Love and Devotion, Pussy Willow, Miquelrius

Thinking:

Love is a fire, which when fanned into a flame, becomes devotion.

The love which we begin with early on is a tiny bud, which we water and feed and grow under the light of His Grace… until it becomes DEVOTION. Love brought us together, bound us together… devotion keeps us together. By constantly attaching ACTION onto the EMOTION, love is allowed to flourish and bear fruit. It’s when we try to live on EMOTION alone that we neglect the needful things…. and when there is no evidence of fruit then discouragement and disillusionment sets in, and we mistakenly think that LOVE has ceased to exist.

The same applies to our relationship with God. The action that proves our love for our God is also the food which allows this love to grow and bear fruit. It is a cycle that never ends. If we truly want to be DEVOTED to God, our love needs to be motivated into ACTION.

Reading: Introduction to the Devout Life

So I bought a bunch of pussy willow branches, just because I’ve always wanted some in the house. They are now at the fireplace, in a vase much too big for them… to look nice, it will need at least 5 more of these bunches. I guess I need a pussy willow vase for them to look “proper” but if I tarry too long even the vase will not be necessary. Nino (14 months) has been pulling the little catkins off the branches, at first attempting to eat them… and after being reprimanded he is now simply caressing them with his index finger. Pussy willow all over the carpet, the couch…. I suppose I should be glad I don’t have to get a real kitten for him.

He has also started to draw. We made him muffin crayons the other day from saved Crayola pieces. He seems to prefer the Derwent pencils though.

Unlikely place to find my favorite notebook, but there it is. My beloved Miquelrius, in the stationery aisle at Target. An even lovelier surprise: my beloved Miquelrius, in the CLEARANCE aisle at Target. I jumped and bought 5 of them, one for each of us. What I love about Miquelrius: the color coded pages, perfect for separating subjects without the use of tabs. Made in Spain. Quality paper that takes fountain pen ink really well. Yummy yummy.

The kids have started new notebooks. I was inspired by a conversation at the 4RealTL…. and was reminded that we haven’t done a proper notebooking project in a LONG while. (Did I mention I *strongly dislike* 3-hole-punched lined paper?) But the kids have been using it for years so it’s hard to break the habit — everytime I propose switching to notebooks they balk. But Miquelrius changed their minds this time.

Paco has started one for Technology, Migi for Weapons, and Yena is picking 4 different topics, Birds being the first one. She’s thinking of Engineering, Weapons, and Plants.

Mine is the “master notebook”, where I’m keeping track of all their projects and mine.