A Bundle of Myrrh

Living Seasonally:

Planning for Advent and Christmas can cause one to forget that we still have to get through Thanksgiving. I am coming to enjoy the thought the of this holiday a little more each year. The big girls are looking forward to it for the first time in their little lives so that makes me happy.

Especially when I’m the only one cooking and cleaning up after. Last year was a challenging for me but there were moments of Thanksgiving as I looked around the table at all my babies.

So as I prepare to prepare our Thanksgiving feast I’ve been thinking back on this Fall Season and all that it brought.

When Fall finally arrives I just can’t fight the urge to get outside. We made our annual trek to “Mama’s favorite tree.”

*Again, video quality apologies. Not sure why our blog makes these look so bad.

Giving Thanks:

1. For simple pleasures.

2. For memories handed down.

These cups sat in my grandmothers cabinet for decades. Each generation of grandchildren drinking red Kool-Aid out of them and now my babies do the same, well drinking apple juice or lemonade probably. I pulled them out in time for Halloween since they are a bit monstrous!

Nurturing Hands:

I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to have children that are getting old enough to actually be helpful!

Turning Pages:

Most of the pages I turn these days are Frog and Toad, Tasha Tudor or something silly Lily brings home from her school library. I’m just so glad the babies like to be read to. I have a 7 page long Amazon wish list full of books for our library if any of you just like buying books for other people’s kids!

 

But I’m determined to read through my stack of books. I can’t get enough Luther right now. I started listening to the Large Catechism free audio version last night while I finished up knitting a dishcloth. More books I’m trying to get read are:

Kristin Lavransdatter
Between Seasons
Huck’s Raft

Establishing Rhythm:

Our mornings go pretty smoothly with the 3 littles at home, well smoothly for me, I can actually get some things done or we can get outside much more easily. These hours run like…clockwork, but poor Esther just gets mowed over all morning by Ephraim. Every once in a while they have a great day together, peas and carrots. But so many other times they just butt heads and Ephraim loves it. He’s ruff and tumble and she’s laid back, a passive Polly. Her fun is more sophisticated you know?

So I think for her sake and since she really is ready we will send her to preschool in the Spring. She’ll be in Gerhardt’s class until next year of course but he was fine with that. This will give me a couple months with just 2 at home in the mornings before baby arrives.

Creating Beauty:

The other day I read the post The Heroic Aspect of Embroidery, a good post on creating beauty just for the sake of creating beauty. The day after without any prompting on my part, the girls found their “sewing stuff” and have been stitching away ever since. Oh Gerhardt too.

Lily’s first project. I only helped with a couple buttons and drew the outline for the tree.

Nurturing Minds:

Gerhardt is doing well in preschool. He loves bringing home papers for me to see and for me to check his lunch bag to make sure he ate everything at breakfast time.

Phil and I found this note from Lily on the counter yesterday. Phil asked me if I’d ever think we’d have a kid that would be able to leave us notes like this. No I thought, especially one in Shakespearean English. I also think it’s funny how she knows her mama writes and leaves herself notes on the counter all the time.

Nurturing Senses:

This Summer I started using coconut oil as my all in one beauty cream. Anyone else use this?

It’s my body and face lotion, lip balm and even goes into my hair to tame the frizz. During my first trimesters I like to eat or smell peppermint, it’s soothes greatly and makes me happy. So that is what I add to my magic cream for a pick me up. Also pregnancy makes me terribly ITCHY and the dry air is not going to help with that. I’m gonna be using a lot of coconut oil this winter.

Nurturing Bodies:

Cold weather requires warm meals, one of the things I love about late Fall and Winter, warmth coming from the kitchen. Hot Chocolate after the walk home from school and soup after a long cold day.

And I can’t help myself with the cheesey Fall snack ideas.

Tending the Earth:

We lost a dear tree this Fall. The house and plot next door was bought and the new owners have other plans for the land.

 

I’ll miss the Summer shade this tree gave us.

Snow came early this year making it feel more like Winter than Fall. Gerhardt has been getting out into it as much as he can and I’m so so glad that three out of six babies can put their own snow clothes on this year!!! Now if I can just remember to get the towels down at each door to catch the melt coming off the snow clothes.

Capturing Time:

Pizza in Lincoln with new friends. Look at all the babies at this table!

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2014 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Daybook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.