Mid-November Days

Marigolds at an end. Next stop: the dye pot 

Visiting the ducks earlier this autumn

Lego worlds for days

Geography

Apple pie

Embroidery while she educated me on different horse breeds

Starting math

Tomorrow is W's 11th birthday.  I remember sharing little bits about him after he was born in past (failed) blogs, and it's weird to think that over a decade later I'm still around sharing about this sweet, sensitive boy of mine. He and A were out of school today so he was able to enjoy his favorite meal for lunch and a dinner out to a local restaurant for hot wings.  Turning 11 also brought him a new board game (What Do You Meme? Family), a new book (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), and a skateboard because, why not? The board was a total shot in the dark by me and it was very well received.  I don't know who was more surprised - him for receiving it or me that he was so excited about it! 

In a fit of early holiday prep I started to do a bit of de-cluttering and reorganization. Not in any place that could be appreciated by visitors, no, I started in the depths of my little craft cabinet in the dining room.  I pulled out two big knitting baskets and immediately set to work trimming the fat and organizing unfinished projects.  I have at least 1 sweater that needs just a few inches on it before it can be worn, as well as a hat that is more than halfway to completion and a shawl that is a good bit done, but I stopped on a row of straight knitting so I have to go back and try to figure out what the pattern was in the row before to figure out where to begin again.  Four large skeins of chenille yarn departed from my stash and on to appreciative homes. Once I finished with that I managed to make some room on the dining room shelf for my current reads. I tend to scatter books everywhere and as a result I don't finish anything I've started so I needed a central place for 4-5 books on which I want to concentrate.  Currently it's "How the Irish Saved Civilisation" - Thomas Cahill , "My Antonia" - Willa Cather, "Stress-Free Parenting in 12 Steps" - Christiane Kutnik, "The Practice of the Presence of God" - Brother Lawrence, and "On Social Justice" - St. Basil the Great. 

My goal was to finish these and just concentrate on a few select books for the Nativity Fast, but I'm not sure if that will work out.  For starters, my devotional has been stuck in the USPS system since the 8th, apparently sitting in my local post office waiting on the acceptance scan. I should probably pray about it. 

Until next time!

A Word for 2022

Weeks before Christmas I saw someone on Instagram paraphrasing something said by Elisabeth Elliott that amounted to "you don't have a big house because God doesn't want you in a bigger house yet". I'm paraphrasing a paraphrase here, but it made me really think about our current surroundings and yes, our comparatively tiny house. Although the quick line initially smelled a bit prosperity gospel to me, it gave me pause over my own surroundings because for years I've either poked fun at, complained about, or flat out disparaged our house. 

It's a small mid-century ranch home built in the late 50s with questionable design choices, and a tight 1200 sqft with 7 of us living here so it's easy to become frustrated when you legitimately need to change things about your home but you can't. Like when you finally have enough money set aside to put on a desperately needed addition and a global pandemic hits, followed by shortages and inflation that at least treble the cost of the work. That's when seeing the sentiment "you don't have a big house because God doesn't want you in a bigger house yet" really hit me. How can I expect to be granted the opportunity for more in my life, if I'm not taking care of what I have now. Much like how I'm always on my kids to appreciate what they have or they will lose it, why haven't I appreciated our home more? 

Moreover, I realized I'm a terrible at taking care of things given to me in general. Frankly, I half-ass housework and it's not like I have a booming business, or beautiful artwork, or a hand knit/sewn wardrobe to show for it; I'm just lazy. Similarly, I half-assed home school for a couple years partly with legitimate excuses (Covid/virtual schooling difficulties in a small house packed with kids) and partly without. 

All of this was on my mind when I chose my word for 2022.  In years past it's been a fairly passive word; simplicity, intentionality, joy. The most active word I've had recently was in 2020 and that was hospitality. This year I decided on a active word, something to help me make real strides as a wife, mother and woman. My word for 2022 is Stewardship. I am moving forward into this new year with appreciation and care and momentum. I am working toward a rule of life in our home so that I can better care for it and the inhabitants therein. I will be practicing stewardship of self not only through diet and exercise but also in scheduling (and adhering to!) time for creativity and learning new things.  I will be a better steward of time this year, and hopefully a better steward of our finances. I must better guard our home and prayer life and I'm looking forward to saying no to the world. Finally, I will endeavor to steward my relationships better; those with my husband and children as well as my friends. It will be interesting to see where I am a month from now, 6 months from now, a year from now if I really work on taking care of things I've neglected in the past. I'm excited for that. 

What's your word for 2022?