The current fad runs to disdaining New Year's resolutions as a useless endeavor - but I look forward to the mark of the new year with optimism and excitement.  What could be better than a blank calendar?  365 days of potential laying fresh and new before us.

Tonight will be a quiet and family-oriented celebration.  We eat good food, play games, sit and talk about the coming months.   It's also a time to actively remember all God's provision for the year past: last January we were fighting a leaky roof in the heaviest rains Oregon had seen for years....this January we will sit cozy under a brand new roof.  And the list goes on, month by month, we rehearse His providence.

We also make plans for the future.  C7 wants to rent a beach house, M11 hopes for a trip to the Nutcracker next Christmas....we write our dreams on a family calendar and carve out time to make each other's dreams come true.  Birthdays, holidays and anniversaries go down in black in the little white squares..."let's do a big, fancy dinner for Valentine's Day this year!", "I want to make sure we get the raised beds built by April so the gardens can go in on time."   "Wouldn't it be fun to surprise that person on their birthday?"

This year I will draw a New Year's Star on a heavy sheet of paper and each of us will mark on it at least one thing we hope to do or learn in the next 12 months.  (I want to finish a quilt and sew a vintage dress.)   Our hopes go up on the office wall to remind us when the vision has a dimmed a bit.

At midnight we watch the ball drop (online this year since we have no TV reception) and pass around the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne...kisses for bleary-eyed kids and then bundle off to bed.   

Rehearse, remind, refresh, renew.

You can find a selection of free printable calendars here: donna young.org  

Hopping John is always on our New Year's table.  A recipe can be found here: Hopping John

Vintage patterns can be found all over the internet.  A good place to start:  lanetz living

(think I could pull this off?)   

Happy New Year! 

When I saw it at the bookstore today, I just had to carry it home...Ernest Shepard's color illustrations and Milne's clever prose...sigh. Tonight I am curling up in the brown leather chair with my little bavarian tea cup (Goodwill), a fire and Pooh-bear.

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.

"It's the same thing," he said.

Before we drew names this morning for the e-book giveaway, we prayed that God Himself would choose the names for A Child's Geography: Explore the Holy Land.  We feel assured that He has done just that!  We are so happy to bless with a free copy of the e-book:

Jessica C. and Nora M.

May you both have God-glorifying adventures as you explore the Holy Land, meeting the unique people whom He has created, the breath-taking landscape that He Himself has fashioned...and seeing the beauty of our Lord everywhere you go!

Thank you, one and all, for sharing with us in the e-book giveaway--what a pleasure to "meet" you, hear your voices and stories, and to share the holydays together... 

Just a reminder, today is the last day to enter your name in the drawing! It's been fun to see so many of your names go on the list.

~This week I am working on moving some of my posts and finishing up at Intent.  In the future I will be writing mainly at the new joint blog, but I will also have a simple personal blog.  I'll leave links for both soon.  Blog-stuff is taking a back seat to painting, organizing and family-time this week...so we'll see when I actually get to it.

Until then, I'll be puttering around here and enjoying the winter days with my family.

God bless! 

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is giv'n,

So God imparts to human hearts the wonders of His heav'n...

_{~O Little Town of Bethlehem} 

_{Madonna of the Arbor   Dagnan-Bouveret}

We are teetering on the edge of Christmas weekend - the hours slipping through busy fingers.  I slept fitfully last night, waking up with a start. every couple of hours, jolted by the memory of yet one more task that needs doing. 

And so He whispers this morning through His Word...

My soul waits for the Lord; He is my help and my shield*....For God alone my soul in silence waits; truly my hope is in Him.**

 On the cusp of Christmas frenzy it is time to choose to slow....down....and wait...

There are five minutes before breakfast is ready:  my soul waits for the Lord...He is my rock.

Wrapping gifts, I turn off the music and the radio and light the oil lamps:  truly, my hope is in Him. 

Baking bread, washing dishes, making cookies:  You, O Lord, are my strength and my shield. 

The line at the grocery store checkout is long and irritable:  You came to us Lord...for the woman in front of me, the impatient man behind me...every single one of us.

The weekend is full of family, some who don't know You:  Lord,  I am hindered by weariness, frustration, rush.  Fill us with Your grace and life.  May our family be a reflection of Christ in CHRISTmas. 

3 days to wait upon You, to thank You, to reflect upon Your gift...may we capture every moment.

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory now and for ever.  Amen.    _{(from the Divine Hours)}

 _{*Psalm 33:20**Psalm 62:6} 

 The writing, editing, re-writing, re-editing, blood, sweat and tears has come to an end.  We have had such a good time working on this project.   I am full of joy at what God has done!  Thanks especially to those of you who prayed  us through to completion.  The LORD has done it, and not we ourselves. 

