Stepping Back in Time

24 Oct

Imagine stepping back in time. Dressing and living as the early Americans over 200 years ago. Long dresses, bonnets, and button up shirts were the norm. Store bought was a rarity and homemade the everyday. Making your meals off of the land and the animals that you raised yourself rather than gathering them from the freezer section or a drive by window. That is what Tasha Tudor chose to do with her modern-day, twentieth century life.

Our Emily loves this era often requesting, “Please call me Laura.”

In the book, The Private World of Tasha Tudor, she and Richard Brown tell her story as a farmer, author, illustrator, and reminisce about her childhood. This book isn’t only for the young at heart, but the young as well. Emily and Joshua listened intently and looked on with wide eyes at the beautiful photography in this book.  It was rather surprising!

I enjoy doing housework, ironing, washing, cooking, dish washing. Whenever I get one of those questionnaires and they ask what is your profession, I always put down housewife. It’s an admirable profession, why apologize for it. You aren’t stupid because your’re a housewife. When you’re stirring the jam you can read Shakespeare. ~ The Private World of Tasha Tudor, p. 104

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God ~Ecclesiastes 2:24

Do not romanticise Mrs. Tudor completely, she warns:

People have a rose-colored lens when they look at me. They don’t realize I’m human. They don’t see the real me. As Mark Twain said, we are like the moon, we all have our dark side that we never show to anybody. ~The Private World of Tasha Tudor, p. 101

The exquisite illustrations in all of Mrs. Tudor’s books come from the world and people around her. Thoughtful words, combined with beautiful drawings, capture the hearts and imaginations of all who chose to read the books she has published. Below are a few of our favorites.

The following are books that we have not read, but hope to this Christmas season:

 That is what we are reading this week. What is gracing your shelves today?

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Simple Addition

22 Oct

Most people would think that addition is a simple task of taking objects and grouping them together and determining their sum. However, when talking about adding love and lives a messy process can ensue.

We are so happy to welcome our Little E. He is observing our every move and learning to interact with siblings. His siblings are also learning to interact with him.

This weekend my mom and dad came for a visit and they embraced Little E with open arms and hearts. It is so wonderful to see all of our family embracing him as their newest addition. Both sides of the family have made E feel like he joined us from birth at the hospital. Truly a sweet working of God.

Transitioning from two to three kids has been as difficult as from one to two. Anyone who says that the jump from two to three is easier than one to two is either too far removed from that point in life or had a nanny! Seriously, God is working in some patience and revealing our need for prayerful surrender.

One area that is triple the work is the cleaning of objects and kids. There is never a break! I know this is a point in my character that reaches borderline OCD but everything has a place and everything should be in its place…at least that is what my philosophy is.

With this in mind I know there is selfishness being worked out of me or at least being brought to the surface for repentance and redirection.

Through this first two weeks into foster care, I can truly say that the Body of Christ has reached out to us in tangible ways. Prayer support, texts of encouragement, and gifts to help in caring for E have poured in. We are so thankful for all of the support and know that it is God’s way of saying “I love you” to us.  Thank you to each of you who have prayed and reached out in kindness towards our family.

The greatest hurdle so far has been health. Our E came in a sick little dude and has been on medication the entire duration of his time with us. Last week Joshua was diagnosed with pneumonia (this came out of nowhere) and we have all three kids on breathing treatments. At least 9 times a day a nebulizer machine is running in our home. We may need to pass a clean air act!

Thankfully, Emily’s treatment is more preventative and Ron and I have remained in good health. Both boys appear to be on the upswing. However, any prayers for the runny noses and coughing to cease would be much appreciated.

Addition, therefore, looks simple on paper, but in real life it can be beautifully messy. Addition with the foreknowledge of possible subtraction is even messier…so is the way of foster care.

I am hopeful that our family and His will use this as a means to earnestly seek Him.

 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. ~Psalm 63:1

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Quietly Working

15 Oct

We are well here at This Temporary Home. It has been a very fast paced week with our newest edition. I continue processing it all so that whatever the Lord prompts me to write might be shared with you.

This week will be another quiet week on the blog as Ron and I have a writing deadline. We are each writing two chapters for a book that will be published in 2013. It is our very first book project and we are truly honored that Dr. Jay Strack would ask us to be a part of this collaborative book for teens.

