Tuesday, September 27, 2011

A Walk in the Woods

Sunday afternoon 

I took a walk with my sweetie

and snapped a few pictures.

These little yellow flowers make me smile.

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The last of the Queen Anne’s lace, my very favorite wildflower; these had been mowed down when I drove past this spot today:

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This barn begs to be photographed.  I obliged.

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My second-favorite wildflower, goldenrod:

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After this summer’s drought, a bubbling stream encourages us:

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Tiny wild asters:

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I love watching summer transition to fall. 

Shaking off the weariness of August, the woods are refreshed in gold and red and purple. 

Thanks for walking along with us!

Be blessed,

Ginger

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Scripture and a Snapshot: Walk this Way

All the way my Savior leads me,

even when

I can’t see around the bend in the road.DSC_1265

Linking up here.

Be blessed today,

Ginger

Friday, September 23, 2011

The Errant Blogger: Fill in the Blank Friday

New week’s resolution (yes, new weeks can begin on Friday):

blog every day this week.

Really.

Not kidding.

Pinky-promise.

Since the Errant Blogger is also an English teacher, she felt a tad guilty about requiring papers from moaning middle schoolers while avoiding the written word herself.

She’s conscientious like that.

However, since it is  Friday, I’m cheating a little by participating in Fill in the Blank Fridays.

Consider it a writing warm-up for grown-ups.

1. The best thing I did all week was  pray with a friend.  
2.  Bible study and coffee first thing in the morning make me super happy.

3.  Pets should be low maintenance (like cats) but not smelly (like birds) or boring ( like fish) .

4.  Knowing Christ has redeemed me is the best thing about my life.

5.  With the cooler weather I am looking forward to everything!  I love the pumpkin waffles, the leaves, the chilly temperatures, the frost, the cozy sweaters.

6.  Something that's on my "wish list" right now is a macro lens (highly unrealistic) and a sugar bowl (quite possible, though dull).      .

7.  This weekend I am going to  start planning our fall Ladies’ Gathering, help a friend, do laundry, and grade papers nap.

What’s going on over at your house?

Be blessed,

Ginger


 

 

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Because It’s Still Amazing

I’m pleased to announce

a momentous event here at the ‘house:

the imminent arrival of

autumn.

Last weekend I celebrated the breath of crisp (okay, maybe that’s an overstatement—crisper, perhaps) air with a new mantel.

Ingredients for a simple mantel with a touch of fallishness:

two old cabinet doors with glass removed

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two formerly ugly candlesticks painted with the perennially popular Oil Rubbed Bronze

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a few small pumpkins and green apple gourds (Aren’t those cool?)

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a bit of burlap and some scrapbook letters

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Ta-da! 

Time for cooler temperatures and bright blue skies.

Can’t wait.

Be blessed,

Ginger

Monday, September 12, 2011

Hitting the Pause Button

I live my life surrounded by teens and pre-teens.

A disproportionate number are female.

With all the estrogen in the air around me on a daily basis,

you’d think that I’d start absorbing some of it by osmosis.

Theoretically, that should make me hormonally-balanced, shouldn’t it?

If only life were fair. 

Instead, here I am, forty-something and in the throes of menopause.

Or its more accurate title: brain-o-pause.

As the calendar pages turn, my brain cells seem to dissolve like so much Alka-Seltzer.

Brilliant blog posts, grocery lists, my reason for coming into a room—all of them fizzle away seconds after taking shape.

Break out the ginko biloba.

Or whatever that memory-enhancing stuff is.

I forget.

Is it just me, or are names less memorable than they used  to be?

That’s why leagues of (old) genteel Southern women refer to everyone as “Honey”, “Sugar”, or “Darlin’.”

Y’all thought we were just nice.

No, Sugar, it’s just that we’ve forgotten who you are.

Was there a point to this post?

Now I remember—or I’m going with this one, whether it was my original intent or not.

Lately, I’ve been humming a song I picked up somewhere. 

(And, no, Honey, I don’t remember where I heard it or who sings it.)

It goes like this:

“I am not forgotten;

I am not forgotten;

I am not forgotten;

He knows my name.”

Forgetful or just plain selfish, I’ve neglected some things I should have done over the past few months.

This little song reminds me that Christ is faithful even when I am faithless.

When I forget, He remembers,

and when I’m feeling frazzled and foggy,

He gently reminds me of my real identity.

Time to pause and remember that.

Be blessed,

Ginger

Friday, September 2, 2011

The Symphony

One morning this week, I had a front-row seat at the symphony.

We’ve had, as my father called it, a “dry drought” for several weeks, with blazing sunshine and temperatures that turn cars into Easy-bake ovens.

Leaves are turning, not from approaching autumn, but from plain old dehydration.

Something about this new school year has left me feeling a lot like those trees. 

Exhausted, somehow, and dry.

Sunday I knelt at my church’s alter and begged God to refresh me, to pour His presence out on me like rain on dry land.

Thursday morning, I asked Him again

to use me,

to let me experience His favor,

to fill my mouth with His words once more.

I went to the porch with a cup of coffee, sat in my trusty rocker, and breathed the last of my prayer across the predawn darkness:

“Lord, please send us rain.”

Then I heard it.

A rustling like dry leaves in the wind building across the ridge like applause when the curtain rises.

Rain.

Sheets of it, singing on the roof, quenching thirsty ground,

soaking weary hearts,

refreshing dry spirits.

It was music.

It was art.

Heaven’s instruments and my praises playing harmony.

I don’t know when or how exactly God will fulfill my heart’s cry,

but I know He heard it,

and answered it

with a resounding symphony of raindrops.

That one sweet storm didn’t break the heat; by afternoon we were back to baking.

But I know,

I know,

more rain is coming.

Be blessed,

Ginger