Good reminder at the Mother Child Tea

On Saturday I attended a Mother Child Tea. I hadn’t planned to attend as I had spent the previous weekend with all my children and grandchildren attending E #2’s graduation from grad school. None of them  live in town so I had volunteered to do nursery duty for any mom’s who attended the tea with babies. Only one three month old baby was there and he did great as there were plenty of arms to hold him. So I attended the tea. I was blessed by the four speakers.

 A grade school age girl and a teenager both gave glowing tributes to their moms. A twenty something young mom pregnant with her second baby described motherhood as being pierced by love so strong that one hardly knows how to deal with it. She has been on a journey of faith this past year since her first was stillborn. She says God has taught her so much and has sustained her and she looks forward in hope. The final speaker probably a grandmother had some words to say about a mother needing to give grace to her children. She emphasized other qualities as well, teaching and disciplining but mostly the giving of grace.

As an illustration of how God had guided her message preparation she said she typed out several drafts of her words. She mistyped GRACE and it came out GRADE in the first draft. It hit her that as a mom when she fails to give grace to her children when prompted by their behavior or words then it is as though she is giving them a grade for their performance. That is the opposite of grace which is unmerited favor or not getting what we actually deserve.

It is easy to fall into a trap of grading our children. Using negative words or withholding affection when they displease us. So much of our world is performance based, making the grade, out competing others, earning our worth. God’s world is the opposite of that. We are children of God because we love his Son. He accepts us on that basis alone. We have done nothing to earn his love, yet He considers us worthy of dying for. That is grace.

As a mother and grandmother I desire to be one who dispenses grace not grades. I thank the speaker for the good reminder.

Lou

Go see Crater Lake at night

To see a beautiful photo of Crater Lake at night go to this blog from today 4/25/12. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/

I like to check the Bad Astronomy blog out pretty regularly for information on solar flares and space photos from the Hubble telescope and other astronomy and science news.

I have never been to Crater Lake but it is on my bucket list.

Lou

A fabric basket

All the quilters in my group have been making these fabric baskets lately. Each one comes out differently depending on the colors of the scraps one uses and whether you repeat the same fabric for a long time and then change which forms stripes. You can also make them flat like a large coaster or oblong like a bread basket. It is really a simple process. Using a glue stick to secure fabric to plain cotton cording like clothesline and wrapping the fabric strips diagonally round and round to cover the cord. The final step is to set your sewing machine on a large zigzag stitch and sew around in a circle securing each row of cording to the next and angling it to make it curve into a basket.

 Lou

I’m pretty excited about this

This is a real triumph for me. My orchid of the past three years is about to bloom again for the first time since it came home from the grocery store with blooms several years ago. Because of all the cautions about not putting it in direct sunlight it sat near a west window for a year and a half and did nothing despite careful watering and feeding. It had two dark green leaves. I finally went to a class on orchids at the local community college a year and a half ago and even though it was in the dead of winter brought the orchid (all protected in a box and plastic wrap) with me to ask what to do. I learned that orchids only bloom once a year in the winter. They shouldn’t be dark green but rather a lighter green and should have new leaves growing all the time and a vigorous root system or they will not bloom. 

My orchid was not getting enough light so I moved it to a south exposure on our little kitchen table and it slowly started growing again. Several new sets of leaves grew and then funny looking roots snaking out from under them and finally this winter a stalk growing straight up and then another as well. So now the waiting game for the buds to mature and the flowers. I’m sure it will be worth the wait. Perseverance pays off! I was so close to throwing it out, but I am glad I didn’t. I hope to get a picture of the flowers soon.

Lou

Easter and New Life

For those of us who live in the temperate zone of North America, Easter coincides with spring and the greening up of our yards and gardens. My tulips started blooming this week which is early as traditionally we look for them around Mother’s Day in May. We don’t need to mow yet but the new green blades of grass are overcoming the old brown grass more each day. I love these signs of new life. Our new poppy made it through the winter and has started to emerge!

As a child Easter also meant new clothes. We got a new dress to wear to church and maybe a little hat and white gloves too. Easter was a special occasion.  It was exciting to color eggs and then look for them on Easter morning. My memories of church are mostly of the Rockbrook Methodist and singing the hymns and listening to Reverend Zook preach. I remember especially Onward Christian Soldiers and Holy Holy Holy. I remember the choir members in their robes coming in from the back and walking up the center aisle. I also remember gazing at the stained glass windows. One window was dedicated to my little sister Leslie who died as a young child. My memories are fuzzy but going to church was mostly about Jesus and his love.

As I’ve gotten older Easter and the resurrection story have taken on more of a meaning of hope than anything else. Hope that Christ was who he claimed to be, hope that we who love him can follow him to a new life after this one, and hope that there is a purpose for this sad world and the imperfect people in it. That hope is also available for me now in this life as well. Not that bad things won’t happen but that the one who overcame it all is there beside me all the way. Hope is an element of new life.

Happy Easter to all. May you hope in Him. 

Lou

A great time in Florida

The brightness of the greens and the vivid colors of the flowers in the sub tropics is so splendid after so much brown in our part of the world right now. We had a wonderful time visiting my parents and enjoyed sampling some wonderful food freshly harvested from the gulf. It has been at least a few years since we have made the trip to Naples on the gulf coast but it is as beautiful as we remembered. The car photo is for Chris O.

We love the warmth of the evenings that don’t cool off rapidly when the sun sets as ours do. We love how our skin gets soft while we are there and doesn’t get flaky for at least a week or so after we return. We love the easy going lifestyle of beach sitting under a blue umbrella and lounging out by the pool reading in the shade. We love borrowing the Miata and driving with the top down. We love the wonderful variety of plants and the funny mocking birds with their ever changing songs and even the funny geckos that scurry fast off the brick walk when someone comes along. We don’t really love the no see ‘ems that bite at dusk if you don’t spray up, or the traffic in March at the height of the tourist season. We do love the beautiful new spa that has been built to overflow gently into the pool with its soothing waters. We love key lime pie!

Lou