the lost winter

I had technical difficulties. Technically my camera landed in my coat pocket. Technically I couldn't remember ever putting said camera in said pocket. And so over a month goes by without any new entries. Now, however, two days after convincing my loving spouse that I needed a new camera, old camera is located when a child bumps his head on it in the coat closet. Loving husband has generously told me I can keep the new camera for me, and let the boys use the old one, with lots of supervision. We are all, except perhaps loving husband, super pleased with the outcome of these events.

Icy weather in January, photo taken with old camera:

Snowy photo taken in February with new camera:

morning pondering

"For Christianity is a fighting religion. It thinks God made the world -- that space and time, heat and cold, and all the colours and tastes, and all the animals and vegetables, are things that God 'made up out of His head' as a man makes up a story. But it also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again.

--from Mere Christianity

as quoted in A Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works

Wordless Wednesday

Advent Doings

Wordless Wednesday

First Frost

brief snow flurries yesterday...head colds...first frost this morning

Where Did November Go??

Well, I guess we were busy in November, and I completely failed to post anything here. November is always packed, with two birthdays, two weeks apart, followed very shortly by Thanksgiving.

The birthday celebrations went well. Our family rule, suggested by a very wise friend a few years ago, is that a child only gets a party on an even number birthday year. With boys five years apart, and birthdays separated by only two weeks, this greatly improved my sanity when we implemented it. Before, with two parties, separate celebrations for homeschool and public school friends, and all the accompanying hoopla, I was not exactly joyful about the preparations by the end of November. Having them alternate the year that they have a party also helped slow down the toy accumulation.

This year it was the older child's turn, and he had a great time at a local laser tag venue. Up until last year, all the boys' parties were home or park parties. I'm glad we were able to give them a memory of a "fancy" party, (I still remember my McDonald's party when I was a little girl) I'll be glad to get back to our outdoor, homestyle parties next year.

On a year when a child doesn't have a party, he gets to go somewhere special with one friend. Younger child had a great time on his special day, and got to be included at his brother's "big kids only" party.

The boys' birthday weeks are quickly followed by Thanksgiving. Even though it's after the fact, I've added a list of some of our favorite Thanksgiving books to the side. While I often don't get organized enough to fully incorporate all the seasons and holidays of either the natural or church calendar, I love to try and have seasonal picture books available for us to peruse, and try to do some kind of coordinated baking or craft.

This year, per the younger boy's request, I made the cranberry bread recipe from our favorite Thanksgiving book, Cranberry Thanksgiving. Until preparing this post, I had no idea how expensive copies of this book are, and I feel extra grateful to have acquired one somewhere along the way. The bread was a big hit. As Mr. Whiskers would say, "How about some more?"