Since I'm so far behind in my reading, I'm just going to copy some quotes from ch. 7. Ch. 7 is entitled "Flower Arrangements".
Mrs. Schaeffer contends in this chapter that using flowers to decorate is an essential part of making a beautiful home atmosphere.
Referring to a flower arrangement at the table: (P. 100) When the call comes, 'Dinner is ready', 'Supper is served', or 'Hurry, the soup will be cold' then there should be something to bring realization, a warmth of knowing that someone has taken thought and put some originality into preparing the place where food and conversation are going to be shared."
(P.101) "the art of living together, of being a family, is being lost, just as the wealth of the earth is being lost by man's carelessness in his ignoring the need for conservation of forests, lakes and seas. The 'conservation' of family life does not consist of sticking a rose in the middle of the table; it is a deeper thing than that....what I am talking about is something anyone could do, anywhere: an expression of individuality, personality, originality."
This reminds me of a decision that we made several years when we sit down together as a family. We had, for convenience, been in the habit of lifting up our plates at the stove. My husband and I decided to switch to serving the food from serving dishes at the table. It means a few more bowls to wash but it's so much nicer to serve from bowls at the table.
"Children growing up in an atmosphere where beauty is considered an important part of daily life cannot help being inspired to develop their own original ideas in these areas, nor can they help being prepared to live aesthetically themselves." P. 104
"An atmosphere of love and consideration, in which one is trying to anticipate the mood of others, requires something tangible, something that can be seen, as well as a feeling inside oneself." P. 107
This inspires me to think about including flowers or other arrangements not just for special occasions but for every day as well. As a young bride, I made the foolish statement that cut flowers are a waste of money. I repented of that statement and thankfully my husband didn't hold it against me!
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
Pray for Your City
Bliss Spillar has written an excellent article on praying for your city, found here.
Praying for the mission of God in our cities is one of the beautiful ways we join God in His renewal and redemption of our city. Let us be people who are marked not just by lives on mission in the everyday, but people who intercede daily and earnestly on behalf of our cities.
Below I have listed out prayers that we have recently been utilizing to pray for our city. My prayer even now, is that the Lord would use these to glorify Himself in the redemption and renewal of your city.
Monday, July 08, 2013
The Hidden Art of Homemaking - Chapter 6
I'm behind (as in "where did June go?") but better late than never!
This chapter is about gardens and gardening and the beauty of the natural world. I'd like to simply show you some pictures after a few brief quotes from the chapter.
"Ecology is a subject that everyone is now discussing in a worried sort of frenzy. [note: this was written in 1971] But it is one thing to sit around talking about how the balance of nature is being upset and how black the future looks because of this, to sit and discuss the tragic felling of age old trees, the hacking of chunks out of majestic mountains so that unspoiled beauty is becoming rapidly a thing of past memory; it is quite another to ask ourselves what we are doing about our own plot of ground, whether it is a little four by four square, or an acre, or a whole farm or forest. This is where we should be doing some original landscape architecture which combines art with preservation and conservation, which produces a growing beauty, and which inspires other 'artists' to do the same thing." (p. 87-88)
"Certainly we who have a logical base for beauty, as well as morals, should be the ones to be fitting our landscape gardening into artistically beautiful and ecologically 'sound' treatment of land and plants." p. 89
"Dig [the seed] up and see the discouraging 'first appearances' after a day or so - but wait, watch - with water and warmth of sun, with the life within ready to burst, suddenly the first sprouts appear, and you can watch day by day, week by week and begin really to feel the reality of what Jesus said as that one grain multiplies itself. 'He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.' One sighs as one gradually realizes that there is simplicity here, and great and complicated depth all at one time. To come to a place where one is really wanting to 'die' to self and ambition, to come to a place of seeming to 'lose' one's life by handing it over to God's plan is, it seems to me, more vivid for a person living in the setting of seed-plant-fruit process, rather than always in the midst of the mechanical machine processes." p. 94
Pictures from my current garden:
This chapter is about gardens and gardening and the beauty of the natural world. I'd like to simply show you some pictures after a few brief quotes from the chapter.
"Ecology is a subject that everyone is now discussing in a worried sort of frenzy. [note: this was written in 1971] But it is one thing to sit around talking about how the balance of nature is being upset and how black the future looks because of this, to sit and discuss the tragic felling of age old trees, the hacking of chunks out of majestic mountains so that unspoiled beauty is becoming rapidly a thing of past memory; it is quite another to ask ourselves what we are doing about our own plot of ground, whether it is a little four by four square, or an acre, or a whole farm or forest. This is where we should be doing some original landscape architecture which combines art with preservation and conservation, which produces a growing beauty, and which inspires other 'artists' to do the same thing." (p. 87-88)
"Certainly we who have a logical base for beauty, as well as morals, should be the ones to be fitting our landscape gardening into artistically beautiful and ecologically 'sound' treatment of land and plants." p. 89
"Dig [the seed] up and see the discouraging 'first appearances' after a day or so - but wait, watch - with water and warmth of sun, with the life within ready to burst, suddenly the first sprouts appear, and you can watch day by day, week by week and begin really to feel the reality of what Jesus said as that one grain multiplies itself. 'He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.' One sighs as one gradually realizes that there is simplicity here, and great and complicated depth all at one time. To come to a place where one is really wanting to 'die' to self and ambition, to come to a place of seeming to 'lose' one's life by handing it over to God's plan is, it seems to me, more vivid for a person living in the setting of seed-plant-fruit process, rather than always in the midst of the mechanical machine processes." p. 94
Pictures from my current garden:
The beauty of a tomato blossom
Columbines - aren't their spiky petals beautiful!
I was in BC last week on Shuswap Lake. The wildflowers are so beautiful this time of year - and so are the flowers in the yards. This poppy had obviously planted itself on the side of the road beside the lake. I only had my camera phone and I just missed the best light of the evening but it's still beautiful to see.
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