Outside my window- It's cold and dark and the white Christmas lights are twinkling on the deck.
I am hearing- Kateri is sitting on my lap and reading every word as I type it. Now she is giggling because I am writing about her. Jonathan is singing chant in the foyer - his favorite spot due to the pleasing acoustics.
I am wearing- A red plaid skirt - because it's still Christmas! Kateri wants to know why I wrote that apparently ridiculous sentence...
I am thankful for- A quiet and pleasant holiday season.
I am thinking about- Kateri says I should write "I am thinking I want a carriage" as she wants to buy a dolly carriage with her Christmas money from her Grammy. As she didn't get any boughten toys for Christmas, I'm thinking this might be a fine idea. Hmmn, she seems to be effectively highjacking this post...I'm thinking how hard it is to squeeze in blogging time, and how it doesn't seem like that long ago I would write with a sleeping nursling in my arms. And here she is quite awake and reading (and giving her opinion) on every word. It's quite tricky trying to type with a small person wiggling and giggling-so-much-she's-now-hiccupping on my lap.
I am reading- 'The Hobbit.' Kateri, that is. She is on page six. She's reading it out loud to Jonathan, quite slowly (!) I am reading The Silmarillion - I just restarted it as I hadn't picked it up for so long. The rest of the family has been busy ploughing through their new books received as gifts. I've posted a list of them in my left side bar if you're interested.
The students young and old have greatly enjoyed the leisure of reading so much while on break, while I've gone around muttering about my folly in buying them so many books as I have trouble getting some of them to arise and do something else. But that's what break is for, right? And silly me is encouraging them to buy more books with their gift money. They got the first three of Andrew Lang's Fairy Books (we previously only had an old copy of Fifty Favorite Fairy Tales, a compilation drawn from the individual color books) and there are nine more...
On a similar note, today I read this great article on reading - Stop cleaning the kitchen and read a book H/T Regan Good stuff.
From the kitchen- Still enjoying lots of Christmas goodies here. Supper was potato pancakes, carrots, corn and a big pot of homemade applesauce. We eat pretty simply here. :-)
In the learning house- We will start back with the actual schoolwork tomorrow, as that's when Jonathan's classes start. We've had many weeks off for crafting and celebrating so everyone will be in for a shock as we crack open those math books...
Living the Liturgical Year- Two more days of Christmas and then we celebrate Epiphany on Thursday. My resident liturgical consultant aka the schola director tells me the time after Epiphany is quite long this year, with the maximum six Sundays before Septuagesima. It's so nice to know these things ahead of time...
Around the house- Things are relatively clean and tidy. There are still neat little gift piles in the living room as folks haven't put all away yet and still enjoy admiring their new things. The Christmas tree still looks lovely and we're never in any hurry to take it down, nor the sparkly lights hung here and there that give the house such a pleasant, friendly glow on these dark winter days.
We are creating- After so much creating for Christmas gifts the children seem quite content to just be drawing for pleasure. They are trading ATC's with friends and with each other. And like most other kids the first week in January they are making thank you cards.
I am pondering- 'The only thing we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.' These favorite wise words of Gandalf come to mind at the start of a fresh new year. Or as the saints put it, as quoted in my Divine Intimacy:
We must give every moment its full amount of love, and make each passing moment eternal, by giving it value for eternity. - Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, OCD
We have only the short day of this earthy life in which to grow in love, and if we wish to derive from it the greatest possible profit, we must overcome our natural inertia and carry out our good works 'with our whole heart.' Then love will increase immeasurably and we shall be able to say to Our Lord like St. Therese of the Child Jesus: "Your love has grown with me and now it is an abyss, the depth of which I am unable to sound." We must, then, make haste while we still have time, for "the night cometh when no man can work."
On my part, O Lord, I can think of no better way to make up for the time I have lost than to try with all my might to increase my love. Yes, my love will grow if, for Your sake, I fulfill all my duties and perform all my good works "with all my heart" and "with all my good will." Alas! I am so weak, so careless, so indolent! I am inclined to flee from exerting myself; I try to avoid making sacrifices. My nature always seeks what is easiest, what is the least tiring, and soon falls into negligence and laziness. Help me, O Lord, and strengthen my love by Your almighty power. What I do for You is so little; grant, O my God, that I may at least do it with all the love possible.
None of us knows what awaits us in this new year, but God knows. His will has already prepared our path; every detail of our life is already determined in His mind. Let us be ready to accept, or rather to embrace with courage and readiness, everything that God wishes or permits, certain that in His holy will we shall find our peace and our sanctification.
"I think of this new year as a white page give to me by Your Father, on which He will write, day by day, whatever His divine good pleasure has planned. I shall now write at the top of the page, with complete confidence: Domine, fac de me sicut vis, Lord do with me what You will, and the at the bottom I already write down my Amen to all the proposals of Your divine will. Yes Lord, yes to all the joys, the sorrows, the graces, the hardships prepared for me, which You will reveal to me day by day. Grant that my Amen may be the Paschal Amen, always followed by the Alleluia, uttered wholeheartedly, in the joy of a complete gift. Give me Your love and Your grace, and I shall be rich enough." -Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, OCD
A picture thought-
Happy New Year, Friends!
