Here’s what been happening on the home front……

Forum

I can hardly even believe the response to the book club.

You people are as crazified as I am.

Y’all seem so genuinely excited.  I thought I was the only person I knew who could get so excited about reading The Odyssey.  You validate my nerdiness in the best kinda way.   As some of you know who follow me on Facebook, I’ve had trouble with the email list.  As in, I entered forty thousand (slightly exaggerated) names and email addresses and blog addresses into my system and then my system refused to send the email because there were too many recipients.  I still haven’t figured out how to send it because I’m a little tech-challenged.

Soooo, my trusty side-kick Nick gave me the brilliant idea of setting up a forum on my blog so that we’d have a place to discuss and ponder our deep and brilliant thoughts on Odysseus.  It’s a stroke of genius.  Y’all are gonna hate me because I don’t think I’m gonna get the email thing to work but hopefully you’ll forgive me when you see the coolness of the forum page.  The bottom line is—joining the forum is how you join the book club.  At least for now!

If you click in the menu bar on lifeingrace forum, you’ll get to the main page.   I’ve created a forum for homeschooling, faith and bookclub so far and will add more later.   If you click on book club and then ‘getting started with the odyssey’ and then ‘the lost art of reading’, you’ll be able to read the first email.  You should also sign into the forum so you’ll be able to participate in the discussion.  I’ve linked to an article there from the LA Times, written several years ago, called The Lost Art of Reading and it’s a fascinating article about how, as a culture, we’ve lost the ability to slow down and contemplate real ideas and thoughts because we’re so saturated with soundbites and tweets and urgent (but often irrelevant) information.  I think it’s a good place to start as we begin a  journey of reading often difficult  classic works.  I’m working on a video blog full of reading tips for the Odyssey so maybe I’ll finish it this week.  If you want to be a part of the book club, go ahead and purchase The Odyssey and get started!  We’ll discuss it in increments beginning the second week in September.

Cashier’s Showhouse

In other news, my friend Angela, from The Painted House, invited me and few other bloggers to her cottage home in the Blue Ridge Mountains to do a tour of the 2012 Cashiers showhouse and to do some shopping and antiquing in Asheville.   I’ll be spending the night Friday night and visiting the house on Saturday.   Asheville is one of my favorite corners of the world so it should be lots of fun.  If you live in the area, you can buy tickets to the house on site and I can email you directions.   There’s more info here on Angela’s cottage website about the tour!  Thanks, Angela!!!!

God Bless Texas

By some lovely turn of fate, a wonderful group of Lutheran bloggers have taken me under their wing and raised me as their own.  We’re headed to Texas in September for a weekend of Lutheran Awesomeness and by that I mean—-cowboy boots, country line dancing, BBQ eating,  antique-shopping, cocktail-drinking  along with  lots of food, fun and fellowship.  Y’all do know how much I love Texas, right?  The home of George W , Friday Night Lights,  big hair, big belt buckles, and  cowboy boots.    I can hardly contain the joy.   In preparation, I’ve been practicing  The Boot Scootin’ Boogie.   Then, because my friends are so awesome,  they sent THE most adorable teaser in the mail……

Thank you Adriane and Lauren and Kellee! I can hardly wait.

Chickens

I love my chickens.  You can call me Ellie May if you want and I won’t even be offended.   But look at how productive the little buggers are.   We’re up to 4-5 eggs a day!  It’s simply a beautiful thing.  The daily ritual of finding eggs every day in the nesting boxes is priceless.  We let ours out to free range a few hours in the evenings and granted, they make a mess of the mulch.  But it seems a small price to pay for happy, healthy birds.  They follow me around and try to ride on the golf cart and have been known to make a mess of my flowers.   Other than a few minor annoyances, they are so much fun to have around.

In other news, we started school this week and I’ve been working on a ginormous post about our curriculum and goals for the year.  Hopefully, I’ll have the stamina to finish it.

Friends

::I was blown away this weekend by this post by my friend Denise.  She lost her grandson in a terrible accident and I love that she’s starting to use her gift of writing as part of the grieving process.  Please keep their whole family, along with the Winstead family in your prayers as they continue to face new ‘firsts’ without their little boys.

