Gathering My Thoughts

I find myself:

::noticing God's glory

I still haven't put that layer of topsoil on the front bed. I'm sure the girls didn't dig six inches to plant those tulips. We're going to have a "wintry mix" momentarily. I'm going to be so bummed if those tulips don't come up in the spring.

::listening to 

Christian teasing Sarah Annie incessantly. Music to my ears...for about the first hour. Now it's making me crazy.

::clothing myself in 

Layers. Lots and lots of layers. The wind chill was 7 degrees Sunday when Nick and I were hanging out together for soccer at sunrise. I wore running tights that are as old as he is under my jeans. And boots and two pairs of socks. I even wore a wool sweater for the occasion (and wool makes me itch and wheeze). Baby, it's cold ourtside! 

::talking with my children about these books

We fnished The Mysterious Benedict Society over the weekend. And we began the sequel, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey. I admit, I'm hooked. On the drive to Ginny's (when we didn't have the boys with us and didn't want to get ahead of them with those books), the girls and I listened to Caddie Woodlawn. I'm sure this is the fourth time listening for me. It never gets old. 

::pondering prayerfully

"Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well.  Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life become a beautiful success, in spite of poverty." ~Marmee in Little Women.

::carefully cultivating rhythm

I've been well pleased with our  November rhythm, even though it was sorely tested and most definitely rocked. We will hold to the same basic plan through Advent. 

 

::creating by hand

Monday was a happy, creative day. I began early. Mike had a very early flight and I awoke with him. By 5:15, I was stitching my way around some pretty pink tulle. After that project was completed (I'll share it with needle & thREAD on Friday), I started working on some sweet, scrappy hostess gifts.  Then, with a fire roaring and Karoline begging to watch Little Women (again). I actually sat still in the middle of the afternoon and merrily knit away while Jo figured out the Professor Bhaer was a great catch. I like Professor Bhaer better in the movie than I do in the book. I really, really like him in the movie;-).

::learning lessons in

tutus. Plotting with one of the girls' teachers for the ultimate girls' weekend.

::encouraging learning 

Stephen is sprinting to the finish of the November Novel Writing month. We're reading Thanksgiving books just now. Mary Beth is back at work in the Delegate's office, helping to draft legislation before the winter session.

::begging prayers

For my friend Megan and her family and for the repose of the soul of her beautiful mother, Cynthia McMullen.

For our dear friend Shawn Kuykendall, who is suffering terribly, and for his family and friends. Please get to know Shawn a little better here. Leave it to Shawn to get The Washington Post into the National Cathedral to consider God.

For Elizabeth DeHority who kept her Tuesday chemo date today.

For the repose of the soul of Eldo Merlin Foss.

::keeping house

Today's the day: the final scrubdown before the first Sunday of Advent comes with all its decorating splendor. Total clutter elimination and a washing of every wall are the goals. We did the basement walls a couple of weeks ago and now I'm obesessed with wall washing. My poor kids are not fond of my obsessions. 

::crafting in the kitchen 

I'm making cinnamon honey butter today, to combine with the scrappy hostess gifts. It's in the experimental stage right now. I'll let you know how it goes.

::loving the moments

Mike has been gone for most of the last week. He was home for a few hours Sunday night and early Monday morning. I'm grateful for those few moments we had and I'm very much looking forward four days off. We need every minute of those four days.

::giving thanks 

for my husband, who is steadfast and strong. He's carrying a heavy load right now and doing it with determined holiness. He thinks it goes unnoticed. But I notice. And I'm so grateful. 

::living the liturgy

I've been prayerfully considering living liturgy almost every waking hour for the last few weeks. My own personal connection to living liturgy is the Liturgy of the Hours, more than anything else. It's real and accessible and such a gift of the Church. It's always there and I bring away something new every time I pray with the universal Church. I've brought my children into my private time with the Hours more and more this season, maybe because I recognize that this practice is enduring, no matter what, no matter where. 

I love the feasting and fasting of the Domestic Church, though. I have poured heart and soul into creating and preserving traditions with my children. The struggle between the secular calendar and the liturgical one becomes more pronounced as the children get older, not because the children are becoming more "secular," but because they have obligations to outside elements. Their worlds grow wider and so, ours do, too.

Soccer tournaments. College exams. We try to create a climate of peace and holiness within our homes, but then... there is also the call to go to them. To be at the big game, and so to forego decorating the tree on the First Sunday of Advent. To hold off on St. Nicholas Day treats and to send exam week care packages instead. To let the little ones have the same hands-on liturgical experiences as the big ones did, while still considering the fact that they might not carry them into their own homes when they are grown after all. And somehow, to do it all without feeling like the purposeful intentions in the heart of the young mother are not slipping through her fingers in middle age...

