Author: Anna Eastland

I'm a homeschooling mom of 8 and write at "Just East of Crazy Land: Adventures in Parenting." My younger daughters share their art and writing at "The Passionate Pencil" and the older ones at "The Writing Sisters." Enjoy! :)

More Quotes from the Peanut Gallery

On By Anna EastlandIn Family Life6 Comments

  

Hiccups
2 year old boy: “I keep hicking up.”

 5 year old girl: “Hicking up is the only sickness where you can still do lots of stuff. The only thing you can’t do when you’re hicking up is not interrupt.”

Fog

4 year old girl:“Why is it so blurry outside?”

Concentration

9 year old girl, while doing math: “Sigh, I wish I was a boy!”

Me: “Why??”

Her: “So I could just focus on one thing! I get so distracted…”

…ah yes, women and multitasking….

Church

5 year old girl: “I like going to Mass every day because it feels like it is Jesus’ birthday every day. Like always Christmas but never much snowing.”

Stardust

On By Anna EastlandIn Poetry4 Comments

If it’s true that we are dust

and that from the moment of birth

we are heading towards death,

then are not all our words

like a dying breath—

an exhalation of hope

that our voices will be heard

after we’re gone?

Like the light of stars

shining for years,

sending light across the universe

long after the star has burnt out.

Are we perhaps,

though weak and frail,

yet destined for eternity,

little flurries of stardust?

Thank God for big sisters!

On By Anna EastlandIn Family Life, Photos3 Comments

Amidst the chaos of packing, moving and unpacking again, a lovely big sister is such a help! Her lucky baby brother has a mini-mum! 

 

“Here Mum,” she said, “You’re tired. Let me try the snugly.” Only nine years ago, she was the little baldy in the snugly! Now she is more organized than I am, and very maternal to boot. I am very blessed to be her mother. 

The Mystery Revealed!

On By Anna EastlandIn Photos10 Comments

  
Here it is folks! The mystery photo from my last post was an extreme close-up of the detailing on my kitchen tiles! I did play with it a fair bit on my iPad’s photo editing function…tricky!

Thanks for all your great guesses! This was fun!

Human Heart Divine

On By Anna EastlandIn Poetry2 Comments

Tonight,after another long day of unpacking
and sorting the mismatched socks which mysteriously followed us
to the new house (how? how?),
we walk the two blocks to church—so close!—
and attend the Mass of the Sacred Heart.

Jesus awaits us. 
And amidst the glow of candles
and the flowing melody of chant
my spirit begins to breathe again,
having been slightly suffocated 
by walls of cardboard boxes.
In this open space, my heart expands.

The silence is pregnant with poetry—
the words which have been bottled up inside,
which my hands have longed to release,
begin to emerge and the urge to write grows stronger. 

My little ones are sleepy
the baby dream chuckles and snores somnolently in the snugly
cosy and safe as in God’s pocket. 

My toddler clutches his toy car,
which is always magically in his hands
no matter where we go,
until sleep releases it from his grip
with a small clatter.

  
 
My five year old slides over 
with her stuffy peaking out of her coat,
her eyes wide open and insistent,
as she asks me a pressing question 
“Do bunnies eat petals?”
“Yes!”

“I know,” whispers my four year old,
Let’s pretend we’re in a movie theatre.”
I grin and breathe in deeply to let the incense fill my lungs 
as the shimmer of golden vestments brightens my eyes. 

Under the everyday human humdrum,
runs the divine,
like blood under skin—
hidden, life giving, essential. 
The heart of God
pierced with the sorrow of love for us
stoops down to touch us gently…
an embrace filled with yearning. 

Rain drums on the roof 
and we are cradled inside the cosy wooden church
as if in the ark,
riding the waves of our life
to the shore beyond…
seekers listening for the gentle sound of a dove
as the Holy Spirit leads us forward. 

Crazy Land is on the move!

On By Anna EastlandIn Family Life4 Comments

Big news! We are moving less than one week! Our house has become a giant cardboard box fort. I’ve been slinging my tape guns so much I need a cowboy hat to complete the look. Even the baby is helping out…sort of…  

We are so excited about our new place, which is right in the neighbourhood we were hoping for, only 2 1/2 blocks from our parish! It will be awesome to have another room, and two floors instead of one. For some reason the kids are very excited to have stairs for the first time in our suite!

It wasn’t easy to find, and definitely is an answered prayer…I say this because looking for a new home to rent in the city when you have six kids is kind of like asking if you can bring six large dogs to a wedding…people look at you like you’re crazy and take back the invitation. “There just wouldn’t be room for you all,” they say. 

So many potential landlords turned us down once they heard we had six kids. Sometimes politely, sometimes….not so much. One reluctant realtor for an old small 4 bedroom house, which would likely soon be a tear down anyway, sounded reluctant but said, “They are all yours?! Well, we can’t refuse kids (he didn’t say technically, but it was under his breath), so I guess if you can manage them all…” Needless to say, we decided against the reluctant realtor of the rusty gated shabby house…and the next day, I found our current place: a beautiful newly renovated three bedroom with abundant bathrooms for all our little munchkins. No more pee dances while Daddy is in the shower! 

The lovely thing is that our new landlords are so welcoming, and actually wanted a family to live there! I had prayed for God to give me a really clear sign when I found the right house, so I would know it was the one He had waiting for us. I was asking St. Joseph to pray for us to find a home for our family, as he had to moved the Holy Family several times and knew what this kind of uncertainty was like. Well, guess what my new landlord’s name is? Joe, and he’s a carpenter! God has a good sense of humor.

To top it off, a friend who didn’t even know we needed a new one gave us a beautiful queen size mattress. Our old one was definitely ready for the dump! The kids are using it as a trampoline in the living room until it goes.
I have been missing you all and will give you more updates when I can! I’ve been so busy packing all day for the last few weeks and sending away loads to the thrift store, with the help of very generous friends, who have been helping me dig through my stuff and pair it down. The u-haul is booked for this Saturday, and a bunch of friends from our parish, including our sweet friend Father McDonnell, are coming to help us move our things, while a few others are going to help me set up the essentials at the new house. Hurrah!

Praying with Paint: Transcendent Art

On By Anna EastlandIn Photos, Ponderings3 Comments

Today my friend and fellow Love Rebel: Reclaiming Motherhood author Melanie Jean Juneau posted some very inspiring and beautiful artwork by artist Ladislav Zaborsk and I wanted to share a few of the pieces with you. The warmth of the colours are amazing! For me, looking at these paintings draws my spirit to prayer. 

   

I also loved the quote she included from him in her moving post:

The substance of my work is the experience of God transferred into my heart (…) Art that seeks truth and beauty is the anticipation of eternity.

Here’s the link to Melanie’s post to read more about her experience of surrendering to the Divine and to see more of Zaborsk ‘s beautiful art work which helped her express these intimate emotions: Joy of 9.

 
 

Loss and Grief

On By Anna EastlandIn Uncategorized2 Comments

A beautiful, insightful poem about the transformative power of grief by my “blogging buddy” Dennis Ference.

den169's avatarMerging Traffic

grand-canyon-268435_1280

As a mountain allows
a river to carve through
its rock and granite
to create and reveal
its stunningly beautiful depths,
so we are asked to
allow the blood and tears
of our loss and grief
to carve through our
loves and attachments,
plans and expectations,
to discover in our depths
the mysterious, boundless
Divine Love that transcends all
experience of both gain and loss
and enables, in time,
the healing needed to envision
new perspectives of Life.

© 2016 Dennis Ference

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