new school

 We got to go to a potluck tonight at B.F. Day, the school that Anna and Taylor have been given spots here in Seattle.  Everyone we met was fabulous tonight! What a cool school indeed.... 

http://dayes.seattleschools.org/

We were on the waiting list for another school and we have simply been praying about this with open hands all summer. It has been so good to know that He's got this one in His hands... :) So good to be able to let go and trust with this big piece of life for the kids for this next year... 

 

Taylor's 2nd grade teacher Ms. Worth 

 

 at his desk :) 

 

 

Anna in front of her classroom. (Her teacher was not there tonight, but we heard through the grapevine that Mrs. Sawyer is one of the BEST teachers in the school!) 

Grateful hearts all around... 

 

appoggiatura

 

I LOOKED UP THE WORD "GRACE" AND ONE OF THE DEFINITIONS WAS "A MUSICAL TRILL, TURN, OR APPOGGIATURA".  Other than "appoggiatura" being a good word to know if you are into crossword puzzles or trying to win the state spelling bee, I thought it was worth looking into further.  Since I can't read a note of music, I had to look up what this was! 

 

appoggiatura: an embellishing note or tone preceding an 

essential melodic note or tone and usually written as a note of smaller size

comments from the Webster website: 

 

"At any rate, the word is appoggiatura, and in Italian it literally means a "lean" into something....so, when you sing the note above the final note one step above, you are leaning toward the note...also, in 18th century style, and it carried over into later styles, one never sang a downward third, without filling in that space...it happens all the time in Mozart recitative.

 

"appoggiatura is this tiny tiny note, but critical to the structure- it's a 'tensioning' note in the work- and he picked out this one tiny note played by the masterclass student and requested they pay attention to the 'appogiatura' and give it the right accent to lead to the release. Great stuff." 

 

I think this helps me understand what grace is in a roundabout way. A teeny tiny note that comes out in the music when there is tension and a need to lean into something bigger...and it always precedes the essential melody in our lives...

restoring

With a lot of painting this week in our house (I felt like Michelangelo as I painted two ceilings today!) and the transformation that goes on in the restoring of the old, I am reminded of this beautiful quote.... 

grace showed up on my doorstep today....

 Giving thanks for the amazing gift of Chris Trautman showing up at our house today with a basket of goodies and paintbrush in hand. We had the best day talking, painting, breathing in paint fumes, talking to our neighbor together, and catching up. Wow. What a wonderful way to spend the day!!

our new neighborhood mug :) 

house warming basket :) 

Em and Chris 

Emily and Jaime (our fabulous neighbor across the street) 

painting buddies 

BEFORE picture of Anna's room 

a bit of primer on the walls 

AFTER the primer in Anna's room 

BEFORE (in Taylor's room) 

AFTER the primer in Taylor's room :) 

no need to ask what I did today!! 

(Meanwhile I got the report that Anna had a fabulous time at her afternoon at the pony farm for her horse camp she is going to Mon- Wed this week while Taylor and Papa made some awesome sock puppets!!) 

 

Welcome to the Neighborhood!

I thought this hit the nail on the head this morning: "Trust Me in the midst of a messy day. Your inner calm- your Peace in My Presence- need not be shaken by what is going on around you. Though you live in this temporal world, your innermost being is rooted and grounded in eternity. When you start to feel stressed, detach yourself from the disturbances around you. Instead of desperately striving to maintain order and control in your little world, relax and remember that circumstances cannot touch My Peace. Seek My Face, and I will share My mind with you, opening your eyes to see things from My perspective. Do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid. The Peace I give is sufficient for you." -Sarah Young 

Good words since we heard from the moving company that there has been a delay in the truck coming with our stuff! They have not even loaded it and could not give us an update today. Unbelievable!!  I am trying to make the best of it, and I began to prep the house for painting now. I worked all day on cleaning the walls and cupboards so that I can dig into painting primer on the walls tomorrow. 

I wonder if I made the mistake of asking God to teach me patience earlier this summer. Hmmmm.... I am getting so many opportunities to practice this!! 

