Christmas just keeps running over Thanksgiving

It's hard to keep Christmas at bay right now.  We've put away all of our Halloween decorations, and the little box of Thanksgiving decorations is always a disappointment to open compared to the multiple bins I have for Halloween and Christmas.  The kids are already working on Christmas songs for their music lessons, I've ordered my cards, made my plans, and we had an ornament making party for the Giving Tree project at church yesterday.



I'm torn on this issue - on the one hand the Christmas Machine is just such a monster that it does need to be contained (and a simple Thanksgiving focused on gratitude for what we have is such a lovely thing it shouldn't get sacrificed to the beast) and then on the other hand the To Do list for December gets overwhelming and getting a jump on it makes it all much more manageable.

So I've done a few Christmas things.  But now,  to focus back on Thanksgiving and just tuck those things away!

Back to the Turkeys!

Happy Mother's Day

 Happy Mother's Day!  Today, you can find me over on my other blog, The Childrens Chalice, writing about a Mother's Day that extends that love out into the world.

Happy Spring!

Happy First Day of Spring to you all!  I am soooo glad to welcome Spring back into my life.  The sun, the green, the flowers, the birds, the bees, the frogs are all most welcome.  The flies and fleas are less welcome but unavoidable and so while I do not roll out the welcome mat and sing for them, I am going to try and accept their place in the interdependent web of life.

We had a lovely nature walk earlier this week, and saw many signs of spring:







Now we have a lovely sunny day here (the forecast may say 50% chance of rain, but I choose to ignore that), and other than practicing musical instruments I am going to have the kids do their whole school day outdoors working in the garden.

Yay for Spring!

Plunging in to 2014

Today we repeated our New Year's plunge into the Sound.  (Well, I don't jump in myself, but the kids and their dad did it).



Brrr!



She gives it a (reluctant) two thumbs up.  A bracing way to begin a new year.

Winter Break Time

I wasn't planning on really taking a Winter Break in our little home school (we school year round, and take breaks that are convenient to us - such as when I am away at a conference for a week), BUT ... we were all pretty tired and the kids wanted a break so much I decided to go ahead and relax.




So we had a bit of time to add a personal touch to Christmas.  Cookie Cutter Gift Tags and Kid-Made Napkins and Napkin Rings.




I also had to create some time without kids around to finish up sewing new pajamas for each of them for Christmas.




And now, a week and a half more of break.  Time for me to plan the next few months in our homeschool.  (I can only plan two months at time or we get too far off the plan.  I don't know how folks do it who plan a Whole Year at once!)

A bit of down time will be good for us. (I'm also taking vacation time from work, so it's Really down time!)

taking a little break in our homeschool

In order to make holiday gifts and do some crafting!







Yet another reason I am grateful for a flexible schedule, and the ability to change our lifestyle as the seasons change.

What I'm Grateful For

(Feeling grateful even for small harvests)

This month my Facebook newsfeed has been full of people posting their 30 Days of Gratitude.  I blogged my 30 Days of Gratitude last year.  But this year, I decided not to participate.

It's not that I'm against feeling grateful.  I'm not ... we should reflect on what we are grateful for and as a mindfulness practice I find it very helpful.  I think we should pause to note the abundance that we already have, especially in the season of harvest and before we hit Consumer-Christmas.

But, at the same time, the public naming of gratitude has a bit of the image-crafting problems that Facebook has brought into our online culture.  Although I'm sure folks are usually just being genuine with their gratitude, the over-all effect of everyone listing all the things they are grateful for is ... a bit braggy.  A bit off-putting.

Maybe it's just that, as Americans, we can turn even the 30 Days of Gratitude into a competition.

I found this quote in a book I'm reading right now:

If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy: but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.

--Charles de Montesquieu

When we edit our lives to highlight the best parts, we are projecting a fake life for all to see and admire.  It's something most people do all the time, and I do not believe it to be malicious.  It may even be appropriate to a large extent - airing our dirty laundry or complaining on the internet all the time would be a bit of a drag and show inappropriate boundaries.  But still .... cumulatively we are all guilty of raising the bar of expectations so high that now we can all feel like failures.  Cumulatively, mind, so please don't feel bad individually.

So, I'd like to say this about my own gratitude:

• I am so grateful for the blessings I have received, which are many.
• I love my family very much.
• I can lose sight of my blessings when I think of all I want or all I should do.
• It really is true, that it's not having what you want, but wanting what you have. 

I wish all a joyous and gratitude-filled Thanksgiving.  

Happy Halloween!

Memorial Day

Rather than just take a day off, I wanted to mark the day as a day of remembering.




