christmas decor. memories. and such.

this past friday, jason made the sometimes-treacherous trek into the attic to retrieve the boxes. the Christmas boxes. full of so many beautiful things.

and i'm sure you have a similar experience at your house- you pull each item out and memories come flooding. 

i love that part of Christmas decorating. it is full of history and people. as each year passes, there is more to remember. 

we have a whole box of paper ornaments that i made the first year we were married. we didn't have money for boxes and boxes of ornaments, so i went down to a scrap-booking store and used their die-cut machine. about $3 later, boom. done. decorated tree. 

and i made this wreath that year too. no money for home decor. and so magazine strips became a wreath.

it's starting to rip and fade. it probably won't make it for many more years. but each year i pull it out, i smile and give thanks. that He gave us such good beginnings. filled with good and hard smooshed together. these little paper reminders... they are good for the soul. 

another thing i've done over the years is save pretty christmas cards. i started it as a way to gather together free Christmas decorations. i just tape them up in different spots throughout the house- mostly on doorways. 

and what started as free decor has become something i really treasure. they have ended up being little reminders of friends and family. most of whom i won't see this Christmas.

a card from a friend from years ago. i think of her every time i see it up during these lovely holidays.

a card from my sister. i always put it up in the kitchen. and, you guessed it, it reminds me of her. during Christmas cookie baking, December breakfast making, i am reminded of her. 

and it is good. people i don't get to see and who don't get to be close during this beautiful month- i'm reminded of them and they feel just a step or two closer. 

good stuff. 

thanksgiving

did you have a happy thanksgiving? i hope so. we had a fantastic one. really, truly-- lovely.



it was just us. just the four of us. we ate a huge feast together. it was wonderful.



we hadn't originally intended to be on our own for thanksgiving this year. but it just happened. and it was just what we needed.

it was a day full of zero expectations and hard work. everything was easy. after our dinner was finished, i made a cup of coffee and sat under my favorite tree in our yard. i just sat there. no book. no music. no conversation. just me, coffee, and sitting. oh, my friends, i have got to slow down more often.

and that was what jason and i kept saying all weekend. this is so nice. we need more of this. less noise, more stillness. more space to just be. i have no idea how we can do this. but it was so good to be reminded of how nice it all is. sitting under a tree and doing nothing. i'm telling you-- it's awesome.



we got down our thanksgiving tree and read all the things that had been written on the leaves. it was so good to be reminded of all the good He has given. so sweet and humbling to hear the things little hearts are grateful for.



our house is now pretty well switched over to Christmas decor. we are bedecking every surface we can find, it seems. and by 'we', we all know i mean 'me'.

happy monday, friends. welcome back.

giving thanks.

they will retell Your mighty acts...

let everyone praise His holy name forever

psalm 145

there is so much good, friends. we both know it. do we always see? most definitely not. but this week is one that He has kindly structured, in this lovely country of ours, to push us forward in thanksgiving. to retell of His mighty works. recount His deeds. tell of what He has done. all that He has given. 

riches. great riches. 

we are going to try to intentionally create some space for these kinds of things this weekend. space to tell of what He has done- all that He has given. some time as a family, as a couple, to retell of His mighty deeds. 

He has been, and will forever be,... good. 

fleeting fall

autumn is just glorious.



and every year i forget how fleeting it is.



just as i notice the tree out front is golden, the wind blows and the rain falls. i wake up to a yellow carpet on the grass.

those beauties falls so quickly.

and, of course, there is joy to be found in their falling.

(love this. apparently samuel was performing some sort of unauthorized leaf pile behavior. )

but still, the cold is breezing through more frequently these days. the limbs at the tops of the trees are getting more bare with each day. the light is coming through more crisply and unhindered. the leaves are coming down.



hope you have a pile of your own to jump into.

christmas shopping guide

6 weeks from yesterday, friends. that beautiful and magical Christmas day is right around a nearby snowy corner. to help give a kick-start to your shopping, i wanted to share some of my favorite people to buy stuff from. check out their wares- you won't be disappointed.

to start off, here's megan from this lovely cyber-spot. she is a thrift store genius who loves color and beautiful things. she upcycles and recycles. lovely stuff.





my friend, betsy, just started a little business making beautiful cedar mats. some have words and some are plain, but they are really really lovely items.





katie makes beautiful things. i don't know her. i've never actually purchased anything from her, but just look how pretty:





i bought these paper dolls for my niece a couple of years ago. you can buy them already printed or your can print them yourself. you can also sign up to have a new outfit every month sent to your email as a pdf. and there are so many beautiful options-- girls in literature (!!), fairy, princess, etc.





yellow elm is a friend from indie craft parade who makes really lovely headbands, pins, etc. so very pretty.





