Summertime Agenda of Awesome '15

June-Gloom is a real thing, hanging heavy on California's coastline when we're all ready for the sun to burn the marine layer away.  June-Gloom is a real expression, branded here on the West Coast.  But May can be the same way, only she doesn't have a catch phrase in her corner, so my husband is intent on coining this one: May Malaise  

malaise |məˈlāz; -ˈlez| (noun) a general feeling of discomfort, illness, or uneasiness whose exact cause is difficult to identify : a society afflicted by a deep cultural malaise | a general air of malaise.

I like it alright, nice alliteration, but without a viral push and an army of tweets it probably won't stick. However, there is a new summer catch-phrase on the rise, now that kids are getting out of school and moms are desperate to start the holiday off right:

 "Summertime Agenda of Awesome"

Last year, creative mom blogger Kelli Stuart started hash-tagging every picture she uploaded of her blond kids to Instagram:

 #Summertimeagendaofawesome

She made a poster-board listing the fun they'd have, alongside a splattering of rules, such as, "Snacks at 10am and 2pm each day" and "we cannot feed the entire neighborhood at dinner every night." Her summertime agenda of awesome also offered incentives for her children like $1 per book.

And so this year, when I read that she'd made a new sign, I jumped on board!  Literally jumped on a great big piece of cardboard! And now I'm inviting you to do the same and hash-tag your way through the summer with us:

#Summertimeagendaofawesome15

I grabbed the leftover trifold poster-board I'd bought for my fifth-grader's sixth-grader's science project that he didn't use this year, and found the dye-cut letters from my third-grader's fourth-grader's Tsunami Lego project, and started printing up lists and goals and plans and a calendar and a Bible verse. And this is where I confess that our #Summertimeagendaofawesome15 poster-board may be slightly more awesome then Kelli's - not that it's a competition moms - just saying that I snapped a picture, sent it her way, with the caption, "My Summertime Agenda of Awesome poster-board just ate yours!"

"Over-acheiver" she text back with a snarky tone.

"And by the way," I replied, "my kids are making twenty-five cents a chapter over here this summer."

"Good, tell them to get reading. Because your kids are buying the popsicles when you come out to Florida this summer."

Seriously, ladies, we're just having some fun. You can make yourself a poster or not, have a Family Summer Bible Verse or not, read aloud from a heavy book or not, use the months off to work on math sheets or not, see the Grand Canyon or not, raise money for a local ministry or not...

All I'm saying is is this...

Make it an awesome Summer Moms!

Say yes to your kids, say yes to your husband, say yes to more rest and more play and loads of water colors and poolside parties.  Say yes when they ask to face paint, say yes to the mess, say yes to Lemon Bars, say yes to having friends over last minute, and yes to kicking your children outside for long stretches of sweaty play each day.  Say Yes... to an agenda that includes all of this and more.

#Summertimeagendaofawesome15

Who's in?

For those of you who are zooming in to see what specifics I included in our chart:

-The Kids listed the special things they want to do this summer.

-We also listed the big things we're looking forward to, like church camp and our trip to Florida (because we really are going to do that!)

-Our Summertime Verse is Ephesians 4:29.

-I printed up a blank calendar online and filled it in with all of our plans so the kids can see what's coming up next.

-Reading log, where each kid can record the title of the book and how many chapters he read.

-Little Men is the book we're reading together as a family this summer.  It's one of my all time favorite books for boys.

-Missionary Fund - Since life is so super busy during the school year, we focus on raising money for our ministry partners as a family during the summer.  Lemonade stands are a great introduction to this, tithing from their book reading fund, and a few other creative money making ventures will allow us to give together as a family.

-Sleep-In and Win!  This is our first summer trying our hand at a sleeping in competition.  Last year's competition was Wii Just Dance Kids, and my oldest beat me with "Every Body was Kung Fu Fighting." This year, however, the kids get a checkmark each time they sleep until 8am or later!  The boy who slept in the most times will get some AWESOME prize at summer's end.

-Most Cheerful Servant sticker chart is simply my way of encouraging the children to out-serve one another this summer. The day I unveiled the chart two of my kids were extra eager to get in the kitchen and kept asking my TEN favorite words EVER!  "Mom, is there anything else I can do to help?"

-Rules and chores are pasted discretely on the backside of the board so that the front can be all about the fun.  Sure, there are limits to TV and screen time and daily charts to remember that making beds and hanging wet suits are paramount this summer too... but our focus is on the celebration this summer.

Feel free to follow along on Instagram this summer...

#Summertimeagendaofawesome15

In the beginning God created...

In the beginning God created...

