five minute friday: share

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About to finish up my second quarter at our local community college, one of the classes I've been immersed in for the last 10 weeks is a Creative Non-Fiction Writing class. It's stretched me in many ways; never before have I had the desire or requirement to write over a page on reality, without it being essay format.

In Creative Non-Fiction, my writing is supposed to be personal. It's supposed to reveal me, as the author, and my perspective on whatever subject I may be addressing. It's supposed to not just focus on the "facts, please," but on the emotions, without ever crossing the line to purely making something up. This has overwhelmed me.

My first assignment was to write a memoir - and I have never written anything so difficult. Not because I don't have special memories, not because I can't write well about them, but because the entire class is assigned to read and provide feedback on all turned-in assignments. This frightened me.

Why would I want a roomful of people to know a special memory of mine? Why would I give them that information? They don't know or particularly care about me - how can I share something so priceless with people who have no understanding of its value?

This was sharing of myself I was unwilling to give. Was it wrong? Where do I hold back from sharing myself when I should be giving everything?

five minute friday: Writing for five minutes on a theme. Skip the edits. Skip the considerations. Just write. And post.

News: The Good and the Bad

Almost every class we have, I get a new giggle from my Littles. These past few days have been no exception, as we've color-coded and labelled sentence structures, simultaneously learning whatever tidbits about Martin Luther's life I can convey without prepositional phrases or too many adjectives. Upon being informed that they have a test tomorrow, Zachary and Madeline (hereafter called "The Wise Ones") asked for me to print off a couple practice sheets for them. Forgoing our reformer theme (because I couldn't think of new facts right away), I hastily typed out a couple pages and went about my merry way. On the way upstairs this evening, however, I spotted Maddy's practice page:

The good news is: some amount of information from her sentence analyses is getting through. The bad news is: it's all getting dreadfully tangled up with Jane Austen & Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Five Minute Friday: View

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Sometimes, it's that first moment when you step outside, or when you reach the crest of a hill, or when your eye catches a horizon crowded with color.

 

Sometimes, it's a mysterious sweetness in the air, or the extra-silky something in the wind, or the way the whole world seems to momentarily still and hold its breath in anticipation.

 

Whenever, and however, it comes, you always know "it" is there. Something deep inside thrills and freezes, quivering with the plea to hang on to that feeling forever. You close your eyes, trying to hug time into motionlessness, trying to freeze this moment forever, trying to sear it into your brain, so it will never leave.

 

But even as you try, you know the moment is slipping, the painful thrill of bliss grows dull, and you open your eyes aware of the beauty, loving it, but mourning the loss of that moment gone by.

 

What is this feeling? Why does it come - always so unexpected? Why can we not hold on to it?

 

Is it a glimpse into something deeper, something more beautiful we will know when "someday" becomes "forever"?

 

Or is just the thrill of a lovely view?

 One word. Five minutes. No editing. It's Five Minute Friday!

Five Minute Friday: Song

"Sing unto the LORD," I am told. "Sing unto the LORD the glory due to His name."

 

How can I sing, when my words do not rhyme?

When my harmony is discord?

When my melody is aimless?

How can I sing, when my lyrics fall shallow?

When my verse is confusion?

And my climax is chaos?

How can I sing?

Gently, He takes me, the Master Musician, and the chords of my heart vibrate.

Sweetly, He plays the forgotten tune of my spirit.

Passionately, His works lift their voices and sing, to the melody He makes in my soul.

His words.

His music.

His song.

 One word. Five minutes. No editing. It's Five Minute Friday!

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Five Minute Friday: Our "Afters"

There are the good Afters and bad Afters. (The best of the best being at the end of a story that predicts the end of all stories ~ "And they lived Happily Ever After.")

After today, I will start eating right.

After I'm finished with my book, I will help you with math.

After I practice, I'll take you to the store.

After I meet so-and-so for coffee, I'll have my devotional time.

What if our Afters flipped? What if, instead of "After me, you," our priorities were ever "After you, and you, and you, then (maybe) me?"

