Motherhood

I would imagine that, in the end, this may be a little how it will feel...



There's a reason they call it the "Empty Nest Syndrome"!

Do you really need a new book?

Ultimate Dog Tease

These things travel around email, and I'm certain just about everyone has seen them, but just in case, here it is.  And sometimes I just want to find them again quickly.  I think this is hilarious!

Conception to Birth

Alexander Tsiaras, one-time associate professor of medicine and chief of scientific visualization at Yale University, discusses things inside the human body--now able to be seen and observed with new imaging and scanning technology--that it has never been possible to see before.

He observes that they "allowed us to see things about the body that just made you marvel... (things) so perfectly organized and structured that it made it hard not to attribute divinity to it, because we kept on seeing this over and over again in different parts of the body."

An excerpt from the video piece From Conception to Birth: a Life Unfolds is included in the middle of the interview.



As Alexander Tsiaras explains, "The complexity of these--the mathematical models of how these things are indeed done--are beyond human comprehension... beyond any comprehension of any existing mathematics today.. and even though I am a mathematician, I look at these with the marvel of, 'How do these instruction sets not make these mistakes as they build what is us?'  It's a mystery.  It's magic.  It's divinity." 

"For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well."    -- Psalm 139:13-14

The Abiding Eloquence of a Christian Life

This past weekend I was "drinking from a firehose" at the annual HEAV homeschool convention. There are so many  that struck me--and so many thoughts and hopes and dreams and desires milling around in my head--that I am sort of reeling to process it all. But one thing that impacted me was a brief meditation that spoke of the life of William Wilberforce. It must have struck my husband, too, because I received a link to the following words about him from iivo in my email not soon after.   

William died on 29 July 1833 and Parliament resolved that he should be buried in Westminster Abbey. His grave is next to William Pitt in the north transept and in 1840 a statue, by Samuel Joseph, was set up nearby in the north choir aisle. The inscription reads:

TO THE MEMORY OF WILLIAM WILBERFORCE (BORN IN HULL AUGUST 24th 1759, DIED IN LONDON JULY 29th 1833;) FOR NEARLY HALF A CENTURY A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, AND, FOR SIX PARLIAMENTS DURING THAT PERIOD, ONE OF THE TWO REPRESENTATIVES FOR YORKSHIRE. IN AN AGE AND COUNTRY FERTILE IN GREAT AND GOOD MEN, HE WAS AMONG THE FOREMOST OF THOSE WHO FIXED THE CHARACTER OF THEIR TIMES; BECAUSE TO HIGH AND VARIOUS TALENTS, TO WARM BENEVOLENCE, AND TO UNIVERSAL CANDOUR, HE ADDED THE ABIDING ELOQUENCE OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE. EMINENT AS HE WAS IN EVERY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC LABOUR, AND A LEADER IN EVERY WORK OF CHARITY, WHETHER TO RELIEVE THE TEMPORAL OR THE SPIRITUAL WANTS OF HIS FELLOW-MEN, HIS NAME WILL EVER BE SPECIALLY IDENTIFIED WITH THOSE EXERTIONS WHICH, BY THE BLESSING OF GOD, REMOVED FROM ENGLAND THE GUILT OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE, AND PREPARED THE WAY FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN EVERY COLONY OF THE EMPIRE: IN THE PROSECUTION OF THESE OBJECTS HE RELIED, NOT IN VAIN, ON GOD; BUT IN THE PROGRESS HE WAS CALLED TO ENDURE GREAT OBLOQUY AND GREAT OPPOSITION: HE OUTLIVED, HOWEVER, ALL ENMITY; AND IN THE EVENING OF HIS DAYS, WITHDREW FROM PUBLIC LIFE AND PUBLIC OBSERVATION TO THE BOSOM OF HIS FAMILY. YET HE DIED NOT UNNOTICED OR FORGOTTEN BY HIS COUNTRY: THE PEERS AND COMMONS OF ENGLAND, WITH THE LORD CHANCELLOR AND THE SPEAKER AT THEIR HEAD, IN SOLEMN PROCESSION FROM THEIR RESPECTIVE HOUSES, CARRIED HIM TO HIS FITTING PLACE AMONG THE MIGHTY DEAD AROUND, HERE TO REPOSE: TILL, THROUGH THE MERITS OF JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY REDEEMER AND SAVIOUR, (WHOM, IN HIS LIFE AND IN HIS WRITINGS HE HAD DESIRED TO GLORIFY,) HE SHALL RISE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.

I am quite certain that I will never do anything as outwardly grand and world-changing as William Wilberforce did--though I do hope to be as faithful to follow whatever small orders The Lord sends my way--but I pray with every fiber of my being to be daily transformed and sanctified in Him such that one day it can be said of me also that I "added the abiding eloquence of a Christian life."

1934 Christmas Catalogue from Montgomery Ward

 

 

Bunny Ears

Today, we will enjoy a guest post from my daughter OG.  She had to explain the following cartoon to a friend, who had told her, "I don't get it."  Her explanation is as great to me as the cartoon itself.

 

"I don't know if you actually don't get it or if you're kidding.... but in case you actually don't, I'll explain.  The one bunny is taking a picture of the other bunnies and the middle bunny puts up his fingers as bunny ears behind the other bunny like a lot of people do in pictures to the person next to them.  The bunny on the left is saying, "You idiot" because they are all bunnies and putting up bunny ears as a joke is pointless because they already have bunny ears."

Musical Magic

Here are two cool musical things we've enjoyed around here in the past few days.

For your viewing and listening pleasure...

Strawberries!

Look what my daughter OG just brought in--organically grown in our own little patch of earth.  How fun!

What a difference a week can make!  These were her words to her grandfather in Vermont last Friday:

Our garden is coming along quite nicely as well!  We, too, have asparagus stalks shooting up.  Often times, we leave them too long that they begin looking like little trees.  We also have a plot of strawberry plants, which we planted last summer, that already have large green berries collecting on the ends of the vines.  I check almost every day to see if any have turned red yet.  So far no luck. 

 

The weather is very strange here these days.  One minute it will be pouring down rain like a tropical storm, and the next minute the sun will be shining in the skies just as warm as ever.  It wouldn't be so strange except for the fact that when the sun comes out, I look outside and there are barely any clouds out there.  Then the clouds scurry back and it starts raining again.  I wish we could just have one day of rain and the next of sun, because Grampa has opened his pool and I enjoy going for a swim.

 

I liked your description of the dandelion blossoms; our grass is growing quickly, too.  PT said he would have to start mowing twice a week so that our lawn doesn't look unkempt.

 

I hope your loneliness eases as you see the signs of life blossoming around you.  I miss you and hope to see you soon.  Much love from, OG

The 7-Minute Workout