What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow. ~ Martin Luther

Monday, July 07, 2014

It must be summer.
















Weekends are full of picnics and parties, good food and friends.  Plentiful flowers to plunk on tables for decorations and the smell of the grill making the whole hilltop hungry.  And if I am really lucky~ a bit of time in the shade of the trees, crochet hook in hand.

It must be summer.

We hosted a 4th of July bash this weekend.  Six parents.  Sixteen children.  Having swirling, circling sparklers in the hands of that many rowdy, excited children gives a whole new level of danger to the holiday devoted to setting fire to explosives for fun.  In order to keep grabby hands filled, Matt took to lighting a handful of sparklers at a time.  Seems men, like children, have low/no regard for danger.  No one was hurt or burned or stabbed by sparkling sticks though and for that I was/am grateful.

My sister had two emergency foster children living a sad story and at one point in the dark of that evening, as one of the girls sat on Matt's lap around the bonfire eating S'mores, I overheard her say to herself "This is the best night of my whole life."  And my heart ached for that poor little girl because it probably was.  What a sad, sad thing.  My heart just aches for those people who are not as fortunate as we have grown so accustomed to forgetting we are.

The next day was a Bocce ball tournament and more S'mores (it is a sad life we lead) at the other Newmans' and Sunday, I forced myself to do nothing but linger long.  And, of course, crochet.

I've been hoping to finish this bridal shawl for some time now and it keeps getting put off.  I brought it out Sunday afternoon and found I have much further to go than I thought.  10 more rows in fact.  But, if I can finish two rows a day than I can be done by the end of the week.  I'll be happy to have it done.  I have a few other projects I've been itching to begin but forcing myself not to until the shawl is finally done.  This is not usually my way of things, but I am tired of half-finished projects lying about.

I have plenty to do this week~ and with two days of severe thunderstorms in the forecast (today and tomorrow)...I might just be able to tackle the serious bit of cleaning and purging I must do upstairs and in the school room.  I refuse to allow the school room to look like the chaotic mess it always does during the school year when we are not even doing school!

8 comments:

Julian said...

What a full and blessed life!
Christina

Full of Grace said...

Just so you know, you look positively beautiful and SKINNY in that picture of you and Adele' I don't know how it could be possible that you think you are overweight, look at that thin face, slim neck and that collarbone.. That's the body of a slim woman!

Full of Grace said...

Oh, and I apologize for the lovely face Wayne was making. Like father like son :p

Rebecca said...

Julian- too true.

Elizabeth- aw, come on! You know the tricks! ;-) chin out, camera up, shoulders forward, only allow pictures from the neck up... that's how I roll.

Bonnie said...

Oh goody, I was hoping for "party pics", and rewarded I was! Fostering just breaks my heart. The little boy my brother and sister-in-law were fostering to adopt, then went to his paternal uncle and aunt (who loved and adored him as their own and happily kept my brothers family involved as "Uncle and Aunt") is now with his father. Not good from everything we understand. We all miss those big brown eyes and sweet ornery smile, but are thankful for all of the love we got to shower on him and it was not by chance that he was with them long enough to be dedicated to the Lord at church one Sunday morning by G.&B. So that sweet time of sitting in Matt's lap, and having the best night of her whole life is not by accident. I truly believe that was a God moment for her that will get her through dark days. That memory of love and fun.

Looking like rain here and dump trucks and tractors are pulling in to work on our water problems. (there went naptime...) A post still in the works. Someday.

Unknown said...

I just LOVE the bee balm ? in the blue coffee pot...I'm SOOOOO going to steal that idea! You look BEAUTIFUL in that blue dress! :)

Jaya Pratheesh said...

i came in after almost a year of no contact.. so glad to see you guys thriving as the Lord intended you to be. so happy to see the pictures, have a great time!

p.s. i love that flowerbunch-in-a jar pic.such a poster-worthy click. do you mind if i use it as a desktop wallpaper?

Rebecca said...

You may, Jaya, and thank you for asking.

It is good to see you again~ thanks for the "visit"!