Anna's new reading nook in our front yard 

at Cowen Park on Sunday morning 

a great welcome to the neighborhood 

This seems like it should be a Far Side cartoon 

:) holding hands in case of a snake crossing... 

sweet trails near our house in Cowen Park 

across the street on Sunday afternoon 

ready for Seattle! 

first magnets on the refrigerator! 

House Blessing

 We got to walk through our new house yesterday and we spent the night there in sleeping bags last night. We are in love with this place and with our new neighborhood!  

first hugs on the porch when we all arrived there together (reunion after I got there from the airport from my trip to Houston and after Jason, Anna and Taylor arrived from Anacortes) 

 

 

gifts from our new neighbors Adam and Jaime

 

cool doors between the living room and dining room 

 

 

muffins and flowers from the Langfords 

 

sign from the Hutchinsons 

 

 

what a beautiful smile... 

 

 

how appropriate that we went to GRACE KITCHEN last night for dinner... That is the word that defines the summer for me! 

 

 

the candle we made for our house blessing last night 

 

we had to borrow matches from folks across the street to light our candle :) 

 

this little light of mine... 

 

 

super reader as we read, sang and prayed our way through the blessings for each room for the house 

 

(I have attached the house blessing that we used for our first night in the house... I compiled it from favorite prayers, from parts of the liturgy at St. John's, from parts of the weekly liturgy from my Brigit group in Knoxville, from blessings gathered from friends through the years, from stuff I found online, etc...) 

 

 

we are certainly incredibly BLESSED!! giving thanks indeed... 

 

 

May the peace of Christ go with you wherever He may send you.....

May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors... 

 

SEATTLE HOUSE BLESSING

 

Porch:

 

Peace be to this house, and to all who dwell in it. The Lord be with you. 

 

All: And also with you.

May God bless all those in this house, and all who come to visit, to work, and to play.  May all who come and go here find peace, comfort, joy, hope, love, and salvation, for Christ has come to dwell in this house and in these hearts.

 

May we be Christ's light in the world. Amen.

 

Light a candle:

We light this candle as a reminder that God is our light and that God is with us.

 

 

Song:

For the life that you have given

For the love in Christ made known

With these fruits of time and labor

With these gifts that are your own

Here we offer, Lord, our praises

Heart and mind and strength we bring

Give us grace to love and serve you

Living what we pray and sing.

 

 

Body Prayer:

Thanks be to God for this day...(raise hands upward and outward in an arc over head and return to sides.

For all that is above me (raise hands skyward)

For all that is below me (bend at waist and reach for the ground)

For all who are to the right of me (raise left hand over head and lean right)

For all who are to the left of me (raise right hand over head and lean left)

For all that is around me (twist torso from side to side)

For all that is behind me (raise both hands over head and lean back slightly)

For all that is before me (bend at waist and reach out hands straight in front of you)

For all that is beyond me (arms at 45 degree angles and palms facing front) For all that is within me (wrap arms around torso)

Thanks be to God for this day (repeat first motion)

(adapted from Anna Carter Florence, Columbia Theological Seminary)

 

 

 

 

Entrance:

 

 

Behold I stand at the door and knock, says the Lord. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come into the house and eat with you, and you with me.  The Lord will watch over your going out and your coming in. 

 

All: From this time forth forevermore.

 

God, you are the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  Send us from this place on many errands, be our constant companion in the way, and welcome us upon our return, so that coming and going we may be sustained by Your presence, Oh Christ our Lord.

 

All:

Christ, in our coming and in our leaving,
the Door and Keeper, for us and our dear ones;
this day and every day, blessing for always.

 

May the peace of Christ go with you

Wherever He may send you

May He guide you through the wilderness

Protect you through the storm

May He bring you home rejoicing

At the wonders He has shown you

May He bring you home rejoicing

Once again into our doors.

Living Room:

 

How good and pleasant it is, when God’s people live together in unity!

 

May those who love You be secure.

 

All: May there be peace within Your walls.   

 

Stir up the gift of hospitality, Lord, in all who gather in this room. In all the watching, listening, reading and conversing, may You be praised. 

 

Song:

In the Lord, I’ll be ever thankful.

In the Lord, I will rejoice.

Look to God, do not be afraid.

Lift up your voices, the Lord is near.

