It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these posts. I always find it difficult to come up with a title unless I’m writing an obvious ‘book review’ as I like to go off on tangents. So ‘Reading, Thinking, & Domesticity’ it is as it is a bit of everything.

I’ve been listening to an audiobook of God’s Smuggler, the story of ‘Brother Andrew,’ a young Dutch factory worker who went behind the Iron Curtain to encourage persecuted Christians and give them Bibles in their own languages. It’s a great story that shows how desperate it was for people generally living in Eastern Europe while the Soviet Regime was in place. And today came the news that Mikhail Gorbachev had died at the age of ninety-one.

The glory of the ordinary – freesias
❤️
It’s officially spring in Australia tomorrow.

‘God seems to love the ordinary, and it is in the ordinary we mostly find Him.’
🌸
‘I have come more and more to watch for those minute touches of love and forethought of our Father which are shown in the smallest things of life, such as the coming of a flower, a message, a picture, a letter, a book; the touch of a loving hand, the look in loving eyes, the tones in loving voices – things too small to tell, but making such a difference to our day.’

– Amy Carmichael

For devotional reading I’ve been slowly reading through the New Testament Book of Romans using Tom Wright’s commentary below.

‘Christians are called to be counter-cultural – not in all respects, as though every single aspect of human society and culture were automatically and completely bad, but at least in being prepared to think through each aspect of life. We must be ready to challenge those parts where the present age shouts, or perhaps whispers seductively, that it would be easier and better to do things that way, while the age to come, already begun in Jesus, insists that belonging to the new creation means that we must live this way instead…at the centre of genuine Christianity is a mind awake, alert, not content to take a few guidelines off the peg but determined to understand why human life is meant to be lived in one way rather than another.’

And a book I’ve had for many years but never read until now, ‘Thou Givest…They Gather’ by Amy Carmichael, which is just lovely!

On the domestic front I’ve finally finished a project which I started about five years ago, a quilt using one inch hexagons. I’d messed around with this one – I decided it was too pale so added some darker hexi bits; hand quilted around every hexagon and then got stuck on how to finish it. I finally machine sewed the pink border around it and then a hand sewn binding. I like hand quilting, especially a smaller quilt, but it’s not as neat as I’d like on the back!

I thought I’d try my hand at making a doll and downloaded a pattern from Etsy. I’ve cut out the basic pattern for the doll itself and hopefully I’ll work out how to put it all together – reading instructions is not something I generally do…but I’ll have to have a go with this. I looked at a few doll patterns and thought this one was do-able. The price is in Aussie dollars.

Some books I’m currently reading:

The Moon-Spinners by Mary Stewart

The Heart of the Family by Elizabeth Goudge

Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear – a very comprehensive 584 page biography that I borrowed from the library earlier in the year and had to return. I borrowed it again and now have twenty-six pages to go until I’ve finished. This was one of the books I’d chosen to read for the Art Book Reading Challenge.

Every Tuesday we have our two grandsons over for the afternoon. The three-and-a-half year old usually has a bush walk while his little brother has a sleep and often does some baking with his aunty. Yesterday she gave him an art lesson and he spent over 2 hours painting in the garage with her. I was really impressed with his ability to focus and take care not to muddy his colours.