and just one more-- marisol spoon, another friend from indie craft parade. a fantastic couple who just had their first baby (yay!) that makes beautiful art together. she paints, he constructs and carves. so very pretty.





hope you can find some gifts here for the people you love this season. if you are reading and would like to leave a comment with a link to your favorite small-time-big-heart gift maker, please feel free.

i love the giving part of Christmas. giving gifts. what joy.



happy shopping.

snippets

this weekend was chock-full. lots of good. lots of stuff. and by sunday afternoon, i was pretty beat. i tried to take a nap, but my mind kept filling with all that was yet to be done, problems yet to be solved and lists yet to be made.

this juggle of life can be so tricky. the balance of so many areas and people- needs and wants. and as i looked through my photos to help remind myself of what our days have held lately, i smiled. there have been lots of good, sweet things in the middle of the to and fro.



this man's careful cookie making. after i told him they all needed to be made the same size, he worked so hard to make all those teeny tiny mounds even.




my favorite guy's birthday. we had banana cream pie, little voices singing 'happy birthday' and just-after-breakfast gift opening. birthday's rock.



my shopping buddies. asking for pictures and wanting to be dolphins.



me, using my phone to check my hair after i did it in the car on the way to a beautiful wedding. a fabulous wedding- full of cheers and yells of excitement and joy as the newly-joined couple walked back down that aisle.



and this crazy little miss. oh my.

happy week-start friends. i know it's crazy. i know the holidays are just beginning. may we have eyes to see the gifts right there in front of our faces.

(oh-- and come back on wednesday-- i'm putting together a small-business buying guide for Christmas gifts this year. excited about promoting a few fantastic people!)

reading

when we are doing our morning school together, we have time every morning where samuel and i read together. he reads a page and then i read a page. it's great time together, experiencing the same book, and reading aloud to each other. 

just last week i tried having just 15 minutes of quiet read-together-time. 

why did i not already think of this?

yesterday found us all on my bed- each with a book. and we laid side by side and read quietly to ourselves. I got to read quietly for 15 minutes during our school morning!

i think there are so many great things about this little time. teaching them both the benefit of setting aside time to read, spending quiet time together doing something we enjoy. and i believe it will also help to develop in each of them a love of words. 

i know this is a small thing. 15 minutes. but it was a happy discovery over here. 

hope your week has been a happy one and that your weekend has at least a few good pockets of rest. 

the yearling

just finished reading The Yearling by Marjorie Rawlings. and like most good books, this one is about so many things. i'd love to tell you a bit about it. if you want to read it unbiased and with no information, stop reading now.



just beautiful. the first pages bring you to Baxter Island. and a boy. playing in the creek instead of hauling the wood he had been assigned. and i held my breath just a little as the father entered the scene, doing the work of the son. i worried that the son would be met with wrath. my heart warmed and a smile spread as Penny Baxter greeted his son Jody with great understanding and joy.

the book continues with many such lovely scenes. childhood. innocence. a father and son pairing that made me breath easy.

loss and pain still find this pair in the middle of the scrub. we all look out our windows and see similar things-- so much that is good and whole ends up gone and broken. as you journey with Jody Baxter and his father, you can see it all.

it's that aching beauty. that truth about this world that resonates so loudly as you read quietly in your bed. the beauty and joy. the inevitable growing and stretching into the realities that surround.

i fear i'm not telling this story well. it doesn't seem i'm able to rewrite this for you in 3 paragraphs that make sense. read the book. it's beautiful. lovely. warming. it's sitting with me still and i'm sure will continue for a bit. i keep thinking of their hard work. their joyful hunts. the sweet potato dinners. hard-earned, simple meals. so many thoughts and feelings i can't quite hold or grab yet. it was lovely. hope you enjoy it.

"Ever' man wants life to be a fine thing, and a easy. 'Tis fine, boy, powerful fine, but 'tain't easy."
                                                                   
                                                                   - Penny Baxter, speaking to his son, Jody

thanksgiving tree

i love Thanksgiving. love it. cooking delicious food that you get to share with friends. turkey. gravy. golden leaves. i love thanksgiving.

to anticipate this fantastic holiday, we are doing a little thanksgiving tree this year.



we gathered a few branches outside. i cut out some leaves from construction paper. punched holes. cut yarn. and we were off.



each of us wrote one thing we were thankful for and hung the leaf on the tree.



the goal is one thing every day. one thing, from each of us, that we are grateful for every day. we will cut them from the tree on thanksgiving and read them all.

you know how these things go. it's a good idea at the start. then you get to thanksgiving and there are... 9 leaves on the tree. i hope that isn't the case with this. i would love to have a stack of leaves to pile up and remember how many good good gifts our great Father has given.