Just Another Saturday Night

It’s been a peaceful week around here.  What I thought would be a busy week when looking at my calendar last Sunday has turned out to be a pleasant surprise.  The girls spent a few nights with grandparents and instead of feeling lost and lazy without them around I actually tackled some projects and caught up on a few things.  Little Mister and I spent all morning on Thursday in the kitchen.  Six dozen cookies, three loaves of bread, two pans of cinnamon rolls, and a batch of cultured homemade mayonnaise later we were stocked with some much needed staples once again.  PJ happened to be gone from dawn till dusk that day; being stranded at home without a vehicle it was nice to enjoy a cup of tea and an afternoon chat with a new friend that dropped by as well.  Throw in an unexpected supper date with PJ and a chance to attend the city’s annual prayer breakfast together this morning and the week turned out very lovely indeed!

I must say though that my absolute highlight this week was hosting our Greek study group last night.  We finally made it all the way through the Iliad.  Let me be clear, the highlight was getting together with these awesome women, not concluding the Iliad.  In fact, that part is bittersweet.  Totally kicking myself for not getting a picture of the mom who showed up in a toga!  (Her husband was relieved to hear it wasn’t the Starbuck’s bookclub she was headed to last night!)  We talked, we laughed, we ate ambrosia salad.    We’ll be picking up with the Odyssey later in the spring since we are all involved in a second bookclub that is currently reading Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov so we decided to press pause on Homer until that is finished.  Might be a little heavy to be working through both at once.

From my journal of thanks this week…

• Little Mister requesting and belting out Jesus Loves Me from the front pew in church on Sunday evening.  So precious!
• Giving thanks for progress in parenting – NOT perfection but progress
• So thankful for a good morning of lessons with Belle and confirmation to keep going in the same direction (after a rather discouraging morning that had me questioning a lot of what I am doing with her for grade 1)
• So thankful for this life in its entirety – these sunny moments of today will be the joy-bringing memories of future “rainy” days.
• Pure joy on Little Mister’s face to be reunited with his sisters after three days

Kid quote of the week…

“Ooooooh, I love to paint!” says Little Mister while watching mommy put on her green facial mask.  I better watch out next time the paints are out!  I may have given him some new ideas.

Well, it’s Saturday evening and time for some quiet time alone.  I might crack open my nature journal.  I read the first few chapters of Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth today and am feeling very inspired.  

On our way to pick up the girls this afternoon I was wishing I had some paper and a pencil to do a quick sketch of a beautiful bay in one of our most picturesque island communities.  The bay was dotted with ice fishing shacks and the view of the fields in the distance on either side of the bay was soft and hazy, not with the hot haze of summer but the frosty haze of snow beginning to fall in the distance.  It was much more beautiful than what my phone was able to capture through the windshield!

I’ll leave you tonight with a nugget of spiritual nourishment I was given this week.

You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. (Psalm 18:28)

In moments when I felt like giving up, or in praying for others who carry burdens too heavy to bear, these words were soothing to my soul this week.  May the Lord keep our lamps burning for another week and turn our darkness into light!