quote to ponder

I finished reading A Life That Says Welcome yesterday, just in time to return it to the library. :) It has been a good book, encouraging and thought provoking.

A Life That Says Welcome, by Karen Ehman

As she wrapped up the book Karen Ehman said,
"I need to keep a quiet heart. To trust that if God has allowed an interruption in my day, it serves a purpose. To believe that the time to finish what work I thought needed to be done will be given. To accept that He is diverting me from my "plan A" to His greater plan." -chp. 10

That can be so true of me, too. I may not have the "drop-in" visitors to show hospitality to that she was talking about, but I do have a little one and a husband who need me to show them love by serving them. Even when I just want some time to myself.

"nesting"

I suppose I am officially in the "nesting" stage of pregnancy. Projects that I have been meaning to get done for, well, for a long time are getting crossed of the list. It's so nice to see some of these things get done! On Friday evening I finally finished the bed skirt for our bed. (You can see how over on the market blog)

We had a bed skirt that came with our duvet cover, but it was the kind that has a flat sheet-like panel that is supposed to be laid in between your boxspring and your mattress.
The bed frame that John made for us has side rails and a solid piece under the mattress (no boxspring), and I really didn't want to hide the beautiful side rails by hanging the bed skirt over them. So I just folded it up and put it away for later. Maybe we'd have a guest bed that could use it?
John also made the bed nice and high so that we could store our suitcases and so on under it. Which has been just great (they're not in our closets!) but also a bit of an eyesore (at least to me. maybe no one else noticed?).
I pulled out the bed skirt and started to try to figure out how to make it work. I figured out something that would use Velcro on the inside of the rails, but then got sidetracked and put it away again.

So, on Friday I finally finished the project that I had started about two years ago as I was setting up our home after the wedding. Ta da! So much tidier looking!

an old and favorite poem

"Trees" by Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree ...

poem for today, part II

As I was thinking about it yesterday, I came to realize that this poem is (or can be) about more than romantic love (which is what I thought of when I first read it, when I made the page in the album I gave John, and every time I've seen it since then ... until yesterday).
It can be about being a parent, too.
Because it's true.
It's true about love in marriage and love in parenting.
It's an incredible and wonderful thing that God enables us to love our children more and more each day.
And it's a really good thing, too, since, even though we love our children enormously on the day they are born, every extra little bit of love is needed on days when they've been grumpy since they got up and nothing will pacify or get them to snap out of it and you are about to cry yourself (not that we are having one of "those" days, not at all).

Today less than tomorrow ....

poem for today

For you see, each day
I love you more
Today more than
yesterday and less
than tomorrow.
-Rosemonde Gerard

something pretty

I just posted a pictorial tutorial for how to make the little fabric flowers that I wear over on the market blog. :) And you can buy them here, if you'd like.

free coffee and stewardship

Darcie's post - all things to enjoy ... richly - got me to thinking about that verse. I had to get out a concordance to find it, though! Our wonderful God has given us all things, for us to enjoy! So amazing.

Starbucks is giving away cups of coffee today. They are trying to promote Earth Day and respect for our environment, so if you bring in a reusable mug they will fill it with free coffee. Nice! I love free coffee!

I appreciate it when businesses offer incentives for people who are trying to be good stewards of what God has entrusted them with. At the same time, though, I try to remember that we are commanded to master the Earth (Genesis 1:28-30), not the other way around. It can be so easy to develop selfish and wasteful habits, but it is also easy to lose focus and allow our efforts to be good stewards to rule us.

So, if you are out and about today and would like a little pick-me-up, take a thermos into Starbucks and enjoy some free coffee as you save a paper cup.


"Instruct those who are rich in this present world [as Americans, we are wealthy, even if our income is below the poverty level] not to become conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy."

-I Timothy 6:17

hospitality and books from the library

The Art and Craft of Entertaining

A Life That Says Welcome

I borrowed these two books from our local library, and have been enjoying them. The first one is very elegant with lots of gorgeous photos and creative ideas of how to entertain in an impressive way. It has ideas for the types of dinner parties that you send engraved invitations for. Beautiful.
The second book is all about Christian hospitality, how it starts in the heart and is translated through your home and attitudes. The author reiterates over and over that hospitality is about ministering to others rather than impressing them. What a contrast!
It has been good to look at the two books side by side, comparing the two concepts of entertaining.
I whole heartedly agree with Karen Ehman in her ideas of entertaining, but it is nice to remember also that hospitality involves showing honor to others by preparing a beautiful setting a meal just for them.

2 years ago

we were madly running errands, rehearsing, and celebrating because on the next day
we
were
getting
married.


what a difference two years makes!

precious little moments

"These little moments ... matter, for they are where we live every day." - Paul David Tripp