A Poem for you... :)

Here's a poem I wrote today. :) The first two lines popped into my head directly after I was rudely awakened by a sunbeam in the car on the way home from a fabulous morning and afternoon of Black Friday shopping. :) (And on that note, who in tarnation needs to be making trouble to have fun? My older brother, my cousin, Sarah, and I, had a  blast together...the most outlandish thing we did was sing "On the Street Where You Live" at the top of our lungs in the Town Center of Virginia Beach...but that's another story. :P Anyway, enjoy the poem!

 

"Carmen Ante Domum"

(Song Before Home)

 By Rachel Heffington

Home is just over the next green hill

And my journey's last mile before me still--

Home before, and the road behind,

And a balancing moment within my mind...

Home, 'tis so pleasant to know the place

Remembers me still with its homely face.

Home, with her orchards and fields and her lane

Beckoning me with her smiles again.

But the Road, gypsy-mile'd and wild and free,

With echoes and wind-voices calls out to me:

"Remember the paths we have tread, you and I;

The lure of unknown and a clear, open sky!"

Pausing, I stand with the Road at my back,

And stretching before me the dear, homeward track.

A kiss to the journey, a laugh to the wind,

And onward, my heart full of wistfulness send.

A Tale of Turkeys, Pollyanna, and A Selfish Girl

"Happy Thanksgiving!"

 It has become a trite expression, and one I'm sometimes reluctant to say because I don't get that excited about turkey. I mean, come on! And then I mentally stagger backward, realizing what I just did. I just succumbed to America's holiday illness--that of commercialism! The word "Thanksgiving" now means nothing to my imagination except for another family dinner and a big turkey? I refuse to accept that.

Some years I am overwhelmed with gratitude on this holiday. Other years, the stress of life has caught up with me and I am not even in practice at recognizing blessings for what they are. As little as I want to admit it, this is that sort of a year, in some ways. Not that I am ungrateful for the big things: food, shelter, family, etc., but I've been feasting on God's goodness and not even stopping to thank Him for it. It's not easy for me to admit it, because it sounds so...horrid of me! Truly. If I stop to think about it, my heart crinkles up inside me with shame. I feel like precisely like Amy March when she said, "I'm a selfish girl."

I will admit to focusing on everything that is either happening too quickly and too much, or the things that are not happening at all. I've labeled my blessings as things I'm entitled to, and I have not recognized them as God gifts. Now that I'm stopping to confess this spirit of ingratitude in myself, I am ashamed. What is it that I've let myself slip into? And as silly as it sounds, the first person I think of when I think of someone who has the best heart of thanksgiving I think of....

Pollyanna.

I never much liked her in the Disney version--it seemed she knew the Glad Game was just a game. But recently I watched the Masterpiece Theatre version of Pollyanna, and I found my heart reaching out to this little girl who was so full of the joy of living. It sounds sappy, but it's true. There was one scene where she was just laying on her stomach in the grass, staring at the lake and singing a hymn...it was so simple, and yet it was so right. I know in my own life I am guilty of the sin of trying to fit too much in the cracks. Every moment is filled with something. I am always doing things, and this year in particular, I've left no time for being. It's a lesson children know well. Pollyanna asks her aunt, after she hears her new schedule: "But when will I have time to live? I know I shall be breathing, but it's not the same thing as living, you know."

A.A. Milne said it well: "Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."

I think of the story in Luke 10:38-42....

³⁸ Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. ³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” ⁴¹ And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. ⁴² But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

I have been a Martha this year, and I've been wrong. Oh Lord Jesus, forgive me for my ungrateful, busy heart. Let me be Mary, before Your feet, enjoying life as You give it to me, and contenting myself in Your gifts to me. Now the only thing left to do is to say with Lady Harriet, "I feel chastened...truly." And to make a list of the first twenty things I am praising Jesus for.

1. I thank You for your loving arms that hold me, even when I am as fractious as a croupy baby
2. I thank You for my sisters
3. And my brothers
4. I thank You for parents who are bringing me up to love You, and to trust You
5. I thank You for godly men like Peter Marshall who have taught us to love You better
6. I thank You for literature and the ability to read
7. I thank You for quotes. :)
8. I thank You for distinct seasons
9. I thank You for laughter...what would I do without it?
10. I thank You for the gift of music
11. And for the way You with-hold some gifts, only to pour others into our laps more richly than before.
12. I thank You for whoever thought up baking
13. I thank You for holidays were everyone pauses and remembers the simpler things in life.
14. I thank You for inspiration for so many projects
15. I thank You for health
16. I thank You for dancing
17. I thank You for dear friends
18. I thank You for your vast, unending, incomprehensible, enormous love that NEVER leaves me
19. I thank You for cranberries
20. I thank You for Cricket (my cuddly black pussy)

Thank you Jesus! Now all the rest of you have a blessed Thanksgiving, and please, let's not underestimate the value of Doing Nothing. :) I pledge here and now to take some time to Do Nothing each day...will you? :)

                                               Love,

                                                    Rachel

The Baker Is...

