A very merry Christmas

This has been one of the busiest weeks on record for me. I have been making so many things! I'm hoping that when you see everything I got done this month (in some upcoming gift posts), you'll forgive me for being absent this whole week and not doing the Holiday Home Tour. Maybe I'll share some of our decorations with you next week, as we'll be celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas in our customary way.

Anyway, I've been a knitting and sewing machine this week. Along with some baking (much of it of the lemon variety, thanks to my dear, dear, sweet friend Sarah and her lemon tree), and some birthday celebrating. (Today is my husband's birthday. He turned an age that starts with a "4" and ends with a "3".) So, yes, a very full week.

So from here, I'm going to wish you a very merry, blessed, and bright Christmas. See you next week!

love,
Grace

Being

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in the last two days. What I had intended to post on Wednesday felt kind of out of place after coming home from church that evening, smelling like incense and feeling quiet and meditative (in the best of ways). And last night I sat down to write, and fell asleep while my photos were uploading. So, no post!

I'm looking at the photos I've taken over the last couple of days, and thinking about what makes a house a home. It's hard to define, isn't it? My house is usually far from tidy, but there are all these small, quiet corners, the little things that make up our daily lives; bits that wouldn't mean anything to anyone else the way they do to us. And it's a beautiful collection, this home, this artifact of a family's days of living and working and creating, eating and sleeping, breathing and being.

Today I have Erin's post on my heart. It was a good reminder to me -- not to stress and fret, to be OK with saying no to things, to embrace the good quiet and peace that can be ours in this season, if we allow it in.

This weekend we'll seek out our Christmas tree, and do most of our decorating. We will listen to some of our favorite music of the season (some of which can now be found in the right-hand sidebar, below the books). We will celebrate, live, work, create, eat, sleep, breathe, and be.

I wish the same for you, my friends, this December weekend.

It begins

So here I am, on the last night of NaBloPoMo, having made it to the end, and I want to thank you all for being here with me! It makes it much easier when readers are so supportive!

Tonight we are cuddled down on a cold evening, cozy with favorite tunes on the stereo, awaiting the first day of the advent calendar. This year, I feel prepared and at peace, because we have all the supplies purchased and on hand, ready to go for each day. I'm thankful for that! We've done a lot of cleaning and sorting through things over the last week, so I don't feel like I'm decorating a messy house. And I am dreaming about some new decorating ideas ... I love the possibilities.

I am looking forward to a peaceful, hopeful, blessed advent. And I'm wishing you the same!

(And though NaBloPoMo for me has ended, I still plan to be here most days, having started a habit!)

Let it be

These little prayer flags were a gift from Heather when Fiona was born. I remember looking through the amazing box of gifts -- a virtual baby shower from a group of my "blogging ladies" -- with my midwife when Fiona was about two weeks old, and my midwife loved these.

Anyway, I've been looking at these and appreciating their message a lot these days. I feel like I'm coming up short a lot this autumn. Some of the reasons for this are tangible, and some of them aren't so easily defined. I can definitely use a reminder to take a breath and let things go, though. This NaBloPoMo is proving to be a lot more challenging than last year! But it's a good discipline for me. I actually have some good ideas for posts, just haven't organized my thoughts and photos yet. I'm working on it!

What little reminders are helpful for you when you need to slow down, take a breath, and let it be?

A first

Today I did something I've never done before: cut hair. I have lots of friends who regularly cut their children's, their husbands', even their own hair. I have always been way too intimidated to even try. But with my two guys' hair growing ever more shaggy and overgrown, and income in November being quite slow, well ... I put those clippers and scissors that have been in the bottom bathroom cabinet for the last two years to use!

I used to assume that I'd keep James's hair on the long side. But he was such a baldy, for so long, that those long locks don't seem to fit. So we like to keep his hair pretty short. My husband also likes his hair on the very short side, so hair maintenance for them is much more complicated than it is for the girls in our house. (I had my hair cut in August, for the first time since 2008.)

