Sunset, with crows

 

Wednesday Hodgepodge, Looking Ahead Edition

1. Are you ready for new? Is 2016 likely to be very different than 2015? Do you want it to be?

Probably some of each. Last year we had the first big round of transitions:  the end of homeschooling (meaning new school for Lydia, new things to do for me); the Apprentice's internship which turned into a permanent job, and her move to The City; Ponytails' graduation from high school; Mr Fixit's foray into the antiques barn; other ends and beginnings. So you could say that 2016 will be different because it (obviously) isn't going to contain any of those things. But give it some time: we're only a week into it.

2. January 6th is National Technology Day. Currently, what is your single biggest struggle or frustration when it comes to technology?

The parts of it I understand and use quite well, vs. the things I'm quite clueless about. I bought my first computer in 1986 (I was one of the first students on my dorm floor to have one: see photo), and I was sending e-mails from work not long after that. In the early 1990's, Mr. Fixit had a small computer set up to dial into the public library, so that I could put books on hold. We've had Internet here for almost two decades. But I have never had my own cell phone, because I've never really needed one and it would be an extra expense, and I'm very stupid about using them when someone yells "can you just pick up that call for me?" 

3. It's that time again...time for Lake Superior University to present a list of words (or phrases) they'd like to see banished (for over-use, mis-use, and general uselessness) in 2016. You can read more about the decision making process here, but this year's top vote getters are-

So (at the start of every single sentence), conversation (as in hotly debated topics where we're invited to 'join the conversation'), problematic, stakeholder, price point, secret sauce, break the Internet, walk it back, presser, manspreading (common in larger cities where some men take up the entire bus or train seat by sitting wide), vape, giving me life (refers to anything that may excite a person or make them laugh), and physicality

Which of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word not on the list you'd like to add?

We saw a story about this list on the news, and Mr. Fixit says his least favourite is "join the conversation." Some of them I've never heard anyway, so I don't know if they should be banished. "Problematic" sounds ugly and ungrammatical.

4. Share one of your current health related goals.

I would rather talk about something more interesting, like the periodic table.

5. Let's talk fifty shades of gray. As in the color. Gray is currently a popular color in home decor, paint, wardrobes, hair, wedding party attire, and more. Are you a fan? Do you have the color in some variation in your home or wardrobe?  Gray hair, the old gray mare, gray matter, gray area...which gray idiom can you most relate to right now?

Hair? Not interested yet. But I would think about it in clothes if I could find some gray that didn't wipe me out. My biggest problem with gray is just deciding how to spell it. Gray? Grey? British/Canadian spelling is supposed to be "grey," but I see it both ways and can't decide which to go with.

6. Certain foods are considered 'lucky' if eaten on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. Cooked greens to bring economic fortune, black-eyed peas or lentils also symbolize money, pork which symbolizes progress, fish for good luck, and if you're in Spain 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight. Did you eat any lucky foods on the first day of the year? Is that a tradition in your home? Of the foods listed, which most appeals to you?

We went out to an Asian/sushi restaurant and ordered a bunch of little dishes, so I probably did eat something on the list. I liked the fried udon, and that's pretty close to Japanese lucky soba noodles.

7. What's the single biggest time waster in your life and what, if anything, will you do about it this year?

Still thinking about that one.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

I'm done...Happy New Year, Happy Epiphany, and Happy Orthodox Christmas.

Linked from So It's the Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

A New Year's Resolution

May I ceaselessly adore Thee,

And in all, great and small,

Seek to do most nearly

What Thou lovest dearly.

To brighten your world: a blog for 2016

There was Crockpot365. There was Dress a Day (which was still posting in 2015). Now there is the 366-Day continuation of Refashionista. Thrifted dresses, generally ugly, too big, or at least outdated, transformed by the magic hands of Jillian. It makes me want to go and...buy ugly things. Well, no, but the before-and-afters are usually interesting.

See the snow. See the snow come down.

