{pretty, happy, funny, real} - back to school photo diary

| a weekly capturing the contentment in everyday life |

Overall, this has been a lovely week of settling back into September rhythms.  You'd think after all these years, I'd remember that it always takes 2-3 weeks for the new schedule of Autumn to kick in before we feel fully transitioned.  If I'm remembering correctly, this should keep us until November-ish.  I'll probably forget, though.

Speaking of forgetting, I realize I've not yet posted the annual back to school photo diary.  What better post than the weekly {pretty, happy, funny, real} montage? 

Before the photos, I feel obligated to include the book excerpt that I've shared just about year since beginning this blog (here's the first time back in 2007!).

"'I guess I'm just feeling Septemberish', sighed Chester. 'It's getting towards Autumn now. And it's so pretty up in Connecticut. All the trees change color. The days get very clear - with a little smoke on the horizon from burning leaves. Pumpkins begin to come out.' "

(The Cricket in Times Square)

| pretty |

A good photographer and good camp friend of Natalie's offered to take a senior photo shoot before Nat left her favorite place on earth to come back home to Austin. Here's just a sneak preview (aren't they lovely?!?)

Natalie came home from camp with this hip haircut and her sister decided to go twinsies before she went back to school.

Caught this shot of Kendra one of her last mornings home. Beautiful to see and to hear!

Natalie's first day of senior year!  As I said on IG, "Every year, for 18 years, we've been staging this scene. Here's to our last time forcing the kids to take these photos. Here's to Natalie's senior year."

| happy |

I had to keep an eye on Facebook for photos of Alex during his first week back, senior year at Rice.  He doesn't have a FB account, but, thankfully his residential college (Baker!) keeps all the parents updated with hundreds of photos for O(rientation)-Week.  Alex was in about fifty of them, totally living large -- which is his way.  While I'm on the subject of Rice, I guarantee you no school does Freshmen welcomes better (see above, and that's PARENTS of a Freshmen).   

Saying good-bye to Kendra for her sophomore year, and helping move her into her apartment

Happy 24th birthday to this great guy, our son Andrew.  We celebrated with a mini, food-crawl of tacos and ice cream.  Good company, too! 

| funny |

My daughters and I celebrated the back-to-school season with a spa week.  First stop: pedicures.  Can you guess which pair of feet worked as a lifeguard all summer??

Our last year to serve up the infamous pumpkin-chip cookies on the first day of school (recipe). You can see that Natalie does just fine being the only one of  our kids left home.  I lost count of the number of kids who showed up for cookies and milk, but I think it was about 2 dozen kids.  At least Natalie gave me the text warning ahead.

We also attended our last last "Back to School" night for parents (thanks be to God).  You can see that Brian is a bit skeptical of the Macro Economics presentation. 

| real|

What a privilege to help Kendra move into her new apartment and to meet her roommates.  What a beautiful group of women!  Kendra asked Brian to pray through the Anglican house blessing over the apartment.  We didn't know how her new roomies would feel about standing in each room, reading Scripture and prayers aloud.  We didn't need to worry.  They engaged wholeheartedly, and we left knowing that their home for this school year will be a place of peace and rest and fun for all who enter there.

Have you captured any contentment this week? 

 I'd love to hear about it!

| Join in at P,H,F,R to see other wonderful people practicing contentment. |

7 quick takes on (not-the-headlines) links actually interesting me right now

Ballycumber

(n.) One of six half-read books lying in your bed  (see the 8 other Words About Reading That Book Nerds Need to Know at Bustle)

| 1 | How a Bloody Railroad Strike Paved the Way for Labor Day at Time

"It's little more than a day off for shopping now, but when Labor Day was first observed, it wasn't all fun and back-to-school sales. Its passage as a federal holiday, in 1894, was a sort of peace offering from President Grover Cleveland for the killing of a dozen or more striking railway workers." am no superhero. Neither is my wife. But we have a bond that somehow enables us to save each other from basic human weakness. This is its own kind of superpower."

The history of Labor Day is sort of a caricature of the daily injustices or annoyances of the working life.  I spend a lot of time listening to my young co-workers anguish over the gap between what is and what they wish it would be.  There's a depth in our human longing for work that is valuable and valued. May the Church nurture excellent employers, employees and workplaces in gratitude for the Creator of work.

| 2 | Rectify and the question we're all asking by Josh Pease at Think Christian

"But this is not moral ambiguity for moral ambiguity’s sake. What Rectify reveals is that this question – “Am I good?” – is one that all of humanity is asking. And in the show’s world, there is a deep nobility in the asking. Rectify is humanist in the best way, in that it’s rooting for all its characters and sees true beauty in their struggle to find peace. 

