Summer Gardening

Oh, how delightful it is to walk in the garden in the early morning! No wonder Genesis is full of God's pleasure in creation, and God's delight in walking in the garden.


I have spider friends guarding my veggies now, and have noticed a dramatic reduction in the pest population. If only I could issue banana spider invitations with the first planting...


Rattlesnake Pole bean guard...



Yellow Pear Tomato guard...

I am so proud of my tomatoes...I grew these plants from seeds!

Enjoy your summer!

Harry Potter in our World

We all attended the midnight premiere of the newest Harry Potter movie--Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We've done this every movie, since the very beginning...all four of us, in wizard robes, going out to dinner or to Wal-Mart to parade our little family of extroverts and then off to the movie.

Last night, Maggie's Trelawney costume was good enough for 2nd place in the local radio show competition, beaten out only by Mad Eye Moody. I find it hard to believe he "became" the character the way she did. Mallory's Ginny is a perennial favorite, and who could I be besides McGonagal?

A lovely time was had by all.

My birthday is fast approaching

I have arrived (nearly) at the end of the year where my age was the answer to the ultimate question in life. It was definitely an amazing year! I watched a child turn 16, a young woman (I don't think I can call her a child anymore) turn 20, my husband retire after serving his country for 22 years (and 8 days), and saw a 23rd wedding anniversary come and go. I began a new job with a great group of coworkers who humble me with their witnesses every day. I got to know a group of young people who are bright, curious, and funny, and began developing a relationship with them that I hope lasts for eternity.

So, to new adventures in the coming year...a graduation, a wedding, a new start for my firstborn. New staff in our school. New college courses for my younger daughter. And probably a flying RV-10 in the family! Here's to forty-three...

Summertime

Today was my first real day of summer. We took last week to "vacate" and it was lovely. We are leaving again Friday for another short camping trip, and then we will visit family, and family will visit us. Suddenly it is BASIC Blowout season, and then I'm back at work at least parttime in order to get started on the busyness of class planning.

But today, I meandered about with ideas, with good books, with quotes, and with some light housecleaning. And the never-ending organization that I enjoy--nothing like relocating a few piles to make you feel productive.

Oh, and I started two new blogs: Math Marathon and Creation Exploration. I'll use these for my math and science middle school classes next year to continue our "further up and further in" studies.

Summertime. The living is definitely easy.

Lenten Prayer for Spiritual Renewal

GOD, heavenly Father,
look upon me and hear my prayer
during this holy season of Lent.
By the good works You inspire,
help me to discipline my body
and to be renewed in spirit.

Without You I can do nothing
By Your Spirit help me to know what is right
and to be eager in doing Your will.
Teach me to find new life through penance.
Keep me from sin, and help me live
by Your commandment of love.
GOD of love, bring me back to You.
Send Your Spirit to make me strong
in faith and active in good works.
May my acts of penance bring me Your forgiveness,
open my heart to Your love,
and prepare me for the coming feast
of the Resurrection of Jesus.

LORD, during this Lenten season,
nourish me with Your word of life
and make me one
with You in love and prayer.

Fill my heart with Your love
and keep me faithful to the Gospel of Christ.
Give me the grace to rise above my human weakness.

Father, our source of life,
I reach out with joy to grasp Your hand;
let me walk more readily in Your ways.
Guide me in Your gentle mercy,
for left to myself I cannot do Your will.

Father of love, Source of all blessings,
help me to pass from my old life of sin
to the new life of grace.
Prepare me for the glory of Your kingdom.
I ask this through our LORD Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
and the Holy Spirit, one GOD, forever.

Amen.

The Lenten Journey

Preparing for a season of repentence and meditation is daunting. I always feel inadequate to the task of LENT, the all-caps (in my mind!), Orthodox practice of fasting, prayer, penitent hearts and service. The season leading to Easter, the true Celebration of the Christian faith, is a time of year that I realize what a hopeless mess I am. How desperately I cling to the Cross of Christ, and what a disaster I make of things when I try to make my own way. You'd think Lent, taken with this large dose of castor oil as it seems to be, would be depressing and to be avoided, but I always receive such a blessing from the lessons Christ teaches me in the season.

A few years ago the girls and I walked a section of the Appalachian Trail. Thirty miles in five days, with three nights on the trail. I remember thinking, "Why, that's not so bad. We'll walk 8-9 miles the first day when we are rested and strong, and then it's just about six miles per day. Easy, peesy." And then we actually did it. And it was HARD. Harder than childbirth. Harder than anything, in fact, that I'd ever done in my life. Less than two miles in, I figured out that I'd overpacked my backpack. Shortly thereafter, I realized I was not wearing adequate footwear. And long before that first night, I was praying I'd just survive. As I stumbled out of the woods that final day, exhausted, pale, spent...I said that I'd NEVER do such a thing again. But I wouldn't trade anything for the experience, and I am actually planning to go again this year.

LENT isn't that hard physically, but when I approach it correctly, and navigate it fully, I can end feeling just as spent, and just as rewarded spiritually. The LORD shows me beautiful vistas, glimpses of His plan for my life, and humbles me, and fills me. I greet the Risen Savior at the Cross, and my Hallelujahs are more real, not the echos we hear in this shadowland.

And so, I begin my Lenten Journey 2009 with both some things I will give up, and some things I will add to my pack for the trip.

I plan to:

(1) Fast on Wednesdays throughout the season (from February 25-April 8).
(2) Add readings from the Daily Office Lectionary to my daily Bible reading.
(3) Add traditional prayers, practices and meditations to my daily routine.
(4) Abstain from all beverages other than water, to draw my mind away from things of this world to the characteristics of God's nature and His purpose for my life.
(5) Declutter my possessions, and focus on what is really important and valued in my life.

"The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of GOD, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of GOD. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." --John 1: 9-14

Last Sunday of Epiphany

"Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your GOD commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your GOD, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the GOD of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The LORD your GOD, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your GOD with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates." --Deuteronomy 6:1-9 (ESV)

"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to GOD acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our GOD is a consuming fire." --Hebrews 12:28-29 (ESV)

"'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.' Then a voice came from heaven: 'I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.' The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, 'An angel has spoken to him.' JESUS answered, 'This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." --John 12: 24-32 (ESV)

O LORD, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. AMEN.