What I Am Into - November 2012

What I Am Into :: NOVEMBER 2012
On My Nightstand:

I'm slowly working my way through N. T. Wright's "Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church". It continues to be both beautifully hopeful and deeply illuminative. Sadly, my current brain fog prevents me from making faster progress.

For Advent, I am reading through the daily devotional Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas, which includes daily writings from individuals such as C. S. Lewis, Kathleen Norris, T. S. Eliot, Dorothy Day, Henri Nouwen, Madeleine L'Engle, and more. It has proven to be an excellent Advent resource so far.

Want to Read:

When I finish Surprised by Hope, I have N. T. Wright's follow-up book, After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters, waiting for me. I am also looking forward to a quick but meaningful read-through of Kathleen Norris's The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and "Women's Work".

On the screen:

Only 26 more days until the next episode of Doctor Who! (And also, you know, Christmas. But Doctor Who!) Very excited about that.

I've been filling my brain-fogged evenings with a nostalgic rewatching of the entire Boy Meets World series. I'm currently finishing up Season 4. Also, did you hear??? They're making a sequel, Girl Meets World, in which Cory and Topanga are happily married and raising their 13-year-old daughter, Riley! Is that not the best news you've heard all year? I thought so.

In My Kitchen:

Okay, so the first thing you do is make this incredible pumpkin custard. Serve chilled along with whipped cream. Savour. Eat it for breakfast. And lunch. Lick out the pie dish when you're finished.

Next, realize that you now have nine egg whites sitting in your fridge. Jump on Google to figure out what you can do with nine egg whites. Discover a recipe for coconut chocolate macaroons.

Next, spend an entire afternoon making said macaroons. Dip their delicious coconutty bottoms in melted chocolate. Share some with your guests. Eat the rest yourself while watching Boy Meets World. Enjoy every sweet and gratifying bite.

Finally, go to the grocery store to buy more pumpkin and heavy cream. Come home and repeat the entire mouthwatering process from the beginning.

You're welcome.

In My Ears:

I've been spending the past couple of weeks choosing a CD for each child's stocking.

The baby will be receiving the beautiful folk collection Rain for Roots, with lyrics by Jesus Storybook Bible author Sally Lloyd-Jones and music by Sandra McCracken, Ellie Holcomb, and more.

The toddler will be receiving Volume 1 of the Questions with Answers series by Dana Dirksen. We all love her Songs for Saplings ABC album, which has taught me as much musical Scripture as it has my children.

The boy will be receiving one of Renee & Jeremy's albums. I've ordered both "A Little Love" and "It's a Big World". Actually, I might give him the latter and keep the former for my own stocking! Love this duo, and many thanks to my friend who recommended them to me.

What I'm Looking Forward to in December:

We will be driving (driving!!) to northern Manitoba to visit my family for Christmas. While I am not looking forward to approximately 60 hours in the car with three children, I am looking forward to Christmas with my sisters, parents, and adorable little niece.

Plus, Christmas!!! Music, decorations, pretty twinkling lights, wrapping paper, Advent observances, candles, carols, all of it. I'm so ready. Bring it on.

Well, friends, that is What I've Been Into this past month. What about you?

Linking up to What I'm Into with HopefulLeigh...

Observing Advent while Travelling

During these early years of forming our family's annual traditions, we've have some hits and some misses. Our biggest challenge, however, has always been the holiday travel season. On the one hand, we want to be with our extended family, celebrating with those whom we don't get to see as often as we'd like. On the other hand, we feel the need for both our own traditions and a focused observance of the Advent season, yet find that our travels often interrupt our attempts.

We have our traditional Advent wreath, but those last candles never get lit. We have our beautiful Advent/Lent candle spiral, but again, it doesn't travel well and poor Mary never quite reaches her destination before we leave. We never get everything hung on our Jesse Tree; the story is often left unfinished.

So what does work? Fortunately, we've had some happy successes.

Activity-based Advent Calendar

Two years ago, we strung our wall with bright red envelopes, each one containing the day's preparatory activity. The events ranged from decorating to baking to service and more. When the time came for us to leave for our holiday travels, we simply took the remaining envelopes along with us. Because we knew in advance when we'd be leaving, we included those days in our envelopes, along with a simple activity for each day we'd be away.

Another fun yet portable Advent calendar is this Advent in a jar idea. Write your Advent activities on slips of paper, glue a colourful felt ball or pom pom onto each paper, then fold and keep in a jar. Easy to assemble, easy to bring along on your holiday travels.

Portable Jesse Tree

A Jesse Tree is a type of Advent calendar which combines daily readings with corresponding symbols, walking through the Story from the garden to the birth of Christ.

One of our most valued gifts has been a felt Jesse Tree storyboard handmade by the children's Oma. Rather than hanging the Jesse Tree story pictures on a tree, as is traditionally done, the felt pictures stick onto a large pocket of felt. The felt pocket houses the daily readings and extra pictures, making the entire package simple to bring along as we travel.

