Goslings!

On our trail walk Saturday morning we ran into this family of geese.  We had seen them the previous Saturday but my phone camera was no match for their speedy escape to the middle of the pond from our view.  This time they swam to the bank, got out of the water and came running toward us with mama hissing and giving us the evil eye the whole while. Thankfully my phone cooperated!

Geese mamas are scary!  Anyone know what sort of goose she is? She is different from the Canadians we are used to seeing.

The babies were so curious about us that they were rushing us and then they would quickly get distracted poking around in the ground.  Their cuteness just about killed me.  Look how fuzzy they are!  And those feet! Oh my.

Ch. 4: Painting, Sketching and Sculpting

One of my favorite paintings by my mom.

There are some pretty creative people in my family.  My grandfather was a very good cartoonist which complemented his wild sense of humor nicely, my uncle has several art degrees and has a sculpture that stands on the A & M Commerce college campus, my grandmother was an interior decorator and my father was a store designer/draftsman.  He was always sketching some idea to explain things better. My mom has beautiful handwriting as a result of her secretarial school, she has always been an excellent seamstress and later in life she learned to paint and quilt.  And my sister makes some of the best bubble lettering I've ever seen!  

What artistic talent do I have?  My idea of painting is to change the color of the walls.  Actually, I did make a wire sculpture once in a college art class and professor asked to keep it.  I should have at least taken a picture of it but didn't think of it. 

Many years ago when my children were young I took this chapter to heart, especially the idea of illustrating or doodling the main points of a sermon for them while it was being preached.  How difficult could it be?  And the examples in the book are inspirational.  Have you tried doing this?  It is not easy!  Mrs. Schaeffer makes it look simple, but for me it was not!  I am sure it had more to do with my lack of ability than the sermon being overly complicated.


I'm not exaggerating.  Have a look at my doodle from a recent bible study lecture.    

It's a duck in case you are wondering.

Abraham Kuyper said, "As an image bearer of God, man possesses the possibility both to create something beautiful, and to delight in it." This comforts me because while creating my not come easily for me, delighting in beautiful things does!  

Cindy is hosting a book study of Edith Schaeffer's The Hidden Art of Homemaking and I'm joining in.

Ch. 3 Music

This piano is part of our collection of musical things.

One of the things I most look forward to in Heaven is the music. Music is my most hidden art. Even so I am thankful my enjoyment of music doesn't depend on my ability to make it. 

Martin Luther said, "Next to theology I give music the highest place of honor."  Music can reach into the corners of my soul where mere words can't touch.  When cares and worries weigh me down music has a way of opening the flood gates of my heart to God and invariably lifts my thoughts to higher ways, ways that are not my own.   

In times of difficulty, anxiety, worry and even pain music is like medicine.  I sing, and especially when I sing God's Word, and my focus shifts dramatically from sadness and pity to worship and praise.  It often is the release I need to pour out my heart to God, to be able to see something beyond myself,  and it is the strengthening agent the Holy Spirit uses to sustain me and build my faith.

The greatest influence on my musical life has been the church. When I was first saved as a teenager I went to a church where the worship music was mostly Scripture put to song. The worship leaders had come out of the Jesus People movement and the songs they played were rich with God's Word. This has been such gift to me as a new Christian learning scripture this way without even realizing it.  These are the songs I went back to in times of grief and trouble and I am so glad they were a part of my formative years. As an adult we started attending a church that mostly sang hymns which gave me a greater appreciation and articulation for the theological truths of God's Word.

My favorite time to listen to music is in the early evening as I prepare dinner or Sunday afternoons when we have a late lunch as a family. But that brings me to another thought.

This is a quote from Terry Glaspey's book Children of a Greater God

I can't help but wonder if music doesn't impact us more deeply when we are comfortable with silence.  I have found that being in a consistently quiet environment trains me to hear what is going on around me and has helped me to develop my non-sight senses more deeply. When there is quiet the sounds around me become more noticeable and I can make interpretations from what I hear.  I can also think more clearly. 

The sound of quiet isn't the absence of noise by any means.  As I type this I can hear an airplane flying overhead, the oven is making a clicking sound as it preheats, the keys of my computer are clacking away, my husband is having a phone conversation, my son is playing his guitar upstairs, the dog just barked as the Fed Ex truck stopped in front of our house.  Earlier this morning the ducks were quacking at my fence wanting breakfast and the two remaining ducklings were peeping having found their way inside my yard to look for a small smackerel of left over bird seed. And so it goes.  
  
Are you comfortable with silence? What music do you love?  I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

Cindy is hosting a book study of Edith Schaeffer's The Hidden Art of Homemaking and I'm joining in.

Ch. 2: What is Hidden Art?

A favorite quote from the chapter and some "nature bits" that sit on my coffee table...fall leaves, rose buds, a succulent (is it a hen?), a seed pod from a magnolia tree and other acorns and pods I picked up along "the way."

Hidden art resides in all of us because we are made in the image of the creative God of the universe and, as His children, we should always be growing in, expressing, and communicating with the gifts He has given to us.   

While I like the sound of that the reality is that I grow at a snail's pace and spend much more of time thinking than actually doing.  I have small circle of creative outlets and I am content to putter about within those boundaries.

