Look at the Birds!

March 28, 2012March 28, 2012 Diana B.Leave a comment

— another favorite from the archives —

“Look!” my big girl gasps, running toward the window. “Robins! In our yard!”

Quickly the little one and I join her at the window, and together we welcome the feathered strangers. The freshly falling snow of late March does not deter the playful robins as they flutter about happily in the backyard. An especially plump robin perches high in the branches, a patch of snow still clinging to his red breast and his feet.

“Cheer up, cheer up,” the first robins sing.

Cheer up, indeed! Even as the snow blankets us again, their songs give us hope for spring as the end of a long, harsh winter draws nearer. Soon will come nests and eggs. Soon will come worms for the chirping baby birds. Soon will come little birds testing their wings, learning to fly.

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” -Matthew 6:26

March melts into April, and the birds return to this Frozen Tundra in great numbers. Red-winged black birds, robins, sparrows, Canadian geese and — my favorite — swans.

As I’m out and about all week long, I see swans everywhere — dozens of them. On the way to church, on a walk in the neighborhood, on the way to and from dinner Thursday night, on the way to pick up a friend’s little boy, and on the way to and from a birthday party — swans, swans, swans! Soon to pair off and settle in ponds and lakes, the swans migrate together, and oh! What joy as they surround us — these amazing creatures, full of grace!

I look at the birds, and God reminds me of His faithfulness.

Without my camera along on any of these trips, my inner shutterbug longs to capture the swans, to store up the grace moment and treasure it.

The week draws to its end; Saturday evening before sunset our family loads up in the minivan and heads back to the one spots where, earlier in the day, nearly a hundred swans gathered in a low, flooded area in a corn field. Leaving my family in the van, watching closely, I head eagerly into the muddy field. My newest tennis shoes greet the muddy field and I manuever carefully, happy to find a narrow path of dry weeds between two sections of the field. I nearly sink into the mud as I approach the water.

Swans! Hundreds of gloriously graceful swans — and several ducks, too. The honking and quacking mingles into noisy bird music. Most of the swans glide gently across the water, but some fish for food underwater.

Suddenly a few swans soar up into the sky. Their black bills confirm they are Trumpeters. Their necks stretch long and wings mount high toward the clouds — right over my head! I pull the hood of my sweatshirt over my head, just in case.

A glorious swan moment. Finally captured! I stand in the muddy field, thankful I migrated to the right place at exactly the right moment.

Looking down, white feathers float, scattered across the water.

“He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” -Psalm 91:4

I look at the birds, and God reminds me of His faithfulness.

God keeps showing me how faithful He is. May I also suggest this post from last spring: Orchestrating the Swans?

Hymns for the Next Generation

March 21, 2012March 21, 2012 Diana B.Leave a comment

In our home library we have a lovely set of books that we use off and on for teaching hymns during our family devotions. The “Hymns for a Kid’s Heart” series by Bobbie Wolgemuth and Joni Eareckson Tada is truly a treasure.

Each book comes with a full-length music CD, which is produced quite well and features very pleasant children’s voices. For each hymn they include about five to six pages. Two pages focus on the hymn story, usually about the life of the hymn’s author. There’s also a one-page devotion, one sheet of music, words of all the verses, a corresponding scripture, and a prayer. In the back of each book is a glossary of words that may be unfamiliar for children, like “bulwark” and “wretch.” The books also include beautiful illustrations in color.

This four-volume series would be excellent to incorporate into your homeschool curriculum or as a regular part of your church’s Sunday School program. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all children could belt out a few classic hymns?

With Easter just a few weeks away, Passion Hymns for a Kid’s Heart would be a fantastic book to start your own collection of this series. It features stories to help kids understand more about God’s character and the meaning of the Cross.

Happy reading and singing!

Marching Boldly into Spring

March 19, 2012March 20, 2012 Diana B.Leave a comment

The calendar says spring arrives tomorrow.

Typically, we Minnesotans find ourselves still under a blanket of snow on March 20 and searching eagerly for any small hint of spring. Usually, the calendar and maybe a few robins are the only hints.

Here are the first robins we saw last spring.

It’s not easy when March and half of April comes and goes while the snow does not.

