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a common bush, afire: September 2015
http://acommonbush.blogspot.com/2015_09_01_archive.html
September 24, 2015. Family week - all the other days, in photos. Somehow time got away from me. Here, in photos, is the rest of family week: days 4, 5, 6, and 7. Enjoy! Because there's a rule, isn't there, requiring us to photograph our feet. Hot beverage of choice in moments of serene contentment? There was just something about that lone cornstalk . . . What could be going on here? Spice, the resident monkey. The first board, and a very respectable-looking lag bolt. The picture of contentment. It was ha...
acommonbush.blogspot.com
a common bush, afire: books
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These are the books I'm reading. My memory's going, you know, now that I'm forty. This list helps me to remember. And if you ever want a recommendation, well, here's a start:. For a list of read-aloud books we've enjoyed with the children]. Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind. By Ann B. Ross. By Paul E. Miller. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. By J K. Rowling. Till We Have Faces. By C S. Lewis. And God Came In. By Lyle W. Dorsett. By C S. Lewis. Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home. By Steven Curtis Chapman.
acommonbush.blogspot.com
a common bush, afire: February 2016
http://acommonbush.blogspot.com/2016_02_01_archive.html
February 1, 2016. One homeschooling Monday in February. The three daughters' silence has a conspiratorial quality to it, and I find out why when they come around the corner with this agreed-upon question on their grinning lips:. It's warm, Mommy! Can we have off school today? I send them off to do a little school-log math, and they come back to tell me that if they do 16 and a half days each month till May [when a full month is 20 days], they will still have enough for the required 180 by years' end.
acommonbush.blogspot.com
a common bush, afire: an advent
http://acommonbush.blogspot.com/2015/12/an-advent.html
December 1, 2015. It's dark at suppertime, now. We've woken a few mornings to frost in the backyard, and the star on the silo is lit (although we need to replace some of the bulbs). This is the season of Advent, when we prepare to celebrate the arrival of the Christ child, Jesus - Immanuel: "God with us." The term "advent" means a beginning or arrival, and there are many new beginnings in our lives right now. Not all of them are of our choosing, but this one is:. In all the busyness. 160; ventures.
acommonbush.blogspot.com
a common bush, afire: moving forward
http://acommonbush.blogspot.com/2016/01/moving-forward.html
January 1, 2016. Re-post from 2012.}. I like meaning. I like understanding the "why" of what we do. So naturally, when I married into a family that eats pork and sauerkraut on New Year's Day, I asked "why.". I asked other locals who also partake. No one knew. Fortunately for such queries there is Google. At last, I had my answer. Unfortunately, the answer was not exactly full of the deep meaning I was craving. We eat pork and sauerkraut for good luck? So, naturally, I doctored it. 1 large onion, sliced i...
acommonbush.blogspot.com
a common bush, afire: January 2016
http://acommonbush.blogspot.com/2016_01_01_archive.html
January 12, 2016. I am 42 years old today. I'm sitting in my bed, glasses on and hair ferociously ruffled from sleep, waiting for my children to bring me breakfast in bed. I told them two days ago when they asked if they could. I have a cold. It's Day 15 (or so) of this cold, and although I said this a week ago, I think it really is. Its days are surely numbered, as are all of ours . I feel reflective on this first day of my 43rd year of life. Where have I been, and where do I want to go? I don't know wh...
acommonbush.blogspot.com
a common bush, afire: gratitude
http://acommonbush.blogspot.com/p/gratitude.html
Inspired by Ann Voskamp's book. I opened my eyes to God's gifts, and - for 26 pages and more than 200 days - wrote them down. Choosing gratitude changes my focus, which in turn changes my days. Pick a post [or two] from the ones below to see how thanking is the offering that blesses the giver . . . Someone recently told me that I've been a drag, and although it stung that she would say it, it didn't surprise me. I am literally dragging. It must not be pleasant to be around. . But you know what? On writin...
reflectings.blogspot.com
Rings: These Days
http://reflectings.blogspot.com/2015/05/these-days.html
Growth rings: Where there are clear seasons, growth can occur in a discrete annual or seasonal pattern, leading to growth rings; these can usually be most clearly seen on the end of a log, but are also visible on the other surfaces. I check the weather, some family blogs, one email account, no longer a work address. I check my 'dumb phone' for messages of voice or text, when I can find it, which is a disturbingly small percentage of any given day.and that's all: the parameters of my here and now. Http:/ ...
reflectings.blogspot.com
Rings: A Memorial to My Dad
http://reflectings.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-memorial-to-my-dad.html
Growth rings: Where there are clear seasons, growth can occur in a discrete annual or seasonal pattern, leading to growth rings; these can usually be most clearly seen on the end of a log, but are also visible on the other surfaces. A Memorial to My Dad. However, while Mom and Dad were plunged into this life-changing trial of unending lurches, suffering, trudgery, loneliness, and blockages, I marveled at the new life- True Life- that they together and individually allowed to spring up in them. And fo...
