Greta is teething pretty hard today and so has had a few more sad moments than usual. Do you see the little tear on her cheek? Sweetie heart. I was trying to snuggle away her woes on the couch, and she found the curtain that hangs behind. That was the end of the sad moment. Curtains are so fun to play with. Expecially if you like peekaboo.
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My dearest two people. Caleb was teaching Greta all the tricks of running his truck. She loves that steering wheel. :)
Have you ever gotten to the end of a french braid and realized that it's been much too long since your last trim, and really something must be done about those long wispy ends? This afternoon found me in just such a predicament. I wanted to look fairly decent and respectable this evening, but the end of that braid was looking anything but respectable. I don't own a curling iron or hair dryer, much less a set of curlers, so "the old lemon commenced to throb fiercely", and the end result was a dash to my little collection of vintage spools of cotton thread. They were the perfect size. They worked like a dream. Yes, indeed, I went around the whole afternoon with spools tied to the ends of my braids. They worked very nicely, I think. These early morning times of contented playing before her breakfast are some of my very favorites. Probably the majority of little videos that I'll have of her will be from these times. :) Still in jammies, but with a dry diaper, and toys to get out of her basket and play with again. She talks and smiles--so precious.
'The Son of God is not a vapor. He is solid reality, with no beginning and no ending. His name is Jesus Christ. He is the same yesterday and today and forever. He looked His disciples in the eye and said without irony or exaggeration, "Before Abraham was, I am."
But what about us? Once we were not, and now we exist? With the conception of all five of our children, that stunned me. Suddenly my wife is pregnant. A human has come into being. For how long? Forever. Either in heaven or in hell. There is no going out of existence. For that would not be joy for those who love God nor punishment for those who don't.
You exist forever. There is no use protesting that you did not ask to exist and would not like to. That is not an option. You and God are both in the universe to stay--either as friends on His terms, or as enemies.
Which it will be is proven in this life. And this life is a vapor. Two seconds, and we will be gone--to heaven or to hell. "As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone" (Psalm 103:15-16).
Jesus Christ came into this world--this fleeting, fallen, fickle world--and did the greatest thing that will ever be done. As the perfect Son of God, he died in our place, absorbed the wrath of God, paid the penalty for sin, provided the righteousness of the law, and rose invincible from the dead--all in a vapor's life of thirty-three years.
Because of that, we have something firm to grasp. "Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever" (Isaiah 40:7-8).'
(John Piper from Life as a Vapor, "A Word to the Reader")
Another book from my library stack: Hungry Planet. By Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio. It has been a real favorite for a while now. I was introduced to it in the usual way that I find my favorite books--Mama bringing it home from the library. We've really enjoyed an earlier book by these same people, Material World, but enjoy this one even more. This time around I am reading it straight through from the beginning, reading every word and drinking in the pictures of these different families. It gives perspective to see what life is like for people in other places. To see the facets of culture and tradition, to see the pattern of life and work and the family table, to see the glaring contrast between the little that some live on and the excess that others of us think we need. I hope and pray that I will live my days so very thankful to God for what I have.
Rice Bowls
. I learned a lot of helpful things from that book.
Snow Company
by Marc Harshman
illustrated by Leslie W. Bowman
This is definitely cozy picture book material here. A snowstorm is coming to town. Mom is making chili and the boys are doing their chores and drinking cocoa. The snow gets bad, and stranded travelers stay for supper and swap winter stories.
I was wishing for this one the other morning, sitting next to the warm wood stove with Greta and wanting to read her a story. So I went online and ordered it through inter-library loan. :)
I had a nestingish sort of Monday. There was a good deal of dust to be gotten rid of and tired corners to be rearranged. I moved my plants so that they could sit in the one place where they can get all the good light they need and that I see often enough to notice when they get dry. :) That same window in my kitchen got a spot of color, too, from these butterflies that I taped up. I love the beauty of stained glass, and someday would love to have some bits hanging in my windows, but for now these Dover coloring book pages will work very nicely. I do like a bit of coloring with crayons! There is more housework to be done (as always!) but these corners are giving me the energy to do the rest. :)
The bluffs by our river are at the height of their fall beauty this week. Sumac is brilliant red. A red you can’t even describe. Red with such depth and light that you can’t make up your mind whether there’s more orange in it or pink. The maples are at that point where finally the whole tree has turned color and stands there ablaze in bright orange with a firey red blush; in a few more days the leaves will fall in showers and leave the trees bare. Other trees send down golden rain. A few remain green. It takes your breath away to drive through. Up and over the hill, winding down through a canopy of color, then across the river valley in gold, up the other side, brilliant sumac, then it’s gone. You drive on through rustling fields of ripening corn and dry brown fields of soybeans to harvest, but you don’t forget the exhilaration of that color.
I got to drive through that beauty on Monday on my way to my parents’ farm. My man had to leave town for a few days for a business trip, so, instead of staying by ourselves, Greta and I packed up some of our things and went to visit Mimi and Pa. It was a wonderful week to go. Their cottage in the hollow was the most warm and cozy place to be on the best of autumn weeks. We listened to new-found jazz favorites while cooking, making applesauce, doing projects. I drank in the warm autumn abundance of vines and herbs, maturing plants bringing forth their treasure of seedpods and fruit, marigolds and runner beans, bright helichrysum drying on their stems and gaillardia’s last blossoming. My siblings and I went on a search in the grove to find mosses and small plants to make a terrarium for Mama. They led me to places where the Virginia Creeper grew most abundantly so that we could pull some down and create bramble-beauty for the house with it. Dinnertime saw us starting a new book together, Leave it to Psmith, with us taking turns reading it aloud. There was a good deal of laughter reading that. Greta always had plenty of someones to rescue her when she got stuck in a corner or to snuggle her after a nap. A blessing the week was to be sure.
..JPG)
