Where I Am, Day 3

....beach in front of me...hundreds of these beauties beside me...my idea of heaven on earth.

How To Find Me On The Internet

(Image by Emily Ley)

After a bit of research, I'm delighted to discover that, lately in the past few months, others are locating my blog by Googling this:

Sheila Atchley Grace

More than a few times, in an effort to locate my blog, others are Googling my name and one precious and powerful word - Grace.

Can I tell you? When you make grace the standard, you will ultimately live at a higher plane than the law could ever take you. You will out-do the legalistas. You end up out-performing the performers.

Every. Single. Time.

So yes, I'm blessed to say you can find me by Googling or Binging my name....and then the word "grace".

Where I Am

Today, I fell asleep exactly here...



...and God is good.

Dining Room Mini Makeover

Hints were hinted at, on yesterday's blog post. Here is what Hannah and I were up to:

...cutting and sewing...so that our old chairs could do justice to....

...a pair of oak corner cabinets! I was so excited to get them...

I enjoyed arranging the shelves - Hannah loved styling them, too. (Notice: I "arrange", she "styles".)


Love the ticking fabric, made into ruffles on the bottoms of the slipcovers!I think I managed to eke out two of them, Hannah sewed the rest. Also,notice the tablerunner. I designed it - choosing the fabrics, and telling Hannah what I wanted - she sewed it. Ticking with a graphic orange-and-cream colored print trim. Mitered corners, no less. Homegirl's got mad skillz.

Just playing with the soft focus in post-edit. Please excuse. I can't decide if it looks artistic or crap.

The final thing this room needs is a Jonathan Howe original, and a rug to give more texture, and warm up the floor. This floor is a battered old oak, and I love to have it so. We could refinish it whenever we want - we have access to all the tools, and The Preacher has the know-how. But I don't want shiny, perfect floors. So I'm not wanting a rug to cover them up...I just want to soften and add texture and brighten the overall feel of this room.

I took a ton of shots of the tablesetting - in RAW instead of JPEG. I think either my card totally rejected shooting in RAW (not me...the files)
or I did something when I uploaded to my laptop. Either way, the pictures have vanished.

Maybe I'll try again? I haven't put the dishes back away yet.

October Blessings

(Image from the blog "A Holy Experience")

...Hannah and I have been up sewing all evening long. Both sewing machines, going strong. Hannah is faster and better than I am.

Hint: the dining room is changing!

Can't wait to show you!

PS. Enjoy the October nature calendar...click on it to enlarge it. These nature calendars have always brought me such joy!

The Exquisite Writing of Hal Borland

"We who live in a land of seasonal change...have Autumn on our doorstep. Even now the sun rises east and sets west, so far as the eye can see, and one hears regret that another Summer is gone.

In a sense, this is so; and yet no season, nor even any year, either stands alone or vanishes completely. Summer is rooted in Spring, and Autumn is essentially Summer's maturity. The apple now reddened on the tree was a fragile blossom, a delight to the eye and a host to the bee, only a few months ago. The honey in the comb was pollen when June was at its height, and rains of April and hot July nights now come to ripeness in the cornfields. Even before the leaves come swirling down, buds are on the bough for another Summer's shade.

Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night: and thus he would never know the rhythms that are at the heart of life. There is a time of sprouting, a time of growth, and a time of harvest, and all are a part of the greater whole. There comes the time now to savor the harvest, to pause and know another year not yet brought to full finality.

The rhythm of life and thought and change will be close around us now, and the restless energy of Summer...distilled into the stout brandy of another season. Change is ours to know and accept and build upon, even as the skies of Autumn clear and the leaves begin to fall. Fallen leaves open wider horizons to the seeing eye."

(Hal Borland, excerpt from the beautiful book Sundial of the Seasons)

May I add?

No season stands alone, nor does any choice we make. To have a harvest season, you first have to sow. Then you have to nurture the seed sown. Then you have to stay with it....stay with it...stay with it..."dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness".

Then. Then. Only then. Comes harvest.

If at any point you choose not to nurture the seeds of relationship, if you are harsh towards that living, growing thing called relationship, if you pluck up that which was planted, if you leave it...

...sorry, but no harvest.

Choose carefully. It matters. Tomorrow matters today. Today, I savor the fruit of weathering past winters, blizzards and frosts, rainy seasons, blasts of heat, and perfect seasons...all of it distilled into the fruit of sweet relationship.

You can't make wine without a harvest first. (And the Holy Spirit is a "latter rain" New Covenant reality...He is a Harvest Wine, as typified in Scripture!) You can't have a harvest without cultivating faithfulness. Plant first. Then cultivate continuity. Then comes the Harvest...then comes the wine....then comes the celebration. Real celebration, satisfying in a deep down durable sense.

You have to stick and stay through all parts of the process.

It's Chili Time in Tennessee!

...I actually received email about our Atchley Family Tradition this past week. A couple of friends had checked the weather report, and wanted to make sure I knew that the temps were forecasted to dip down into the 40's tonight.

Here at Mayhem Cottage (not really, but it felt like it this week) we stop eating chili when the weather warms, come springtime. And we do not allow so much as a bite of the stuff to pass our lips before the following autumn - we wait for the first night the temperatures get down into the 40's. It's become a tenant of our faith.

You should believe as well. You should try it.

Full Disclosure: my daughter Sarah broke down and made chili last week. Note: there was not a forty-something degree forecast involved. She jumped the gun. It's her favorite food in the whole world. Still...I bet she wishes now she'd saved herself.

If I've told her once, I've told her three times: when you give into temptation, it cheapens the whole experience. I bet her next bowl of chili won't feel quite so special. Kids! Even if they are adults. Who are married. And moved out on their own. They should still listen to their mothers.

Signing off now...your homegirl is enjoying the fireplace in my bedroom, and an extra blanket at the moment, and I've blogs to surf before I sleep...and blogs to surf before I sleep.