Today is a special pre-Thanksgiving baking day for Coastal Farms--the co-op we are part of. The orders aren't too too huge--
a loaf of cranberry-orange bread
a cran-apple-mincemeat pie
a pumpkin pie
5 dozen whole wheat rolls
2 dozen white rolls
2 1/2 dozen cinnamon rolls with icing
6 dozen Welsh cakes
14 pounds of sweet potatoes
 which is probably a good thing, considering it's a Monday and we've got Weekend Hangover. ;)
You would laugh to see Sarah and I, come baking day. We start out tidy enough, but the kitchen gradually gets more and more junked up till you don't know which end is up. Then we clean up and wash the dishes...and dirty it all again. You've simply no idea how many times we wash a sink full of dishes in one baking day! We are constantly washing and rewashing things. And then you have the matter of all the trips to the oven and sink and fridge and pantry, back and forth. We have two ovens, one on top of the other, and their buzzers do not sound the same so when they go off, both at once, it is the worst sound in the world. There are dashes to the office to switch Pandora stations, dashes the the laundry room to get yet another hand-towel, (because where in tarnation did the one from five minutes ago get off to?) chasing the littler people out of the kitchen..and into the kitchen...and out of the kitchen. By the end of the day my apron is stiff as starch from a paste made of spilled flour and the water from drying my hands off. :D
I must say it is one grand and glorious kerfuffle! But we have so much fun doing it--I'm sure we'll never forget these days. For some reason I cannot break the habit of cinnamon rolls being my last project. I am forever rolling them out at 8:00 at night it seems. :D I ought to do something remarkably reprehensible like...baking them first thing! ;) Well, that being said, I can't waste any more time on the computer. It's 9:30 already and I haven't even started!

♫ "Sisters, Sisters..."♫

♫"There were never such devoted sisters..."♫

 This afternoon was so beautiful--mild and light and lovely--that after our church family left, I decided the girls and I had better go take a walk together. I don't know how many more of these afternoons we will have before winter sets in in earnest. :) Sarah, the dear, remembered to bring her camera along, and we had an impromptu photo-shoot on the property line. Despite my aversion to pictures of myself (oh dear...time for another no-flour-no-sugar kick :P) I think these turned out pretty well on a whole. The only thing that wasn't ideal, was that we hadn't a lackey to take the pictures for us, so there aren't any of all four of us oldest girls together. Oh well, you get the idea. :)

Sarah, Leah, Anna, walking home after the shoot. :)

Anna and Leah (12 and 14)

Anna and I...

Bemused expressions, all. ;)

(Clockwise, Anna, Leah, me :)

Leah, Me, and Anna...yes, I am laughing maniacally.

Sisters...Anna and I both look rather dangerous there, like we're creeping up on Leah. :P

The kick line..

Leah and I :)

Sarah and I, after I rescued her from the camera and pulled her onto my lap. :D

This is *not* the general position of Sarah's eyebrows...pretty good picture of me, though. :)

 

Ka-chow! ;)

Achoo! (Bless you.)

I like to think I have a measure, however small, of feminine grace. But I will confess, I've never yet learned how to catch a graceful cold. The heroines on the movies make it look almost pleasant!

They catch fevers under the very noses of their heroes, and decline in health rather prettily...

 ...get deathly ill....

 ....have everyone worried about them....

.... and suddenly make a comeback with the happiest of endings. They are pale and interesting, and never sniffle away, burying their noses in a tissue like a dripping faucet scrubbing her nose with a bottle-brush.
I on the other hand? Well, let's just say that Harriet Smith and I are twins right about now:

Maybe I'll console myself with fond thoughts of Mr. Elton as I repeatedly blow my nose. Or it might be even more profitable to chug down my Airborne and Emergen-C while pretending I was quaffing a cup handed to me by Colonel Brandon. Actually, the thing I'd love best is to have a tete-tete with one of Mr. Bingley's snarky sisters. Ah, yes. A recipe for health. ;)

In a bit of a dilemma.

This is rather a random subject for a post, but I had a baking question for all you fellow BBC's. (And by BBC I mean, butchers, bakers, candlestick-makers :) How does one bake a two-crust apple pie without the apples baking down and the top staying tall, empty and air-headed? I have an order for two apple pies and I'm totally winging it. Do you have any tips or tricks? :D Thanks in advance! <3 Rachel

Man Cannot Live on Daydreams Alone...