But this March is exceptional. It’s marching boldly into spring.

On March 1, while wandering about in the freshly fallen snow, we saw fuzzy buds on the trees.

On March 10, the first robin flew in and rested at the bird bath.

By March 12, the snow was nearly gone, and it was warm enough to play outside for hours without a jacket.

On March 16, the robin was getting pretty cozy at the bird bath, and my children were digging through bins in a feverish search for shorts and t-shirts. Last week was quite possibly the best spring break weather ever recorded in this otherwise-usually-frozen state.

Yesterday, my husband actually turned on the air conditioner — for a few hours — because it was nearly 80 inside and outside.

This week the tulips have begun poking through the dirt, the lilac bush has started budding, and even the grass has commenced to look faintly green. And we’ve spied many songbirds besides the robins. We’ve seen cardinals, blue jays, and goldfinches.

After ballet class today, a brief rain shower came our way. The girls — ever so jubilant — quickly grabbed their gear and headed out to test the conditions under their new umbrellas.

But the rain ended ever-so abruptly.

Yet the wind continued ever-so fiercely.

Later this evening we had more rain along with a little thunderstorm — which was little but still just big enough to make the little sister nervous at bedtime.

So the girls are camped out together in sleeping bags, keeping each other safe from the thunder and whatever marches in overnight.

After a good rest, perhaps they’ll have more opportunities for umbrella testing tomorrow.

We Can Fly!

March 15, 2012March 15, 2012 Diana B.Leave a comment

It was almost like Peter Pan himself invited us to go.

So of course we had to go flying– even if I was a bit unsure at first. Wasn’t Wendy a little nervous, too?

The little ones, they weren’t nervous at all. They’d gone before and were sure it would be fun to fly again. All full of faith and trust and pixie dust, they were. So we left our cares behind and soared right up into the blue sky — in a red and white Piper Cherokee.

We can fly! We can fly! We can fly!

But if I focused on what I didn’t understand, what I couldn’t control, I’d get too nervous.

So I focused on trusting the pilot and studying the big picture spread out below us.

Our kind pilot flew us a little more than 1,200 feet above the town we live in. How fascinating home looks from above!

The littlest one thought the March landscape looked like a brown and grey patchwork quilt, all those fields and lakes and clumps of trees pieced together with dirt roads and paved highways.

How exhilarating to see what the birds can see — and to see the birds themselves flying so far below us!

All too soon the sun started slipping farther west.

So our kind pilot brought us gently back down to earth — smiling and full of wonder. We flew!

5 Star Links for Spring Break!

March 12, 2012March 12, 2012 Diana B.1 Comment

It’s spring break this week for Starlight School. And that means I’m not teaching today and doing my best to avoid spring cleaning, too. So of course I thought my dear readers would enjoy a list of 5-Star Links to check out during spring break. And don’t worry; I do plan to start tackling the cleaning and de-cluttering projects in earnest on Tuesday. Really, I do!

1. Check out this Scripture Memory System for the whole family — from Simply Charolotte Mason.

2. Then download these nifty little index dividers — a free download from ThePelsers.com — for organizing your family’s Scripture Memory System.

3. Be encouraged: Read “Don’t Give Up” — an article by Jon Bloom at Desiring God.

4. Make plans for March 27! On that day more than 550 theatres across the country will show Kirk Cameron’s movie Monumental: In Search of America’s National Treasure. Find out right here why your family should watch it and exactly where it’s playing near you!

5. Buy a t-shirt, change a life! Children’s HopeChest — the orphan care organization through which we sponsor 7-year-old Dawit — has a brand new set of limited-edition t-shirts for sale. Proceeds from the sale of shirts will support two critical projects. All women’s t-shirt sales will support 37 children living in an orphanage in Pignon, Haiti. All men’s t-shirt sales will provide funding for eight survivors of human trafficking living at the Beginning of Life rehabilitation home in Moldova.

But wait; there’s more! For every shirt you buy, you will receive one entry into a drawing for a free mission trip. The winner receives a certificate that covers both land and airfare (max $3,000 value). The winner will be announced on Facebook, on Monday, April 2. So go buy a shirt already!

Happy spring!

