7-Quick Takes

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 This content uses referral links. Read our disclosure policy for more info. This means if you make a purchase, I get a little change to keep up my Diet Coke habit. It’s a win/win. 

1.

Noah completed all of his course work and should be considered an official college graduate next week. We’re just super proud of him. Yet I look at the calendar hanging in the kitchen and I see the word “Graduation” penciled in for this Sunday and it fills me with such sadness that after working so hard he won’t experience walking across the stage, or any of the pomp and circumstance that goes with his achievements. I’m sad that he didn’t get to do his play, and that his spring concerts were cancelled, his trip to Montreal is gone and that his entire Senior track season was cancelled.

I blogged about how this year’s Senior class (8th grade, high school, and college) are missing a lot. Parents are losing a lot too. When you have a child, you really only get 13 springs with them and their activities, unless they go on to college then you get a few more years. But none of it is guaranteed. Living with this shutdown and losing these milestone moments has been a great reminder to take nothing for granted. Yet I think this sorrow for missing this season in his life will always fill me with some degree of sorrow.

2.

Interesting take last week on women in the bible that I really needed to read as I continue to quarantine with my family.

Have you ever noticed how in the scriptures men are always going up into the mountains to commune with the Lord?

Yet in the scriptures we hardly ever
hear of women going to the mountains,
and we know why — right?

Because the women were too busy
keeping life going;
they couldn’t abandon babies,
meals,
homes,
fires,
gardens,
and a thousand responsibilities to make the climb into the mountains!

I was talking to a friend the other day,
saying that as modern woman
I feel like I’m never “free” enough
from my responsibilities,
never in a quiet enough,
or holy enough spot
to have the type of communion
I want with God.

Her response floored me,
“That is why God comes to women.
Men have to climb the mountain to meet God, but God comes to women where ever they are.”

I have been pondering on her words for weeks and have searched my scriptures
to see that what she said is true.
God does in deed come to women
where they are,
when they are doing their ordinary,
everyday work.

He meets them at the wells
where they draw water for their families,
in their homes,
in their kitchens,
in their gardens.

He comes to them
as they sit beside sickbeds,
as they give birth,
care for the elderly,
and perform necessary mourning and burial rites.

Even at the empty tomb,
Mary was the first to witness Christ’s resurrection,
She was there because she was doing the womanly chore of properly preparing Christ’s body for burial.

In these seemingly mundane
and ordinary tasks,
these women of the scriptures found themselves face to face with divinity.

So if — like me — you ever start to bemoan the fact that you don’t have as much time to spend in the mountains with God as you would like. Remember, God comes to women. He knows where we are and the burdens we carry. He sees us, and if we open our eyes and our hearts we will see Him, even in the most ordinary places and in the most ordinary things.

He lives.

Original – Heather Farrell

3.

Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Mark, so Miss C. and I did this Lion paper project as we learned more about St. Mark. The Lion is this gospel writer’s symbol.

This pin on Pinterest was the inspiration.

4.

One thing I CAN do for Rosie and Noah is give them a piano recital online. So next week, that’s what I’m going to do. Check back here for the link to their living room piano recital! Here’s Rosie’s recital from last spring.

5.

I just discovered brining chicken a few week ago. IT MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE! It keeps the chicken moist and flavorful. Great simple brining directions.

6.

Mr. Pete has been productive in quarantine. He laid this beautiful kitchen floor last weekend.

7.

And now he’s doing work videos!