New Year’s Eve doesn’t mean a fancy night out to dinner and then a huge party with friends, drinks and loud music for this parent.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had such a celebration on the last night of the year.  Maybe that’s why, with four kids in tow, I’m not terribly resentful that my plans for the night include a homemade dinner, sparking grape juice, a dvd and leftovers from a 6 pack of pear cider (my fave) for the hubby and me.

Everything in due time.  It’s a good lesson for me.  Be patient.  Enjoy every moment.  Take my time.  If I can’t enjoy it, change my perspective until there’s something to be grateful for. 

I’ll toast to that, if we’re still awake.

(photo from everystockphoto.com, by a_glitch)

To make this coming year’s lists, I have to know where I’m going, what my priorities are and what I’ll be doing.  For me, I work in categories.

• Home

Cleaning : Chore lists are going to be key this year.  The kids do better when they know what they’re supposed to do and don’t feel like we’re just making up things for them to do.  I’m going to listen to FlyLady.  She’s got a good thing going, and if I want to keep things decluttered around here, I’ll have to take it seriously.  Of course, one of my favorite magazines has wonderful, printable resources — visit Real Simple for some real inspiration (there are categories and lists for everything, so make sure your ink cartridge is full!).

Outside :  I want a productive garden this year.  I’m going to outline my tasks and actually try to get them done this year.  I’ll be looking to our local extension office for guidance.  Yours is a valuable resource, too.  I’d also like to check out this book on “Edible Estates” and implement some designs therein!

• Family

Kids :  It’s mainly their activities I need to keep track of to plan my chauffeur schedule.  Also needed are necessary home practice times.  We’re also working with Earth Scouts.  Even if it’s just our family, we want to make this a part of our kids’ awareness, so we’ll have at least monthly activities.  Asking the older kids what their priorities are makes sure that we’re all on the same page and will reduce friction later.

Parents : We’re busy, too. Aikido, BirthNetwork, church, etc., all take time.  We need to make sure we coordinate our times or have a sitter available.  Calendar sync, anyone?

• Food

Menu, menu, menu : Preparation, communication and dedication.  No junk food this year.  I have an extra 40 pounds that tells me I can and must just say “no.”    I’ll defer this back to a previous post.  Ideas are always welcome, and I found another site (SavingDinner) I’ll have to explore.  There are always wonderful cookbooks, too, and the bookstores usually have a plethora on the bargain book tables.

• Work (for me, this is mostly birth-related and/or volunteer-based)

Discernment :  This year is the year I decide what I’m doing with my life.  This is almost as important as what I’m being.  Both are crucial, will take time and insight.  I have clues; it’s the putting it all together part and implementation that are the kicker.  I also have to decide if I’m doing too much, not allowing myself enough time to be.  I hope I’m not the only one with this issue!  Keeping a list of all I’m involved with and committed to truly helps me be fully aware and not fall too far behind.

• Self-nurturing

Exercise. Creativity. Retreats. Dates. Self-discipline.  While this category is self-explanatory, it is also the one that most often falls to the wayside.  This is the one where we need absolutely everyone around us to cheer us on, help keep us motivated.  This is probably where our daily schedule comes in more handy than a list.  We deserve at least an hour a day, right?

May we all be inspired to be organized and motivated.  May we go forth and continue doing all the good work we do.

Weeks leading to the season of Mystery.  Joyful days of Christmas, living into the heart of the mystery itself.  The Church’s New Year begun.  Days left on the calendar year.

Where to go from here?

Quite obviously, I took time away from the blog-front to finish up the last-minute gifts.  Now I have to deal with the consequences of house neglect and the incoming gift explosion.  But more than that is the continual contemplation of my life as it is.  My husband says this next year is “the” year.  It’s his 30th.  I think I thought the same for my 30th, too, but that has come and gone.  I’m hesitant to say life is what it is with a sort of resigned sigh, but that’s what comes to mind.

Unfortunately for me, I have a hormonal challenge to overcome this week of weeks to bring back the optimist in me.  I hope to make the right lists, the right resolutions and the right choices.  I’m barking at the kids to make the right choices.  They know what is right and wrong (i.e. be kind, put things back,etc.).  I know what is right and wrong, too, supposedly.  Often, though, I don’t make the right choices, either.