After I've listened and talked with you, I'll read my book.

After I've played games with you (because I really want to!) I'll re-organize my shelves.

After I've taken you on a "just us" outing, I'll return to everything I was in the middle of and try to finish.

What are your "Afters" today? Are they in the right place?

 



Five Minute Friday: A Special Moment

Another 5 Minute Friday, with another lovely word: "Remembering"

My memories are not like other people's. I do not remember "when I was little" in chronological order. The people I saw every day, the things I did each week - they are simply not there. My memories are more like a scrapbook. Snap-shot moments placed at random. Some of them I know were special moments, others I am clueless as to their significance in my mind. Sometimes, I cannot even remember events I know now were milestone events. Who knows why this is?

 

I do know, however, that I treasure those moments I have. They are all special to me, now.

 

Like the time I was in my room, at night, and daddy brought little Ben in and put him in the crib at the foot of my bed. I still don't know why he was in there - ours was the girls room - but he was. For a moment after daddy left, Ben stood at the end of the crib closest to the door, and mournfully marked daddy's departure. I squirmed out from the covers, crawled down to the foot of my bed, and leaned over the crib, stretching out both my arms.

 

"Ben, you wanna do this?" (apparently a code word, or tradition)

 

Ben turned and walking on tiptoe to my end of the crib, replied, "I do, I do, I do!"

 

We grabbed each other's hands and just stood there, perfectly content.

 

And that's the end of the memory.

(a memory I love)

 

Want.

To.

Edit.

 

Posting now, to avoid the temptation.

 

What are some of your treasured memories? Do you remember moments, or seasons of your life?

 

Blessings!

 



Five Minute Friday: Maybe Today

A lovely, golden-sunshine, deep-sky-blue Friday morning to you all! I hope, wherever you are, you are enjoying the same amazing weather we have here in the Northwest ~ but unless you actually live in the Northwest, I highly doubt that you are so privileged, because nowhere else in the world are colors so deep, rich, and real. (Yes, I love where I live.)

Reading my Aunt's blog this morning, I was introduced the "Five Minute Friday" challenge. A slightly intimidating idea for me (I am a bit apprehensive about writing for 5 minutes - what will come out? - and posting, without a chance to edit), I still couldn't stand to pass up the opportunity, because this week's word is Home. Timer ready? Here we go:

In my Pastor's house, held with a magnet to the fridge, is an unassuming 8.5-by-11 inch piece of paper boasting two simple words in bold print:

Maybe Today

Maybe Today - those words are so powerful to me. They stop me from any busy-ness or focus I may be in the midst of and make me wonder, What will happen today?

Maybe today you'll see the answer to all those prayers you've been lifting up for the salvation of a loved one. Maybe today healing will come. Maybe today will be the last chance you have to love those around you. Maybe, perhaps, today, is the day we will go Home.

Wow - 5 minutes flies way to quickly. Or I perhaps I simply don't understand the concept of a short, concise post...I had so much more to say! (and I apparently need to learn that it's ok to not sit and read over a sentence every time you write one.)

"Maybe Today" fills me with such a sense of longing ~ what questions and possibilities does it bring to your mind? What images are conjured when you think of "home"?

P.S. Guess what next week is? My bloggy-birthday!! I'm having a party, and you're all invited! There will be give-aways, guest posters, and all sorts of fun, so I'll see you then!

A Christmas Letter

My family is not the most renowned for consistent Christmas letters. In the past, a good year consisted in taking a family picture. Some letters were so late that we had to re-title them as "Easter Updates." For several years, we sent nothing. Sometimes it just happens that way.

Finally, two years ago, we decided it was time we re-connected with the Christmas Card World and wrote a letter. One, double-sided, size-10-font, quarter-inch-margins, sheet-of-paper letter. Success! Sadly, it was not to last. 2011 was another year of silence from the Coder household. Let's just say, living in a family with ten kids, Christmas updates are difficult. Last year's condensed version:

Dear friends and family,

We are well. Sarah is still teaching piano and violin. Ben is still at school as a mechanical engineer. Emily and younger are all still being home schooled. Some kids are in orchestra (still). Daddy still has a job, Mommy is still teaching the Littles.

