I am moving this blog. Please check in here if you would like to see the new and (I think) improved version--it's very similar, I just found a better name (I think!). This site will stay up through mid-March.
Thank you for reading along!
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Weekending
We had a beautiful and productive weekend. My firstborn and I had a date in the city (Cuban food, science program, thrift store, yes!). At the thrift store he chose a princess figurine for his little sister, a little ceramic mill figurine for himself, and I found little goodies like a tall clear glass vase, a bolster pillow--breaking my rules about buying upholstered items at the thrift store--and a couple of pieces of artwork. One piece, an original oil painting, was signed by the artist, whose name is the same as my son's piano teacher. Interesting! I am eager to have it framed! The other is a Mary Cassatt print; I usually don't buy prints, but captivated me with its cozy domestic scene and the child's gaze.
[image: the Metropolitan Museum of Art]
I painted the first coat of white paint on an old chair that needed it, and finally finished painting the mirror for our bathroom. I hung it last night and it looks so pretty! One step closer....
We also cleaned out my car--my husband spearheaded this effort--which sorely needed some looking-after. It wasn't *too* bad, but it was sort of amazing how much better it did look after we removed the blanket, the CDs, the random jackets and he thoroughly vacuumed it with the *real* vacuum cleaner (I usually just use the handheld cordless thing....)
We did the usual round of Sunday school and church this morning, and I was able to do a tiny bit of writing in the afternoon. Then the weather was so gorgeous we got to sit for a while and watch the children swing on the swingset while the sun made an extravagant last hurrah to the west, and then we came inside to a warm supper and reading aloud on the sofa. I think we're ready for a new week!
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Synchronicity and Space
Right now I am working through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. This week she asks is there any room in your home that you could make into a secret, private space for yourself?
Well, I thought, no.
Our house is small and all the space has a specific purpose. This is not a home with nooks, corners and crannies. This is not a home with extra rooms. But I dutifully started to scroll through images just to dream a bit, and as so often happens when the stars align and creative synchronicity happens and God smiles on you, I had a flash of vision.
My laundry area! Perhaps not an inspiring spot for most people, but an antique sink and beadboard we had installed during our renovation two years ago make it a truly pretty place (just ignore the monstrous elliptical trainer--necessary for sanity). The single window looks out on the patio, flower bed, pastures, hills. The walls are mostly empty. It would not be a secret, private space, per se, but it is not in the flow of traffic, either. In a house this size, I think it would be private *enough.*
So I am doing a little dreaming. We have a bathroom to finish and other projects to do, but I am thinking along these lines.....and it will only require finding the right desk. Most of the other raw ingredients I have on hand.
One thing I have found to be true is that when I open myself up to possibilities, they land in my lap. Cameron calls this "synchronicity." Things begin to happen, to snowball. A friend tells me she had a dream that I was writing a novel; my husband gives me a dreamy trip as a Christmas gift; I find a darling shop in town full of light and a mercury glass bowl that asks me to buy it; my best friend sends me a CD with a song on it that makes me weep with its beauty and truth; visions flash. I am thirsty for these things after a long, dry spell. I am full of gratitude for everything I am getting.
I think of Mary Oliver's poem "Thirst": "...grant me, in your mercy,/a little more time. Love for the earth/and love for you are having such a long/conversation in my heart."
I am getting more time. I am loving this long conversation.
Well, I thought, no.
Our house is small and all the space has a specific purpose. This is not a home with nooks, corners and crannies. This is not a home with extra rooms. But I dutifully started to scroll through images just to dream a bit, and as so often happens when the stars align and creative synchronicity happens and God smiles on you, I had a flash of vision.
My laundry area! Perhaps not an inspiring spot for most people, but an antique sink and beadboard we had installed during our renovation two years ago make it a truly pretty place (just ignore the monstrous elliptical trainer--necessary for sanity). The single window looks out on the patio, flower bed, pastures, hills. The walls are mostly empty. It would not be a secret, private space, per se, but it is not in the flow of traffic, either. In a house this size, I think it would be private *enough.*
So I am doing a little dreaming. We have a bathroom to finish and other projects to do, but I am thinking along these lines.....and it will only require finding the right desk. Most of the other raw ingredients I have on hand.
One thing I have found to be true is that when I open myself up to possibilities, they land in my lap. Cameron calls this "synchronicity." Things begin to happen, to snowball. A friend tells me she had a dream that I was writing a novel; my husband gives me a dreamy trip as a Christmas gift; I find a darling shop in town full of light and a mercury glass bowl that asks me to buy it; my best friend sends me a CD with a song on it that makes me weep with its beauty and truth; visions flash. I am thirsty for these things after a long, dry spell. I am full of gratitude for everything I am getting.
I think of Mary Oliver's poem "Thirst": "...grant me, in your mercy,/a little more time. Love for the earth/and love for you are having such a long/conversation in my heart."
I am getting more time. I am loving this long conversation.
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