Anyway, I am super proud of myself. (Sorry the pictures aren't very good -- my little model is very uncooperative these days. Sigh. And my big model prefers anonymity.) I mean, they actually look like "real" haircuts. Our usual old-time barber does a better job (I swear he is Edward Scissorhands; the scissors seem to be part of his hand, they move so naturally), but these will tide them over until next month when they'll get better cuts before Christmas.

It's funny, when posting daily, the kinds of things that are shared in this space that would normally be skipped over. I really like it. :)

Some of the reasons I love this month so

I know I promised more knitting posts, and they really are coming, but I almost didn't post this week because I was sidetracked by trying to get some decent pictures of one of the projects, given a toddler who is all over the place, overcast days, and a lens that is too slow. (My best and most versatile lens broke, for a second time [I'd had it repaired last November], on the day Fiona broke her leg. I need to get it repaired, but it's expensive to do so, and the previous repair isn't under warranty any longer, bla bla bla.) Anyway, I'm working on it.

Onward....

Today was a perfect October day. It was rainy, and then drizzly. We're at a point now where more leaves have changed than haven't. Looking out the window to leaves falling is so heavenly.

I daydreamed about some knitting, which will have to wait a few more days.

I spent some time, with a lot of "help" from all three of my little helpers, tracing patterns for Halloween costumes (all done with that! thank goodness! I hate tracing patterns!). I'm a procrastinator, for sure, but I'm still optimistic that I can avoid last year's all-night sewing catastrophe. (Wherein I started sewing at 9pm the night before Halloween, sewed for 7 hours straight, slept for 4 hours, got out of bed and sewed for another 8 hours without breaks.) I think this year's costumes will be easier, and I'm going to start sewing on Monday.

After we finished the tracing, we headed out to the knitting shop to get some needles, walk around our little downtown, and get some ice cream. We sat on a bench (in our handknit sweaters) to enjoy our ice cream, watch the leaves blow, and people walk by.

When we got home, the mailman was just arriving with some goodies. We all love to receive a little package in the mail! When daddy got home, we made a yummy black bean tortilla pie (sorry, no link, but it's from Everyday Food October 2003), and snuggled down in jammies and woolies with stories and cuddles.

I was thinking, "This is the life."

These beautiful things, in one day, so perfectly encapsulated so many of the things I love about October. Home comforts, cool, crisp weather, costuming, knitting (or dreaming of it), busying ourselves with preparation for winter, with thoughts of warmth, and comfort. All amidst the amazing loveliness that the season offers.

{No, my life isn't perfect, and I'm not always as good at recognizing the good that there is as I should be. But this was one of those days, which had actually started out kind of badly, that managed to turn around into something that was simple and extraordinary all at the same time. And I know that I'm so incredibly blessed, in spite of the times when things are hard, or I'm grumpy, or the kids are misbehaving, or whatever. I'm not abnormally lucky -- I have very real struggles -- but I surely do appreciate the opportunity to slow down and recognize the goodness that is always there, even in small ways, if I allow myself to be open to it.}

Nourishing

Whew! Last week was a hectic and overwhelming one. Some people thrive on activity, and I have to admit that I am not one of them. I prefer a lot of space to my days. But as my children grow, they have more things to do outside the home, and I have more commitments of my own. This fall has presented an entirely new level of complexity as we've piled on an all-day homeschool enrichment class for Elisabeth, swimming, CGS for both children, a real class (entailing lots of reading and actual homework!) for me, and a long and varied list of volunteer commitments.

{the beginnings of roasted vegetable soup}

With all this going on, I'm finding my reliable home rituals to be all the more important -- and soothing. One of these is the meal planning so many of you asked about. It's so simple that I'm almost embarrassed to share it with you, but here goes.

I do a once-a-month meal plan. I started this when Elisabeth was four and James was a little baby. We had some class that was in the late afternoon, and I knew those days (Tuesdays at that time) needed to be crock pot days. I sat down to make a week's meal plan, and realized that I had (at that time) four favorite crock pot recipes, or a month's worth. So I made a sheet of paper with the days of the week written across the top, and plugged those four crock pot recipes into each of four weeks of Tuesdays. Then I thought, "I could fill this out pretty easily." So I put things my husband could make onto my teaching days. And so on. Pretty soon, I had planned for a whole month's worth of meals. I've been doing it every month since then.