Love,

the Coders.

OR, one can go into greater detail, granting each person a paragraph, and end up with a book instead of a letter. Which consequently no one will read. Which ironically results in family and friends knowing as little about our goings-on as if we'd sent nothing. Which, we did.

So maybe I have finally discovered a "con" to living in a big family.

Anyway, this year, (no one desirous of the job of detailing the doings of each and every one of us) mama opted to simply make three lists: favorite books, favorite hikes, and favorite "happenings." Rachel sent out an email requesting everyone to send in his/her "favorite of the year" in each of these categories, and then compiled the lists. Mama printed out a picture (sadly NOT of the family, but of just "us kids" on our all-time favorite hike this year), and...that was our letter?

We thought and brainstormed and pondered and considered - for several days. Our three sad lists sat lonely on the computer, immovable until someone came up with a mode of presentation. And then, poof! one Saturday morning, an idea came!

This will make varying levels of sense to you, depending on whether you've read Dickens, Lousia May Alcott, or just watched "Little Women." And so, without further ado, our Christmas letter!

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful day celebrating the truest Gift, and that it encouraged you to keep Christmas in your hearts all year 'round!

 

The Meeting Place

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Things have grown rather quiet in SarahJayne's blogland. There are some wonderfully faithful bloggers - and I love reading your blogs, regardless of my lack of comments! - but for me, writing for the benefit of the world wide web seems to have slipped quietly into the shadows of LIFE. Often - sometimes multiple times a day - I think to myself "I should blog about _______." But alas, I seem to be lacking in not only time, but also inspiration. So for now, you persevering readers, I re-post this little poem I wrote a few years ago under similar duress. It has never been properly named, but the title I'm liking this evening - excuse me, this morning - is "The Meeting Place" - what do you think?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A hundred thoughts run through my head,

And all, I think, of worthy note,

So settle I, and take my pen,

Happy, these empty sheets to coat.

 

When, suddenly, my mind is blank,

A dismal echo of the page.

I stop, and wait, and wish away

The hopeless hold of my mind's cage.

 

Yet - gone - I find my tales untold,

Of sun, and smiles, and lessons learned,

And in their place a gaping hole,

From whence no lonely thought's returned.

 

So, sighing now, my pen I lay

Back down upon this empty sheet,

Unhapp'ly going 'bout my way,

'Til thoughts and words on paper meet.
 

30 Day Book Challenge! Day 1: Best Book of Last Year

All has been rather quiet around here for a while. It ought to have been! Between scheduling recitals, and having parents gone every weekend for a month, and birthdays, and summer planning, and Mother's Day, and reading, and the beginning of summer parties (we're going to the first - a roasting party - tomorrow evening!), and the 4H-ers starting to vamp up for the fair in August, our lives have been pretty full.

Believe me when I say, though, that the silence has not been due to lack of material - I have several posts bouncing around in my head at the moment - but rather from a lack of blogging time. (Not because I have no spare moments, but because I've been filling them with books instead of notebooks...check out the "Reading" tab for more on that.) So, in an effort to combine the two - reading and blogging, that is - I have embarked, commencing today, on the "30 Day Book Challenge". *sounding trumpets*

I will not, can not, promise to only give one answer to each question - but I will really-and-truly try my hardest. Nonetheless, there may be days when I am forced, against my will, as it were, to give at least "extra suggestions" to the day's query. Time shall tell.

So, without further ado, let us begin.

Day 1: What is the best book you read last year?

