InstaFriday - Looking Up and Looking Down

When I started looking at the pictures on my phone for this week's InstaFriday, I noticed that I was either looking up or looking down for a number of them. Hey! Let's classify each picture accordingly!

Looking Down:

Daffadowndilly. This was taken with my iPhone, promise. 

It's here! The first daffodil of the season bloomed in my yard this week. We've been on "bloom watch" for a couple of weeks now, as we've been driving in and out of the driveway admiring the swollen buds. You can tell how fresh this one is, not even quite at attention. And in honor of this first flower, I would also like to take this opportunity to suggest we here in America stop calling them daffodils, and adopt the British name, daffadowndilly. I first heard daffodils referred to as daffadowndillies when I listened to a radio theater production of The Secret Garden (highly recommend).  That name more accurately describes the flower and the mood they put you in when you see them. Who's with me?


Looking Up:

Right at dusk, we got out of our car at a basketball game this week, and this is what we saw.

Jupiter, Venus, the Moon

I really know next to nothing about astronomy, but I love looking at the stars. A camera phone cannot capture how seeing this makes you exclaim, "Oh wow. That's cool!" And ever since I memorized Psalm 19, I always say to myself (and sometimes out loud), the first two verses.

¹The heavens declare the glory of God; 

                                  the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 

                                                 ² Day after day they pour forth speech; 
                                   night after night they reveal knowledge.

A couple of nights later, they had moved into this configuration.

Why have I been blessed with the ability to see and marvel at this?

Looking Down:

This is what my dining room table looked like for a couple of weeks. All things tax spread out, waiting for me to get them ready to take to our accountant.

Totally unrelated to taxes...I still love the blue wall paint I picked out in '97

I am happy to report that it no longer looks like that. I subdued the procrastination monster that usually has me in his icy grip, and got after this on Saturday. Done. J'ai fini. Mi sono fatto. Ich will done. Things definitely start Looking Up with this little task out of the way.

Looking Up:

"I'm done" in Italian (mi sono fatto) is really an appropriate lead into this next picture. When I first saw those Italian words, I thought they should mean, "I am fat."  I snapped the following picture earlier in the week, before I'd seen those words - not knowing that I was going to include those Italian words on this post.  I snapped this picture to show my guilt free snack I keep on my kitchen counter - in an attempt to keep me from ever saying "I am fatto" in English.

Looking Up:

Any time you get a chemistry lab report done, things immediately start looking up. Faith enlisted Kiowa for company and comfort during that laborious process.

Looking Up, Up, Up!

It feels like all things Faith on the post today...but it was a big week for our Faith. For Christmas, we had given her tickets to a Brad Paisley, The Band Perry, and Scotty McCreery concert, which was this past Saturday. She did a special thing with her hair that night and I thought it was beautiful.

Looking Down:

I kind of feel guilty for classifying this as a "down." But teaching a teenager to drive is STRESSFUL! It is not my favorite thing on the planet to do. Elizabeth is getting the hang of it quickly - she's doing great, and she is being very patient with her mother as I place my life in her young, inexperienced, 15 year old hands.

My view from the passenger side. Can I have a brake, please?

Looking Up:

An InstaFriday wouldn't be complete without a picture from Classical Conversations. It was geography this week. I love mnemonic devices. It was major trails of the US this week.

We threw the rivers in there for good measure

Looking Up:

Probably my kiddos' favorite breakfast - biscuits and gravy. I loved how the steam was rising up as the sun showed through the window.

Looking Down that compels you to Look Up:

My 92 year old aunt died on Sunday. I blogged about her here. My mom, Mary Grace, and I made the trip to the Bootheel of Missouri on Tuesday for the visitation and the funeral on Wednesday. On our way into Malden, MO, we stopped by her house. It hasn't been lived in for quite some time. Sigh.

A visitation is an interesting event. You cry. You laugh. You remember the good times, and the hard times.  My mom was comforted by the many who came by and said kind things about her sister.

My aunt was buried in the same cemetery as her parents, right across the street from a huge peach orchard. While there, I walked over to where my grandparents are buried.

My grandpa affectionately called my grandma, "Nervi"

I labeled this last section "Looking Down that compels you to Look Up."

There's nothing much more sobering than a death. We look down. We see the cold, hard facts of  life and death on this earth.

It's that looking down, that compels us to look up for hope. There is no hope for any of us apart from God. And thankfully, He made a way for us through Jesus.

That truth keeps me Looking Up.