Outdoor Hour Challenge No. 13

Flower Parts

I'm continuing with the series of challenges from Handbook of Nature Study blog. For this challenge I got the girls (7 and 4) to have a close look at the tulips, which were beginning to droop in a vase on our dining room table. We talked about 'Mummy parts' and 'Daddy parts' and about pollen and bees and things. I tried to use words such as 'anther' and 'stigma' as naturally as I could, but this is a learning process for me too!! We eventually labelled a small diagram of something vaguely representing a tulip in our nature study journal.Now I just need to remember all the terms and keep using them naturally as we look at various flowers! (Thanks Barb for the tip to practise using one new term a week and adding them in slowly).

We planted our seeds last week at Grandma's. The mixed garden flowers and the sweet pea seedlings have already started germinating. We now need to decide exactly where we're going to plant them in the garden when they're strong enough.

Grandma and Gramps had some lovely flowers already blooming in their garden - daffodils, hyacinths, polyanthuses and wall flowers. Sophie (7) chose these polyanthuses (below) as the flowers she wanted to sketch into our nature journal. Charis (5) did a lovely picture of seeds and soil.

As a bonus to our spring nature study focus, we've also been keeping an eye on the frog spawn we noticed in a nearby town pond. A couple of weeks ago there was loads of the jelly-like balls with black dots all around the pond, some in clumps, others in long strings. A few days ago we noticed that many of the black dots had got longer and several were already wiggling away freely in the water. It'll be fun to watch them gradually grow legs and turn into frogs. This particular town park also has a lot of squirrels, which are very tame and come quite close hoping for some food. They're different to our Russian squirrels, which are smaller, redder, have tufty ears and aren't quite so bold!

It's great to be doing nature study in such lovely, warm, sunny weather. England seems to be enjoying unusually warm weather at the moment, in contrast to our Russian friends who are still enduring snow.

I just wanted to finish this post with a lovely and rather appropriate poem that Sophie and I came across in our poetry reading book for this term:

                                   
                                             A Spike of Green, by Barbara Baker

When I went out the sun was hot,

It shone upon my flower pot.

And there I saw a spike of green

That no one else had ever seen!

On other days the things I see

Are mostly old except for me.

But this green spike so new and small

Had never yet been seen at all!

Abide in Him!

Finding Grace in the Interruptions - Part 2

Welcome back to my little series of Finding Grace in the Interruptions. I hope you found Part 1 helpful. There, I looked at how God often sends things our way that we might be tempted to label 'interruptions' or 'hindrances' to our plans, but are actually His way of getting our attention or teaching us something valuable.

However, sometimes these 'frustrations' might actually be more of our own doing than an 'opportunity' sent by God. What do I mean? Well, perhaps us feeling annoyed and irritated is actually a sign that either we have our priorities wrong or we have overstretched ourselves.

1) Wrong priorities

I'm sure you're familiar with the scene: you've just set your toddler down with a box of legos, and your preschooler seems happily engaged with her dolls. "Great!", you think, "I'll just check my emails." Ten minutes later you're in the middle of reading the latest blog entry on one of your favourite websites when the toddler and preschooler start fighting, or the preschooler needs to be taken to the toilet, or the toddler wants you to help him build a tall tower of blocks. "I'll be there in a minute!" you promise. A minute goes by. More whining. "Hold on,  Mummy's just reading something important...." Then it strikes you. Actually, to be honest, what you're reading is not that important, and certainly nothing that couldn't wait until your kids are tucked up in bed that evening. Your life suddenly flashes before your eyes, and you see yourself in an empty house, kids having flown the nest, regretting all those missed opportunities of building tower blocks of legos or rejoicing in milestones reached and skills mastered. I've been there so many times!

Now, sometimes our children might be interrupting something important, like the fact that we really do have to get dinner in the oven or finishing hanging up the laundry. In those situations it's good to pray for grace and patience. Perhaps this is an opportunity to teach our children how to help with household tasks, or perhaps we need to allow ourselves an extra half an hour to finish whatever it is we're doing. 

Something that helped me was to remind myself that God is in control. He knows I need to get the dinner in the oven, or provide the family with clean clothes. Living in a culture that values people over time has also helped. I know that He will help me accomplish all the things I need to accomplish without me having to sin by shouting at or being impatient with my children.

