limited exposure

I will probably be erratic about internet time in the next week to ten days. My in-laws arrived last night and will be here until C's birthday. As a result, I will be busy. I have to finish a costume I am making C for her birthday. I also hope to make the girls a puppet theater. We will see. I also have a huge project I am going to do with my FIL why he is here. You can read a bit about it on my garden blog.

Photo Hunter: happy

songs and thoughts

for my uncle DK

Your love of Petra has been on my mind a lot lately. So I got out one of my favorite Petra albums. It has been years since I’ve listened to Petra. Talk about a blast from the past. You would have to be completely musically illiterate not to recognize the eighties sound of the album “Beyond Belief” especially during the guitar solos. But what was more impressive to me was the powerful and solid conviction in the lyrics especially Creed and the title song Beyond Belief.

I know it seems strange but I probably understand more about what is going on than you might expect. A few years back my life was really, really, really ugly. In fact, two days ago I was listening to the Newsboys when their song Lord (I Don't Know)came on. I then realized that the lowest point was five years ago this week. I remember because Lord (I Don’t Know) was playing when I left home with C and flew to Florida.

I know this will come as a surprise to a lot of my family especially in an open letter. However, it has passed and is past. Hubby would not appreciate me telling the world. Keep it mum, please. He doesn’t read my blog.

Life is good for me now. In fact, I am deeply at peace with my life. It is a rare occurrence for me. Zoloft helps but more than Zoloft is the grace of God who gave me the ability to accept some of the difficult truths from these songs and the scriptures that inspired them. Peace happened after K was born and then it slid away for awhile. It is here again. That doesn’t mean I don’t worry about finances, it doesn’t mean that the girls don’t leave me bone aching tired and mildly insane by the end of the day, and it certainly doesn’t mean I don’t get aggravated with my hubby.

I guess the point of this ramble is that much of between there and here can be found in the bookends of these two songs.

Love M

Petra: Beyond Belief

We're content to pitch our tent
When the glory's evident
Seldom do we know the glory came and went

Moving can seem dangerous
In this stranger's pilgrimage
Knowing that you can't stand still, you cross the bridge

(Chorus)
There's a higher place to go, beyond belief, beyond belief
Where we reach the next plateau, beyond belief, beyond belief
And from faith to faith we grow
Towards the center of the flow
Where He beckons us to go, beyond belief, beyond belief

Leap of faith without a net
Makes us want to hedge our bet
Waters never part until our feet get wet

There's a deeper place to go
Where the road seems hard to hoe
He who has begun this work won't let it go

And it takes so long to see the change
But we look around and it seems so strange

We have come so far but the journey's long
And we once were weak but now we're strong

Newsboys: Lord (I Don’t Know)

You are the author of knowledge
You can redeem what's been done
You hold the present and all that's to come
Until your everlasting kingdom

Lord, I don't know where all this is going
Or how it all works out
Lead me to peace that is past understanding
A peace beyond all doubt

You are the God of tomorrow
Turning the darkness to dawn
Lifting the hopeless with hope to go on
You are the rock of all salvation

Lord, I don't know where all this is going
Or how it all works out
Lead me to peace that is past understanding
A peace beyond all doubt

Oh, Lord, you are the author
Redeeming what's been done
You hold us in the present
And all that is to come

Lord, we don't know where all this is going
Or how it all works out
Lead us to peace that is past understanding
A peace beyond all doubt

kid's craft - collaged name tags

My Mom used to have me do something similar to this except we didn't use stencils, she had me cut out the silhouettes of various things to use for my collages. I don't remember what kind of silhouettes they were. Probably horses. However, the girls aren't to handy with scissors (K is too little anyhow).



Tutorial available at Suite101.

vulnerability

Last week while on our walk, the girls found this baby mouse. We had tremendous storms the night before and I imagine that this baby probably fell off Mama’s back and wasn’t noticed during her panic. My first response was to tell the girls not to touch him. Rats and mice do carry diseases, right? Then, since I am every bit as curious as my girls I squatted down to take a closer look.


Sometimes, he would curl up in a fetal position, sometimes he would stretch, and often he would scratch. He didn’t seem to know that he was vulnerable. He had no idea that he was laying on rock, a stone’s throw from swiftly running water, under a railroad trestle. As I watched him stretch and scratch and grimace I thought how much like a human infant he was – his Mama would have thought he was adorable if she had the intellectual abilities that humans have. (And so I tried to take pictures of him that a Mama mouse would love to hang on her den wall).


I thought I would like to try to help him. However, I realized that to a creature as small as he was we would be terrifyingly immense, assuming the poor creature could even comprehend us. I also realized that I wouldn’t have the faintest idea how to help the poor creature. Somehow, I began to see a lot of our relationship with God in the poor creature’s oblivious vulnerability.