::planning for the week ahead

Tomorrow, Michael and Kristin have invited me to take a glimpse at the greatest blessing imagineable. And hopefully I'll know whether to trim that tiny white cardigan in pink or blue.

Thanksgiving lunch at my sister-in-law's house. This Thanksgiving will feel odd, at best. Patrick and Zach have to stay in Charlottesville. The soccer team is not allowed home even for the day. Uncle Mac won't come from Michigan as he has every year I can remember since as far back as my husband's 21st birthday. He came for the funeral. He'll come for the burial at Arlington National Cemetary. A third trip this fall isn't really possible. And, of course, Granddad won't be there. The empty places at the table loom large.

Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's house. I'm grateful to my sister, who seems to know whenever I have dissolved into tears lately. She has a sixth sense about that, probably cultivated long ago in the dark of night when she was supposed to be asleep in her own room, but crawled into my bed instead. She's planning a lovely evening, complete with birthday cake for Mike, whose birthday falls on Thanksgiving Day this year. 

It will be different. It will be good. 

And then there will be soccer this weekend in Charlottesville...

Lord, Hear Our Prayer

The internet is a formidable force for bringing the comfort and consolation and hope of the Lord to all of us. It can be an incredibily powerful medium for community. There is an unfathomable resource for prayer here. We have on the 'net the privilege of praying for people and of being witness to the miracles brought forth when fervent, faith-filled people pray for one another.

Let's be that community of hope and faith for one another.

How about this idea? What if I pop in here every week, share Sunday's gospel and talk a wee bit about how we can live it and pray it in our homes? And then you tell me how we can pray for you that week? Deal?

{And please, do return and let us know how prayer is bearing fruit.} 

 

Gospel

Luke  23:35-4 

The rulers sneered at Jesus and said,
"He saved others, let him save himself
if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God." 
Even the soldiers jeered at him. 
As they approached to offer him wine they called out,
"If you are King of the Jews, save yourself." 
Above him there was an inscription that read,
"This is the King of the Jews."

Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying,
"Are you not the Christ?
Save yourself and us." 
The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply,
"Have you no fear of God,
for you are subject to the same condemnation?
And indeed, we have been condemned justly,
for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes,
but this man has done nothing criminal."
Then he said,
"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
He replied to him,
"Amen, I say to you,
today you will be with me in Paradise."

Think

Let us hold before him like palm branches those final words incribed above the cross. Let us show him honor, not with olive branhes but with the splendor of merciful deeds to one another.

~ St. Andrew of Crete

 

Pray

 

Dear Jesus, As we draw close to Advent, make me more aware of my King on a cross. In the coming days, help me to focus even more on merciful deeds for my family and my neighbor than I do on gifts and banquets.

 

Act

With all the other lists you make this week, my a list of merciful intentions. What will you do to honor the King with acts of mercy?

 

 

How can I pray for you this week?

Sweet Moments

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A baby is God's opinion the world should go on.

~Carl Sandburg

Thanks for sharing deep breaths of sweetness with us, Ginny.

Needle & thREAD

 

 

Good morning! Today, I'm so grateful to have Aimee from Living, Learning, and Loving Simply to share some sewing and good books with you. I'm up to my eyeballs in Nutcraker tutus. Look for the Nutcracker version of needle & thREAD next Friday (since Thursday is Thanksgiving). Many thanks to Aimee for a pretty great Christmas present idea!

I belong to a bi-monthly Food Swap where a group of about 30 of us get together and trade homemade, homegrown, or foraged foods.  In November, our swap included crafts!  As I thought about what I wanted to make, I found a wonderful tutorial for handmade drying mats. Perfect for those dishes that come out of the dishwasher still damp or a pretty place for the hand-washing to dry. When Edie said that these are her "go-to" Christmas gift, I figured that these were worth making!

 

I bought two coordinating fabrics for each mat at JoAnn Fabrics and Hobby Lobby.  The reverse side is white terry cloth.  I had no idea that terry was so expensive!  9.99/yard at JoAnn, but it was Veteran's Day and I found a 60% off coupon! {That is one of the NICE parts of an iPhone...standing in line at a craft store and googling their site for a coupon and VOILA: they scan your phone and you save money!}

 

These were very simple to cut and sew. They are so pretty and nice that I ended up not swapping them, but keeping them to give as Christmas presents.

