September

September is a beautiful month. I love it! My dear friends Pat and Linda celebrate their birthdays, as does my gorgeous MOM. Happy Birthday Mom!

I love the newness of so many things in September...a new season, a new school year...the scent and sight of harvest.

Here are some of my September moments. I want to savour every one!



Nessa made Pat's Birthday cakes...Grandma B's recipe and Nessas special frosting...YUM.

Josh and I worked hard on our shed after the help getting the foundation done. He's a handy guy, just like his Grandad.

I don't WANT to fill it with junk! I want to have a party in it!

The September light is exquisite.

Here's a busy boy and his Great Grandad...he's just WAY to busy to hold still for a photo!

Name Game...stop reading if you won't play nice

OK...this is a good one people...play along and don't blow me off. (I'm in no mood for hurt feelings, what with the insomnia and all). And it's silly...but a harmless kinda' fun!

This is called "The Name Game"

Rules:
Read mine,
Copy and paste the whole thing into comments,
Replace my answers with yours,
Post your results here AND in your own blog to tag others.

Oh, come on, just do it! (Karyn, Dawn, Tanya, Nessa...this means you!)

Name Game

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet,current car) Buffy Venture

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Vanilla Ginga' Snap

3. YOUR FLY GIRL NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
A- Tra (uh...what's a fly girl? a stewardess? pest control?...anybody...? )

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Blue Horse (yawn)

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born), Patricia Lac La Biche (Don't ask for the literal translation...though it IS kind of Diva-ish, no?)

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Tra -Ar (may the farce be with you)

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Periwinkle Rooibos

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Billy-Earl (technically William, but that thar's not'cher tipickal Red neck name...and we all knows NASCAR stands fer' Non Athletic Sport Centered Around Rednecks)

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume, favorite candy) Sung Kit-Kat (hmmmm...personally I think Kit-Kat Sung would look better in lights...oh Lordy, let's not go there)

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Patricia Earl (if I've ever had a restraining order against you, please erase this one from your memory)

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Moodie Manhattan

12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) Summer Cosmos (said in a breathy voice)

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Watermelon Sockie (Holy Fruit fly, Batman!)

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Smoothie Birch

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) The Mixed Media,Thunder and Lighning Tour (cue amazing guitar lick and pyrotechnics!)



There ya' have it! That wasn't so hard!

Wayne's World

So meeting one of my new favorite authors was quite a surprise. Wayne Jabobsen, of The God Journey was in town and stayed with friends last night so we could have dinner, hang out and talk about our journeys.
I have read one of his books co-authored and written under a pseudonym, and have read, and am currently digesting, The Shack, which he helped write, edit, and has published.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I thought I knew God, and understood the trinity, and was on close terms with Jesus. Then I saw Him through new eyes in the pages of this book's story and my preconceptions have been rearranged. I recognize the truth in what I am beginning to see. I am having a hard time realizing how much more He is. I am also having a hard time admitting that most of what I have been taught is through the lenses of an Old Testament understanding. I am also discovering how religious practice has dictated my response to Him. And all I can say is "I did not know".

For instance, chew on this....as we were talking about the cross last night, Wayne asked, "If you did something to some guy, and really hurt him, and he said that the only way he could ever accept you as a friend was if someone paid...and then he went home and beat the tar out of his son with a baseball bat, then came and said that it was OK now, and you could be friends, would you ever WANT to be friends with someone like that?"
NO! Yet that is basically my understanding of the cross...someone innocent had to pay for my shortcomings. But as we talked, Wayne presented another analogy about the cross, which was never for God; it was all for ME.

His analogy is this; We have a terminal blood disease (sin), and the only cure is chemo, which will also absolutely kill us (the law). So Jesus, being God, and being Love, takes our diseased blood into His healthy body and transfuses His healthy blood to us. The disease kills Him, but when He has died, we are left with the antibodies for all time, for everyone who suffers from this disease. He provides both a cure for the disease, (sin) and relief from the deadly "cure", (the law). That is love, that is His sacrifice.

