"Flowers and sunsets, moon on water..." (Hidden Art of Homemaking, Chapter 12)

"I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. What does this mean? I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life." ~~ Martin Luther, The Small Catechism

"He who created us, who created the universe, who created the fruits and vegetables, who created the flowers and 'clothed' them in beauty, is the One who is telling us that we need not worry about food, drink or clothing." ~~ Edith Schaeffer, "Clothing," The Hidden Art of Homemaking

"We who are dressing ourselves and our children, providing for missionaries or friends, making things for orphans or refugees should 'consider the flowers,' the lilies of the field, and consider it our part, as finite imperfect human beings, to be as creative as we have the talent to be!....The Christian...is the representative of a King--the King of Kings and Lord of Lords."  ~~ Edith Schaeffer

"When I gave her my stockings I forgot they were the only black pair I had without holes, but I am glad I did give them to her, because my conscience would have been uncomfortable if I hadn't. When she had gone away, looking so proud and happy, the poor little thing, I remembered that all I had to wear were the horrid red and blue things Aunt Martha knit last winter for me out of some yarn that Mrs. Joseph Burr of Upper Glen sent us. It was dreadfully coarse yarn and all knots, and I never saw any of Mrs. Burr's own children wearing things made of such yarn. But Mary Vance says Mrs. Burr gives the minister stuff that she can't use or eat herself, and thinks it ought to go as part of the salary her husband signed to pay, but never does." ~~ L.M. Montgomery, Rainbow Valley

Linked from the Hidden Art of Homemaking linky for Chapter 12 at Ordo Amoris

Books read in July

Looking for Anne, by Irene Gammel (also here)
I bought this with some gift money and found it fascinating, if occasionally disturbing. It's about how the book Anne of Green Gables came to be, and gives some wonderful insights into how L.M. Montgomery worked as a writer, as well as her personal life.

After that I was so interested that I went to the library and read
After Green Gables: L.M. Montgomery's Letters to Ephraim Weber, 1916-1941, edited by Hildi Froese Tiessen and Paul Gerard Tiessen.

And after that I had to re-read Anne of Green Gables, because it had been too long since I read the real book and some of what I remembered about it had gotten mixed up with the 1985 film.

I also read:
A Slipping-Down Life, by Anne Tyler (one of her old books I had never read, but not high on my list of favourites)

The Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence, because Mr. Fixit and I just saw the new film of this with Ellen Burstyn, and because I hadn't read it since high school and couldn't remember where the film departed from the book. Warning about some adult material in this: Margaret Laurence was a Canadian novelist whose books were always threatening to get banned out of high school literature courses.

I read part of The Book of Sorrows, by Walter Wangerin Jr., a sequel to The Book of the Dun Cow--I liked this but had to return it to the library.

And Plutarch's "Life of Alcibiades".

With Crayons:
Smith of Wootton Major, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit