A bit more on Gratitude

(from Through Faith Alone: 365 Devotional Readings from Martin Luther)

"'It is better to look at what is in front of you than to go looking for what you want. Even this is pointless.  [It's like] trying to catch the wind.'    Ecclesiastes 6:9

Enjoying what you currently have is better than letting your heart wander.  You should make use of what is in front of you rather than wandering around full of desires.  This is what the dog in Aesop's writings did when he chased after the reflection in the water and lost the meat he had in his mouth.  You should use what God has placed before you and be satisfied with it.  You shouldn't try to satisfy your desires because they will never be satisfied.  Instead, you should use whatever God has placed in front of you.  All of it is very good. (Genesis 1:31)"


Luther goes on to challenge us to think about one who sees everything in front of him as nothing but a nuisance.  He doesn't use or enjoy these gifts.  Instead he lets his heart roam in discontent, searching for something different.  Maybe a different house, a different spouse, a different job, a different car.  More money, more possessions, more recognition.  And this does nothing but lead us to more despair and discontent.  It is, as quoted from Ecclessiastes, pointless.  It's like trying to catch the wind.  It cannot be done no matter how hard we work at it, how long we try or what methods we use.  We will never be able to satisfy ourselves. 

God has given us just what is needed for our seasons of life.  And, I believe, that when we respect that fact and give thanks for His goodness, He will grace us with even more goodness.   

 

 

 

Discovering Simplicity

The thought of living a simple life has been on my mind, and on my heart, for several years now.  And it seems it's been on other people's minds for a lot longer than that, according to Thoreau.  What I've been pondering so heavily the past days, though, is what does it mean to simplify?  We all read blogs and most of us have discovered Pinterest, so the ideas for simplifying are out there.  Hundreds of ideas exist for simplifying and organizing your life, everything from the baby's diapers to the influx of papers at the start of school.  And so many beautiful ways to do it all, too!  The choices and the ideas are endless and can be overwhelming. 

But while I can take someone's idea on storing pots and pans more efficiently, I cannot take someone's simple life and make it mine.  I think that has been my stumbling block.  Searching and searching for simplicity when in actuality it's been within my grasp all along.  Someone else's simple life would not fit my family; it would not fit in the home we have made.  I think finding the simple life is all about a person's vocation(s). 

I am a wife, a mother, a homemaker, a crafter, a teacher, a musician, a writer, a band mom, a scout mom.  The list could go one.  And each of these vocations keep me plenty busy, so living simply is not about being less busy, but about being busy with your own life.  Not the life someone else wants you to live.  Not the life you think you should be living, but the life you have been given.  Does being reminded of this truth make my days happier, easier, less stressful?  Not necessarily, but it is easier to see purpose in what I do.  And that makes a world of difference.

Yet, I think there is still more to living simply.  I shared a treasure of a book a while ago written by Sarah Ban Breathnach.  Since then I have found a daybook written by her which I have also found interesting and helpful.  It's called Simple Abundance and while she is a bit paganistic for me, she does a wonderful job at encouraging us to find simple pleasures for ourselves.  She encourages the reader to dream, spend time in quiet reflection, craft and create a little each day, begin a gratitude journal - which I'll share on Monday - and so much more. 

You see, living simply is not about cutting out all outside activities, nor is it about quitting your most hated household chores.  It's about working at your vocation and finding the joy within it.  All we have is a gift of God.  That means my very life is a gift.  A gift!  Something to cause me happiness and to grow me into a better person.  I tell my boyos that sometimes we have to do things we don't like.  That means sometimes I just have to spend some time ironing!  I just have to!  Like it or not.  But I can also spend some of my day cutting paper for cards and scrapbooking.  Love cutting paper!  Crazy, huh?  But that is part of who I am. 

So, my hope is that as I go through more of my ponderings of a simple life, and as I blog about it, you will share your discoveries of your own simple life.  Maybe we can simplify together.  Encourage one another to live as our authentic selves.  The women/mothers/wives/friends we have been created to be. 

 

"Though we accomplish much of what we set out to do, we sense that something is missing in our lives and - fruitlessly - search "out there" for the answers.  What's often wrong is that we are disconnected from an authentic sense of self."                

