Oh, before I go...
I finally uploaded some pics from the snow we had a couple of weeks ago.
**Note: the Amazing Valerie told me how to shrink these pics to keep from messing up my sidebar. To view the full-size picture, just click it.**


Snowy morning - taken from our back porch.





View from the front porch.





The Amazing Snowman - he was nearly seven feet tall!





Our kitty, Ghost. Of course, when seen against the snow it seems his name should be Dirt, but when he first came to us he would only come at night, and his blonde fur made him look ghosty, hence the name.

Christmas break
It's not like this'll make a big difference since my blogging has been so sparse the last month...

We finally got our shipment of household goods two days before we went out of town for Thanksgiving, so I'm moving into our house again, moving furniture and stuff around. Trying to figure how to fit a family of nine into a house that was not built for such a large family with our always-at-home lifestyle is quite a challenge. In our last house we had one room that doubled as a dining room/library and I was able to put most of our books in that room. I don't have that here so I'm brainstorming for ideas - any help would be greatly appreciated!

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Here's a bit of fun:
How common is your surname in America?
Mine is ranked at 18558, and my maiden name is 2059.
(From the Deputy Head Mistress at The Common Room)

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This week I'm thankful for:
Margaret, who visited me last week
Valerie who visited me this week
and my parents who will be visiting me next week!

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Merry Christmas to all my blog buddies - may the Lord bless you all and your families this joyous season.

Thankful Thursday
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (I Thessalonians 5:18)

I'm thankful for my dear little potty-training two year old even though she stopped up my toilet.
I'm thankful for our furnace even though it broke early this week and the repairman won't be here until some time today.
I'm thankful that our good God commands us to give thanks even when we don't feel like it.

I'm thankful for my fifteen year old son, who's outside in the snow chopping wood for us right now.
I'm thankful for my four little ones who are standing in the window watching their brother and cheering him on.
I'm thankful for my thirteen year old daughter who was up before I was this morning, working on her Latin.

I'm thankful for my hard-working husband who took yesterday off work to fix the furnace and the toilet but was seemingly thwarted at every turn - his provision for us is wonderful even when circumstances make it difficult.
I'm thankful for my loving husband who enjoys surprising us with chocolate treats.
I'm thankful for my God-fearing husband who leads us in prayers, morning and evening, most days of the week.

Thankful Thursday
I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. (Psalm 18:1-2)

Remembering the Lord's goodness, and thanking him...
For Psalm 18, which we read in Morning Prayers this morning
For a bright, sunshiny, wintry morning
For a warm, cozy house

SNOW!
This is amazing - I haven't seen snow before Christmas in ages.

I think I'll go make some hot chocolate to celebrate, which I usually do on the first Really Cold day of winter since we don't usually live in a place where we can expect snow every winter.

Do you have a tradition for the first snow?

Johnny
I was two years and eleven days old when my brother was born. I still remember going to the hospital to bring him and Mommy home – hospitals kept new mothers for a week back then and they didn’t let siblings in for visits, so my first view of my baby brother was from the back seat of our car. My mom was holding him in the front seat and I still remember leaning over to see him and jumping up and down in the seat, singing, “We have a baby! We have a baby!”

I remember “reading” books to him – my favorite was Miss Suzy and we have a picture of us on the couch together, the newborn Johnny propped against me while I read the story to him and showed him all the pictures.

When we were little it seems like we did everything together – our two favorite play-places were Mommy’s linen closet and the woods behind our house. Daddy built a fort for us just within the tree line and we played there or explored the woods, or played in the creek. One whole summer was occupied with panning for gold in that creek, and another with digging out the little puddle under the tiny waterfall to make a swimming hole. It never got more than a foot deep or so, but it was glorious.

We climbed the oak tree in the back yard and named the different branches – one was the living room, another the kitchen, and we each had our own special branch for a bedroom. The ancient mimosa tree in the front yard was especially interesting. Its trunk split in two fairly low to the ground and the upper part of the tree had a definite left side and right side. The left side was mine because it was sturdier and easier to climb. Johnny was fearless so he owned the right side and climbed so high that the limbs swayed up and down with him.

On rainy days we would take all the pillows in the house and make a border around my full-size bed, then bring all of the stuffed animals into the ark with us to ride out the storm. I don't think we ever made it, though. It seems our boat always sank as sitting and waiting for the rain to end did not appeal to the little ball of energy that was my brother - he'd rather play the part of a whirlwind than of Noah.

