated satisfaction as they shrivel up and die, like James wants to do. No, I will not harm the poor, misunderstood things - it is not their faults that they are slugs. Zachary has kindly agreed to be my helper in this venture, and together we spend much time in the garden - I weeding, and Z-man searching for the poor, misplaced slugs.

By far, this is the best way to go, and one I would urge all of you to consider, as you think on the mistreated slugs in your yard. Kind, gentle, and humane to the slimy creatures so often misunderstood by society, the No Slug Left Behind Act simply relocates unfortunate slugs to places where they can slime to their hearts' content.

At my house, this is the chicken yard.

What's that you say? Chickens eat slugs?

O dear. Imagine that.

Dear Ben: Don't Forget

I'm sitting here in a cute little coffee shop (the only place I can find internet! :), sipping the yummiest Vanilla Chai I've ever had, in lovely, 80-degree-weather. We are on vacation in sunny California! Unfortunately, Benjamin had to stay home from this amazing trip. Something about having a job? I don't know... Anyway, we missed him so much, we wrote him a letter! Enjoy! :)

Watch-It Wednesday: It's a Book!

An aisle in Literary Leftovers
(taken with my back hard against waist-high piles of books!)

 As I stepped again (at last!) across the threshold, that familiar flutter which makes me want to twirl and giggle to myself for happiness set my skin a-tingling. The smell of hundreds of musty and dusty old books - some a hundred years old, some only two - wafted towards me as I picked my way carefully along the narrow aisles, hedged in by bookcases and mounds of books.

Ahhhh. Literary Leftovers. Probably my favorite bookstore ever.

I frequent it rarely, because when I'm in that little, hole-in-the-wall shop, I loose all track of time. Today I fingered some 80-year-old books by Harold Bell Wright, smiled at an identical (though slightly more worn) 1952 edition of American poetry which sits on my shelf here at home, and skimmed one section of one side of the first bookcase.

Sigh.

It was lovely. I have to go back there again soon!

But moving on. This little clip made me grin. Who wants to bet that in a hundred years, this could be a reality for many? (Though not, of course, for any of my descendants. I shall strictly charge them to always - ALWAYS - own the physical book of any story they love!) :)

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

And a New Nation was Born

"When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation...."

So began the birth announcement of a brand-new nation, born in the early days of July, 1776. It was not a time for baby-countries; the "Powers of the Earth" receiving the announcement were both scandalized and outraged. 

"Of all the nerve!" they cried in great derision, "To be so openly affronted with such audacity and pride! For this imbecile-infant to believe she ranks with us! She shall not last an instant, she knows so little of the world. Her inexperience shall be her undoing; her very existence is a nuisance - and we will squelch this 'little' life!"

"But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;" - I Corinthians 1:27

The great, proud Powers were unable to succeed in their mission. Spurning all dark prophecies that the country could not last, defiant of all powers who planned and plotted its demise, the great fathers and mothers of the new baby-nation were men and women willing to envision ambitiously, create painstakingly, and sacrifice limitlessly. For their children who would follow, these brave parents lead the way - examples of dedication, self-denial, and - most importantly - faith in the one, true King. No cost was too high a price to bring into the world this young nation. A nation who would, in turn, guard and protect the lives and faiths of those to come.

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain." - John Adams

And as they signed that solemn announcement, to the soft scratch of pen on paper, the fathers knew all they would be called upon to lay down for this, their new, small child. Families, occupations, lands, houses, and lives - they counted the cost, and knew it well. Yet, emboldened by their faith in Christ, confident that they were doing right, the signed their names below these words:

"We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare , That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES....And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

And a new nation was born.

Happy Birthday, America.