I've been absent from the blogging world. Our family's mental health status is at an all time low, and priorities have been shuffled....and tossed....and shuffled.
I'm back today, but who knows about tomorrow?
Anyway - update about my resolutions from last year:
I gave up on memorizing James around September when things in our life got too hectic and required much more mental energy to be used up. I still want to memorize it at some point, and maybe at a slower rate, but last year, I got about 1 and a half chapters committed to memory.
I DID finish my 52 book 'challenge'. After 52 I stopped keeping official count, but the number reached up, easily, to the 70's. This year our family is not up for a book challenge, so I'm not resolving any kind of numbers.
Resolution for this year: survive the year.
Simple, isn't it? I'm pretty sure God's the one who is going to make sure it happens :)
Onward!
Today is a china mug kind of day. We've had a string of really bad days in our house. The gut wrenching, I'm not sure how I'm going to get out of bed the next morning kind of bad days. We have made it out of bed each day, and we've made it through each day. It's quite something.
I've been learning how to help myself in the midst of the chaos and meltdowns. Beauty fills my soul. It's the old adage of taking time to smell the roses. Some days, beauty surrounds me - the giggles of my girls, the sun in all its glorious prairie sunrise glory, the snow sparkling in the deep cold, my houseplants blooming, the brilliant turn-a-phrase of a particular author, and so on. Other days, beauty is elusive and desperately hard to find. These days I generally have to actively create or search out beauty.
These are my china mug days.
Back when I was in Bible school, my church at home set up an adopt a student program. I was adopted by a lovely older couple who I appreciate dearly. They would send notes and they got me a few Christmas gifts over the years. One year, it was a gorgeous Royal Albert tea set complete with pot, cups, saucers, creamer and sugar bowl. The next it was a set of china coffee mugs in the matching pattern. I had never seen china coffee mugs before. They are delicate and tall. They have a bowled bottom and fluted top. They are designed perfectly to keep the beverage warm for longer periods of time. I was thrilled with them. I still am.
On to today: these mugs are a simple way to bring beauty and a bolstering to my faint soul. I rarely use them on good days - they just seem superfluous. But on not-so-good days, they are a life line...especially when coupled with the Psalms.
What do you do to bring beauty to your days?
XO,
J
soli deo gloria
