Ahh, Advent! Already! At last!
I love this time of year. It's cozy and cheerful, especially since we have received some much needed rain. Hurrah for rain! Even saw a brilliant rainbow yesterday morning - what was old hat in Guam is cause for parking lot confusion here. Everyone was stopping and getting out of their cars in the drizzle to take a photo. It's amazing how quickly the hillsides take on a greenish tinge.
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Some other updates:
The Thanksgiving weekend holiday went smoothly. Dinner was delicious and the company low key. Four young sailors came over to my brother- and sister-in-laws and my boys took them paddle boarding and surfing. It was the first time one of them had seen the ocean. One of them said as he was leaving that his friends had given him a hard time about going to the CO's for dinner, but he was going to let them know what a great time he had in the water.
The next day we went to Fresno for the state cross country meet. Two kids stayed with the in laws for the Notre Dame- USC game. I had been fretting about which two, but in the end everyone made peace and was happy about where they were going. Kids 4 and 5 stayed behind and the rest went with us. We stayed with our old neighbors and had a great dinner of left overs, homemade enchiladas, and good wine. Their sons were hospitable, and their son's friends, all freshman home from college, showed up with 4 extra TV screens and six gaming consoles to play video games. Hilarious.
The meet was a success - oldest son ran well and the team placed 7th, much higher than they expected. The winners were crazy fast. California has some of the fastest high school runners in the nation. I'd much rather tailgate at a high school cross country meet than a college football game.
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First Sunday of Advent was a flurry of unpacking looking for the wreath. No Black Friday shopping - no big requests this year and I don't want to get more stuff just to get stuff. Kids will probably get clothes this year. My gift to my husband, who is out of town for a couple weeks, -- car repairs! His clunky Toyota needed some major work. Hoping to keep it limping along until we move again.
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Just finished helping out with an Advent workshop for our M.O.M.S. group (Making Our Mothering Significant). A crafty, snacky morning with four tables of crafts for St. Nicholas, Immaculate Conception, St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe, and St. Lucy. The table decor included a statue of each saint and an appropriately colored candle and a snack. I helped put together a CD with music (found some good downloads on Noisetrade) and a pamphlet with blessings and links to sites with more ideas to celebrate Advent. So much on the internet!
But what things do we really do during Advent?
-Advent Calendar - preferably chocolate. Lego and Playmobil were biggest hits ever.
- Jesse tree for about 2 weeks
-Advent wreath with prayer "Jesus Christ is the light of the world" "Come, Lord Jesus, Come."
-St. Nicholas day shoes filled with candy coins, real coins, a candy cane, and a small gift (this year: nice pens!)
-OLG Mexican food for supper. Used to do a fiesta with a pro-life prayer group many moves ago.
- Mass for the Immaculate Conception
- Decorate tree on Gaudete Sunday
- Travelling Mary and Joseph from Nativity set for Las Posadas week before Christmas. Baby Jesus doesn't show up in nativity sets until Christmas morning. Kids sing happy birthday to Jesus before opening presents. Then the 3 Kings travel around the house until Epiphany.
- We have had a generic elf on the shelf for the past 3 years, but a friend sent me the link to have the 3 kings stationed around the house looking for Jesus. (http://www.catholicinspired.com/2013/11/wisemen-adventures-again-this-year-sooo.html)
- Crafts, cookies, cards, concerts, shopping - all the traditional stuff and some holiday events with work and school. Sometimes we do gingerbread houses some years with friends or cousins.
Each year is a little different. I am not a great crafter, but I like making things at this time of year. But I'm welcoming the time to spend reflecting also. After the busy fall, Advent provides a much needed moment to restore focus to things of the heart and soul and to renew my attentiveness to prayer and liturgy.
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Taking an online class to learn how to teach online classes. I'm a learning some useful tricks, but can't say I'm convinced that online or even flipped classes should replace traditional in class learning - or instruction at home. There's just no room for the unexpected, impromptu moments and conversations when lasting learning takes place. But I can see online learning being useful in many cases, and I am seeing how an active, involved instructor can make a class work. As I've been helping my senior with some essays, I'm wishing I had time to get established in a writing tutor job. But by the time I could find some clients, it will be about time to move again.
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Moving! Getting anxious for a word. People around school and church are asking. Don't ask, people! I still have at least six months here! Don't drop me yet! We should know soon what our future holds.
So many mixed emotions about this life.
It helps develop resiliency, the latest trendy word in child development talk. And we've had some great adventures. But we leave behind pieces of our broken hearts everywhere we go.
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I do have some anticipation for a different house. Would like to let go of my frugal ways enough to shed some old ugly stuff we haul around because it's useful and buy some new things because they are beautiful -- for instance, the kitchen table. The dishes. Some new art and home decor. A new couch and chair. My latest - rather, recurrent --- mental struggle is between minimizing clutter and cost and maximizing comfort and loveliness.
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Finally, what I've been reading: I've gone back to 19th century England to meet Phineas Finn in Anthony Trollope's book of that name. Like Dickens, Trollope is a master at creating interesting characters and capturing the era. The politics are a little out of my ken, but I'm fascinated by the contemporary themes in the depictions of marital relationships.
I'm reading Redwall outloud with the three youngers. The 10 year old loves it. The 8 year old falls asleep. It's entertaining to read, but long, and I don't see myself reading too many books in the series.
And I've started the biography of my grandfather that my aunt wrote and self-published. She worked on it for years. Lots of pictures and history included. I'm loving it and will write more about it soon.
