Tuesday, December 16, 2025 Commonplace Book: The Eyes of Your Heart

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Christmas music plays quietly in the background as I write this. The day is still dark, the room lit up by the Christmas tree. I just read the entire book of Ephesians in one sitting and am filled with wonder at the kindness of God in making me one of His own, one of His beloved. So let’s start off with something from that book, a prayer that I would pray for you if I knew you, especially if I knew that you were still wandering in darkness.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened, that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power toward us who believe.
Ephesians 1:18-19

I remember reading through Ephesians as a new Christian and being absolutely transported by the beauty, eloquence and poetry of Paul’s prose. And the Holy Spirit gave them wings in my heart.

I promise you that joy
runs deeper than despair.
Corrie Ten Boom

Repeat those words often when you need them.

If you want to know where your heart is,
look to where your mind goes when it wanders.
Walt Whitman

Very revealing!

The best way to shorten winter is to prolong Christmas.
GK Chesterton

And now, a quote from the poet Luci Shaw, who died on December 1 of this year.

Planting seeds
inevitably
changes my feelings
about rain.
Luci Shaw

So much packed into so few words – that’s fine wordsmithy right there.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning…or will I?

Monday, December 15, 2025 Cold Feet, Purring Cat

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It’s after bedtime, which means a short post is in order:

Luna’s warm body is next to me on the chair. My feet are cold. I wonder what she’d do if I tried to drape her over my feet for warmth? I suspect it wouldn’t end well. The purring would stop, for sure. I guess I can endure cold feet for a purring cat.

This green-eyed post will have to quit purring in the morning.

Friday, December 12, 2025 Five Things

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I read about a writing prompt recently. The idea is to observe or notice one thing and then write a sentence or two (or more) about it. You can go back later and add more if inspired. Then you do that four more times. The examples in the essay I read were positively lyrical and amazingly deep. I decided to try it for a while and see what percolates. Nothing lyrical or deep emerged, but it’s early days. Here’s today’s batch:

1. I’m sorting through a bin of old clothes and it’s a bit like sorting through memories. I’ve kept some of these clothes under the delusion that I’ll be able to wear some of them again in that mystical future in which I’ve lost enough weight. Others have sentimental value. I see reminders of a mission trip with our two youngest, a family camp trip (those wonderful days!), a thinner version of myself, Christmases of yore…even an ancient shirt from my youth with my initials affixed to the back, a gift from a friend.

2. Binoculars sit on a stool by the window. We use these to see if our mail has been delivered. No sense getting all our winter gear on to get the mail if it hasn’t arrived yet.

3. I wear two rings: my wedding band on the left hand and my replacement engagement ring on the right (lost the diamond out of the first one some years ago). Promises made, promises kept. The Lord has been kind to us.

4. The large bluebird cross stitch piece on the wall was a labor of love from my sister, a project she gave herself a couple months to complete and which took over a year. How does one quantify that kind of love?

5. The clock on the wall says 12:00 noon. Time to put my contacts in and go to the pool to swim 18 laps. It’s cold out. Must I go? (Yes.)

1 The post needs to be written.
2 The post is written.
3 The post needs a photo, just because.
4 Post is published!
5 It must be deleted in the morning.

Thursday, December 11, 2025 The Scowling Owl

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Every owl
Knows how to scowl
Like every ant
Knows how to crawl

Every owl
Knows how to hunt
Like every pig
Knows how to grunt

Every owl
Knows how to fly
Like every snake
Knows how to lie

Every owl
Can twist its neck
Like every bird
Knows how to peck

Every owl
Can call out “Whoo!”
So tell me now,
What can YOU do?

Every blog post knows how to be deleted. This one is no exception.

Tuesday, December 9, 2025 Commonplace Book: A Lovely Light

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Unwrapped gifts are stacked in a corner, while unkempt rolls of wrapping paper lounge carelessly on the couch. The two groups are destined to meet. And soon.

But you didn’t come here for my pithy observations. Let’s attend to the business of reading this week’s quotes in my book.

Christians have nothing to be smug about;
we are not righteous people trying to correct the unrighteous.
Just one beggar telling another beggar
where to find bread.
R.C. Sproul

And if you don’t know where to find the bread of life, crack open that dusty old Bible that lies forgotten on your shelf, turn to the Gospel of John chapter 6, and commence eating.

It was only a sunny smile
and little it cost in giving,
but like morning light
it scattered the night
and made the day worth living.
F. Scott Fitzgerald

The power of a sunny smile to vanquish the darkness in somebody else’s day.

We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.
Madeleine L’Engle

Ponder that one for a minute or so with me.

Cultivate the holy habit
of seeing the hand of God
in everything that happens to you.
Arthur W. Pink

Cultivating is a work of hoes, dirt, sweat and calluses. But in the end, ah, what a garden you have.

Be thankful for the thorns and thistles
which keep you from being in love with this world.
Charles Spurgeon

I’ll probably loudly discredit this post in the morning.

Monday, December 8, 2025 Olio

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The word “olio” comes up surprisingly often in crossword puzzles. It means “a miscellaneous collection of things,” or “hodgepodge.” Let that inform you as to the nature of what follows.

Sunsets, sunrises…I still run out in my slippers to capture them.

Pastels overlaid with the rough darkness of trees. Never gets old.

I thought this flower had a definite celebratory look to it. Or perhaps a head of disorganized hair. Don’t you love how it lights up the photo? I do!

