St. Luke's Brush Giveaway

It's Small Business Saturday and we are celebrating big here at In the Heart of my Home. I'm shining the spotlight on a new sponsor almost every waking hour today and offering you a chance to win with every post. I want you to get to know my kind sponsors and I think you'll be glad for the opportunity to do some Christmas shopping in these small shops. The giveaways will remain open until Tuesday at noon and then all the winners will be announced in the original posts.

Garry and Amy Brix, at St. Luke's Brush, were my very first sponsors. I think having sponsors at all might have been there idea. I'm grateful to them for the steadfast loyalty. I'm also a huge fan of Garry's art. These wooden dolls are by far the "toys" Sarah plays with the most. They are, no doubt, family heirlooms. 

Please let me share a little of Garry's story with you.

How did your shop come to be?

Amy and I started St. Luke's Brush  after a career setback. I have been an artist all my life, studied art in college and worked as a designer but lacked a way to channel my work. But the idea to do St. Luke's Brush provided direction and continues to unfold God's plan for me and bless our family.

Is yours a family business?

It is a family business in many ways as I have a busy daytime job and keeping organized and focused during our busy times requires someone with great organizational skills, the kind only a mother of four children could manifest. Our children help us get ready to host guests for open houses and have gone to help set up in exhibit halls at conferences. This business started for and continues to be for them.

 

How do combine your work and your family life?

The fact that my workspace is in the basement only steps away from my family, makes me feel as though they are with me as I paint. They are in and out all the time provided they observe just two rules: not to startle me and not to bump my chair while I'm working. J

What inspires you?

I am inspired by all kinds of art but with regard to religious art I am particularly inspired by icons and byzantine art and the design and care with which these things have been made. Just this past weekend we had the opportunity to attend Sunday Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, center of the Archdiocese of St. Louis and one of the largest mosaic collections in the western hemisphere. If you visit St. Louis, you should make time to stop and see it.

What's the product you are most excited about in your shop right now?

I think the product I am most excited about in my shop right now would be all of them really in that this year I have been able to help several Catechesis of the Good Shepherd instructors set up their atriums using my work. Being able to lend a hand in religious formation of children gives me great joy and satisfaction.

 

What's your favorite Advent tradition? 

Not having grown up in the Catholic Church, the richness of the liturgical seasons provides some of the same wonder that our children experience as they unfold. Advent gives us so many opportunities to celebrate. Next week Saint Nicholas will fill shoes next to the door with special things.  We will celebrate with a Mexican fiesta to honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Saint Lucy will wake us early in the morning with rolls and hot chocolate.  It is our hope that by marking these traditions in a special way that seeds will fall on the fertile ground of our children’s hearts and instill a lover of the faith that they will carry into adulthood.

Any plans for your shop for the new year that you'd like to share?

Plans that we have for the new year include finding more ways to help make scripture and tradition come to life for anyone doing Catechesis of the Good Shepherd by painting as much love and beauty as I can into my work. I would like to thank all of the people who have supported us in this work and made it possible for me to use my talent to do God's will. I pray that His plan continue to unfold for me and that I have patience to let it continue and wisdom to see it at work in my life.

  Garry writes, "I have chosen to give away St. Francis of Assisi taming the fierce wolf of Gubbio in honor of the name our Holy Father chose to begin his papacy. The story of the wolf of Gubbio teaches us forgiveness, as the wolf promises to never again take the lives of the people and their animals at St. Francis’ intervention. St. Francis says to the people, “Remember, our Savior taught forgiveness. He taught us to love our enemies.” This is the spirit in which I would like to begin my Advent and want to share it with one of your readers. "

Please visit  St. Luke's Brush. These are a favorite stocking stuffers and they're perfect for Easter baskets, too. Browse the shop, come back, leave a comment, and let us know what you loved. You'll be entered to win the St. Francis doll.

The Winner is Kelly of  The Careless Catholic, who wrote: I love St. Luke's Brush and have their Etsy shop in my favorites. It's is hard to pick only one favorite doll, but first on my list is Our Lady of Guadalupe and the children's nativity set. So beautiful! 

Kelly, email me with your snail mail address at intheheartofmyhome AT gmail DOT com

Over The River

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Photo credits: Kristin and Katie

A Truly Happy Thanksgiving To You

~ G. K. Chesterton

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?