{two different angles of the same thing -- sorry, that's all the relevent pictures I had for tonight!}

I've been a subscriber to Everyday Food since the first issue. I have a low cupboard on the backside of our kitchen island that I store my back issues in. (I am a back issue saver. I know they say not to do that; it wastes space; bla bla bla, but it's just what I do.) So now when I do my meal plan, I pull out my entire stack of back issues for the given month. Many (though not all) of the recipes use seasonal ingredients, so that's been helpful to me. I make notes in the pages of my magazines about what we've tried, what we liked, what worked, what didn't. I use other sources for recipes, too, but Everyday Food is really my staple recipe source.

Since a lot of what goes on in our home is repeating -- every Monday I teach cello lessons, two nights a week my husband is home late, once a month I have a church council meeting in the evening, etc. -- I can easily determine what to make based on our schedule. Another thing I have added to my meal planning sheet is a list of various "types" of meal -- beef, chicken, fish, pork, and vegetarian -- that I can cross off so I don't repeat something in a week (like chicken three nights in a row or something!). We used to eat more meat, but now a little more than half of the meals I make are vegetarian, so that's a little less important than it used to be. (We used to be a strictly vegetarian family, and gradually added meat back into our diet the year before James was born. Now we've reduced it a lot and feel really good about that choice.)

Anyway, I find that planning for a whole month doesn't really take very long -- in the end, it probably saves me time over planning once a week or more -- I usually spend about an hour doing it. We shop once a week or as necessary. It takes setting aside the time and having the right tools on hand (the recipe sources, the family calendar, a meal planning sheet, and a pencil!), and a little bit of discipline to actually follow though and finish, but I now find it just as nourishing to have this little ritual in place as the food itself is to my family.

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And for you: a copy of my meal planning sheet. I hope that my little ritual proves helpful to you. 

Love, Grace

Oh! Also, I've updated my much-neglected reading list up there to the right. You'll find lots of great autumn reading there!

September

So, September, huh? Wow. I'm a bit in denial about it. The truth is, I'm an autumn -- maybe winter -- person at heart. October is my favorite month. Followed by December, November, February, and January (in that order). So ... I'm feeling a little bit baffled by my current feelings -- a lot of reluctance to say goodbye to summer.

I have a monthly meal planning ritual that I follow (it's kind of silly, but I'll tell you about it sometime). And I'll admit that when I sat down to do this month's plan, I even found myself feeling a little bit resentful of my (seven) September back-issues of Everyday Food. Such autumn-y fare they presented for September! Still, I plugged through and filled my September menu with creamy lima bean soup (sorry, no link), earthy orecchiette with sausage & roasted peppers, roasted vegetable soup, and other warm comfort foods. Tonight this was on the menu (with ground turkey instead of beef, a bit of extra cayenne, cinnamon, and almonds, and a bit less lemon juice).

I'm working on it. I'll embrace autumn.

For now, here's a bit of what can be seen around here, in September.

Beautiful September skies.

The colors of late summer.

The comforts of home.

(Here's a funny thing about this picture. I almost always make my bed now -- a new begninning & habit I'll share more about soon -- but for some reason, these cozy unmade bed photos always appeal to me.)

Evenings are my favorite time of day in September. The twilight has such a particular, special quality to it. And the crickets. Oh, the crickets!

A day of squeezing in every last moment of laundry possible. (I did so many loads that day. With all our own laundry, plus some for our church ... well, it can be a lot!)

Pumpkins ripening. (We have had miserable luck with our garden the last two years, but I'll take success where I can get it -- our pumpkins have done beautifully both years!)

What beautiful things are you seeing, to usher you into this new season?

