I am thankful for #…688: "Time to recover, organize, plan." I started my own list of "1000 Gifts" after reading the book over a year ago. It was a way for me to focus on the good and all I had to be grateful for as we were preparing for Jesse to leave for his deployment this time last year. It still helps me in those ways and I use it in my prayer the many mornings I am crabby or hormonal. I should post an excerpt of my list again...
I am hoping and praying for…my brother this Christmas as he continues to work as an English-language teacher in Thailand; for a friend in the process of adopting from Poland!; for Jesse as he prepares for Oral Boards the week after and we travel w/ him to San Antonio; for my MOMS group as we begin an ENDOW study next week. I hope and pray that last one is a part of my life for years to come, like CCL and teaching RE. Not necessarily all at once but each for long seasons.
On my mind…lots of friends and family I haven't heard from this year!? Is everyone like me and did less this year? As in few cards for the Gorleys? :( I managed to get a photo card out but did not finish decorating or mail any gifts or do any baking. I started out behind and then had severe & paralyzing back pain that put me in the ER less than a week ago. It also kept us home this week. We are not traveling to see my in-laws b/c I am just recovering now, as in able to walk around without serious painkillers.
Noticing that the kids… are growing up so fast. And it doesn't get any easier or more simple. I've got to write an update on each of them here soon. This is becoming my only family scrapbook/journal.
A few plans for the month…family visits for the New Year (hopefully pending full recovery), the trip to San Antonio for Jesse's test, then back into our regular, albeit relaxed, school schedule. I cannot do an intense one and be a peaceful momma so this must be what is the right fit for us. I need to do some spring school planning, too. Goal setting with the big boys.
From the bookshelves…I have a lot of books on my mind lately...A Little Way of Homeschooling which I have been slowly reading on my iPad this school year. We do a mix of everything here including a minimal amount of formal lessons for big chunks of the year and I like to do a little reading on unschooling as we head into those times b/c it reminds me how much they are always learning on their own and so, alleviates my guilt. :) This is how I do a lot of my reading- several things at once, on-going as I need them. I often don't finish them before going on to something else but I usually cycle back to them again, too. Then, other books apply to and are finished in a season. I read Made From Scratch this past week while I was laid up b/c of my back, after giving a copy to a friend. She gave me The Joy of Keeping Chickens which I have not read yet but will soon I'm sure b/c we have chickens of our own! (Finally. Thank you, dear Jesse, for your work on the coop and pen and making that 2 year dream for myself and the kids come true. On to horses for you and John Paul, God-willing.) I gave Jesse a few books to give me for Christmas, which I look forward to reading: A Charlotte Mason Companion, Render Unto Caesar, Charity in Truth. Best read of 2011: The Reed of God, which I finally finished. Now my spiritual reading is Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila, mostly b/c of her influence on my beloved Edith Stein/Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
In the kitchen…we just finished a lot of leftovers, including a variation of 7-Can Soup that Jesse had made. We eat a lot of soup in the winter. Potato is our favorite. Thankfully, several friends have shared Christmas cookies with us as gifts, etc b/c I was going to go into depression w/out them. I did bake a cake. We bought pies.
On the Church calendar…it is now the Octave of Christmas and today is the Feast of St. Stephen. Really, Christmas has just begun and the season does not end until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. We had a good and simple Advent this year, by the grace of God: nightly day's Gospel after dinner w/ wreath lighting & singing of "O Come, Emmanuel" and a decade of the Rosary at bedtime prayers. We also read from our Advent Storybook each night and the boys each had a traditional chocolate calendar. We made "O Antiphon" paper ornaments and sent them to god-siblings but did not get them hung on our own tree that last week before Christmas. We always wait to put our tree and other decorations up until at least Gaudete Sunday, only empty nativities out before that. We put Jesus into our indoor and outdoor nativites on Christmas morning which I really liked this year b/c it is harder to keep the gift-hype down as the kids get older and more of them know what to expect. We still do St. Nick and their stockings on his feast day, Dec. 6th, which is also Mark's Baptism Day. But since we go to Mass the night before now (when they were little, we would go Christmas morning!), I like the pause to put Jesus into the mangers b/f the dive into and focus on the gifts on Christmas morning.
Pictures I’m sharing…from our big trip to beautiful Oregon in November to see close family friends, including one of our godsons. I used these on our Christmas card in black & white. More pics soon now that I have my own camera again.
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