people I love at Christmas

My pictures from this Christmas are pretty much just all of my favorite subjects:  people I love. I didn't take any pictures of presents under the tree, very few of the numerous baked goods I made, or decorations.  I pulled up my photos afterward and glanced through, smiling to see just face after face. Usually I am self-conscious or forget to use my camera during holidays or celebrations, but I decided to go for it this year and now I'm glad I did!

Over the actual days of Christmas we were with my family this year, and it was so joyful and fun.  We got to spend a significant amount of time with each of my brothers and their wives, as well as my parents, and extended family all tucked into three days!

This year after watching White Christmas, sweet Rosie came to me and said, "Mama!  I looked in the mirror and I look like the older sister in the movie!  What's her name again?"  -- Betty, I said.  Her joy was made complete when my mom told her the important detail that the real name of the actress was Rosemary, just like my girl!  Our little Betty was so much fun this year, being so interested in Christmas, and so excited about the gifts she was giving.  She was more excited for me to open her gift than she was, I think, about anything under the tree with her name on it.  

Lyddie had been begging for a new pillow because *embarrassed grin* her old one was so flat.  So I sewed each girl their own new pillowcase and surprised them each with big fluffy pillows!  She is changing so much, a little self-conscious when she is goofy but not so self-conscious that she ISN'T goofy.  Which I love.  She is helpful and kind and beautiful and loved her new American Girl doll from her Mimi and Poppi. Rosie wants to be just like her big sister. 

Millie told me this year that she enjoys giving gifts more even than receiving them.  She likes how it helps her show people that she loves them, which rings true since she is always leaving me little gifts and drawings and notes on my pillow.  She also is very concerned right now with being different than the other two girls, which seems to me like a very middle-child thing to think about.  She was very excited that she got the blue china tea set when the other two both have green.  Also she is relieved that her cast is off and gone and she is back to normal.  Praise the Lord for her healing!

I loved spending the time with all our family this week and continue to be excited to know my adult siblings.  I moved away when my youngest two brothers were still young and they are all such grown men now, fun to be with, kind and strong, and loving to our girls.  We are so loud, and so fun, and so rambunctious, our people.  I miss them when I'm away!  

Since coming home, I have sat and been still for long amounts of time.  It is so tempting to try to tackle all the cleaning and tidying and unpacking and laundry all at once.  Instead, I have held myself back, allowed an hour or two of tasks and then done something restful. This is good for me.  Motherhood and ministry at Christmas means a flurry of constant activity beginning in early November, and I realized I am tired out. So now I knit myself a hat, cross stitch a little spring time sampler from Posie Gets Cozy and think about doing some drawing, my newfound interest.  As if I didn't have enough to keep myself busy lately, I find myself thinking about and planning little drawings for when I might have time.  I never knew I enjoyed drawing and painting so much and have never identified myself as artistic  - and not that I'm very good at all, but it is a source of happiness to me that I think I will develop more this coming year. 

So now we prepare to push on into the new year, and who knows what it may bring? 

The Clever Hen, open for business!

Winter is upon us.  Here in the Northwest the trees are barren, the skies cloudy, the garden is asleep.  The water for all our animals is frozen every morning, so we haul out warm water to thaw it out.  We begin our first week of winter break and hopefully will spend the days preparing of Christmas in our home and in our greater community on the Rez.  This year this has involved making several dozen sugar cookies and making a nearly forty fleecy gifts for the children who come to Kingdom Kids, which are now piled high in our guest room, aka Santa's workshop.  

I am delighted to share here that I have opened a little Etsy shop, The Clever Hen, for selling handknit items for all ages.  Over the years I have had so many friends and family members ask when I will begin to sell some of the things I make and I always shrug and end up deciding I haven't had time to knit what I wanted to knit and knit to sell.  Now that my little girls are a bit older and I squeeze in knitting during school hours and evenings, I took the plunge and listed a few of my favorite things in the shop that I actually reserved and began to dream about five years ago.  This has actually kept me so busy that I am just now catching up on all the private local orders I've had!  I've sold several custom knits to local friends this month and have a few more in the wings, not to mention a lot of exciting plans and ideas for the types of listings I want to create and list once there is a lull.  I am prepping an adult Anthropologie-copycat hat in a soft pink with satin ribbon (so pretty) and have a chunky cowl in mind after that. I am still working on sprucing up the shop with photos and announcements, and eventually will host a few giveaways, probably through my Instagram, so if you think you might be interested, go follow me over there!

I have made firm guidelines about which toys the girls are allowed to play with in a given week and they must ask to bring anything out besides the toys assigned for the week.  I was discovering that I either needed to pare our beautiful toys down a lot (which I hate to do because I LOVE high quality children's toys which is why we have several options) or create a loose system that avoids five different expansive play options all out in different rooms at one time in one afternoon.  Beyond the logistics of cleaning and tidiness, I was suspecting it would bring increased focus to their play and sure enough, that does seem to be true.  It is my sincere hope that having fewer toy choice at one time will make this winter survivable ... for me.  I am not yet really very good at keeping such a large house tidy while also balancing motherhood, homeschooling, and ministry. While I'm the first to acknowledge what a delightful problem that is to have... it's still a problem!  

So happy December to all of my friends who have found me here. Let me know you stopped by so I can visit you back!  Check out my shop and see what I've been working on!  

slowing

  

The joyful chaos of the holidays has passed.  This year I realized and came to term with the fact that before Christmas will never be a time to slow down and be quiet.  I was feeling disjointed and irritated whenever I was seeing posts on blogs or instagram of families who just slow way down and focus on the quiet of winter's arrival - why couldn't I achieve that? ....

I probably never will and that's okay.  Christmas is really about resting in the work of Jesus.  We will always be busy in the month of December.  But I can strive to create a feeling of quiet in the midst of the constant movement that will surely always accompany our December.  It was difficult to find that this year with the whole five-people-in-one-room scenario and I'm not sure I succeeded but there was happiness too.  

Then Christmas flew on past and we had a beautiful week with family.  We went swimming at the pool, I had a divine four hour lunch alone with a friend I hadn't connected with in person one-on-one for at least...two years?  We went to see Moana (love!) and had lunch in a big mall that made my country-girl daughters' eyes pop.  We had our annual family "noodle night" in which I attempted to remake a favorite egg noodle recipe from my great grandmother.  Still working on it but it was delicious and so sweet to spend time with all my brothers and their ladies.

Now the activity and fun is slowing and our family is settling back into a routine again and I am spreading out papers everywhere to organize and plan for school. I had hoped to wait a little longer but decided that I want to guiltlessly take off a little time when we are moving in the near future so I'd better start this week. The appraisal on our new house seemed to go well so we are eagerly anticipating being homeowners again soon.