A subtle call to deliberateness..

"A nice reminder of how valuable time is," creator Alan Dye has said of this screen-saver from Real Simple magazine. "The clock's numbers fade as the hand sweeps over them," notes the acclaimed graphic designer of his creation.

I just say it is really cool-looking... and I find that seeing it in motion is an ever-so-subtle call to deliberateness. Time is marching on!

Enjoy.

Unplugged

It is Friday, and that means it is the day that my friend Chris comes to help us with our "clean sweep." (See my previous post for more information about that.)

Basically, this means I don't have much time for Blogging this morning... but I figured I'd share a tip I read in this month's issue of Real Simple magazine. (This subscription was also a suggestion from my friend Chris, as she's found this magazine full of wonderful tips for keeping life streamlined, efficient, and free, while still taking thought for beautiful. I like it.)

At any rate, this month they were speaking of ways to make the most of family time in this crazy busy, electronic world of ours. One woman's suggestion? She and her family take one weekend a month and go "unplugged."

They make no social engagements. They watch no television, play no video games, skip the movies. They spend the time deliberately doing all those wonderful things that get lost in the normal busy-ness of life, even on weekends... they go outside to play together. They go hiking. Swimming. Boating. Fishing. They pull out the board games. Card games. Puzzles. They cook and eat together. They grill out. They play croquet. Badminton. Spontaneous kickball with the neighbors. They garden. They plant flowers. They take a bike ride together.

Anyway, you get the picture. To me, the idea sounds wonderful.

And - get this - when we went to plan it, we found only ONE option left - during the next two months - where the weekend was not already full of other plans and obligations!

So, we'll see how it goes. It sounds really wonderful to me.

"And I love her back..."

We are in the middle of a huge house reorganization project. I mean massive. It is as if we are moving out of our house and moving back in. I am not exaggerating. There are boxes and odd pieces of furniture and random pieces of artwork all over the floors and hallways and everywhere. Every weekend we take bags and boxes full of discarded household items and clothing to the thrift stores. We throw away multiple bags of trash every Friday. And Saturday.

It is wonderfully freeing, and simultaneously both incredibly exhilarating and exhausting.

I am learning so many things, about myself and about my husband and about my children and about the Lord. So many important lessons... but that's for another time, in another post.

For today, I am just shamelessly looking for a place to save the "letter" I just received from my sweet little OG.

Part of the reorganization involves getting rid of all the myriad of half-functional computers scattered about the house and consolidating down to one family desktop, downstairs in the newly-created "study." Each of my children had to scour through documents and papers and all such stuff on the upstairs computers, figuring out what to save and what to "trash," literally.

Today I found an email in my inbox that said, "I don't know when I wrote this, but you can have it." This is what it said:

I love my mom for so many reasons that I could not even write them all down. But, for a contest, I guess I might be able to capture the seven most important reasons that I love her.

1:) She stays home and home schools me.

2:) She buys everything I need to become smart and healthy.

3:) She is always there for me.

4:) She loves everything I make her.

5:) She cares about my thoughts and intentions.

6:) She thinks everything I draw is a masterpiece.

7:) Lastly, she loves me very much.

And I love her back.