Old Events

"Sad are the days when the glory is gone from the earth, when we look about us with tired eyes, dimmed by the sediment of fatigue, and find we no longer can see beauty or wonder or drama in commonplace scenes."

~from the book Circle of the Seasons by Edwin Way Teal

Some days are like that for me.

I get tired.

I forget the beauty of the simple every day common things that pass by without so much as a glance.

My eyes are dimmed.

I find myself saying quite often "I'll look in just a minute" but that minute is quickly swept away with more pressing things.

Somedays I am blind.

The feet will not stay tiny forever.

The sweet thoughtful color pictures and handmade cards are coming less often these days as the kids get bigger and busier.

But yet when I am graced with such a lovely gift, I still find myself passing them by or stacking them in a pile without spending that time to appreciate them.

Take a step back ,Tina.

Look around.

Breath.

See the beauty.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

The Glory

I ran across this quote

"And shall I ask at the day's end once more
What beauty is, and what I can have meant
By happiness?"

that I put above just below my blog topper tonight as I was glancing through a book called A Few Fair Days by Jan Gardam.

I looked the quote up and found it is a part of this poem by Edward Thomas.

The Glory

The glory of the beauty of the morning, -
The cuckoo crying over the untouched dew;
The blackbird that has found it, and the dove
That tempts me on to something sweeter than love;
White clouds ranged even and fair as new-mown hay;
The heat, the stir, the sublime vacancy
Of sky and meadow and forest and my own heart: -
The glory invites me, yet it leaves me scorning
All I can ever do, all I can be,
Beside the lovely of motion, shape, and hue,
The happiness I fancy fit to dwell
In beauty's presence. Shall I now this day
Begin to seek as far as heaven, as hell,
Wisdom or strength to match this beauty, start
And tread the pale dust pitted with small dark drops,
In hope to find whatever it is I seek,
Hearkening to short-lived happy-seeming things
That we know naught of, in the hazel copse?
Or must I be content with discontent
As larks and swallows are perhaps with wings?
And shall I ask at the day's end once more
What beauty is, and what I can have meant
By happiness? And shall I let all go,
Glad, weary, or both? Or shall I perhaps know
That I was happy oft and oft before,
Awhile forgetting how I am fast pent,
How dreary-swift, with naught to travel to,
Is Time? I cannot bite the day to the core.

Edward Thomas

I'm not all that good figuring out poems but I think this poem is about Edward Thomas being so awestruck by the glory of the beauty of the morning that he feels his words fall so short in describing it. Do you get that too by reading the poem?

I was thinking that there are days I can not describe with justice the glory of the beauty of my life, my days, my husband, my children, and even the circumstances that I face that day. My heart overflows with awe, thankfulness, gratefulness to God for his care, grace, and faithfulness to myself and my family. The circumstances of those days are not always easy but I can still see the beauty.

Then there are those days (um...like today) that I seem to be blind to anything glorious or beautiful at all about my life.

I think the secret to seeing the glory of the beauty of God in my days is to train myself to see what I do not see but know is there. It is seeing by faith.

This is why I like my blog...there are days when I see only in hind sight after my posts are written then I can smile about my day.

I do ask God to help me grow in maturity.To not be blind until the day is in my rear view mirror to see God's beauty in it. Maybe to someday I will stop mid-mommy tantrum and see the beauty God has placed in my life at the moment it is happening. I think God can do that.

Now I will move to something kind of trivial after my reflective thoughts!

Four baby blankets down...Twenty-two more to go. I can finish them...sooner rather than later...I will finish them.




Warmly,
A Patchwork Mommy

The Game of Ten

I know I put a bunch of (probably boring to you) videos on my blog. This one is a must see. Why? Well, because I know that there are those who read my blog and can not quite visualise or grasp what we experience around here daily by having older children from across the world here with us now as our own children. I do not live up to my calling as a mom of a large family very well, in fact, I pretty much stink at the job. I feel a bit over my head most days.

BUT I watch our Liberian girls playing their games and there is something that just overwhelms me with emotion.I am SO very grateful that although I seem to stumble in the darkness most of the time with things,I would not take a second of this and exchange it for what's behind curtain #2.

I will just say this: you are all missing out. Take that last statement with a grain of salt because sometimes I think that and sometimes I do not. BUT there might be those who feel like God is leading you down this path and it seems very scary. Well, it is very scary and very very very hard. Did I mention very hard? I kept thinking when we first set out on this adoption journey back in '06 that missing out on what God could have done but couldn't because of my fear would be a harder pill to swallow that all the difficult times I could face stepping out in faith. Those same thoughts are still true today. I have many days I forget but watching this simple video pulls me out of my selfishness and..sigh.. we are so fortunate. We, the Fryes are very blessed.



The girls are playing a game called Ten. I'm not sure quite how it goes but it has something to do with matching the other's foot actions.

Just a Random Thought

All you moms (and dads) will not argue that there are those days when being a parent is just plain hard. But in the mist of those hard days there are little moments that can get lost unnoticed amongst the craziness. It can take a lot to force me out of my task orientated,treading water,putting out fires,or damage control modes but sometimes those moments grab my attention. I want to fuse them into my memory never to be forgotten. Not necessarily because the moments were profound in amongst themselves but because of what they represent to me. These moments represent a passing of time, a season in my life that will soon be pushed back to let in a new season.


What grabbed my attention the other day? Nothing more than the chatter of a six year old girl wanting to match her princess underwear with her princess t-shirt. That's it. Nothing major. Just the sweet talk of a young girl who's whole concern in life at that moment was the pleasure of a perfect matching outfit down to her undies. I just can not imagine that the next season of life that will soon be upon me could match the difficult,crazy, but very precious years of my life right now.

Now off to tend to a few more fires.

NOT HERE!!!

NO...Nope...NO WAY !!!!

No one is turning 41 in this house today.

Just a Moment in Time

Some days go by so quickly and I realize I have not had a chance to pay attention to much at all! It seems that I am still in the starting gate and the daily race is already over! Sigh...

I stopped long enough to notice two sweet notes left by my bed by two great young men!




I took a moment to appreciate the kids' little garden shelf. To Grace's delight she already has a bean sprouting in one of her pots! Cyrus was pleased at his little sprouts as well. Joel was pretty upset about the lack of action in his pot.




I do remember stopping to kiss the lips of a very messy baby after dinner before I whisked her away to get cleaned up. Oh, I should have taken a picture of messy little Lids (as Joel calls her).

Can you just feel the time racing by? I sure can.