Still Waters

Our adult Sunday School class today included some talk about our love walk with God and each others.  As an exercise, we read out loud together those few famous verses (4-7) from I Corinthians 13 in the Amplified version, personalized with "I" in place of "love".  Wow, powerful:
I endure long and am patient and kind; I never am envious nor boil over with jealousy; I am not boastful or vainglorious, I do not display myself haughtily.I am not conceited--arrogant and inflated with pride; I am not rude (unmannerly), and I do not act unbecomingly.  I do not insist on my own rights or my own way, for I am not self-seeking; I am not touchy or fretful or resentful; I take no account of evil done to me--I pay no attention to a suffered wrong.I do not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but I rejoice when right and truth prevail.I bear up under anything and everything that comes, am ever ready to believe the best of every person, my hopes are fadeless under all circumst…

Yay, it's Friday!  We like Fridays around here, not only because we can wrap up our school week, but because it also means something fun for SweetPea.  Today it's art class where they'll be doing a monochromatic watercolor of a sailboat on the water (blacks and grays).  Monica teaches out of her home and I'm quite impressed with the results of her instruction to this group of teens--and my dad's an artist by profession so I tend to have higher-than-normal expectations!  Her students are having a chance to show their work this month at a local library, so I'll try to get some pics.

And it's Family Night, so that means fun food--maybe tacos--and a movie or games.  Tomorrow is more fun; we're headed to an international snow sculpture festival at a ski town, something I've wanted to do for years. These things are huge and amazing!  I'll post some pictures of that, too.

A couple of mini-breakthroughs this week brought some nice help to our school.  O…

I sound like an expert with a title like that!  I'm not an expert, but having just come off a two-week round of both colds and flu circulating among the three of us, I was reminded--and used--these good helps the Lord has given.  So let me share them with you...


Bad-guy fighters
Here are three "big guns" you can take when you feel something coming on or are in the throes of it.  Also, excellent for preventive during colds and flu season to take on a daily maintenance basis.

Oreganol P-73
This stuff is incredible.  We discovered it a few years ago upon the recommendation from a guy at church who had gotten rid of a sinus infection he'd had for twenty years taking this.  Flat-out kills bacteria, fungus, and viruses.  We've had wonderful results with this for all sorts of things and I wouldn't be without it.  If you can't get it at your local health food store, you can order it online from the company here.  I'd also highly recommend the information at this…

Gray is not my favorite color.  Nor is brown or tan.

Green is!  But since this is usually not a very green time of year around here, I thought I'd cheer us both up with remembrances of a few months ago, some lovely flowers in my yard.

The first brave posies that pop their heads up, usually in March, are Grape Hyacinths.  In case you've never had a whiff--yes, they smell just like grapes!


Then in early May my favorites bloom in happy profusion all along our fence, lilacs.  Wish I could bottle that smell!  I love to open my kitchen windows and fill the room with it.


In my terrace garden, I have some lovely, old-fashioned Canterbury Bells.  They reseed themselves every year (they're actually biannuals) and I discovered I can get a second blooming from them if I cut the stalk down by two-thirds when they're beginning to fade.  I caught these one morning just as the sun was rising:


And I love the old stand-bys of every gardener, geraniums.  My only regret is that I don't…

Well, I can't remember the last time I spent the day in bed feeling icky...a l-o-n-g time.  I've been fighting a cold for the better part of the week, and if I had to take off time to rest and get well, this was a good day.  Ten inches of snow last night and bitter cold is not a recipe for out-and-about in my book!  It's done me good, as they say, and I expect to rise and shine tomorrow with a bit more pep than I've had.  Rather important, too, since I have a trip coming up later in the week.

For all those Jan Karon lovers out there, here's a quickie book review.  I've been on the library wait list for her latest book, In the Company of Others, for months, so I had to read it quickly since I can't renew it.  I loved her Mitford series, but found Home to Holly Springs, the first in the second series, a bit heavy, not quite as satisfying.  This new one takes place entirely in Ireland where Father Tim and Cynthia are vacationing, the plot largely about their m…

"Happy is the homeschooling mom who keeps her Expectations Bar for the first day back from vacation really low."  :-)

I love, love, love a new year.  I start getting excited about mid-December when Christmas and it's clutter is weighing heavily on me and clean-up sounds inspiring.

I met a big goal this year, reading the Bible through.  Usually I'm at it for a lot longer, studying and chewing on what I learn, but it was wonderful to get the 'big picture' again.  I'm aiming to do again this year, though not to the exclusion of deeper study.

I had mixed results with my home goals.  On the one hand, I did a lot of clean-out and organizing of drawers and closets, boxes of stuff donated to the thrift store, better time-saving methods in the kitchen, etc.  But my nemesis, The Basement, still defies me at every turn.  I suspect I need more shelving and less stuff...the two best weapons to conquer the beast.  So that's high on list for 2011.

Our transition into high school has been a bit bumpy this year, not so much about content or results as organization and vision.  I know where I'…