10 things

one. We read a Christmas book to Karis  that had trolls in it. A while later she holds up the book to show Dad and says “This book has tweezers in it!!!” I thought it was pretty cute. She still doesn’t get it even though we corrected her.

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two. I’m still getting over a sinus infection, one that had me cooped up in the house for two whole weeks. I’m so glad I can go to church tomorrow!

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three. We celebrated Mom’s birthday tonight. Mom, you are the best Mom I could ask for! I love you so much!

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four. It’s snowing finally!!! So excited for a little more white on the ground.

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five. I have my braids in hair. I mean, my hair in braids. I like it more every time I wear it like that. Sometime I’ll get a picture.

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six. Because I had my hair in braids Karis needed her hair in braids. Mom says it makes us look more like sisters. I like that.

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seven. I found a cute new sweater Mom bought me hanging in my closet last night. She told me we have to wrap it up for Christmas after I wear it  🙂

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eight. I miss playing the flute. I can’t right now because of my cold.

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nine. Christmas shopping is almost done. Just a couple more gifts to figure out. I love shopping for other people! It’s so fun to try to find a meaningful gift to give them.

ten. Science is killing me. Seriously, who wants to find out the chances of  having a blue-eyed blonde if you and your husband are both brown-eyed. Uh, not me. Genetics must not be my favorite subject!

 

{p.s. Like the snow? It’s an annual WordPress treat}

I journal for this

I’ve been journaling off and on for almost 6 years. Of course, the content of those journals have changed over the years as I’ve grown up and my thoughts have changed slightly :).

Today I was reading excerpts of my old journals to my family. The entries were from times when Kevin was a baby and I was the only girl. I remember reading Anne Frank and deciding I would keep a diary that would be published for the world to see someday. That was why I journaled. My reasons have changed a little 🙂 , but my dream of people seeing what my 7-year-old life was like has come true, at least a little.

My family and I laughed together today as I read about the important things happening in my life; glasses, school, reading, playing, and more reading, and more playing! (I think all I did then was play and read.)

Anyway, all that to say, I thought I would share some of my more humorous entries with you. I’ll try to guestimate a date for the entries, but it might be a little sketchy!

One note, this is exactly how I wrote it, cross outs, punctuation, misspellings and all. Italics are explanations, you’ll need them!

^^^^^

Decemer 9 (2005)

It is cold. I have a little bit of a cold. We have all our Christmas decarations up. I have all my presents ready. Crandpa & Grandma our are come for Christmas. it has snowed and the ground is covered. Mom just had a birthday, and Kyle’s is coming. I am learning to be meek and like the woman in Proverbs 31:2b she opens her mouth with wisdom and on her toune is the law of kindness

^^^^^

Jan. 26 (2006)

got up had breakfast played k nexs with Chris and Kyle did school stopped for lunch finished scool in about 2 and a half hours. Mom woke up then we played wagon in Chris’es bed. Grandma Logan called. played more wagon stopped for supper. I found Mom skrap srap booking [.] skap scrapbooked with her while boys played upstairs. Kevin got down so we let him watch a movie the boys (Chris & Kyle)  heard and came down to watch. I got two pages (scrapbook pages) done. had Bible Time went to bed.

^^^^^

Feb. 3 (2006)

got up had breakfast [.] Dad hauled some salt downstairs. before he left he gave me candy to split during school. played with a model (some kind of 3D block of wood with tiny trees on it) Dad brought home. started school got almost all done before lunch. after lunch finished school. read. Then skrapbooked. Played in Chris’es bed. looked at skrapbook. read read read read read. scrubbed potatoses. had supper after listening to a bible story tape played with Chris and Kyle in Chris’es bed. had bible time cleaned my room snuggled with Mom. wrote this entry. Went to bed.

^^^^^

Feb. 13 (2006) 

got up had breakfast did my jobs. started school. school and school. it was very tiring (haha). then we had a yummy lunch of sandwiches, applesause, and doritoes. I read, made a box. did school. when me and Chris had just started Sience Dad called so of course we talked to him. then after we chatted we finished school. Mom woke up right before we finished spelling so she gave us our pretest (first spelling test in week.)…….

^^^^^

2/4/6 (wrong date, I think I meant 3/4/6)

I got up and had breakfast started school after reading for about an hour (since moday we’re going to the eyedocter) we did school until lunch. had lunch. and sat on my bed (???) then read all afternoon exept before I read I made meat w/ cheese sandwitches. I read for about half an hour………

^^^^^

/7/06 Mar. 7 2006

got up (at about six.) and had breakfast. then I went and got and cleaned my room. then read Anne Frank, young daires (diaries). then did school. school till lunch. then I read more of Anne Frank. then finished school | (not sure why the line is there) then played had supper cleaned after shower then played uno (card game) and went two bed.