Lift up your voices, the Lord is near.

 

 

 

Breakfast Nook in Kitchen:

God our father, You are the Maker of everything that exists, the Author of the world of nature and of all living things, the Creator of both space and time.

Without you there would be no past, present or future; no summer or winter, spring or autumn, seedtime or harvest; no morning or evening, months or years.

 

Because you give us the gift of time, we have the opportunity to think and to act, to plan and to pray, to give and receive, to create and to relate, to work and to rest, to strive and to play, to love and to worship.  Too often, we forget this and fail to appreciate your generosity: we take time for granted and fail to thank you for it, we view it as a commodity and ruthlessly exploit it, we cram it too full or waste it, learn too little from the past or mortgage it off in advance, we refuse to give priority to those people and things which should have chief claim upon our time.

-         

Help us to view time more as you view it, and to use it more as you intend: to distinguish between what is central and what is peripheral, between what is merely pressing and what is really important, between what is appropriate now and what will be more relevant later.

 

God our father, You are the Maker of everything that exists, the Author of the world of nature and of all living things, the Creator of both space and time.

 

Without you there would be no past, present or future; no summer or winter, spring or autumn, seedtime or harvest; no morning or evening, months or years.

 

Guard us against attempting too much because of a false sense of our indispensability, a false sense of ambition, a false sense of rivalry, a false sense of guilt, a false sense of inferiority; yet do not let us underestimate ourselves, fail to be stimulated by others, overlook our weaknesses, or know our proper limits.

 

Enable us also to realize that important though this life is, it is not all, that we should view what we do in the light of eternity, not just our limited horizons, that we ourselves have eternal life now.

 

God, our Father, you are not so much timeless as timeful, you do not live so much as you hold all times in your hand, you have prepared for us a time when we will have leisure to enjoy each other and You to the full, and we thank you, appreciate you, and applaud you for it. Amen.

 

Kitchen:

Lord Jesus, be our holy guest.

Our morning joy, our evening rest.

And with Thy daily bread impart.

Thy love and peace to every heart.

 

God, you supply every need of ours according to your great riches: Bless the hands that work in this place, and give us grateful hearts for daily bread; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen  

 

 

Song:

Superman Prayer

Thank you, Lord,

For giving us food.

Thank you, Lord,

For giving us friendship.

For giving us Jesus.
For sending your Spirit.

Thank you, Lord.

Forever Amen.

 

Dining Room:

 

God gives us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying our hearts with food and gladness.  He brings forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden our hearts.   

All: Blessed are you, O Lord, King of the Universe, for you give us food and drink to sustain our lives: Make us grateful for all your mercies, and mindful of the needs of others, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

In the many details of this day

Let us be fully alive,

In the handling of food

And the sharing of drink,

In the preparing of work

And the uttering of words,

In the meeting of friends

And the interminglings of relationship

Let us be fully alive to each instant, O God,

Let us be fully alive

Sounds of the Eternal: a Celtic Psalter

 

 

Master Bedroom:

 

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping, that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.

 

All: May we lie down and go to sleep in peace in this place, for the Lord alone makes me dwell in safely. 

 

A Prayer of Surrender  -Richard Foster

Today, O Lord, we yield ourselves to you.

May your will be our delight today.

May your way have perfect sway in us.

May your love be the pattern of our living.

We surrender to you our hopes, our dreams, our ambitions.

Do with them what you will, when you will, as you will.

We place into your loving care our family, our friends, our future.

Care for them with a care that we can never give.

We release into your hands our need for control, our craving for status,

our fear of obscurity. Eradicate the evil, purify the good, and establish your kingdom on earth. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

Children’s Rooms:

song:

The Lord our God is with you.  He is mighty to save.

The Lord will take great delight in you.

He will quiet you with his love.

He will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

 

Anna’s room:

Anna and Taylor, we pray that God would continue to give you two a sweet relationship and that He would do things in your life because of each other that would mark you both as beloved by Him in very recognizable ways.  May you play longer, laugh harder, share more readily, forgive more quickly, listen more deeply, and celebrate & live more fully because God gave you each other.

