My new blog!

I'm back, just in a different place. Check out my new blog at www.spejory.blogspot.com. It's pretty bare bones right now so please bear with me until I find the time to make it pretty.

Goodbye for now

I am taking a blogging break for awhile. Our family is praying about some changes that may be taking place within the next year or so (all good) so I need to prioritize my time more carefully.

I love to write. But I have been putting more energy into my blog than I should be right now and it's taking away from my other writing. I may continue this blog in the future, but I really doubt it. I had considered stopping it some months ago but changed my mind. This time, though, I doubt I will come back to this blog. Frankly, I have been discouraged since I started it. Few people read it, and I rarely get comments from those who do, except for Haus Frau, my one and only regular commentor. I am grateful for your friendship and for ALL your encouragement!!!

So here's what's going on with our family.

1. We are going to homeschool next year. I am scared to death. Our public elementary school is considered to be an excellent school so at times I wonder if I have lost my mind. I know a few ladies who homeschool their children, but not many. And I haven't been able to find any local homeschool groups yet. Did I mention I am scared to death?

2. We have been wanting to move for several years, but feel it's time to get serious about it. The great thing is, if I am homeschooling, the transition should be easier without a new school to adjust to. We can also move into areas where the housing is less expensive and the public school system is not so good if we won't be using the school system anyway. In the past, the school system has been our main concern when considering a move. The bad part about moving now is the housing market. Even when houses were selling like crazy in other parts of the country, our market was barely moving. Now, people are watching their houses sit for 6 months, a year, or longer, then finally selling for less than they paid for it. But we feel it's better to cut our losses now than continue to make huge mortgage payments. And with the price of everything going up so much, it will just get more and more difficult to make those mortgage payments. I love staying at home and raising my own children. I don't want to be in the position where I have to consider whether or not I should get a full-time job, because that's what will eventually have to happen if we continue to stay here.

3. This is a time for me to draw closer to God. I have been asking tough questions, fasting, and praying and need to sit at His feet for awhile.

If I start a new blog, I'll post a link to it here. Until then, I return to lurkdom.

Blessings!

Just in case you missed Jane Austen on PBS

Over at Charming The Birds From The Trees Emma has links to Northanger Abbey and Persuasion on YouTube. I had missed Northanger Abbey when my husband and I went away for the weekend. I would post the links here, but my attempt at copying the HTML into Blogger didn't go well.

I also added some more links at the sidebar, including a good Jane Austen blog called "Jane Austen Today." It has all the info on the PBS broadcasts this winter along with info about the actors, quizzes, and links to articles and other fun stuff.

Just because

"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."

-C.S. Lewis

"The love of a mother is the veil of a softer light between the heart and the heavenly Father."

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge



...and now just for fun...Indi sleeping (or trying to, if I'd leave her alone)...

Being still

Twice already this morning I have seen this message in the material I have read: be still. And already my flesh rears up and whines, "but it's not Sunday...", "but I have so much to do...", "but being still is so boring, I'd rather have music or something to read..."

So I took a moment to do what the morning devotional told me to do this morning: look up, right, left, and down, and note in your journal what you see.

Up: I see a photograph on tha wall of my alma mater football team running onto the field. I am thankful for the education I received living as a free citizen of a country where women are allowed to learn to read and study at a university.

Left: I see two photographs of my family, my most precious loved ones on this earth. Their faces are healthy, happy, smiling, and reflecting the love they have for each other.

Right: I see my husband's guitar on its stand. I am thankful for the gentle heart that led my husband to turn to music as a form of creative expression, for his playing in the evenings, the music that forms the backdrop for so many relaxed evenings at home.

Down: I see my wedding ring and a black robe, both of which I inherited from my mother, who went to Heaven in June of last year. I am thankful for her love, teaching, and friendship, and for the way she impacted the lives of us all before she left this earth so young.

Now it's time for me to stop writing and just be still...and know that He is God.

What do you see this morning?

The Waltz, Anders Zorn

Not long ago I wrote about the renewal of my marriage and how my husband and I are once again enjoying a "newlywed" period. We are trying to find ways to keep this new excitement alive and one of the ways we are doing this is through taking ballroom dancing lessons.

So far we have attended one lesson and learned three steps. One thing I found is that it's VERY hard to allow the man to lead, especially when I can see he's trying to remember which way the step goes. How much like life is that?

But he has been a very good sport about it. My husband does not like to dance, at all. I love to dance. That's one of the reasons I love going to weddings. I can hardly wait to get out onto the dance floor. So he's earning major points by doing this for me. Is that love or what?

