Just Guide Gently ::: Appeal on the basis of love, with a light touch of guidance and the warm igniting of encouragement, and watch hearts and minds creatively, joyously thrive.

What the Others Leave Out ::: even though some tasks feel mundane, there is a sense of lightness and joy when I am smack in the middle of what I should be doing, even if it is hard.

Are You Mom Enough? ::: Loving and living in his perfect enough-ness, I will live to parent for another day.

What I want my daughter to know about the mean girls ::: I will always send you back because friendship is worth fighting for.

Ladies, Don't Compartmentalize God ::: Do we think that if we ever "get it all done," we will have time left over for God?

I love this time of year. Watching the seeds in our garden sprout and take off in rapid growth.

A couple of weeks ago we started watching the strawberries. Waiting for the day when we could pick the first ripe berry…

Finally the day came. Picking something so pretty right in your own backyard is indescribably satisfying.

Since then the berries have kept coming in. This is the first year our plants have really taken off. Last year I think we got maybe a dozen berries total the whole season. This year so far we've been picking about this many every other day. And they're SO sweet! 

The one unexpected discovery we've made…. strawberries are the victim of a vicious predator. One I was not prepared to battle.
Did you know that roly-poly bugs think strawberries are delicious? Just when I thought there was one creature in my yard that was sweet and innocent. I'm finding myself in a battle similar to the squash bugs of last year. But we all know I'm quite a protective warrior when it comes to my garden!

Yesterday we picked more berries. And dug up the first of the garlic we planted last fall. This was my first attempt at garlic, but my grandpa has grown it for decades, so I figured I surely must be genetically predisposed to be a good garlic farmer!

I love that both the garlic and strawberry plants came straight from my grandpa's garden. A beautiful heritage to enjoy!

My herbs are starting to sprout, and my plan is to plant  zucchini this weekend. 

What are you growing this year?

Love the words to this one…

I was inspired to try something glamorous for Easter; pictures with our bunny. 

I had high hopes of how completely adorable it would be.

This is the best I got.

And what you don't see in this picture is the rabbit trying to escape. A father yelling at his kids. A mother resorting to harsh sarcasm to manipulate the kids into cooperation. A little girl moaning and groaning about itchy grass touching her legs. Another girl in hysterics because she fears her beloved bunny will be gone forever. While the final girl nearly breaks the rabbits legs trying to make sure it stays put.

Pretty picture isn't it?

Here's the thing. A picture is only a glimpse. You don't see all that's going on around it. All that's transpired before and after. You may see something pretty and have no idea what's behind it.

That's the trouble with perspective.

Our perspective changes everything.

Sometimes this can be an eye opening gift. But most often I think it's a sight limiting hindrance. What we think we see and what's actually there are drastically different.

This is what makes it so essential to accept the truth: that our perspective, no matter how broad it may feel, is limited. So we probably shouldn't be walking around relying on ourselves.

We should be relying on Someone who sees the whole picture.

For more thoughts on perspective, visit the gypsy mama.

I've been reading this 10 times a day. You should too. ::: we were meant to choose to live in His beauty and provision.

10 Ways for Moms to Respect Their Daughters ::: Treating daughters with respect trains them to be women who offer respect to others.

Words Spoken :::  Because we are our kids' most influential presence, I'm seeing how my own words, even in the great name of all things funny, fail to speak life and instead speak slow death.

In Defense of Jesus ::: There is value in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, educating the illiterate, healing the sick… but the deepest poverty a child can know is hopelessness.

Why the Kids Really Need a Little Red Hen Mama ::: I have to ask it straight out… Why do I feed my kids scraps off the floor?

• Uploading photos from my camera I realize that it has been commandeered lately by someone other than me. Photo after photo of American girls having a grand time. Of course, how can I fault them for imitating what they see their mother do all the time?
• I've spent many hours over the last months, and many more over the past week, sorting and uploading photos to be printed. Because Costco had a great deal going, and it's just so important to me that my littlest girl have fully updated family albums the same way my biggest girl does. Something that I'd sadly fallen way behind on. Four hundred and fifty prints later, I at least have the tangible photos in my hands. Now to just find the time to put them in an album!

• More doll portraits!
• We've dropped down to the essentials when it comes to school around here. Only devoting our time to what we want to see finished by the end of the school year (which will hopefully be coming at the end of May!). This has resulted in an overload of concentrated information. Last week we did nothing but science, which I'm happy to say is now finished. But the overload of details about starfish, sea urchins, jellyfish, and sea squirts is all jumbling up in my head a bit. We celebrated our completion by watching Finding Nemo.
• This week's goal: push through the last three chapters of geography. We've really loved this book. Kind of sad to finish it. I think I've learned just as much or more than the girls.
• Feeling extremely introspective in my writing lately. Probably why I've been going to the red journal on my nightstand instead of the computer when the urge to write comes.