The heavens and the earth, the sun and moon, the seas that teem with living things, and the mammals with their furry pelt that feed upon grass and berries. Filling the atmosphere with every winged creature, and star-speckled space beyond our skies, gravity miraculously holding it all together.  He caused the moon to move a steady pathway around the globe, creating the tide pull and the ocean's yielding response, lapping upon the shoreline, caressing each grain of intentionally designed sand.

All this God created - And it was very good.

And yet more vast than creation is the creative nature of God Himself - The One who spoke everything into existence, including mankind in His image.

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

(Genesis 1:27)

Halfway home my middle child confessed, "I didn't bring my spelling book home and I have a test tomorrow." We turned around and drove to school again.  Walking together toward his class we passed the art room with the door ajar, and I saw the sign hanging, pronouncing,

In the beginning God created...

That dear woman who teaches my children art saw me then, and I looked into her eyes and told her what I had just learned, what I'm now tell you: We were made in the image of this Creator God. She nodded back. "That's what I tell the children."

There is a movement abreast in the Christian community, specifically among women, where God's created people are opening up His Word and creatively responding back within the pages of their Bibles.  For years we've dared write within the margin spaces, like a conversation with the Holy Spirit.  But in recent months many have taken to doing something even riskier than write... they've dared create on those pages. With watercolors and pencils, creative women are reflecting God the creator as the moon reflects the sun. Light bouncing off light-bearers. And there's been no better time in history for paint to splatter thin Bible pages then right now, for Instagram and Facebook carry the images to the rest of us like a visual Bible Study.

Inspired, I decided to try my hand at it as well.

As I read again God's creation story, I thought of Aslan breathing green shrubs out of a naked orb in "The Magicians Nephew," the classic children's tale by C.S. Lewis that precedes his famous "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." It's always been one of my favorite interpretations of creation, with the King of Creation singing it forth, and the whole planet responding to his hot breath.

Most people I know get hung-up on those first six days, wanting to understand each 24 hours and carbon dating and evolution and how literal we are supposed to read each word.  But that's not my bag.  I am fine with a literal interpretation, but I am equally all right if God, in His creative majesty, elongated the hours into millennia... At the core, God created - and down to my core, I believe.

Here is where I struggle: Each time I read those early chapters of Genesis I have deep groaning heartbreak over Eden. Witnessing perfection and fellowship, wishing I could go back to that place, wondering why God allowed us this natural bent toward sin, this gift we call free-will, when it goes and screws every beautiful thing up.  Then theology floods my reasoning mind; how it is a gift, free-will, and with it we choose to enter into a true relationship, the submission of will and comprehension of love. All of it rich because mankind gets to choose.

Still my heart cries, "Why God? I'd rather it be simpler, more beautiful, less stained, even if it requires a measure of ignorance." I long for a heart that has a natural bent towards obedience.  I wish we were all sheep that never wander.

But sheep that never wander... never need a Savior.  And it's all mashed up together, here "In the beginning..."

God knows I'd like to walk with Him in the cool of the day, amidst the pre-fallen garden state, and talk with Him of the vastness of His glory and the intimacy of His love and the tendencies of His sheep and the pursuing love of a Shepherd. What a conversation that would be, hand in hand.

Can't you hear Loretta Lyn's sweet voice singing:

I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses, And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, The Son of God discloses. And He walks with me, and He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own, And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known.

Already my mind turns to Jesus, here in the earliest stories of Creation and the Fall.  Three days into my journey through the Bible and I see the thread that will weave us through, the theme that takes us from the fall to God's redemptive return.  Jesus.   Though He knew no human heart could earn it, be righteous enough to attain it, He found a way to restore us on the other side of sin and separation. Through Jesus - the good shepherd. Because He wants Eden too. That's the story from Cover to Cover, how Jesus will lead His flock back to the beginning again. That's how we look at Revelation here in the garden.

Jesus.

Over and over again, in the pages of this book. Jesus. Our need for Him and His passionate pursuit of us. Story after story. Image after image. From God's tender call, "Where are you," as Adam and Eve hid, to the moment they are cast out. Because, well... don't we all deserve that horrible separation? Then brother kills brother, the spilling of blood, followed by the cleansing of the earth through the flood.

"Never again," He promised with the artistry of a rainbow sign, for every generation to know He will never cleanse the earth that way again.  The next time He cleansed us from sin, it was a thorough cleansing with blood.  Jesus.  Again and again, Jesus. Blood for blood, our sin in exchange for a life that knew no sin. All of it... pointing to Jesus.

From the beginning... the stories all point to Jesus.

I am eager to hear what it is that God is teaching you in His Word.  Weather you are #ReadingthroughtheBible with us here, or simply abiding with Him in various chapters and pages as He leads.  What are you learning... and does it have anything or everything to do with Jesus?

Books for Boys

Lunch is for poetry.

