What a Song!

Every once in a while, a new song catches in my heart. This one captures so much of what's important to me. Enjoy!

The Hand Song by Nickel Creek

The boy only wanting to give mother something,
And all of her roses had bloomed.

Looking at him as he came rushing in,
without knowing her roses were doomed.

All she could see were some thorns buried deep,
And tears that he cried as she tended his wounds.

And she knew it was love, it was what she could understand.
He was showing his love and that's how he hurt his hands.

He still remembers that night as a child, on his mothers knee.
She held him close and she opened her Bible, and quietly started to read.

Then seeing a picture of Jesus, he cried out:
"Mama he's got some scars like me!"

And he knew it was love, it was what he could understand.
He was showing his love, and that's how he hurt his hands.

(instrumental break)

Now the boy is grown and moved out on his own.
When Uncle Sam comes along.
A foreign affair, but our young men are there.
And luck had his number drawn.

It wasn't that long till our hero was gone, he gave to a friend what he learned from the cross.

But they knew it was love, it one they could understand.
He was showing his love, and that's how he hurt his hands.

It was one they could understand.

He was showing his love, and that's how he hurt his hands.

How does your garden grow?

My garden has surprised me this year. I rarely get out to it....we've been doing a major remodel at the coffeehouse. My care of it has been an occasional weeding frenzy while talking on the phone, or rushing out to grab a handful of greens for dinner. Even without daily supervision, we've manage to harvest lettuce, turnips, cabbage, raspberries, and carrots. Corn was waist high by the fourth of July. And of course, there will be more squash and zucchini than anyone needs. All I can say for the success of it this year is a big thank you to whoever invented automatic watering systems! That, and years of compost and hard work.

Reminds me of our spiritual lives. There are seasons of hard work, pulling out the weeds in our souls, allowing God to turn the bad stuff into good stuff, planting a few seeds.  Then He allows us a season of just-add-water. Regular watering of our hearts. He's in charge of the rest...the growth that occurs daily without us even noticing. A week, a month, a season later, we look back and say, "Wow, look how much I've grown! See what God can do if I let Him be in charge!"

Thanks God, for being faithful to attend to the details in the garden of my heart.

Livin' La Vida Local

Today the kids and I went for a What-cha-ma-call-it hunt. The local library hides this crazy handmade sock puppet in one of the downtown stores. Whoever finds it and reports back to the library first, gets a brand new book for keeps. Hearing of the new quest last week, the kids made their strategy.
"We'll only go to the stores that like kids. And not any of the ones where the What-cha-ma-call-it has been hidden. We'll start at 9:30 after some of the stores have already been open, and get back to the library by 10, when it opens."
Things didn't go exactly as planned. I had forgotten "The Plan," and headed out for errands while my Mountain Man struggled to herd everyone out for a day of work at the coffeehouse. The car died, so I took it to the Subaru guy and walked back to the coffeehouse, dressed in full out paint clothes. Finally around 11:30, we were walking the newly renovated 6th street searching for a sock puppet. Tried the pet store...only really cute puppies. Tried the pottery place...nope. The card shop. Then, the shoe shop across the street from our soon to be opened coffeehouse.
Over the past couple of months, I've gotten to know Steve, the shoe guy, a bit. He's one of our new "neighbors" downtown. We chatted a bit while the kids searched the store, finally spoting the sock puppet in -where else?- a boot. That ended our conversation quickly in a "controlled sprint" to the library.
Two of our favorite librarians, Heidi and Linda, were bombarded by my kiddos three all whispering (loudly) "We found the What-cha-ma-call-it! At Steve's shop!"
Linda says to us, "It's always so cool when our regulars find it!" She and I chat about the coffeehouse....Our librarian friends are excited for it to open too! We gather our prize, find a couple of more movies to check out, talk with a scrapbooking buddy, then head out.
Oh, but it's Monday...the Farmer's Market is half a block away. So we peruse the veggies, buy some kettle korn, beans, nectarines, cherries, catch up with an old neighbor. Finally at 1:30, we walk back to the coffeehouse ready to eat our Farmer's Market lunch.
All that within walking distance! All that among people we know and love! I'm lovin' this Local Life!!