^^^^^

(no idea what the date is here)

we’re having a egg hunt with Ellen and Jameses family (neighborhood friends) weplayed outside like four hours fun!! itwassonice! Today I leurned I should embrace wisdom. I am trying to. we visited the Martins. I sure hope their baby is agirl! I wish I hadadoor look!

^^^^^

(Then Karis came into my life :))

March 13 (too lazy to figure out the year, 2008?)

Mom is ecpecting and we are going on a trip.

^^^^^

(I have a sister!)

June 10

Today we put the crib up and moved my room around. yesterday we started school! I have a baby sister!!!!!!! Its been a good day!!

^^^^^

July?

I am so impatiant. I mean I can’t wait for my sister. Mom + Dad won’t tell me the name But they said it starts with the c/k sound. We have everything ready for her exept for diaper[s].

^^^^^

Hope you enjoyed that! It had me in stitches the whole time I read it!

Katelyn

Read a book?

“Please read me a book. Please. I realllllllllly love you!”

“I don’t have time. I have five pages of words to memorize. When you wake up. Maybe. I love you.”

*Door shuts*

I should have read it to her. I should have forgotten the science terms and snuggled and read her Crusty the Crab. She won’t be three forever. Soon she’ll be buried in books all the time, reading by herself. I won’t get the chance to read to her anymore. I want to grab these moments while they last and accept as many as she’ll offer.  I want to invest time in her and let her know I value her more than science tests. Even though there is a time for science when I need to say no, that wasn’t the case this time. And I said no anyway. I wish I hadn’t, but I can still fix that.

I’ll give you three guesses as to what I’ll be doing when she wakes up 🙂

link love

1.  Origami Camera. I tried making this, but it didn’t really work. Oh well, it looks really cool! If you google it you’ll find all kinds of tutorials

 

2. This office space, cool huh? I can’t get the picture to be any larger though.

 

3. I love glass jars and I love these ideas for using them!

 

4. I love this picture.

 

5. Ever wished you could play with an SLR camera? (that’s assuming you don’t have one). This lets you see what it’s like!

Literary Response to “A Fan-piece for Her Imperial Lord”

O fan of white silk,

     clear as frost on the grass-blade,

You also are laid aside.

(Ezra Pound)

Imagine a women as white as silk, pure and beautiful, who is loved briefly and then laid aside, discarded. The title of this poem, A Fan-piece For Her Imperial Lord, suggests that this is what the author is depicting in his seventeen-word composition.

What strikes a reader first is the brevity of the poem. Less than twenty words, this poem is short; although not sweet. But Pound is telling us something big through its being short. The whole experience was brief, just like it only takes a second to lay down a fan you no longer need or enjoy. Pound uses almost every word in more than one way, each one carefully chosen and fit together so that it all works the way he imagined it.

There are several wonderful metaphors; the first is the woman being represented as a fan. Just as rich women would use a beautiful fan to show their splendor so Her Imperial Lord was using her to show his greatness, which shows that he may have had some ulterior motives in his love.  But not only was she represented by a fan, the fan was made of white silk. This metaphor depicts the woman’s beauty as delicate and fine, just like white silk is. The second line of the poem has another lovely metaphor in it; clear as frost on the grass-blade. Frost is also delicate, showing her beauty again, but there is more to it. Just as frost melts when the sun hits it, so her beauty and loveliness melted and was gone in the eyes of her lover; resulting in her being laid aside.

There is one other interesting word. Only four letters, it may be skipped over, but there is great meaning in it; the word also. It suggests that this has happened before, and she is just another beautiful woman in the succession of beautiful women he has discarded for another. It gives one a sense of despair; that there is nothing that can be done to gain his love again, making the whole poem somewhat depressing.

Though the poem itself gives a sense of hopelessness, the words themselves, the metaphors and double meanings, give it great beauty. As you read it again, be sure to fully appreciate all of the poetic splendor that Ezra Pound put into it.

the sun is setting

Isn’t true that when we know something is ending we cherish it more. Unless it’s math, then you get a whole different feeling. But I’m talking about something you love. You look for the little reasons you love it, and try to cram as much of it in as you can till it’s over. Now you may be getting the picture of the perfect brownie mix that’s going to be discontinued at your favorite store, but I’m thinking more a chapter of life.