Top 10 of the Florida Keys #9

March 10, 2012 Diana B.1 Comment

Just had to re-post this one from the archives.

Number Nine: Tranquility

Tranquility is thousands of little twinkle lights wrapped around the palm trees.

Tranquility is a bright little beach house away from home.

Tranquility is relaxing on the back porch with someone you love.

Tranquility is having time to paint your toe nails orange.

Tranquility is a cozy spot under the covers, sharing secrets.

Ahem.

Tranquility is not hearing your 7-year-old call from the bathroom,

“Mommy! There’s a dead lizard in here!”

Tranquility is not hearing your husband say, “It’s not dead! Where did it go?”

Tranquility is not hearing your daughters race downstairs shrieking, “It went into our bedroom!”

Tranquility is not hearing your husband calmly but seriously calling, “Honey, you better come up here.”

Tranquility is not seeing your husband, down on all fours, sheepishly looking up and quietly admitting, “I can’t find it. It’s just too fast!”

The Florida chameleon is tiny and fast but not exactly a threatening creature. It’s fun to spy one on the sidewalk or in the garden or even on the porch. But the thought of one creeping around in your bedroom while you sleep? Clearly that’s not a tranquil thought for most.

At bedtime, Laurel was especially worried about the chameleon sleeping in her room or crawling into her bed. Michael and I couldn’t offer her complete assurance that the lizard was gone. All we could do was pray that Laurel and Linnea would sleep well and not be disturbed by any lizards. So that’s just what we did.

“Do not be anxious about anything (even lizards in your bedroom), but in everything (even lizard emergencies), by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. (No lizards in our beds, please God). And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding (of where exactly said lizard might still be hiding), will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:6-7

By the way, we never saw that little chameleon inside again, thank God!

Click here to find out more about Tranquility Bay Beachfront Resort in Marathon, FL. We highly recommend it, lizards and all.

Florida Keys Top 10 Series

Number 10: Sunsets

Number 9: Tranquility

Number 8: Seascapes

Number 7: Swimming

Number 6: Sand Castles

Number 1: Sea Turtles

Egg Cups & Oil Wells

March 2, 2012 Diana B.4 Comments

My beautiful grandma is turning 92 this month. She lives in Washington State now, and it’s been almost two years since we were together. We last rendezvoused in Portland to celebrate her 90th birthday. We miss you, Gramma!

With knitting projects and crossword puzzle books never far from her reach, Gramma may appear to be your average grandmother. But really, she’s far above and beyond average.

Gramma’s mom didn’t teach her to cook as a little girl, but she learned anyhow. Her most famous dishes are chicken and dumplings and roast beef with homemade egg noodles. She’s a baker, too. Cherry chocolate cake and lemon meringue pie are two of her specialties. And Gramma is quite an accomplished seamstress; she made all fashions of fancy dresses for my mother’s piano recitals and proms. She even made my mother’s wedding dress!

Though she’s a voracious reader, storytelling is probably Gramma’s finest talent. As her oldest granddaughter, I’ve often delighted in hearing her lively stories — some are tales about days gone by and some are tales that unfolded just yesterday. My favorites, though, are the colorful ones about my mother as a little girl and Gramma as a little girl. Those stories help me understand who I am and how my family came to be.

Today I am incredibly thrilled and thankful that Gramma teamed up with my dear and talented Aunt Marla to write a book! I had the great honor of reading its 322 pages while wearing my copyeditor hat. And now you can read it, too!

Egg Cups & Oil Wells: My Oklahoma Life is available for purchase through Amazon.com. Here’s the official description:

In Egg Cups & Oil Wells, a mother and daughter weave a small and personal story into the wide tapestry of rural women’s lives in the Twentieth Century. Euna Hiersche Martin’s warmly funny tales about life in Oklahoma begin only thirteen years after statehood on a ranch her father is about to lose to a crooked banker. She recreates a world where families are still quarantined with smallpox, hobos eat on the back porch, smart girls head to the city to master the squiggles of shorthand, ration stamps bewilder new brides, and tonight’s chicken dinner struts in the yard. Now in her nineties, Euna brings a wry but wise perspective to her seventy years in the Sooner State. Understanding that her mother’s “gumption and persistence” reflect an entire generation’s legacy, Marla Martin Hanley adds background rarely found in personal memoirs. Her chapters connect Euna’s stories to their historical context: Oklahoma’s settlement, the Great Depression, the World War II home front, and the women’s movement that dramatically changed the corporate office. Together, the mother-daughter team have created a rich and engaging blend of personal and social history.