Our God is not one who ever needed us to sacrifice for Him, unlike every other god and religion. He desired to sacrifice for us. Our sacrifice is worthless to Him. His message to us in the Old Testament is this: Sin kills, and the law will cover it up but will never cure us, and will never make us feel remotely clean. The law is as deadly as the disease of sin.

But surely we have to qualify, by our righteous acts, for this gift of relief from sin, and for it's cure?

We qualify when we give ourselves to Him, in Love and of our free will.

This immediately makes perfect sense to me. It is the Gospels.

There was a lot more, all of which I will be attempting to assimilate over the next few months... and years. Meanwhile, check out his blog, linked above and in the Lifestream link on the right hand side of the blog.

Portland...

I'm still dreaming about the pizza we had a year ago, in downtown Portland,


It was chewy and crisp at the same time, with luscious thick and tasty pesto topping and home made, real berry soda pop to sip with...

It was cooked in wood fired ovens that heated the historic, enviro-friendly Eco-Trust building the HotLips is situated in in the Pearl District. I promise you, I would make a trip to Portland just to eat that pizza again! On foot! *


Oh, and to go to Powell's Books of course, THE WORLDS LARGEST BOOK STORE!! Two reasons to visit Portland!! Go, I tell you, it's worth it!


* OK, maybe not on foot...after all, how many books could I carry home? That's why I love road trips....in a van!!

Look at Liam grow!

He is from good farm stock after all.
Have your ever seen such a brilliant smile?

Busy, busy at the Hutchy farm.

Dweller by a Dark Stream:

Have a look at Bruce Cockburn's beautiful lyrics...(that's a silent "ck" folks)

he sings:

" It could have been me put the thorns in your crown
Rooted as I am in a violent ground
How many times have I turned your promise down
Still you pour out your love…Pour out your love

I was a dweller by a dark stream
A crying heart hooked on a dark dream
In my convict soul I saw your love gleam
And you showed me what you’ve done…Jesus, thank-you joyous Son

You entered a life like ours to give us back our own
You wanted us like you, as choosers not clones
You offered up your flesh and death was overthrown
Now salvation is ours…Salvation is ours

I was a dweller by a dark stream
A crying heart hooked on a dark dream
In my convict soul I saw your love gleam
And you showed me what you’ve done…Jesus, thank-you joyous Son

So I’m walking this prison camp world
I long for a glimpse of the new world unfurled
The chrysalis cracking and moistened wings uncurl
Like in the vision John saw…The vision John saw

I was a dweller by a dark stream
A crying heart hooked on a dark dream
In my convict soul I saw your love gleam
And you showed me what you’ve done…Jesus, thank-you joyous Son"

(photo by Josh)

In The Shack, Papa is "particularly fond" of Bruce...I can see why!

On Sponges...

I read a quote that has me turned on my head. Saint Teresa of Avili said:

"It seemed to me there came the thought of how a sponge absorbs and is saturated with water; so, I thought, was my soul, which was overflowing with that divinity and in a certain way rejoicing within itself and possessing the three Persons. I also heard the words: “Don’t try to hold ME within yourself, but try to hold yourself within Me.”

This has me thinking...am I a sponge? Do I want to be a sponge...sometimes dry and empty, sometimes damp, sometimes overflowing and saturated? Or...do I want to be the water, soaking into the sponge that is God, soaked up and absorbed into Him?

Best Memories...

When my birthday came that year, Daniel had only five dollars. He was upset, knowing there was no real way to buy a gift...at least the kind he wanted for me. He bought a card, and then he wandered into a bookstore...hoping. All that he could afford was a magazine...the cover of this particular one reminded him of me, of things that I loved. When he paid for it, he was left with thirteen cents. He brought it home, with a sweet note written in the card.
I was touched, both by the beautiful magazine and the humble man who trusted me enough to know I would see the love behind the gesture.

That was 1990, and month after month for the next thirteen years, Daniel brought home the Victoria magazine for me. He watched for it on the news stands every month, and delivered it to me with a smile and real joy, because he knew I treasured it. It was a symbol of faith between us; a touchstone and a reminder of simple pleasures and better, beautiful things to come.

When publication ceased in 2003 I was stricken. I've never found another magazine like it. I treasure my back copies, keeping them close at hand, reading them in season, never tiring of the ethereal photographic charm of Toshi Otsuki.

