Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were both full of worship and love and laughter and so many more words to share but for now here are the last two pictures for this year’s DPP. It was another fun filled adventure and a big thank you to the community that participates and makes it so much fun.
Day 24 ~
Day 25 ~
Seriously, I took the picture on the right day but for some reason my phone and email were not playing nicely and even though I sent it multiple times from both my phone and my husband’s it just actually sent this evening.
The delay in posting the following days was by choice. I took pictures but just figured I would do a catch up post and share the whole last week all at once. So, why am I sharing them now with two official days to go, you ask?
I have no idea except that I am sort of procrastinating other activities like more gift wrapping and Christmas card writing. I will get to all that later, pinky promise! But for now enjoy some DPP eye candy.
Day 20 ~ Date night sushi with friends. That stuff in the middle? So good!
Day 21 ~ I’ve been so busy. With five kids and 12 days of gift giving, even though not every day is an unwrap kind of gift day, plus wrapping for grandparents it’s a lot of wrapping.
Day 22 ~ Right in the midst of all the holiday hoopla and festivities quiet beauty can be found.
Day 23 ~ Claire and I made homemade lemon curd today. Tangy, tart, creamy and smooth…practically perfect.
Deck the halls!
Y’all, it has been one of those days.
Not a bad day but a day where you can’t find your phone absolutely anywhere and your phone line is down for some unknown reason so you facebook your beloved hoping that he will get the message to call you and he does and the phone you couldn’t locate and looked all over the house for is actually on the counter of the bathroom you have been cleaning right in front of you face even though it was under a bag but it was a clear bag kind of day.
The kind of day where you look high and low for your glasses and they are, again, right there in front of your face in their case kind of day.
The kind of day where you go to Walmart to use one of those quick print kiosk machines only it isn’t quick because there is a line so you wait and it’s finally your turn and because you are printing an 8×10 you have to go to the counter to pick it up only to be told they have no idea when it will actually be ready since they are backed up and you still spend forty dollars only to get home and realize that you forgot the shower curtain liner that you went there for in the first place kind of day.
Yup, it’s been that kind of day. But we will be decorating our tree tonight and despite the brief thirty minute interlude spent looking for my phone I got quite a bit of cleaning done. So, like I said, not a bad day at all.
And maybe, just maybe, I can find some time to start this book. Some of you may need to sit down for this but I am not a huge Jane Austen fan. Shocking I know, considering the reformed Christian classical education circles I move it. But there you have it. I find her a bit wordy. (Oh, irony, thou art my friend.)
However, I have a dear friend who has persuaded (Ha, see what I did there?) to read this with her in the hopes of enlightening my poor misguided self. I’m really looking forward to it.
Especially after the day I had today.
Raindrops on roses…or Christmas greenery as they case may be. The heavy fog burned off today and gray skies rolled in. Unfortunately the rain (off and on) hasn’t brought any cooler temperatures with it so far.
But it does make for some excellent raindrops after you set your porch decorations out in the rain for a good watering.
People, look east.
The time is near
of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the guest, is on the way.
~Eleanor Farjeon
It has been a very soggy day. It’s as if all of the rain we’ve been missing lately all came at once. With gusto. And lightening. Boy, has the light show been impressive.
My mother has come down with some sort of bug and needed to be resting today so I got to take my dad to a doctor’s appointment. The days can get so busy tending my kids and all the stuff that comes with life in general that time to visit with my parents apart from the daily phone call doesn’t come easily. While I am not happy my mother is sick it was nice to have to put everything else aside and go spend time with my dad.
I was left alone in the examination room for a few minutes while they took him back for an x-ray. While I was holding his things I breathed in the familiar scent that is my father. I can’t describe it really. It’s a mix of him, his aftershave, the laundry detergent my mother uses, and just their house, their smell. It’s the smell of comfort.
My parents are getting older. They’re having to adjust to a new season of life and it’s one that I imagine is kind of uncomfortable. Limitations and the reality of not being able to keep doing all the things they’ve always done they way they’ve done them is not a whole lot of fun. Not wanting to be a burden on me and my sisters also weighs on them.
But as I buried my nose in my Dad’s vest and smelled deeply the smell that is him, I realized what a privilege it is to care for our parents as they grow older. And, more importantly, I wish for them to see it as an honor. My Dad has earned every ache and pain he feels now because for years his body has faithfully done what he asked of it whether it was jumping 255 times out of an airplane with the 82nd airborne division during his time in Vietnam, or slinging a hammer or any of the other physical labor he did most of our lives to provide for our family. My Mother is moving slower but all of my life I have seen her go from one act of service to another, always helping wherever there was a need.
My parents are still pretty young. There is still much that God has for them to do. But they also will be learning the art of receiving gracefully that which they have always been the ones to do. And while there are some small things that are changing it’s not like it’s anything too drastic. But there is change happening and probably more in the years ahead.
So to my precious parents I say, you may not like this new season of life…you may find the limitations a great big pain in your backside…you may be frustrated by needing help when before you didn’t. But trust me when I tell you that we, and I know I speak for all of us girls, are beyond thankful that God has given you to us and it is our great joy to love you and do things for you.
It’s how you raised us. So, please don’t begrudge our obedience to what you taught us as we seek to show you the honor due you as our parents. Honestly, we don’t mind.
This kid.
Oh, my goodness does he make me smile. He is so full of exuberance and life. He didn’t ask to be on the running team. He asked if he could retire after his first race. He tells his coach that he is going to be too busy next year to run.
But he puts in his miles faithfully each week without complaint and without being told he needs to do it. And he is quick to encourage his teammates to keep going and not give up. (Which is really funny because in the beginning right in the middle of practice he would just decide he was done and stop and walk.)
On race day he is all there. Ready to run, ready to enjoy the pre/post race party.
This morning he bounced into my room, where I was still sleeping thank you very much, and in a very Tigger-esque kind of way free styling his favorite geico commercial, “Guess what day it is, Mom? Guess what day it is?”
Race Day!
He was so proud of his time. His coach had given him a 23 minute goal for the USO Airport run. He came across the finish line at 21:59.
He could have come in faster and slower though as far as I am concerned. I love this boy so much just because of who he is and how he lives his life…so fully and wholeheartedly.
He looks more than just a little like his proud father standing behind him doesn’t he?
For the last eight years or so I have participated in a fun photo challenge each December. I didn’t label the image in yesterday’s post as part of the project but it was the official start of the photo-a-day for the next 25 days.
Today, I did some work at my kid’s school and then finished up by taking some fun pictures of the senior class. That means that I easily shot over a thousand pictures today. (My eyeballs are tired y’all!)
No reason in particular that I choose this one other than I liked the composition. I literally held the camera over their heads and pressed the shutter. It’s of our K5 class excitedly playing a math game dreamed up and developed by their teacher. It has dice to roll and nickles, dimes, and pennies for counting. You should have heard the giggles and seen the little eyes alight with pleasure. They were enjoying their math lesson!
Because over two thousand years ago a baby was born. A star glowed in the sky and angels sang.
The Common Place 