Refresh Retreat

Dear friends,

Nearly two weeks ago, I had the immense privilege of attending a Refresh Retreat hosted by my friend Sandy Traugott.  I'd like to share it with you through pictures and captions.  It's funny that "Refresh" was my "one word" for 2013, and I still need it now more than ever.

Sandy is a veteran home school mom
whose children are all grown.
She is a seasoned saint,
well-acquainted with the trials of life,
but filled with a flourishing love of Jesus.
She inspires me.

Drop your cell phones here!
This is a day to get away 
without distraction.
(But it's there if you need it.)

A time to breathe and stretch,
in a posture of devotion and worship.
It's called DoxaSoma, an integration
of Christian prayer and movement.
Pray and praise with body and soul.
I loved it.  Sandy brought the mats.

After a time of listening 
to worship music,
we each sat with our own 
Bibles and journals,
turned to Colossians,
and asked God to speak 
into our hearts
as we reflected on his Word.
This was not a lecture and workshop retreat.
It was mainly a silent retreat.

Communion was available
to take in solitude as we wished.

Plenty of healthy snacks - strawberries,
hummus and gluten-free crackers,
lemon water, a variety of teas...
We also brought our own lunches.

Only six ladies come to each retreat.
One of my fellow participants
is my son-in-law's sweet grandmother.
Chatting on the porch with her,
I find that she hosted dozens of ladies' retreats
at her mountain cabin in North Carolina.
Between that and visiting missionaries,
2,000 people from 20 nations 
stayed overnight at Higher Ground
which is now available for week-long rentals.
She is also active in homeless ministry,
as are most of the others who came that day.
Shirley's hospitality and grace astound me.
I am so grateful for the 
family legacy she lives
for my soon-to-be born grandson Lucas.

Art time with lots of supplies -
a way to creatively express 
who we are in Christ,
and who we want to become in him.

Everyone else made 
collages from magazines.

I had already decided,
after pondering on Colossians,
to sketch my version 
of a kaleidoscope image,
inscribing Scripture words 
of grace and truth
onto the broken pieces my life, 
reflecting radiant beauty in the 
light of God's glory.
You can see and read about 
my finished piece here:

Kaleidoscope (Big Words)

We ended our day with a brief time 

of sharing what we had learned,

encouraging and praying for one another.

Our view out the window
of the condo clubhouse...
I went outside later
to take pictures by the lake.
You can see them here
in this related hymn post:
What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

What a refreshing day! 

If you live in the Orlando area, and would like to attend one of Sandy's free day long (9 AM - 4 PM) retreats, please visit her web site here:  Refresh Retreat.

Note on February 10: I finally finished journaling through Colossians 4.  Here are my Good Words!

Grace and peace,
Virginia Knowles
www.ComeWearyMoms.blogspot.com

P.S. Please enjoy one of the songs of worship from the retreat... "I Need You Now" by Matt Redman.  I downloaded it for my iPod, of course.

Kaleidoscope (Big Words)

What is this?

It's my blooming kaleidoscope flower!

I created it today at the Refresh retreat 

hosted by my friend Sandy.

It was a mostly silent retreat, 

and I'll write more about it later on another blog.

But for now, just the story behind the picture.

It started here on the couch,

before I even picked up my colors. 

In my private devotional time

reading through Colossians.

I wrote down key words

and pondered how they applied to me.

I came in weary and grieving this morning.

Last year, my most challenging ever,

left me feeling fragmented.

It's not yet over.

Today, in my meditations on 

Scripture and my tumultuous life,

I thought of the word:

KALEIDOSCOPE

Broken pieces,

raised to the light,

jumbled and reflected,

turned and turned

and raised up again,

ever-changing 

beautiful patterns:

redemption.

Why yes, I did just write an impromptu poem.

So when we sat down at the art tables,

while the others made collages,

I knew what I would draw with markers instead.

My outlines uneven,

shading splotchy,

as my life often is also.

I started filling in around the edges.

