I’m glad you asked.

• Kept children quiet so Daddy could sleep after working into the wee hours
• Had trouble keeping them quiet as they wanted to keep exclaiming over hearing mountain lion noises
• Had trouble keeping dog quiet because he didn’t like mountain lion noises
• Lost one of her helpers to nasty sickness that appears to have a very long incubation time
• Lost two of her helpers to Daddy, who has hired them to do testing for his company
• Watered almost entire garden before eating breakfast
• Cooked apple crisp for firefighter son and his colleagues
• Hung a load of laundry on line in continuing quest to find ways to cut back in this uncertain economy
• Unsuccessfully tried to keep tight rein on children who were supposed to be doing school
• Gave up and made them pick up that which she had been told had already been picked up
• Kept barking orders throughout the day to move sprinklers outdoors so that we have some green space all around the house
• Made lunch for everyone, including special orders for invalid and low-carbing hubby
• Vacuumed
• Made apricot butter in the crock pot, and continued washing the dishes she dirtied
• Cleaned out toy basket and dress-up clothes, attempting to hide all that went into the garbage bag
• Made appointment for hair cut
• Drove to store in smoky, Mordor-like conditions to buy new oscillating sprinkler, praying that it works better than the old one, and vanilla ice cream to go with apple crisp
• Delivered apple crisp to empty fire station, put it and ice cream in fridge and freezer, leaving note, and noticing the fancy shish-ka-bobs waiting to be cooked for the evening meal, finding out that her son prepared them and wondering where he learned to cook like that
• Made fruit smoothie for invalid
• Fixed noodles alfredo with onions, garlic, and portabella mushrooms for dinner
• Watered in back yard and sprayed deer fence (pew!) all around to keep flowers from getting eaten…swept deck of messy silk tree debris and cobwebs
• Talked to firefighter son on phone
• Talked to husband about serious things, talked to children about serious things
• Read a chapter of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader to little boys
• Edited magazine articles
• Wrote a blog post
• Snooze

The Sleeping Embroiderer by Gustave Courbet

I hope you will understand if I haven’t returned an email. I will do my best to get to it by the end of the decade.

For the past few years we have enjoyed many of the songs of Indelible Grace, which began as a music ministry of Reformed University Fellowship. They have taken some great reformed hymns and rewritten the music, which some people may find as sacrilegious as writing in a book (gasp!) We like some of the songs a lot more than others, but we really like having the rich, meaty hymns get a new hearing. A few of their arrangements were used on Jars of Clay’s Redemption Songs, and I love Anne Steele’s Thou Lovely Source of True Delight on that album and on IG’s first album. My friend Lisa may like the IG version of O Day of Rest and Gladness, and On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand is on the same album.

I think that IG’s music might appeal to those who find indie music appealing. I am all for more creativity from every corner. The traditional corners for music, literature, news, and film are filling up with cobwebs and other nasty things that accumulate in dark places. Time to sweep some of that ickiness away by opening the windows, wielding the brooms (no nasty jokes about how my other vehicle is a broom!), and filling up the emptiness to overflowing with lots of beauty from hearts that belong to Jesus. Sing, write, play, sew, cook, garden, read to your children…and don’t give your attention to the mediocre drivel that wastes your time and energy.

Songs from Indelible Grace’s new album can be heard here. You can listen to samples of the songs I mention at the links above. There are also lead sheets and lyrics, as well as some hymn stories and biographies of hymn writers, at their site.

If you want some truly edifying entertainment with a healthy dose of affirmation thrown in, hop on over to American Vision’s website and read the dozens (so far) of answers to Gary DeMar’s request for homeschooling success stories. One of his antagonistic correspondents went a little too far, saying that homeschooled students are capable of little more than menial work and that their parents are “unemployable retards.” Also, remember to pray for us California homeschoolers as today was the day the L.A. district court heard oral arguments in their reconsideration of the case which made waves for homeschoolers in the golden state a few months ago. They will have a decision on this in coming weeks, so I hope you will intercede on our behalf, asking the Lord to move the hearts of the justices to leave the homeschoolers alone and stick to the issue at hand.

As the world turns upside down and inside out, this poem, written by Steve Turner, makes perfect sense out of the senselessness we are swimming—or drowning—in. I haven’t seen Ben Stein’s movie yet, but I understand that in it rationalist Dawkins ends up trying to explain the origins of life on Earth by A.D. (Alien Design). Wow.

This reminds me of the misattributed Chesterton quote: “He who does not believe in God will believe in anything.” Good quote, except he didn’t say it. What he did say, via Father Brown, is almost as good though: “It’s the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense.” The evidence is all around us, both of the loss of common sense and the existence of our Creator God.

We believe in the rejection of creeds,
And the flowering of individual thought.

A lot of good it has done us…don’t you agree? Not.

See also: Creeds are Crucial and Statement of Faith.

I am very sad that Tasha Tudor has just died. Her lovely books, and the books which show her home and gardens have been comforting inspirations to me about the beauty of a simple life at home. Our little corgi, Homer, is a special addition to our family because of the charming pictures of corgis in Miss Tudor’s stories. If you have read any of her books or those about her, you know that she was a fount of creative energy, planning special activities for special days at home with her children. I have enjoyed reading about her homemade dollhouse and dolls, family plays, tea parties, and other adventures throughout her life, both when her children were young as well as with new friends in her old age.

Always dreaming up imaginary fun, she reminds me of Jo in Little Women. Sadly, like Louisa May Alcott who dreamed up Jo in her imagination, from what I’ve read about her, Tasha Tudor had New England Unitarian roots and to my knowledge she never professed any Christian belief. Some of my favorites of her books are those which have biblical themes, including her illustrations of Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer. I have a Christmas pop-up book she wrote and illustrated which has a gorgeous Nativity scene. I hope that in her last days the biblical themes she pondered and the traditions she celebrated finally found their fulfillment and that she trusted for salvation in Christ alone. God gave her a long and productive life which blessed many people.

As our days go speeding past and we make memory markers for our families with delicious food, gardens, crafts, and special celebrations, let’s make sure to do it all for the glory of God, building our lives on that which is eternal.

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw–each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (I Corinthians 3:11-15)

I think we will have a tea party to remember Tasha and we will re-read some of her sweet books this week. We will talk about these verses, too, and remember that beauty comes from the One who first created and defined it, and that we reflect His glory when we bring our attempts to make loveliness in our own lives and lay them at His feet.

Note: Images found at this website, where you can also read a biography of Tasha Tudor’s life. And here is an article about her from Practical Homeschooling Magazine a few years ago.