Morning Nap Alliances

The cats have formed some sort of morning nap snubbing alliance against Bacon.

They snuggle near, not with, him.

Just to be exclusive.


While Bebo's busy at the window watching the sidewalk for other dogs and such, Bacon sleeps alone.

Stuff I Read This Month

Stuff Christians Like by Jon Acuff
We faithful followers of his blog waited a while for this one. Now that we've read it, it has a permanent place of honor in the Master Bathroom drawer, next to Don't Waste Your Life.

Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive by John Eldredge.

This is one of those books that long ago became a part of my fabric of sorts, and I read it new every couple of years.

Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices by Julie Clawson

If we keep up on facebook, this is the book I linked to just before Easter with an excerpt on the direct link between most of the world's chocolate and slavery. Start here, start small, and don't be overwhelmed.

Enough.

My best thinking is done while I'm straightening my hair. You wouldn't believe the ideas and breakthroughs I've had while I'm working the CHI.

Here's a taste of some recent thoughts.

Everywhere we go, we will run in to people who think we're too much of something. Or too little. Personal opinions are infinitely varied, are never satisfied, are never at peace with one another.


Thankfully, I belong to Someone who's perspective is full and complete and true.


I will never be the ideal for 1000 other minds.

But I belong to the One who is Extravagantly more than Enough.

And He is all mine and I am all His.

And my worth is all wrapped up in Him.

And I can rest in that.

Thrifting

I took time out last Saturday morning to go thrifting alone. That's really the only way to do it, people.

Here are a few of my Found Items.

I found this awesome blue scarf- now the nicest one I have, and I have a lot of them- it's OH so soft. And a few strands of beads. I needed them.


And I found these matching pillar stands. Very Anthropologie-esque.


And a beautiful conch. We have another, larger, one I also found while thrifting one day.


And I found this sturdy trivet.


And a clipboard I now have on the wall by the door so it can be all useful again.


And I found this wonderful green bowl. My big spender purchase (see below).


And I of course came home with some books- we get SO MANY books thrifting, especially for our school library. I KICK MYSELF regularly for selling back so many of my books in college (I majored in English) so whenever I find classics like these, they are familiar, and I'm happy to grab them up. I also found a neat children's book from 1950 with fantastic illustrations and stories about the seasons, and 2 primers both published in 1900. They may actually be worth something. But I just think they're neat.

I also picked up a blanket that will be great for early morning photo shoots when the grass is wet.



Altogether I visited 4 stores.

I spent $24.93.

$10.23 was in books alone.

And my lovely green bowl was a whopping $6.00.

Meaning save for the books and bowl I spend about $8 on the rest.

This is why thrift stores should have some sort of warning label. You can get addicted.

By the way, last fall I got two vintage cameras for a quarter each and just recently put them out. I'd bought them just before I put out our Christmas decorations, so I didn't do it at the time. I like them.

Just Bead It.

Five women.
8 children (I provided half of them).
A rainy Friday afternoon.
This project.

We gathered, we talked, we worked alongside each other.

Like those tribal women who grind berries and boil roots over the fire to make all sorts of amazing colors to dye fabric for weaving.

But we used RIT. And water from the stove top-heated stainless steel kettle. And our beads came from Michael's. We basically cleaned them out. And we wore shirts. Well, it's true.


Here's my first one.



Eventually those got turned into a necklace.



I made two. Here's the other one.

Martha, Martha, Martha

I'm going to make some of these this weekend, thanks to Martha Stewart's crafty little merrymakers. Learn how here. Watch the segment from the show here.

And if you're reading this and we're tight and you live near and you want to make some too, give me a shout so you can come buy supplies with me and make them at the same time- you have to make a ton of dye, so once you've made it, you might as well make a ton and share the beaded love. And it's going to be rainy this weekend. So you'll have nothing else to do.

I'm planning to make a couple of brightly colored ones for myself (probably at least a few strands in each) and also making rainbow-patterned necklaces for my little rainbow-and-accessory-loving chicks.

The Dirty Dozen

Do You Know About the Dirty Dozen?

Faux Bo No Mo

Remember this project?

I finally got it finished.

In the end, I didn't even replace it with MDF. I just painted right on to the frame's backing that was previously serving as the "fake board".


Works Great.

Cilantro.

I love using fresh herbs. But I never quite use all of what I buy before they go bad. And so the DON'T WASTE in me keeps me from buying them as much as I'd like.

I started some herbs in pots on my bright kitchen window sill a couple of weeks ago. They're coming along nicely. Chives, Mint, Cilantro, Basil, Oregano. That's what I'm trying to grow. I'm not good at growing things.

For now, these store-purchased ones will do.

.99 for a big beautiful bunch of organic Cilantro.

But I won't use it all and I will inevitably throw some away.

Kills me!

Fill Up My Cup

I just bought new glasses. Out with the old (there were only 3 left anyway) to make room for all 12 shiny new ones. This is our third complete set of everyday glassware in 8 years. Is that normal? Or do we burn through them too fast?