The words came from 

my morning's journaling

chapter by chapter in Colossians in my

well-worn Bible, which has a story of its own.

 I apply words of TRUTH

to the broken places of my life.

Love

Wisdom

Grace

Truth

Joy

Glory

Hope

Peace

Reverence

Gratitude

Encouragement

Growth

Devotion

Treasure

Endurance

Prayer

Singing

Service

Reality

Unity

Fullness

Strength

Sincerity

And on the stem, the words:

Rooted

Growing

Bearing Fruit

That's what I want to be and do.

At the end of the day,

one of the sweet ladies shared

what a blessing it was 

that she saw me blossom into joy

during the day

as I spent extended quiet time with God.

It happens that way,

doesn't it?

More later.

Oh, here it is now, two weeks later!

Two more posts featuring this retreat!

Refresh Retreat

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Virginia

www.comewearymoms.blogspot.com

The Day of Small Things

Flame vine on a neighborhood fence

I've been watching for it
and saw it on my way to the bank.

Today, in its emerging glory!
(See last year's flame vine photos, too.)

The curly vines always amuse me.

Could it be?  Flame vine in a tree?
Yes, blocks away, but it's the same kind!

At home again, fresh folded linens
on a fresh made bed (a new habit?)

Alternating housework with lesson planning
- then back in the classroom next week!

Visit with an old friend from faraway

Afternoon clouds = whimsy!

Clouds always speak to me!
(They have a whole category on my other blog...)

Hanging out the WELCOME -
a new flag for a new season
(but I still need to take down
the Christmas wreath from the front door).

Warm cinnamon rolls
for an after school snack = happy kids!

My "new" sweater,
$4 from Salvation Army,
nice and cozy!

"Who dares despise the day of small things...?"

Zechariah 4:10 (NIV)

Yes, I know that's out of the original context,

but the concept still rings true:

sometimes the little things in life count the most.

A quiet day (for the most part), 

no big thrills, still important.

Thankful!

"Brothers and sisters, 

think of what you were when you were called. 

Not many of you were wise by human standards; 

not many were influential; 

not many were of noble birth. 

But God chose the foolish things of the world 

to shame the wise; 

God chose the weak things of the world 

to shame the strong." 

1 Corinthians 1:26-27 (NIV)

I often link my posts to these blogs:

Still Saturday

The Sunday Community

  

One Day: A Little Beauty and Order in My Home

Dear friends,

It's been over a month since I posted on either this Come, Weary Moms blog or Virginia's Life, Such As It Is.  The only blog I've kept up with at all is Watch the Shepherd because of my weekly hymn series and an unexpected post on troubling issues in the home schooling movement, which has had nearly 3,800 pages visits in the last 16 days. Yikes!

Frankly, I'm sometimes a very Weary Mom and there's not as much time to write. It's a busy life raising several kids, homemaking, and teaching three days a week in a private Christian school...  Well, enough said there.  All in all, I think I'm doing pretty well. For the most part, I love what I do, and I do what I love.  So it's a good kind of tired.

Monday is my "breathing easier day" since my grading and lesson planning are done over the weekend, and I'm off school for the day.  Not that I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs!  Usually, Monday is a mix of housework, errands, appointments, and a bit of writing if I'm lucky.  This particular Monday was one for pursuing "a little beauty and order."  I'm trying to make my home a haven and keep it that way.  I do a little here and a lot there, and sometimes a major breakthrough push, but never quite catch up. Yes, my kids do help out with the housework, but does it really have to be this difficult to enforce little things like not eating in the living room or computer room?  And will I ever get the laundry and paperwork and books completely under control?  Yeah, I've been purging, purging, purging the clutter.  I took out a huge pile of books yesterday to donate to the library book store.   However, even with all of the puttering around, I think I've decided that with six of my kids still living here, I'll just have to hold my breath and wait a decade until they're all grown and gone before I can keep my house consistently clean. :-)  

Anyway, Monday....