It took a bit of coaxing to get my family out in the rain to go look at war memorials, but they did it.



We read the signs, discussed each of the wars and their memorials, talked about those in our own family and those we have known who have died in war, and saw the others marking the day in some way - like this fellow in WWII get-up at the WWII memorial.

My husband thanked me for getting the family out to do this.  He was thinking of his own fallen comrades in our latest, long and ongoing wars - which do not yet have a memorial for us to visit.



There was a moderately large gathering, of mostly motorcycle club members, at the Vietnam Memorial.  We could hear their speeches and music across the campus, and then they played taps while we were in the WWII memorial.  I found it haunting.




I think we might do it again next year, but bring flowers for the kids to put out.

We Remember.

Dying colored eggs

We only have one hen who lays white eggs, so most of our available eggs are either brown or blue.  Can those eggs be dyed for Easter?

Turns out yes, yes they can, but there is one obvious rule:

Put the blue eggs into your blue and purple dyes, while putting the brown eggs into your red and orange dyes.  Works much better than trying to dye a brown egg purple.  That just turns out ugly, let me tell you.

An Ancient Egypt Birthday Party

When they ask for their birthday theme, I have to come through as the birthday magician:




"Happy Birthday" in heiroglyphics banner.



Pyramid Cake



Mummy Wrap Game





Treasure Hunt



Happy Birthday to my sweet girl

A New Year

A New Year dawns.  (Actually, this picture is of the sunrise on Monday from my back yard, but today's wasn't nearly as pretty.)

I've been thinking of goals and resolutions for 2013, and I haven't come up with anything too exciting.

• Fiscal Responsibility.  We want to be all out of debt by 2015
• Social and Environmental Care.  I want to be making choices and taking actions that always keep my values in the forefront, rather than reflexively trying to "keep up the with Joneses" or fill time with more distractions.
• Finish my Credentialing Portfolio.  It's due in November for review, so that's a big one for me this year.
• Enjoy my strengths.  I realized recently that I spend a lot of energy shoring up my weaknesses, and trying to be a different person than I naturally am.  Instead, I'd like to enjoy my natural strengths and just be myself.
• A modified version of The Compact (the pledge to buy nothing new for a year).  I personally aim to buy nothing new this year.  But my family isn't joining me in this, and there are loads of exceptions I can already think of, so it's a pretty lax version of the Compact for me. 

We went out to the cabin today and the boys took a quick dip in the chilly Sound.  Diving into the new year!

Post Christmas

In past years, I've felt a big sense of let-down after Christmas.  Once the present-making and giving is done, and the fun of Christmas day is reduced to just one big mess of paper and more "stuff" that I have to find a home for in my home ... I've felt sad and depressed each time.

This year felt a bit different.  There was less frenzy leading up to the big day.  We didn't do everything on my list - we didn't even put out all our decorations.  In some ways I was sad to never get around to having the kids make wreaths - but in other ways it was a relief to just do what we had time for and not to whip myself along at a frenzied pace.

And our Christmas day wasn't perfect either.  I got a terrible sore throat and had to send my husband out for zinc throat lozenges.  Carbon didn't get a single toy - just clothes and practical-type stuff - and he got cranky and was rude when he opened a hoodie sweatshirt from his grandma.  I had to pause gift-opening and take him to the side and give him a talking to, and lecturing your child about gratitude in the hallway while he cries about not getting what he really wanted puts a downer on Christmas.

But, strangely, I'm not feeling a let-down after the fact. Things weren't perfect.  I didn't create a "magical" holiday for my family and kids.  There were disappointments, even tears, about how the holiday worked out.  And yet I'm OK.  I did the best I could, and we're just moving on from here.

This week post-Christmas has been lovely.  We've just been hanging out, resting, taking it easy.  Carbon and I had a good talk and I promised to buy him a toy if he ended up not getting one at all (we still have one more gift exchange at my dad's house left to go).  His grandma took him to return the hoodie and bought him a toy robot instead.  My sore-throat turned into a head cold, and I spent nights sleeping in a chair with a humidifier while my husband brought home spicy carry-out food for me.  We didn't really get anything major done at all.

And the seed catalogs have started to arrive.  And there are plans to be made for 2013.  And it's all going to be OK - maybe not perfect, but OK.

Reflecting on Christmas

Reading #621 from Singing the Living Tradition

Why Not a Star?

They told me that when Jesus was born a star appeared in the heavens above the place where the young child lay.

When I was very young I had no trouble believing wondrous things; I believed in the star.

It was a wonderful miracle, part of a long ago story, foretelling an uncommon life.