Every once in a while Daddy would bring home a refrigerator-sized cardboard box for us to play in. I always wanted to play house in it, and Daddy would cut a flap for a door and openings for windows and then I would draw curtains around the windows and Johnny would get all the dolls and stuffed animals to populate the house with. But after a couple of hours of quiet domestic play, my energetic brother would decide that something was going dreadfully wrong and this meant that Superman would come crashing through the wall of my lovely little cottage to rescue some doll or other. Those boxes never lasted more than two days or so.

When we were older we played kick-ball and kill-the-man with the neighborhood boys, who always came to our yard to play. We rode our bikes all over our neighborhood, but the best part was the hill in front of our house. Johnny built a ramp near the base of it and we would fly down that hill and hit the ramp, pretending to be Evel Knievel.

At night, after we went to bed, Mommy would take requests and play the piano for us. I always wanted Chopin's waltzes and my favorite was the one that starts with a long trill. Johnny preferred the Carpenters and this difference grew with us. In our teen years I still preferred classical music and Sandi Patti and Johnny preferred AD/DC.

Of course, we also fought like cats and dogs, especially as we got older. Two and a half months before my 13th birthday and Johnny’s 11th our baby sister was born. We’d always hoped to have more brothers and sisters and when this little one was announced we had many arguments over whether it would be a boy or a girl. Naturally I wanted a girl and Johnny wanted a boy, and when Anne Marie was born I felt like she was especially mine and I didn’t want Johnny to play with her. So we fought over her.

When I was about nineteen or twenty we made up and quit fighting, but I really regret those early adolescent years when it seemed we’d forgotten how much we loved each other. We never had much time together after that. I went off to college when I was twenty and married when I was twenty-two, moving to Biloxi with my Air Force husband the day after our wedding. I only saw Johnny four times after my marriage – in the spring of 1988 when he and Mom and Anne Marie came to Biloxi to visit us for a few days, again on Father’s Day weekend when I drove home to be with Daddy and the family, on Christmas of that year when Mike and I spent several days there, and when our first baby was three months old when he and Mom and sister came for a visit. On my birthday of that year, he called to tell me happy birthday and we talked a bit, and I told him I’d call him on his birthday. We said “I love you,” and hung up. Seven days later, on the second of December, Daddy called to tell me that Johnny had died.

I still miss him terribly. I miss saying, "Remember when we used to...?" All my childhood memories are me-and-Johnny memories. But I rejoice to know that he fought the good fight, and in God’s sovereign timing, he finished the course, having kept the faith. I look forward to the Resurrection with hope.

Thankful Thursday
Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD. (Psalm 150)

I am thankful for my daughter's piano teacher. Mrs. R. is our church's organist and choirmaster and regularly puts on cantatas and huge musical productions. She's gifted musically, and she has such a sweet spirit - she is always cheerful and pleasant to be around and she's such an encourager. My daughter only started taking piano this fall and I'm sure much of the reason she's progressed so quickly is Mrs. R.'s encouragement.

I'm thankful for my own piano teacher, Mrs. McG., who taught me when I was in high school, for many of the reasons listed above - she was an encourager, which is what I needed most then. Though I would never take the trouble of practicing she's the reason I'm able to play hymns for my family to sing along with.

I'm so thankful for my mom, another gifted church musician. When I was a little girl, my mom would play the piano for us after we went to bed, and her influence is why I love music so much. She has been the organist at her church for the past several years, playing at two services each Sunday. Oh, and when I say "gifted" I'm not just being polite. I mentioned in relation to Mike's retirement ceremony that we were unable to hire the musicians we'd hoped to, so I told Mike, "Don't worry about it, I'll ask my mom to play." Well, silly me, I forgot to ask her. On the day of his retirement, about two hours before we left, I suddenly remembered. "Oh! Mom, we need to play 'Off We Go Into the Wild, Blue Yonder,' and 'The Star Spangled Banner.'" "Sure thing," she replied, or words to that effect, and pulled it off marvelously, without music or practicing or anything.

Books read in 2005
What with Mike's retirement from the Air Force and moving and everything, my reading-for-pleasure was pretty limited this year, and I never kept up with my sidebar. I wish I'd kept a list somewhere, but since I didn't I'll just list all the books I read that I can remember.

*Denotes book read for the first time.

