Thanking: What I'm Thankful For Lately
# 1: My chicken overalls. It has been so cold in the mornings when I go out to water, feed, and check for eggs and these pants make my life so much easier. It might seem like a dumb thing to be thankful for, but it's about the little things...
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| This is not me. But these are my Carhartt quilted overalls. They make me feel like a farmer. |
# 2: My friends. I'm especially thankful for the love and support of the wonderful community of women I have around me. This is a really small town. It's a rural town. I was terrified to move here, thinking there'd be "slim pickins" when it came to connecting with other like-minded women. Boy, was I so wrong in so many ways. We've been here four years, and I'm at the point where I realize just how much the friends I've made have come to mean to me. I'm so grateful that I have friends that I can talk to about: God, my prayer life, NFP, nursing, farming, gardening, "real food," home-birthing, parenting choices, homeschooling, blogging, farm dreams, church teachings, etc. etc. But it hasn't always been easy---when you love people, and grow close to them, you give them the ability to hurt you or to SEE who you really are, and that can be scary. It's taken me years to realize that to me, it's worth it. It's worth working through things, it's worth being vulnerable, it's worth letting people get to know the real me. I'm humbled not just by the fact that they DO see me and love me for who I am, but by the ways they have taught me to see parts of myself that I am blind to (like the ugly ones). I can't get over how blessed I am to have the friends, both old, and new, that are a part of my life.
# 4: Good TV: I admit it---I love Downton Abbey. I was just talking to a friend today about WHY this show is so popular. We brainstormed together, and came up with a couple ideas: at its core, it's about stuff we can all relate to. From servant to master, everyone has to play their "role" and struggles with their place in the society or the family. There are saints, there are sinners, and in their world, as in ours, the two are at constant odds with each other. But really, it's mostly about the clothes and the decorum. :-) (I really wish I was part of an era when people "dressed for dinner" and every night was a fabulous dinner party....) And can Maggie Smith be any funnier????!!!
#5: The RAVENS: We're going to the SUPERBOWL!!! What great playoff football, and how excited we are for our team!!! We are a little sad to say goodbye to #52, though.
Laughing: Funny Moments
#1: People have asked, "How are the chickens doing in this cold weather???" For the most part, there are zero concerns about the chickens. But I do have to be careful with the Leghorns, who are white with these beautiful, large red combs. In temperatures that are too cold for too long, apparently their combs can get frostbite. To prevent this, you are supposed to spread Vaseline on them. I ran around the house frantically searching for Vaseline one morning. I didn't find any, but I did find some unopened MotherLove Nipple Cream from my nursing days. I figured it would have to do, and have spent two mornings of my week massaging nipple cream into the combs of three of my chickens. (This is where motherhood and farming strangely intersect...)
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| Here's one of the Leghorns scratching in the garden in the summer. |
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| Here you can see how much bigger the Leghorn's combs are than the combs of the other chickens. |
# 2: At mass today, in the tiny daily-mass chapel on campus, we had one of the funnier mass-going experiences we've had in recent history. As the priest was elevating the host, there was a silent pause right before the congregation was to respond with "Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof..." BUT, in the silent pause, right before anyone spoke, my lovely birthday girl decided to let out the worst, longest, loudest, cat-dying-in-her-pants fart---ever. And not only that, it had TWO movements. Forget about the mortification for a minute, but trying to keep the older two girls from wetting themselves next to me (and pretending it wasn't the funniest thing that's happened in a long time) was so hard. I feel so bad for the people sitting around us, who had a lovely moment stolen from them....oops.
Praying
I'm working on my prayer life hard for 2013. Although it can sometimes feel bit schizophrenic with all the different things I turn to for prayer (right now my anchors are St. Faustina's Diary, the Liturgy of the Hours, Lectio Divina on Colossians, In Conversation with God, and a daily rosary) it's also really humbling to see the way that on many occasions, the same "message or theme" will run through this stuff on any given day. There's nothing that makes you feel more "seen" by God than when He pounds you over the head with same message everywhere you turn. So I figure I'll just keep turning and keep my eyes open for what He's saying. I've also found a strange irony that the more time I spend in prayer each day, the more likely I am to accomplish everything I set out to do that day. I had all these grand plans for 2013---to learn new skills and hunt and knit and fish and....and I think God just wants me to sit with Him for a while. And garden, and cook, and homeschool, and clean, and love those He has placed in my life. It has been a wonderfully fruitful spiritual life so far this year, which has transferred to the other areas of my life, and so I'll stick with His plan and forego my own ambitions for now.
Celebrating: My Baby Is THREE
Ailin turned three today, but we really celebrated it on Monday, when Daddy was home from work for MLK day. I remember my pregnancy (very not-fondly) and her birth (very fondly) and can't believe that was all 3+ years ago. Time does fly, but I'm so glad that our days are spent together, enjoying this baby-toddlerhood before it's all over.
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| The morning began with a rousing round of Uno, her favorite game. She just happened to get a lucky 3! |
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| The Bilibo, as weird as it is, has been nothing but amazing fun for all three girls this week! Hooray for gifts that work. |
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| The Bilibo game has also been really neat. Total creativity about what you want to do with the pieces. |
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| Sister fun. |
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| Brunch at Panera. |
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| Trip to the bookstore to pick out some books. |
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| Off to the movies. The glasses were cool, but apparently the movie, Monsters, Inc., was too scary. |
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| Relaxing story time with big "sisty" when we got home. |
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| Really happy we won the game on Sunday. Otherwise eating these cupcakes on Monday would've been more than just bittersweet. |
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| Happy Birthday Baby A!!! |
Planning
# 1: Garden: Believe it or not, it's time to start planning for the gardening season. I'm telling myself I'll wait until after the football season ends, because once I open those catalogs, the fever will begin...but I have also learned the hard way that many of the seeds and plants I want will be sold out by the time I go to buy them if I wait too long. It's here. It's time. It feels cold to us, but before we know it, the earth will be green with life again, and we'll be shedding the sweaters and stuffing our faces with all the things we gave up for Lent. I'm crazy with giddiness just thinking about the tabula rasa that I have out there to be planted. There's nothing like it. I pulled some pictures of last year's garden just to remind myself of what's coming...
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| The garden fence has been taken down and the garden expanded. Most of what you see here will be fallow next year and the new beds will be planted instead. |
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| My mouth waters looking at this. I don't eat tomatoes out of season, so it feels like forever since I've popped a warm Sungold tomato in my mouth!!! I can't wait!!! |
#2: Lent: I'm determined to reclaim Lent, since I feel like Advent was kinda stolen from me. The stress of Christmas this year was greater for me than it usually is, and I don't want my Lent to be that way. Lent is always a really special time for me and this year, with some pre-planning, I hope to live it in a way that pleases God and brings me and the family closer to Him. I'm in the middle of praying and thinking about how I want our Lent to look, but hope to do a "Lent Plans" post soon.
#3: School Year 2013-2014: I'm ashamed to admit it. I had my first thought about next year's curriculum choices today. A book on one of the school room shelves caught my eye---one that I bought years ago thinking it would work, but it was too advanced for our needs then. I've been saving it until we were ready. I think it will be perfect for next year, and I pulled it down today. It's sitting on my desk, reminding me of all the work (work that I really love!) ahead...
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