Today, on a day when I was blue and achey, I read this page! on a (beautiful) random blog while following a rabbit trail. I can't really believe how happy it made me. Laugh out loud happy! Immediate celebration happy! Plan a spectacular dinner and dessert and put a great bottle of wine on to chill happy! But the look of shared joy on Daniels face when I told him was priceless. He knew it meant more than just another magazine on the market.

Tonight, after dinner, I pulled out the 13 August issues I have piled carefully in the dining room shelves, and began to reminisce, this time with excitement over things to come.

A letter to the editor in the August 2001 issue made me do a double take. It features artful, handmade travel journals by none other than Lynne Perrella! I have one of her art books, "Alphabetica", sitting on my coffee table, and she is an editor in at least one of the art magazines I now subscribe to. I wonder if she knows Victoria will soon be back in print.

Life is good...and beautiful. I will once again have the pleasure of a monthly reminder that life is hopeful; that women can achieve their dreams without sacrificing their families; and that a charmed life is in the eye of the beholder.

One year!!

How did this happen? Last August we were eagerly awaiting this little man, and here he is walking, eating cake, playing with Big Trucks, and generally charming his assorted aunts, uncles, and grandparents...(not to mention Mom and Dad!)

On Sunday the extended family celebrated by eating, (of course), opening gifts, laughing and planting a tiny oak tree in the Birthday Boy's honour.

Deeper...

Romans is full of big, meaty ideas. It needs to be slowly savored (you're so right about that Karyn). There's no room in it for making my own salvation. It's ALL Him!


Romans 1:16"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous shall live by faith".

Yesterdays tragedy burried in todays garden.

I saw a quote today in an old copy of The Oprah Magazine..."Today's newspaper wraps tomorrows fish".

I immediately had a flash back to the day I was mulching my garden, laying down thick layers of wet newspaper on the soil (and weeds), then piling the wood chips atop all.

I had gone to the recycling center and brought home a big box of newspaper and put them to soak in a tub of water.
As I pulled out one section at a time, I would run my eyes over yesterdays news. I would read the headlines, or if I were lucky, the comics. I marveled at the Suduko puzzles and crosswords...done in PEN no less!

But one front page still haunts me...pictures of four of the Canadian soldiers killed this summer in Afghanistan.

There were their childish faces, staring out at me, like boys playing dress-up in their uniforms and colored barrettes. It was devastating. They were young, some probably younger than Nialle, and they were dead.

I imagined their parents. What would they feel if they could see me...pulling a paper from the vat... letting the water drip...drip...drip, through my fingers as I looked at their sons smiling, hopeful eyes...opening the pages and smoothing them out onto the ground...covering them up with a shovel full of aromatic woodchips?

Would they wail and scream their indignation? Would they turn away in despair, anger, hate? Would they silently bow their heads as I did several times, tears in my eyes, disbelief at the waste of such potential?

As I worked, I showed my boys these faces as I lifted the headlines from the cold water..."They are so young!" I said. "Look at their faces! This is horrible beyond belief!" Then I would lay them down, smooth them out, cover them up.

It seems a fitting analogy for their silent dismissal from the brief fame that their early deaths earned them. What is their remembrance to those of us who first saw their faces posthumously plastered around the world? Hero? Or just another brief bit of angst brought to millions of commuters who briefly beheld their faces while sipping their four dollar lattes on their way to work that morning in July, before dropping them into the recycling bin at the end of the day...or burying them under the compost in their gardens...or were they perhaps used by fishermen, wrapping them around wet, shining dead fish?

Their names were Cole, Matthew, Lane and Colin. Though I can't tell this to their parents, I will remember them as I sit in my garden, thankful for the sun on my face and the sound of my boys playing nearby.

Personality DNA

This test was fun. I think it is a pretty accurate assessment of me at this point. Try it out yourself.

You are an Advocating Inventor.

You are an Inventor

Your imagination, self-reliance, openness to new things, and appreciation for utility combine to make you an INVENTOR.

You have the confidence to make your visions into reality, and you are willing to consider many alternatives to get that done.