{Oh, and I fully intend to increase my posting beyond just a paltry once a week(?!). I'm just getting into our new rhythm, with classes, and new volunteer responsibilities, and lots of little things.}

Summer is ... Lessons learned over a summer "on the line"

Our clothes dryer broke at the end of April, and although my husband has had the best of intentions to repair it all summer, there hasn't been a whole lot of motivation because we've been drying on the line. This has been my first "real" line-drying experience. Most of my adult life has been spent in apartment/condo situations, so I've always used either my own machines or laundromats, but never a line. This summer we finally got around to putting up a line (we got an umbrella clothesline, which wasn't the handcrafted wooden clothesline that I've fantasized about for 10 years, but has been quite serviceable). {be sure to follow those links, they're photos of a 10-year-old issue of MSL that had the most amazing clothesline ever! unfortunately it's not up on their website}

And here is some of what I learned, as a line-drying novice.

I really love hanging clothes out early in the morning. It's a refreshing ritual, a time to be alone with my thoughts while my children are otherwise engaged, and the days' squabbles haven't yet heated up.

(Sometimes it can get tedious. And sometimes I don't manage to get things out as early as I should. But mostly, I don't mind too much.)

It's not that hard to get used to crunchy towels, bathroom rugs, or even diapers. Even though it can be funny to hold up a hand towel that is as stiff as cardboard.

It's nice to feel environmentally virtuous.

Clothes dry just as fast on the line as they do in the dryer (at least in my climate).

The aesthetics of a clothesline are just as priceless as everyone keeps saying.

So, there are lots of "pros" to drying on the line. There is pretty much only one significant "con" that I've discovered:

It's not an economic savings. Let me explain that.

A couple years ago, a friend of mine did a summer of line-drying. She said that she saw a $10 savings on her energy bill per month. I thought that this was pretty significant, because it's about 10% of a monthly energy bill. My friend said that she felt that her experiment had not been a success on an economic level because of the work involved.

Now that I've spent my own summer line-drying, I'd have to say I agree with my friend on the economy of it. We've seen our monthly savings to be about $10, as well. At the beginning of the summer, there was the purchase of the clothesline, and clothespins are surprisingly expensive. With breakage and loss, we've actually had to replace them a couple of times, as well. Between these costs and the work involved, it's already not a "savings".

But the other factor that I wouldn't have considered before was the overall wear that our clothing took this summer. I noticed a really significant amount of fading to all of our clothing, as well as thinning. Because I've always dried in a dryer before this, I was really able to tell the difference in a way I might not have been able to if I'd always done a combination of line-drying and using a dryer. Given the hard wear on our clothing, I would say that overall, it was a financial loss to dry exclusively on the line.

We'll need to finally commit to repairing our dryer before the colder months set in anyway, so by next summer, drying on the line will be a choice and not a necessity. I will definitely do it again, but I think I'll appreciate having access to my dryer for things that I don't want to wear out as quickly. In all, I really enjoyed this summer on the line, and I would say that I'm mostly a clothesline convert, though I now believe that judicious use of the dryer isn't all that bad!

Do you use a line? What are your experiences?

Something to show

We have finally had two nice days. Sunday and Monday were just beautiful. Sun shining, temperatures rising (what a welcome thing after a week near freezing, with even a little bit of snow!)

We have very little to show for those two beautiful days. No new skirts or jammies or dresses were completed. The longie awaits grafting. The kitchen could use a good cleaning. We're in need of a trip to the market.

But, wait!

We noticed the leaf buds on the trees opening.

And the way some trees are bare and some are pale green.

We played outside and got dirty and had baths.

We appreciated the colors of our supper.

And the light in the kitchen.

We danced at the back door, nursed a sick dog, patched a bike tire, saw a beautiful film (which you should all go watch, right now), ate our dinner on the porch, visited with grandma.

We read together in a big pile while the twilit evening of springtime breathed into mama's bedroom window. We fell asleep to the sound of rain and thunder, and looked forward, our hearts open wide, to the coming days.

I guess we have something to show, afterall.

xoxox 

2009, a retrospective {part 1}

I hope you all are not tired of 2009 wrap-ups. I know I'm a bit late, but bear with me -- I've been so very sick for so long, it's making me feel really behind. Anyway, I have had a 2009 retrospective on the creating end of things in mind for a while now, but I still want to photograph a last couple of things, so I thought I would start with the life part. And of course there's some overlap.

