Knitting, Prayers, and a Birthday Boy

Tomorrow is our son Jeff's 24th birthday. Do you have bubbly memories of your births? I remember what I ate for dinner the night before Jeff was born . . . poached fish and spinach! After a long rather uneventful night of lazy labor, he was born early in the morning. Black hair, red face, ADORABLE. He is still so sweet and boyish and continues to entertain us all. He's a reader, a writer, a thinker, and full of faith and love for the world. I am feeling so much mother love and thankfulness for our sweet son!

Do you remember the yarn store I told you about? Well, it is featured in the mysteries by Maggie Sefton. Knit One, Kill Two is the first knitting novel. She actually based it on the owner of Lambspun in Ft. Collins, Colorado as well as the knitters there. Check the links if you find this interesting. It is a wonderful store and I guess people drive up from Denver for classes or to hang around the shop for the day. I actually found a copy of Knit One, Kill Two at school, so I'll let you know how I like it. I'm reading so many books right now. It may be a while.

I found the finished objects displayed in the shop . . . GORGEOUS! Do you like them?

I did manage to sew April's kitchen curtains. She's so nice - she loved them!

Oh, and by the way, the kids at school are fantastic and I'm trucking along just fine. We are reading The Adventures of Ulysses and they are good listeners - they love to be read to. They read on their own while I was in Australia, so they LOVE hearing the story now. We are talking a lot about journeys and stories. What do we learn from reading other peoples' stories? It's fun to think about. They are writing their hands off and really getting better and better at it. Yahoo!

Oh, real quick: I DID plant two pots of sweet peas and I am going to plant vegetables sooner this spring. I love to look at the seed stands at the grocery store. I know Elizabeth looks at seed catalogs. Do you enjoy seed shopping? Let me know!

Something I've been thinking about . . . saying my prayers at night. Our bed is too high and the wood floor too hard to kneel beside, but in addition to my morning prayer time, journal time, reading time and my morning prayers with Bill, I think I am going to start saying my prayers before I go to sleep. I want to kneel, fold my hands and bow my head. I'm either going to do it down in the basement where all my stuff lives or in the extra bedroom when we don't have guests staying. Bill and I have been talking about vespers - communion with God throughout the day, time set aside. I like that, too. But, for now I am going to start saying my bedtime prayers. I've been thinking about being more serious about implementing the discipline of exercise and a proper diet, but first I want to set aside time at night to commune with my Savior. I'll let you know how it goes. First things first.

Happy spring to you. Some people are enjoying more blooms and blossoms than others, but soon we'll all be waltzing in the flowers and wearing our sun hats with joy. Hooray!
I love to check on my friends in Australia and New Zealand. It's autumn there now so they are experiencing the joys of harvest and cooler days.
Oh, we live on such a good planet.

Looking Up in the Morning

Morning.
"In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation."
Psalm 5:3

When I was a child, I slept little. I remember getting up first, at a loss as to what I could do, feeling alone in our quiet house. Later, as a teenager, spending the night with friends, I'd wake up long before others. As a young mother, our babies would wake me up and if not for many night feedings and a recovering body, I may not have dreamed of delicious sleep ins. No, getting up to nurse them in the wee hours was adventuresome. I felt a bit like I was in a new land, the land of sleep and my baby's hungry suckling made me feel like a different person, a citizen of the night. So, during that period, I did not enjoy quiet mornings of journaling, praying, reading about Jesus. I have discovered the replenishment that supernaturally occurs overnight. Mom was right, "Things seem less pressing in the morning." So, I come to Jesus then. I make my requests known to Him and then I wait in expectation.

Pondering "morning" certain locations came to mind.

When I remember past mornings, I think of Malibu Club. For our first ten years of marriage (and beyond, really) we spent at least three weeks at this remote location in British Columbia, Canada. The camp was originally built to lure wealthy Americans with a taste for the exotic. Wealthy prospective guests couldn't keep it afloat so Young Life (nondenominational Christian outreach program for teenagers) bought it and still owns it. It is only accessible by boat or sea plane. Our children have the most vivid and precious memories of their time here. I can still hear the sound of my feet on the boardwalks (and the sound of the baby stroller) and I can smell the dining hall and the Totem Inn where the children ate their breakfast. I'd pop into the serving area, help myself to a cup of coffee and journey back to our cold, little cabin to build a fire. All around us, kids from every part of the U.S. and Canada were playing, laughing, hearing about Jesus and experiencing care and concern beyond what they could encounter at home in the confusing world of adolescence. The hand of the Creator is so apparent there.

Hawaii

Last summer, I went to Hawaii to visit Jeff. He was an excellent tour guide and the first morning I was there, we got up very early to drive out to an Oahu beach to watch the sun rise. It was a blissful and yet pensive morning. There were already surfers about and the sand was cold on my feet. Yes, the morning is a magical time, especially at the sea.

This morning, I'm watching the birds at the feeder, I'm alone (Bill and Jeff went to run an early morning errand for Kelli) and I'm in love with the smell of my house. It smells like coffee, peonies (I'm still sneezing), and us. Sheets are in the dryer (no time to hang them out on the line!) and I'm preparing our guest room for one of Jeff's college friends. I'll scrub the bathroom, vacuum the carpet, fluff the bed, and then I want to go outside and feel the morning for a while. I might water the flowers, enjoy a cup of tea and breathe a few more prayers to my Savior.

School Girls

Last night we went to dinner at these guys' house. They are the friendliest and sweetest little bugs ever. First grade and third grade are hard work for them just as eighth grade is hard work for Pom Pom. I'm not sure what I think of school. Is it really the "great idea" everyone thinks it is? How much knowledge can we attain and retain in the 17 years we spend in school (counting college in four years AND kindergarten)? What was it like before mankind set education up so formally? I love reading and writing and I'm glad I have a very basic grasp of math. Science is intriguing as well, but now with all the information available to us, do we really need the structure and the stress of the school day? I wish we could think of another way to do it. Families teaching families, adventures filled with new discovery, brainstorming solutions to heart wrenching global problems - all this thinking could be done without school buildings, bullying, mean girls, and teachers that may or may not prize the students. Sometimes, at parent/teacher conferences, I feel ridiculous communicating expectations of productivity. I don't really believe that "getting all your work done" is a key indicator of future success as a contributing human. I enjoy the community of school. I like "thinking together" that way. I like book circles and hearing different and original perspectives. I DON'T like all the competition and the awards for super star student behavior. I guess I like the "being" of school as opposed to the "doing" it has always required. I know, I'm weird. I just don't want the children I love to make unnecessary adjustments to a tired, old system of learning that isn't fueling their eternal hearts and minds. I do wonder what the schools of the future will look like. Meanwhile, I feel compelled to bathe my cherished favorites in prayers for protection and resilience.