Every Week: A Bouquet

 How about this?  How about posting a photo of my dining table bouquet each week?  That'll encourage me to keep the practice of fresh flowers going!

I have two sweet young ladies who help me around the house twice a month.  I hired them, with a twinge of guilt, in January of 2017, because my homeschooling had gotten more intense (with addiing a second child to the mix) and because I was starting to teach two classes at our co-op.  By the end of 2017, I felt no guilt at all: my husband had been diagnosed with cancer, and frankly, I needed all the help I could get.  They've now been coming to my house every other week for seven years. I am endlessly grateful for them. Anyhow, sometime last year they said to me, "we love coming here because it always smells so good" (which made me laugh--it's because they come on one of my "crockpot dinner" days!) "and because we love all your fresh flowers."  Well, that stopped me in my tracks, because I realized I'd not had fresh flowers consistently for quite some time.  But I loved that they associated my home with flower bouquets--that's what I want to hear, because I do really, really love flowers.

There's nothing blooming here yet, but yesterday when I ran to Kroger to pick up antibiotics for Finn (pray for Finn! he just cannot kick this whatever-it-is), I bought a $5 bouquet of baby's breath and a 40-cent markdown bouquet of fern fronds.  In a needs-to-be-polished silver pitcher, my inexpensive bouquet is a good start. 

(The only drawback here is that baby's breath smells terrible, so I do have to move it away from the table when it's time to have a meal!  But that's the price we pay, at least this week, for beauty.)

A bouquet a week.  Stay tuned for more!

Routines to Help Return to Peace

After two years of feeling "off," I am finally starting to re-orient myself to, well, myself! Have you ever gone through times when you're just not living like yourself?  

My father was diagnosed with cancer in January 2022. For the next year (he died in September 2022), I was constantly on the road between Charleston and home, juggling my children's schedules and schooling, and just trying to spend as much time with him as I could.  I knew it was unlikely that he would live even a year past diagnosis, so I worked hard to see him as much as possible.  

In 2023, I was  still trying to regain my equilibrium, but I felt "off."  I gained about ten pounds.  I wasn't reading, I wasn't putting fresh flowers on the table, and I wasn't sleeping on my normal schedule. I wasn't enjoying food, and I wasn't getting enough fresh air. I was finding myself easily distracted and unfocused. 

It was time for a change!

I knew there were things I could not change.  My days are very full, and I spend an inordinate amount of time chauffeuring my children to their various activities.  Although I could force my children to drop their activities, they find a great deal of value and purpose in them, so I'm not changing that. I have decided that the problem is not my children's busy schedules. The problem is me.

Here's what I decided to change:

*I'm sitting down to eat in a mindful way again. I've done that for years, but had gotten out of the habit with our hectic lives in 2022.  This makes a huge difference in the way I feel, in my health, and in my peace!

*I'm moving slowly!  Instead of procrastinating and never rushing, I'm committed to never rushing, which means I cannot procrastinate. ;) 

*Every day I get dressed in a way that makes me happy.  For a while I had slipped into the "leggings and sweatshirt" scenario on my at-home days.  Frankly, if I'm wearing a leggings and sweatshirt, I'm just not that productive.  I'm sure lots of people are productive in those clothes, but I need to be wearing real clothes, my hair fixed, my earrings in, my apron on!

*I'm going to commit to flowers around the house again. I miss this practice--I did it for years!  I realized I fell out of practice (for winter) when I moved to grocery pickup, because I was no longer looking at the flowers at the grocery store each week.  (In the summer? I have no excuse. My yard is full of flowers!) I haven't started this yet, but I shall. 

*I'm embracing routines again.  I get up at the same time every day, do the same routine. At night I read in bed.  I assign my weekly/recurring tasks to a time and do them then. I'm trying to get the children to bed earlier, and up earlier as well.  This generates a lot of peace for me!

These changes are simple and, for the most part, free.  And they've been very freeing as well. I feel like I'm becoming myself again--the person who enjoys good meals, fresh flowers, reading books, long walks, knitting, and happy, undistracted routines. 

Shifting Seasons

 We had an eventful January, but it was still a lot calmer than December.  I was so  thankful to get a "recovery month" with no one performing in anything!

We got a bunch of snow that cancelled the local schools all week.  School went on as usual at home, but we loved the view, and the children did some serious sledding--before the biting cold totally set in. I love how bright the valley looks when cloaked in snow. 

Annie broke her foot (by chasing Mr. Bingley on the front porch, no less) and is in a special boot, with taped toes, for now.  This is not easy for a ballet dancer!  She'll be alright. 

Seasons fascinate me; I'm so glad to live in a place where there are four solid, recognizable seasons.  But the seasons of life are the ones that interest me the most.  Things shift and change--sometimes when we're not even looking.  It's like you're buried in folding laundry and suddenly you look up, the leaves are falling, and your son is almost six feet tall. It's just like that. 

For years I've had intuition (I suspect it's the nudge of the Holy Spirit) related to shifts. When I turned 40 I felt a major shift and had no idea what it would entail.  A few months later, my husband was diagnosed with cancer.  Oh, so THAT is what this will entail, I thought. I've felt it at other points in life, too. 

I feel that shift again now.  I'm not sure what is brewing or what direction the shift will take. I just feel like I'm on a ship heading in one general direction, and that somewhere below me the current has changed, and I'm still headed in the general direction I set out to go, but I feel like we're going to get there by a different route.  What is it?  I approach this with genuine curiosity.  I don't fear it, because I trust the captain. :)  I wonder!