Other portable Jesse Trees could be made with individual pockets, envelopes, magnets, flaps, or velcro. Ann at A Holy Experiences offers a beautiful free Advent Family Jesse Tree devotional (both readings and the corresponding illustrations), which can be used as a basis for creating a portable system that works for your family.

Forgo the tree, keep the Story

Another option is to forgo the tree altogether. While we do enjoy our portable Jesse Tree, some years even that feels like too much. Fortunately, Geraldine McCaughrean has written a lovely book, The Jesse Tree, which tells the Jesse Tree stories within the larger narrative of a conversation between a carpenter and a boy.

The aforementioned Advent Family Jesse Tree devotional could also be used sans ornaments, as well as several other Advent and Jesse Tree devotional narratives. Make it a family read-aloud as you drive to your destination, a nightly bedtime story, an after-dinner ritual, or whatever works best for you and your family.

Another treeless and portable Advent family observance is this Advent reading plan designed for use with the Jesus Storybook Bible (our favourite children's Bible). With twenty-one Old Testament stories (each ending with a paragraph that points to Jesus) and three stories encompassing the birth of Christ, this is the perfect twenty-four day plan to encompass the Advent season.

There are also, of course, countless adult-oriented Advent devotionals, which afford high portability for your own personal Advent reflections. This year I am reading through the Advent devotional Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas, which includes daily writings from individuals such as C. S. Lewis, Kathleen Norris, T. S. Eliot, Dorothy Day, Henri Nouwen, Madeleine L'Engle, and more. Find one by your favourite author, or choose an Advent Bible reading plan instead of (or alongside) a separate devotional.


Above all, keep it simple! However you choose to observe Advent, let the season be a time of calm focus and inward preparation rather than another source of stress and busyness amidst your holiday travels.


Do you have a favourite Advent devotional? unique method of combining Advent observances with holiday travel? other travel-friendly holiday traditions? Share your ideas or links below!

A Tale of Two Mall Trips

Mall Trip #1: The boy, the baby, and the mama.

The baby sleeps.

The boy skips along cheerfully beside me. Occasionally has to be reminded to watch where he's going. Asks for things, accepts the no without complaint, thanks me repeatedly for the Lego MiniFig I buy him.

Return home, make labour-intensive supper, happy happy joy joy.


Mall Trip #2: The boy, the toddler, the baby, and the mama.

The baby sleeps.

The boy skips along cheerfully beside me. Occasionally has to be reminded to watch where he's going. Asks for things, accepts the no without complaint, thanks me repeatedly for the special snack I buy him.

The toddler flops down to the ground, all 30+ pounds of him, for no apparent reason. Does this approximately twenty more times. Misses the toilet both times we stop at the bathroom. Pees all over his pants and boots instead. Thinks that having to hold his mother's hand is an insult to his independence. Tries to pull away every few minutes. Stops walking when he doesn't succeed. Decides today is a good day to start randomly biting his brother. Grabs at things as we walk by. Roars occasionally, for good measure.

Return home after picking up Starbucks, sit down for the next hour, eventually find enough energy to make eggs for dinner. Determine never to take the toddler to the mall again.


In short: It gets easier.

And then the next baby becomes a toddler.

Also, I'm exhausted.

Weekend Reading

A Lovable Feast @ Elizabeth Esther

Here’s what I’m sensing: Christians are living a Great Divorce. Our parents – Protestant & Catholic – divorced hundreds of years ago and we, their children, have been picking up the broken pieces.

It’s time, I think, to remember what we already are: we are ONE in Christ.

...love conquers all. All of our divisions, all of our brokenness, all of our defenses, all of our walls. Love unites. Love heals.

It’s time for us to feast on this love.

Love and marriage @ The Not-Ever-Still Life

"So the steps of getting married are to find someone you love who loves you back just as much and then to throw up and see what happens?"

"Pretty much, yes."

Storms and Half-Truths @ Living Free

Looking back, I realize that she only shared half the story. She shared the bad news, without proclaiming the good. Yes, all of those things are true. God is just, and right, and holy. We do need that spotless righteousness to replace our sinful, dirty rags. The best part of the story was missing--she left out the God-made-man that took the sins of the world and the whole of our punishment on His back.

God is gracious, and kind, and good. As we encounter those who have hard living written from head to foot, let's share the wild grace of God unabashedly. Let's share it just as enthusiastically with those who hide their scars well. Don't let the voices telling the half-truths carry the narrative. Let's tell the whole story.

Panicking About Preschool @ Christian Unschooling

No lessons, no practice or pressure on our part. No fancy printable tracing letters from a fancy printable preschool website. He’s just a sponge. Who took the time to learn his own name because he wants to, because it’s his name and he takes pride in it and he enjoys learning new things. Not because we doll it up and make it fun for him.

Just because the real reward in learning is the unpressured joy in learning itself.

Don’t let the pressure of mastering the basics stress you out. Preschoolers eat and breathe the basics. If you create an environment of creativity and availability your preschooler will pick up the skills they need simply by living.

