Freezing, weeping, singing

We got our tree today - on the freezingist of days. We always cut our own. But not this time. Too freezing!!

Ruby, the narrator for all our lives (wish you could see the pig-tails under that hat): "Mommy, you told me to wear that scarf-thing and I didn't want to and I didn't wear it and my boot is unzipped on the right foot but not on the left foot and my chin is cold. I should have worn that scarf. And we got a tree last year, or I could say last time, right Mom, because last time is really last year, right?"

We picked a tree fast. I mean fast. They laughed at my giant choice (just joking, of course) but it must have influenced sweet Ruby because our nice little, fits-in-the-house-so-kids-still-fit-to-play-tree was just no good.

She liked another tree better. "I liked it because it was fat. That's why I liked it and I only like it and I don't ever like that other tree in the corner that you bought." But I think she'll like it when we make it twinkle and she gets to put the star on top.

Boys rode home in the truck with Daddy, singing carols the whole way. We were in the "girl van" - we were too busy talking to sing. But that is a good idea to remember for next time.

sing with me

Just downloaded a wonderful collection of hymns from here, thank you to Laura for the introduction!! I was just re-committing to go digging in amblesideonline for the hymn and art schedules - and here's little gift in my lap!! You can download it too, and we can sing together!

hand it over

I just found something marvelous. Oh, woe is us, our economic times, you know, they are just horrible. Yeah? Really? We are so very oooshy-coooshy - we are so very comfy - let us not forget reality. We have all we need - and a government proud to bail us out, should we need it. And all this stuff isn't healing our cancer or healing our hearts. What we really crave is the Healer, not the stuff. Oops, tangent.

Something marvelous: have you ever felt those guilt twinges when you noticed how many Bibles are in your house - the gift Bibles, the past-life Bibles, the 3 different translations you tried thinking you might read it more often.

One of my favorite organizations is Voice of the Martyrs. It's where you are reminded what it means to die to self - to live for Christ - to count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things (Phil 3:8) It's where I'm reminded that people are torn apart (quite literally) in their efforts to keep the living Word of God in their home, even in their memory.

So, for Christmas, get bold and brave - it's even free (as if we needed free) to send your extra, dusty (or even one you keep polished with your early-morning fingers) Sword to someone who desperately yearns for it. You just click on here and fill out their form and the free postage-paid envelope comes ready and addressed to send your Bible to a real person who needs one. Marvelous.

Tuesday Teaparty

OK, well it wasn't really tea. They voted for hot chocolate. And then complained that it didn't have much "flavor". Hmm, maybe because I always skimp on the chocolate.

Isaac told me that at Grandma Sharon's, the chocolate milk is much chocolatey-er, much better. I told him, that's probably right - most things are better at Grandma's!


We ate Grandma Mills no-bake cookies and sipped our cocoa. You can see the perfectly set table, by our hostess Ruby. She also got to do the pouring - needed a new shirt when we were done - but she was delighted with her job. Need to assign someone the job of handwashing all the tea-party dishes next time.

We listened to Peter read from his Poetry book. He recited The Vulture by Hilaire Belloc - a hoot. He re-wrote Ewey-Gooey was a Worm with a new main character - giggles. I read Singing Time by Robert Louis Stevenson - we all giggled more because they know I don't really do what the poem says, even though I claim to (poke my head straight from my morning covers and sing and sing and sing!). And The Wind by Christina Rosetti - perfect illustration - lots of evidence of the unseen wind out our snowy windows.

Tea party rules:
1 Pray before we start - this is something to be so thankful for!
2 Pick something good to recite or read - anybody can pick
3 Have yummy something to eat and tea (or something that's a drink) to drink
4 Use polite rules like "please pass the cookies" and "may I have more to drink" and "that is a nice poem" and "excuse me, I spilled the tea, please pass a napkin"
5 Invite guests to tea (Jim was invited but evidently the deer hunting was too taxing, so he napped through our tea party)
6 Have tea parties on Tuesday because they both start with T.