Dappled Things

Blogger Friend School Assignment #19

This week’s assignment is to post a picture of one your family’s/child’s art projects or drawings. Be even more daring and post one of your own! Journal about the project.

When Clara was six years old, she was very interested in birds. We keep several feeders and a bird bath in our yard and, as you can imagine; we have very many books about birds and bird identification on our nature shelves. After spending the morning and the better part of the afternoon quietly watching the birds in our yard, she came to me with several watercolors she had finished. I thought they were beautiful then and I think they are beautiful now. The first one is an American Goldfinch. You can tell he is a male because of his black cap.

 The second one is of a baby American Robin just toddling its way through the grass. You can tell it is a baby by its speckled breast and charming chubbiness.

 The third one is, of course, a Blue Jay.

 My favorite has always been the finch and I was tempted to just post that picture alone, but I think that showing all three of these paintings shows how she was able to capture the personality of each bird.

The girls and I are back from our few weeks with my father. I am doing well and am glad to be back at Will’s side as much as it grieved me to leave my father. And it did, indeed, grieve me. Leaving my father grieved me far more than even my mother’s passing. I don’t think I have ever felt such pure sadness in my entire life.

Life is so unexpected. I don’t think we expect it coming in and everything afterward is just as much of a surprise. If we suppose to have any expectations, we are often surprised by our own folly at having such expectations. The only thing I have found to do is to serve the Lord as best as I am able and cling to his promises. If we don’t expect life coming into it, I know that we all can expect to eventually be going out of it. And that expectation guides me. Because I know where I want to go when I do go out. And, if I am grieved to leave my earthly father’s side, think how it would be for me to leave my heavenly Father’s side. This life of surprises would be unbearable. And I do so want to return home.

February 2, 1939 – January 29, 2007

I wanted to let everyone know that my mother passed from this world to be with her Father in heaven yesterday morning. I thank all of you who wrote to say you were praying for her and for those who didn’t write, but were praying anyway. Please pray for my family as we will be taking what looks to be a rather long drive in bad weather on Thursday. I am going to be taking a little break from blogging over the next week or two as the girls and I will be spending that time with my father. Please keep him in your prayers as he was my mother’s sole caretaker and his life completely revolved around tending to her needs. He is lost without her there to focus his attentions on. I will be back, dear friends. God bless you all.

A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.
John 16:16

The First Snow-Fall

THE SNOW had begun in the gloaming,
And busily all the night
Had been heaping field and highway
With a silence deep and white.
Every pine and fir and hemlock
Wore ermine too dear for an earl,
And the poorest twig on the elm-tree
Was ridged inch deep with pearl.
From sheds new-roofed with Carrara
Came Chanticleer’s muffled crow,
The stiff rails softened to swan’s-down,
And still fluttered down the snow.
I stood and watched by the window
The noiseless work of the sky,
And the sudden flurries of snow-birds,
Like brown leaves whirling by.
I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn
Where a little headstone stood;
How the flakes were folding it gently,
As did robins the babes in the wood.
Up spoke our own little Mabel,
Saying, “Father, who makes it snow?”
And I told of the good All-father
Who cares for us here below.
Again I looked at the snow-fall,
And thought of the leaden sky
That arched o’er our first great sorrow,
When that mound was heaped so high.
I remembered the gradual patience
That fell from that cloud like snow,
Flake by flake, healing and hiding
The scar that renewed our woe.
And again to the child I whispered,
“The snow that husheth all,
Darling, the merciful Father
Alone can make it fall!”
Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her;
And she, kissing back, could not know
That my kiss was given to her sister,
Folded close under deepening snow.

James Russell Lowell

Thirteen of my Favorite Things that Begin with the Letter T 

I was asked if I would like to participate in a meme by Rose over at World Outside My Window. Technically I was supposed to ask her to assign me a letter of the alphabet and then I was to name ten things that I “love” that begin with that particular letter. I decided to go ahead and use the letter assigned to her, though, since it dovetailed so nicely with my Thursday Thirteen assignment. If anyone wants me to send them a letter, though, feel free to leave a request in the comments section. Here we go!

1. Tea. Hot with sugar and milk.

2. Thermal underwear

3. Tide with bleach. In my humble opinion, the best laundry detergent.

4. Boston Terriers

5. Two-year-olds. I don’t think they’re terrible at all.

6. Tire swings. Although, I can’t really swing on them now that I only wear dresses.

7. Thrift stores

8. Coconut Jam Tarts

9. Watching the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! with my husband on rainy Saturday afternoons.

10. Tulip trees

11. The book To Kill a Mockingbird

12. Turnips & carrots

13. Truth

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

A Very Nearly Wordless Wednesday

This is what a bad dog does when you think that he is too short to jump up on a very tall bed.

I signed up for a “Secret Sister” through Training Hearts and got my first care package in the mail Saturday. At first, I thought the package must be for the entire month of February, but now I am not sure since everything was wrapped up in one box. When I opened the package that came in the mail, I found a sweet note card in an envelope and a package wrapped in wrapping paper. I unwrapped the package to find this lovely box:

My girls were quite envious, but I immediately found the perfect purpose for such a box as this. I put all my note cards, envelopes, and stamps in it. This wasn’t exactly a stroke of genius since my secret sister had already put a nice package of note cards in the box. I’m not going to show them here in case I absent-mindedly send one to the secret sister assigned to me. Better safe than sorry.

Along with the note cards, though, were candles in my favorite scents.

The box smelled heavenly when I opened it up. The candles are scented “Cinnamon Stick”, “Farmhouse Apple”, and “Mom’s Apple Pie”. I can’t decide which one to burn first. I think it will be “Mom’s Apple Pie”. Thank you so much, secret sister of mine. I feel very blessed to have such a thoughtful friend out there praying for me.

Part Two: Nature
XXV

THE MUSHROOM is the elf of plants,
At evening it is not;
At morning in a truffled hut
It stops upon a spot
As if it tarried always;
And yet its whole career
Is shorter than a snake’s delay,
And fleeter than a tare.
‘T is vegetation’s juggler,
The germ of alibi;
Doth like a bubble antedate,
And like a bubble hie.
I feel as if the grass were pleased
To have it intermit;
The surreptitious scion
Of summer’s circumspect.
Had nature any outcast face,
Could she a son contemn,
Had nature an Iscariot,
That mushroom,—it is him.

Emily Dickinson

Apparently, the “wild things” grow in my yard. I found this growing in my yard last summer. A two-headed little beasty. Is there anyone out there who can tell me what type of fungal creature this is?

I had to think about this week’s theme, “Technology”. We have a lot of gadgets around here that I could have taken pictures of, but I tend to dislike taking photos of gadgetry. I also kept trying to consider carefully what really brings joy to our home. The piece of technology that brings me the most joy would have to be our Yamaha DGX500 digital keyboard. I don’t know how to play any musical instrument or even how to read music, but my girls have been taking lessons for years. This makes me very happy because they will have the gift of music to share with others throughout their lives. Moments like this make my day.

(Just between the two of us, though, the kitchen appliances and the washer and dryer all weighed heavily in my considerations.)