Story Pieces & Five Suggestions

Anything might happen when the box of story pieces 

comes out of the buffet drawer. 

Using these tiny plastic characters to act out 

spontaneous stories always results in shared laughter. 

Will the horse take the flamingo for a ride?

Will the alligator and the pig be friends or foes?

Will the bucket-carrying girl trip over the hedgehog?

Story-loving grandkids want to know.

FIVE SUGGESTIONS

 for using your own box of Story Pieces: 

* A timer can be handy when one of the storytellers is ... 

long-winded. 

* Storytellers who are waiting for their turn must listen 

quietly to the current storyteller. Ask questions at the end, 

but do not interrupt the flow of the story.

* Keep interest high by rotating the story pieces. Look for 

new ones in toy stores, craft shops, and at second-hand sales. 

* Licking, biting, and/or eating the story pieces is frowned upon.

* Use the concept of chapters for older storytellers. Each player 

can continue the story using the same core characters.

More on hopeful stories here. 

 

Library Day

In elementary school, my favorite day was Thursday,

because it was Library Day. 

I could hardly wait to enter the small library at the end of the upstairs 

hallway, past the water fountain, next to the double doors.

It didn't matter that the librarian, Mrs. R., had a nasty temper. 

Oh, I noticed her saggy scowl deepen as we filed into her domain, 

but I knew her anger wouldn't lash in my direction. 

Mrs. R. took no notice of the nerdy girl with too-large glasses 

engrossed in selecting her next Nancy Drew adventure. 

The lumpish mole between her eyebrows quivered and protruded 

as she pounded tables and flung periodicals at naughty boys—

Mrs. R. did dislike those grade-school boys. 

I identified.

So while she tossed plastic chairs and whoever sat in them, 

I opened books and trained Big Red with Danny or wandered the dump 

with the Boxcar Children, searching for barely-chipped china plates.

The hoofbeats of the Black Stallion, the King of the Wind, and their Island counterparts 

drowned out the rantings of that long-ago, rural-Kentucky librarian. 

And really, what could be more riveting than Miss Hickory's dark relationship 

with the squirrel?

Not much ...

I wonder if you remember your earliest librarian. 

Did she teach you to love reading or 

did you learn to love reading in spite of her?

Which books were your favorite childhood escapes?

I'd love to know.

Fairies and Photography

Last fall, I took a leaf photo that I loved. You know how good can be born from 

the very painful things in life? Well, that's exactly what happened.

My returning RA made it much too painful to get low enough to capture the light 

beaming through fall leaves scattered across our patio. So I fiddled with settings and 

took the photos 'blind' by placing the camera on the ground and pressing the shutter release.

 Every photo was a surprise, since I had nothing to do with the

 framing or focusing of the shot.

It occurred to me that photos taken from this vantage point  display what a fairy might see.

Guess I read a few too many books about woodland fairies in my childhood 

because it sure stuck with me!

 And now that spring is swelling into summer, I find myself  wondering what those

 fairies 

might see IF they wandered through my flowerbeds -

 Oriental poppies from below - quite an impressive sight!

 Painted ferns would make a colorful overhead display.

Lily of the valley blooms could replace church bells on any clear morning!

***

This would be a fun photo project for children this summer.  Any point and shoot camera, 

a DSLR with an 'auto' setting, or an iphone camera will do the job. Be ready 

to delete many photos that focus incorrectly, come out blurred or poorly lit. 

But wait for it ...

... they will be thrilled when they get a photo that perfectly portrays the everyday 

viewpoint of  the common garden fairy. And you have a chance to talk with them 

about seeing things from another person's perspective,

 and the effort and payoffs that are involved in that sometimes difficult  task.

Just a thought.

Link to more kid photography ideas here.

Move In Day

It's impossibly crowded on Move In Day at the local university.

* vehicles parked every jiggity way *

*  overly enthusiastic helper students to lug stuffstuffstuff up steps *

* parents wandering about in a dazed stupor *

This was our first MID, and it was a struggle to decide how to feel  about it.

There were not so many tears, since the boy is only moving 20 minutes from home,

and we enjoyed our time helping him to organize, clean and arrange.

Time was spent with the roommate and his family, and we laughed as we unpacked 

lots of duplicate items.

Even so, everyone knew that a definite line of demarcation was being approached, 

and the underlying solemness of the event buzzed in the air.

As we were about to leave our Second Son, our Middle Boy, in his dorm room

and drive back home, we clasped hands and prayed. 

People in the room who were perhaps not used to praying within the safety of a believing circle 

joined those who knew the Savior well, 

and fervent prayers were said over the college freshmen who had been celebrated that day.

If you've ever sent a practically grown child to live on his own, 

you probably know exactly how those prayers sounded.

How quickly we moved from   way back then   to   here and now!

Surety

I wonder about lots of things.

I ponder over a handful or so.

I entertain angst in honor of a few.

Musings on life come and go through the corridors of my heart, and in and out of my spinning head.

Notions about which I am certain have been amended or just discarded, and up- or down-graded.

One surety remains of all.

I AM LOVED

And that is huge.

I've told people that I'm in transition.

It seems like the home-ed years might be coming to an end after this one.

Maybe, maybe not.

It seems like I'll need to find something else to DO.

Maybe, maybe not.

It looks like the next part of my life is on the horizon. 

Part III, I'd name it, if my life was a novel.

In sorting, in beginning the sorting, of what to keep and what to eject, 

this simple revelation is like the North Star.

I AM LOVED!

It's the touchstone that is returned to over and over, and over again, beginning in childhood -

Jesus loves me this I know ...

It's a stone grown smooth with the wearing of my wondering, pondering, and sometimes anxious hand.

Are any of you in transition too? Anyone else out there sorting, keeping and ejecting?

Has this truth sunk down deeply enough in your soul to be an anchor? The anchor?

Does knowing this lead you gladly to repentance, again and again and again?

Is it your North Star too, leading the way into the Father's arms?

Does having this knowing in place cause the rest of your life 

to seem to sort itself?

It can.

Romans 8:38-39, Ephesians 2:4-5, 

1 John 4:9-11 and 3:1, Psalm 136, 23-26, Romans 2:4

Finishing

That's Our Boy!

Graduating with honors --- one among a crowd of many, many.

And yet so special to us!

We were so proud of his graduation accomplishment; so happy for him to finally grasp the wonderful feeling of finishing, and even finishing well - a continuing theme around here: "Finish Well!"