The most appealing and motivating aspect of cultivating the Hidden Art in my life is in recognizing the possibility of influence I have over my family.  By taking the time to cultivate expressions of creativity in our home God can use me to strengthen our relationships, promote peace and comfort, encourage Godward living and even push back on the sinful world we live in!

Do you see the things you do in your home as significant as all that?  All the sudden sweeping up dog hair and scrubbing egg glue out of a pan I didn't use don't seem all that annoying to me.  

I first read this quote in Andi Ashworth's wonderful book Real Love for Real Life: The Art of Caring.

Mrs. Schaeffer says, "All art involves conscious discipline."  And this is where I am most convicted.

"The choice of the use of one's time will be deeply involved in it."

I have the sort of personality that naturally gravitates toward being at home and keeping our commitments to a minimum. We are not a super busy family by my design.  Even so I still would benefit from examining the use of my time with an eye toward expanding my repertoire of creative expression.  This will mean I need to put down a book and possibly move away from my duck watching. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.)

"People so often look with longing into a daydream future, while ignoring the importance of the present." -Edith Schaeffer

In an effort to move daydreams to the present this is my list of things I would like to make the time to do:

• learn to knit socks
• spend some time observing a peacock up close (thank you Flannery O'Connor)
• compile a homemade book of my favorite healthy recipes
• practice hospitality more often
• spent more time embroidering pretty things
• recover my dining chairs
• design a wood deck with my husband
• put a flower bed in under our bedroom windows 
• paint a stool I have stored in the attic
• learn to make soap
• deal with the decorating dilemma of my front room (the desk is too big...a rug? a chair? a smaller table?)
• learn about trees
• eat at a Cuban restaurant and maybe even learn to cook a dish or three

I challenged myself to take action so out of the things on this list I've chosen to practice hospitality. I extended a dinner invitation and it has been accepted. The real challenge will be in preparing a gluten free meal.  I have wanted to invite these friends over for more than a year but this one thing has kept me hesitant.  No more! Thankfully I have a couple of weeks to figure out my menu.  (Ideas are welcomed!)

Cindy is hosting a book study of Edith Schaeffer's The Hidden Art of Homemaking and I'm joining in.

Ch. 1: The First Artist

The creek runs behind our house into the pond that is on the side of us.

Put a black wrought iron fence in front of this and you have the view from our home. 

I took these photos from the yard this morning by sticking the camera through the fence. Bubbles and Squeak had to come see what I was up to. They were also wondering if my activities involved a 2nd breakfast. Top left picture is where I do a LOT of outside sitting, visiting, reading and thinking.

This morning as I read the first chapter in The Hidden Art of Homemaking by the recently late Edith Schaeffer the first verse or two of Psalm 19 caught my attention.  "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handywork."    

I am surrounded by various glories and handywork of God and I thought I would ponder that a bit.  The view is without question the best part of where I live (other than the people, of course).  

Here are a few of God's glories I thought of ....

• little duckling perfection, the way it totters on its little webbed feet, eats with the teeniest of little beaks, but has the loudest of all peeps when mom leaves it behind

• watching the reflection of the water ripples of the pond being cast on the underside of the leafed trees is exquisitely beautiful

• a black as night puffed up crow trying to impress his lady and the racket he was making

• the little sparrow sitting on my fence with a small white duck feather in his mouth...how I wish I could see that feather's placement in a nest

From my rose bushes...a little droopy but still pretty.

• the cheery sight of dark pink roses profusely blooming outside my front door when I take the trash out

•  how dainty seed pods of the dreaded cottonwood hang from its huge leaves in the most feminine of ways..thankfully not very close to my house

• the intricate brick red leaves of the Japenese maple I bought at Aldis yesterday ($12 folks! What a deal for a rather good sized tree.)

Teensy turtle!

• looky at the cute baby turtle...what a sweet little head (I know...I know...evil duck eating turtles)

It isn't enough for me to stop and look at these beauties of God's creation. They leave me happy but not satisfied. They produce a hunger in me for something or someONE more.  I know now that Someone is the Lord God, the Creator of all things. He is the one to which all these things point, The First Artist, and it is the relationship I have with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ, that floods my heart with hope, peace and joy.
 

Cindy is hosting a book study of Edith Schaeffer's The Hidden Art of Homemaking and I'm joining in.

Pond Happenings

First duck family to visit me this spring.  Our weed eater was broken but Mike got it fixed soon after this picture was taken so those horrible, bird seed weeds are gone.

I was sitting on my back porch reading the other morning when I glanced up to see this not-so-little family!

A couple of quick headcounts turn up 12 little fuzzy bundles of cute!

Right after this visit just guess where mama headed with her babies?  Sigh.  The turtle infested pond.  

Later I spotted a family of another sort on the pond....

These children are savvy to the ways of the turtle and are not bothered by them.  One of these boys actuallys LOVES the turtles.  Go figure.

Tame ducks glide by unafraid and curious.

They have always wanted to do this, especially the first born, so when canoes appeared for a Boy Scout "thing" he rounded up his siblings and put them to work.

Have I mentioned lately I love where I live?

Breaking A Horse

Instagram, another hobby of my girly.

This is how my daughter spends her time these days. She is the one on the horse. 

This would be the horse's first ride. Ever.  

Should I be worried?   

Parenting requires faith. A lot of it.