January

Quiet days at home. Knitting the bunting. Visits with friends. Cooking, freezing, nesting. Sewing. Contractions. Waiting.

February

More contractions. More waiting. More knitting. Elisabeth's first sleepover (away). My blessingway. My birthday. Fiona Catherine. Bliss.

March

Holed up, insulated, babymooning. James turns three. Huge snowstorm. Snuggling on the couch with the baby and lots of wool while the others are out in it. Seedlings.

April

Stepping, ever so tentatively, out of the fog. Elisabeth turns seven. Seedlings (still). Fiona's baptism. My husband decides to finish his doctorate afterall. Dozens of tulips!

May

Going a-Maying. Enjoying our yard and gardens. Struggling to find a rhythm. Re-reading some of my favorite books. Elisabeth learns to ride a two-wheeler.

June

Peonies! Swimming lessons every morning. Fiona rolls over. Remembering to slow down. Roses.

July

Still at the pool every morning, knitting in tow. A rainy 4th of July. Camping. Sewing. Second grade workshop. Catharsis.

August

10 years! Fiona sits up. Stress. Exhaustion. Computer break (oh-so-good!). My sister's baby shower. Sewing.

September

Holding on to the last bits of summer. habit. Return to homeschooling. Apple orchard (twice), and apple pies. Classes for both children. My new niece.

October

Our belated Michaelmas celebration. Eurythmy. Knitting. Lots of snow. Hot cocoa many days. New high chair cushions, and Fiona's first solid foods. Marathon costume sewing. Jack-o-lanterns. Halloween. My favorite month.

November

NaBloPoMo. Church linens. Elisabeth's first sleepover (at home). Simplicity Parenting. Martinmas. Sweaters. Book reviews. Thinking ahead to advent and Christmas. Giving thanks. Making dolls.

December

My shop. habit (december). King Winter. Helen's baptism. Fun with family. My husband's graduation. Sickness (lots and lots of sickness). Small miracles. Late Christmas cards. Last-minute gift making. Stillness; peace; silence. The richness of tradition. Joy. 

Right now

Awed by the connections we all have: the way my life looks very much like yours, and yours like mine -- we're all in this thing, aren't we?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Happy new year, friends. May 2010 (which I refuse to pronounce "twenty-ten", by the way) be your best yet.

My next post will be the creating retrospective. And I'd still like to share a few things that we did in December, in between all the sickness. And then it will be new material for the new year, I promise.

xo

'Tis the Season

We tend to decorate fairly gradually throughout advent. We like to spread it out as much as possible.

Pretty well set up is our piano top, which has been acting as our primary seasonal table for quite a while now.

(The Santa teacup candle and red berry wreath are awaiting a more permanent home.)

We've been collecting Fontanini nativity figures since we got married. It's one of my favorite things. I love that it's beautiful and classic-looking, while being OK for the kids to handle. My mom adds a new piece for us each year. Sometimes we get one to commemorate an important event (the birth of a child, etc.), but often it's just one that we like or want.

Last year we got this little spinner because Elisabeth had learned to knit. She's my favorite.

Today, we got our Christmas tree, enjoyed a bit of nog, and this weekend, we're off to my husband's graduation! Lift a glass for him if you think of it. I'll be back here in the first part of next week. (Unless, you know, my computer crashes again.)

love,
Grace

A little bit about croup, and other thoughts

Some of you saw my post at habit today and wrote me (or commented here) with words of comfort and support about James's croup. Thank you so much. I'm so grateful for your thoughtfulness and, as always, the willingness of a group of perfect strangers to reach out.

I have some thoughts about croup that I wanted to share here, because it's something we've been through a lot in our house. (I've heard that some children are a lot more prone to it than others, based upon the unique physiology of their individual windpipes.) Elisabeth was extremely prone to croup until she was about five. In fact, every cold she had (which, thankfully, hasn't been too many -- she's a really healthy little one) always ended with a cough, and then croup. James has been less likely to have a cold progress that way, but he still gets it a couple times a winter.

