After pulling off a pretty nice open house for the graduation of my sixth homeschooled child, I wondered, again, why we don't make a party for the moms who have put so many years (27+ in my case) into teaching/raising/training/praying for their kids. So I determined to throw myself a private party. Well, when it happened that said sixth child wanted to go "yondering" and practice her driving, we kinda turned that event into a party.
It was a perfect day for our adventure, with the cherry trees blooming all over the area, the sun shining brightly but not too hotly, and the light clouds adding character to the sky.
We stopped along the wandering way for a wonderful lunch at a cute cafe.
A little sidestreet to us to a lakeside tourist trap shopping area and I bought myself a semi-retirement (one never retires from homemaking, just homeschooling) present...
...a rain chain thingy with teapot and cups (of course). I still need to find the right spot to hang it.
We also discovered an old partially preserved farming community with ancient cemetery and discovered that preservationists put on a fair in August where they demonstrate old skills like farming with horses, spinning, canning, quilting, etc. So, we may try to go this year.
It was the relaxing, companionable, beautiful day that we both needed.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Because it's been so long since I wrote about my current reading material, I want to expound on the goodness of this book:
After reading his excellent book, "The Praying Life," I wanted to read more of Paul E. Miller's works and knew that I needed to work on how I love (or don't) others, so I got this one and assigned it to my daughter, too. We've both benefited a lot and agree that it's one of those books that should be reread multiple times to be able to get all the good stuff out of it.
Here's a peek at some of the chapter titles:
The author is very open about his own shortcomings and uses real-life incidences as examples which make it easier for the reader to connect lessons with their own life. I believe this book has helped me to let go of some of my defensiveness when accused of things that I don't think I did and instead to look at the accuser's perspective more readily. And I'm sure it's affected me for the better in other ways, too. Still so much to learn and more growth in Christlikeness needed.
I highly, highly recommend it.
And now, it's off to the gardens I go.
Sounds like you had a lovely retirement party :) I hope you go to the fair in August and blog about it, it sounds like a very interesting one !xx
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