                                                                                                  -Emily Hancock


  

A Few Crafts

 

Here is our Family Fall Tree that we made since last posting.  We had such a nice time together.  I found some good music on Pandora we all could enjoy and we scratched pretty designs in our leaves all evening.  Great memories were made and possibly a new tradition was started!

Today's project was inspired by this:

The bookshelf in JoJo and Mouse's room was in need of a little, um, straightening.  Seems no matter how we try to organize it, it always looks like this in a matter of days.  I thought about the beauty of baskets and wondered if that would help.  Then I thought about how much moolah I've already spent this month and decided I needed to get creative.  I searched through my own cardboard boxes and decided on a granola bar box.




                                     


I taped the ends back together, cut off the top and the cut out a piece from the front.  Then I searched through my papers so I could cover it.  I pulled out my pack of superhero paper, knowing it would be loved by the boyos!

 

Here's the finished product.  Now to get it into their room.

 



                                                                      
 I think it's cute!  And the boys will think it's cool.  Here are the shelves after I resorted everything.  More boxes/baskets are needed and more sorting needs to be done (do we still need "Goodnight Little Rabbit?")  but this is a start.  They can pull out a box/basket and when they are done the whole thing goes back on the shelf.  I just hope they remember to put the books in it...




What have you been crafting?

THANKS!

Just have to take a moment and shout a big, huge, giganitc

Thank You!

to my wonderful sister-in-law, Tracie!  She and I are big fans of The Eight by Katherine Neville.  Love that story!  Anyway, she introduced me to it as I've shared before and I've borrowed it from her several times.  You may be wondering, "why not just get your own copy, silly?"  Yes, I've wondered that myself.  Well, it's one of those gems that I forget about.  And when I'm reminded of it, it's like pulling out old Christmas stuff..."Oh I forgot about that!  I just love it!"  But do I ever remember the book when I'm out at the stores?  Nope.  Then I got my Nook.  And I remembered The Eight.  And I thought to myself, "Perfect!  I want to own this favorite story so why not buy it for my Nook."  Think I could find a copy?  Yep, I could!  In SPANISH!  Weird.  Not an english copy to be found.  I don't get it.

Anyway.

When I arrived at the island a couple of weeks ago, The Eight was waiting for me.  A treasure found in the used book sale at the local library by Tracie.  And she bought it...and left it there...for me!  Can you believe it?  I was so terribly excited I could hardly stand it.  Weird I know, but I get geeky about books sometimes.  Thank you, Tracie!

Discovering a Treasure

"I am better at making a home than keeping a house." 

I've decided this should be the mantra by which I live.  I think it's a terrific goal, especially for my season of life.  I want my boyos to have a home.  One that is full of memories, happy times, lessons learned, hardships fought and overcome together.  Housekeeping is not, nor has it ever been, my strong suit.  And right now it is BEYOND frustrating to keep the house looking presentable.  As Mouse has now learned to say... at the appropriate times... with a grin on his face, "What?  We're boys!!"  Yes.  Yes, you are.  So, I want to focus on being a homemaker and not a housekeeper.  Please, if you plan on visiting me, know that you will be walking into a home that is less than perfect.  At least by my standards.  If you are the kind of person who can keep your home clean, than more power to you!  I congratulate you.  I tip my hat to you.  Quite seriously!!!  And if I were to enter your home, I'm sure I would envy you and your orderly home significantly.  Oh I love an orderly, quiet, peaceful home.  Remember, I am an introvert.  Quiet.  Calm.  Nice reading atmosphere.  Those are the things that help me rejuvenate.  I just can't seem to get it to be a reality in my home!  So.  I have my room where I retreat to read, write and craft.  How spoiled am I?  The rest of the house....yeah.  The rest of the house.  Oh my, do I digress.  Let's get back on track, shall we?

A home maker.  A maker of the home.  An instigator of celebrations.  A preserver of memories.  A provider of stability.  So many different thoughts come to mind.  There is something new in every day, yet something predictable and familiar with the passing of the seasons, both in the church year and outside our door.  I want to honor those changes, those opportunities for celebration.  I want to acknowledge both the present and the future.  I want to remember the past.  I want to teach my boys to do the same.