Ringing in the Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Share a favorite memory/moment from the week of Christmas.

Listening to this poem and this song. Which I did, several times.

Eating artichoke-spinach dip and spring rolls after church on Christmas Eve, with all the Squirrelings home.

Unwrapping my Mother Goose book. It took me years to identify it, for various reasons (one was that we had put a paper cover on our copy, so I didn't remember the cover very well). Just before Christmas, I saw a photo of this edition and and thought "yes...I think so...could be?" I asked Mr. Fixit to order one so we could check, but he said that none of the copies were reasonable enough when you added in shipping...he got one secretly so I could have it to open on Christmas.

2.  If someone wrote a book about your life based on the past year, what genre would it fall under? What would the title be?

An Anne Tyler novel called A Bag of Polyester Craft Stuffing.

3. What made you feel patriotic this year?

Walking through Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto during the Pan-Am games. Not that I cared all that much about the games, but there was a feeling there like the whole world was arriving for a big party.

4. What experience from this past year would you like to do all over again?

You might think I would say the trip to Indiana in July, but actually it was the double eightieth birthday party in May (for my dad and my uncle). There are very few times we get to have so many friends and family, old and young, in one spot, and I wish we could have a big party like that every year. 

Also I read quite a few books. I am a few cantos away from finishing The Divine Comedy--if I get enough time today, I might get done. Done!

5...7  Skipping these. One through Four have been enough work already.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I thought I would enjoy writing a year's roundup, especially since this is the year I got my very own Amazon page...I have a few leftover copies of my books sitting in a box in my bedroom, want to buy one? (I also joined GoodReads and Pinterest--welcome to the 21st century.)  Half the problem is that I don't want to say goodbye to this year (although there are good things planned for 2016), and the rest of the problem is that there were also parts of it that were difficult, things that remain unresolved. So do we say we hope for such a good year, or a better one? It's like one of those multi-faceted things you turn in your hands to see the light reflect...or like one of the puzzle boxes in All the Light We Cannot See, something you keep turning over in your hands, sliding one little door at a time until suddenly the whole thing opens.

I'm still working on it.

Linked from Ringing in the Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Frugal Christmas is not an oxymoron

I saw an article recently explaining why "low fat" and "holiday food" really shouldn't go together. While I get the point perfectly, it's also true both that some people are on special diets and don't want to be sick over the holidays, and that, for some current lifestyles, this "holiday season" may extend all the way through November and December, not just over a couple of meals. So yes, in that case, some prudence would seem not to be a bad thing.

In the same way, "frugal Christmas" is off-putting to some people. Why would you want to hold back financially during a time of celebration?

The answer to that can be anything from "we're broke" to "we're being more intentional." But the truth of our generally-pretty-wealthy culture is that we usually have enough right around us to have a pretty good holiday. Enough food. Enough things to decorate with. Enough to wear. Enough entertainment. More than enough. Like homeschoolers who discover the wealth of their own books, like new parents who figure out that they don't need swings and special bathtubs, there is no sacrilege at Christmas in not hanging holiday towels, or in eating cereal or eggs for breakfast instead of making a multi-layered slow-cooker casserole.

Here are ten ways to enjoy a frugal Christmas:

1.  Most obviously: use the holiday things you've stored. Tablecloths, wreaths, LPs or CDs, stockings. Our tree is several years old, and we have ornaments that are older than we are. I have been known to put out Christmas cards that were received in years past, especially those with a meaningful message or from someone we loved.

2. Use "non-Christmas" things you have. Focus on light and warmth.  Bring out things like white glass and china, baskets, candles, wooden bowls, Mason jars, a dark green tablecloth. Going in a less traditional, more spiritual direction, you could display a thoughtful piece of artwork.

3. Keep your eyes open at rummage sales and thrift stores, especially during the off-season. I found this woven tablecovering at the Salvation Army store, and the plaid throw we used for a tree skirt came from a fill-a-bag rummage sale we went to on Hallowe'en.