I had a sadly small amount to choose from for this question (although that didn't keep from deliberating between two different titles) since I read very little last year, but in the end I decided upon:

The Shadow of the Bear is definitely a candy book, yet one that was both exciting and enjoyable to read (as were the other two in the series). Usually "retold fairy tales" set in the modern day are a let-down. They either use completely off-the-wall, bizarre events to keep the story following a fairy tale, or else become entirely predictable. Add to that the "modern" slant of compromised heroes and heroins with no moral fortitude or higher calling, and you find many of these tales belong in the garbage or the burn pile (depending on the level of the fairy story's degradation).  The Shadow of the Bear belongs where all good stories do, in your hands or on your shelf. While the book itself is not particularly well-written, it is a tale well-told. In these pages, you find a story so compelling and realistic that only a scent of "long ago and far away" (despite the contemporary, New York City setting) reminds you of the story's origins. In these pages, you find a story so complexly-woven that the authoress, Regina Doman, keeps you guessing at the outcome, even when you know the "happily ever after" ending! In these pages, you find a story so sweet, so funny, so suspenseful that it will be nigh-impossible to put it down before the final page.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Have you ever felt that there was something going on in life that not everyone was aware of?" Rose asked, turning her mug around in her hands. "As though there's a story going on that everyone is a part of, but not everybody knows about? Maybe 'story' isn't the right word - a sort of drama, a battle between what's peripheral and what's really important. As though the people you meet aren't just their plain, prosaic selves, but are actually princes and princesses, gods and goddesses, fairies, gypsies, shepherds, all sorts of fantastic creatures who've chosen to hide their real shape for some reason or another. Or have forgotten who they really are. Have you ever thought of that?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Shadow of the Bear. My favorite read from last year. Have you read it?

{I would love to hear your answers to the questions as I go through them, too. Leave a comment and let me know! :)}
 

One Year - Imagine That!

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Do you know what today is? Today is my first bloggy-birthday - isn't that exciting?? One year ago today I
was reallyandtruly introduced to the world of blogger. One year ago today I began the never-ending fun of playing with blog designs. One year ago today I typed my first four-lines-of-a-blog-post.


One year.          115 posts.          Imagination.          Smiles.          Lessons.          Colors.
    

And, of course, YOU!!! :)


In celebration of the fun, I'm hosting a give away! What do you suppose it could be? Come come, you've been reading my blog, what's your best guess?

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You're right - a book!

But not just any book. It's not a romance, not a classic, not a forgotten old treasure, but a book that had me hooked at the preface, nonetheless. A chewing book, according to Sir Francis Bacon's definition. It is, in fact, Anthony Esolen's ten ways to destroy the imagination of your child. In this poignant, witty satire on all aspects of child-rearing - from school to "play dates" - Esolen submits for your review 10 easy steps with which to destroy the imagination of any child. An excerpt from the preface:

"We must, then, kill the imagination. The ideal, of course, would be to cease having children, but that might have some adverse effect upon the long-range economic prosperity, besides threatening certain industries with extinction - the manufacturers of tasteless clothing, for instance, and importers of refined sugar. Since we must have children, we should be sure to subject them to all the most efficient and humane techniques to fit them for the world in which they will live, a world of shopping malls all the same everywhere, packaged food all the same, paper-pushing all the same, mass entertainment all the same, politics all the same. We owe it to them, and, what is more important, they owe it to us...."

There now, doesn't that whet your literary appetite? Wouldn't you like to read such a book for yourself? Well, let me tell you how to enter to win it!


Photo Credit

Mandatory:
~ Post something imaginative on your blog - it could be a story you've written, a quote you read, a photo you took, a video you made...use your imagination! - and leave a comment on this post with the link!

Extras: (one comment for each additional entry)
~ Leave a comment with the title and author of a book that has most sparked your imagination
~ Follow The Lord's Lass
~ Leave a comment with the title and author of one of your favorite "chewing" books

Entries will be accepted until 11:59 pm of Thursday, March 23, 2012. Good luck, and happy imagining!

NOTE: The drawing is open to both U.S. and international bloggers! :)

Watch-It Wednesday: The Power of Words

What do you say?
What do you write?
Do you words change the world?
Do they change it for Christ?

Watch-It Wednesday: Communication and More!