::My friend, Patty, never ceases to amaze me with her writing and photography.  She has such a beautiful way of seeing the world and is perhaps the most thoughtful woman I know.  I’m so blessed that she’s my friend.  I got the sweetest card in the mail from her today—the highlight of my week!  Thank you sweet dear:))

::My friend, Ruth, is coming to visit us next week with her two precious littles.  Ruth and I met at Blissdom and I’m not sure if she realizes how much her story has touched me.  I’m so thankful for her and can’t wait to see her again.  She wrote a beautiful narrative of how we met that blessed me so much.

So much more to share but so little time to blog.

Hope y’all are having a beautiful August!

Mwahhhhhhhh!

p.s.  Two more things:  1)I’ve sorely neglected lifeingracegirls this summer so if you’d like to guest post there, please email me and we’ll get it going again!  I may have to start begging you:)

2)  I’m planning an open house on a Friday very soon (in the next two weeks) so if you live in area and would like to see the house, drink some good coffee and visit awhile, keep your eyes peeled for more info!

I have 3 daughters, ages 10, 11 and 19.

Three daughters+one mom=a lot of beauty products and paraphernalia.

And how do you teach your daughters about the appropriate amount of grooming and primping and beautifying, all the while still teaching them about true beauty, which can’t come from a jar or a tool? It’s not that easy but my younger girls are at the age where they want to talk about it. They want to use a little makeup and are starting to be very interested in shaving. They polish their nails often and dream of using creams and lotions and powders. Oh, I remember the longing to be grown up. And while I still encourage all their little girl qualities, I don’t want to dismiss their interest in the womanly arts. This weekend while we all three were home and floating in the lake, we talked a lot about beauty and especially as it relates to summer. I asked the girls each to give their favorite summer beauty tip/product and then we made a fun little video where we interviewed each other about our top beauty secrets. It was so much fun to hear their thoughts on the subject!

Here are the highlights from the video:†(p.s. In the video I say the Venus Embrace is new but I meant itís new in our house! Itís been around awhile 😉

Do’s

1. Smile and be gracious!

True beauty comes from the heart. Attitude is everything. You can be a stunning runway model with a crabby face and matching attitude and your beauty will be scarred. But you can seek to put others first and be a good listener and smile and your beauty factor is magnified times one hundred. We all agreed that smiling is the one beauty tip you can’t do without! And it’s free so be generous with it.

2. Simple Summer Hair

Wear simple braids and messy buns or better yet—-wear a hat! Simplify the hair routine. Who has time for all that rigmarole when there’s swimming to do, s’mores to roast and fireflies to catch. I love my straw hat in the summer and it just adds the perfect amount of ease, style and sass. My girls watch videos of how to do cute braids and easy styles and it makes summer hair fun. Find a cute hat or updo and don’t be afraid to wear it!

3. Nail Detail

Everything’s a little more bare in the summer so attention to the smaller details goes a long way. Invest in a few good supplies and learn to do your own manicures and pedicures for each other. I love nothing more than going to the nail salon for a pedicure but I usually only make it once or twice in the summer. Otherwise, we keep supplies on hand with our favorite polishes and try to keep the nails groomed. Again, instead of watching the Disney channel, my girls watch videos on how to properly groom your nails and then they teach me their tricks!

4. Skin with a Summer Glow

This is where the talks get thick at our house. We have tweens that want to shave and although we’ve convinced them (I think!) to wait another year, we still talk about it a lot. Don’t you remember the agony of wanting to shave so bad and your mother trying to convince you to wait? It seemed so brutal and unfair! I want to be a good listener and I don’t want to be dogmatic about it. It’s just hair—I’m not gonna die on that hill! Our favorite skin secret is shimmer lotion! We just add a bronze colored body glitter to our favorite lotion and voila! Beautiful, glowing, shimmery skin! †