Any parent who's had a croupy child will tell you that it can be terrifying to be awakened at 2am by a child's barking cough and desperate attempts to draw a breath. Over time, we've tried a lot of different things to help with symptoms. The best thing for croup really is sitting in a steamy bathroom (we run the shower with the hottest water we have) for 10 minutes, followed by 10 minutes out in the cold night air. We tried a steroid one time about 5 years ago with Elisabeth, and it really didn't help any better than the steam-to-cold routine (and our doctor told us it probably wouldn't -- but we were desperate one particularly bad night). I have a few trusted homeopathic remedies that we use for croup now, after years of trial and error (I recommend these three books -- particularly the first one -- if you are interested in learning more about homeopathic and other natural remedies for a wide range of ailments), we have a favorite (very effective!) natural commercial cough syrup, and depending on the child and the situation, sometimes a hot tea or infusion is helpful. But really, taking the time to run the shower, sit in the steam, wrap the two of us in a quilt, and go sit outside, has been the most effective thing of all.

Most of all, it's just taken a shift in perspective. Of course I want my child to be healthy, and of course I'd rather be tucked into my own warm bed than sitting outside in the cold. But there is something a little bit sacred in taking the time to tend to a child in this way. In a way, it has come to represent a part of our wintertime rhythm, this ritual of croup. And there is such unexpected grace in sitting outside on our glider, cuddled together in quilts, my wee one and I. Just the two of us, looking at the stars, and sharing bits of wonder that we might not otherwise have the opportunity to share. In moments like this, I feel uplifted and strong in my mothering, these quiet moments that lend themselves to an opening, an intimacy between parent and child.

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A few other things tonight:

+As many of you may already know, something special is going on at habit this month. All 33 guests from the whole year are joining Molly and Emily there this month. That means there could be as many as 35 voices there each day in December! I'm so very inspired -- and a little bit awed that I'm one of those women.

+My lens is finally back! I just pulled it out of the box this afternoon and all appears to be well! I am so happy that I won't have to "make it work" with a macro lens anymore.

+Thank you for your warm reception to my shop yesterday! I'm excited that a couple of people have already broken the ice with purchases, but there are still dolls and bags available! (And I promise, I won't be talking about the shop every day from here on out!)

+I'm happy to announce that tomorrow evening I'll be hosting a guest blogger in this space, a woman who has been a mentor to me in my own mothering. I can't wait to see what she has to say.

And I'll be back on Friday!

Saturday night

How is your weekend going so far? Ours has been sweet and slow-paced. Tonight, it's snowing again, my children are all asleep, I've got a cup of my favorite cocoa brewing. (We have that a lot around here, it seems!)

I spent some time this afternoon trying to design this year's Christmas card. So far, I don't quite have it. Something seems to be missing. Back to the drawing board.

Wishing you a sweet end to your weekend!

Friday reads: Mrs. Sharp

I bet you thought I wouldn't get a post up today! Well, it's still Friday, and here I am -- just squaking it in. Today was very dark -- I kept waiting for even a patch of sunshine to take some photos -- and by 3:00, when it looked like the sun had gone down and it started to pour freezing rain/hail/slush, I knew it was a lost cause. I had planned a review of a book with illustrations that warranted sharing, so instead I've had to come up with an alternate plan.

Lots of people email me to ask for advice and suggestions for beginning a seasonal observance of festivals and celebrations in their homes, so I thought I would share with you my very, very favorite resource today.

Mrs. Sharp's Traditions was the first non-pregnancy/birth/breastfeeding mama book I ever read --while I was pregnant with Elisabeth. The style is humorous and may be off-putting to some (it's written a tone mimicking a Victorian ladies' advice book or magazine), but that is really so perfect for me. The amazing, wise thing about this book is that it draws parallels from another time with our own time. It really is all about how to reclaim family life -- I think so many of us feel powerless and end up throwing our hands up in defeat. Mrs. Sharp is here to show you simple ways to make home a warm respite from the impersonal, face-paced world outside. The first part of the book is about daily rituals that help to bring harmony, balance, and predictability to family life. The rest of the book (the majority) follows the year month by month, discussing different festivals and seasonal customs and pastimes. Part historical, part practical, part humorous, but always full of grace and charm. In my early days of parenting, Mrs. Sharp was like a trusted friend, always giving me a bit of steadying wisdom as I navigated my new role as a full-time, at-home mama and keeper of the home.