As I washed these, I decided they are my favorite ones yet.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

1. A DSLR. Do you have one?

2. Do you have any burning questions about your DSLR or any photography-related questions/struggles/confusions?

I'm teaching some classes this summer for beginner DSLR users. I have a basic skeleton idea in my mind of how the lessons will shake down based on the questions I typically get from friends and readers, and from my own experience and observations, but I thought, why not ask hundreds of people what THEY think? No doubt there are some budding photogs out there.

Leave a comment (with an email address please, so I can get back to you), or if you'd rather, shoot me an email, so no one else sees your info if you'd like, and give me your best shot. Anything photography related.

I'd love to hear what you have to say, and see how I can better integrate common issues into the classes.

Peace Out, and Happy Wednesday.

Evolution of a Mess

I just thought this was hilarious.

You're KILLING Me Smalls

"All right. Now pay attention.



First you take the graham.


You stick the chocolate on the graham.


Then you roast the mallow.


When the mallow's flaming, you stick it on the chocolate.

Then cover with the other end.

Then you scarf.

Kind of messy, but good."

Fire Man.

Jim built us a fire pit on Saturday. A few hours, and $75, later it was ready to burn.

More on that later.

Learn how to build your own here.

Tahitian

In the spirit of "take a picture it'll last longer"....

It's officially the start of the blooming season. I'm very much looking forward to seeing these again.

Free Flora

Glory, after all those months of horrible blizzards and slush and the creepy feeling of being trapped in my house perhaps forever, it's finally really spring. And the early spring flowers are blooming.

Free flowers outside my door until October.

Loving it.

Redemption

I'm not a sunny side up person. I'm not. I'm actually quite negative. I see failure and brokeness everywhere. Daily basis. Hourly, really. But, I'm not a pessimist.

Over the years, I've understood some things about myself. It took me a while to get it clear. Am I a through-and-through optimist? Not at all. But, I see beauty everywhere. I see redemption everywhere. In any horrible circumstance I've experienced myself or through the eyes of another, I see all the negative, all the pain, all the awful- but tend to find the undercover beauty. I don't try. I just rises to the top. It just does. I've realized that's just me.


Does that take away the pain? Does it make things right? Does it make the mess clean? No. But it makes the experience fuller, rounder, gives it color in the sea of gray and black, and points me to the day when things will be whole again.


If I saw a garbage dump, I'd see the sea of scum, be overwhelmed by it's stench, and automatically search out something shiny or glittery, and get all hopeful and poetic over it. I have an unfailing ability to scan the dusty shelves of a thrift store to find the one jewel lost and forgotten, mistreated or left behind, and I take incredible joy in bringing it home, cleaning it up, and giving it life and purpose again.

That's me.

I'm not an optimist.

I'm a redemptionist. I see it everywhere.

And so this blog has become over the years a picture of our lives, and as I am the lone publisher, it's a picture through my eyes.

It's not that life isn't a multi-faceted experience of frustration and beauty, richness and poorness, struggle and victory- it's just that I tend to be inspired to write about the beauty. Not the mundane, or the failures (though if they produce something wonderful I'm drawn to tell). I never, ever feel a pull to make things seem more wonderful than they are- but I am drawn to call up the glory of the good, of those things that are beautiful in the midst of a life of ups and downs.

Yesterday I was up to my shoulders in attitude and tears from my passionate 2 1/2 year old, struggling with the language barrier and learning to handle the huge emotions that live in such a compact body- even when I grew near the breaking point ready to lock myself in my room and sever all attempts at reason with him, I was thinking, "Man, life is good. I love my job. I love this fat little man. I don't want to see him for the rest of the day, but he's so infinitely valuable to me." Even when things are horrible. This is where I go. It's not a lie, it's not glossing over the truth. It's recognizing a whole picture. The pain and the glory. And it's holding the glory up to the light and seeing it from all it's angles. The thing that points us to forever. That's what I'm drawn to do. And it rose up out of struggle. Now it's even more beautiful. And so that struggle had a good purpose. And now that's beautiful in it's way too.

And so now to what inspired this post, my Paperwhites.



Flowers are miraculous. Seeds. Bulbs. Cut them open, and they're just made of nothing. And out of these pieces of nothing, a scientific miracle of grand design shoots up color and beauty.


And so when Sesame Street provided an hour of rest from said 2 year old, I spent a chunk of it photographing our Paperwhites. And thinking of how amazing they are. Did it take away the attitudes of my son's heart? Not at all. He was back in full force in no time.

But the beauty was real. True. A balm. A place of peace.


And so now, after a full night's rest and time to muse on my lovely Paperwhites for this little blog post, I will hit publish and begin another day teaching a future man how to harness and express his emotions, how to honor and respect, and how to say things just the right way to make his mother and all other women's hearts melt into a puddle.

What a fantastic job.