Favorite Spaces

I hear little feet downstairs and crawl out of bed. They’ve slept later than usual and I am feeling energized. Even still, I always begin with the same ritual of heating up the coffee maker and talking about what is to come with my boy who needs plenty of warning, especially if the plans for the day entail leaving promptly. I turn around and leave him for a minute and he vanishes. He has been doing that often lately and I usually find him here:

We’ve moved to a cabin in the woods and when we thought about the floor plan we weren’t sure what we would do with the rather large loft. I have visions of someday creating a beautiful, well decorated library, but till then (while we have preschoolers) I wasn’t sure. It has had several variations already but I am settled now. It has become the favorite space for all of us.

The sun streams in different windows all day long and now, from my desk that sits beneath one of the windows, it is so bright I sometimes need to shield my eyes (not so easy while typing and I’m sure someday I’ll be able to shut the blinds but now my vitamin D starved body will not allow it). I love to watch cars wind up our switch back mountain from this window and breathe anticipation when I see headlights of husband coming home at night.

Down the other end of the room, my children play quietly with their toys. We were hesitant to put a play room in a loft but we’ve found our children are small enough that they only venture up when we all go together or when one of us sits down at the computer. There is something soothing and calming about the space. My children, instead of playing loud and boisterous, are more often found like this, quietly reading or ‘puzzling’ beneath the large windows. There is something about the pine trees swaying before them, the lake in the distance that causes even the souls of the small, to be still and quiet.

 

What about you? What are your favorite spaces? Where does your soul quiet and still?

Linking today with ‘Seedlings in Stone’ where she has issued “an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by…) you”. Join us!
On In Around button

For My Valentine

He leaves tomorrow with two bus loads of youth. Off to alter history, and family lines and to stir up adventure and devotion in the hearts of men. He is kissing more often, and holding longer… brown eyes brimming with pride and affection. He is gentleness this man. This man who is all loyalty. All faith. This man who is Gods cure for my melancholy; for my over thinking; for my fear ridden soul.

This is the man who tales are told about, who legions follow, who is giving up his life to be Found. This is a man who lives the same at the pulpit as he does at the pub. This man is all authenticity. No pretense. No piety. He is all humble…he will ask me to delete this.So many men let their hearts grow cold long before they die, but not mine. His heart beats Truth. Good. Selfless. I can hear it from a distance. This man makes me realize that being married to extraordinary, means he must be shared.

This man tells amazing bedtime stories. He plays robots and cars and he laughs at their jokes. He kisses them a lot and uses the‘L’word. He plans adventures for us. This man dreams us dreams and he makes them true.

This is the man who raises a Banner over our household, and builds foundations of respect and patience. He always tells me ‘yes you can’ or ‘yes you should’ and he tells me when he notices I’ve said ‘yes’ too much and he tells me to take my journal to a coffee shop or to go out with friends. He says “life is short…catch that plane”, and he says “I’ll hold down the fort”. He says you need to die to be reborn and that fields need to lay fallow to produce real fruit. He says all sorts of wise things at unexpected times.

This is my man. I’ll keep the home fires burning and the banner high. My heart will beat loudly too, for him and for the things of God, and it will lead him home.

(I am slowly moving my favorite posts from my old blog over here…sorry if you’ve seen it before!)

Thankful today for my extraordinary husband…

490) Hot date with my main man (local…you must eat there)

491) My parents who come to town, give us money, send us out for dinner, and watch our children! Thanks! xoxox

492) A hard-working man (if you’re the praying kind, please keep he and his team in mind this week as they prep a very large youth conference this coming weekend)

493) A super fun man

494) A gentle man

495) A faith filled man

496) A kind man

497) An optimistic man

498) A loving man

499) A wise man

I’m sure you hate this JFed. Sorry. I just can’t help myself.


Funsies: Valentine Edition

Happy WEEKEND! I’m so excited to have my man to myself and that we even get to go on a date tonight! Yahoo!

We are giving Local a try. Has anyone eaten there? I read about their focus on local, seasonal ingredients and have been trying to find an excuse to go there!!!

I want these.

These are the Valentines we made for O’s preschool this year. I can hardly wait to give them out!!!

Once they are printed on photo paper, we will slit the paper above and below his hand and put a lollipop in. Adorable right? I stole the idea from here.

This is a really pretty, idea filled blog. I decided I liked it with this sentence, “Who doesn’t like pretty stationery? I think your lame if you don’t”. SOLD

ADORABLE free printables!

Original illustrations for kids available for free downloads?! Are you kidding me? I love creative people.

OR how about this way to contribute to an amazing organization and send beautiful ecards to the ones you love! This is the organization that Lamont Hiebert cofounded.

I tried to do a Valentines Photo shoot for daddy’s present. It didn’t work. I tried all day and finally convinced them after the sun went down and the light was poor. It turned into a game of keep away:

There was also lots of this:

and this:

Maybe we’ll do better next year. Till then hope that this weekend and all year is filled with pretty things and LOVE!

The Beast of Marriage

July 3, 1999

I don’t know much about this beast of marriage. How it writhes and moans under the thumb of submission. How man is to give life as Christ loved the church, the bride, sacrificial and generous, a bowed reed. How woman is to submit to this gentleness, this other focussed love. How she is to sacrifice and pin that beast down.

It’s a constant struggle. Just when I think I’ve got it immobilized and bound, she raises her ugly head. She is strong this marriage beast and she will eat you alive if you leave her unattended.

In this last decade we have learned what stirs her up, what makes the hair on her back bristle, what environments and situations make her foam at the mouth. We learn, but we are forgetful and sometimes she bites us just to remind us that she needs to be tended to. That she will not be domesticated easily.

This beast loves undivided attention. getting taken on adventures, being held in embrace. These things soothe her, make her more manageable. She is always unpredictable though and sometimes even with the very best care, she gets restless, and she chews the bones clean of flesh.

There is only One who can tame her. Only One who can make her heel. Somehow as He tames the beasts within husband and I, this marriage lays quietly between us and keeps our feet warm at night. This is the mystery of two becoming one…

Linking with up a few places today…Everyone is talking about LOVE.

Thanks Ann and Emily for providing e-community that I am learning to really love…

Snow Day

The kids are still sleeping. The coffee is made. The snow is falling like thick blankets and the air is dense with fog. I just read we’ve nearly broken snow fall records. I’ve already made the decision to stay mountain bound this morning and so we nestle in for the day.

My brain has been stuck on random lately. One thousand different directions. I can’t write a full-page without wandering off. I can’t articulate a complete prayer. I can’t finish cleaning my kitchen…or my bedroom. I can’t even let my husband complete a full sentence without interrupting him. Today I am taking a refocus day.

Quiet. Peaceful. Slow.

Some days you just need to be stop. To let your brain rest on the most important things. To breathe in gratitude instead of ‘should’. To sit quiet book in hand instead of racing off. To finally make peace with the foe of the master closet…order there might translate to order in my head? Lets all hope so. I’m driving my husband wild.

475) Snow day

476) Skype dates with TWO of my favorite women

477) A two-year old that responds to every question in one of four ways: 1) No Way 2) You Bet! 3) 5 mints (when she is stalling to go to bed. Holding her hand up to me ‘talk to the hand style’) 4) Meow

478) Registering for a fun spring course

479) Girl time

480) Snow plows

481) Watching my kids rock out to the African children’s choir.

482) Patches of sun light

483) Seeing my closet floor

484) Unpacking my last. moving. box.

485) Too good dinner

486) Watching life spring up where I didn’t know there was deadness

487) Little buddies

488) An interesting read.

489) Those 15 minutes when all my laundry was clean and put away…

Visit other grateful hearts here:

Funsies: We MISS Kara Edition

Kara went to Uganda.

We miss her.

Like… BAD.

Last night we went out on the town, after a long, cold, sickly winter we splurged a little (ok a lot) and had a luxurious girls night. Normally, Kara would be in the midst of this group and so it felt wrong to go without her.

