That’s me working on a blanket for the new baby (it’s finished, but too wonderful for how the photos of it have turned out thus far) and Jonny’s experimenting and practicing with his sewing machine. He got my hand-me-down since I got a new machine for my b-day and Christmas.
Sid and the kids found this little friend one day! Photos by Sid.
How was that California sun today, fellow inhabitants of Orange County? Could you believe how warm it was?
This day was a very nice one for me, starting out with some great garage/yard sale finds.
Like these:
Which turned out to be Justin boots. They’re exactly my size and a style that suits me, plain, rugged, and cool. They took up most of the room in our $5 bag at Tustin Presbyterian’s yard sale, so I guess they cost most of $5. In that bag we also got tap shoes in exactly Ave’s size, which is great because the ones she uses now are too big. As well as some black ballet flats for June and a polyurethane H & M purse for me.
Then we drove through some neighborhood garage sales and came across this:
It’ll do! We already have one double stroller where a smaller child can sit in the front and an older one can sit or stand on the back, but I don’t like to use that one for littler babies, one reason being that it isn’t comfy enough for them to sleep in and when they are reclined, the child in the back doesn’t have much room and is sorta forced to stand. We weren’t going to purchase a double stroller, but for $40 this one seems like it’s worth the convenience it’ll grant us once the baby comes.
We came home from our shopping and I got a really good nap. June was still sleeping when I awoke and Jonny and Ave were busy playing the Indiana Jones Lego game, so I sunned! In February!
I thought about my little fetus and prayed for it and sent it love. I read. I ate my mother-in-law’s Bisquick biscuits and sipped Coke from a bottle (which is a little deviation since I quit caffeine a month ago, today simply called for such a deviation!). I enjoyed the view:
I enjoyed this little dude’s sunny day serenade:
And I enjoyed my suntime companions:
This is a very happy and joy-filled time in my life and I’m glad to realize that while I’m in it and not let anything or anyone influence me otherwise. Today’s weather reflected my sunny state of mind, and so I was facilitated in feeling and living out the joy that is most certainly always present and available to me by God’s grace. But in my joy I’m not forgetting the struggles and hardships that good friends are in the midst of, so this is also an extra-prayerful time in my life. Prayers for sunny rays of joy and peace to infiltrate the suffering, anxiety, pain and uncertainty.
Just before finding out I was pregnant I started to read my Grandfather’s Memoir. I love learning more about that man, he is so precious and inspiring, loving and faithful, encouraging and insightful.
Grandpa tells a story of his mother Maude. In the critical moment, she vowed to the Lord that if He would spare her daughter Virginia’s life from the spinal meningitis that was about to take it, then she would fully dedicate her life to Him, no matter what else she did in her life. God healed Virginia and Grandpa was born two months later. At his birth, Great-Grandma Maude prayed, “Lord, I am going to fulfill my promise to You through my son.” Isn’t that beautiful!?!
She made scripture memorization part of Grandpa’s daily rhythm when he was little. As she went about her domestic duties, she taught him. She taught him to read when he was four and had him read the Bible to her as she worked. It is life-giving to me to know this about my Great-Grandmother, that she made a vow to God, extended it to her son and then facilitated its fulfillment in Grandpa by teaching him, simultaneously fulfilling it in her own life, within her responsibilities as a hardworking mother and in her spare time, serving the church. Awesome!
I recommend my Grandfather’s Memoir highly! Even if you don’t know who he is. It was edited by my brilliant and gifted father and it is bursting at the binding with insight and an inspiring joy to read. Order it here. If that link expires, find the book at www.express-image.com in the “store.”
This is my heritage and as I read about Maude, suspecting that I was expecting a baby, the story was illuminated. I felt like it was both calling me home and pointing a new way for me to go. When I found out that I am pregnant, I decided, without vowing it to God for fear of failing Him, that I will read my Bible every day of this pregnancy, as well as pray the prayer I shared in my last post. Though that prayer is morphing a little day by day into my own expression (including an “And bless my birth, Lord” at the end :) ).
In my Grandfather’s life – how the Lord steered him from his own plans to become a surgeon, to where he is today and all the lives that have been made whole in between through his ministry – all the glory belongs to God, and yet the power of my Great-Grandmother’s devotion is evidenced. The power of a praying pregnant woman! The dedication of a young mother of small children teaching them the Word of God! This is my heritage. As Jonathan Safran Foer said (in one of the best movies ever, I have yet to read the book), “… everything is illuminated in the light of the past. It is always along the side of us… on the inside looking out.” Maybe it is time for my past to regain significance in my life? It feels like it’s happening aside from anything I’m doing, I’m along for the ride and very hopeful about what lies ahead.
Here’s a photo of Maude.
I read it in A Child’s Book of Poems (illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa, so great!!) awhile back and it feels like today.
It’s by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
THE DAY IS DONE
The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight
I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o’er me
That my soul cannot resist:
A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.
Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of the day.
Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.
For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life’s endless toil and endeavor;
And tonight I long for rest.
Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;
Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.
Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like a benediction
That follows after prayer.
Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.
And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.
