Monthly Archives: November 2015

abundance of peace

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Nov 2015 advent 1 web (1 of 1)

Happy new year!  Today is the first Sunday in advent and the beginning of a new Church year. Fresh start. We begin a month of preparation.  In our day this can be a busy month, however the most important work to be done is really very quiet. We remind ourselves of this as we carefully light one violet candle and say the blessing over it. We whisper prayers  together in the glow of the flame. (video here) We come around this table every evening in December. It is the gift we give to ourselves in a season when contemplation can be hard to come by. 

We pulled out the trees and lights today.  Over the course of the coming weeks we will be adding ornaments and hanging garlands. We will reach for favorite stories to read a little every day, no pressure.  (I explain that and share one of my favorites here.)  There will be gifts gathered – some purchased and some handmade. There will be beloved saints to feast with throughout. 

There will be a concerted effort not to bustle. 

To help in the bustle free effort we are spending some time today and tomorrow to look ahead so we have what we need for the upcoming feasts.  I will also be printing some mom-inspiration from days gone by. 

St Andrew novena prayer cards here and here  with an explanation of this miraculous prayer

St Nicholas ideas here

Advent Customs in the Home here

Advent sections of this book and this book

Mrs. Sharp's Traditions – Advent

 

 

Before and After

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Nov 2015 trees web (1 of 3)

Last week out my back window, in all it's golden glory. 

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Just a few days later we got our first winter storm here in the highlands. Still beautiful, just different.  With the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers being finished off the inside of the house is also transitioning from autumn to advent. I have absolutely loved watching the view change here and am embracing this new season wholeheartedly. 

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I am ready. 

served up family style

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Nov 2015 thanksgiving web (3 of 9) 

Seventeen years ago our two families spent our first Thanksgiving together here in Utah. They had just arrived after living in Germany several years.  Today the tables were turned and we made our first Thanksgiving dinner in Utah after many overseas, again with our old friends.

Since all of us are originally from the upper midwest, we share a very similar holiday menu.  They are the same dishes we ate all those years ago and the same ones we will be eating in years to come – roast turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, cranberry jiggling from the can, jello salad, brown and serve rolls, and pie, pie, pie.

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  All carried in deep 9×13 dishes and served on paper plates so clean up is quick work because…

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We have important stuff to do after we eat. Board games, ping pong, and…

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Curling up on the couch with Charlie Brown.

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"Thanksgiving is more than eating…Those early Pilgrims were thankful for what had happened to them, and we should be thankful, too. We should just be thankful for being together. I think that's what they mean by 'Thanksgiving,'"

Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving

 

turkey day – no, for real…

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Sometime mid-summer we were visited by a handful of wild turkeys who wandered across the back yard, into the neighbors', and on off down the side of the mountain not to be seen again.  Knowing how weird enthusiastic I am about unexpected wildlife sightings, when Aidan spotted them coming down the drive today he told me I better get my camera.  I don't generally need to be told twice so I grabbed it and got out front in time to see the last one waddle past.  

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Turning on my heel I beelined through the house again.  When I got out the back door there was a gobble….overhead.  Not a turkey in sight.  Another gobble.  Then I looked up to see several crepey necked fowl peeking over the gutter.  

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Coming around the house I saw the last one climbing the garage roof…. where he joined the other ten.  

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A few flew into the trees.  The rest crept along the shingles til one inspired the rest with a noble, if less than graceful, flight over the trees towards the base flight line.  Pretty sure they didn't reach the runway.  In fact gravity likely landed them in the farm pasture at the bottom of the hill.  

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It was impressive none the less.  

A downtown birthday

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The last half dozen years of travel have firmly engrained in us a preference for investing in experiences over stuff.  So this year, the little girls each invited a neighbor friend to go on a downtown adventure in lieu of themed parties (which are not really my strong suit anyway.)  Disney is not usually among my top ten favorite things either, but this show turned out to be outstanding. 

We managed to keep our plans a secret right up until the morning of our outing.  Abbie (whose birthday comes first) had been making party and cake recommendations for a couple weeks.  She was beginning to be perplexed that we weren't committing.  By the time Saturday rolled around she was downright alarmed.  

We explained we needed to run to Salt Lake City for some errands so they needed to be up and dressed for a shopping trip. Soon after the doorbell rang and they ran to tell their friends they couldn't play.  That's when we sprang the real plan on them. I still can't believe they had no idea.  Go, us. : D

We piled in the van and made the trek to the Delta Center downtown. 

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Snacks in hand we settled in for Disney on Ice. The littlest girl with us positively screamed, "Hi Minnie Mouse!!" over and over when the skaters appeared. She was beside herself.  

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There was some "stuff" too, like craft kits and much needed cold weather gear. 

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And homemade cake for the first birthday girl.  'Cause that's what we do.  (The bigger girl will have cake on her day.)

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And then there were some last minute discussions about this whole getting bigger idea. We finally agreed we would carry on with these annual birthdays so long as she agreed to always be my baby.  Which made me feel a little better only since she is still small enough to climb on my lap in Minnie slippers.  

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The best security for civilization

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Nov 2015 hearth web (1 of 1)

 

"I have always felt that the best security for civilization is the dwelling, and that upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends more than anything else the improvement of mankind. Such dwellings are the nursery of all domestic virtues, and without a becoming home the exercise of those virtues is impossible."
-   Benjamin Disraeli 

This theme ran throughout the book the three youngest and I finished reading tonight before bed, A Tree for Peter by Kate Seredy.  The smallest steps in home-making renewed hope first in one child, then a family, and finally ignited a community. It illustrates the impact that simple, domestic chores and rituals have to heal and sustain and civilize us.

Is this still important in a world spinning chaotically on its axis?  There may be nothing more important than holding tenaciously to home, to helping others gain or regain it.  Seredy so clearly shows that stewardship is the antidote to destruction and despair. Hospitality, the antidote to hostility. 

Civilization, like charity, begins at home. 

first snow

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Nov 2015 snow web (1 of 1)

That first snow caught us off guard when it came a few days earlier than expected.  The children dressed themselves in whatever combination of hats and mitts they grabbed first and ran out the back door. It was a snow visit, lasting just long enough to make one pocket sized snowman. 

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"When I no longer thrill to the first snow of the season, I'll know I am growing old."

– Lady Bird Johnson

an apple a day

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At least for a little while.  The girls brought in the last basket before the freeze. It isn't an orchard, just one sturdy tree of very small and rather sweet little apples perched at the edge of the yard just before it drops off down the hillside. The moose and deer sampled. The girls gathered what it shared, carefully washing each and piling them into the basket on the counter.