- all the Harry Potter books*
- all of Jane Austen's completed novels (for the dozenth time or something)
- P.G. Wodehouse: Leave it to Psmith, Fish Preferred*, The Cat-Nappers
- C.S. Lewis: Chronicles of Narnia (except for The Last Battle), Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, and The Dark Tower and Other Stories
- Neil Postman: Amusing Ourselves to Death*
- Peter Leithart: Miniatures and Morals, Against Christianity*, A House for My Name*
- G.K. Chesterton: Orthodoxy
- Susan Hunt: Your Home: A Place of Grace*
- Shirley Seifert: The Proud Way* (biographical fiction about Mrs. Jefferson Davis - gift from Valerie)
- George MacDonald: The Light Princess and Other Fantasy Stories
- John Buchan: The Thirty-Nine Steps*
- Sally Fallon: Nourishing Traditions*
- John Lee, MD, and Jesse Hanley, MD: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Premenopause*

Seems like I read more than that - oh well, maybe they'll come to me later.
:-p

Advent

Last year I posted some thoughts on Advent (here, here, and here) but since we're still growing in our understanding and practice, I thought it would be worthwhile to add what we've learned since last year (and I cannot believe it's already been a whole year!).

We've celebrated Advent since our oldest was a baby, and really, our Advent season was a fairly bright, Christmassy feeling time - lots of Christmas music playing all the time, tree going up right after Thanksgiving, house being decorated shortly thereafter, and then suddenly, everything came to an end on Christmas day. I'd had the decorations up so long and the once-fresh tree was now dropping needles so profusely, that I usually undecorated the house before New Years Day, though we usually left the house lights on at night until New Years Eve because I didn't like the sudden anti-climax.

Two years ago, we decided to tone down Advent, which we had learned was the more tradition way of keeping it anyway. No Christmas music, no decorations until just a day or two before Christmas, and the tree went up and was decorated on Christmas Eve after the little ones were in bed. Instead of the month-long Christmas ending at Christmas Day, we decided to have twelve days of Christmas, ending with Epiphany. Now this is probably not as lavish a celebration as it might sound like - our kids get lots of books for Christmas from us, and some clothes and a few toys from grandparents, so we spread out the opening of presents over the twelve days, and to make the gifts last the whole time, several days their present is chocolate.

Last year around the middle of Advent I asked our oldest daughter what she thought of the new way we were celebrating and she said that it just didn't feel much like Christmas. I told her that it's not really supposed to feel like Christmas until Christmas actually comes, but I've been thinking about her comment since then, and I've decided that what was lacking was a keen sense of anticipation that borders on, and sometimes crosses over to, excitement. So we're trying to work on that - to add it back in. Although I think Advent should feel different than the rest of the year, and different from Christmas, I really don't want the season leading up to Christmas to be dull and dreary.

One of the things I think I should do is to let the various kids help me with picking out presents for their siblings and wrapping and hiding them. That's going to be a real no-brainer for most of you, I'm sure, but I... I have a confession to make: I hate shopping. Normally I do all of my Christmas shopping online, but I really think I should take the kids out, one or two at a time, and either let them help me pick out presents for one another and for Daddy and grandparents, or just give them each a little money to spend on someone else. Mike already does this a little bit, but obviously his time is far more limited than mine is.

I have another confession to make: I'm not very crafty - shocking, I know, coming from a Pseudo-Prairie Muffin, but it gets worse. I don't like cooking or doing art projects with children.

However, my children love all this and I think I really should just do it with them, and smile and have a good time if nothing else, enjoying their pleasure. I know I can do this because it's what I do whenever I have a social engagement I must attend - smile and pretend I'm enjoying myself - and if I can do it for outsiders, surely I can do it for my kids, right?

Anyway, Valerie taught me and the girls to crochet when she was here this summer, and I've been working on an afghan for Mike's grandmother, which I should have done by the end of this week. I need to figure out some other projects like this that the kids and I can do together. We need to bake cookies and give them away.

Jeepers, this post has turned into some kind of confessional. I did NOT mean for that to happen, but oh well. I think I'll leave it. Y'all pray for me, okay?

And a blessed Advent season to you all, as you seek to glorify God and enjoy him with your families!

Interesting little game
from Gideon Strauss

1. Take a book from your shelves with more than 200 pages.
2. Find some real person's name there.
3. Find out his or her date of birth.
4. Find someone else born on the same day.
5. State a connection between this person and yourself.

The Hidden Treasure of Glaston, by Eleanore M. Jewett. I wanted to do Thomas Becket, but couldn't find his exact birthdate. King Henry II was born on the Fifth of March in the year of our Lord 1133. Born on that date in the year 1853 was author and illustrator Howard Pyle. My maiden name was Pyle.