I have already confessed that I am a Romantic. Entirely. I like nothing better than to hear a good love-story, or watch a BBC period-drama. My favorite dreams are those in which I get married. I've always been that way, and I assume I always will.
My greatest desire (second to living for Christ) is to be a wife and mother. A wife to a man who will undoubtedly have his fault and foibles, but to whom I will be a help-meet and encourager, a companion and the love of his life. A mother to a host of children who will go out and do Kingdom Work. Our home will be a castle and I'll be queen.
It's a fond wish of mine, and I admit, at times, to spending too much time daydreaming about it. But since I graduated the Lord has been convicting me of a certain area we single daughters too often overlook. And it is this:

It's okay to have a life. It's good to have a life.

Now let me explain. In the words of an older woman I was talking to about this topic:

"The godly men are looking for a woman who is living a joyful, vibrant life. They don't want the girls sitting around waiting for a man to complete them. They want to marry a whole woman who is living life to the fullest, not a mousy day-dreamer who mopes through all her single days."

And you know, it's true? Think about it from a guy's perspective. What sort of woman will be the better help-meet? The girl who sat knitting and sighing over the thought of one day being a help-meet, or the girl who was gaining new skills, meeting the needs of those around her, helping out in any way she could until her man arrived?
Who does he want? A girl who can't exist in any productive and profitable way without his constant attention and affirmation, or a girl who knows the nitty-gritty and is content to aid her husband's plans and dreams even when he temporarily forgets her need for tenderness and loving attention?
That's a skill that we single daughters have plenty of opportunity to learn. We can practice and train to be joyful, vibrant women with full lives in this season when we don't have our man here to love us. This is prime time to grow in our walks with the Lord and learn to rely on Him and only Him for our contentment and unwavering love. Let's not waste these precious years, girls. If we can learn how to live now, we will be a double-blessing to our husbands in that Someday. Cherish your dreams, and don't cast romance aside entirely...I know I don't. :) But truly girls, I think we could all do with a little less daydreaming and a little more living. After all, we don't want to be the woman who, in her old age, looks back to her youth and sees a life of empty yesterdays. This season is the only one like it in life. Let's not spend them playing Fancy's Fool. Let's live life to the hilt, and trust in the Lord to bring us our man in His timing.

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.   

God tells us to delight in Him and He will give us the desires of our hearts. He was the One who put them there, and He'll follow through. As my dear friend, Abigail said, "God doesn't give us empty desires." :)
  In closing I wanted to share a quote that I found in a very unlikely place, (The Civil War Diary of Sarah Morgan) but that has been such a comfort to me in the Hard To Wait times:

"If I am to marry, some blessed man is destined for me. He may be at my elbow, or at the antipodes. It matters not for go where I will, do what I will, sooner or later, at the time appointed by Heaven, we will meet, and nothing will prevent it."
   ~Sarah Morgan

Have a blessed day, dear friends! ~Rach

I'll Meet You At The Polls! ;)

Hi gals! Boy it's been forever since I've posted here! I am sorry it's been such a while, but you will understand, I'm sure, how it is, getting busy and all that. I'm in a hotel room having a bit of an adventure right now...yeah. My brother's in the next room over and until tonight I had two gals rooming with me...but they had to go home and so I'm in a shabby hotel in a shabby room by myself for the night. The door's dead-bolted, locked, and barricaded with a chair, the curtains are religiously closed, and I've got my phone at my elbow. I'm just praying Psalm 91 and I'm not in too bad a state with my nerves. :P

...I'm a *homeschooler*! I don't have this experience! :D...

But I did want to say that I got to meet a sort of "Homeschool-hero" today! Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli! He was a dinner our SAT group attended and we got a picture with him! And not only him, but we actually got to speak with, shake hands with, talk with, generally-feel-famous-with Gov. Bob McDonnell!! Excitement was running pretty high (not to mention energy after our Team Leader, James forced us all to drink Mountain Dew and get "Kray-Kray" and we were all a little star-struck, I think. :P

Your's Truly working the phones. (Terrible Phone-Photo)

 I am trying to summon my courage to do double-phones tomorrow. But I'm not so bad using only one--yesterday I made 500 phone calls and knocked on 29 doors. (in 5 miles!) Our SAT team totally whipped ALL OTHER PHONE BANKING STATIONS IN THE NATION yesterday with 9,048 calls in one day! [Along with multiple miles of walking and door-to-door work.] We are pretty awesome. ;)
Anyway, I'd appreciate prayer for protection, (A lot, considering the location of our lodgings. Ahem.) extra energy, extra patience, and success in our mission to get a God-fearing, family-supporting, all-together amazing man elected to Senate! And please, everyone! Get out and vote! I could give you my whole spiel:
    "Hi this is Rachel working for the _______ Campaign! I was calling to see if we could count on your vote at the state senate elections!"
If you are like lots of these people you'll fuss at me and hang up. If you are like the kind few, you'll tell me to keep up the good work. Either way, I won't let you off the hook. ;) But in all seriousness, we like to sit back and complain and disparage today's government, but it's because we are not doing anything to elect officials who are honorable, godly, and trustworthy. It's common sense, and I'm asking you all to think about it! Thanks and I'll be back up on here before too long, hopefully. :)