Folding of the seasons of life

I'm a thinker and contemplator (spell-check says that's not a word, and so I apologize) so this season, when December folds into January and the new year begins, is one of my most enjoyed seasons of yearly life. I love lists and review and plans and prayer.

2009 was a year of mixed blessings, a jumble of bizarre, sorrowful, joyful all shaken up together and thrown out, orchestrated as only God can. We trust His hand.

Thinking over the coming year and the goals we have as a family, to finish restoring this house, pay off our mortgage, continue fostering and home educating our children, I know God will be the master conductor behind the scenes. Hopefully He will be the star of the show too.

On a more practical note, I would like to share more of how we find joy in the everyday while making do. Making do, without being discontent, with being more than content, loving this gift of life. More so this year as we face the giant of a mortgage. It's the way we pretty much live now, which we love.

I hope you enjoy!
Hannah

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

On Tuesday night we welcomed friends, new and old, into our home for a birthday party in remembrance of Jesus and his birth long ago in a tiny stable in Bethlehem. This friend, the baker extraordinaire, brought the birthday cake. It was layers of chocolate goodness. I took a photo without the card in my camera, so, alas, no photo!

The kids all had a great time with little hands quickly gobbling up the goodies of Christmas cookies everyone brought to share.

Instead of a traditional gift swap, we took donations for LOVE146 and raised a nice tidy sum to pass on to them and the great work they do.

To finish off our evening, some of the children dug through a basket of dress up clothes and acted out the Christmas story, while Papa read it from the Bible. This was my favorite part of the evening.


Mary wore red calico and looked divine with baby Jesus in her arms. Our littlest angel insisted on butterfly wings because, of course, the angels could fly. The donkey and sheep were played by this friend's creative daughter, while shepherds of mine, and one solitary wise man of hers rounded out the cast.

A Christmas Carol costumes

Best, hardest and most endearing moment of the day...

This is me making dinner with a 19 month old and 21 month old stuck to my legs. They chit chat down there, mark their territory in grunts and hang on for dear life. It makes getting dinner finished a comedy scene ("okay, everybody scooch this way for a minute..." hop, hop, hobble hobble to the left), but I wouldn't trade these moments for the world.

What makes our home OUR home

On a quest to be more thankful and joyful in the midst of a difficult season, today I noticed some of the quirky things (and nice things) around me that make our house a home, our home.

The mixer. It is daily in use. Today it was put to work making marshmallows from this recipe. It was a sticky, messy, delicious project the older two kids, Annaliese and Andrew took on with me. We had so much fun poking at the gelatin and licking our fingers. The marshmallows turned out amazingly too!

An umbrella stand that doubles as a wooden sword holder.

Wood stove heat. It was 2 degrees this morning. Wood stoves at either end of the house were kept full all day. I love seeing the kids wake up and congregate by the wood stove while they wait for breakfast.

Sacks of bulk foods waiting to be put away (sugar, flour, wheat berries, and brown rice) picked up yesterday from the co-op we belong to. (The rolled oats bag is just about empty!) Every month we can put in an order and the truck delivers to a friend's house. The prices are much cheaper than when we ordered through a store front co-op.

And a basket of books... I love that my children all love books. That Italian cooking with children book is a great book, if anyone needs a last minute gift idea.


A Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We have a tradition of making a day at the cabin, searching the forest for the perfectly imperfect tree and bringing it home. This year, toddlers daily help me redecorate the bottom and a strand of lights near the top fizzled out, making it all the more endearing.

A basket of tea. I do love baskets, they are so handy and useful for so many things. Friends or neighbors or social workers come by and out comes the basket while the kettle is put on. On cold mornings like this, I let the kids each choose a tea bag and they have morning tea with me. On other days, we sit together in the afternoon for tea time with a good book (The Sign of the Beaver currently), and a special snack.

Squashes and pumpkins across the pantry floor. Blessings of a harvest past.

A basket full of play dough and play dough toys.

My new kitchen motto for dinner prep time. I love it and have wanted one for a long time. This one I found very reasonably on etsy from this seller. It makes me smile everytime I look up and see it.
What things are unique to your home and make you smile?

11th Anniversary

Inflated Head

Mine, that is, because the Pioneer Woman featured one of my photos here on her photography blog. Take a look at all the other great black and whites on flickr.

Weekly Menu

Monday am- banana bread, canned pears
lunch - yogurt, Christmas cookies
dinner - chicken spaghetti minus the "cream of" soups. I'll substitute sour cream and some chicken stock instead

Tuesday am -biscuits and gravy
Bake bread (4 loaves)
lunch - sliced cheese, carrots sticks, pepperoni
dinner - grilled cheese, Greek lemon roasted potatoes

Wed am - cinnamon rhubarb muffins
lunch - peanut butter and jelly
dinner - Dutch apple pancakes

Thurs am -banana bread, Greek yogurt with honig
lunch - tuna sandwiches, apple slices
Pick up co-op order!!!!
dinner - venison burger specials, pasta salad

Friday am - apple crisp made with canned apple filling
lunch - yogurt, homemade jello cups
dinner - Subway subs! How's that for gourmet? Annie's mac and cheese for the littles.