Please pray for Ron and I as we finalize our chapters. Pray that we would write with God’s wisdom and for such a time as this to speak to the hearts of the teenagers and youth workers that this resource will find its way to.

I look forward to returning to my schedule of posting next week. Thank you so much for your prayers for our fostering and writing. God is working.

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A Merging of Lives

8 Oct

 

 

Yesterday we had the privilege of joining in the celebration of a merging of two lives in marriage.  The union of man and wife is a covenant that reflects that of Christ and His Bride, the Church.

As we watched Tyler and his beautiful bride, Laura, exchange vows, I reflected on our own wedding ceremony. Funny how even the details of our wedding were a foretelling of the personality traits of each of us and the ways in which we would work out this life together. Yet on our wedding day I would propose that in comparison to present-day, I hardly knew myself, let alone the wonderful godly man that I was marrying.

Yesterday, the pastor said that our covenant relationship of marriage is one that we continue to choose to make each day of our lives. It is true; as our love and the years grow, so will our understanding of one another and ourselves, as well as our graces with both.

Today, if everything goes as planned,  our family will travel to be united with our first foster child. As we venture this new path together, merging our lives with that of another child and family, I pray God’s name is glorified and His people edified. This child will have a wonderful temporary daddy in my Ron. Of that there is no doubt. God placed adoption on my heart from a young age and he placed a man in my life that equally embraced the idea from the start.

We will not be walking down an isle as we start this newest journey together, but with each step, and the facing of the unknown, we will do what we have done in marriage and parenthood to date: grow, laugh, cry, fail, fall, be renewed and seek His face and wisdom through the scriptures.

Thank you for joining in the celebration with your prayers! I will see you back next Monday as I am taking the week off to get acclimated.

This home is temporary but the rewards of heaven in His presence are eternal. Press on and in.

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Virtuous Reads

3 Oct

Virtuous character is not decided in a moment; it is formed by predetermined resolutions acted upon in each subsequent opportunity for vice.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge.

~2 Peter 1:5

Two books to help young ladies become virtuous women, clearly aside from the Scriptures, are highlighted this week on What I Am Reading Wednesday. I recently finished the first and am reading through the later. Both are rich in vocabulary and principles: the first, no doubt,  requiring a dictionary.

This movie version is equal to that of Pride and Prejudice staring Keira Knightley. Don’t be scared off that it begins rather odd.

Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth–so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane–quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.” ~p. 221 Jane Eyre

We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works ar on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence. ~p. 227 Jane Eyre

Character is not given to us; we build it ourselves. Others may furnish the material, may set before us the right standards and ideals, may give us reproof and correction, may guide our actions and mold our thoughts. But we build our own character. It is we who absorb the good influence about us, adopt the ideals, reach for the standards, and make ourselves what we are.~ p. 30 Beautiful Girlhood

Do you have any character books to recommend? Please leave them in the comments section or send me an e-mail.

That is what I am reading this Wednesday; what about you?

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Pour Another Cup

1 Oct

 

Today as I pour my morning cup of coffee it is with the realization that number three is days away from making his or her debut. We have decided not to find out the sex of the baby; rather I should say we haven’t made preferences known. We were officially licensed for foster care last Thursday, September 27, 2012. It happened only minutes after we picked our kids up on our return from the Grand Canyon.

I half expected a phone call in the night on Thursday: foster care families are in high demand. An empty bed is a scarce commodity in our county and little bodies in transition ready to fill them are at all time highs. Thankfully, we made it through the night without a call.

I am certain that God has plans in this foster care/adoption journey and they begin and end with giving Him glory. In the middle is pruning and sanctification; both of which I and my family need.

As we prepare for baby number 3, I consider the sacrifices that parents of young children are called to make. Another baby will ground us more. It is only in the last year alone, our children were “old enough” to leave overnight for the very first time to go on mission to Honduras and just recently a GTD trip (click here) to celebrate 10 years of marriage. Trips like these may have to be revisited later than I would like. That is the hard truth we face as we begin to foster; however, equally true is the fact that the babies that will enter and exit our home are known and loved by their Creator God and He has chosen us to be a part of their journey.

