Mosaic Momma

When I woke up this morning, I had no idea that I would be closing down my day with such an abundance of gratitude in my heart. I woke up earlier than I would have liked on an overcast Saturday morning. Today is the first official day of Christmas vacation. Not only do the kids and I get a break from homeschooling, but Daddy (who is a teacher) is home with us too. I tried to burrow back into the covers, but my brain would not shut off with all the things I wanted to get done today. So, I put on a cute outfit  yoga pants and a sweatshirt and enthusiastically cleaned the bathroom fired up the coffee pot, and got my day started. Since I was up and I could see the feral hungry look in the cats' eyes (and heard the bellowing from the goats, cackles from the chickens and shenanigans from the dogs), I decided to let my family sleep and do their chores. I walked outside and literally gasped aloud. In front of me was the most gorgeous double rainbow spanning the sky. I ran ba...

I know you are horrified by the recent attacks in Paris. I'm horrified too. I know you are fearful of something similar happening in your country (and maybe not for the first time). I have that fear too. I know that many people are experiencing the gut-reaction of being emotionally kicked in the stomach. You want to curl into a ball and ward off the pain. You want to hold out your hands in protest to make it stop. To cease. To go back to the way things were. I know that feeling too. And yes, I have seen the posts and blogs and "news reports" that are angry, up-in-arms, full of national kick-butt-ary:  "heck no, you can't come here and no one wants you so just go back to your own country and get what you deserve for being born into your cultural group." In the natural, I have felt that way too. But I'm not called to live in the natural. I'm called to live out of the nature of Christ. And I feel this rising up in that sup...

Coffee is one of my best friends. Being a homeschool mom of 4 and trying to keep up with them, their schoolwork and our new farmhouse keeps me on my toes. And it keeps me coming back to the coffee pot. Every morning, making some coffee is usually one of my first waking thoughts. I must have been especially tired the other day. I staggered into the kitchen and filled the carafe with water and cleaned up the sink area while it brewed. I added some cream and caramel-flavored syrup to my favorite yellow cup. I poured in some delicious brown elixir distractedly and then sipped. Something was wrong. It didn't taste right. It tasted like milky caramelly water. And then I realized I forgot one crucial and important step. I forgot to change out the coffee grounds and I had brewed a "fresh pot" with yesterday's filter and grounds. It was not what I had eagerly anticipated. It was a disappointment, frankly. I poured the watery stuff down the sink and...

Harmony can be an elusive ideal we spend a lifetime chasing. But, for me, Harmony is only a mere two and a half hour drive to the California coast. A nice leisurely meandering through farmland and rolling hills will deposit me in a small town consisting of exactly one street. The city of Harmony, CA was founded by Swiss immigrants in 1869 who started dairy farms and a dairy processing operation. There was much infighting and rivalries that led to the operation changing many hands and even caused a death. In the early 1900's, parties involved agreed to call a truce and changed the name of their town to Harmony as a symbolic gesture of that decision. Unfortunately, the harmony did not last and the town eventually died out almost completely. There were a few swells in population with the largest occurring in the 1970s by craftsman who had "found" the little town and wanted to create a place that would foster artistry and simple living. Today Harmony sits all b...