I have met some incredible women who do that already in their homes.  I have been listening, reading, taking notes, making plans.  And I have learned, at long last, to make the changes gradually.  I cannot do it all right out of the starting gate.  I will pick and choose the fun we add to our lives.  I will start with this summer.  I've been storing ideas for Summer Camp, my style.  Basically I have been gathering ideas for crafts, activities, field trips, family projects, and even fun recipes that we can do together through out the summer.  One of my resources has been this treasure:

 Mrs. Sharp's Traditions: Reviving Victorian Family Celebrations of Comfort & Joy 

This book is wonderful!  I found it on the shelf at the library one day.  The title made me smile and I knew I had to bring it home.  Mrs. Sharp is a fictional victorian character who is full of advice and lessons in how to - in my words - "make a home".  She takes the reader through the year and the seasons, retelling stories of the celebrations and traditions of victorian times.  Did you know in victorian times it was considered the "in thing" to be at home with your children?  There were books and magazines devoted to helping the lady of the house, and the mother of the children.  The American Woman's Home, written in 1869 by Catherine Beecher, called the woman's role "as sacred and important as any ordained to man."  Godey's Lady's Book,  written in 1860,  considered Mother as "the Light of the Home."  Isn't that beautiful? 

Something specific that I had been looking for is what the author, Sarah Ban Breathnach, calls "Ceremonials for Common Days."  She says, "In this frazzled age of overscheduling, eating alone, and non-traditional child care, every family needs to create its own ceremonials for common days."  Sarah is very sensitive to the fact that we do not live in victorian times.  Things have changed and many mothers work outside the home.  She does a good job guiding mothers to little things that can be worked in to any schedule and at all times of the year.  She challenges us, as well, to be Queen of our own home and stake a claim in some family time now and again.  Even if it is just as simple as enjoying breakfast together.

As "Mrs. Sharp" takes us through the calendar, talking with the reader about Irish Soda Bread and ice cream socials, she also includes a wonderful poem for each month.  Here is the one for June:

The robins and blackbirds awoke me at dawn

Out in the wet orchard, beyond the green lawn,

For there they were holding a grand jubilee,

And no one had wakened to hear it but me.

The sweet honeysuckles were sprinkled with dew;

There were hundreds of spider-webs wet with it too,

And pussy-cat, out by the lilacs, I saw

Was stopping and shaking the drops from her paw.

I dressed in the silence as still as a mouse,

And groped down the stairway and out of the house.

There, dim in the dawning, the garden paths lay,

Where yesterday evening we shouted at play.

By the borders of box-wood, and under the trees

There was nothing astir but the birds and the bees.

And if all the world had been made just for me,

I thought, what a wonderful thing it would be.

 - K.Pyle



Worry Wart

Worrywart, n. :
 one who worries excessively
 and needlessly.



I might safely say that this has been me on several occassions.  Full of "what if's" and "Yeah, but's", I can think a situation to death and talk myself out of almost anything.  I can also turn what would be a fairly benign situation into a potential plague that might just destroy me!  I'm a thinker.  And that is not a bad thing; it can just get me into trouble now and again.

Still chewing through Grace Upon Grace, I read some gems on worry.

"Most of us, unless we are singularly serene, spend much time and energy in worrying, an activity that accomplishes little or nothing because it presupposes that the success of our relationships and work depends entirely on us and on our plans."  (pg. 181)

Did you catch the italicized part?  How true that is.  If I do this, then....  If I remember to tell him this, then..  If I can show her that...  If I...   If I...  If I...  Then the worry starts.  And I don't know about you, but when I reallly get to worrying, I start to feel alone.  Now if that's not Satan at work!  He gets you to worry then makes you feel alone.  How can anything get any better after that?  Here's another gem from Grace Upon Grace:

"...like guilt and shame, worry is a gift from God; He uses it to make us aware of our needs and our dependence on His gracious provision for us in everything." (pg 181)

Again, the italics.  Worry, a gift?  I had to stop there for a moment and let it sink in.  That put a whole new twist on it for me.  When I consider worry a gift, I consider the One who takes the worry away.  I consider the One who provides for all my needs. Worry can have us in three places at once, the past, the present and the future.  We miss what God has  given us, is doing for us, NOW.  Turn the worrying into thanksgiving.

"Our worries fall back into place once we give thanks.  (St.) Paul therefore urges us to use our worries as a God-given catalyst for daily thanksgiving and prayer.  That's how God's grace turns us into people who practice the daily art of prayer."  (pg 181)

Am I still going to worry?  You bet!  I'll worry with the best of them.  But I think learning this will help to keep the worry at bay. And, what a blessing, it will cause me to pray.  Because now every time I worry I will think of giving thanks.  I may even lose the self-given title of "worrywart".  Maybe a "worrry beauty mark" instead. 

