If you are tempted to heap unreasonable expectations upon yourself you might enjoy Dana’s thoughts here.  I have always said that God gives us enough time and resources to do His will but not necessarily a smidge more for our own agendas. My goal this week is to do my periodic re-evaluation to discern which things currently occupying my plate are God’s and which I have added unnecessarily. I challenge you to do the same. : )

The children and I read from a poetry book many mornings. This is the Wordsworth poem we read recently. Even out here it is easy to get caught up in ‘getting and spending’, and making a living can easily overpower making a life. The two are not mutually exclusive, of course, but merging them successfully requires reflection and intention.

"The World Is Too Much With Us" 

The World is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers,

Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given

our hearts away, A sordid boon! This sea that

bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that

will be howling at all hours, And are up -gathered

now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything,

we are out of tune; It moves us not.-Great God!

I’d rather be a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn,

So might I, standing on the pleasant Iea, Have

glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have

sight of Proteus rising from the sea, Or hear

old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

My grandmother was a treasure trove of little sayings and songs, many of which are trapped forever in the recesses of my mind, breaking out when I least expect them. One that is replaying in my head of late is The Old Gray Mare.  You remember don’t you?  "The old gray mare, she ain’t what she used to be….." As I hum involuntarily questions come to mind:

I wonder if she was always gray?  Or at some point along the way did little renegade white hairs begin to pop out like corkscrews in all sorts of odd directions?

I wonder if she stared in the mirror thinking, “Huh. That is MY hair. Go figure.”

I wonder if she found herself musing over the arguments for going gray trying to decide if it was noble or just unnecessarily scrupulous?

I wonder if she thought maybe if she just let it be she would someday look like Diane Keaton or Jamie Lee Curtis? Even if she IS a very short mare….

I wonder if she ever realized that while Taylor Hicks and Richard Gere and a host of other men are thought to be cutting edge cool with their gray, google could not pull up any other gray actresses ….

I wonder what happens when she wanders out to pasture? Do the other horses think her gray is a “crown of glory” or do they just think she let herself go?

I wonder if she ever considered coloring her mane?

I wonder if the prospect of cancer from dark hair dye made her then shiver?

I wonder if the prospect of vegetable dyes left her with flashback images of bad henna jobs from the 70s?

I wonder if she felt coloring hair would be of no more importance than brushing a hint of blush across one’s cheeks or if it was somehow not being authentically herself?

Just wondering. Hypothetically of course….

But sometimes it doesn’t hurt to be reminded. Surfing some scrapbooking sites last night I ran across this too very true reflection on motherhood. I love her sister’s quote:

“Value yourself for this. It earns no worldly acclaim, no financial gain; sometimes you will see no immediate reward. Have faith in your worth as a woman.” Being a mother has been the greatest task that I have ever attempted to do. I’m not prefect by any means, but I realize that all I have to do is try to be the best mother I can and my children will love me for it. Being a Mother is my Greatest Joy. "

what she said. ; )   and some pics of one of nine reasons I get up in the morning and do it all over again:

Found this today. I love it! 

…tagged for the Thinking Blogger Award apparently lol. Thanks to Rebecca and the good folks at Knotty Pines! 

If you get tagged with a Thinking Blogger Award, you are then supposed to do the following:

1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

Do you suppose it reflects poorly on one’s thinking ability when one cannot seem to upload the Thinking Blogger icon clearly? Sigh……

Here is the post for which Rebecca tagged me. 

Some blogs that have me thinking lately are:

Sara’s post on Transforming from Walk Slowly, Live Wildly is awesome as is everything I am reading here lately.

The CM Blog has bitesized pieces of Charlotte Mason’s Six Volume series. This section is on Habit which is a particular interest of mine right now.

I have thought long and hard about implementing a morning time routine like the one described so well at Dominion Family.

Alice Cantrell’s site isn’t loading for my browser at this moment but she wrote a lovely post about why it is that vintage homemaking is such a fascinating topic for contemporary women. Alice, where are you?

The Abiblog contains exerpts from vintage books about all sorts of things that make you go hmmm. The one I linked to touches upon the selection of a wife (circa 1897)

There are an awful lot of women who make me think on a regular basis. I do have such a hard time with limiting my choices. <g>