The full spectrum of possibilities in the world intrigues you—you're not limited by pre-conceived notions of how things should be.

Problem-solving is a specialty of yours, owing to your persistence, curiosity, and understanding of how things work.

Your vision allows you to identify what's missing from a given situation, and your creativity allows you to fill in the gaps.

Your awareness of how things function gives you the ability to come up with new uses for common objects.

It is more interesting for you to pursue excitement than it is to get caught up in a routine.

Although understanding details is not difficult for you, you specialize in seeing the bigger picture and don't get caught up in specifics.

You tend to more proactive than reactive—you don't just wait for things to come to you.

You tend to do things on the spur of the moment, not sticking to a set schedule.

You do your own thing when it comes to clothing, guided more by practical concerns than by other people's notions of style.

Generally, you believe that you control your life, and that external forces only play a limited role in determining what happens to you.

You are Advocating

Being social, empathic, and understanding makes you ADVOCATING.

Some people find being around others exhausting—but not you! You are energized by spending time with friends, and you are good at meeting new people.

One of the reasons you enjoy conversation as much as you do is that you often learn about yourself while talking things out with a friend; you realize things about your own beliefs while discussing them with others.

You have insight into what others are thinking and feeling. This ability allows you to be happy for others, and to commiserate when something has gone wrong for them.

You are highly compassionate, and being conscious of how things affect those close to you leaves you cautious about trusting others too hastily.

Despite these reservations, you are open-minded when it comes to your worldview; you don't look to impose your ways on others.

Your sensitivity towards others' plights contributes to an understanding—both intellectual and emotional—of many different perspectives.

As someone who understands the complexities of the world around you, you are reluctant to pass judgments.

personalDNA

Finding Grace

This is a quote from a heartbreaking video on Aids.

"Sometimes, in an effort to remind people of the cost of the Cross, we withhold grace until we're sure they understand their sin.

"But it's in the giving of our grace that we remind people that they need to go to Jesus to find their own. People understand their sin without our help. It's grace they need help understanding."

This morning in the garden

Food Crush

I LOVE Food TV! It's one of my guilty little secrets. Daniel and I often watch Iron Chef America before going to bed. As a confirmed Foodie, I find I love to try out the simple, FAST ideas I see executed in Kitchen Stadium. I love fresh and fast.

Now I do like Bobby, with all his southern charm, and Iron Chef America is on at a time of day where I don't feel guilty turning on the tube, but my ultimate Food Crush is Jamie Oliver.

I don't know what it is, but I swoon at his cooking, his garden, his cute accent, and the amazing fresh food he throws together in his outdoor kitchen! I love the show...it's glorious in design...a beauty and a wonder to behold. (OK, maybe I've gone a little far, but honestly don't you agree? It's all about the SHOW ladies... after all Jamie is a child...he kind of makes me think of my son Nialle, another Food Nerd, if HE had a TV show)

So, last night, after working HARD all day, we were famished. We have been living outside, where it's shady, cool and comfy. We come in the house only to sleep and shower on the days when Daniels off. Fresh is THE only way to go, and Jamie *sigh* had cooked up a beautiful fresh roasted tomato and sausage and fresh herb concoction ( yumm!) in his outdoor kitchen on the previous day. (I was right THERE people, living vicariously through the boy!)

Daniel loves the show too, and so when it was supper time, off we went to get fresh Italian sausage, some baby zucchini, and a great crusty loaf. Fresh basil, fresh tomatoes from the garden, a nice fruity olive oil, sea salt, lots of whole garlic cloves...and a little balsamic vinegar to finish it off...it was HEAVEN!!
What a brilliant way to end a magnificent day!

Made in the Shade

My shady backyard garden was in sore need of some TLC. This is what we did yesterday...

This is a simple way to clean up and keep weeds out of an area where I don't really grow anything. The wood chips look a little garish at first, but they do mellow to a nice earthy grey in a year or so.

The boys helped out, and this scarecrow-ish looking chap spread the chips out after Levi shoveled and delivered them by the wheelbarrow load.