One afternoon, as my sons sat eating apples and meat roll-ups, I flipped through a worn book of good poems.  Infact, the collection was entitled, Good Poems, comprised by Garrison Keilor. Often I read, Nothing Gold Can Stay, by Robert Frost, but that day I landed on a new one, For All, by Gary Snyder... and the boys leaned in.

---

For All

Ah to be alive on a mid-September morn fording a stream barefoot, pants rolled up, holding boots, pack on, sunshine, ice in the shallows, northern rockies.

Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters stones turn underfoot, small and hard as toes cold nose dripping singing inside creek music, heart music, smell of sun on gravel.

I pledge allegiance

I pledge allegiance to the soil of Turtle Island, and to the beings who thereon dwell one ecosystem in diversity under the sun With joyful interpenetration for all.

(For All, by Gary Snyder)

One stanza in particular made me stop and read it again, asking the boys to stop their munching, close their eyes, and consume the imagery instead.

Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters stones turn underfoot, small and hard as toes cold nose dripping singing inside creek music, heart music, smell of sun on gravel.

That first line, calling upon three different senses to describe a simple rippling brook - rustling, shimmering, icy.  And then the sting of bitter cold in nostrils and the way a heart sings happy, and the smell of gravel in the sunshine.  The boys all nodded, deep nods, because... well... boys know about adventure in the great outdoors - even if their great outdoors is 18 square feet of backyard with cinderblock boarders.  Boys understand blades of grass and snails in the dirt, and the smell of each season, and the salty sweet taste of their own sweat.

What am I getting at?  Simply this: Boys need great books filled with masculine adventures, imagery, and imagination.  They need to flex the muscles of their heart and mind as they flex their sinewy legs and arms, pumping hard outside each day. Boys need kind farmers and noble knights and gentle women and magic, loads and loads of magic.  I do not know nearly enough, but I know that boys need books.  Books and backyards and mothers.  I don't have an exhaustive list of books for boys to share with you today, but I will offer you these few titles with my hearty endorsement. Order one today for your boys!

Books for Boys

All Creatures Great and Small or All Things Bright and Beautiful, by  James Herriot (ages 3-8)

Billy and Blaze, written and illustrated by C.W.Anderson (ages 4-8)

Swiss Family Robinson, by Johann David Wyss (Classic Starts Series, ages 8-10)

Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis (ages 7-107)

Little Men, by Louisa May Alcott (ages 8-16)

My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George (ages 9-11)

Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls (ages 9-11)

Summer of the Monkeys, by Wilson Rawls (ages 9-11)

Old Yeller, by Fred Gipson (ages 9-11)

Pax, Sara Pennypacker (ages 8-12)

Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen (ages 12-16)

Navigating Early, by Clare Vanderpool (ages 12-16)

My personal all-time favorite read-aloud: Saved at Sea, by Mrs. O. F. Walton

And one to help you understand the wild inside your men: Wild at Heart, by John Eldredge

---

And now a poem that I wrote for my eldest, who loves to read and loves to be read to, and who cries at just the right spots. 

I finished it

He tumbled out of his room, wiping wet from his eye and smiled, accomplish, then sighed, “Well, I finished it.”

“Was it good?” I asked over the stove and he nodded it was so… so good, he’s sad he finished it.

Two dogs with their boy, a hatchet in hand So like my son who longs to be a man, but he’s not finished yet.

This growing up wild and growing up free and growing up reading in the crook of a tree till we’ve finished it.

But the day will come with he’s grown up and gone and the books on his shelf will sing out like a song, “Well, we finished it.”

by Wendy Speake

taste and see

 

Taste and see that the Lord is good:

blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

(Psalm 34:8)

Today is the Sabbath, a day for rest, a day for taking refuge in the sanctuaries of our homes, our churches, our family, and our faith.  Resisting the striving to simply know that He is God, as we taste and see His goodness round about us.

Walking through the garden the other day I was aware of how sweet the air smelled, the breeze carried honeysuckle, jasmine, and orange blossoms through eucalyptus and lemon trees. Imagine that.  Intoxicating.  The scent of earth and the whinny of horses, all of it home.

Later in the day, as I homeschooled my fifth grader, I encouraged him to use all five of his senses to layer descriptive words into his writing assignment.  Inspired, I put a pad of unlined-paper in his hand and wrote see, smell, hear, taste & touch at the top of the page.  Sending him outside I asked my son to find a location on our property and write me a poem using those powerful tools.  The eleven year old swooshed the bangs from his forehead and rolled his eyes, slipped on his mother's flip-flops then sauntered out into her rose garden.  When he returned he gave me this:

In the Garden

I see the magnificent roses on my mom’s bushes;

I smell the wonderful scent of blooming jasmine;

I reach over to touch the soft peddles of the rose;

I taste the fresh squeezed lemonade from our lemon trees,

cool in my hand.