I wasn't even going to do a 'Watch-It Wednesday' today, just a "my-last-few-days-in-pictures" deal. But then we had to go and watch a funny video last night, and somehow it got tagged on to the end. ;) Anyway, pix first, then video...

Sunday, we celebrated one of our little friends' turning the prestigious age of five.



Tinkerbell cake!!



Isn't she a munchkin? :)



Girls that are way-too-cute for their own good.

And the goofy side...green and purple tongues! :)

  Monday was the first day of school! You should of heard all the giggles and squeals that went on as mama laid out each child's supplies for the year - we are all quite excited (and I'm not even in school)!

       

I get to teach the Littles math, and am responsible for the writing/grammar portion of Gracie and James's learning. This is the first time I've had a defined roll in the schooling, and I'm so excited! :) Mama talks a bit about the curriculum we're using on her blog, but suffice to say, I really like the look of it (reading? how can one go wrong?)!

Tuesday marked the beginning of a church Bible Study in Genesis. Naturally, I've read the book several times, but it was so cool to sit down with members of our church family and read "In the beginning, God..." with the purpose of studying it! I am looking forward to going through this!

Then, of course, there was today (no? really?). I took the Little people to the store, having a few things to pick up, and I got stickers (!!! what about stickers doesn't make one happy?),

a happy (read: colorful) notepad - good for jotting down notes while giving lessons,

And then, as I was browsing the craft section, I suddenly saw... this fabulous notebook:

Isn't it adorable?? And something about the size, the solid, chunky feel when I picked it up...I couldn't resist. I mean, books in general - regardless of whether they are meant to be written in or read - have such endless possibilities, but this notebook is special. I can just feel it! Price, of course, is irrelevant when purchasing something with such a marvelous destiny. Now I just need to discover what it is. *clasps hands and gazes dreamily out into space*

Finally,  I'd like to leave you all with some communication advice. Jostie Flicks again - those guys always make me laugh!

A smiling, colorful, well-communicated Wednesday to you all!

A Picture to Write Home About

I'm sitting here in a four-man tent in our side yard, flanked on either side by a Twinkle, and knowing Gracie is somewhere along the far side in the darkness. We're listening to snippets of Chris Rice's piano-arranged hymns (the kind of snippets you get on "preview" through iTunes), and I'm reflecting on the pictures that have made this day.
Though this week's beginning was rather grey and overcast as a whole, we had some spectacular sunset colors during "Daddy's Favorite Time of Evening," which, since a picture's worth a thousand words, is better shown than explained:

 

 Before that, we all went to see Ben awarded the "Oswald Award" at the community college, which basically means he got a paper saying he's awesome - yah, yah, tell us something we don't know! Still, it was fun to cheer for him! :)

 But even before that, I met Ruth from Journey of Faith for lunch and lots of catching up - and I received some wonderfully-beautiful note cards!

Ruthie has been following the Lord's will for her life in Uganda for the past year, working with SHIM. Leading girls' Bible studies, teaching computer classes, encouraging those of us at home through the anecdotes on her blog - she blesses and challenges all who come in contact with her by her sweet spirit and "keepin' busy" attitude. Since she came home on furlough in May, Ruth has launched the "Suubi Project" to raise funds for the Lingira Living Hope Secondary School (LLHSS). Using pictures she took in Uganda (and wow, are they amazing!), she has put together some fantastic sets of stationary, the sales of which will benefit the school where she teaches - and I thought you should know! :) So many of us have been blessed to grow up in homes where Christ and His words are taught as truth, and education is a right. LLHSS is a place where students, who otherwise may never be given the opportunity, are offered both. A set of ten lovely notecards are a mere $8, or $10 if you have them mailed to you. Please consider supporting this ministry, and grab the button from Ruthie's blog to spread the word! Who knows how many young men and women will come to accept Christ in the years ahead for LLHSS? I don't. But I do know this: if there were only one soul saved from this day on because of the funds received through this project, it would be something to write home about!

For more info about the Suubi Project see here, for more info about LHSS, visit here.