Someday I might share my favorite part of the book — a love letter my grandpa wrote while Gramma was in the hospital after delivering their firstborn. But for now, go buy the book! Or buy two and enjoy the free shipping. It’s a treasure.

Happy reading!

By Leaps and Bounds

February 29, 2012February 29, 2016 Diana B.1 Comment

A note to myself to read on Feb. 29, 2016 —

The girls are growing by leaps and bounds.

They move fast.

Days get blurry.

Years disappear in a flash.

I hide behind the camera and I shudder as the shutter closes. They are 6 and 9. Dare I blink again?

They will be 13 and 10 the next time Leap Day rolls around. Won’t the quiet afternoons of dressing Polly Pockets and smashing Playdough into shape be long gone then?

I want to hold them tightly and stop the escaping time. But today, on this day that we only number once every four years, I can’t stop time. All I can do is slow down, hug them tightly and be still myself.

Yes, I can slow down, I can be still, I can count the moments, and I can thank God for what He gives in each moment. Moments are really all I have to count, Ann says.

So I grab my camera again. Isn’t this why I have a camera — to capture the moments and help me remember them just as they are? Not dashing here and there, not all dressed up, just still. Just being.

And I, too, must be still so I can see how she tosses those wavy locks and tries not to bite her bottom lip where the baby teeth are missing.

I must be still to see how patient she is with me as she tilts her head and grins, stroking her fingertips without realizing it.

Then my own fingertips stroke the keyboard, letters stringing together in words and sentences to tightly bind those moments in my memory.

At 9 and 6, they seem to be at just the perfect ages for playing together. They can do many things are their own now — morning chores, reading, fixing breakfast and sometimes lunch, folding laundry, helping with housework. But they also still love for me to read to them, to let them help me bake and to watch their silly made-up plays and goofy magic shows.

Big Girl is quieter but never short of words. She’s responsible and loyal. She can stay home alone for a few minutes and has finally figured out how to run the DVD player in the basement. She is wearing braces, diagramming sentences, studying fractions, reciting the multiplication facts flawlessly, and beautifully playing “Andantino” and “Winter Wind” on the piano — even though she can’t yet stretch her delicate little hands to reach a seventh. Spending time with friends is becoming more meaningful to her, and she especially enjoys talking with friends regularly at dance lessons and art class. She looks forward to the Girls of Character literature group we do once a month with five of her friends. Her broken arm has healed, praise be to God, and she is eager to show her three scars from it whenever someone asks how it is feeling.

Baby Girl is sensitive but full of spunk and passion. She started talking when she was 9 months old and since then has paused a few times when she’s asleep. Any slight injustice disturbs her. She loves keeping up with whatever her big sister is doing and quickly feels left out when she can’t tag along. But she is also deeply enthusiastic about the simplest things — lemon pie, giant snowflakes, getting to use a calculator for her math lesson, receiving a sticker or a piece of candy from a friend at dance. She is quite a lovely dancer and is doing well with math and piano, too. She plays “Nina Ballerina” and “Rocky Road,” serves up Playdough pies and bathwater tea, and almost never trusts the weatherman or the dentist. She is somewhat toothless — having recently lost her two bottom teeth — and she often tells us stories about her 100 invisible children and her invisible husband. When I tucked her in bed last night, she instructed me to be very careful about where I sat because her invisible husband was sleeping right there on that little blue pillow beside her.

Right now the girls are playing outside in the freshly fallen snow. Baby Girl is reclining in their snow fort, eating a snowball like it’s an apple. Big Girl is busily rolling the snow into beachball-sized balls to add to the fort walls. They’ve already been sledding down the neighbor’s hill in back, and they are probably wet and cold and due to come inside soon. I’m on duty for hot chocolate and snow gear clean up, plus it’s nearly lunchtime, so I must close.