I’ll tell you, old age is severe upon the plant world. These were beautiful in their prime. Still, they put on a very interesting farewell, unashamed of their desiccated state. The Lord giveth; the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the named of the Lord.

Obviously, these were all taken before the change of seasons, before frost, cold and snow scrubbed away the green and gold of autumn.

To everything there is a season
and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
A time to be born,
and a time to die,
A time to plant,
and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

And a time to delete this…in the morning.

Wednesday, December 3, 2025 The Workshop: Puffed Up with Puffins

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I’ve now entered the puffin phase of my artistic endeavors. Or rather, I’ve re-entered, having dabbled in some puffinry back in 2020 (Puffin Post). And then there was a poem I wrote in which a puffin played a significant part (See: The P Birds).

When I see photos of puffins, I think the Lord must have been in a whimsical mood when He created them.

Plus, and hold onto your hat for this one: their babies are called “pufflings.” I did NOT make that up, but almost wish I had. In my fertile imagination, these would be so fun to have around, adorable little pets waddling to you with their adorable orange feet, making their adorable puffin noises with their adorable orange beaks. Sadly, puffins do not inhabit my part of the world, and I’m sure not going to go to theirs, so we shall have to remain strangers. It’s better that way. It’s very unlikely that they would live up to what I’ve imagined them to be like.

Is that a memoir that you’d read? If so, I’ll hunt down Mr. Polite Puffin (who could, I admit, be Mrs. Polite Puffin. It’s hard to tell) and do an interview.

More puffins will be coming. A page of pufflings might be on the way.

I’ll have to huffin and puffin and blow this one down in the morning.

Tuesday, December 2, 2025 Commonplace Quotes: Advent(ish)

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Advent season has just begun…
Leaning into the breathlessness of waiting,
Embracing silence in order to hear,
Letting the darkness look like hope instead of despair,
And resting in the promises of light to come.

That’s just me talking, though. There’s better places to go to hear about waiting, silence, darkness, hope and light.

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
Those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined.
Isaiah 9:2

Quietude, which some men cannot abide
because it reveals their inward poverty,
is as a palace of cedar to the wise,
for along its hallowed courts
the King in his beauty
deigns to walk.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The devil has made it his business
to monopolize on three elements:
noise,
hurry,
crowds.
He will not allow quietness.
Elisabeth Elliot

Comfort, comfort ye my people
Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
Bowed beneath their sorrow’s load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover,
And her warfare now is over.
Johannes Olearius

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tower high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

Unto him who is able to keep us from falling,
and lift us from the dark to the bright mountain of hope,
from the midnight of desperation to the daybreak of joy,
to him be the power and authority forever and ever.
Martin Luther

My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
Psalm 62:5

Blessings on your collective heads.

I’ll probably delete this in the quiet of the morning.

Monday, December 1, 2025 Jeeves Works For Us

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Meet Jeeves, our fabulous new helper.

As far as we can tell, he gets along well with the other help, primarily the dishwasher and washing machine, who remain unnamed. Quite frankly they don’t have the personality that Jeeves does.

Much to my disappointment, we are unable to assign a male British voice to our squat little robot; all the voices are female. I settled on the Australian accent after deciding that the British lady sounded just a titch whiny.

To start out with, Jeeves took a little walking tour around our main floor, sauntering casually here and there, mapping all the details. This took less than 15 minutes. We did our own work on the map, naming rooms, setting boundaries, and then set Jeeves out on its maiden voyage.

It informed us cheerily of the work ahead: “Starting cleaning.” I followed it around for a while, completely fascinated and a little awestruck. When Jeeves encountered a few entry mats on a tiled floor, it switched from sweeping and mopping to vacuuming. Between jobs, it would say “returning to dock,” where it would settle in and do some housecleaning. Cleaning out its own dustbin creates a wonderful flourish of noise. If it’s been doing some mopping, it goes back to the base and tells us “Cleaning mop heads,” so we don’t have to worry that it’s just slacking off instead of working.

When I saw Jeeves industriously working on cleaning two of our dirtiest entry mats and then sweeping and mopping around them, I was so moved, I nearly wept.

We had it do the whole main floor that first afternoon. I reassured poor Jeeves that this was the hardest day of cleaning it would have, since normally we would not be cleaning every room at the same time or even daily. I wanted to get a feel for how it would clean each room, and the work involved in preparing each room. Yes, there’s still actual work involved in using a robot vacuum. Things have to be taken off the floor and put back after it’s done.

By the time Jeeves had done all the rooms, its battery was down to 17%. It went wearily back to its base and said, “Charging.” You take all the time you need to charge up, little guy.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

(Our old vacuum is upstairs sulking, by the way.)

This post will return to base and delete itself in the morning.

Wednesday, November 19, 2025 The Workshop: Little Mousie

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I’ve taken a short break from Tiny Art, working on a few other things. Sometimes it’s fun to do a pencil sketch, so here’s one of my latest:

If you think I came up with that in my head, you haven’t been reading my blog very long. The rest of you can quote me by heart, so let’s hear it: “I copied it from something I saw on Pinterest.”

However, I did pen a little poem to go with it and that’s all mine.

Little Mousie
Do not fear
‘Twas the LORD God
Put you here.

All this world
Be bereft
If every Mousie
Up and left.

Fur and whiskers,
Small and gray,
Little Mousie,
Don’t go ‘way

But hear me well
Mousie, dear
Stay out of my
Housie, dear.

Little postie,
You should fear.
You’ll be gone
In the morning, dear.