 

On the reading front, I love to keep a fiction and a non-fiction book going at the same time.  After months of fiction duds, I finally read one that I really enjoyed.  What could be better than a theme of brokenness and redemption, mentions of homeschooling, gardening and also a midwife?!  Stories where Love conquers rejection and pain and isolation are always a winner. I found A Language of Flowers at our library but had to wait a short time on a waiting list to receive it. I devoured it in two days.

 

 

 

For non-fiction, I am slowly savoring A Million Little Ways by Emily P. Freeman.  If you haven't watched the darling trailer for it, you must! After reading the first two chapters, I started texting several local friends to see if they wanted to spend our upcoming January discussing this book together and what it will mean for each of us practically. From the back cover:

 

You were born to make art. You were made to live art. You might not see yourself

as an artist, but you are--in so many unexpected ways. In what you create, whether

poetry or pie, sculpture or sand castle, calligraphy or conversation. It's time to uncover

the shape of your soul, turn down the voice of the inner critic, and move into the world

with the courage to be who you most deeply are.

Creating a life of meaning is not about finding that one great thing you were made

to do, it's about knowing the one great God you were made to glorify--

in a million little ways.

 

 

 

What have you been sewing lately? Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo and a brief description of what you're up to? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

    Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and theREAD post, and not a needle and theREAD post from a previous week.

    Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us!

Go out and make believers of all...

neighborhoods.

It was Commitment Sunday the year I had my sixth baby. I eagerly filled out the cards for ministry volunteers. The parish was new; many hands were needed to get things up and running. I was looking forward to jumping in with both feet.

No one ever called.

I asked my pastor about it and he said, “No, ma’am. I pulled your card.” Bewildered, I pressed on. He told me that he didn’t think it was wise to involve myself in anything. “Just focus on a being a really good wife, mother and neighbor. Opportunities to spread the Gospel will be plentiful.”

All around me, women are strapping on their sandals and going forth to share the good news. I have a friend who is sheltering pregnant women in Costa Rica. Nearly every month, someone I know goes abroad to travel with Compassion International. Here at home, there are committees, and classes and Bible studies, all being led by enthusiastic women. Good for them. Really. If God has called them, God has given them the grace to go out there and spread the Gospel, so that’s all good for them.

What about the rest of us? What about the mom at home with six children 12 and under? What about the young woman with the newborn and the traveling husband? What about the lady whose big family keeps her running from dawn until dark? Are they excluded in the call to make believers of all nations?

I don’t think so. I think that “all nations” includes this nation. And this nation encompasses your neighborhood. Do you want to be an evangelist? It’s hard. To evangelize in suburbia you have to do a hard thing. You have to open your door. You have to welcome other women into your home.

Women think about their houses the way they think about their bodies: never good enough, always lacking. They hesitate to invite other women in because they are afraid to let other women see the messes and imperfections of family life. The corollary is that women also are hesitant to go to another woman’s house. And there we sit, behind our own walls, not sharing even a cup of tea, never mind the love of Jesus.

We evangelize when we give a cup of water in His name. Pour it in a sippy cup, add a splash of apple juice, and serve it to the little boy down the street. Then sit on your couch with his mama, coffee and a muffin and befriend her. Meet her where she is. Share her burden. Find out that her husband is traveling and she has a new dog and the dog really needs to run every day, something she can’t do with three children in tow. Offer to watch the kids for half an hour while she gets out and runs with the dog.

Gather a couple of other women and study a book together. Invite them to come be in your home, with their children if necessary, and read and share. Here’s the thing: You don’t have to search Pinterest for the top 50 Bible study snacks. You don’t have to scrub your powder room with a toothbrush. You don’t have to melt scented wax so that it smells like autumn. Just smile. Share God.

Women tell me they are more comfortable in the home of someone who is welcoming but not perfect. There are a couple of reasons this seems to be true. First, when we let our guards down a little and let people see us as we are, we tell them we trust them and we invite them to trust us. Secondly, if we allow someone to see our imperfections, we let them know that we can love them despite their imperfections. We all are struggling; none of us is perfect. When I let someone in and they see the struggle, they also see the One who gives the strength.

Tune in to everyday needs in your everyday world. See that lady struggling to push her cart from the checkout stand while also holding and consoling her crying baby? Take the cart from her. Talk on the way to the car. Say something encouraging. Carry the cross just that small distance, but carry it as He would.

Evangelize your neighborhood. Share what God is doing in your life by allowing people into your life. Before long, they’ll bring you their heartaches, they’ll share their pain, they’ll reveal their wounds. Opportunity after opportunity to live the works of mercy will literally land on your doorstep. And you will have blessed moments to be the hands and the feet of the One who heals.

(A very kind soul sent me this after Granddad died. Like a big hug, I tell you!)