merry christmas!

Last week was a crazy one for me.  A few hours after posting all of my lofty goals for St. Lucia day, the tickle in my throat turned into something serious.  I was in bed 4 out of 7 days last week.  And I'm still not 100%.  Bronchitis my friends.

However, I am so thankful that I was able to read to my children at bedtime last night.  That I was able to get up early this morning and put the nuts on to dehydrate.  That we can celebrate winter solstice tonight with toasty, mama made pajamas.  And toasty marshmallows!  That I can go out to lunch with my family today to celebrate my birthday (just 3 days early!).  That I can celebrate Christmas with my extended family (and hopefully only need a limited number of naps to get through it).

There are still oat baths to be made, chocolate bark to melt down and sibling gifts to finish up.  We are having such fun getting done what we can and leaving out the things we can't.  Being in bed all last week gave me lots of time to embroider (I'll share next week how embroidery- and Maya Made-  saved Christmas this year) and watch streamed episodes of 'Bones'.  The only things I missed while I was in bed were my family.  What a wonderful opportunity to put things in perspective for me, in this week before Christmas.

Now that I've marked some things off my list that didn't really matter anyway,  I'm ready to contemplate, and celebrate, Emmanuel.

God with us.

Merry Christmas my friends!

st. lucia day

We have been having lots of fun this month studying about Christmas traditions from around the world.  Last week we observed St. Nicholas Day as we were studying the Czech Republic.  We read about the real St. Nick and the children left their shoes out for goodies.  They woke up to chocolate coins and a little mama and daddy made notebook.
Today is the Swedish celebration of St. Lucia Day.  I remember learning about St. Lucia as a child.  I have always loved the story.  And I'm a tad bit obsessed with Scandinavian culture as it is, so this is a fun one (for me) to observe!  Today we will be making St. Lucia rolls and perhaps some Dalahast ornaments.  I also have visions of Moonpie in a little lighted wreath around her head- we'll see how that goes!

In celebration of St. Lucia day (ok- not really), we went to IKEA on Saturday.  We bought something HUGE that I can't wait to show you!

This is how I rode the whole way home from Austin.  That sucker went all the way to the back of the car!  John and the children were on the other side.  We had a lot of conversations like this "Oh guys!  Check out that _________!!!"  To which they would respond "Where?  Where?"  To which I would respond "Oh, never mind."  It was such a lonely way to travel the almost 2 hours back home.  At first.  Then I discovered that it was almost a mini-vacay!  I got to play Tetris on John's phone and wasn't interrupted even once!  Can you imagine?  I couldn't even pass a snack back!  Oh- and I may have gotten to level 13- just in case you were wondering.

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if you'd like to see a blogger with some lovely St. Lucia day ideas, check here.

fundraiser update

Woo-hoo!  With just one week under our belts we have raised $100 in our adoption fundraiser!  Thank you so much for your generosity and support!

To answer some questions:

• we are adopting domestically- from East Texas to be exact!
• we are most likely going to be placed with an infant ( because that is what our agency generally places) but we are open to a child up to age 2.  By state law, we cannot adopt a child over age 2 because of the size of our home.  I know...
• the agency we have chosen places very few babies a year- we are ok with that.
• the agency we have chosen is first and foremost in the business of orphan prevention (we love this!  this is where our hearts are!).  They counsel and train their mamas to be good parents.  If the mamas still choose to surrender their rights, they have the adoption program in place.

If you have some last minute Christmas gifts to get, please check out our store page for some awesome fair trade, organic coffee!

and again- thank you so, so, so much!  It is a true gift to be able to share this process with so many wonderful people!

sweet little m

I have a new niece.  My very first niece!  She was born on Monday after putting my brave, rock star of a woman sister-in-law in labor for 27 hours.  About 21 of those were experienced at home with no medication.  Is she incredible or what?  The birth was a planned home birth, but as with most 'plans' things changed and she ended up being delivered in the hospital.

Here's Moonpie meeting her first girl cousin.  I wish you could hear what Moonpie was whispering to her. So precious.

Me and my perfect, new 9lb 8oz niece!

On Sunday morning after my SIL's water broke I began working on a little gift for the sweet one.  I sewed up Lucy's Kimono out of Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross.  My most used sewing pattern book of all time!  I didn't get any good pictures of it at home, but snapped some in the car on the way to the hospital.  This is made out of Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks voile.  So buttery soft!

Buddy saying "don't get my face, ok?"  Umm... ok.

I wish I had a picture of the taggy blanket Moonpie sewed up on her machine.  She did a really great job on it.  She also found a huge rock and polished it up.  When we got to the hospital she pulled it out and handed it to her aunt.  She explained that babies are the greatest treasure ever, so she wanted to give her a treasure (the rock) to remember that by.  That girl...

hope

I love this season of Advent.  I look forward to it all year.  I love the quietness and the reflection of it while we focus on the waiting.
Even though I think about Advent as the year goes through, it always catches me by surprise!  We knew Advent was starting last Sunday, but we didn't get around to observing the first night until last night.
If you haven't started, do so tonight!  Don't let beginning late cause you not to join in.  It is such a blessing. A beautiful celebration of the first coming of Christ and the anticipation of His return.

Isaiah 11:1-10

The Branch From Jesse

 ¹ A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; 

   from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 

² The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— 

   the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, 

   the Spirit of counsel and of might, 

   the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD— 

³ and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.

   He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, 

   or decide by what he hears with his ears; 

⁴ but with righteousness he will judge the needy, 

   with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. 

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; 

   with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. 

⁵ Righteousness will be his belt 

   and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

 ⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb, 

   the leopard will lie down with the goat, 

the calf and the lion and the yearling^[a] together; 

   and a little child will lead them. 

⁷ The cow will feed with the bear, 

   their young will lie down together, 

   and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 

⁸ The infant will play near the cobra’s den, 

   the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. 

⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy 

   on all my holy mountain, 

for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD 

   as the waters cover the sea.

 ¹⁰ In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.