Sat am - cranberry and white chocolate scones
lunch - peanut butter and jelly, cookies
dinner - pizza rolls

Sunday am - bagels and cream cheese
lunch - beef stew, biscuits

I'll be baking the loaves of banana bread tonight using some bananas I have on hand. With the heat of the wood stove in the kitchen, they went from green to over ripe in a few days. Two loaves will head into the freezer for Thursday's breakfast, which will leave us with two for Monday morning.

Grocery list:
cucumber
pepperoni x2
grape tomatoes
one green pepper
tiny jar pimentos
sour cream
chicken stock
1 lb chicken
sliced ham
lemon
rosemary

Weekly Menu

This coming looks to be a bit crazy between visitation runs, a home visit with Natalie's social worker, practice three nights and then three performances of Scrooge for the older two kids and I.
Simple and quick gourmet is the the theme I'm aiming for this week as I look to putting together a menu. Lets see how I do.

Not quite scroogish, not quite jolly

Do you ever not feel like celebrating? I don't feel like celebrating. I, who loves the first snowfall and fills the house with Christmas music beginning in October. Who finds great joy in finding the perfectly imperfect tree to grace our living room and delights in every aspect of meditation the season brings.
We've enjoyed and not enjoyed an incredible mix of sweet and bitter this year and now I try to savor the good, the sweet and the lovely over the heartache.

The kids and I have made all sorts of delicious cookies and we've plunged ahead into the traditions so full of meaning and grace and hope. I am mindful of why we do each task, I cling to the hope represented in the dove cookie cutter I press into the cinnamon dough, to the vision of reunion signified in the blue stained glass cross I hang at each window.

I am surrounded by friends and children and a husband who love me. My blessing really do overflow. Our kiddos, especially, share with me their joy and anticipation and excitement. I watch them arrange and re-arrange the creche on a daily basis, playing out the story of Christ's birth. It is then that I cannot help but remember that His coming was in part so that pain would not linger eternally.

His birth signifies so much to me. This morning I read how God in all His fullness was pleased to live in Christ. To live in a created man! I read it and re-read it and read it again. All the power and glory of God squished and contented in his creation. If the Creator could be content to live in an insignificant part of his creation, surely I can find contentment in the difficulties of life, in the pain and heartache, the losses.

This year, remembering and celebrating Christ's birth takes on a particular poignancy. I know he wasn't born on December the 25th, that the date was stolen from pagans and redeemed in Christ's honor. But I think that anytime we are going through a valley, remembering and taking time to commemorate Christ's birth, death, and resurrection, brings to our remembrance the fullness of the hope we have in Him. This is why, even though I don't feel like doing all the joyous traditions of Christmas, I am. Some things take precedence over what we feel.

Where in the world is...

No, no one's spilled orange juice on the computer again. And I haven't been smothered by the stash of laundry upstairs waiting to be folded....yet.

While I've been quiet here, our home has been lively and busy.
We made these last week and these today. I really enjoyed making the paper ornaments with the kiddos and hope to sneak away a few minutes to make some more on my own.

The older two kids and I are also in the production of Scrooge (Dickens, A Christmas Carol in musical form) this year. So in between cookie baking and present wrapping and visitation running, I also had to find time to make myself a 1860's costume and bonnet and Annaliese one as well. It really Andrew's gotten by with a pair of knickers from my sister's wedding and a vintage wool suit jacket. With those and his cap, he looks so handsome!

Slowly we are finding our rythmn again with homeschooling with two, very, very active toddlers. Ice skating has also begun again on Fridays. The older kids skate while I try to keep toddlers calm and myself sane in the waiting area. :)

Social services has blessed me in doing part of Natalie's transport on Thursdays so we don't have to hang around for three hours waiting. That means another day home for us, and I am such a homebody, enjoying all the Advent activities with the kids. We've been going through this book at dinner time and tea time, really enjoying it.

We had family in town for two weeks around Thanksgiving, such a wonderful blessing for the kids and we all had a nice time. Sean and I celebrated our eleventh anniversary with a dinner out, in a quiet, lovely restuarant. I am so blessed my my husband and his love for his family. My sister and her husband braved our six, for which I am very thankful.

Tree lights are twinkling and these and these have been made. The snow is flying, kiddos are snug in bed, woodstoves blazing, and we are blessed.

Busy

General Herkimer with a wounded leg at the Battle of Oriskany during the Revolutionary War...

General Andrew, sitting under the same spot on the Oriskany Battlefield, pretending to be wounded as Herkimer was. We're reading a Fort in the Wilderness and it is so convenient and enjoyable that we live so close to the places mentioned in the story. Next up is a visit to General Herkimer's home...