There are blooms in the Cottage Garden
/What lovely "flowers" in Alice's garden! We have the same variety here:
...and the floral sling too (slightly different floral, though)!
Please Remember...
/There have been so many wonderful blog posts leading up to this first day of Advent. My head fairly spins with good ideas. But there is a poignancy to this season that trumps the busy-ness for me.
Last year, at this time, my friend Nicole was hungrily buying a lifetime supply of Christmas ornaments--literally. She wrapped and labelled one for each of her three children to be opened every Christmas of their childhoods.
In March of last year, our friend Missey died in childbirth.
Nicole died in July.
Lorrie died Thanksgiving Day.
Last Christmas was the last Christmas for all three of those ladies. What if this is the last year we have to prepare for the babe in the manger? What if this is the last year to make memories? What lessons do we really, really want to teach as if they were the last chance to shape a mind and a soul?
Missey had no idea she was going to die. But this is how she spent last December: A December Retreat at Home. Seems like time well spent now, doesn't it?
There will always be good things to do, in every season. Missey and Lorrie and, especially, Nicole have taught me this year to choose the best, even if I have to sacrifice the good.
Christmas Meme
/1. Hot Chocolate or apple cider?
Apple cider with mulling spices. I don't do dairy while nursing or pregnant.
2. Turkey or Ham?
Neither. Beef tenderloin on the grill.
3. Do you get a fake or real-you-cut-it-yourself Christmas tree?
Fake. I have a house full of asthmatic children and it seems like we spend every Advent hooked up to the nebulizer.
4. Decorations on the outside of your house?
We'll have a wreath on the front door and wreaths on the windows. We had icicle lights on our old house, but they don't really work here. Christian has suggested garland and lights on the pillars, so we might try that this year.
5. Snowball fights or sleddin'?
I'm a huge fan of sledding but we live on a former farm. Nothing but flatness everywhere. I miss the hills of our old neighborhood. I've done my fair share of referring snowball fights though (just can't seem to get my husband to behave;-).
6. Do you enjoy going downtown shopping?
No. Shopping makes me nuts. Every ADD gene in my body boings out of control. I get totally overwhelmed and have to come home and read Raising Your Spirited Child just to calm myself, never mind any spirited children I was foolish enough to take with me!
7. Favorite Christmas song?
Breath of Heaven sung by Amy Grant.
8. How do you feel about Christmas movies?
I have watched It's a Wonderful Life every year since it was a mandatory study break in college. I love it. And I like The Family Man, too. Other than that, the TV is busy with late football season and the beginning of the college basketball season.
9. When is it too early to start listening to Christmas music?
One year, I played the song referred to in question #7 incessantly in April. It became a prayer for my pregnancy with Nicholas, my Christmas miracle (he was unexpected as many miracles are). The song played all the way to the hospital and echoed in my head as snow fell outside the Birthing Inn. Maternity wards at Christmas time are really beautiful places!
10. Stockings before or after presents?
Stockings on St. Nicholas day.
11. Carolers, do you or do you not watch and listen to them?
Love them!
12. Go to someone else's house or they come to you?
We do Christmas dinner at my house, some years as many as three times, depending on relatives and schedules.
13. Do you read the Christmas Story? If so when?
Yes, all throughout the season.
14. What do you do after presents and dinner?
The children draw names to buy presents for each other. We open those before midnight Mass. Then, they get a present from us Christmas morning, after which we have breakfast. After dinner, they play with cousins and I clean the kitchen. That doesn't sound like fun for mom, but by the time we get to "after dinner" I'm ready for the solitude a pile of dishes affords me.
15. What is your favorite holiday smell?
My mother's pumpkin bread. I can't eat wheat any more and it's the pumpkin bread I miss the most, more for the smell than the treat itself. Spiced apple cider is a happy second place.
16. Ice skating or walking around the mall?
I love to ice skate. The mall, not so much.
17. Do you open a present or presents on Christmas Eve, or wait until Christmas day?
We do both.
18. Favorite Christmas memory?
We brought Nicholas home on Christmas Eve. They handed him to me in a stocking. Michael was twelve and had not yet hit a teenage growth spurt. I remember wanting to stop time. Everything was perfect. Of course, if time had stopped, Mary Beth would still be the only girl and we wouldn't know Katie or Karoline. God always has a better idea than we do, doesn't He? And we sure can't out-give Him.
19. Favorite Part about winter?
I love a fire on a snow day. I love to walk outside at night after it has snowed. I love flannel sheets. I love my Christmas dishes. I love it that my birthday is right after Christmas and my mother can't resist a sale.
20. Ever been kissed under mistletoe?
Yep, and I married him!
Thankful Thursday
/It's been a pretty amazing year and God has smiled on me abundantly.
1. I am so thankful for my husband, who works hard for our family. I'm thankful for his tenderness, for his joyful openness to an abundance of children, for his wisdom.
2. I am so very, very grateful for Karoline Rose. There were some dark days and desperate prayers before she became a part of our lives. With her, I see so beautifully the mercy of God and goodness of His plan. Every day, every moment of her life has been filled with grace.
3. And then there are the other seven! My children are a joy to me and I am so thankful that I get to spend my days (and nights) in such wonderful company. I love living and learning with them.
4. Words can't really capture how grateful I am to Tim and Janette Smith, who work cheerfully, tirelessly, and generously to make the Real Learning forums a place of genuine community for me and hundreds of other families around the world. These are truly wonderful people and I ask all of you to say a prayer thanks and ask God to bless them this year. And, of course, I'm thinkful for all the other people who share so generously and make the forums such a beautiful place.
5. I'm grateful for Catholic Heritage Curriculum, Five In a Row, Catholic Mosaic, and the dear friends who helped me put together this booklist. Thanks to all of them, and the wonderful world of Catholic homeschool blogging, our family's life is full of good things.
6. I am grateful for Little House authors, both those of yesteryear and those of recent history. My life has been touched and shaped and changed by Laura and Lissa. And I'm grateful that, for me, even when the cover of the book is closed, I have a forever friend. This is a two-fer. It was Lissa who persuaded me to blog. And it was Lissa who launched this blog when I was way too sick to write, never mind begin a new pubishing endeavor. And she was so right about all the good this blog and the blogging community would be for me.
7. I am grateful for ESPN and especially for Monday Night Football. (more on that later.) For now, let's just say this job has perks--this is a 3+ pound football from Jacksonville. Karen and Lissa, it's chocolate! Never again will I say my husband doesn't bring me chocolate.
8. I am grateful for the Communion of Saints. When people ask the inevitable "How do you do it?" question, this is the answer. I am particularly thankful to St. Therese, St. Anthony, the Blessed Mother and (indulge me here on the canonization thing) John Paul II. They worked together in my life recently to bring about some pretty amazing miracles.
9. I am grateful to all the people who have been so kind to me and my family throughout my pregnancy and postpartum. We have received wonderful meals, beautiful gifts, and bouquet upon bouquet of heartfelt prayers. I am still overwhelmed when I think about how blessed I am to share friendships with such good people.
10. I'm grateful to know what it is to be truly healthy and well, in body and spirit. And this Thanksgiving, I'm particularly thankful that my mother knows the feeling, too.
