Slow Day

Hymn #7

Well, the busy-ness of Spring has hit here - how about you?

The flowers unfurl from their wintry sleep and the calendar hurtles us towards the wrapping up of school year commitments. End of year programs, awards nights, choir programs, recitals and more. The speed and hurry feels like too much but the glorious reward is the achievement of completion and the best of all: things wrapping up and falling off of the calendar.

This week I've been humming and singing the same song and it takes me back to High School chapel days where Dr. Powell would call out, "Number Seven!"

Friends and classmates would slide the navy blue Trinity hymnals from the wooden holders backing the seats in front of us and turn a few pages to number seven until we could sing it from memory for two decades afterwards.

Now blessed be the Lord our God, the God of Israel

This spring season has started hard for me with lots of reasons to rely on and lean deep on God and His provisions for various things. Decisions hard to understand and needs hard to fill cause my mind to feel full and tired and questioning. But then I remember He is blessed and He is God no matter what.

For He alone doth wondrous works, in glory that excel.

And after I come to the absolute bottom of wondering how to proceed on these specific things I'm praying for - He provides and goes above and beyond. He answers and fills every need and even fills one I'd shelved for later because of how much was facing us currently. Side note: this isn't so much personal family things as it is for our local homeschool community needs. Yes, yes He does do wondrous works and excel our understanding time and time again and not just because He provided the things I prayed for. Because He is God and He is good.

And blessed be His glorious name to all eternity

My job is now to mount the charge for His praise. To remind those around me of how He worked and it may have been through me but it wasn't because of me. If anything it was in spite of me and my fear, anxiety and doubt.

The whole earth let His praises fill, Amen, so let it be!

You can hear the hymn here. Now tell me how God has provided for you lately?! Let's fill this small corner of the internet today with His praise and glory!

Sunday Afternoon Beauty

My favorite way to spend Sunday afternoon is to soak up some rest and beauty. It can be tricky when we have a block of time not to fritter it away and pretty soon it is gone! So one of the things I try to do is mentally think about what I want to make sure my afternoon includes.

For this past Sunday it included sitting out on our screened in porch - such a beautiful day, wearing cute socks, looking at the light filtering through flowers, journaling prompts in the Magnolia magazine, a little crocheting and serving a tasty treat to my family.

These simple things don't cost a thing yet what they give back to me is both restorative and inspiring. It fills me up as far as enjoying simple pleasures, everyday beauty and creativity.

Both my body and spirit are fed when I carve out time for a slow afternoon and isn't that part of the reason God gave us the Sabbath!? It starts my new week out on the right foot to have this slow time which combats fatigue and infuses me with energy and motivation for the week ahead.

Thank You, Lord, for planning a Sabbath for us!

Slow Saturday Evening

Saturdays hold so much potential it can be hard to decide which way to commit our time! So many possibilities, so much opportunity and more flexible time can sometimes be deceiving. What we need isn't more - but rather less, right? Less on the calendar, less clutter, less expectations - this is where slow and rest can settle in and feel at home.

We are back to soccer games on Saturday mornings and then I had a big project I wanted to spend most of the afternoon on. By dinner time, I realized I hadn't really rested or enjoyed any beauty and that needed to change!

Emily joined me in the kitchen where we stirred together peppers, onions and ground beef for sandwiches. In between stirrings, we swept piles of leaves and clouds of yellow pollen off the porch. We wiped down chairs and cleared surfaces on tables to embrace the opportunity of eating outside. Fresh air, glowy light and birdsong beckoned us to the porch and it was so nice to be in the great outdoors.

After dinner, there was more time to relax, play cornhole and build a fire to enjoy our read aloud by. I love the simple pleasure of reading together around a fire! Such a delight! The warmth from the fire was a comfort and the changing hues of the sky a wonder. Laughing together and gasping with surprise at the twists and turns in our story made a sweet family memory that I want to treasure and ponder.

I'm never sorry for setting aside time for evenings like this and find they restore and refresh me in unexpected ways every time.

Dinner
Read-Aloud (an Amazon affiliate link)

March/April Goals

Whew, how can it be the end of another month already? The squares on the calendar fill up and time keeps ticking and pretty soon days and weeks and months have already become history.

How did you do on your March goals?

March Goals:
- follow up on an idea of how to get my book back on Amazon: I am so excited to say that after a year of wondering about this and pursuing ideas on it, it is finally a reality!
- try a British Baking Show recipe once a week: well, this was a HUGE success! And a very delicious experiment as well! Each of our family members chose a recipe from the BBC website.

David chose Paul Hollywood's Jam Doughnuts so this was our first recipe. I don't think I need to tell you how delicious these were, but they were indeed "scrummy!" If you watch British Baking Show - you'll recognize that as something Mary would say!

Next it was Rachel's turn and we made Mary's Victoria Sandwich Cake - very British! We even made the jam from scratch! Another very delish experiment! I would definitely not have gotten a Hollywood handshake for this one as shortly after this photo, everything smooshed out of the cake as I had assembled it just a tad too warm and it melted the buttercream. The taste was on point but the appearance - not so much. It was pretty rich and our least favorite of the recipes we tried this month.

Thirdly, it was Emily's turn and she chose this Chocolate Fudge Cake - this was our favorite of the recipes we've tried and both girls have already requested this cake for their next birthday. It.was.amazing.

I had so much fun trying these new bakes and challenging myself to try these more advanced processes. I enjoyed the beauty of creating something and making something both beautiful to look at and fun to pull up to the table with my family and enjoy! And I will admit to being proud of myself at making things that turned out so pretty - I mean I make food every day but don't always make it look this lovely.

Last but not least, Samuel chose Chocolate Souffle! We've actually made this once before after being inspired by watching the show. I'm hoping we can make this one today since I had to postpone from yesterday - so no photo yet! And, yes, I chose a scone recipe too but we haven't made that yet - have to pace ourselves out! We've shared some of these with friends and have eaten them over several days, what a treat.

May have to do this goal again over the summer!

I've been logging my meals with My Fitness Pal again for a couple of weeks and have been very successful - and in case you are wondering how that works with the above - I limit my portions and I've only had one portion of each rather than multiples. I'm feeling motivated in being diligent in this as I can already tell my clothes are fitting better with being more careful about my portion sizes.

I didn't actually keep track on eating a salad every day, but some days I had two and some days I didn't have any. Overall, I ate a lot of salad so I'm pleased!

As far as drinking more water, I didn't keep track either, but have just tried to be more watchful of drinking more water in general. Like everything, I have days that are better and days that aren't as great.

Ok, so now for April goals! This time of year feels especially busy with programs and end of year parties and things. So, I'm going to try to keep my goals very reasonable as I don't want to add pressure to an already full time.

- host an all day CC training for Directors in my area
- so excited that my Mom will be coming!!! Yippee!
- take a girls road trip for a few days with my Mom and a friend to the Downton Abbey Exhibition in Florida!
- enjoy simple everyday beauty at home
- continue logging my meals in My Fitness Pal: this is successful with me when I'm consistent about it and I want to keep my momentum going!

What are you hoping to complete or continue this next month?