4. Paper napkins can be one of the best deals out there.

5. Use your freezer or whatever food system you generally use to save time, energy, money and sanity. We continued to use our freezer meals throughout the holidays, and I also made cookies and muffins ahead and froze them.

6. If your family doesn't like super-fancy food or baking, don't do it; make familiar foods that they do enjoy. What's wrong with chocolate-chip cookies and Rice Krispie Treats, if that's what you like, or Grandpa likes? It's like that story from Doris Janzen Longacre's More With Less book, about how her grandmother frosted cakes only for special occasions, her mother used frosting more often but only on the top, and she herself frosted her cakes all over and made extra icing for her bowl-lickers. To quote my other frugal mentor, Amy Dacyczyn, sometimes we need to create margin, back off from our culture's "perpetual feast," so that we can appreciate things that used to be treats.

7. Make donation gifts. Two of the Squirrelings used this year's holidays to support causes that are important to them.

8. Use what's around your house...literally. I think it was on the Prudent Homemaker blog recently where someone mentioned decorating a tree that was right outside their glass doors.

9. Wear clothes you already have, especially if you are not expecting or expected to do a lot of upscale partying. Honestly, the closest I got this year to a "holiday party" was going to church and a couple of family events. I bought a red sweater dress at the thrift store, long before Christmas, and there was a green scarf in my stocking, so there you go.

10. Celebrate with joy and love.

Laugh for the day: For the person who has everything?

From the Goodreads blog: 12 Fictional Book Things on Your Christmas Wish List.

I mean, who wouldn't want a magic ring from Crazy Uncle Sauron? I think I'll skip the portrait-painting session à la Dorian Grey, though.

“Some Christmas,” remarked Rush in a satisfied tone at the end of the day. He was playing Randy’s Funeral March for her, very quietly in the dusk. “I bet we’re just about the only kids in the county, maybe even the whole state, that got such a big live alligator for a Christmas present.”

Any ideas to add to the list?

How about a spider-web writing tool from your friend Charlotte?

An interesting painting of a ship from Aunt Alberta (it's a re-gift: she never liked it anyway).

A very old bottle of dandelion wine from Uncle Ray.

An adventure trip gift certificate from Mr. Toad.

A pot of honey from Edward Bear...but it's empty.

Poem for today: on unwrapping

"He who has ears to hear let him hear"

How hard to hear the things I think I know,
To peel aside the thin familiar film
That wraps and seals your secret just below:
An undiscovered good, a hidden realm,
A kingdom of reversal, where the poor
Are rich in blessing and the tragic rich
Still struggle, trapped in trappings at the door
They never opened, Life just out of reach...

—Malcolm Guite, from "Parable and Paradox"

Everybody needs one

You can find the pattern here. I added rice for some ballast.

Christmas Breakfast

1950's coffee percolator Mr. Fixit found

A present for Mama Squirrel

A Stable Lamp is Lighted

Merry Christmas.

Send me as a lark ascending: a poem and a song

The sun is shining, the grass is green

A Christmas Eve Devotional

In Jan Karon's book Shepherds Abiding, Father Tim quotes the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius:  "The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”

Yesterday I found a quotation I had copied down. I read it again and couldn't  quite get my head around it, or figure out what it might have to do with Advent and Christmas. 

"What you think the world is or want the world to be can overwhelm your perceptions of the now. Don't let it. Your perceptions are all you have that are truly your own." ~~ John Rember

A few minutes later I opened a Christmas letter from two friends, which turned out to be not only a letter but a picture and a poem. The letter included this quotation:

"There is within us an immense capacity for perception, for the receiving of messages from outside; and a very little consciousness which deals with them..." ~~ Evelyn Underhill

Two mentions of perception and consciousness within half an hour seemed like too much of a coincidence, but I still didn't understand what that had to do with anything. In the letter, my friends explained that the picture was a painting by Jules Breton, called The Song of the Lark. It shows a young woman ready to start her work for the day, but stopping, standing there, listening to a lark singing. Larks are the only birds that sing as they fly...they are a sort of symbol of courage and faith, of what Marcus Aurelius called an untroubled spirit.

