Daybook for Sept. 29

outside my window …  dark, a small light in the sky, birds starting to chirp

around the house … lots of wonderful books piled high, walls screaming for new colors, a floor in desperate need of cleaning, all the ugly hedge bushes in the front ripped out, yay!

from the kitchen … made lots of new recipes this week, such as coconut flour bread and gluten-free corn bread.  Chicken stock.  I need to make something for a "Yum, Yum" auction at church, but I don't know what.

I am playing … had lots of fun at a family picnic.  We had an egg toss, relay races, wheelbarrow races, boomerang throws.  (I threw my boomerang farther than any female in attendance.  Yes, I'm proud.)

I am reading … really couldn't get into the biography of Hannah Whitall Smith.  Such a disappointment to me.  I am reading Scot McKnight's "Praying with the Church ... Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today" and love it.  This theme of living out the liturgy and building your life around it has resonated with me for years, and I'm finally feeling a hope of connectedness within the church.

I am pondering … "Now I live and breathe for an audience of One", making that a reality is so freeing.  Also, trying to slow down and enjoy the moment of now, instead of racing ahead to the next thing on my list.

I am praying … moment by moment, day by day strength, for a friend who recently lost her father and lost the sparkle in her eyes, for friends' upcoming adoption, for martyrs

I am grateful … for a kindred spirit in my daughter, a husband who cleaned up my disastrous mess in the kitchen several times this week, the compassion of my son

learning together … fascinating details of the early Byzantine empire, wanting to go see the Hagia Sophia someday, learning that vocabulary is one of my kids' favorite subjects, understanding sentence patterns in English, learning cool things about bears.  We acted out what to do if you encounter a bear in the wild - it was so fun, but to explain it would take the fun right out of it. 

looking forward to … a church picnic and baptism, sewing with Hannah, Asher's football game, a fall train ride

one of my favorite things ... lemon water, first thing in the morning