The chapter of life I’ve been in is setting too, Lord willing. Dad’s getting ready for his doctorate and we’ll most likely be moving into a different, far-away state. Jumping into a new chapter of life, full of surprises. And as happy as I am that Dad has this opportunity and is moving ahead in the direction he believes God has called him, I’ll miss my life here. I’ve gotten to know good friends, and been living here and putting down roots for over six years! So I’m determined to enjoy this sunset, and cherish the little ways of life in Minnesota much more than I have been. It’s been a good chapter, and I’m looking forward to the next!

And even if you’re still in the middle of this chapter of life, cherish it! It won’t last forever!

 

Fan-piece For Her Imperial Lord

O fan of white silk,

clear as frost on the grass-blade,

You also are laid aside.

(Ezra Pound)

I’m working on a response paper to this poem, so look for that soon 🙂

thoughts

Lately I’ve been feeling as if each day is a race to get everything done and get to bed on time. I haven’t really been enjoying it.

So I’ve been purposing to enjoy life.

Taking breaks from schoolwork to do something with Karis, looking at the treasure Kyle found outside, helping Kevin make a craft. Just things that don’t have to be done, but things that are enjoyable and help my relationship with my family and God.

this is me enjoying life. literally 🙂

“It’s nice to feel needed” Polly, in Anne of Avonlea

Polly, an old maid who cares for her mother, walks down a lane full of red leaved oak trees to give Anne a dress she borrowed to wear to the first party she’d gone to in decades. (run on?) She’s had a delightful day, very unusual because her mother makes life difficult for her, and she describes it in full detail. Then at the end when she’s lamenting the fact that she had to come back her faces suddenly brightens and she tells Anne, “But it’s nice to feel needed, isn’t it!”

 

I totally agree with her! The night I came home Karis was sick and I was holding her at 11 p.m. as she sobbed and sniffled. And I decided it was very nice to feel needed, even if that means holding howling little girls while they slobber all over you and can’t quite make out what’s wrong.

What about you, do you like to feel needed?

Hind’s Feet in High Places

I thought I would share some things from this book that really stuck out to me. I was rereading it for probably the fourth time last night and I found some really good truths. But first let me give you an over view of the book:

It is an allegory, skillfully worked into a wonderful plot. The main character is Much-Afraid, a lame young women who lives in a village. She works as a shepherdess for the Shepherd and lives in the village near the fields. Her relatives, the Fearings are trying to force her to marry her cousin Craven-Fear, a cruel bully. On night, when with the shepherd her fearful heart makes known her deepest wish, and also the one that seems the most impossible. She tells the Shepherd that she wishes she could go up with him to the High places, on top of the mountains, where his kingdom is. He tells her he will take her and she starts on her journey soon after.

At one point of the journey, when she is fearfully questioning His judgment in the path she should take to the High places because of her lame foot he tells her this:

“I love doing preposterous things! Why, I don’t know anything more exhilarating and delightful than turning weakness into strength and fear into faith, and that which has been marred into perfection. If there is one thing more than another which I should enjoy doing at this moment it is turning a jelly fish into a mountain goat {speaking of Much-Afraid here}. That is my special work, transforming things.”

Later on when he tells her of another of his plans she replies in this manner:

“Only have your will and your way in me Shepherd, nothing else matters.”  

Such a wonderful thing to believe!

When one of her relatives, Pride, tries to force her back to her old home he almost has her, until she finally calls for the Shepherd.

“She learned in this way the first important lesson on her journey upward, that if one stops to parley with pride and listens to his poisonous suggestions, and above all, if he is allowed to lay his grasp upon any part of one, Sorrow becomes unspeakably more unbearable afterwards, & anguish of heart has bitterness added to it.”

When it seems the Shepherd is leading her in the direct opposite direction from her destination he encourages her with these wonderfully spoken words:

” No, it is not a contradiction, only a postponement for the best to become possible.”

Another time on her path, when she is confronted by her ever-evil relatives they almost win and she asks the Shepherd why. He gently tells her this.

“When you wear the weed of impatience in your heart instead of the flower Acceptance-of-joy, you will always find your enemies get an advantage over you.” 

As she journeys he also tells her this comforting truth

“Nothing can do you any real harm while you are following the path of my will.”

She once again finds that, after ascending a long time into the mountains, she must go down into a valley again and wonders if the Shepherd is really deceiving her. He tests her and asks her if he could deceive her. She tells him this.