I feel that I am at home in the garden.

-Caleb

That is the Sabbath... being at home in the garden of God's safe embrace, at the end of one busy week and the start of another. Purposing stillness to look closely, listen carefully, inhale deeply, touch gently, and taste, intentionally, the Lord's goodness toward us.

Today, this Sabbath Sunday, also marks the end of one full week of fasting - which may be part of why I'm slowing down as well.  Depleted in one natural area of my being, that I might be aware of the supernatural at work without and within.  Denying sugar that I can more fully experience the sweetness of The Lord's nearness.

One of the women who has joined along with this online community for our 40 day sugar-fast is author, Katie Reid. She sent me a message, the day I went for a walk outside, celebrating how her food tastes more flavorful and enjoyable than usual.  The sweet tanginess of strawberries, the rich flavors at the dinner table.  It reminded me of the scent on the breeze so I replied to her comment online, telling her so.

Back and forth we've been communicating about our discoveries.  I've actually copied one of them and pasted it below because it was just so good.   Read it with me:

"Last night the kids were going to get some tomato soup from an Indian restaurant and they said, "I'll bet it won't taste as good as yours does Mom." I told them that it is fine for them to like other people's food more than mine because other people can cook better than I can. This morning I was reflecting on that and thought about how we often feel "no one's cooking is like that of home." There is comfort in eating where you feel loved, safe and known.

Then it went deeper. Do we long for the taste and food of our REAL home - Heaven? As believers, that hunger for home should drive us and fuel us. How many times do we settle for a quick, cheap fix for our spiritual hunger rather than the real stuff; the rich fare of Heaven? I have heard in third world countries that believers often talk about heaven and look forward to it. Why? Maybe it is because their days aren't full of comforts or the varieties of foods and pleasures like we have. They hunger for heaven and delight in what's to come. But isn't it us who are malnourished? We feed our face on comforts and we lose a taste for the best yet to come.

Oh Lord, may we hunger for You. May we feast on Your Word and the "hope set before us." (see Hebrews 9:18). Some people think focusing so much on heaven means you are out of touch with reality. But heaven is a joyful reality for those in Christ- where we will taste and see where He is good (see Psalm 34:8). Oh that we would all turn and experience the great banquet to come!

All this

& so much more

is on my mind

this Sabbath day.

Katie Reid is encouraging her friends on her own facebook page as she fasts from sugar as a means to letting God make her sweet.  I encourage you to stop by and get to know her here.

What I learned from taking pictures of my children

I have a slight obsession with taking pictures of my children and the home we live in.  Holidays like Easter only intensify the problem... um, er, I mean experience, with all the color-coordinated goodness and styled hair, beautifully laid tables with flowers fresh from the garden.  It's all too much to let pass without a picture (or 117 of them) to remember the day by.  So this mom calls incessantly for children to come have their pictures taken again... because the light is simply too perfect! Ahhhh... the natural light absolutely arrests me when it hits the awning causing everything to spill so evenly. "Wait!  Wait! Don't take off your church clothes, let me get one more shot of you boys together!" Miraculously they come again, as the aroma of honey-baked ham fills the house and ice cubes begin to melt, causing the glasses of lemonade to make that wonderful cling-clanging melody throughout the home.

If only a picture could capture the whole essence of family togetherness. The sound of laughter and the scent of jasmine as it mingles with orange blossoms on the springtime breeze - My mom in the kitchen washing dishes and my husband walking through the dry grass on the back hill - The youngest flashes a smile with chocolate caked around his face and I laugh.  He laughs back, though he has no idea why.  All of it. I want to capture all of it.

Artistic moms who interpret life through lenses, paint brush, instruments or pen, are often tempted to rush past the living moments, to document the experience of having lived.  In so doing, of course, they miss some of the present richness of simply living life.  Tasting the ham rather than photographing it, touching the soft skin of their beloveds, rather than backing up to frame the picture just so.  Leaning into the laughter instead of running toward the computer to upload a fresh batch of images.

It's a constant pull for creative women who are loving their families, all the time inspired to write down words, pick up instruments, set up the easel, redecorate a room, refinish that bedside table. But the moments are ticking by, and our job is to savor with our hearts each tick-tock slow-moving one of them, because together the minutes are sprouting wings and taking to flight.

Yes, the days are long, but the years are short, and I don't just want pictures of my children when they are grown and gone, I want memories. Memories heavy laden with all five senses. It's hard to take it all in behind a heavy camera with an impressive zoom. Similarly, you may (or may not) have noticed that I'm barely writing one blog post a week around these parts.  I've found that this year I simply can't be the mother, wife, daughter, friend, homeschool parent I want to be if I do more than that... not if I want to live life.

 Choose Life.

Put down the camera phone, look up, and choose life.