"By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.." 2 Peter 1v3

However, I've come to realise that a lot of the time it's just me being selfish with my 'me-time'. When I decided that I wouldn't open my computer during the hours that my children were awake unless it was for homeschool purposes, or to check something quickly that my husband wanted me to do, then suddenly I became a much more patient and purposeful Mummy. The same goes for phone calls and texts. I don't want my children to grow up thinking that my computer is more important than they are!

2) Over-committing

Sometimes we might have our priorities right, like we know that it would be really good to help our six-year-old with her art project right now, or we'd love to chat through with our friend who's just popped round about the struggles she's having with her marriage, but we don't have the time because we need to be off to X, Y or Z.  Or maybe we find that most of our daily annoyances come from lost shoes or last minute toilet trips as we're desperately trying to usher the kids out of the door and into the car. In that case it might be time to look at whether we've overcommitted ourselves.

Do we really need to have volunteered to help run the children's group at church? Do we really have time to go to this Bible study? Does our child really need to go to three sports practices each week? All of these are good things, but perhaps they're not God's best for us at the moment.

I still feel a wound in my own heart from the time, almost 20 years ago now, when I desperately wanted to talk to a friend about my parents' recent divorce, but she was too busy. Now, she didn't know what I wanted to talk about, and she was busy with important, church-related things, but I still to this day feel that she let me down. I would hate to think that I would in turn do that to someone else without realising it.

Filling our lives up with busyness, even good, 'Christian' busyness, is not always God's best for us. How can we be a light and blessing to others if we don't have a little space in our day to allow for these kinds of heaven-sent 'interruptions'?

"Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10 v 41,42

For the third and final part to this mini-series I'll be looking at one other caveat, where perhaps the interruptions we're facing have a different agenda behind them. You can find it here.

Q: Have you had a time when you realised you had your priorities wrong? How did God speak to you about it?

Q: Have you been in a situation where you felt God was directing you to drop some of your other commitments and focus on being at home?

As always, I would love to read your comments, so don't be shy!

Abide in Him!

Photo Credits: freedigitalphotos.net. Girl with toys: Tratong, Woman at computer: Stuart Miles, Mother and Son: Ambro, Coffee: Stuart Miles

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Finding Grace in the Interruptions - Part 1

We had just moved into our rented house. After six weeks of packing up our house in Russia, and two weeks of living out of a suitcase, we could finally hang our clothes up in wardrobes, stock the fridge full of food, settle Nathaniel in a proper bed, and put our feet up. That first evening, after the kids had gone to bed, was pure bliss! I read a book, sipped my tea, and felt peace....at last.

However, commitments loomed on the horizon. Family from America were coming to see us for four days. It was lovely to see them, and so important for my kids to reconnect with their Grandad, but all I wanted to do was just to be left in peace and rest. The last thing I wanted to be doing was cooking meals every evening in a kitchen I barely knew, with ingredients I was still trying to stock up on and work out where to buy.

As I mentioned before in my post on journeys, I hate being unsettled. I long to be in a predictable routine, everything pre-planned and progressing smoothly throughout the day. I hear you laughing :-) Life just isn't like that, is it?

If we're serious about submitting our lives to God on a daily basis, then we must be prepared for the "interruptions" and "hindrances" He will send our way. And when the interruptions do turn up, we must train ourselves into the habit of greeting them not with frustration and anger but with a willing prayer for God's help to set aside our own plans and show us what it is He means us to do in this situation.

God sends us interruptions for many reasons:

•  Simply, He had other plans for our day and other tasks He wanted us to do.  
• "Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." Proverbs 19v21
• He might want to remind us that people and relationships are more important that to do lists and clean houses. 
• "For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbour as yourself"." Galatians 5v14   
• "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." Hebrews 13v2
• He might want to teach us something, to train us to be more patient or more kind. 
• "Love is patient, love is kind....it does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered..." 1 Corinthians13v4,5

God wants us to stop trying to do everything in our own strength and trust Him that we can submit our schedules and to do lists to Him. I believe that if we are able to do that, then He is faithful and will ensure that the important things do get done in time, and perhaps some of the unimportant things will show themselves to be just that - unimportant. As we align ourselves more with Him, then our desires for our days will also align with His. 