I pray for these children, as I pray for our own, that in the time we are blessed to raise them (even in those moments I do not want to pour another cup of milk or change another dirty diaper) that their early years will have a lasting, visible effect as that seen in the life of Moses:

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

~Hebrews 11:24-26

We want all the children who pass through our home to have a Homeward focus because of being here and influenced by the living and active word of God: the Bible.

So we will ask the Holy Spirit to pour another cup of grace, mercy, provision, and wisdom into our hearts and minds through prayer, the Bible, and His people so that we may turn and pour Him into the lives of His kids.

Please pray for us on this journey. Thank you sincerely for reading friend.

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Protected: So Long Summer

21 Sep

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Apple Picking in the South

19 Sep

We Southerners require creativity to welcome in the fall; especially considering central and southern Floridans. We substitute artificial leaves and pumpkins for the real deal, and burn Pumpkin Spice candles hoping the fragrance will bring on a cold-front for the Friday night football game. Any excuse to wear a jean jacket and cowboy boots will do as well. Not to mention the obsession with seasonal drinks and forgoing the swimming pool just because it is September!

Now I think I have hit an all-time low, or high, in spurring on the season: taking the kids apple picking at the local Publix “orchard.”

We observed and identified over seven varieties of the 7,500 available world-wide and also acquired the finest apple butter and apple chips that the Publix harvest boasts. To say we had a bushel-full would be a stretch, but the tasting party was quite fun.

We also put our local selection to use as an alternative paint brush.

keep my commandments and live;
keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;

~Proverbs 7:2

Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings,

~Psalm 17:8

Our “farm to table” (maybe that’s farm to factory to table) pickings were first read about in the following books:

A note to parents: the last two books, especially the later, present a time frame for the origin of earth being within the last two million years. I believe that the Bible teaches a younger earth: roughly 6,000-10,000 years old. Rather than avoiding these books, I use such statements to demonstrate that not all “facts” in non-fiction genres are factual, but can be biased beliefs or assumptions based on the worldview of the author.

We also watched this childhood favorite, The Legend of Johnny Appleseed.

Finally, these two books make nice additions to the mix:

Looking at all the beautiful apple skins, smells, and textures of the inner flesh of the apple, I marvel that David prayed for God to keep us as the apple of His eye. Ponder the thousands of varieties of apples compared with the uniqueness of man. What does the science behind mere apples suggest about our Savior, His creativity, His scope of knowledge and the glory due His name?

Now grab a cart and get to picking!

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Filed Under: Creation, Homeschooling, What I Am Reading Wednesday Tagged With: , ,

Where to Look for Help

17 Sep



Often when we are in need of emotional or physical help our eyes shift from one problem to another. The Bible tells us that our help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth.

On Thursday’s, we venture into God’s creation as a family. Gazing at the intricate details of blooms, blossoms, and bugs turns my thoughts towards God’s creative genius. Is it any wonder that genius and Genesis- a word that means beginning– look so similar? God’s creative genius was the genesis that set our world in motion. With his spoken word He created all that our eyes see…and all that they are unable to see.

 

Cardinal Flower

American Beauty Bush

Palmetto

God does not despise a contrite heart for that is the heart that He delights to use. When we are downcast, and in need of help, our gaze should look up for strength, help, and direction from the Maker of all that we see before us.

If, in trying times we focus on that which is our obstacle then our self-pity may get the better of us and defeat will be our mantra. However, if we lift up our eyes to the LORD we see the One who has overcome sin and death on our behalf, and He will faithfully guide us in the path of righteousness and wisdom. We are to lift our eyes up, then walk in His ways.

No work is too great for the God who has created everything from nothing. Let’s lift our eyes today friends.

*The beautiful plant photography is complements of Ron.

 

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A Daily Reminder

13 Sep

The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. ~Psalm 119:130

Psalm 119 is a rich text which teaches the why of reading, memorizing, and meditating on scripture. When we stray from reading God’s words and memorizing His commands we dull the Sword of the Spirit in our own lives thus placing ourselves at risk of succumbing to temptation, seeking selfish gain, and forgetting why we are here.

Continually we must remind ourselves this home is temporary; God’s word is the perfect daily reminder.

Home is a place called heaven.

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Filed Under: What I Am Reading Wednesday