The poem was "The Prayer of the Lark", from Carmen Bernos de Gasztold's Prayers from the Ark. Like the lark and the other animals, we are each given our own part to play, our own perceptions, our own reality. Our job seems to be to live out that part, to not be overwhelmed by trying to do everything now or to be anxious about what might be later on, but to slow down, stop, and focus in on what God is telling each of us.

Then Mary said, “My heart is overflowing with praise of my Lord, my soul is full of joy in God my Saviour. For he has deigned to notice me, his humble servant and, after this, all the people who ever shall be will call me the happiest of women! The one who can do all things has done great things for me—oh, holy is his Name! Truly, his mercy rests on those who fear him in every generation."

"I am here! O my God.

I am here! I am here!

You draw me away from earth,

and I climb up to You" ("The Prayer of the Lark") 

But while he was turning the matter over in his mind an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife! What she has conceived is conceived through the Holy Spirit, and she will give birth to a son, whom you will call Jesus (‘the Saviour’) for it is he who will save his people from their sins.”... When Joseph woke up he did what the angel had told him.

"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”

 The shepherds went back to work, glorifying and praising God for everything that they had heard and seen, which had happened just as they had been told.

"What you think the world is or want the world to be can overwhelm your perceptions of the now. Don't let it. Your perceptions are all you have that are truly your own." ~~ John Rember

 And now the star, which they had seen in the east, went in front of them as they travelled until at last it shone immediately above the place where the little child lay. The sight of the star filled them with indescribable joy.

"This assurance is not the cool conclusion of a successful argument. It is rather the seizing at last of Something which we have ever felt near us and enticing us: the unspeakably simple because completely inclusive solution of all the puzzles of life." ~~ Evelyn Underhill

"Let my exultant nothingness

soar to the glory of Your mercy,

in the same hope,

until death." ("The Prayer of the Lark")

Hymn:

God Himself is with us:

Let us now adore Him,

And with awe appear before Him.

God is in His temple,

All within keep silence,

Prostrate lie with deepest reverence.

Him alone God we own,

Him our God and Savior;

Praise His name forever.

God Himself is with us:

Hear the harps resounding!

See the crowds the throne surrounding!

Holy, holy, holy,

Hear the hymn ascending,

Angels, saints, their voices blending!

Bow Thine ear to us here:

Hear, O Christ, the praises

That Thy church now raises.

O Thou fount of blessing,

Purify my spirit;

Trusting only in Thy merit,

Like the holy angels

Who behold Thy glory,

May I ceaselessly adore Thee,

And in all, great and small,

Seek to do most nearly

What Thou lovest dearly.

Closing: Prayer (written by Jan Karon):

"Thank you, Lord, for the grace of an untroubled spirit, and for the blessings which are ours in numbers too great to count or even recognize."

A Week of Love: Love looks outward

"Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it's like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too." ~~ Frederick Buechner

A Week of Love: No Longer Alone

NO LONGER ALONE 

Out of the silence the Almighty Word,
speaking like thunder, filled us with wonder,
told us He loved us, told us He cared,
told us He’d come if we really prepared.

Into the night came the Light of the world.
God-light revealing, tenderly healing.
Darkness was over. Morning began.
God came to earth and He came as a man.

Welcome to Love, we’re no longer alone.
In joy and sorrow, today and tomorrow,
Love will be with us. Love’s here to stay.
Sing every morning: “It’s Christmas today!”

Words and music: Miriam Therese Winter © Medical Mission Sisters 1971

And it keeps on coming

As the snow flies

What's for supper? Multicultural

Tonight's menu: Teriyaki Beef, perogies and peas.