Praying I treasure every moment of the next four years and count every blessing with thanksgiving.

Diana

How Hair Nets Bring Joy

February 26, 2012 Diana B.3 Comments

Blessed are the heads wearing hair nets, for they help pack food for the hungry. Isn’t there a verse somewhere that says that?

I’m kidding of course. But yes, that’s me wearing a hair net. And I wore it joyfully because blessing others is itself a blessing. Serving in Jesus’ name and showing God’s love to the hungry is a joy. It’s a joy because, as Ann Voskamp says, “…while I serve Christ, it is He who serves me… It’s the fundamental, lavish, radical nature of the upside-down economy of God. Empty to fill.”

Empty to fill.

On Saturday our family — plus an 8-year-old friend and minus our youngest daughter — emptied to fill. We emptied our Saturday schedule and filled the morning with this special project. We emptied any pride we had in our hair-dos and filled hair nets with our hair. We filled boxes and cups with rice and soy nuggets. And then we emptied the cups and boxes to fill meal bags, which eventually filled boxes, which eventually filled pallets that will ship overseas to fill the stomachs of some of the 12 million people who are starving in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

According to the head of the United Nations Relief Agency, these countries in the Horn of Africa are experiencing the worst drought since the 1950s. The land is empty of food. It is the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.

Our family and some dear friends volunteered alongside dozens of volunteers from our church and two partner churches, under the direction of Feed My Starving Children. This nonprofit hunger-relief organization provided all of the food, supplies, equipment, expertise and experience for the packing sessions.

The food we packed was a unique combination of chicken, veggies, soy and rice. Food scientists developed the special formula to include easily digestible protein, carbohydrates and vitamins. It’s a healthy, nutrient-rich meal to fill empty stomachs and satisfy more than hunger pains.

During our two-hour shift, volunteers at our particular location worked together to pack 27,864 meals. That’s enough food to fill the tummies of 76 children for a year. Each meal costs only 24 cents. By the end of the day, our site had packed more than 112,000 meals.

What’s more, volunteers from several other partner churches were also packing meals throughout the day on Saturday, under the direction of Feed My Starving Children and two other hunger-relief organizations: Kids Against Hunger and ImpactLives. This vast effort was called The Hunger Initiative. Altogether in just one day, approximately 4,000 volunteers from 11 churches gathered in eight locations across Minnesota and packed 1 million meals to send to the hungry in the Horn of Africa.

One million meals.

That’s a big number. But here’s an even bigger number: 1.02 billion.

That’s how many undernourished people live in the world today. More than 1 billion.

One in six people worldwide suffer from hunger and malnutrition; it is the number-one health risk and is more prevalent than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Hunger.

Isaiah 58:10-11 says,

“Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as the noon. The LORD will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.”

Want to become the blessing? Want to let your light shine? You can feed the hungry by supporting the mission of Feed My Starving Children in a variety of ways — and only one involves wearing a hair net.

Pray for the millions of starving people around the world and for FMSC’s ability to serve them.
Volunteer to package meals.
Donate online (just 24 cents pays for one meal).
Purchase FMSC merchandise from their Online MarketPlace. One t-shirt buys 45 meals!

May God fill you with joy in Him as you love and bless others, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. (1 John 3:18)

“The servant-hearted never serve alone. Spend the whole of your one wild and beautiful life investing in many lives, and God simply will not be outdone. God extravagantly pays back everything we give away and exactly in the currency that is not of this world but the one we yearn for: Joy in Him.” -Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts

Feb. 21 is an Official Snow Day

February 21, 2012February 21, 2012 Diana B.2 Comments

One of the downsides of homeschooling, from a parent’s perspective, is having to make so many decisions. Which math curriculum? What spelling book? Do we skip learning cursive handwriting? How much time should we focus on this period of history? Should we continue with this language program or switch to another method? The list is endless.

Likewise, one of the best parts of homeschooling is getting to make decisions about your daily schedule. That’s so true today — we decided to declare Feb. 21 an official Snow Day! When there’s 3 inches of fresh snow and conditions are finally perfect for sledding and snowman-building, fractions and spelling words can wait until tomorrow!