Day Fifty – Rose Suede Pumps

(to be read, tongue firmly in cheek!)

So, what’s a girl to do when the most elegant, to die for pair of shoes are sitting, lost and alone on a store shelf; their dainty, pale pink color at odds with the harsh, black gladiator sandals around them?

What’s a girl to do when those shoes cry out for a home? A good home, a home that will love them?

What’s a girl to do when they are the only pair in her size?

What’s a girl to do when they are on sale for $4.99?

A girl does what a girl’s gotta do.

She gives those shoes a home with a simple $5 bill.  I know, it’s not much, but I do what I can to help those lonely shoes, just crying out on store shelves to be loved and cherished.

Day Forty-nine – Flowered Corduroy Pumps

I’m desperate for Spring. This is the time of deepest Winter when I start to go a little stir-crazy. I start getting seed catalogs in the mail and missing my flower garden and the warmth of summer on my skin. I miss how easy it is to run out the door. These days it takes 10 minutes to get ready to leave. Turtleneck, sweater, boots, scarf, down coat, hat, mittens, and I’m STILL freezing when I get in the car!

So, I start to wear bright colors in late January. A red sweater, a pink scarf, anything to get me through.

And flowers on my feet:

Actually these shoes work really well up here in the winter, slushy, slippery stuff, because the soles and the heels are rubber. I don’t slip, I’m up out of the muck, and I’m cute and stylish! What more can a girl ask for from a pair of shoes?

Through the Garden Gate – January

I love my garden. My mom often wonders aloud where I got my green thumb as she never gardened, but my aunt has always had a big garden and I remember loving to wander in her garden as a kid, so maybe it’s a latent Turner gene. Or perhaps it’s because we moved frequently when I was a child and I want a little piece of earth to dig up and call my own. Even as an adult I’ve moved several times, but you can always replant no matter where you go and see results pretty quickly. Now that we’ve put down some roots here in Duluth, nearly half my yard is taken over by my perennial gardens and a big vegetable garden, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. This is something Nathan and I love to do together during our oh-so-brief summers.

It’s only January and already I’ve gotten two seed catalogs in the mail. Oh the agony! I have visions of new roses for my garden and oh, I could put those cool primroses just right there! Alas, planting is at least 5 months away. But, there is the promise of spring, and I can dream.

Winter has a beauty all it’s own too as I look through my garden gate. In the last two days we’ve gotten about a foot and a half of fluffy new snow. It’s buried my garden and nearly my lilac bush and etched each branch on the trees and log on my garden fence in pristine white. It looks like a fairy world outside right now.

The freshly fallen snow, unmarred by footprints, or dirt yet, reminds me of some promises. Promises that though I am still imperfect and often a complete mess, God is making me whole.

“’Come now, and ^let us reason together,’ Says the Lord, ‘^Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.’”

Isaiah 1:18

“Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. ^ Surely you desire truth in the inner parts^; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:5-7

There is no doubt in my mind that I sin. I mess up and make mistakes every single day. I am so un-perfect. Yet, God is willing to forgive me time and time again and through His grace and mercy make me clean. That is what I think of when I see the freshly fallen snow. A fresh start. A new day. A chance to do it right today.

"There’s a better version of me, that I can’t quite see, but things are gonna change.

Right now I’m a total mess and right now I’m completely incomplete, but things are gonna change.

‘Cause You’re not through with me yet.

Wish I could live more patiently, wish I could give a little more of me, but I’m stopping to think twice.

Wish I had faith like a little child, wish I could walk a singe mile, without stepping on own feet.

But, You’re not through with me yet.

And this is redemption’s story, with every step that I’m taking.

Every day You’re chippin’ away what I don’t need.

And this is me under construction.

This is my pride being broken.

And every day I’m closer to who I’m meant to be.

I’m a change in the making.

Like a river rolls into the sea, I’m not who I’m gonna to be, but things are gonna change.

Moving closer, to Your glory.”

Change in the Making, by Addison Road

My Love Affair with Books

I read an article yesterday on the site of the Huffington Post regarding 20 things that have become obsolete in the past decade. Some of the items, like VCRs, I had to laugh and agree with, but one in particular caught my attention and horrified me. It was “bookstores.”

