A Bundle of Myrrh

Living Seasonally

You can ask my Mama if you don’t believe me, but for years I did not very much care for seasons like Spring or Easter. I’m not really sure why, they just weren’t the ones I looked forward to. But I can say now having lived where there is a true season of Winter, the coming of Spring is a welcomed gift. I’m always ready for Spring once it arrives and I have Winter to thank for that.

I do enjoy the Winter while it’s here. Well, some of it not the dangerous horrible parts of it, like driving on ice or getting a chill down to your bones.

Giving Thanks

1. For health. Finally we’ve had a month of health, no one has been sick in weeks, including me. It’s been wonderful. And in a year when the Flu has been so bad we have not had any of it.
2. God’s care and protection of loved ones.
3. Small school victories that feel big when you’re 9 and 8 years old.

Thinking Deeply

This quote made me laugh:

“You won’t screw up your kids in the ways you expect; you’ll do it in ways you hadn’t even considered. No amount of hyper-parenting can change that.”Pamela Druckerman

Establishing Rhythm

My friend Lisa calls big family life “Controlled Chaos” and isn’t that the truth much of the day. It’s because of that truth I have to be more diligent in seeking some downtime, some peaceful moments, a slowness or a restfulness that can be hard to come by and something that doesn’t come naturally to me. It’s also something I try to make sure the babies are all getting a little of.

And why I’ve been a bit obsessed with the notion of hygge as of late.

“Hygge literally only requires a conscious appreciation, a certain slowness, and the ability to not just be present – but recognize and enjoy the present.” source

I’m going on 3 weeks of rising earlier than the babies so I can take up and read with my coffee and candles. I love this early morning time of being alone in the quiet dark kitchen. I’m hoping to be able to keep with this new habit.

Cultivating Simplicity 

This week thanks to Phil I took on my “Purge Extreme 2018” self challenge. He got me in our storage room and we went through boxes and boxes of clothing and shoes and got rid of about 85% of the stuff we had stored. Most of it was baby clothing. I took out some things I loved or that looked really good and ditched the rest. If we are given another baby we will just have to do a little shopping won’t we? But for now, I can’t keep it anymore!

I think one of the reasons I want to rid our home and life of excess stuff is that in doing so I feel I would have the opportunity to enjoy the simple goodness I’m surrounded by everyday, get some of that Hygge I mentioned before.

I just want to sit more and enjoy the mundane. Home management has a way of eating away at me. Sure I’m a master at ignoring that nagging and letting things sit and sit, but it’s always there in my mind, all the things that need to be done.

I recognize that there is goodness in managing a home and all the work that is involved in that. Housekeeping is an ART all its own! I want to get better at that art form but first I want to GET RID OF STUFF!

Creating Beauty

More moments of beauty in my home please. Trust me, there’s a lot of ugly in this place so sometimes I just want to make a good meal for my family, light some candles, vase some flowers or clear the counters of clutter.

I love the evenings we are all able to sit around our table to a meal and actually have some “conversation” and no crying. A couple times this Winter we have even invited other families to join us at our table. Though it makes me nervous to do that I do love opening our home to others. Being hospitable is one more thing I would like to work at more, at least being more at ease with what comes along with having company. Hospitality brings its own beauty to a home as well.

Nurturing Hearts

This Season we have observed the following dates of the Church year:

The Conversion of St. Paul
The Feast of The Presentation
The Transfiguration of Jesus – Here’s the recipe for “White Mountain Cake” above. I thought is seemed appropriate for this day.
Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras – I used this recipe for beignets this year to make things easier on myself. They turned out pretty good and the babies gobbled them up.

Yay for beignets!

Nurturing Minds

I continue to do a little Preschooling with the kids at home during the day.

Nurturing Senses

Nurturing Hands

In one week within a few days of each other our dishwasher went out AND I broke my coffee carafe. It was terrible. But after a day spent hand washing 3 days worth of dirty dishes I knew I did not want to be in that pickle again, so I was pretty good at keeping up with the washing. That actually felt good. But not good enough to go without an electric dishwasher! We got a new one put in this week.

Nurturing Bodies

I’ve been having fun cooking up some dishes I don’t normally cook up. Like schnitzel with spaezle oh my goodness.

And in the dead of Winter I made a Peach Cobbler cuz it sounded good.

Tending the Earth

Truly, when the wind is calm snowfall is so lovely and peaceful. I couldn’t resist this day. I had to get out in the snow for a few minutes.

How to make Snow Angels. I’m not sure if Clara was doing the instructing or if Martha was. We’ve had some good snow accumulation this year so the babies have actually gotten to get out in it a lot lately. And joy of joys! They can finally suit and boot themselves! I had my doubts that this day would ever come but it has. Most of the kids can fully dress themselves appropriately for playing in the snow. Woot!

Capturing Time

 

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2018 at 2:16 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.