Reflections

Reflections 

Probably the reason why I love to "beautify" my home so much

Reflections of the past, the present...the happy times and the sad times

The secret artist of my soul, reflected 

The writer in my head, heard

fabrics and photos and colors and light

Reflections

We are flowing into Christmas this year. Usually I have Thanksgiving and then the next day all of my Holiday Decor appears and Christmas music starts playing.

This year there is more flow.

I brought out the pretty glass bulbs yesterday and placed them in a big jar - Tristan loved hugging the jar and seeing his eyes in the colors. 

Reflections. 

Twinkle lights in the window, the night coming earlier and earlier, 

proof of a new season, of passing time.

Our first big snowstorm came this morning - we get a snow day in the best way...lots and lots of time to look at books, to spend two hours on history because the Indus Valley is just that interesting. 

Reflections of what is important to us ... education with purpose.

Brother and sister sitting side by side, learning together...laughing and drawing, coloring pictures of ancient masks and saying things like "can I borrow your gold crayon? Wow, your picture looks really nice. Hey, after this do you want to pretend like we are traveling from California to Portland?"

Reflections of love, reflections of hard work, reflections of creativity, reflections of friendship.

A simple globe - locating where India is and how, long ago , the trading system was set up by sailing the Arabian Sea. Locating the Euphrates River, noticing Iraq...a discussion about Syria and traveling the long journey to Greece together....just a short finger's graze for us, weeks and weeks of walking for them. Out of nowhere my little squirrel bursts into tears, she tells me she is sad for those people and she is sad about Paris because she loves it so much. She wonders if her beautiful Eiffel Tower is still there. We have a long talk about what happened and what DIDN'T happen, we talk about what a loving response is and what we can do as a family to help ... pray, love others even when they don't love us, donate what we can. We talk about how to handle anger in a good way.

Reflections of a compassionate heart.

Reflections of the world we live in. 

Reflections of a little girl's sensitive spirit ... and her love for a beautiful place she has never seen.

The world is soft today. 

The world is white and it feels clean and quiet....here.

I love my home....the little people in it. I love their spirits, 

I love their interest in the world, love it when they say things like

"I'm sad for them."

I love that they find joy in looking at their noses in glass ornaments

that nothing is more special to them than a cucumber sandwich.

 I love that cocoa is just the "ticket."

I love that they feel secure here, and I feel secure with them.

I wish the rest of the world could have what I have today.

I guess they do.

Everyone has reflections.