...and a Happy, Creative New Year to all!

I love this photo of the giant origami lips. One of my independent study art students made these a couple of weeks before Christmas when locker decorating was going on in the halls, and she hung them on her friend's locker door. I followed her up there and snapped this photo because I wanted to have record of the largest origami I've ever seen. :o)
I've really enjoyed my time off, and trip to NC to see my family, and now it's time to start thinking about teaching again -- it's less than a week away. I'm looking forward to seeing what my students create this coming semester and I'm looking forward to learning alot right along beside them. Teaching as a job has its stresses and frustrations, but overall it's more like a gift than any of those things. It has been said that if you really want to learn something well, you should teach it. This is SO true. But it's about more than the material you're teaching. It's also about learning new ways to communicate to a diverse group of students, about listening to the students' 'critique' of the way you teach and learning to examine yourself and find out if they are right; listening to their ideas and finding new ways of doing things. The crown on it all, of course, is learning about and exploring new areas of your subject where you've never had a chance to before. It's an opportunity to grow in so many ways. As I said in my profile, "I can't imagine a more mind-stimulating and heart-revealing occupation," and I'm very grateful to God for this opportunity. 

A Blessed Christmas to Family and Friends. . . .

God did not
send Christ
to us;
God came
to us
in Christ.

~Don Skinner 

Visual Journaling - worth the effort

My experience with visual journaling was born out of my combined interests of natural things and homeschooling. When my children were small and I was trying to find a way to teach them so that what we learned in science was both interesting and memorable, I read about nature journaling in a book by Charlotte Mason (I think it was her). I was intrigued and I went out and bought sketch journals for my children and myself, and we began taking hikes together in the state park that was just 5 minutes from our home. We would collect specimens or (I would) take photographs, we would carry field guides, and sometimes we would sit down and draw right there on the trail. We would take the specimens back home with us, look them up in encyclopedias or other books, then not only draw them, but also write about our hike, what the day was like, and about the specimen. It worked more or less depending on mood and attitude, but overall it was very successful.
What it did for me personally was to get me drawing again after a long hiatus (not much drawing happened with four babies being born in 7 years), and further sparked my interest in photography. Not only that, but also cultivated my interest in teaching. I eventually taught nature journaling as a cross-curriculum class at our homeschool co-op. I had a great time with the students.
As I further investigated visual journaling I came across several books on the subject. My hands-down favorite, though, is a book by Hannah Hinchman called A Trail Through Leaves , the subtitle is The Journal as a Path to Place. I found it on a bargain table at Waldenbook or some bookstore one time, and didn't realize what a treasure I had found until I started reading it. I devoured it in no time and went on to read others she has written. I found them at Amazon after doing a search on her name. Check these out if you're intrigued by now. While I don't completely agree with Ms. Hinchman philosophically, I do respect her discipline of consistent journaling, and relish the instruction and ideas she so generously gives.

Adding to the Beauty

I just got Sara Groves new cd, "Add to the Beauty," and have been enjoying it very much. She says she wanted to do her next cd (this one) about the Kingdom of God. "Now more than ever the only thing that could rival my despair at the pain in the world is my hope in a very real kingdom of God, and very real people who by the grace of God are adding to the beauty with their beautiful art, creative lives, and redemptive work."
I know a lot of those people and they touch my life in ways they may never know. The artists, the authors, the musicians, the teachers, the preachers, the missionaries, etc.... all doing creative, redemptive work, doing their part to enlarge and beautify the Kingdom of God. They are my heroes and I applaud them here today.
The work they do is done from hearts that are passionate about God, His Kingdom, and His people with not much thought for themselves. I long to have a heart like this. A heart that doesn't seek to do great things, but instead seeks to love like God loves, to be His voice, feet and hands on the earth.
This is what I want for Christmas.

 

Exciting new possibilities

The opening of a kiln is always an angst filled time. Will there be beautiful stuff in there? explosions? new things for the junk pile? wonderful surprises?
Well, I think my husband was quite pleased with his last opening. He ran back and forth to the kiln as it cooled down like a child waiting for Christmas morning. When at last the pieces could be pulled out and examined, he beamed with satisfaction.
These are a few of the best "surprises."
Way to go, Babe! 

God intrudes

Another favorite quote for Christmas meditation:
Despite our efforts to keep him out, God intrudes. The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin's womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked "No Entrance" and left through a door marked "No Exit."
--Peter Larson, Prism (Jan/Feb 2001)
Also, for some out-of-the-ordinary, heart-moving meditations on Christmas, go to
http://www.desiringgod.org and click on the links in the topic index which will take you to John Piper's Advent Poems. He writes one every year as a gift to his congregation, and they are very thought provoking. Not to be missed!

Even the angels long to look into these things. . .

Do you want to see the humility of God? Look in the manger and see Him lying there. Surely this is our God. Seeing an infant, I wonder how this could be the one who says, "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" I see a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. Is this the one who is clothed in the beautiful glory of unapproachable light?
Listen! He is crying. Is this the one who thunders in the heaven making the angels lower their wings? Yes, but he has emptied himself in order to fill us.
-- Guerric of Igny, Liturgical Sermons

Now is the time to sing, envision, enact, and retell a story of God coming unexpectedly in the worst of times as a baby born poor, born homeless, born to die that all human life might be transformed and dreams made real. It's God's Good News -- but only because we already know the story of Easter.
-- John H. Westerhoff 

We loved Seattle -- even in the rain

We adored Seattle. In fact, we haven't enjoyed a city together that much since. . . well, EVER! Here we are in a downtown Starbucks at the end of our week-long trip, just before departing for the airport. On this day we toured downtown and saw a couple of wonderful art galleries where we saw, among other wonderful stuff, bunches of exquisite glass work by Dale Chihuly and a little bit of William Morris, too.
The Olympic Forest, Mount Ranier, the city, the art galleries, the mounted police, the Pike Place Market, the Aquarium, the Sound, the fish & chips, the Starbucks, our good friends the Saylors . . . yes, and even the rain -- it was all good! 

Me and my rebel

Never thought anyone would ever hear me say I love digital; and no, I don't love it as much as film cameras and the b&w wet lab, but it's fast, it's clean, it's getting better and more affordable. So now, my rebel and I go everywhere together.