The show’s naturalistic photography grounds the characters’ existential struggle in something hopeful. As we watch we see the world as a beautiful place, even as horribly unjust things happen. In this Rectify captures the duality of a Christian theology of humanity, which recognizes both the beauty of our imago dei and the insecurity of our exile from the garden. We are all asking, “Am I good?” and waiting for the one whose image we’re created in to give us the answer."

I've mentioned this program a few times, and I plan to keep mentioning it until at least a few of you watch it for yourselves and tell me what you think.  In the meantime, Josh Pease has some good insight.  (Seasons 1 & 2 are streaming on Netflix now.  You can purchase Season 3 on Amazon Instant Video.)

| 3 | It's pics from the past of hometown Austin, TX at Gee Mail 

"WELCOME TO AUSTIN - Most of us think of it as it is today, a modern large city. Well I thought I'd show some pics of the way it was!"

This post from a mass email a couple of old Austin natives sent around contains an intriguing collection of historic Austin photographs.  I found a couple of our groceries (just outside of neighborhood for the bulk of our weekly groceries at Texas-beloved HEB and then a couple of blocks walk for the daily essentials & odds 'n ends).

Shopping Center with HEB, Allandale Village. February, 1950

Crestview Minimax on Woodrow, 1956

It's a new experience for us living in a city that's never seen a decrease in population since its founding.  Some historical population numbers:

Year  Pop.      Increase %
1850 629
1860 3,494     +455.5%
1900 22,258
1950 132,459
1960 186,545 +40.8%
1970 251,808 +35.0%
1980 345,496 +37.2%
1990 472,020 +36.6%
2000 656,562 +39.1%
2010 790,390 +20.4%

2015 projected population of Austin-Round Rock metro area is 1,990,437.

The intersection of Burnet & Koenig/2222, across the street from the HEB in the photo above. 

 The neighborhood we live in now is to the top and right of the corner in this photo. 

There's still a 7-11 here, by the way!  Every once in awhile we go in for a slushie!

Oftentimes, it feels like we live in a big city that wants to think of itself as small which has benefits (friendly people, emphasis on local business) and its detriments (poor road planning, poor transit system, various forms of segregation).  We sure are glad that Austin embraced our family in 2011, and that a few of the locations in these photos are still recognizable (and enjoyed) by our family today!

There are so many more great photos in the post!  Austin friends, I'd love to hear what memories they spark.

Also, here's a lovely, illustrated map of Austin by neighborhood.

| 4 | In Defense of Air Conditioning by Caroline Langston at Image Journal 

"I sometimes play a game with myself -- which of the world's greatest cultural treasures would be worth getting rid of it meant you could not have air conditioning. I am an ardent (if screwed up) Christian, and I have taught classical literature, and I would still be willing to get rid of the Sistine Chapel."

Ha!  Yes, yes, yes.  I talk to octogenarian native Texans who mourn the gain of central air because in the old days people cooled off on their front porch in the evenings.  Now we all hide like animals in the darkest, coolest corners of our home until about November.  And, everyone knows by now, that September only means Texas gets hotter-er, and we add fans to the a/c.  

Yes, Caroline Langston, we are kindred spirits. Michelangelo, you're outta here.

Fans with A/C means it's "summer-er" in Texas.

A photo posted by Tamara Murphy (@tamarahillmurphy) on Aug 23, 2015 at 4:55pm PDT

| 5 | The Hidden Art of Homemaking Reading Group  by Erica Jarrett at Liturgy of Life

I've been enjoying getting to know Erica and the lovely community she's cultivating at her blog.  This month I joined them re-reading one of the foundational books of my life, The Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer.  You can read some of what Mrs. Schaeffer has inspired in my own life in a few of my previous posts:

• Upside-down Hospitality
• Parenting Unrehearsed: It does take a village
• Monday Mixtape: books, music, art, films and more from March 2010

| 6 |  45 ways to avoid using the word 'very' at Writers Write

"Substitute damn every time you're inclined to write very; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be." - Mark Twain

| 7 | A Look at the Painstaking, Intricate Art of Globemaking at Citylab &  A Visit Inside One of the Only Hand-crafted Globe Studios In the World at This Is Colossal

Globes are beautiful, don't you think?  I didn't realize that only a few artisanal globemakers left in the world. If money were no object I'd buy one each from Bellerby & Co.'s collections.  See for yourself...

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Hoping for a good and contented weekend for us all, friends.

Peace....

*Linking up with other 7 Quick Takers.*

7 quick takes on 7 links I can't stop thinking about this week

source

Truth is there are links of things -- unspeakable things being spoken all over this world -- that I'm thinking a whole lot about these days.  I just can't.  I can't link them here.  If you're online at all (which, presumably, you are since you're reading this post) you've already seen unspeakable posted in headlines linking all across the internet -- right next to videos of cute baby elephants and photos of the beautiful cups of coffee and homemade pies. 

