december: a memoir

going through these photos and putting together the events of december just now was fun for me.  what a great month!  at the time it seemed so full and fast... I heartily recommend reconstructing months 2 months later.  :)

we attempted to observe advent at the house this year.  I have no memory of learning about advent growing up, but in recent years more and more people have used the word around me, as though I should know what it means/is.  I subscribe to a blog by a mom/former children's minister who wrote a pre-school advent curriculum called Truth in the Tinsel, so I paid the $7 to download the ebook and give it a whirl.  even though Maggie is probably a little young to 'get' some of it or do many of the crafts herself, it was a totally worthwhile undertaking and we'll definitely be doing it next year.  essentially, you get a clue every day, read from the bible, and then do a small ornament craft while talking about the story.

my grandma gave me this nativity scene years ago, and it lived beside our advent activity box.  I loved that Maggie liked to play with the figures that have come loose (the wise men and shepherd lost their glue some time ago):

the young artist at work, first time watercoloring and really liking it:

here's a gallery of some of the ornaments, beginning with Zechariah:

mary and jo-fus:

'Jesus is the light', and joseph's pillow:

a crown signifying that Jesus is the prince of peace (which made maggie declare that she was the princess peace) and the names of Jesus and our family:

mary and elizabeth:

a bejewelled cd for 'mary's song', and the angel gabriel:

jerusalem:

Jesus will be like 'the rising sun', said Zechariah...

see the sheep over there?  and there's the manger...

a choir of angels... these are mgb's creations:

this was the lesson on the census, which wasn't so easy to conceptualize to my 2 year old... you can't see them, but there are 2 white stones in there to symbolize mary and joseph in crowded bethlehem:

our homemade ornaments, along with a few special ones for the girls and a smattering of ones given to us by friends, were the extent of our tree decorations this year, and we really liked it.

maggie's friend E had a birthday party!  we're so thankful this family has moved to town and chosen to hang out with us at SWC:

our dear, dear friends got engaged!  this is at the surprise celebratory dinner following the surprise proposal:  

our cantada at church:

eli turned 1:

movie night!

an at-home photo shoot.  someday, I'll pay to have photos taken, I really will:

at work.  I preemptively took the month off from recording audio books, which just left regular other stuff.  it was a good choice - december wasn't too crazy and I gained more time with the girls at home.

waiting in line to see santa:

maggie's first exposure to jello:

carrying gerald around in a sling... and though I was proud of my felt christmas tree, maggie was just moderately interested in playing with it.  maybe it'll rock her next year.

 at the koffee kup in hico, riding yaya's wheels with momo... in general, I didn't get nearly enough photos while we were there:

cousins reading:

on the way home, we stopped to regroup.

maggie got sick while we were in hico and while she did pretty well, all things considered, she sacked out on the way home:

then it was round 2 at our house:

 ruby started getting sick, so this was her christmas afternoon:

our ancient gas stove finally gave up the ghost, so the m.v.p. of christmas 2013 is this guy... meet our new fancy oven! (courtesy of Sears scratch & dent):

 I just included this photo because it looks like I felt... content and tired.  

and I include this one because I remember this day very well.  mgb and I went to see the final twilight movie, then went for burgers at stanton's city bites, then went to the hospital to say goodbye to miss mary ann... which turned out to be a huge blessing and an experience/lesson I'm grateful to have had.

and here we are at the end of the month.

 thanks, 2012.  I'm way too day-to-day, week-to-week to consider in what ways I was changed by you, but right now I'll choose thankfulness for all of it.

happy new year!

 -m.y.

first post of 2013

A friend posted a 'current favorite things'ish blog today that made me want to come out of the dark, baby-scented, sippy cup strewn cave I've been in the past couple of months.  So here goes!

Under Female Artists, I nominate Katie Herzig for some awesome award, because I find this album to be enchanting and kinda funky and sometimes epic.  Here's a link to listen to stuff.

Under Asian Male Artists, the Golden Loop-de-Loop goes to Kishi Bashi (album is soooo good, he's very Andrew Bird-like in creating his own loops and such):

For Best Canadian Sisters, Tegan and Sara for Most Like a Real 80's Dance Party Except Better:

We saw Jeff Mangum, of Neutral Milk Hotel, at the Wortham last week.  The guy made some music back in the 90's, and then sort of disappeared, hermit-like, popping up here and there to jam with other members of his musical collective and then disappear into the night.  MGB tells me this album wasn't paid much attention to at first... with the passing of time, though, critics and such began to see the singular magic it had to offer.  The other night it was just he and his guitar, and the opportunity to sing along with this song (and try to vocalize the theremin part) was pretty magical.

non-musical good things

steel cut oats

MGB and I are participating in a fitness challenge with each other.   we're kinda sorta competing, but that's mostly manifesting in me thinking of MGB and choosing to avoid that impulse Almond Joy at the checkout.  I'm suddenly not even sure what's at stake, really, for winners and losers, except that it's fun and good for us.  I think breakfast is making a big difference, and I renewed my friendship with steel cut oats this week (easy to buy them in bulk at Central Market).  the bonus is that if you have some left over (which I almost always do) and pop them in the fridge, it's a great cold treat for when I get hungry at 9:30 at night, sort of like a good-for-you rice pudding.  using our electric kettle cuts the cooking time for me.  I've tried both honey and agave nectar as a sweetener, and I think I prefer the agave.  my other big eating strategies are to avoid most fast food, say no to soda, eat something every few hours, drink more water, and eat clean, whole foods as much as possible.  and then, I'mna try to move my body more.  mind-blowing stuff, I know.

other general good things:  we're all sleeping more after everybody being sick after the holidays.  praise Him.  I'm registering Magz for pre-school this week.  hubz and I are netflixing The West Wing and are thoroughly enjoying it.  Ruby is army crawling.  I bought some stuff to give our home organization department a makeover, woo-hoo!  I'm hoping this year there's room to let go of some things that are pinching, and make more space for self and family care.

catching up on photos... here's a snapshot of November:

the girls have their names on banners that hang across their closets... I came home from work one day to find this.  it's awesome and it's still hanging there.

ruby's blessing, and lunch after.

first experiment with pigtails.

4 mo. doctor visit.

mgb and I saw Tilly & the Wall!  see the tap dancer up there in back?

curls.

 sisters.

galleria playdate with friends.

'lollipop'.

thanksgiving @ the ranch.

just because I love it.

something you learn about yourself when you take a sabbatical of sorts from a keyboard (and really haven't opened your computer much at all because the iPhone is just so handy).....

you forget how to type.

seriously, this has taken me twice as long as it should because I'm having to go back and retype every other word.  case in point, I just had to edit 'hafing' and 'wort' in that last sentence, and that was just at the end.

oh well.

-m.y.