So, here’s to getting the funk out of the system, to making the right choices and to living lovingly and simply.  Our T days this week will include lists, lists that I hope will help me in the coming year.  If they help you, consider it a late gift. 

A scarf might have a negative connotation as a gift (perhaps people got burned out on them), but I’m glad they’re making a come-back . . . at least in my book!

Several evenings, this was what awaited me.

Now, my current projects aren’t of the knitting variety, but they have me at the ironing and cutting board and at the sewing machine.  Instructables has a cargo scarf that I hope will bring a smile to a couple of faces this season.  Pardon the poor photo quality.  I could stand to learn a thing or two in that department.   

FACT:  We all have finite amounts of time, money and energy.

FACT: No matter how much money we have or don’t have, there will be others who have more (assuming you’re not like Bill Gates, JK Rowling or the like!) and others who have less.

FACT:  Energy is neither created nor destroyed.

FACT:  Time is a constant.  Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  No more, no less.

On this day when I’m wishing I could sleep less and do more, wondering why I don’t just buy neatly packaged pre-made gifts, wishing I had the money to do so if I wanted to, it somehow helps to remind me of what my reality honestly consists of.  There are facts I often do not take into consideration, mostly because they are taken for granted.

It is worthwhile to remind myself every now and again that how I view my place in the world may just have an affect on how my place is in the moments to come.  Am I complaining about my gift-making?  Is that why suddenly I find that I don’t actually have all I need at the moment?  Do I think there’s not enough time to clean the house?  Has that increased the explosiveness factor on the mess that erupted in the last 24 hours?

How about if I start this day visualizing everything getting done that needs to be done, with realistic expectations.  My list is made.  My mind is clear.

I know how much money is in the bank, and I consider myself richly blessed.

I will exhale the negative energy and inhale the positive, rejuvenating energy, keeping a steady pace.

I have 24 hours this day to eat, sleep, be and do. 

No more.  No less.

Today I wish everyone warmth and love.

A friend of mine recently said that snow without accumulation is just cruel.  Well, I would add that a snow day without snow is equally cruel.  We don’t have snow, but apparently some areas had enough ice (not our side of town) to cancel school.  We do have frigid temperatures for our area.  Husband said it “hurts” outside.  The kids played outside for all of about seven minutes.

So, the kiddos are home today . . . inside.  Thankfully, one went off for the day with a friend.  A friend of mine joined us for half the day, adding a few more boys to the mix.  We spent the morning cooking and conversing.  As lovely as it was, I have the sense of dread that my sleeping hours are going to become working hours as I struggle to finish these gifts I have planned.  June.  I must start Christmas in June!  There’s a reason for the “Christmas in July” phrase, after all.  Hopefully I’ll remember that, and you will, too, so you can hold me accountable for next year!

But it is a wonderful time of year.  I have lots of materials to work with.  Our heat is fixed.  Slowly, a few gifts are appearing under the tree.  I baked bread and cornbread this morning.  The beans are cooking, and the house smells warm and yummy.  Christmas carols get played every so often, either on the CD player or on the piano.  May my temper subside and let me revel in our abundance of life and love.

May your family be so blessed.

Rush, rush, rush.  After a slow morning, rushing is what we were doing to be out the door in time for my meeting.

“What’s that red thing?” Avery asked as I opened the door and closed it again to unlatch the lock.

What red thing?  I thought in complete disregard, maybe even annoyance, grabbing miscellaneous item and fifteen thousand bags.  That’s what it felt like, anyway.

I opened the door, and there at the doorstep was a drum-like basket, fluffed with red tissue paper, containing oranges and holiday mini-snickers (my favorites!).

I looked around at the other houses.  Did they have baskets, too?  Not that I could tell.  I dropped a few bags and set the basket on our entry table, quickly scanned for a card and decided I didn’t have time to wonder about it now.  Off we went.

When we returned home hours later, the basket still remained.  The kids ran around playing, and I decided to further investigate this holiday mystery.  I felt to the bottom of the basket, below the tasty goodies, and there was paper.  Between red paper was a card for my “sweet” family.  That alone melted my heart.  When I opened the card, hoping to find a name for this kind soul, all I found was money.