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Some of you had asked for some more details about our family's celebration of Martinmas. I didn't elaborate on those answers for a couple of reasons -- one was that there wasn't too much I didn't share in my previous Martinmas posts, and the other was that most of them came from this book. So, hopefully this will be helpful to those of you who are looking for additional information.

Have a great weekend, everyone -- I'll be here with some weekend posts at some point on Saturday and Sunday. See you then!

Thinking about Simplicity

We've had a lot going on this fall. A lot. Some of that, you know about. The dissertation, and work to graduate on time, being chief among it all. But we've had other stuff, too. Most of it good, some of it not-so-good. And we've all been pulled along in this current of activity, keeping afloat, but not always thriving.

Each Monday, I wake up and realize, "Holy cow, I have seven cello students arriving this afternoon, and this house is a MESS!" And so Elisabeth and I usually spend about 30 minutes frantically tidying, vacuuming, and dusting the living room (where I teach) before my first student's arrival. This past Monday, as I was knee deep in this catch-up ritual, I had this moment. This moment of complete overwhelm and complete clarity, all at once. I'm sure you know the kind. I realized, in that instant, that we have too much: too much stuff, too much stimulus, too many activities, too many bills, too much work, too much on the schedule, too much stress, too many commitments, too much clutter, too many choices.

books, packed up for later

The thing is, I try to be really conscious of this. (I mentioned yesterday that I try to be very mindful about what comes into our home, for example.) And I'm guessing that as chaotic and generally cluttered as things feel around here to me, they are probably a lot better than they would be if I were less conscious.

Enter Simplicity Parenting, a book that recently crossed my path. I'll admit to feeling a little bit skeptical at first -- don't I already know all this stuff? Well, yes ... and no. Sometimes you just need a reminder.

I absolutely love Simplicity Parenting. It's giving me the strength and motivation to remember to say no a little bit more. To set boundaries, and seek balance.

I haven't even finished reading the book yet, and I've already gained so much from it. My feeling is that any parent -- at just about any point on their parenting journey (from infant to teen and everything in between) would gain insights from it.

It's organized beautifully. Every few pages, key points are highlighted in headers entitled "Quite Simply". There's so much good in this book, it's possible to open it at random and find a perfectly beautiful, succinct, and relevent idea for your real life.

I especially love the chapter on rhythm. Just listen to this:

~"(Quite Simply) Rhythm builds islands of consistency and security throughout the day."

~"Meaning hides in repetition: We do this every day or every week because it matters. We are connected by the things we do together. We matter to one another. In the tapestry of childhood, what stands out is not the splashy, blow-out trip to Disneyland but the common threads that run throughout and repeat: the family dinners, nature walks, reading together at bedtime (with a hot water bottle at our feet on winter evenings), Saturday morning pancakes."

naptime

OK, those are just two quotes, and they really only scratch the surface of what's in this book. There are so many concrete, practical suggestions about how to rein in family life, to take it back. Whether we already have a good start, or whether things are completely out of control, these are suggestions that can really help to make things meaningful to us.

linens from our church that we help wash each month

Coincidentally, Kyrie mentioned Simplicity Parenting yesterday (yes, we're friends, but no, we didn't discuss this first), and said she feels almost evangelical about it -- and I agree. This may be only the second book (after Mitten Strings for God) that I have felt this way about. Really -- this book is really, really worth it. I wish I could buy a copy of each for every parent I knew.

our dragon candle, today

I'm still struggling with the feeling that our lives are a bit cluttered right now. However, I'm learning to look again. To realize where we're doing well, and to carve out space in our days for more of that, and less of everything else.

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Since I've committed to writing here every day this month, I'm trying to come up with as many ideas as I can to fill all those days. One thing that I've been meaning to do here are semi-frequent book reviews of some favorites -- both new and old. So I'm going to be doing these on Fridays in November -- the final Friday (November 27) will be my annual winter/holiday book post.