Learn about Herbal wonders

Check out this blog. It's my friend Diane's, who is also the "Grandma Farm" of my sweet Grandson Liam.
She is learning and practicing the Herbal Arts and is really a wealth of information. She has a really wonderful family too, and I consider her somewhat of an expert on that subject too!

Good wine, good cheese, and turning the other cheek

Speaking of learning how to live my faith from others who may not share my beliefs....check this out! I wonder what would have happened if the guests were drinking really bad wine?

Faith matters

Donald Miller says in "Blue Like Jazz" that you never really question your beliefs till you have to explain them to a skeptic.
As far as my faith is concerned, the journey is to have my actions line up closer to my stated ideal, that being to be more Christ like.
I continue trying to improve while understanding that I can never achieve anything near perfection. While I can and do learn how to be more like the ideal from people of many faiths that I encounter on the journey, I know that only by measuring myself against the standard of Christ will I truly grow.

I also realize I can't achieve my ideal at all! It's impossible for me to become...good enough...to deserve God's Grace. It is impossible for anyone. All my good works can't gain me His love, or salvation. That is a free gift, available to all. What an empty life it is to chase the approval of man, judged by man...subject to man's interpretation of my worth. Better to trust His Grace.

Ephesians 2:7-9 (New International Version)

....in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Romans 3:24

and all need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift. They need to be made free from sin through Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:21

Sin once used death to rule us, but God gave people more of his grace so that grace could rule by making people right with him. And this brings life forever through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Galations 2:21

By saying these things I am not going against God's grace. Just the opposite, if the law could make us right with God, then Christ's death would be useless.

"The unanswered questions aren't nearly as dangerous as the unquestioned answers."

Passion equals Mission

You know how some people just have an almost obsessive love for something, and they live and breath it from the time they are children, passionately pursuing it and becoming an expert in their chosen field just because it touches something in their hearts?

What if that love is put on hold, set aside, dismissed, for more "important" things, like multiplication tables or parts of speech, and the precious season for Love of Learning is squandered in favour of the mundane and the ordinary?

What if we all lose because a child somewhere is forced, or shamed into giving up that love for more "important" things like grammar, or ringette? (Not that I think any of these are not worthwhile pursuits, in their proper season and place!)

Do you believe that could happen?

Have you ever had a passion that you were convinced to set aside in order to follow a schedule that someone else deems more important?

Just asking. Because when I saw the following, I wondered...What if Bart Weetjens Mom had told him "No hamster will ever live in this house!"? What if he were completely shut down in his desire to form relationships with rodents? What if he were instead forced to channel all his free time into vicariously fulfilling his parent's dreams, like, say, being coerced to attempt to become a concert violinist or a movie star?

For example, look at this "Hero Rats" project run by this Belgian researcher in Tanzania. He's been a rodent-lover since childhood, and has turned that love to training African giant pouched rats to sniff out land mines! These rats are BIG, and they're so cute, they live around 8 years and are super trainable. Did you know that a landmine explodes somewhere in the world about once an hour? And Africa has more than anywhere else. So these rats go out on leashes and sniff out mines and scratch the ground!!! And they're almost always right. I love it! Weetjens, the researcher, is now training rats to sniff out tuberculosis. Check out this: a human lab technician can test about 20 samples for TB in a day; a rat can sniff about 2000. You can watch that segment here.

This story demonstrates to me in a very powerful way that when a child shows a deep, unshakable desire to really LOVE something, to LEARN about something, even when it's something that repulses others, we may do ourselves and mankind in general, a huge service if we facilitate that passion.

The video explains that Bart was inspired by a boyhood passion, and took a chance..and for years he was laughed at, and refused funding. When asked why he continued, in the face of so much opposition he says, " Well, the reason was clear. Obvious. I dreamed of a better world. As long as these landmines are there, the people just cannot build a normal life."

And he is building a better world...WITH RATS!!


THAT 'S what Thomas Jefferson Education is all about...facilitating a love of learning, and facilitating a fulfillment of each individuals personal passion and mission.

As John Taylor Gatto says, "Genius is as common as dirt".

Everybody has their passion, genius, and I believe, special mission they are meant to fulfill.

Even if no one else understands. Even if it involves a passion for the most unloved critters on the planet. Maybe especially then.