One of my favorite pastimes is getting a coffee and browsing through a bookstore. I love books. I love books as much as I love shoes. Yeah, that’s saying something, isn’t it? In fact, if I had to choose, I would choose books OVER shoes. I love books MORE than shoes. That’s really saying something. I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t read books. Nathan laughs at my stacks and stacks of books saying I must be one of the only people with ridiculous stacks of books, but I secretly suspect there are others out there like me.



This bookshelf in the corner of my living room contains only our homeschooling books and my very favorite books. In other places I have other stacks of books I’m currently reading, want to read, and boxes of books I simply can’t part with.

In my opinion a book is not something you download and listen to on your MP3 player nor read on a fancy electronic device. A book has two covers and wonderful pages. A book has a feel to it, a weight, a heft and a delicious, unique smell all it’s own. There are certain books I own that it would be simply wrong to read in any other form than a REAL book.



This book is called, The Snuggle Bunny by Nancy Jewell. It’s out of print. My mom read it to my sister and I nearly every night growing up. She scoured the libraries and schools around Kansas City for copies that no one wanted anymore and finally found us each a copy. I read it now to my kids using the same voice inflections my mom did. Did you know the winter sun looks exactly like a hard boiled egg? It does. I always think of that, because of this book. Books conjure up wonderful imagery that stick with us forever.



Who is Paddy? by Elizabeth Cooper is also out of print. I first heard it when Daniel’s pre-school teacher read it to his class and I cried. I then scoured Amazon for it and found a copy. Paddy is compared to all kinds of animals that little boys often resemble; a pig because he is so dirty, a monkey because he is silly and eats bananas, a bear because he is grumpy in the morning, a turtle because he goes soooo s l o w l y up the stairs to bed, etc. This book exactly described my little boy and I loved it! The pictures are adorable. I love to read this book with Daniel all cuddled up by my side.



Folk Takes from the Far East is another book from my childhood. There are wonderfully, imaginative, magical stories in this book from India and the Far East. My mom found me a copy of this book a few years ago and I was so delighted to have it. It looks and feels and even smells exactly like the book my mom has, minus the green duct tape on the binding. My kids adore these stories as much as I did as a child.



Here is my battered, dog-eared, well-read copy of Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. Truly, could you read Anne on a Kindle? I think not. ‘Nuff said.

Long live the book! Long live the bookstore! Long live the library! Long live the joys of a wonderful novel, a hot cup of tea and a cozy fire on a winter day!

My Favorite Cookbook

I love to cook. I come from a long line of fabulous cooks. My sister cooks to de-stress and she makes amazing meals. My mom is also a tremendous cook. By the time I was 12, she had me making our Friday night meal all by myself. Granted I started small; hot dog wraps and mac and cheese, but I eventually graduated to more difficult and intricate meals.

I’m also a messy cook. My mom is very neat, so she learned to just leave the kitchen when I cooked.

One of the best gifts I was given when I got married was my own recipe box filled with all of our best family recipes. My mom, grandma and I sat down for several afternoons and copied all the recipes from my mom’s recipe box that I wanted to take to my own home. This is very special to me now as I cook meals, to pull out a recipe written in my mom’s writing or my grandma’s, as my grandma is no longer living.

In the last few years I’ve started cooking from Giada deLaurentis’ cookbooks. I adore her Italian recipes. They are simple, but oh-so-delicious. I have two of them so far and my favorite recipe is for marinara sauce. It’s easy and quick and once I made it I have never gone back to spaghetti sauce in a bottle. You can see by the page in my cookbook that it has been used many times. There are olive oil and tomato sauce splatters all over it:

But, my favorite cookbook by far is an absolute mess. This is the cookbook I’ve created. It’s in a ratty, spiral notebook that is coming apart at the seams. Every time I find a recipe I like in a magazine or newspaper, I cut it out and tape it into this notebook. I’ve also photocopied recipes, but never gotten around to taping them in, and they are just stuffed randomly into this notebook. There is no rhyme or reason to this notebook/cookbook, it’s just jammed together. However, my most favorite and most often used recipes are in here; Fabulous Fajitas, Poppy Seed Dressing, Cranberry Chicken, Brownie Mocha Trifle.