Don’ts

1. Don’t forget your sunscreen but let yourself get a little sun-kissed first!
2. Don’t wear heavy makeup. Let your summer glow show through! I don’t wear foundation in the summer and yes, my freckles and age spots show through but they’re part of who I am! I love the lighter look of summer makeup.
3. Don’t wear shorts if you’re over 40. Okay, I’m just kidding. Sort of. I have found that I just don’t do shorts all that well. I prefer sundresses and skirts. It hides a lot of imperfections and it tends to make me feel less self-conscious. By all means, if they still make you feel pretty, wear them!
4. And by all means, don’t forget to try the Venus Embrace razor. I’ve always been a Venus girl but this one has the Ribbon of Moisture for a smooth glide and the comfort grip which is perfect for my daughters who are starting to shave. To boost the ‘smooth silky leg’ factor up twenty more notches, try their Satin Care Passionista Fruit Shaving Gel, with its sparkling fruity scent. You’ll be humming island tunes by the time you’re finished! Venus also has a bunch of great tips for first-time shavers. Go check ’em out!

Now, tell us your secrets for the chance to win a $50 Visa gift card!

Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 7/26 – 8/23.
Be sure to visit the Venus brand feature page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggersí reviews and find more chances to win!

Have you checked out the Life Well Lived section of BlogHer.com? There are some great tips and expert posts on everything from Looking Your Best to Getting Happy and Getting Organized!

We had such a lovely visit with our family this past week and are slowly adjusting to the quiet house. I’m always a little lonesome when everyone leaves but as we clean up and rearrange, I relive the happy memories all over again. At the height of our fun, we had 20 house guests and beds scattered here and yon to accommodate anyone who wanted to stay. I had ten pages of handwritten notes (about menu planning and to-do lists) that I followed to a ‘T’ until the last day, when I decided that ‘farmer’s salad with grilled salmon and cheesy garlic bread’ just wasn’t happening. We ordered fried chicken, take-out style, from our favorite gas station and called it a day.

My motto is (borrowed from my mother), “the more you eat, the better I feel.” I do love to entertain and feed people and love on them while they’re here. It will go down in the history books as the best staycation ever.  More pics and stories to follow when I can form more than 2 coherent thoughts in a row !

During our Fourth of July festivities, we received the most tragic and horrifying news that two of our friends lost their boys to a freak lake accident. It’s been hard to think of anything else, as we go to bed and wake up every morning with these precious families in our thoughts and prayers. Many of you may know my blog and real life friends, Denise and her daughter Kelly. One of the boys killed was Kelly’s son, (Denise’s grandson), and his best friend Noah. My little Elea was in Noah’s kindergarten class back before we started homeschooling.  They were both such great kids and will be missed terribly.  Please keep all these friends in your prayers in the coming days as they grieve and try to somehow make it through this loss. God is so faithful to us and has joyfully received these boys to Himself. He knows the depth of our heartache and He will not leave us to grieve as they we had no hope.  He is our Father and His grace and mercy will sustain us against all odds.  I sit here today  heartbroken for my friends, wishing there were something to do or say that would ease the suffering.  I cry out to Jesus, whose death and resurrection gives us the blessed assurance that one day, with Noah and Nate, we too will rise with Him.  You can read about the story here and donate to the fund for the families here.

Prayer for these impossible days:

Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Merciful Father, You know how difficult these days are for me.  In Your holy Word, You have promised to hear those who cry unto You in the day of trouble.  Listen to my cries for mercy and send help from the sanctuary of Your grace.

Preserve me from bitterness of spirit, and rescue me from every temptation to despair.   Calm my frustrations with the knowledge that my life and the eternal life of all my children is secure in Your redeeming love, for we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Your Son.   Draw me out of crippling worry and heartache, which stifles faith, and cause me to take comfort in the Gospel.   Sustain and strengthen me under every cross and affliction, that Your grace might be made perfect in my weakness.

Give me confidence to pray without losing heart and to trust in Your mighty deliverance according to Your good and gracious will.

Father, into Your hands I commend myself.  Hear me, for the sake of Your Son, who alone is my Brother and Savior.

Amen.