A Few Good Reads

I've been thinking about books lately, the ones I've read in the past that I really enjoyed.  And I thought about how I enjoy the combination of a good cup of coffee with a good book.  So that's today's post - books with coffee! 


The book that is foremost in my memory right now is The Eight by Katherine Neville.  I think that's probably because the copy I've read 2 or 3 times before belongs to my wonderful sister-in-law and I returned it to her at Christmas.  I only had it in my possession for, oh...years.  Sorry Trace!  What I enjoy so much about The Eight is that it's a blend of genres I love.  Mystery, murder, adventure, historical fiction.  And it's a thinker.  It traces the history of a mysterious chess set across centuries and around the world.  So good!


I'm also a fan of Jane Austen.  I enjoy the humor in her books and the use of language.  Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility...all so good.  And Emma, too, although it's a long one.  Quick side note:  Hubby and I were at a restaurant one night and our waitress came by with a fresh loaf of crusty bread, asking us if we wanted "another thing of bread."  Another THING of bread?  Did she not know the word "loaf"?  It just struck us as so strange!  You would never catch a J.A. character requesting a "thing" of bread.

I've read a couple of Willa Cather's books, too.  My Antonia and O Pioneers!  are both very good books.  O Pioneers! was made into a movie and I have yet to see it.  Did you know it was filmed right down the road from us?  Really!  And the farmland and house it was filmed on is owned by a friend, so I've seen the home.  Really!  And further yet, that homestead was first owned and lived on by a church member and her family before her.  Really!  Cool, huh?  So now I must see the movie.  Anyway, the books are about the early days of Nebraska and the midwest, the struggles, the hardships and how we survive it all with family and friends.  Good reads.

Ooo, this is a good one!

Agatha Christie is an author I return to every few years.  I spent a whole summer with her one year.  I was probably middle school age and our family was on vacation.  I found the local library and devoured all of the A.C. books they had.  My grandmother was a great fan of mysteries, so I'm sure I got it from her!  I know I borrowed a few books off of her shelf, too.




There is another book I read years ago.  I checked it out from the local library on a whim.  But once I started reading it, I fell in love with it.  And I knew my mother would enjoy it too, so it was a gift to her that year.  She did enjoy it.  And for the life of me I cannot remember the name of it!  Time to call mom...



One book that has been a timely one for me, and Hubby, is Dakota by Kathleen Norris.  It is a memoir, a series of thoughts, stories, and observations about the authors time living in the midwest.  She inherited her grandparent's place, one where she spent time as a child.  So these observations are ones of an easterner from the "Big City" being made as an outsider.  It's a very thought provoking book.


As I looked through our bookshelves I found so many books that bring back good memories.  The Harry Potter series, The Secret Garden, The Lord of the Rings series, To Kill a Mockingbird, Wuthering Heights, the Little House series.  Not to mention a string of non-fiction. Thanks for letting me share with you today all the reasons there are to pick up a book.  What are some of your favs?

Grace, Grace and more Grace

I am reading this book:
Grace Upon Grace by John Kleinig
It's taking me a while to get through it because, although it is easy to understand, it is full of gems that need digesting.  While I'm on my private retreat (mentioned in my previous post) I've curled up in a chair many times to read it and find new gems.  What is sticking with me today is how easy it is for us to receive God's grace.  We sing a hymn, we receive His grace.  We pray, we receive His grace.  We attend Divine Service, we receive His grace.  Any time we are exposed to His Word, we receive His grace!  What a gift!  And when we receive His grace, we receive His Holy Spirit.  And when we are filled with the Holy Spirit we are filled with the desire to do pleasing works.  Which takes us back to praying, singing, attending Divine Service as well as the works that help our neighbor.  It's a wonderful cycle that God started for us at our Baptism when He gave us His Holy Spirit.  I just love it!  It's  a cycle that I don't have to be conscious of.  By that I mean I don't have to keep it going. I don't have to be sure I stay on track.  God produces the desire to go to church.  There I am filled and fed with His Word.  And the desire to return to be filled and fed again. 
Enough. 
I like the book!