Okay, this will be a short post.

I have found what I’m cooking tomorrow. There is, afterall, one day left before I have to get serious about what I’m eating.

Salads can wait one more day.

Tomorrow I’m making these:

yum

cinnamon.brown butter. breakfast. puffs.

Go to smitten kitchen and find lots of lovely things to cook.

yep.

Oh, it is that time of year again, isn’t it.  The time to think back over the past year and decide what should be different in the coming year.

New Year’s Resolutions.

Ugh.  I never do well with these.  Yes, I would like to lose weight. About 40 pounds to be exact.  I’ve even joined the gym. But I hate having that as a resolution for the coming year.

It sounds like my resolution is simply to grow up and be more responsible.

That’s not really what I want.

I realized tonight, as Steve is out with the boys to a movie and Madeleine is sleeping, that I cannot remember the last time I had a glass of wine and read a book with candles lit.
Candle light does something for my soul. Something good. As does music.

There has been far too little candlelight and music, and yes wine, this past year.

Don’t get me wrong. The last year has been truly wonderful. The introduction of Madeleine Jane to our lives has brought laughter and delight and marked this year as special.  Still, I have found myself grumpy and stressed more often than need be.

So, my resolution for this coming year to is to be slightly less responsible and mature and to take time to feed my soul.

I truly do mean this. There are things that I have let slide that bring life to who I am. I flourish when I am using my brain, and yet I am lazy by nature and will find that I’ve played an hour of Bejewelled Blitz when I could have spent that hour with L’Engle or Berry or Bonnhoefer or….

So, this year I will read. By candlelight. Often.

I will ignore the laundry on evenings when the house is quiet and I might be able to use my brain in thinking deeply.

I will journal…and write stories in my journals of all the things my children do.

I will try to be less grumpy or stressed.

The major things that I would like to have change in the coming year are things I cannot simply muster up. I so want to be more patient and more loving in general. But I cannot simply “do” that. I need God to change me. More. A lot more.

So, along with candles and books….I want this year to be marked by God. I want to turn my focus to Him more solidly and more consistently. By His grace may this be a year that I know Him more, that I listen more intently and that I am changed to be more like Jesus.

There are so many more things I could add to my list of resolutions…but my candles are burning down and I don’t have much longer before Steve and the boys will be home, so I must go read and indulge in the quiet!

Happy (almost) New Year!!

Thought I would share our Christmas card photo for this year….we were having fun, being a little goofy, but also trying to remind the kids to stay focused.

The card came along with this quotation from G. K. Chesterton:

 All this indescribable thing that we call the Christmas atmosphere only hangs in the air as something like a lingering fragrance or fading vapour from the exultant explosion of that one hour in the Judean hills nearly two thousand years ago.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, filled with exultant explosions of the reality of the Incarnation!!  Merry Christmas

I keep thinking I will come up with something new to say…something that strikes me and makes me think, and hopefully you as well. It hasn’t happened yet.  We went away with Steve’s folks for a few days to a cabin in Gatlinburg. I had this naive thought that I would be able to sit on the porch swing and read some, and maybe even write something…

Well, the time was a little more like this than it was a contemplative moment…

I instead find myself needing to be reminded to pay attention to the season. To slow down. It’s not too late. I know there are still lots of doors on the Advent calendar that are supposed to be open…but there’s time.

There’s still time to slow down and pay attention.

So, friends….here’s a chance.

Every year I love Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God to bring me into focus on the truth of the season. He offers it free on this player and the words to the first song are what I need to hear. Find some quiet place, put on some headphones and shut everything out for a few moments. Listen all the way through…he weaves the story of our Messiah.

He reminds us to listen and pay attention.
He takes us into celebration.

Start here….

Gather ‘round, ye children, come Listen to the old, old story Of the pow’r of death undone By an infant born of glory Son of God, Son of Man Gather ‘round, remember now How creation held its breath How it let out a sigh And it filled up the sky with the angels Son of God, Son of Man

Then go here and hear…

Andrew Peterson Player

It’s not too late. Slow down. Pay attention….and celebrate. ..