“My Lord, if you can deceive me you may. It can make no difference. I must love you as long as I continue to exist. I cannot live without loving you.”

As the Shepherd tries to teach little Much-Afraid about love he tells her

“Love is beautiful, but it is also terrible- terrible in it’s determination to allow nothing blemished or unworthy to remain in the beloved.”

At one point when they come to a waterfall Much-Afraid finds the truth

“The water finds no terror in it {the leap}… self-giving is its life.”

Eventually she comes to the High-places where her blemishes are washed away and she is given hind’s feet and lives in his presence, receiving the name Grace and Glory. The Shepherd continues to teach her wonderful truths, just like he teaches us every day.

My life

It’s been a while since I wrote anything about my life. Like, my normal, everyday, boring life. And I have this nice blank page in front of me to fill up (Thank you WordPress for the “distraction free” drafting option!).

So, I finished school a while ago. And guess what I’m doing now? If you guessed doing nothing you’re wrong. Because I can’t stand being bored. (My Grandma should know, I spent two weeks with her and she heard a lot of “I’m bored, is there anything I can work on?”) So, guess again. Did you guess summer school? You’re right.

I jumped right into 9th grade. High school! It’s really scary to think that I’m thirteen and only have four grades left! So I started Algebra 1, I’m just about to start Biology (and dissecting (yuck!)), and hopefully will be starting a language soon! And it’s just enough to keep me busy for the morning so I can work on other things the rest of the day, like exercising, working on things that need to be done for our churches VBS this year, blogging, and of course, taking pictures.

Here is something like what my day has looked like the past few weeks   I want my day to look like, but we all know that never happens right?

5:30 (It did happen a couple of times!) Get up/ Aerobics (If I’m diligent enough, otherwise I sleep in)

6:00 Quiet time

7:15 Watch math lesson/ start math

8:00 Breakfast

8:45 Morning jobs

9:00 Piano

9:30 Flute

10:00 Finish math

11:00 Science

11:45 Lunch

That was very rough and I think I only followed it in that order once, but you get the idea. And after lunch things happen differently every single day, so I left that up to your imagination. And hopefully we’ll add language in there soon.

And then lastly, just wanted to say how much I LOVE the new distraction free writing mode. Seriously, look at the difference!

Above is the normal writing mode. Talk about distracting! Part of why I didn’t like WordPress.

It’s made me much more fond of WordPress, and actually made me feel like writing!

So, my summer is looking wonderful and productive, and I hope it will stay that way!

Just write

I feel like a capped pen, a page of blogs posts waiting to be published, an extremely full bottle, with the cap screwed on tight. I want to write, really write. Not just the superficial blog posts I find myself typing so often. I want to write what really goes on in my head. What I’m really thinking.

I want to write, but I forget; forget that the perfect words don’t always flow out of your head the first time your think them, perfectly satisfying. I don’t remember that writing is work, you have to spend time writing something worthwhile.

I just want to write.

Smells

I wish computers had the ability to give out smells. Maybe some day they will! But for now, I’ll share pictures and describe the smell instead.

The first is lilacs

If you haven’t smelled lilacs you need to find some. Unless you are allergic to them, like I am.  But I like them way too much to think about allergies.

The second is homemade granola while it’s still steamy from the crockpot

This stuff smells heavenly! Hot and steamy and cinnamony (I made that word up) with some oatmeal scent mixed in, and a little bit of honey. Yum!

Third is the soap we got from a friend. Blueberry. Whenever someone washed their hands the kitchen smells like a field of blueberry bushes!

The name sums it up: fresh picked blueberries.

And last but not least, because this could possibly be my favorite scent today: crabapple blossoms

If you don’t have a crabapple tree in your yard find someone who does and take a big smell, and bottle some up for when the blossoms are gone, because it smells sooooo good!

Waking Up

The sun peeks through our curtain. The light, tinted pink by the translucent material, chases away the shadows that love to congregate in the bottom bunk. As the birds start vocalizing their cheerfulness, I wake up. Glancing at the clock I see the fluorescent digits; 6:30. Carefully turning my head I see with satisfaction that the tousled head of my two-year-old sister is still gently bobbing up and down as she sleeps. I try to roll out of bed without waking her up. But my plan fails as the bed creaks and I hear her sigh, turn over and stretch. Though disappointed, I turn over and wrap my arms around her sweaty little body. We curl up together and snuggle. After a while she sleepily questions “Can I wake up?” I nod my head in affirmation and she eagerly climbs over me onto the floor. I look at the clock again; 6:41. Ten minutes well spent.

Psalm 84:11