Several difficult events, illuminating conversations, and the good influence of friends have converged this summer, all pointing to a longing for beauty around me. Beauty, peace and goodness. Life is hard, our culture can be ugly and I need to fortify my family with what is good, true and beautiful. People are hurting and the love of God and His beautiful gifts to us will carry us through the pain. Then we return the glory to Him.

In our homeschool, history and literature come easily, they are our natural favorites. Math is a given because we all know we must plug away at it. Living in the boonies, even nature study pretty much comes right to our door. However, what is beautiful often gets set aside for what seems to be more urgent in many aspects of our home life. Function over form. My pragmatic nature will quickly chose what is practical over what is beautiful. But what if I can chose both?
My intention is to plan for beauty. But beauty and charm can be expensive. I have to be creative to stay within the practical.
We are surrounded by lovely parks and walking trails. Lets keep nature notebooks again. And take the time to fill them. Our shelves are lined with good books, lets step away from the screens and read them. There are plenty of able bodies here to tidy and clean, we can't redecorate but we can polish it all up! We have easy access to beautiful music right on our CD shelf, not to mention our children's voices. Lets be quiet sometimes and listen. Great art is balm to the soul, lets slow down and study the details.

I have never been a crafty mom, and Pinterest makes my eye twitch. But I have a few old art project books here. With two little girls who love to craft, and two talented big girls, surely we can make our own beautiful creations. Our boys have pretty creative minds too. Let me see what I can find that will interest them!
Homeschooling, homemaking and mothering are all so intricately linked that little touches of beauty in one small area can spill over and permeate other details of home life. Much of it will be intentional, much of it will just be a more observant eye and appreciation for what is already there.

What is beautiful, is comforting and strengthening. What is good and true and beautiful directs our hearts to God and that is the greatest comfort of all.
