Musings.
…running late… I knew this would happen. Despite my (approximately) best efforts to confine this series to January, I’ve bled over into February. No matter, let us wrap it up with a few musings. At the beginning of the month, as I mapped out the schedule of postings, certain trends jumped out at me. “Aha!” said I (not out loud [I hope]). “Frugal things have value beyond the fiscal savings!” I suppose that brings us right back to the quote that started it all: “Of how many pleasures does...
read moreWonderful Words.
Some words just stick, you know? Here are several practical and wise phrases that I’ve picked up who-knows-where regarding things somehow relevant to “pleasures beyond pocket money.” Make it do or do without. These words open the gates to the creative realm of “using what you have.” Anyone here familiar with Polyanna? How about her “glad game?” Perfect manifestation of this philosophy. Buy used and save the difference. Save the difference is the key– buying used is a treasure hunt, but it...
read moreWhen a Block of Ice Warms the Soul…
Ever tried swapping freezer meals? Just curious. If you have, how did you work your swap? Here’s a splendid blog post from “Under the Sycamore” on the subject of saving (time and money) by swapping. I came across it last November and found it delightfully intriguing. What are your thoughts? Variations? Once a Month...
read moreBe still, my heart! Be unclenched, white knuckles!
Road trip yesterday. 3 am departure time, with approximately 5 hours to destination. I drove. There’s this thing I do when I encounter windy roads or low visibility or sheer drop-offs or even steep-slopey drop-offs. I sit straight up in my seat and clench that steering wheel like you wouldn’t believe. It’s quite possible that one day my hands will have to be surgically removed from the steering wheel they have become fused to due to my sheer strength springing from… fear. And it’s all because I forget. I forget I have all I need...
read moreSometimes a joyful noise…
…is a whisper. Do you ever find your voice, joined with others in worship of our Living God, hushed in order to listen in on the mulitude of joy? That multitude… joined voices, sound waves, words, notes… an intermingling miracle of backgrounds and circumstances that couldn’t be more different from one another, unified in exaltation of the One who has touched, healed, redeemed each of those backgrounds and sets of circumstances. A little glimmer, just a glimpse, of One Day: “Then I looked, and I heard the voice...
read moreBooks Tell Stories…
…and not just the ones written on their pages. For instance: Exhibit A: Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, picked up at Piccadilly in London by my younger college self, who worked up the nerve to ask a complete stranger in a foreign country (this coming from the girl who used to make her friends ask the teacher if she could use the restroom in elementary school {a wee bit timid am I}) – the curator of this flea-market-style booth- how much it was (“for you, love? Five pounds”). I spent much of my free time on that trip sitting in...
read moreThankful
“Praise is what we are made for!” Ann Voskamp says, and thus began her practice of purposefully taking note of what God is doing and has done around her, counting blessings and worshiping each step. This was the humble birthplace of the “Gratitude Community.” I remember sitting as a brand new young wife in my gracious landlady’s living room, a place of warmth and welcome and wisdom. She would share with me stories of her life on quiet afternoons, and I would walk away toward the mother-in-law quarters where we...
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