Sacred Spaces

This week at Plowshare Coffee Roasters we had a gathering to celebrate God's gift of a space for our new business. I wrote this question on the wall as a way to focus on how/where God shows himself to us. I see sacred spaces as being a place where God and I connect. Space really does matter to me. For example, it's hard for me to center down in our living room. There's always so much energy in there (not to mention laundry). Perhaps I need to attempt to make it a more sacred space. My garden is one of those sacred spaces, a special spot out at Smith Rocks, these are current spaces. Back in my Newberg days, it was a corner armchair at Coffee Cottage, and the Big Swing at Camp Tilikum. I'm glad God is big enough to not be confined to one space!

A touch of spring

Monday, I got to hang my laundry on the line.

Ahhh....Peace!

Maybe laundry lines don't do the same for you as they do for me. It's God's way of letting me feel like I'm accomplishing something, but at the same time breathing and communing with God's thoughts in the center of a beautiful landscape. (I'm mean the mountains that I can see from my backyard...not my brown twig and bare dirt flower beds.)

Thanks, God, for quiet moments in a crazy day.

Happy Rainbow Birthday, J-Bug!

Thought you all might like to see why I haven't updated this for a while....We were partying! Happy Birthday, J-bug!
Birthdays are big around here. The birthday kid chooses a theme and away we go! J-bug chose a Rainbow Party. Take a look....Each kiddo got to choose their own color of the rainbow for an Italian Soda. (That's what happens when your folks are opening a coffee house.)
Pretty gift bags all in a row! We made ribbon streamers, danced to Somewhere over the Rainbow, and hung rainbow curling ribbon everywhere!

Words I never thought I would hear together

"FONDUE FIGHT!!.......Hurry, get onthe boat!"

-uttered by Boodle-Bug in some sort of imaginary game involving the couch and all the stuffed animals in the house.

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers Movie Night

Our soon-to-be Plowshare coffeehouse is partnering with two local churches to show the movie: Lord Save Us From Your Followers. This documentary explores the collision between faith and culture in America.

Come have a yummy latte and join the conversation!

Sunday, January 18th
5:30pm
at The Bridge
2398 West Antler Avenue
Redmond, Oregon

When Life gives you scraps....

I’ve been quilting a bunch today. It’s what I like to do in the winter months when it’s too cold and blowy to garden. That and scrapbook. I’m a part of this block of the month quilt club. Well, I thought it was a block a month, turns out its usually 4 or 5 blocks a month. And to top it off, I was indecisive about which color scheme to choose, the modern colors or the more traditionally, so I chose both. Now I’ve gone from 1 block a month, to 8, even 10. Why do I do this to myself? It’s something I love to do, but then I end up in overkill, and the perfectionist in me won’t let go.

Here’s the irony: I love quilting and similarly scrapbooking because of the boundaries. I usually limit myself to 3-5 colors. Might have 4-5 patterns of each color, but there is still a limit. Then there are size constraints. A quilt block or a scrap page at 12 x 12 inches is an easy finish for me. I can start and finish one in a day if all the planets align. (As a mom of three, a business owner (2 business in fact), a crazy work schedule for my husband, and one who takes seriously her call to be a minister to all, there’s not a lot of hang time.) I want to see a finished product once in a while. I’m not even thinking about the finish quilt on a bed or a whole years album done, just a single block or page.

I’m seeing some parallels here, in my approach to crafting and life. Bite off a whole lot more than you can truly handle. Then step by step, scrap by scrap, find a small accomplishment. Enjoy the process of colors and chaos. Every once in a while step back, admire where you're at, make a brief plan and keep trudging through. My challenge is to know that it’s not my great artistic ability or my amazing organizational ability that pulls the whole thing together. It’s finding and relying on boundaries. If I start throwing in a different color in each block, the chaos becomes overwhelming and the patterns get lost.

In life, it’s learning the boundaries that God has given me. Like recognizing when my body needs iron, or my spirit needs quiet or my family needs “just us” time. I need to rely on God’s boundaries while I come through each crisis with a friend, all the scraps of her life that just got jumbled up….Maybe I will even get to help her put them back in order, in the pattern God has in mind. Through stitches of prayer help her hold it together. I need God-eyes for both of us see the joy in the process. (That is so easily said, harder to do.) Sometimes, after much time, I get see the final product of that block in her life. Hang around longer, maybe we’ll see the whole life quilt together. Life blocks sure take a lot longer than those fabric 12 x 12 blocks. (I’m sure there is some great lesson about patience in there!)

Maybe today’s boundary is to rest and enjoy my quilting. Speaking of which, I’ve got 7 more blocks to finish.