Feeding the People {a 2 week menu with links}

Here’s the truth: there is no typical week. Ever.

This particular (not quite) two week-spread comes close, but right smack dab in the middle we have Phin’s Gotcha Day. Now, I can’t speak for every other adoptive Momma on the planet, but to me … well, that Gotcha Day is right up there with the boy’s birthday. I can still tell you how it felt to parade out of that mall (yes, I said mall) with my boy on my hip, his face smeared with ketchup and his legs thumping my side with every step. I remember holding him on my lap at home, memorizing the soft skin at the back of his neck. I remember handing him Cheerios and trying to elicit a smile. It was a good day. A very good day.

To celebrate, we’ll be enjoying an old-fashioned icebox cake. If you have never tried one, you really should. They are super simple to make, and so yummy. Phin’s favorite has strawberries in it. I’ll assemble it the night before to make sure that the flavors have the chance to mingle. Meanwhile, my own thoughts will be mingling … looking back over the past six years … wondering what the next six hold … and feeling very grateful indeed to have been given the chance to mother a very special blue-eyed boy.

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Gold is one thing, God is another

We’re not the biggest TV watchers but when the Winter Olympics were in swing, we made it a nightly family viewing event at our house.

Except for the late time start for primetime coverage on the West Coast (none of us could stay up to finish a night’s coverage!), it was a lot of fun watching athletes compete at their highest levels, regardless of their country.

We watched the figure skating, the hockey, the curling, the biathlon (a personal favorite), the downhill skiing, the half-pipe, the speed skating (short track is another favorite), slopestyle and more.

These athletes are amazing and have such amazing stories and incredible talent.

But what I wish I’d seen more of is a willingness to give credit for such talent where it’s due: God.

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{Work in Progress Wednesdays}

“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.”
―Albert Einstein

(Work in progress: yet another Collande Dishcloth, this one in pakucho organic cotton, forest mist colorway.)

We’d love to see your works in progress. Something that makes you feel simple, full,  or creative. Something you’re making. Something you’re doing (folding a pile of laundry–again?). Something you’re planning. Share in the comments!

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Asia: Its People and History {review & giveaway}

I used to write reviews. Correction: I used to write a lot of reviews.

There was a time when I was reviewing four or five items each week; mainly curricula oriented, but also just your general, run of the mill products/games/stuff that a homeschooling, Christian mom might find handy. Not to be braggy or anything, but I turned down a lot of offers. Good stuff. I even got my name on some really well known products in the endorsement areas. It was a good time.

Until it wasn’t.

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Treasure

Every day moments.

Oh, how the magic and the mystery of the mundane threatens to escape me at every turn. Caught up in the needs, the meals, the clashing egos, the busy, it’s easy to lose sight of the overwhelming blessing of being. Those things that happen all the time, every day … one day, it will be the last time. I will wake up some totally unremarkable, completely average day and not even realize, “Today, John Mark will call you Mom. And he will never again say, ‘Momma’ with that almost-lisp. It will be gone.” There will be a final diaper for Simon. An end to the way Birdie clutches her hands beneath her chin and squeals, “Adorable!” A last time Phin clenches his teeth and grinds his face into my neck with utter joy.

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{Work in Progress Wednesday}

“The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
―Robert Henri 

(work in progress: still working on the  Very Easy Shawl Knit Sideways in Cascade Sauk, autumn colorway. It’s such an easy pattern, but to be honest, it’s getting dull. Maybe a Very Easy Shawlette?)

We’d love to see your works in progress. Something that makes you feel simple, full,  or creative. Something you’re making. Something you’re doing (folding a pile of laundry–again?). Something you’re planning. Share in the comments!

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5 Things Missionaries Want You To Know

Prior to our own call to missions, I remember sitting in the congregation one Sunday morning and hearing the presentation of a couple serving in north Africa. They looked relaxed, at ease with their role as spokesmen for an entire class of Christians I knew little about: full-time field missionaries. The wife seemed to gaze lovingly at her husband as he spoke, smiling now and then and resting her hand on his arm as if they were chatting with friends in their own living room, not on a raised platform in front of a few hundred strangers. The husband spoke eloquently on the topics of evangelism, radical faith, and a total surrender to God. They both glowed with a certain peace and confidence that marked them as the kind of Christian everyone wants to be, even as they described life in a place that few Americans would choose to visit, let alone set up housekeeping in.

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Mind the gap

The first thing new friends notice about our children is the number. The second is the gap.

Things start out as you’d expect for a family of this size– stair steps. I still remember the awe I felt as I hung up small jackets (pink, blue, blue) in only slightly staggered sizes, and the utter cuteness of lining my babies up for the tell-tale graduated height photo. I also remember the exhaustion of giving birth for the third time in just under four years, and the frustration of three little ones unable to buckle their own car seat straps.

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Be brave

I am so excited to introduce you all to my beloved, the very talented, hilarious, kind, honest man who gave me the honor of sharing his name almost 18 years ago. Christopher is passionate about the value of the Gospel, and he is also one of the strongest advocates you’ll ever meet for the kind of manhood that not only sacrifices for family, but delights in the gift of children. I hope that as he shares his heart here, you’ll be inspired to walk a little deeper in faith in the every day moments. I know he has that effect on me! — Heather

 

I had the chance today to share the Gospel with a co-worker.

This is unique for two reasons: 1. I work in county government so such conversations are usually verboten. 2. When I mentioned I had once been a practicing Buddhist, there was more initial interest in hearing about those days than my life now as a Christian.

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