We don’t really need artwork, music or any theatrical productions do we???

Or do we???

Not that long ago many schools were attempting to ‘cut costs’ and eliminate ‘non-essential’ classes from the curriculums…endeavoring to push math, english and science. That’d be no fun to go to school and never have an art class, band or choir. Those were some of my favorite classes!

We need our artists…everyone of them in whatever category they do art…designing a beautiful building, a landscape, a new interior for the library, fresh songs to listen to and sing along, pictures to hang on the wall, artistic sidewalk and brick alley walls painted downtown to brighten things up. Art talks from one person to another many times in non-verbal ways.

Nature is God’s art. That’s where we get many ideas for art from…the colorful sunset, the tall sharp mountain peaks, snowy rivers and icy streams, beautiful birds and butterflies and an abundance of flora and fauna.

Watching and tending a plant is a form of art. Baking and frosting a cake for your family is art. Whistling or singing a happy tune is art. We are made to make and do art and share it with others.

We need art, we need to support artists who bring joy and thoughtfulness into our lives.

We need to support our own individual art and not quench it thinking we don’t have anything of value. A tiny space needs only a tiny picture, and if only large ones are painted or thought important, the tiny space will remain empty and undecorated.

Don’t underestimate the value of your or another’s art. Use it to benefit others and provide for you. We need it. We need your work.

We want to see your art!

Lots of birds at my birdfeeders! We love watching them fly in to eat close to the house where we can see their markings better!

Winter, spring, summer, fall, we will feed them one and all! Squirrels, chipmunks, bunnies…they all want to be there for the party too!

I have heard it said don’t get the birds used to coming to your place if you’re not going to be there over winter, otherwise they’ll starve expecting food and you’re not there!

Yesterday, as I was filling up the feeders again, (we had run out of birdseed and had to get more), I wondered about the above philosophy – if there was any truth to it – or if it was just an old wives tale.

Surely if there was no food at the Jones’ they would fly over to the Smith’s, and on the Hazelgroves’ place if they had none. These are not dumb birds out testing their luck finding food. God knew they needed food and would show them where to look.

If we went to the store and they were out of milk or eggs, we’d just go to another store, or find something else to eat. No starvation diet for us! There’s plenty to go around, we only need to look. Birds do the same thing.

Another comment is, ‘don’t feed birds average, might be moldy, unsterilized nuts and seed. It might make them sick’. Here again, God has given them proper sniffers and beaks to sort out the good from the bad and prevent them from ingesting unhealthy foodstuffs. (Really it’s us folks who need to use our sniffers and ‘beaks’ to sift out the healthy vs unhealthy food items in our storage bins.)

So rest at ease. Feed the birds if you please and don’t worry. They’re smart enough to fly on to better eating elsewhere.

Their GPS will lead them (God Provides for Sparrows)

You are better than a sparrow and God will provide for you too 🙂

Power was out up here for 15 hours straight! Fortunately it was not cold outside.

Baby grandbaby was just put to bed so she didn’t know. That left big brother and Gramma to hold down the fort while mommy and daddy were away.

It was dusk turning to dark. We got out the matches and lit the candles and watched them burn together. The dishwasher stopped running. We did not open the fridge or freezer to conserve the coldness. We talked about why. Couldn’t really read stories too well by candle light alone. No TV, no sound machine, no night lights or streetlights, just quietness and some light from the few neighbors who had generators running. So we talked together, big brother (almost 4) and I.  We talked about electricity and why the oven, the refrigerator and the washer wouldn’t work. We tried the light switches anyway…yep, they still didn’t work. Instead of reading stories, I told him stories about his daddy and stories I told to his daddy when he was his age. We lit a candle for upstairs until bedtime and instead of closing his blinds and door, I left them open for more light and told him I did the same in my room so I could hear him and he could hear me. Both little ones slept very soundly, although I had one ear turned on all night 🙂

Wake up was normal time, but I forgot about the time change, and little brother wanted to go make waffles…which we couldn’t with no power, so we had oranges and fig bars for breakfast after we relit the candles. We played games at the kitchen table in the morning darkness until baby and the sun came up, and played more games and stories until the power finally came on again.

Then we opened the fridge for milk,  turned on the coffee pot, restarted the dishwasher.

It was good for us all to be with out power. Lots more togetherness, hugging, talking, laughing, learning.

We made an uneventful happening turn out good for us!