 

Taylor’s room:

Trusting that the grace, power and love of God

We pray that in this season in this new home,

that God would help us to , serve you in Love, listen to you,

embrace the mystery of your uniqueness,

forgive you and receive forgiveness from you,

create a safe place for you to discover who you are,

give you boundaries,

set you free, with gratitude everyday for the gift of YOU.

O God of life and love, the true rest of your people. Bless the hours of rest and refreshment, their sleeping and their waking, and grant that they, strengthened by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, may rise to serve you all the days of our lives, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Guest Room (say in hallway):
Do not neglect to show hospitality, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.

 

All: Let us open this home to others and use the gifts God has given us for the good of others.

 

Loving God, you have taught us to welcome one another as Christ welcomed us: Bless those who come into this home. May the care of the Father shield them, the love of the Son preserve them, and the guidance of the Spirit lead them. 

Jason’s Study:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

 

Teach us, dear Lord to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

 

All: And establish Thou the work of our hands.

 

God, help us to think your thoughts and feel your feelings for the people and places you put in our path..

 

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

-        Franciscan Benediction

Bathroom:

Celebrant: As we bathe, let us remember the gift of our baptism and of our forgiveness in Christ.  

 

All: God forgives us, Christ renews us, and the Spirit enables us to grow in love.

 

Gracious Lord, we thank you for the new life you have given us . Continue to strengthen us with the Holy Spirit, and increase in us the gifts of grace, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and the spirit of joy in your presence.

 

All: As forgiven and reconciled people, O Christ, bind us with a bond of love that cannot be broken. 

 

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

Backyard/ Garden:

Spirit of the living God, be the Gardener of our souls.

For so long we have been waiting, silent and still — experiencing a winter of the soul.

But now, in the strong name of Jesus Christ, we dare to ask:

Clear away the dead growth of the past,

Break up the hard clods of custom and routine,

Stir in the rich compost of vision and challenge,

Bury deep in our souls the implanted Word,

Cultivate and water and tend our hearts,

Until new life buds and opens and flowers.

Amen.

- Richard Foster, Prayers from the Heart

 

 

Final Blessing:
Unless the Lord builds the house,

All: the builders labor in vain…

Song:

God our Father, God our Father,

Once again, once again,
We bow our heads and thank you,

We bow our heads and thank you.
Amen, Amen.

 

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best -- as above, so below.

Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
You're in charge!

You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes. --- The Message 

 

It is time to go and be His witnesses.

And as we go we pray that the Lord would bless us and keep us,

the Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us.

May God give us grace never to sell ourselves short,

grace to risk something big for something good,

grace to realize that the world is much too small for anything but love,

and much too dangerous for anything but truth.

And now may God take our minds and think through them,

and may God take our lips and speak through them,

and may God take our hearts and set them on fire.

In the name of Jesus Christ who goes with us always.  Amen.

-benediction at St. John’s Lutheran

 

Visit this home with the gladness of your presence. Bless all who live here with the gift of your love, and grant that we may love each other well.  May we grow in grace and in the knowledge of You.  Guide, comfort and strengthen us, and keep us in your peace, now and forever.

 

 

May all who go forth from this home go in peace, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit! 

 

 

All: Thanks be to God!

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all forever.  Amen.

This is the day, this is the day 
That the Lord hath made, that the Lord hath made 
We will rejoice, we will rejoice 
And be glad in it, and be glad in it 
This is the day that the Lord hath made 
We will rejoice and be glad in it 
This is the day, this is the day 
That the Lord hath made

 

 

Love Life

 with all the crazy, unpredictable, and even absurd parts of this last month, this is such a great way to frame it... 

embracing the messy glory of it all.... 

Back to School Talk

 We will be having our own version of this talk with Anna and Taylor before school starts! 

--------------------------

THE TALK

 August 23, 2012

School is beginning.  Many of you have written to ask me what our family “Back to School” traditions are. If I haven’t responded, it’s because I stared at those questions and thought: CRAP. I’m supposed to have Back to School traditions???

If any, I suppose our traditions are getting crazy excited (Craig and I, not the kids), cursing through Target on the hunt for specific brands of scissors, and MAKING LUNCHES again. Why is making lunches SO hard?

