tiny tennies

These baby sneakers were on display at a 

children's clothing store in Corvallis.

I loved their colors and abstract shape combinations.
Plus, they were just so cute!

Watercolor and acrylic ink, 4"x6"

paper hat boy

basketball boy

sabbatical meditations

 

I have discovered that the word "sabbatic" (at the root of "sabbatical") means:

"of, relating to, or appropriate to the Sabbath as a day of rest and religious observance."

 

The Hebrew term "Shabat Shalom" is a greeting meaning "peaceful Sabbath"

which people would exchange on their day of rest: "peace while not working".

I suppose these two ideas are the goal of our summer.

 

I have never experienced such a prolonged period of not working.

I sometimes feel antsy and distracted, thinking about the future

or just about what I could do next, or I've delved into researching random ideas.

Sometimes I manage to just relax and chill out, or to sit still and listen.

 

Mostly, I've slept. I sleep and sleep and sleep some more.

There have been energetic moments and good time with the family.

However, since the kids went away with my parents this week,

leading to another layer of sabbatical removal of responsibility,

I've realized how thoroughly exhausted I am.

 

"Those who live in the shelter of the Most High

will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty."

(Psalm 91:1, NLT)

 

Eric seems to be slightly more energized than myself, but he is also laying low.

The words that resound around the edges are "wait on God."

I've contemplated what this waiting would look like.

 

"Wait patiently for the Lord.

Be brave and courageous.

Yes, wait patiently for the Lord."

(Psalm 27:14, NLT)

 

In daily life, waiting is very straightforward. You wait for the bus.

The way this is practiced is by moving your body to the correct geography

(i.e. the bus stop) and then staying put -- not moving too far away from that location.

 

I think we have stepped into this initial form of waiting. We have moved ourself

out of work and all of its locations and expressions (excepting the mundane elements

of daily survival). We are waiting. We are not sure what form our bus will take.

 

There seems to be another layer of waiting on God which has to do with listening

in stillness. I trust that God will take our meager efforts at this and speak loudly

enough for us to hear through all our distractedness. It seems that this kind of

waiting may extend into our return to normal life. Hopefully that normal life will be

somewhat different from the way we left it as we take hold of our days more dependently.

 

"Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord.

Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly."

(Psalm 5:3, NLT)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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corvallis highlights

 

Here is a small sampling of things we enjoyed in Corvallis.

First off, I may have mentioned that the park was just minutes

from the house we were staying in. We played a lot of basketball.

There was a cherry tree in the back yard.

A cherry tree!

We headed out for coffee most days (where the kids opted for mango

smoothies) and played board games a lot -- mostly Ticket to Ride.

We headed to downtown Corvallis several times for shopping

(the kids discovered a rock shop that needed multiple explorations),

and for eating pizza, hot dogs, and gelato.

 

There was also the beauty of walks and drives in the rain,

the sound of rain on skylights in the middle of the night,

spending time with friends from home while away from home,

listening to dance mix late at night on long stretches of road,

watching more movies than usual, and the quirkiness of

cooking for four. All in all, it was very quiet, restful, and refreshing!

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how to: remove rub-on decals from furniture

Hi, folks! Once we returned from vacation and moved into my parents'

house (where we'll be staying for the duration of our sabbatical), one of the

first things that happened was my son permanantly applying a rub-on

decal to the kitchen table. Aack! As you can see from the photo above,

he did a bit of scraping before I caught wind of the event. This thing was

not going to budge. I managed to stop him before he started whipping out

metal-tipped instruments to gauge out the top layer of wood on my mom's table.

Then I did some research. Here's what I found:

To remove rub-on decals from furniture, first apply white vinegar.

Use a blowdrier to warm the decal. The heat should be set on high

so that it warms up quickly. You'll notice the vinegar puddle shrinking.

Scrape the edges of the decal with a credit card or driver's license.

This may scratch a bit, but it is more gentle than any pointy object.

Dab, heat, and scrape repeatedly until the decal is removed.

You'll notice that I moved to the corner of my card to aim at the last stubborn bits.

Use a dry paper towel to wipe off any remaining adhesive.

Buff the surface to smooth out any scratch marks.

And there you go! I can still see the spot because it's a bit more

scratchy than before (and because I know about it).

