Four Great Things #29
Here are Four Great Things from the week 04/04/2025.
Life feels like it is shifting gears—not speeding up or slowing down, necessarily. Our girls are exercising more independence, schooling is wrapping up, and summer wishes and to do lists are calling my name. I think I felt this most this week while sitting on our back porch watching a real thunderstorm roll in. It felt like Texas.
Maybe the shift is that we are days away from one whole year here in Indy. Maybe it's the reality of the permanence here rather than an extended mission trip. Before I get too nostalgic and forget my aim here, I'll say that God is faithful, and He continues to remind us of that daily.
Hannah Coulter
I know I've featured Wendell Berry before (that's him up top), and I hope to bring him back many more times. Hannah Coulter is just the pace I need right now, especially in the season of my children. Berry takes on the voice of an elderly woman, looking back at her life. He marvelously reminds us of mundane's beauty and the necessity of simplicity.
“You mustn’t wish for another life. You mustn’t want to be somebody else. What you must do is this: 'Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.' I am not all the way capable of so much, but those are the right instructions.”
Rabbit Aerater
We have these Connection Dinners in our church where 3-4 couples are put in a group to host each other for dinner. We were put with a lovely couple where the husband happened to be a professional chef—poor us. He gave me this hot tip about serving wine immediately after opening it—aerate it. Those who can plan ahead use decanters, but for the rest of us, this simple attachment will do the trick. And goodness gracious, I don't know how we drank wine without it.
Peerless Watercolor
I have been regularly watercoloring 1-2 days a week. I posted a set from Windsor and Newton last month, and while I still like those, I've found another means I like a bit better. The girls' art teacher uses Peerless Watercolor, and they are strips of cardstock with dried watercolor on them. The richness of the colors is astounding and so smooth! They blend well, and the whole contraption travels well.
Books to Read While You're Alive
I could (and probably do) spend too much time just reading book lists. It's the same as looking at someone's book shelves—you can just learn so much about a person. This is a list of 50 books to read while you're alive, and the genres are vast. He reminded me of some on my list I need to get to—Brideshead Revisited for a first read and Till We Have Faces needs another go.
What I'm working on:
The book is up and running! Well, maybe plodding! The Lord put a wonderful writing mentor in my life, and she has turned on some lamps in my dusty head. I'm also swiping at a new blog post about what tools we wield to make sense of where we are in life.
Quotable:
“Everything not forbidden is compulsory”
—T.H. White, The Once and Future King
(Merlyn turns Wart into an ant to further his education. This inscription over the main tunnel made me excited to lead the girls in a conversation about obligation and duty—they did not share my excitement.)
Worth the Memory
"Prayer"
Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth
Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
The land of spices; something understood.
—George Herbert
What are your great things from the week?
I'm Kate
Worshiper, wife, mom—with the help of the Lord, this is my hierarchy of work. Beyond this I homeschool the girls and hold down a staff position at Zionsville Fellowship in Zionsville, Indiana. I read, write, do yoga, cook, and practice thinking pure and lovely things.