We've made the unspeakable not only printable, but viral.  And we are such liars -- no matter what our ideas are about life and death and flourishing and human rights for the ones we deem human and death for the ones we deem unworthy -- we lie.  We celebrate life and death, seemingly on a whim.  We lie with our double standards and our own propped-up notions of being gods in this universe that rains down meteors declaring the glory of God while we scroll headlines about unspeakable things. 

That's really what I'm thinking about this week, but the following list is a close second.  May the peace of Christ our King (who only speaks Truth) rule over your own minds and hearts this weekend.

| 1 | Superheroes, Just for Each Other by Peter S. Goodman at The New York Times

"I am no superhero. Neither is my wife. But we have a bond that somehow enables us to save each other from basic human weakness. This is its own kind of superpower."

I've been thinking about the definition of marriage a lot lately -- and not for only the reasons you might think.  Brian and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary in a few months and I've been contemplating a blog series on the subject.  We'll see about that.  In the meantime, this is a sweet essay about the mutuality of strength in marriage.

| 2 | Instead of Facebook, a book of faces my post for Think Christian

"Christians, after all, live in a story of delight and deformity, every mark a reminder of what was and is and is to come. We follow the God who became disfigured to heal our disfigurement. Artists like Bruce Gilden push against the fallen instinct to shield ourselves from the uncomfortable realities around us and within us. The subjects in Face give us a gift by exposing - up close and in full color - their vulnerability. To meet them is to know their stories, raw and unfiltered."

I was grateful for this assignment from the editor at Think Christian.  Bruce Gilden's work challenged my (unintentional) preoccupation with a filtered image-driven world.

| 3 | 3 questions I ask myself before buying something & Ethical Shopping Guide at Art of Simple 

"Don’t get me wrong—sometimes shopping for the right thing, the thing you need, can be a fun endeavor. I’m down with that. But I’ll also venture to say that shopping for the heck of it, to stave off boredom when nothing is needed, and to add it to the clutter at home, really is a first-world diversion." 

Super helpful information during the season of back-to-school shopping. 

| 4 | Hope for when you regret the past. Tell Auntie Leila. at Like Mother, Like Daughter

"Not that there isn’t always much to be grateful for, and for sure many are suffering much worse things than I (or you, even) … it’s just… the defeat of it all… way back when; some of which may not have been our fault. Sometimes we suffer misfortune, and what could be termed crop failures of the soul, if not the actual physical farm. Floods and droughts, real and metaphorical, events not necessarily of our own making. 

And some things very much of our own making. 

And sometimes the bitterness is hard to overcome. Especially when we get to that place where we see that things might have worked out, if we had known then what we know now!" 

I was mentioning to a friend the other day how few blogs I've found written by women who have done this hard work of mothering for long enough to write from a long view. I am so thankful for the Like Mother, Like Daughter blog. In a season of watching my chicks fly the coop, I confess I've read just about every post. If you only get to read one post, though, read this one.

| 5 | How to read "Go Set A Watchman" at Modern Mrs. Darcy

"If you choose to skip this book, I understand that decision. I do think that serious students of writing or literature will be enthralled by the ties between the two works. The comparisons are rich, and many."

 Will you or won't you read it?  This is the question I've been asking my book-loving friends.  The answers are mixed.  I think I'll wait a couple of years at least -- let the dust settle a bit. When the time comes, though, I'll definitely be taking Anne's advice.   

| 6 |  Editing Suburbia by Jenni Simmons at The Curator

"After reading Saverin’s Atlantic piece, I don’t love Pilgrim at Tinker Creek any less—it is still some of the most beautiful writing I’ve ever read—but I do look at the book differently. Now I know that part of Dillard’s story is missing. It would be more compelling to know that a housewife wrote such a phenomenal book, admitting her suburban reality instead of the typical dismissal of suburbia, deeming such a common life boring or uncool."

I didn't realize this little bit of creative omission in one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors.  I'm so glad I first learned of it through Jenni's gracious insight.  

| 7 | Top 10 Online Recordings to celebrate Wendell Berry's 80th birthday at Englewood Review of Books & Wendell Berry Earns Highest Humanities Award, Lectures on Economy and Imagination at Sojo.net & A polite disagreement with Jayber Crow and the Mad Farmer my post for Art House America blog

So many good things about the Mad Farmer this month -- and, yes, I'm including the bit written by yours truly. A good and contrary man.  America is blessed to have him.

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Hoping for a good and content weekend for us all, friends.

Peace....

*Linking up with other 7 Quick Takers.*