On my mind

These pictures represent some of the most precious people in my life, some of whom I have never met, but whose lives affected my own. There are six generations represented here, from my great-great-grandmother Francisca down to my youngest son. I also have a photo of Francisca's father-in-law, who would be my great-great-great-grandfather, displayed in a different room. I wonder about the lives of my ancestors sometimes. I tried to find out more information about them a few times, but all my genealogical digging turned up nothing more than I already knew.

My grandmother passed away in 1992, but my memories of her are rich and happy. She was a collector of everything, much to the irritation of those in her life at the time. But once she passed, her "clutter" became treasure to me, as I continue to patch together pieces of her life that I never knew.

My grandmother was a journal-keeper for many years. I have four journals from her early life: one from her early twenties and three from her early thirties. I also have thirty years of journals from her later life, from the 1960's until she had her stroke in 1991 and couldn't write anymore.

Right now I am reading the three journals that encompass the last year of her single life and courtship until the second year of her marriage to my grandfather. She rarely missed a day, so I have an almost complete chronicle of this period in her life. She writes about books she's read, movies she's seen and her impressions of them, her dates with my grandfather, her engagement, marriage and her first two pregnancies. Through these journals, I have seen a younger version of my grandmother than I ever knew during my lifetime.

All this has gotten me thinking about the importance of journaling. I don't want my memories to be lost when I go. Yet this will likely happen unless I write things down. I already keep journals for each of my boys chronicling their baby years and childhood. I am starting to journal now about life in general and my memories of my relatives.

I went to the library and found a couple of fun books to get me started. These books tell how to make beautiful journals, if only I remember to write in them!

On another note, I finally took down my Christmas centerpiece and got out some Valentine's Day decorations. I just love this sweet candle my mother bought me a few years ago. During this time period, she was going through chemotherapy and didn't have much energy, so we organized craft nights that we held at her house. We would bring all the supplies to go with our theme so she didn't have to do any preparing. Right before Valentine's Day, we did these gift bags from buttons and scraps of fabric and ribbon. It was one of the funnest crafts we did. I couldn't bear to give any of my bags away and keep them to set out every year.

Love Letter

"The unfolding of your words gives light:
it gives understanding to the simple." Psalm 119:130

The imagery is perfection: God's word unfold's like a love letter to us. When we lift a corner or open a fold, we slowly see His love for us. This unfolding can also be likened to the unfolding petals of a blooming flower, transforming from a tiny bud into a lavish, colorful bloom within our hearts, as His words transform us into the child of God we were meant to be.

God's word slowly unfolds because He has designed His word to be both startingly simple and lavishly complex. His message can be understood by children, yet scholars can spend an entire lifetime sutdying it without mastering all of its complexities.

God, in His grace, begins with the amazingly simple message of salvation, but He doesn't stop there. He continues to nudge us to grow, unfold, refine, become colorful, and bloom until we are the very image of Jesus, something that cannot happen on this earth but only culminates once we are bowing before God's throne in the holy, holy, holiest of places.

Small indulgences

There's nothing like gray, dreary days and mornings in the single-digits to bring a summer girl down. I am just not a winter person. Last week I said to E: "This winter is bothering me more than usual--I just can't stand the cold this year." He looked at me a little funny, but didn't say anything. He didn't need to. Reading his expression, I sighed. "I say that every year, don't I?"

I have some routines I go through in times like these. They are simple indulgences designed to give myself a little TLC, a little boost.
Here are my favorite indulgences:

-I watch as many comedies as possible.
-I touch base with at least one friend each day, either by phone or personally. E-mail just doesn't cut it this time.
-Listening to uplifting praise music.
-Getting my nails done.
-Shopping--I know, many women have a problem with this. But I found an old gift card that still had a balance so it didn't cost too terribly much. Sometimes the thrift store is a great way to shop without spending too much money.
-Getting a hair cut. I made a drastic change this weekend and got this hair cut:

I don't have a picture of myself with this style yet so this will have to do. It's shorter than I have had it in several years, but so very easy to fix and works better with my face and fine, straight hair. Long hair was too much maintainance for me. Besides, I am blessed with a husband who loves short hair and doesn't care much for long!
-Doing something creative. I finished framing my mother-in-law's Frances Brundage print. She had an old print in a damaged frame. So we bought a new frame and an oval mat. The only oval mat we found was stark white and was too harsh for the soft, aged colors of the print, so I fauxed it to age it gently.

I have lots more creative projects coming up that I am really excited about. Hopefully I can post pictures of these soon.
-Going away for the weekend with my husband. I realized that we had not gone away overnight without the kids since they had been born! Not good! We resolved to do this more often, like at least every 6-12 months.
-Finally, and most important of all:

I have to keep walking with God even in the valleys--especially in the valleys--and allow the rough spots to deepen my relationship with Him. It's when life is most insecure that I am able to most fully depend on God for my security. For that I need to be grateful!