Someday I want to organize this better, but for now, I know exactly where every recipe is in here. I would be lost without this mess of a cookbook.

Above my stove on a shelf are neatly organized, seldom used, beautiful cookbooks. But, this is my go-to nearly every night. Someone please tell me I’m not the only one with a cookbook like this.

The Beauty of Order – Part II

Earlier this year when I wrote my first blog post on the beauty of order, it was the end of summer, my kids were restless and I was just getting ready to start school.

http://thesahlbergs.blogspot.com/2010/08/beauty-of-order.html

At the end of that post I said something to the effect of, “I’ll check back in with you to see how it’s all going when we’re stuck in the house and the snow flies.”

Well, here we are. My how time, and the snow, flies. In two days our Christmas break will be over and we will start the second half of our school year. Only this time I’m not quite as anxious to get going.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I still believe in order and the necessity of it in our lives, it’s just that I’m enjoying this break thoroughly! However, I’ve seen the beauty of order and the need for it in our lives displayed in some different ways this fall.

Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that you are reading this blog? You can read. In our world today 1 billion adults can not read. That’s 26% of the world’s population, and 2/3’s of those 1 billion people are women. Our languages are orderly. They may not always seem like it when we are learning them, but they have to be in order for us to set words down in sentences and then to read them coherently.

This has been brought to the forefront of my mind this fall as Daniel, my sweet baby, is struggling to read. For those of you who have spent time with Daniel, you know that he has always gotten easily overwhelmed. Bright lights, loud music, scratchy clothes. And for some reason, too many words on a page are just making, in his words, “my head stuffed up.” It’s very hard for me to see him read individual words just fine, but as they are put together in sentences and then grouped together on a page, he just freezes and can’t do it.

A good parent puts pride aside and is willing to admit when something is beyond their ability. I’ve talked to a lot of people who have given me some great ideas and I’ve tried everything I know to do, but in the end, it’s just not working for us. So, we’re looking for help from some experts in the schools. My prayer is that this teacher will be able to “unstuff” Daniel’s head and help figure out the riddle that will open a whole, new, wonderful world of language and books for him.

Did you know that God also created order in our homes? Our world doesn’t like this one. “Everyone’s equal!” they scream. Yes, it’s true, we’re all created equal in His image, but we’ve been given unique roles and when everyone plays those roles to the best of their abilities, the home functions in a beautiful manner. When those roles get flipped around, it’s chaotic.

Lately we’ve been talking to our children about this. Mom and Dad are here to bring order and discipline and teaching to the home, not because we have earned the right by being so amazing and great, but because God gave us this right as their parents. When our children choose to place themselves under our authority and not usurp our authority the home runs in a peaceful manner. We have open conversations, love, joy and peace. There is a place to run in conflict, joys and sorrows.

The same is true in our marriage. I have a wonderful husband who does an amazing job leading  our home. When I place myself under Nathan’s care and leadership and come alongside him to help him in this role the home runs beautifully. If I pridefully and disrespectfully take over his authority, it undermines everything we are trying to teach our children and the very foundation of our home.

Over all of this, we all place ourselves under God’s authority. The final word on everything is what He has asked us to do in His Word, the Bible. We obey Him, not because we are frightened, but because we love Him. As a loving Father, he has made beauty and order in this world for our protection and joy. I’m astounded over and over again, although I don’t know why I am, when we function according to the patterns He established, how much peace and joy there is in our spirits.  Conversely, stepping away from this pattern, brings chaos and discord almost instantly.

So, although a break is fun, a break is just temporary. It’s time to get back to business around here. Order is going to be very important this week as I’m going to have my 2 and 4 year-old niece and nephew with us this week. Laura’s going to start Geometry shortly and although I’ve been told there’s order in that I have yet to see it, so I’m hoping to discover it! Daniel is going to learn the order and beauty of the multiplication tables. Nate is GOING to learn the order that letters are arranged in in a word if it kills him; yes spelling is his Waterloo. And Laura is also going to get to see the beauty and order in God’s creation as she dissects some animals in Biology. There might be a few blogs about that one! And we’ll have a few field trips that break us out of our routine, because too much of a good thing is, well, too much!