It's similar to other parts of the table, though. And way better than

if we'd gone at it with nail polish remover or a scrubby sponge!

home again, home again, jiggity jig

After a beautiful time away (more to come on that!), and a 3-day road trip

back through the redwood forest and the central California coast, we arrived

to Tucson in the wee hours of the morning yesterday. This photo takes place

in front of one of the massive trees we drove past. Just standin' there on the

side of the road!! The road, in fact, was nestled into this magical forest glade,

where moss or clovers were clinging to every surface. Moments from this spot,

the trees gave way to reveal the ocean, and then back into the woods again.

That was just day one! Anyway, we absorbed a great deal of beauty

and were greeted by rain upon our return, which reminded us of the

beauty of our home in spite of this month's 100+ degree weather.

I'm grateful for the trip, and it's good to be home.

 

perfect system: briefcase!

Last spring, I found this fabulous desk-in-a-briefcase at the thrift store by our house.

As you can see, it has pockets and a blotter/writing surface inside.

The lid contains an expandable file which shuts with a snap or,

with a twist, can be completely removed.

Lift the desktop to reveal the storage compartment.

Isn't this fun?!?

At the time, I was short on cash. So I left it behind,

but I really liked it. My loving husband gave me the ten dollars

to go back and pick it up (fully aware as he is that I need another container/bag

about as much as I need another hole in my head), and then

the cashier only charged me five dollars for it when I got to the register! Yay!

Once school got out, we kicked off what we called the

Summer School Enrichment Program

where every weekday we would go somewhere fun

with the briefcase (full of paper, pencils, math worksheets, etc.).

Eric or I would come up with assignments

to help the kids gird up their academic weak spots or jump into

some area of interest. We usually focused on writing and math

each day. There were often Izze sodas involved.

So far this summer, the briefcase has been closed.

I brought it with us on vacation, but we've been doing very vacationy

sorts of things instead. Summer School will have to wait 'til we get home.

The closest we've gotten is some occasional handwriting practice

in these cute workbooks I found on Amazon that have inspiring quotes

and jokes to practice on. The kids love them!

Do you have a perfect system? What is it? How does it work?

 

on song

We're absorbing a lovely dose of rain this week in the Northwest,

restoring our spirits for an impending return to the desert heat.

One of the ideas that emerged from the recent sermon series on Hebrews

at The Village was that of knowing our calling so we would not drift away

from Christ & the true gospel. The idea here was not the general calling of

people who follow Christ, although the Bible certainly says a lot about this.

What we were looking to do was to know our individual callings, as found

in answer to such questions as the following: what are my spiritual gifts?

what was it about God that I most loved when I first met Him? how did He

awaken my heart? what am I doing when I feel most connected to God?

If our salvation is the source of our calling, as Paul's was, then we should listen

back to the initial call of Christ we heard and find our vocation. From that we can

tell our story and proclaim the truth about God's grace to us.

Hebrews 2:1, "We must pay the most careful

attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away."

Our task as a church was to help each other diagnose this root of salvation

and what it might look like to live it out, turning away from disbelief.

This led to a string of exciting conversations for me, as I had opportunity

to explore my own life and the beauty to which God was inviting my friends.

The interesting thing that surfaced in many of these conversations, and in

conversations in different contexts as well, is how many people have

experienced passion for God through music -- as children or teenagers,

in groups or alone, through dancing or singing or playing an instrument.

Most of the friends I talked with about this were unsure of how to proceed

with this aspect of their calling. Many of them had completely discarded or

sidelined it. They don't seem to be in a place to perform in public settings or

to be part of leading music on a large scale. Does their musical

past lead to the present? Is it something to offer other people, or did

God give it to them primarily for connecting with Him in an intimate way?

These are questions I have been asking as the leader of bands at

The Village. I wonder what my role might be in helping people integrate

the musical part of their vocation into their lives and maybe more into

the community at large.

 
 

week 2

Eric and Ashton have been feeling crummy all week.

We finally went to urgent care yesterday to find out that Eric

has strep throat!! Looks like Ashton might have the same thing --

they said that kids often test negative at first and then show up

positive the next day. After 12 hours on antibiotics, they're looking

much perkier. In spite of the malaise, it's been a restful week of

beauty. The weather is similar Tucson in February (just greener!).

I'm currently reading King's Cross by Tim Keller and the 2nd book of the

Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan. We've been getting remarkably

little done on book writing and other accomplishments, which we're okay with --

I think this part of the summer is about recovery & reorientation.

So, we've watched movies (saw Madagascar 3 in the theater -- it was hi-lar-ious),

played basketball, sat in coffee shops, gone thrifting, and taken long naps. Yum!