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

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Eyes Wide Open






























~ frosty flowers, dusted in crystals

~ making (and yes, eating) florescent marbled leaves

~ Rabbit Breeders of America hats made for old folks and discarded at the salvation army just exactly for MY boy.  

~ 11 year olds who wear said hats with pride.

~ the spills and scatters of an almost two year old

~ the many helping hands that help me clean up said messes

~ vibrant (and delicious) french bread pizza

~ crafty happenings in the Spare Oom,  glorious disasters everywhere!  

~ fresh and warm pretzels

~ honey mustard, heavy on the honey

~ the girl who loves chickens.  This summer, if she tottered outside when the door was open (when was it closed?!?) I knew it was probably to go see the chickens.  She is already missing those trips to 'her chicken stairs'.

~ My three Rosie the Riveters, me still my heart.

~ A week of feasting and birthdays and family and friends.

~ hand me down quilted black fabric and fur balls boughten for pennies after Christmas last year.  (I believe they were called 'vase fillers'?!?!?  Who would fill a vase with furballs, I wonder? )  A warm little hat for a dear girl that looks slightly ridiculous on.  But babies look even cuter in slightly ridiculous things.

 ~ notes from a girl who is old enough to understand and compassionate enough to take action when she overhears a Mama sigh to herself at the end of a looooooong day of doing and mutter "Did I accomplish ANYTHING I wanted to get done today at all?  I don't think I did..."

that girls' heart

This life is wildly full and wonderfully hard and simply sweet.  It is crazy good.

I love Thanksgiving because this is the holiday that can't get justified out in glitz or Christmas lights or Easter egg hunts or crazy costumes or reindeer or jolly old elves.  A turkey is a turkey and a feast is a feast but everyone who ever proclaimed GRATITUDE is proclaiming God as creator, maybe even without them knowing it.

No one can be grateful to anything or anyone if life is just one big cosmic accident: time and chance acting on matter over the course of billions of years. Random.  Chaos.  We are all just matter in motion.  When they say "I'm thankful for..."  you just can't be thankful for random chaos, time and chance.  Anyone sitting down at a feast and feeling grateful or having a moment of sheer delight in the world and feeling content...anyone with thankfulness beginning to creep up and out this week...is acting like a CHRISTIAN.  They are declaring the glory of the Lord, just like the heavens and the sea, and marveling at His goodness.

For that and many, many more wonderful and blessed ironies, I give thanks.


Happy Thanksgiving to all of you folks who have stuck by my long-winded and photo-heavy rants, even as they have been coming fewer and further between lately.   

I am grateful for this space, for the listening and encouraging ones that come out from behind the screen and the people who help me to really see.  

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Bless you and your family. Happy thanksgiving! Christina

Terri said...

Ok, that has to be the sweeetest note EVER! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

P.s. I love your rants.

julie said...

I'm a long-time reader, and thankful for a family who lives far from where we live (Arkansas) but values the same things we do! Have a thanks-filled day!

Leah said...

The note is just the sweetest thing ever! <3 What a precious and thoughtful thing for her to do. Isaiah and Andrew need to get together again soon. They could talk rabbits together. And then we would get some time together, too! :) A very happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. <3

Ulli said...

Happy Thanksgiving! And I am grateful for you and your blog and the stories you tell of your beautiful family. You have a beautiful life and I'm grateful you share it. Your children are precious gifts, even to those of us far away who have never met you, yet know you. The note is a wonderful gift for a mamma to receive! Never think your photos and stories are not appreciated. They are!

Abigail said...

Lots to say (as usual, I'm a hot air balloon), but first...

IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS?! If so, Adele' must be one VERY happy purse-toting girl. :)

That picture of her sleeping on the couch is pure magic. Beautiful.

And Corynn's note made me tear up (but only because of postpartum hormones fluctuating, you know). That's a priceless gift from a child to a mother, and one to remember for a lifetime.

Abigail said...

p.s.

If that's the hat she wore last Sunday, I was lamenting to Mildred on the way home that I didn't get a closer look at it, and she most certainly did not look ridiculous in it. Darling? Yes, indeed.

Amy Marie said...

Happiest Thanksgiving, Rebecca. <3

marthahelen said...

So many blessings! Happy Thanksgiving. So grateful that we have Someone to thank. <3