Look who came to dinner!

An exciting development in our house over the last couple of weeks or so has been Fiona's first solid foods. We waited a little longer with her than is average (she was right at eight months). This was mostly because she wasn't showing any interest until close to the end of October and I didn't want to push her into it. Current recommendations for beginning solids with breastfed babies can be found here.

Just like her older sister and brother, Fiona's first solid food was sweet potatoes, which she gobbled right up! We've quickly moved to other fruits and vegetables.

We've been getting lots of use out of the bibs that were gifted to us -- the ones you see in this post were made by my friend Laura and by Erin.

And this little ladybug bowl was a baby gift from Melissa, and it's one of my favorite things ever. We give Fiona all of her meals using it.

I make all my own baby food, and use a combination of sources for information on feeding solids. My two favorites are Whole Foods for Babies and Toddlers and Super Baby Food. Whole Foods for Babies and Toddlers is a bit more laid back, but has helpful information about incorporating solid foods into baby's day without replacing breastmilk (which should be the primary source of nutrition for the first 12 months of life). It also has some of our favorite recipes, including our go-to birthday cake recipe. Super Baby Food is more of a regimen. It's perfect for Type A mamas who need some real structure to follow. I followed it almost to the letter when Elisabeth was a baby, and I've referred to it often since then, although as I've gotten to be a more experienced (and relaxed) mama, I don't feel like I need such a strict regimen anymore. Just FYI, the information in there about the age to begin solids is a bit outdated and the breastfeeding advice in it isn't too great, but otherwise, it's been a really good resource.

Anyway, what fun to share a love of eating good food with our littlest one. We're all looking forward to many, many happy family meals to come!

Plans Change

I had hoped to share photos of our annual trip to our favorite pumpkin patch tonight, but our pumpkin patch plans this year were thwarted by the weather.

So instead, we took a walk on a day that seemed more like Christmas than Halloween -- marveling all the while at the transformation of our neighborhood into a slightly weird landscape (Halloween is still on my mind, afterall), and of the quiet that falls over a place when it snows. Everything seems insulated with downy whiteness -- I love the quiet of waking on a snowy morning.

My dad stopped by for a little while this afternoon on his way home, and shared some hilarious stories from his boyhood with my wee ones.

We tried to stay warm and cozy while indoors, ate snow with maple syrup, worked a bit on the Halloween costumes, and delighted in the cackles, howls, moans, and groans of our little ghosties and ghouls.

More fun (and handmade goodness!) here in the next few days.

 

Over the last week

Today I have some photos from the last week to share. We have a new (used) monitor which will work until we can get something a little better. Phew!

So here is a bit of how we spent the last week:

{I know, another photo-heavy post from me -- but those really are my favorite kind!}

::stopping to admire some autumn grasses

::a lot of progress made on a certain sweater

::a favorite midmorning snack (we like this recipe)

::celebrating our first snow -- and some very chilly days!

::and oh, those toes.

Hoping your weekend is magical in every way!

Seen

Some things that have been seen around here lately:

Costuming in the works!

Some cute baby-ness, just because.

The shadow of a star.

The turning of some leaves.

Knitting. Of course!

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Some thoughts:

~I forgot to mention on Wednesday that this is out now. I'm super excited about it, although my pre-order hasn't arrived yet. I should learn my lesson and never pre-order, because I always receive my pre-orders days and days after the release day. I must live too far from any distribution sites.

~TypePad must have received a number of complaints similar to mine, because they have sort of compromised and made replying directly to comments a bit easier again. Not quite as nice as before, but at least it's something.

~And speaking of comments, I can see on my stats that lots and lots of you are still visiting, but feeling a little bit shy about commenting. Don't be! I love to hear from you. It really makes my day -- hearing your feedback, and this little conversation of ours. And I truly appreciate those of you who do take a little time out of your own day to say hi to me. Truly, truly.

Edited to add: The hat was made by Shelley! We have been lucky enough to have two of her hats and they are our very favorite.