Lest I Forget

Advent starts this weekend. I have been reading blogs about unplugging to help bring the focus where it needs to be. This year is just so hard. I don't know how to juggle all these things that have to get done and keep my heart and mind calm. I want to pull out all the Advent books and calendars and wreaths and cozy up with the kids and just be . Today, I have to get the house clean by lunchtime so it can be shown by the real estate agent. Tomorrow, I have to travel to visit family, which means a lot of mess when we get home. Then my family will be split for the rest of Advent. Half of us will go to my parent's house and help out there while my dad has his surgery. The other half will remain here until Christmas. Then, only God knows. We have no clear cut plans after that except that the packers will be here the first week in January. Everything is so unsettled, uncalm. (I know that is not a word) The kids are feeding on all this crazy and are just that, wild and crazy. Th...

I mean, really, who could concentrate on school on a day like this... My favorite tree in our yard. It has the prettiest colors every fall. Look at the brilliance of the sky! brothers looking up through my tree helping Peter even though he can do it himself On your mark, get set... Go! Wheee! Peter looking a little nervous They have such fun together What did I tell you? My boys Peter being done with the photo shoot

Anna was doing her social studies, in which they asked her to look up common last names in the dictionary to see what job had influenced their name. All was fine until the name Brewer. "Mom. There is only brew and brewery. They don't have brewer." "Well, then what does the word brew mean?" I prompted. "To make beer or ale," she read. "So, one who makes beer or ale would be a....what?" I asked. "A....alcoholist?" I think I might need some alcohol before this lesson is finished!

Many months ago, I started making a cute little purse for myself. The knitting was easy and was done quickly. But then, it had a fabric lining to make and sew in. I put the project away for fear of the difficulty that it seemed to present. This week, I pulled it back out and do you know, as it so often happens, the fear was unfounded. It turned out so cute, I think. My courage bolstered by the success of the purse, I decided to try and fix that crazy neck on the sweater I had made for Peter. After all, it is sweater weather now. I threaded some waste yarn into the first row of the neck and ripped back. I then took the advice of other people who had made this sweater and did a decrease row and then did 5 rows of 1x1 ribbing instead of following the pattern. It is so much better and really did not take that long to complete. The before pic. The neck was way too big. ripped back and ready to try again much better I am still reading C S Lewis' 'T...

There are seasons in our lives just as there are in nature. Seasons of plenty, seasons of want. During those times of smooth sailing, it is easy to become complacent, to forget just how much we need God every minute of every day. But oh, when the storms of life make for very rough seas, they can bring you to your knees in an instant. And that is where I am this morning. Literally on my knees, scrubbing the floor from the juice spilled by a toddler. It is this tiny thing that becomes "the straw" and the tears flow as I realize I cannot do this myself. I think, who can I call? Who could help? Who would listen and understand? All the little things and all the bigger things have all come to this moment and I am humbled to my knees and I know. And He knows. He has quietly been waiting for me to ask for help. How grateful I am to know that  my prayers are heard and that grace is showered down on me so that I can handle this moment and the next and the next.

What do you do when it is three o'clock on Halloween and you start carving your pumpkins only to discover that they might just be fossilized pumpkins? You panic, that's what! The rind of the pumpkins was so hard that I broke a sweat just trying to cut the hole in the top. After the suggestion to paint the pumpkins produced tears, I got in the car to try and find some not so tough pumpkins. And can you believe that there was nary a pumpkin to be had at three o'clock on October 31st? Returning empty-handed, I suggested we wait for Tony to get home. Maybe he could figure out a solution. And let me say that a woman would never come up with this idea. He got out the electric drill. And it worked. He saved the day! This is what is left of the carving kit. Even my heavy-duty kitchen knife was no match for these pumpkins. This year the local thrift store provided most of the items for our costumes. I bought some fabric to make a vest and to decorate Therese's...