Category: Life in Photos

Life in Photos, Poetry & Words

POETRY & WORDS :: Public, Private, Charter, Home…Oh My!

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

IMG_5419

Menagerie on Toddler's Desk

Seashells, brown and green bottles, twine, and an antique tray

Books

Lace, Roses and Coffee Hearts

Aveline’s growing up. I can see it in this photo, especially. She is just 3 months away from 3 years old.

And suddenly, I’m thinking about school, an aspect of life I thought was further away than it actually is.

School is a complex topic, isn’t it? It’s a bigger issue than I can delve into in one blog post. Both Josiah and I were home schooled from PreK-12.  For me, home schooling was a positive journey, and I am thankful for the experiences it brought me. (My parents’ story of why they choose to educate me at home is a unique one. We were living in communist Europe at the time, and they didn’t wish to send me to Karl Marx Elementary.)

There really isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to education. Every child is so different. Every living situation is different. Everyone has different school options at their disposal. And the reality is, there are good and bad things about every kind of schooling; whether it’s public, charter, private, at-home, or some combination thereof.

As Aveline gets older, Josiah and I are talking a lot about what kind of school experience we’d like her to have. 

What about you? What was your school experience like as a child? If you have children, what decisions have you made about your children’s education?

Life in Photos, Poetry & Words

LIFE IN PHOTOS :: But now I am mostly at the window watching the late afternoon light…

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

1000px - Barefoot on a wooden chair, Late Summer

1000 px- Looking out the window in late summer

“…You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
but that is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.

But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light…”

-an excerpt from Billy Collins’ On Turning Ten

Life in Photos, Poetry & Words, Theology

Maybe I’ll Write

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

White Ceramics and Lucky Bamboo

Eiffel Tower and Washi Tape

Grey Dotted Paper Lantern

Pablo Neruda

Blue Toile Pillowcase

“Wonder Aveline the Super Dog” has finally gone to sleep, Josiah is at a Sigur Rós concert, and I am here in a quiet house with a lovely plate of food and silence.

Maybe I’ll watch a movie, maybe I’ll write a bit more — not here, mind you, but elsewhere, and just for me.

Sometimes I think that’s the only way I’ll ever write a book is if I tell myself all the words are only just for me. Sometimes when I’m writing for you, I let you get in the way. Sometimes you scare me, and I let that fear change how much of the story I tell.

I’ll never write a book if I write it for you.

So maybe tonight I’ll write for me. Maybe I’ll finally open up that lonely document called Chapter One, and maybe I’ll begin it like this:

“I lived in the South the year I turned thirty. At least, I thought it was the south. It was well below the Mason-Dixon line. It dangled into the ocean, for crying out loud; wedged between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic. But people said it wasn’t the real South. The real deep South, they told me, was further north. …”

Life in Photos, Poetry & Words

POETRY & WORDS :: Yes, We Know. And We Do.

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

Bride and groom Bridesmaids wearing mismatched black

When we announced we’d be married on the 13th, people gasped. “Oh!” they said, “Don’t you know that means your anniversary will” — here they lowered their voices to a whisper — “sometimes be on Friday the thirteenth?”

“Yes,” we said.

“We know.

And yes, we know the bridesmaids are wearing black. And the wedding party is walking in to The Godfather theme. And we’re reading from Isaiah. And it’s going to be ok.”

(Did they forget about the One who makes all things new?)

Happy five years, Josiah. It’s been a little bit more than ok.

♥

Life in Photos

LIFE IN PHOTOS :: A Deeper Country

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

3d cardboard letters spelling out HOPE, roses in glass bottles, and t-rex print from Yellow Heart Art
September 2013 - Florida rainstorm

“It is as hard to explain how this sunlit land was different from the old Narnia as it would be to tell you how the fruits of that country taste. Perhaps you will get some idea of it if you think like this. You may have been in a room in which there was a window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley that wound away among mountains. And in the wall of that room opposite to the window there may have been a looking-glass. And as you turned away from the window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or that valley, all over again, in the looking glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time they were somehow different – deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want to know. The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more.” -C.S. Lewis

Life in Photos, Poetry & Words

LIFE IN PHOTOS :: You will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall…

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

August 2013 - Rain on a window pane - White curtain and greenery
August 2013 - Aveline plays iPod games in bed

It’s been a week of sick days here, and not a restful one, either. It’s been a week of maintenance repair people traipsing in and out, of interrupted sleep, of cancellations, of Josiah working very late, a week of rain and a week of exhaustion.

But this one’s always happy. Even at 3am, even with a fever, she’s full of joy.

I can learn a lot from her.

This morning wasn’t anything special, not to me anyway. It was another in a string of long, tired, days. But to Aveline, this morning was, “SUNNY DAY!”

To Aveline, this morning was “Blue hair wears (barrettes)! G’een hair wears! FLOWERS on pants! Sit he-ah! Hold dis! TAKE PIH-UH!! Drink kefir! Eat beh-uss (breakfast)! WEAR BIB WITH DOTS! PWAY GAMES!”

August 2013 - Aveline poses with duster

To Aveline, every day is a reason to be “gankful”. Every day is a reason to jump with joy (and pose with a duster, apparently.)

“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings ; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.” -Malachi 4:2

“Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and sound of a melody.” -Isaiah 51:3b

“So the ransomed of the Lord will return, and come with joyful shouting to Zion, and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” -Isaiah 51:11

Thank you, Lord, for this reminder.