After I drove my youngest two to school, I transplanted about two dozen golden poppy seedlings into a patch next to our front walkway.  (This is Florida, folks!)  When I was a little girl in northern California, I grew poppies and pansies and all manner of other floral lovelies with my sweet mother.  One of my ways of honoring and remembering her is gardening.  I hope they thrive and that the kids don't step on them.  They're so small, they are hard to see! I'll be writing a post on gardening soon, too.

This past weekend, I found two very attractive books on homemaking in the discount bin at the grocery store.  I know I could probably have found the same information on-line, and I actually do most of my reading on the web, but sometimes it's nice to have a real book in my hands, all there in one spot.  Can I get an amen?  I am also inspired by visiting my daughter's apartment and seeing how simple and attractive she's keeping it.  (It helps that she just moved in and doesn't have much stuff yet, but she's been shopping IKEA and it all looks lovely so far!  She said it seems like she's buying kitchen stuff as if she had 10 kids.)

I also found another favorite volume, Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion, that I bought at my fav used bookstore a while back.  I didn't get too far into any of them before I had to get up and try out few of the ideas.  You know, put it into practice!

I read about foyers.  Fascinating, right?  Two of the books had wonderful pictures of entry ways, and some featured wooden benches.  I've been wanting to switch things up in my front hallway lately, and I happened to have a beautiful bench buried in the storage room under laundry baskets.  Here we go!  Socks and shoes underneath, and backpacks off to the side.  Sure, I wish I could convince my kids to take them all the way to their bedrooms, but hey, I'm willing to compromise a little if the backpacks actually make it into their designated corner by the door.

In order to put the bench there, I had to move a tall narrow table from that spot.  I knew what I'd do with it, though.  I'm always running out of flat space when I'm writing lesson plans and doing my grading.  I like to lay out my books and papers, and not perch them on my lap or squeeze them onto my desk with my computer.  So, as you can see in the photo below, I placed it perpendicular to my desk as an extra wing. (It's a bit longer than what shows in the photo.)  I like!  While I was at it, I took the time to reorganize my desk, get rid of a lot of extraneous papers, put my medicines back in the cabinet, and pin up a few new fancies on my bulletin board.

I also took the time to read through a basket of sympathy and birthday cards that thoughtful family and friends sent in the past few months.  So sweet!  I came across a few that my mother had sent to me before she passed away.  Sigh.  I'll treasure them all.  I mounted two of the Mary Engelbreit cards on the front of my supply cabinet.

This is the little raised shelf area in the right hand corner of my desk, with containers for hair brushes, pens, pencils and scissors.  The little butterfly dish holds sugar-free hard candies.  The doily hangs down and camouflages all of the electrical cords (for charging my computer, iPod, and phone) tucked under the shelf.

I left the house after lunch to go visit my counselor, who is helping me sort through my life, including strategizing how to more effectively thrive in my duties in and out of the home. (For the record, she says, "Don't ever stop writing!  Make time for it!")  On the way home, before I picked up kids from school, I stopped into an interior design store, Kim Coe Designs.  I didn't buy anything, just enjoyed the beauty as an inspiration to my homemaking efforts.  They're all decked out for Christmas, of course!  These light-up snowmen in a basket were tempting, but I'll just wait until I get all of my holiday decorations out in two weeks to see what I already have.  I do like a little something new each year, but it's not like I need anything right now.  Anyway, I'm trying to simplify! (I did buy a pair of Christmas salt and pepper shakers on clearance at Walgreens later!)

For dinner, I had a big package of boneless skinless chicken breasts in the fridge.  I cut them into smaller pieces, and baked half of them with barbecue sauce and the other half with rotisserie seasoning and red potatoes, adding some crunchy onion topping near the end.  Yummy scrumptious!  My family appreciates the two flavor options.  

The rest of the evening?  Shopping, putting away laundry, cleaning up some more, and chatting with my very lively and affectionate kids.  