They told me a supernova appeared in the heavens in its dying burst of fire.

When I was older and believed in science and reason I believed the story of the star explained.

But I found I was unwilling to give up the star, fitting symbol for the birth of one whose uncommon life has been long remembered.

The star explained became the star understood, for Jesus, for Buddha, for Zarathustra.

Why not a star?  Some bright star shines somewhere in the heavens each time a child is born.

Who knows what it may foretell?

Who knows what uncommon life may yet again unfold, if we but give it a chance?

--Margaret Gooding

Holiday Weekends

The holidays are busy times for me at church, although it usually settles down by the second half of December and I get a little reflective time in the second half of the month.

This weekend was the biggie.  A holiday variety/talent show on Saturday, then church Sunday morning and taking the youth group to the zoo for their light display Sunday evening.

Everything involved my family as well, so they are just about as tired out as I am.  I'm looking forward to my day off tomorrow!

Grown-up Christmas List

I've been listening to the local "Warm" station that goes into 24/7 Christmas mode this month, and this song has been getting to me.

My grown up Christmas list:

no more lives torn apart, 
and wars would never start,
and time would heal all hearts.
Every one would have a friend,
and right would always win,
and love would never end.
This is my grown up Christmas list, 
this is my only life-long wish,
this is my grown-up Christmas list.

What would I put on that list?

What would you put on that list?

Oh, Christmas Tree

A family ritual: going to the same tree farm we've visited for years in a row (a lovely family-run farm), the adults put on the lights and the angel, and the kids hang the decorations.  We had a bit of debate about whose turn it was to hide the pickle, but the kids were gracious about it and worked it out between themselves.  (So the pickle tradition seems to have actually been invented in America.  But my German-descent American grandma said the reason to hide a pickle had nothing to do with good luck or getting an extra present ... it was because Christmas is too sweet and to make sure you don't attract bad luck you have to put a little sour into all that sweetness.)

Advent

I love drawing out the process of Christmas fun ... spreading out the excitement and little gifts instead of having one huge blow-out.  Advent calendars are perfect for my preference of slow gratification and daily ritual.

The kids didn't get home until the 3rd, so I had to get it all set up and ready for them to start as soon as they got home.  This year we've got the buffet in the dining room set up as Advent land.



First, we have fun packages that came in the mail from grandparents.  Egg-carton advent calendars have been a tradition for several years, then we didn't get one last year because my father-in-law was very ill.  So nice that they felt good enough to put them together again.  They fill them with all sorts of random coolness, wrapped in bits of tissue paper, recycled office paper, and newspaper.  We've opened some odd bits in the past - a dried dead lizard was a memorable one.  So far, some cool rocks, a shell necklace, and a quarter have been revealed.

Then we have a Playmobil advent calendar.  These are fun and come with a cardboard background that can be slowly filled with the figurines.




And then I wanted to sort of copy an idea I saw on the blog Salt and Chocolate, to have a winter scene with little parts individually wrapped, and each day the kids can open one and add to the scene.  They can also play with the scene and move it about anytime they want.  This was my favorite part of my childhood nativity scene, and one of my favorite childhood Christmas memories.  Salt and Chocolate's version is very Waldorfy, (that's a word, right?) while mine is made of the cheesy pseudo Dickens Christmas Village stuff that I just can't help loving.

The kids are loving it all.  OK - I love it too. :)

Gratitude Day 24: Skipping Black Friday

We spent Black Friday at the zoo, where this duckling tried to bond with Hypatia and follow her out of the avian area.

I'm very grateful to feel no urgency about my Christmas shopping.  My extended family does a Secret Santa gift exchange, so we all only need to get one gift.  My in-law's are a smaller family and are pretty laid back about gift giving also.  And my immediate family will only be exchanging small, mostly homemade gifts, and expecting Santa to come just to fill the stockings with some small things.

Our usual routine is to pick a shopping day and to make a day of it in our small downtown shopping area, for festive fun.  No real crowds, no parking lots, no lines to speak of, and no cranky mall employees.

I love the Christmas season, and am grateful to start it the same way I want to end it: with family and togetherness and hopes for a peaceful, better world.

Day 23 of Gratitude: Food

We spent Thanksgiving here with my in-laws, for a very different food-culture for Thanksgiving.  It was a bit of a sad thing for me, because we have always been with my family for this holiday before.

More than in any other area of life, I notice the family-tradition that goes with our Food Culture.  It is about where you live, yes, but it is also about where your family has come from.  Here, we ate a local feast, but still brought along our can of cranberry sauce and made a pumpkin pie.

Food and Family.  Happy Thanksgiving!