Also, this: The Talk. We have The Talk with each child at the start of every school year. Our approach changes, but the story doesn’t. The story is always about Adam. Chase knows Adam’s story by heart now, and that is the point.

Please don’t forget to have The Talk. Below is how I do it, but like Rumi said, there are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

One way is to copy and paste this letter, change Chase to your kid’s name, and read it together. That’s what my girlfriends do. Totes fine with us.

Love You So. Happy School. And to those Monkee Mamas who left their littles at college this week. Well done. Well done, mamas. You can love them just as ferociously from a distance, right? With more time for manicures and books.

Carry On, Warriors.

Love, G

originally published on august 28, 2011

Dear Chase,

Hey, baby.

Tomorrow is a big day. Third Grade – wow.

Chase – When I was in third grade, there was a little boy in my class named Adam.

Adam looked a little different and he wore funny clothes and sometimes he even smelled a little bit. Adam didn’t smile. He hung his head low and he never looked at anyone at all. Adam never did his homework. I don’t think his parents reminded him like yours do. The other kids teased Adam a lot. Whenever they did, his head hung lower and lower and lower. I never teased him, but I never told the other kids to stop, either.

And I never talked to Adam, not once. I never invited him to sit next to me at lunch, or to play with me at recess. Instead, he sat and played by himself. He must have been very lonely.

I still think about Adam every day. I wonder if Adam remembers me? Probably not. I bet if I’d asked him to play, just once, he’d still remember me.

I think that God puts people in our lives as gifts to us. The children in your class this year, they are some of God’s gifts to you.

So please treat each one like a gift from God. Every single one.

Baby, if you see a child being left out, or hurt, or teased, a part of your heart will hurt a little. Your daddy and I want you to trust that heart- ache. Your whole life, we want you to notice and trust your heart-ache. That heart ache is called compassion, and it is God’s signal to you to do something. It is God saying, Chase! Wake up! One of my babies is hurting! Do something to help! Whenever you feel compassion – be thrilled! It means God is speaking to you, and that is magic. It means He trusts you and needs you.

Sometimes the magic of compassion will make you step into the middle of a bad situation right away.

Compassion might lead you to tell a teaser to stop it and then ask the teased kid to play. You might invite a left-out kid to sit next to you at lunch. You might choose a kid for your team first who usually gets chosen last. These things will be hard to do, but you can do hard things.

Sometimes you will feel compassion but you won’t step in right away. That’s okay, too. You might choose instead to tell your teacher and then tell us. We are on your team – we are on your whole class’s team. Asking for help for someone who is hurting is not tattling, it is doing the right thing. If someone in your class needs help, please tell me, baby. We will make a plan to help together.

When God speaks to you by making your heart hurt for another, by giving you compassion, just do something. Please do not ignore God whispering to you. I so wish I had not ignored God when He spoke to me about Adam. I remember Him trying, I remember feeling compassion, but I chose fear over compassion. I wish I hadn’t. Adam could have used a friend and I could have, too.

Chase – We do not care if you are the smartest or fastest or coolest or funniest. There will be lots of contests at school, and we don’t care if you win a single one of them. We don’t care if you get straight As. We don’t care if the girls think you’re cute or whether you’re picked first or last for kickball at recess. We don’t care if you are your teacher’s favorite or not. We don’t care if you have the best clothes or most Pokemon cards or coolest gadgets. We just don’t care.

We don’t send you to school to become the best at anything at all. We already love you as much as we possibly could. You do not have to earn our love or pride and you can’t lose it. That’s done.

We send you to school to practice being brave and kind.

Kind people are brave people. Brave is not a feeling that you should wait for. It is a decision. It is a decision that compassion is more important than fear, than fitting in, than following the crowd.

Trust me, baby, it is. It is more important.

Don’t try to be the best this year, honey.

Just be grateful and kind and brave. That’s all you ever need to be.

Take care of those classmates of yours, and your teacher, too. You Belong to Each Other. You are one lucky boy . . . with all of these new gifts to unwrap this year.

I love you so much that my heart might explode.

Enjoy and cherish your gifts.

And thank you for being my favorite gift of all time.

Love,
Mama