A Christmas thank you from the both of us: 

We are rejoicing this Christmas with you - most especially in the Advent of our Lord to the hearts of all mankind.  Let's open the door and welcome our Savior in.

What shall we give Him? 

Matthew 25:40
"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

For months we've been working on A Child's Geography Volume 2: Explore the Holy Land, all proceeds of which go to the least of these through World Vision. This quarter, ACG profits were donated to provide warm coats to impoverished children in Eastern Europe---something done for Jesus.

We'd love to include you in the celebration of going into all the world with the love of Christ. With great joy, Ann and I are giving away two copies of the newly released e-book (hard copy coming soon) as our Christmas gift to you.

If you'd like to be entered in the drawing, leave a comment here at Intent or email us before midnight (Pacific Standard Time) December 27th. The drawing will be held December 28th.

If you know other homeschoolers who might be interested in an e-copy, please feel free to spread the word!

Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey...your family probably hears or reads about these names frequently. In an increasingly complex world, it is vitally important that children learn to see the world through their Creator's eyes. As we explore the Holy Land you and your family will delight in incredible, mysterious landscapes, hidden wonders and beautiful peoples - all created in God's image. We will travel through the lands of Scripture, discovering familiar Biblical landmarks, such as the possible resting place of Noah's Ark, the remains of the Tower of Babel, the tracks of Moses up to the peak of Mount Sinai.

If we found the source of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, might we find the Garden of Eden? Why is that wall in Jerusalem called the Wailing Wall?  What unbelievable wonders might we find in the desert sands of Egypt? What do Babylon, Nineveh and Ur all have in common? What country in the world is the holy land of millions but you won't find a church anywhere? Can you follow the trail  where Moses once walked to find the Lost City of Stone?  Come, discover the answers to those wonderings and more... explore the modern Middle East, its vast deserts and hidden palaces of Saudi Arabia, its fantastic marsh island homes of the Ma'dan peoples of Iraq, and its resourceful Bedouin tribes who scatter across the the sands of the Middle East.

Over the course of 16 chapters and nearly 200 pages of text, explore six Middle Eastern countries  with

 

 

~ engaging text of a "living-book"

~Field Notes (narration prompts)

~Travel Logs (notebooking & mapping activites)

~Bringing it Home suggestions that focus on art, music, poetry and food of each country,

~Prayer Walk for each country

 

 

Do you and your children desire to catch a passion for God and all His peoples around this glorious globe? 

Come. Let's go into all the world.

Last night the wind rushed down our little hill and right over the ancient backyard fence  - which collapsed in fright at the unexpected roaring and shoving.  I looked out the window this morning and saw it sagging against a scraggly little maple, last stop before the road at the bottom of the hill.  Everything in this little old house lately seems to threaten retreat and collapse.   Sigh.

Tonight we left sagging fences and house worries behind and drove into the city for a play.  Mark helped design the new community theater, and this was a chance to see his handiwork as well as the entertainment.  

It's a small, intimate space, so when the lights went down and the actors lined themselves at the front of the stage, literally right at our front-row feet, C7's eyes widened and he squeezed my hand nervously.   From time to time, as the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future each made their debut, I turned to watch his fresh little face and the play of emotions flitting across his features.  

At intermission, M11 and I sat in the lobby with some Junior Mints and talked about fashion, a new topic of interest.  (Agreed:  Britney Spears makes us sad.)   The boys were talking lighting design with dad and going up and down, up and down the metal stairs, laughing.

When the announcement came for the start of the second act, the kids were first in line and sitting on the edges of their seats, anticipating.  Mark and I smiled at each other happily.

I thought about that roaring wind and the timid little old house on the hill...creaking and swaying and trying to stir up worry that it will slide right down to the road.   Our neighbors all say the same thing:  "Nothing to worry about.  There's nothing but solid rock under that house." 

Indeed.   

Diane and I arrive at our two year anniversaries together.  Miz "circle of quiet" is one of the precious women I've been blessed to meet face-to-face through this crazy adventure of blogging.   (Along with MomBob  and Amanda and Mindy.)  I now have a nice list of locations around North America that I'd like to visit and people I'd love to meet someday.

As Diane says: I'm having such a nice time, I think I will just keep going.

Yes, I will keep going too...but not at Intent.   For some time I've felt that change was coming for me.   God has been stirring my heart and whispering about a new direction - some of which I think I know, some that remains still to be seen.  But I do feel certain that this blog has come to an end.  

Several months ago, God gave me the precious gift of a writing partner.  Beginning in January, we will be writing together at a new blog...following His lead in a new direction.  I will provide a link here later this month.

~~~Thank you to all of you who have made Intent such a joy and shared these past two years with me.  You have blessed me beyond words.  ~~~

May God richly bless you all!