I didn't get everything on my list done yesterday, but as I often say, "Well enough!" Today's another day!  (And it was!  Today I did a lot of paperwork after I got up, then drove kids to school / bus stop, made lunches for one son and me, taught three classes at school, took two kids to appointments and then went to the science night at their school.  The three of us ate fast food (gasp!) and the rest had leftover chicken for dinner.  Now I have some grading to do for tomorrow.  Another full day, different than yesterday, but just as good!)

Other related organizing and decorating posts you might enjoy...

• "The Blue Bowl" and Thoughts on Making a Home
• Refresh and Renew: Quilt and Pansies
• Busy & Creative at Home (with links to organization blogs)
• The Impulsive Decorator's Room Redo #1: The Front Hallway
• A Desk for Mom (Featuring Habitat for Humanity)
• A Space of My Own (My Desk Again)
• Easy Christmas Decorating on a Dime

What does your daily or weekly life rhythm look like?  Leave a comment for me!

Virginia Knowles
www.ComeWearyMoms.blogspot.com

You Have Loved Us First (Prayers by Søren Kierkegaard)

"You Have Loved Us First"

(Prayers by Søren Kierkegaard)

Father in heaven! 

You have loved us first; 

help us never forget that you are love 

so that this sure conviction 

might triumph in our hearts 

over seduction of the world, 

over the disquiet of the soul, 

over anxiety for the future, 

over the fright of the past, 

over distress of the moment. 

 

But grant also that this conviction 

might discipline our soul 

so that our hearts might remain 

faithful and sincere, 

in the love which we bear 

to all those whom you have 

commanded us to love as we love ourselves.

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

I found this in on my iPod today in a rather random place in my notepad.  I'm not sure where I saw it originally last year, but it speaks to me this morning right where I am.  There is so much going on in our lives, it is easy to fret.  I need to find that calm conviction.

Here is another Kierkegaard prayer that I found...

You have loved us first, O God, alas! 

We speak of it in terms of history 

as if You loved us first but a single time, 

rather than that without ceasing. 

  

You have loved us first many times 

and everyday and our whole life through. 

When we wake up in the morning 

and turn our soul toward You – 

You were there first – You have loved us first; 

if I rise at dawn and at that same second 

turn my soul toward You in prayer, 

You are there ahead of me, You have loved me first.

When I withdraw from the distractions of the day 

and turn my soul toward You, 

You are there first and thus forever. 

And we speak ungratefully as if 

You have loved us first only once. 

 

The other day while traveling in North Carolina on our way home from vacation, I purchased the book A Brief Guide to Ideas by William Raeper and Linda Edwards.   As a mom trying to be a good example to her kids, I believe in stretching my brain and learning new things, and I figured that a taste of philosophy from a Christian perspective might do me some good.  I'm glad to see there is a chapter on Kierkegaard, a Danish Christian philosopher who believed in experiencing God by faith and continually choosing to renew that trust.  I know I wouldn't agree with much of what he wrote discounting the value of reason.  Yet I am touched by his childlike faith expressed in these prayers, especially in light of the fact that his own childhood in a pietist home is described as "isolated and unhappy" and "deeply affected by the guilt and religious gloom of his father."  (See how American naturalist John Muir responded to the same kind of upbringing: The Fruits of Harsh Parenting.)

I want my children to experience joy and liberty in their faith in Jesus, rather than rigid duty and a sense of spiritual failure.  I want them to be who God uniquely created them to be. I want us all to be in a close relationship with God. I can't choose faith for my children, but I can model it as I "withdraw from the distractions of the day" and overcome "the disquiet of the soul." That is a challenge for me. I need God's help, the reminders of his love that I find in Kierkegaard's prayers. "Grant that conviction might discipline our soul" so that I, too, can be faithful, sincere and loving - as God is and wants me to be.

What about you?

Virginia Knowles

www.ComeWearyMoms.blogspot.com

P.S. The zinnia and butterfly photos in this post were also taken on our way home, the same afternoon as I bought the philosophy book. You can see more of my botanical photos from Sarah P. Duke Gardens in North Carolina.