So she came along…

Kara loves herself some hummus and pita.

She preferred the white to the red (though we know it is the opposite in real life).

She got lots of hugs (from a strange horse-faced woman).

She really enjoyed the “Kings Speech”. I have no idea what Rochelle and Lisa are up to here. But I know its awesome.

Here is another beaut. We are talking about something really disturbing like poverty or world hunger. Well that…or breast implants.

We love you Kara Aylard.

(You also really enjoyed Lisas crumble and lots of kisses from Rochelle).

Like A Child

When I first began to pray, perched in my window, listening to the tick of irrigation,

my prayers were concrete and desperate pleas.

So aware of my own smallness, trusting something bigger than myself…

“Heal my daddys back”, “help me fit in at school”

 

As a teen my prayers were trapped in melodrama, hidden in religious lace.

Certain I was holier than thou,

watching the sinners pound their chests while I prayed

“thank you God, that I am not like them’

 

As a young adult, my prayers found their feet.

They shifted as my identity and priorities did.

They changed as I met Jesus in all my ineptitude.

They changed as I realized how wrong my priorities had been,

“Oh Lord, break my heart with the things that break yours”

 

And now my prayers are raw.
A heart laid bare.
Desperate pleas for wisdom, for grace, for patience.

Pretense aside.

Humbled by a call much too big.

So aware of my own smallness

All I can do is plead and praise.

 

 

Linking from my archives to:

 

Being in the Arena

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

Sometimes, when you are on the field, you kick your team-mate right in the shins. Sometimes even when your heart is in the right place and you are playing your very best, you score on your own net. Sometimes even when you want to be a good sport, you treat the opposition unfairly. Sometimes…you fall flat on your face.

Learning to fail well is important. Learning that even if you say the wrong thing or stumble over yourself in public it won’t define you. Choosing not to see a poorly done task for work as indicative of your entire career. Choosing to see mistakes as opportunity for growth instead of as a fatal character flaw is good. Humility helps this task because it means you are not shocked by your failure, instead you look again at how to get better. Too love better. Too learn to not be so clumsy with others. To learn how to get stains out. How to say sorry. How to give grace…and receive it.

That is what I’m thinking about today. So thankful to be in the arena. Even on the days when I kick my team mates in the shins…


Calorie Counters Beware

We’ve been sick for ages over her. The baby girl has been ill for one full week which has meant that I can’t put her down. Not even for a moment. Not to make coffee and certainly not to make dinner. So we’ve not really had dinner for awhile over here. I start to get a little irritated when I don’t get to cook for a while. Last night Emily turned a corner and asked to snuggle daddy instead of me. YES! I can cook something!!!

Currently our family has a slight obsession with gnocchi. This summer in Geneva, I sat in a cobblestone street and ate the most delicious meal ever. Gnocchi with scallops and mushrooms…Oy.

About to eat the most delicious meal...

 

Perhaps it was the atmosphere. I was pretty thrilled to be sitting there, but I am still quite certain it was the most delicious meal I’ve ever had. I’ve been trying to recreate it ever since! Last night I got the closest yet. You know it is good when my husband brings the leftovers into the living room at 9 pm and finishes the bowl.

Recipe:

My dear sister-in-law has this fantastic habit of buying me interesting and wonderful cooking additions. Things I would never buy for myself. Most recently she bought me truffle oil. It may have been what turned the corner on this recipe!

I heated the oil (smells SO good), then added a few cloves of garlic. Next I added the scallops and the mushrooms.

Stir fried them until cooked through.

Added fresh parsley.

Added a splash of cream.

Added a splash of white wine.

Added lots of grated parmesan.

Added the cooked gnocchi. Heat through and serve.

I served with balsamic marinated tomatoes, roasted asparagus and foccacia bread. It was so good to have a good dinner together! Finally!

Next Mr. O and I are trying this. We watched it on her show yesterday and he was fascinated by the prospect!

What is the best recipe you tried out this week??? I would love ideas for tonight!