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37v4.

Our job is to ask for His help to greet these interruptions gracefully, submitting to His agenda in our lives and not our own. It's really hard to do, especially when you're a task-oriented perfectionist, like me!

There is a caveat, though, I believe. Join me in my next post as we look at that.

Q: Do you get frustrated with  interruptions?

Q: What are your tips for dealing with interruptions with grace and patience?

I'd love to know your thoughts - do leave a comment!

Abide in Him!

Photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net / David Castillo Dominici

Linking up here: 

Outdoor Hour Challenge No. 12

Beginning our Focus on Garden Flowers

What wonderful timing, to start a focus on garden flowers just as we return to England in time for Spring! When we left Russia it was minus 15, and so Spring seemed very far away. But here in England the weather is warmer, and already we've been enjoying the daffodils and crocuses.

We took our nature study trip to the Garden Centre today. The kids had a wonderful time just looking around (there's nothing like this where we live in Russia!). While Nathaniel was engaged with the fish in the aquariums with Daddy, the girls and I hunted for some flower seeds and a pot of already grown flowers we could transplant. 

 There were so many beautiful baskets of Spring flowers for sale, as well as interesting garden ornaments and water features and other garden decorations. I had to explain that, no, we couldn't buy the large T Rex statue or the bag full of dead maggots for the birds, since we would have a lot of explaining to do getting those through customs on our way back to Russia in August!

In the end we chose Sweet Peas, Snapdragons, Pansies, Sunflowers and a packet that had a mixture of various types of cottage garden annuals. Our potted plant was a Primula. I also couldn't resist buying some little gardening gloves and tools :-)

We're looking forward to having Grandma and Gramps so near by. They have a wonderful garden, so the plan is for much of our nature study to take place there during the next few months. We'll plant some of our seeds here in our rented house, and others over at theirs. I'm really looking forward this study, and I think it'll be so fun for the kids being able to grow their own flowers and learn how to look after them.


Abide in Him!

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Join Me On My Journey

'Life is a journey', or so the cliche goes. I've certainly had my fair share of journeys. I used to love them, back in the days when I was fresh out of my teenage years and ready to take on the world with the passion and naivety of youth. Now that I'm older, and I like to think, a little wiser, I yearn instead for stability, routine, and the comfort of the 'known'. I've spent so much of my life packing and unpacking and living out of a suitcase that what was once exciting has become wearisome. OK, and I guess packing for a husband and three kids in addition makes the task a lot more daunting than it once was!

Photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net / Poulsen Photo

For this last move I started packing up six weeks before we were due to leave. I did get a few comments that perhaps that was excessive, but I knew I needed to do it, for my own sanity. And now, finally, two weeks after arriving back home in the UK for our 'home leave', the suitcases are all unpacked and stowed away in various cupboards, hopefully to gather dust for a few months. I can breathe again, and relax! I love being settled.

However, God, it seems, doesn't like for us to be too settled. In my experience He likes to unsettle us, to push us out of our comfort zones, to suggest we walk that extra mile, when really we'd like to be back at home already with our feet up and a cup of tea in our hands. Jesus calls us to follow Him, and following someone involves leaving and moving and pressing onwards.

At the start of every New Year I often look back and wonder just how much I really have 'moved on' in the previous twelve months in my spiritual life and my walk with the Lord. There should be progress, there ought to be. It's part of our Christian calling. However, God also knows how important community is, and journeys are always much more fun if there's someone to talk to and share with along the way.

As the old African saying goes, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

My hope is, as I start afresh recording some of my life lessons on this blog, that there might be some out there who would like to join me on this journey through the potholes and hilltops and foggy patches and breathtaking views of motherhood, of 'wifehood' and of being a daughter of the King. I'm praying in faith for some wonderful walking companions so that we might be a blessing to one another. 

I would be very honoured and encouraged if you would consider subscribing to my blog, leaving comments and help me build up a community of like-minded fellow travellers here at Grace to Abide. I look forward to our journey together!

Abide in Him!