If God had peers, I am sure they would wonder why He wastes his time on such ugly, blind, weak creatures as us. And if we could truly comprehend Him we would be terrified. Yet He knows how to help us. He cradles us gently, comforts us, teaches us about our vulnerability and then tells us we are safe. And we know we are safe because God, took the time to love and care for ugly, blind, weak creatures. He showed us what we are but then tells us its okay, I will help you and care for you, if you will simply ask.

Photo Hunter: two

Two cheery sunflowers.



I posted a short article on these cheery flowers over at Suite101.

went to the park today

so that I could photograph the girls in hair wreaths for my Suite101 tutorial.

I don't want to wish away the present

but I am ready for fall...I need my schedule to change to a quieter more restful mode. I know it is hard for the girls to be cooped up but I want shorter days. I've never liked the really long days of summer. Perhaps it is because I feel compelled to always be doing something when the sun is shining. Fall is my favorite season - I love the smells and the warm tones. Winter is the most restful season.

we took a walk

and relaxed today - it is good.

Take My Life and Let It Be

There were a variety of things going on last week. Things that kept me away. However, one of them was fun to do. Our church has an annual art festival in August. On Sunday, after the Lord's Supper, while they were taking the benevolent offering, I had an inspiration. I felt compelled to create a photo collage series to go with the hymn Take My Life and Let it Be.

For some reason (perhaps, God's prompting), I decided I should do it with a woman who was sitting a few rows behind me. She is an art teacher and a skilled calligrapher. I am not sure why it mattered to me but I want the hymn hand-written rather than printed in a pretty font.

I approached Lauri after church and she agreed to collaborate with me. We created an album featuring a photo on one side of a two-page layout and a collage on the other side with her calligraphy in the center of the collage. The entire album was done in black and white including the collage. It turned out nicely. After the show, I will photograph the pages. Until then here are some of the photos and out-takes and the words to the hymn.

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated Lord to thee


Take my hands and let them move


At the impulse of Thy love
At the impulse of Thy love

Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee


Take my voice and let me sing
Always only for my King
Always only for my King


Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages for Thee


Take my silver and my gold
Not a mite would I withhold
Not a mite would I withhold


Take my love, my God I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store

Take myself and I will be
Ever only all for Thee
Ever only all for Thee


Take my life and let it be
Consecrated Lord to Thee
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee
Ever, only, all for Thee



Copyright © 1874 Public Domain

Notes:
Words by Frances R Havergal (1874), music by Henry Malan (1823)

I couldn't find the version of the hymn, which we used, on the internet. It has verses about taking my intellect (which we used that ubiquitous eye shot of mine) and a verse about 'taking my moments and days.' The verse with the moments and days was paired with the photo below.

love letters from God: seeds

Gardening and planting seeds reminds me that there is a time that runs outside of my own time; a time where God arranges the seasons for everything. I am not patient person. Gardening has changed me. I am not more patient than I was before. However, the longer I garden the more I demand of myself that I endure the process. What I mean by enduring the process is that I do not cheat and buy full-grown plants and allow myself instant gratification. I want to plant the seed and watch the unfolding of life as God designed it to unfold.



To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under the sun.
A time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal ...
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance ...
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to lose and a time to seek;
a time to rend and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Favorite seed quotes:

“Everyone who enjoys thinks that the principal thing to the tree is the fruit, but in point of fact the principal thing to it is the seed. -- Herein lies the difference between them that create and them that enjoy.” Friedrich Nietzsche

The ultimate wisdom which deals with beginnings, remains locked in a seed. There it lies, the simplest fact of the universe and at the same time the one which calls faith rather than reason.
Hal Borland

"Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders."...Henry David Thoreau

To read more love letters check out Wendy's special blog.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

an answer to a question

Yes the tomatoes I dehydrate are from my own garden!!

tomato preservation

I've been freezing spaghetti sauce, M steak sauce, and plain tomato sauce. I've also been dehydrating tomatoes. If you haven't dehydrated tomatoes before, you really ought to try. I can't get enough of them. If you don't know how to dehydrate tomatoes, I wrote an article for (you guessed it) Suite101.

Tomatoes prepared and ready to dehydrate.



The final product - yummy!

I dare you to tell me that you don't think

thistles are beautiful....

from our bike ride today....

plant articles at Suite 101

Columbine

Cornflower

Dandelion

Dianthus

Iris

Lilac

Marigold

Poppies

Soapwort

Sunflower

Tulip

Violet

Yarrow

photo hunter: funky

I was looking for fabric with my Mom when my youngest pulled a bolt of pink off the shelf and said 'mine.' Naturally, Grandma bought the vivd metallic pink and made soemthing for my youngest from it. It is definitely a bit funky.


my oldest plays with prisms...perhaps more psychedelic than funky