I couldn’t cry, for it was too rich a blessing, too kind and good.  I could only smile in disbelief.

Surely the spirit of Saint Nicholas prevails, alive and well.  I only I hope I live to return the blessing to others in the future.  For now, I give thanks to our angel.

Creative fun describes the experience the kids had at the Tricycle Theatre for Youth this morning!  I rushed with the kids out of the house on a dreary but atypically warm morning to make the little jaunt to Bentonville.  We parked close to the theatre and were greeted with smiles.

My 5yo and 2yo got to “bake” cookies, “go” ice fishing, “ride” in a sleigh pulled by a seven-foot polar bear, crawl in an “ice” cave, build with “ice” blocks, enact a story and more!  Two hours of solid fun for them, and I could be as involved as I wanted or not, when I needed a breather.  All this as part of their Arctic Adventure theme that’s only here for a little while.  After all, weather in Arkansas is utterly unpredictable, and we brought the arctic here for sure; the temp dropped nearly 20 degrees while we played!

Please support this wonderful opportunity for children!!  Below is the recipe used to make the cookies the kids played with.  Whip up a batch and continue the play at home!  Be sure to thank Kassie at Trike!

Baked “Salt Clay”

Stir together:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 o 1 1/2 cups cold water
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil

Instructions:
Knead well until it forms a soft ball.  Line a baking tray with aluminum foil.  Make the shapes you want or use cookie cutters, and bake in a 300 degree oven until hard (about one hour).  You can use food coloring to color dough before you bake it, or you can paint it afterwards.  A finishing coat of shellac or clear acrylic will make your salt clay products last longer.

Have fun!

In time for St. Nicholas, we got our tree, trimmings and decorations up in the house.  Rather than stress about buying a delightfully rich, prickly, aromatic tree, we’re recycling my ‘n-law’s older artificial tree.  I must say that putting it together with the older kids was much more fun than our usual tree run.  The tree was put together earlier last week.

Saturday evening I made several trips into the attic, bringing down our miscellaneous outdoor adornments and our plastic tubs full of decorations and accessories.  Plastic in attics acquires this greasy, sticky coat of yuckiness.  Christmas carols in the air or not, my hands were coated.  I pulled the stuff out of the tubs.  Plush, singing animals, fake garland, embellished towels, figurines, etc., etc.  The kids were excited and hurriedly put the items in their place.   This is our fourth year in this house.

It occurs to me that in much earlier times, most people didn’t have the kind of storage we have.  Real Christmas trees were as much out of necessity as anything, let alone the lack of plastic.  Perishable decorations and real candles were of necessity, too.  When the holiday passed, set it out for the animals, chop it up, return it to the earth in some fashion.  No attics full of boxed trees and mangled lights.  Surely there was a trunk somewhere that had the Christmas linens and a few other tokens of the holiday, passed down through the generations.

Yet even with my grimy hands, I nostagically read past Christmas cards and letters from friends and family, wondering who I would hear from this year and whether I would get mine done on time.  I washed my hands and made the family some hot cocoa, not from a package mix.  The carols still played.  The kids were still excited even at 9:30pm.

As I stirred the milk in one of the mugs, my dearest hubby leaned against the refrigerator, watching me.

“So, is this what Christmas is to you?” he asked. 

I grinned, thinking he’s being sincere, wanting to be sure my holidays are being fulfilled.  “Well, I suppose.  Warmth, carols, hot chocolate, Christmas movies, twinkling lights and candlelight. . . “  I could have continued all the things I love about winter with the magic of the season, but he heard a pause and broke in.

“Well, I know you buy into this whole commercialism thing,” he says with authority and a puffed out chest, “but for me, it’s all about the birth of our Lord.”

I laughed out loud, and he grinned mischievously.  You have to know us well to appreciate the humor of it truly, to understand why I called him a smart ass and pushed him away, still laughing.

I made the hot chocolates.  I admitted to myself that, yes, I’ve bought into the commercialism.  But now the advent wreath sits in the middle of the table all day, and I await the celebration of a most special birth.