• I was so excited to discover the birth of little apples on one of our trees last week. Hoping, hoping, hoping this is the year our trees bear fruit. It's been a long wait.
• Trying to be more purposeful in my days at home. I've found that the freedom of always being home can easily give way to apathy and downright laziness. Praying for wisdom coupled with flexibility as I seek to do my "job" well.
• Softball season has begun, yesterday we spent our first afternoon in the pool, farmers market starts next week and Tuesday night jazz on the square is barely a month away. Summer is coming! With no vacation to plan and prep for this year, I'm looking forward to being fully immersed in our favorite summer indulgences around home.

Your turn. Tell me about your life lately…

Only a few today, but all of them absolute must-reads! 

This one, so so important….

Stress: The Overlooked Toxin ::: I think that everyone should do their best when it comes to avoiding toxins and chemicals. However, when we stress and worry over things like this, we are actually filling our bodies with more toxins!

This one is music to this book lover's ears…

Everything Matters: Reading as a Cultural Act ::: In God’s economy, where everything matters, books help us become culture-makers as they help us see anew

And this one, it's been in my thoughts all week…can't get away from it.

How Everyone can be an Optimist ::: So the Worst Case Scenario? Is only the scenario of not wanting Christ the most.

For the mom's heart…

How to Love Your Kids (When You Don't Really Like Them) ::: How can we love our children in the midst of seasons when their behaviors may not be incredibly likeable?

Time is Mine for the Molding ::: I choose. The time is mine to use.

More along the lines of yesterday…

The (upside) down side of community ::: Community will mold us, and we will feel it.

Comparison Will Kill Your Joy Every Time ::: How can I go from being joyfully content one minute to feeling sorry for myself the next?

The ones that have really made me think…

What Happens to Oliva* ::: Don't remind me of how far I have to go and how hard it might be to get there. 

Hold the Truth Tightly And Your Passionate Opinions Lightly ::: Let’s not be more exclusive than Jesus was.

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
Psalm 133:1

Community is definitely a big topic these days. I see it mentioned and hear talk about it all the time. (And that's not an exageration. Literally all the time.)

I'm always a little put off when something becomes a major source of attention. I'm kind of an "if you see a band-wagon, turn and head quickly in the opposite direction" kind of girl.

But here's what I've been thinking. Maybe the reason everyone is talking about community is because we're all starting to see something that's been missing. Something big.

I know for myself, I am not prone to take real notice of a good thing in my life…until it's gone. Then I notice it's absence and find myself striving to get it back. Perhaps this is what has happened with community. It's a good thing, that has been ignored, and so has slowly faded out of our lives. And now we're seeing the absence. And realizing how much we need it.

A few days ago I read the most well articulated thoughts on biblical community that I have yet come across.

Then a day or two after that, more impacting words on the importance of community in your marriage.

I read things like this and I go yes, yes. I want this.

But the honest truth: I find that the idea of community is much easier than the living in community. 

The being real is hard, and the committing to people outside my little family is hard, and the grace and love that is needed to connect with people that might be different than me is hard. I want to do all of it in theory. But then opportunity arises and I am tempted to draw back. 

I think maybe community is one of those great and wise gifts that God has intended for us…that doesn't always look like a gift. Sometimes it looks annoying. Or feels like a burden. 

I talked with a friend this morning about how people are just quirky. We all have our quirks, and we're used to our own and those of the people in our own families, but coming into contact with other people's quirks can be…. hard.

And even beyond that, if it's not hard because we're different and we don't connect, or because there are quirks that irritate, it can be hard because within community there is always room to compare. To line ourselves up next to those we are in community with and then attempt to discern who's right, who's failing, who's got it good and who's being jipped.

I think about all of this and it's really tempting to say that maybe community sounds nice, but I'll pass.

Yet I can't.

Because as complicated and hard as it has the potential to be, I find myself desperately needing it. Looking for it like someone famished in a desert looks for water. 

So I fight the hard and fight for joy in the fact that this is a place where God can mold and change me and open my eyes to failings that I'm able to ignore when I'm not actually dealing with other people.

I feel knocked off my feet by the awareness that comes of my own pride, judgement and selfishness. But somehow that's a good thing.

I open my eyes to see all the places that my words and my thoughts don't match up with my actions. And I pray for the grace to appreciate differences. Not be annoyed by them. And not be drowned by comparisons. Let them be who they are and not feel insecure in being who I am because the truth is none of that matters when we can unite on one thing.

We all need Jesus.

This is our common ground. He is where we unite. And He has not created us to be solitary beings. By living without community we are robbing ourselves of one of His greatest gifts. And we are robbing others too.

Each Christian is a dispenser. God has supplied each one with gifts He has selected (He does not offer an array of options), with the good of all in mind. When we imagine that these gifts are for our own mere satisfaction, we are forgetting they are intended for service. All that I have is meant to contribute to the needs of others, and what I need will be supplied through God's dispensers.
Thus He unifies and harmonizes the whole Church, which is His Body, making each dispenser indispensable, for each dispenses a grace that is peculiarly His.

Elisabeth Elliot
A Lamp Unto my Feet