Entertaining Angels Unaware: Serving the little angels in my home @ I Take Joy

It is not the indoctrination of theology forced down daily that crafts a soul that believes, it is the serving and loving and giving that surrounds the messages where souls are reached.

A truth, without love and grace, is a truth that is rejected, because Jesus’ words without Jesus becoming the servant king who washed feet and fed thousands and took children into His arms, would not be God incarnated.

These hands

It's the end of the day and I rub aloe into my dry hands.

And is it any wonder. These hands endure being washed after every diaper change, every bathroom trip, every request for Mommy, come wipe me! They change the cat litter, clean up accidents, and scrub down the toilet. They spend an inordinate amount of time far too near someone else's bodily waste. More soap, more water.

These hands hold the broom, the vacuum, the rag. They wash dishes in hot soapy water. They do laundry - sort, carry, transfer, fold - and then put clothes and towels in their respective places, begin again, never ending.

These hands stir soups and knead dough and chop vegetables. They endure burns and cuts in their effort to fill and nourish. Yesterday I slipped while dicing the squash; the dark red blood ran down my finger as I fumbled with the bandage.

These hands wipe messy faces and wash sticky hands. They bathe and dry and clothe. They fix owies and wipe noses, pull warm blankets over sleeping children.

These hands turn pages in books, type words onto the screen, write down scribbles - grocery lists, reminders, little things. They write letters to loved ones, press a stamp onto the corner and drop them in red mailboxes.

These hands lift tiny babies and growing toddlers and big boys. They stroke hair, cup chins, rub backs. They cradle and soothe and comfort and love.

Come evening, these hands wash away the day's troubles. They bring cool water to my lips, satisfy my physical thirst, then open God's Word and satisfy another thirst entirely.

They nurture myself, my family, others, my home.

It's the end of the day and these dry hands? They have earned their aloe.

In the quiet of the evening

This place became my evening home in the days after she was born. I rested in here with water and food, books and music, blanket and laptop, tiny baby at my breast. The soft blue walls were soothing, the bed comfortable, and sometimes I think I could stay in this peaceful room forever.

It's been twelve weeks and each evening is the same. The boys go to sleep - sometimes I sit with them, sometimes their daddy does - and then I settle myself in for a quiet evening. Laptop, tea, dim lamp. Exhale. Peace.

Baby girl nurses for a while. I catch her eye and she pauses to grin back at me. (Why do these beautiful moments bring with them an unexplainable ache? So perfect it hurts. I don't know.) We coo at each other when she's done. She giggles now, did I tell you? I lean forward and kiss her cheek, nuzzle her chin - deep inhale - and for now there is no one else in the world aside from us.

Eventually her giggles turn to small cries. I change her diaper, give her one last kiss, then lay her on her side of the bed. She calms beneath the warmth and weight of her grandma-knit blanket. One hand grasps the blanket's edge; the other works its way towards her mouth, our first bona fide thumb sucker. Minutes later, she breathes the soft rhythm of sleep.

I watch her from the other side of our bed. The rest of the evening is mine. I wander through my favourite online sites, read the words others have written. Sometimes I add my own; sometimes I keep silent, wondering what I have to offer amidst all these other voices. Some nights demand the mindlessness of a movie or the escapism of a book. Music, tea, hot chocolate. Laundry. Work, tickmarks on the unending to-do list. It doesn't matter just as long as I can sit here in the quiet of the evening, surrounded by these soothing blue walls. My evening home.

Just writing along with The EO...

Breathing it in

I skipped summer this year.

Too pregnant, too sore, too tired, and then a new baby, that tiny precious girl who so utterly captivated me. It was good but somehow summer slipped quietly by in the background.

Now it's fall and I'm getting my bearings again. Has it been eleven weeks already? But it's a beautiful fall. The Japanese Maple has burst into bright red outside our door and the grass is carpeted in its jeweled leaves. The air is so very perfect, crisp and cool and pure delight to breathe in.

We spent two hours at the park this afternoon and it felt good. It feels good to walk.

It feels good to leave behind the not so loud's and not so fast's and just let them run, wild boys out there in the open.

It feels good to leave behind the computer, the heaviness of watching too much anger and criticism fly back and forth and would we ever say these things in person, do we forget the reality of people on the other side of those screens? If only we could all sit down together, have tea in pretty cups, see eyes and hear hearts and maybe then it would be different, I'm almost certain.

It feels good to leave behind the long list of Things That Must Be Done. Catching up in one area inevitably means falling behind in another. It is blessing, all of it, this home and its demands, acts of worship all of them, but some days it all begins to feel like burden instead of blessing.

So I go out and I forget, forget unswept floors and harsh written words and too much noise. Everything feels lighter out there. I miss the warmth of summer sunshine and the dense bright green everywhere, but I embrace instead the smell of fall and the impossibly colourful mosaic of leaves under my feet and I declare along with the Creator that it is indeed good, praise Him always.

We return home chilled, warm up with mugs of hot chocolate and if we're lucky we top it off with a handful of marshmallows.

We may have missed summer this year, but we're breathing in every moment of this beautiful fall.

Just writing along with The EO...