TulipGirl

Please join me in praising our Lord for another baby boy for my friends Tara and Jorge. We’ve known each other since our oldest boys were babies together. I’ve cried tears of joy for her tonight, hearing of the birth of her third son, into his father’s hands.

Birth art by Nancy Bright

I ordered my absolute most favorite Christmas album on cd last year through Amazon. I listened to this cassette over and over and over again when I was younger, and not just at Christmas.

My order last November was delayed because Amazon didn’t have it in stock and couldn’t get it in stock. Every few weeks, I’d get an e-mail, “Do you still want us to try to fulfill the order?” I kept selecting yes so it’s been in my “order history” for ages.

(The year before I was careless in ordering, and inadvertantly bought the wrong album, right artist. Since we were in Ukraine, I didn’t bother trying to trade it for the right one.)

Today I received and e-mail–it’s been shipped! Woohoo! I’ll be all set for Christmas this year! It’s only taken three Christmases.

Singer/songwriter Pat Gahn has a new website, which y’all just have to visit. You can listen to bits of his americana/folk/blues online, but you still have to buy his album via snail mail. And if you are in the southwest, try to catch a show live.

While it’s easier to catch Chris Thile live, he’s not touring in Florida anytime soon so I’ve been watching/listening via YouTube. (This isn’t for the faint-of-connection-speed.)

Next in my to-buy queue is O How the Mighty Have Fallen from my sentimental, long-beloved band, the Choir.

This past Monday, Hubby took the boys to the Ringling Art Museum. Every Monday admission is free. I asked the boys what made an impression this visit. J10 talked about the Fates cutting the life string of the young lovers. C6 piped up about “the head in the basket” referring to beheaded John the Baptist. R7’s favorite was the Blue Madonna, but he also described finding a cat “hidden” in a still life. T8 was reluctant to name a “favorite.”

We love museums. And so I was especially excited to see this:

On September 30, 2006, for one day only, museums across the country will join the Smithsonian Institution in its long-standing tradition of offering free admission to visitors.

How Does The General Public Participate?

Museum Day is on a Saturday, and museums across the country are participating. Click here to find a local museum to visit.

Participating museums in Florida include:

Amelia Island Museum of History
Fernandina Beach

Appleton Museum of Art
Ocala

Elliott Museum
Stuart

Florida International Museum
St. Petersburg

Kid City, The Children’s Museum of Tampa
Tampa

Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art St. Petersburg
Palm Harbor

Lowe Art Museum
Coral Gables

Miami Museum of Science & Planetarium
Miami

Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium
Sarasota

Navy UDT-SEAL Museum
Fort Pierce

Orange County Regional History Center
Orlando

South Florida Museum
Bradenton

The Alger-Sullivan Historical Society
Century

The John And Mable Ringling Museum of Art
Sarasota

The Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science
Tallahassee

The Mennello Museum of American Art
Orlando

So hard to choose!

Over the past several years, I’ve shared some of the examples of breastfeeding art that have moved me.

Now I’ve found a website that is combination art history and lactivism:
Breastfeeding Art. I especially like the timeline.

This post is part of a World Breastfeeding Week 2006 series.

See more from Kelly.

Pieter Bruegel, Peasant Wedding

When I was growing up, we had a print of this in our kitchen. I remember my Mom talking to us about both the story as well as the painting techniques used.

I’m flying out to Arizona today. My sister is to be married on Tuesday! I anticipate there will be great joy–though that’s probably the only thing her wedding will have in common with this painting.

I went out walking through the streets paved with gold
Lifted some stones
Saw the skin and bones
Of a city without a soul
I went out walking under an atomic sky
Where the ground won’t turn
And the rain it burns
Like the tears when I said goodbye

Yeah I went with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you
I went wandering

I went drifting through the capitals of tin
Where men can’t walk
Or freely talk
And sons turn their fathers in
I stopped outside a church house
Where the citizens like to sit
They say they want the kingdom
But they don’t want God in it

I went out riding
Down that ol’ eight lane
I passed by a thousand signs
Looking for my own name

I went with nothing
But the thought you’d be there too
Looking for you

I went out there
In search of experience
To taste and to touch
And to feel as much
As a man can
Before he repents

I went out searching, lookin’ for one good man
A spirit who would not bend or break
Who would sit at his father’s right hand
I went out walking with a bible and a gun
The word of God lay heavy on my heart
I was sure I was the one
Now Jesus, don’t you wait up
Jesus, I’ll be home soon
Yeah I went out for the papers
Told her I’d be back by noon

Yeah I left with nothing
But the thought you’d be there too
Looking for you…
Yeah I left with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you…
I went wandering

U2 / Johnny Cash

This is the healing
Give me tears from all your bitter years
This is the healing
Salt the wounds, the healing will come soon

Visual and lyrical images by Micheal Knott

The Blue Madonna (attributed to Carlo Dolci) can be seen locally at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.

(Fine Art Friday Curator: Carol)

**warning, very sensitive**

This link goes to a page with c-section birth art.

Very moving.

You Belong in Paris

Stylish and a little sassy, you were meant for Paris. The art, the fashion, the wine, the men! Whether you’re enjoying the cafe life or a beautiful park… You’ll love living in the most chic place on earth.

(Via Oh Stephanie of Little Faith)

Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being an adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

C.S. Lewis

Fan fic worth reading:

Title: The Queen’s Return
Fandom: The Chronicles of Narnia
Summary: Once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen in Narnia.

(Via Rebecca)

In my life, sorrow has kissed my lonely heart
Fear of man tears me apart
And I try, but many times I’ve loved the world
So many times I’ve been the whore
And I cried a million tears, or maybe more
So many times I have been the whore
I will fall down on my knees

. . .

. . .

Cos if I could be anyone at all
Well, if I could be anyone at all
Let me be the whore at your feet

. . .and playing on the computer speakers.

Why Should the Fire Die?

Sitting in a local coffee shop. Comfy arm chairs. Hot latte. Classic jazz. Wifi. Solitude.

“For you will nurse and be satisfied
at her comforting breasts;
you will drink deeply
and delight in her overflowing abundance.”

For this is what the LORD says:
“I will extend peace to her like a river,
and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;
you will nurse and be carried on her arm
and dandled on her knees.

As a mother comforts her child,
so will I comfort you;
and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

Isaiah 66:11-13

The Bible is full of imagery of breastfeeding and nurturing mothers. What can we learn about God’s design for breastfeeding? Start studying with these articles by Cyndi Egbert and Nancy Campbell.

This post is part of a World Breastfeeding Week 2005 series.