Family Devotions for Advent

Looking for some good ideas of things to do with your children to celebrate Advent?  Much thanks goes to my friend Emily Kapowitz and to Redeemer San Antonio (PCA) for these great resources.

For instructions on creating an Advent wreath and weekly devotions to go with each Sunday in Advent click HERE.

For Daily Devotions to do with your children each day in the month of December leading up to Christmas click HERE.  Scroll to the bottom of the page and you can download a month of devotions and coloring sheets to go with them.  The children can color an ornament for each day to either be hung on the Christmas tree or on a more simple "ornament tree" such as the one pictured here by Crate & Barrel.

Happy Advent!

On the Road Again

 On the road again, leaving Atlanta like Willie Nelson's "Band of Gypsies," we go down the highway.   With flotsam and jetsam spilling from every nook & cranny of Jason's Subaru we make a delightful stop

... in Louisville, KY to stay with Jason's Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Don.  Thanks so much for your hospitality, Phyllis and Don.  Great to see you!

Uncle Don, Rynn, & Jason

 The twelve hour return drive is uneventful, except for oh, running out of gas in the middle of Indiana. Our Oregon plates (yes, we still haven't traded our spruce tree for Lincoln yet) save us.  A man in a black truck pulls over to give Jason, who is walking along the Interstate, a ride to the gas station.  I am pretty well convinced that this is the last time I will see Jason, but twenty minutes later the truck pulls up beside our car and out spills a smiling Jason with a red canister of gas.  Turns out the Good Samaritan is moving to Portland in a few weeks to start a business.  He saw the Oregon plates, Jason's blue kayak,  and well, that's about all there is to the story.  No Flannery O'Conner Misfit ending here.  Just a delightfully boring blog post.  

And welcome back to Chicago the Saturday after Thanksgiving. 

a little urban glow as a consolation prize for the traffic.

And now I in my kerchief and Pa in his cap are ready to settle down for our long winter's nap. 

Turkey Day @ Serenbe

 For the first time since July the Little family left Chicagoland.  Being only a day's drive from my Mom in Atlanta we decided to spend the week of Thanksgiving with her in the sunny South.  It was strange driving down highways and seeing signs pointing to familiar places like 'Nashville' and 'Louisville.'  It makes me realize how far away we really were living on the West Coast.  I used to hate driving more than eight hours ANYWHERE, but my Texas "road warrior" husband has worn me down.  This drive was actually therapeutic in a way, grounding the reality of where we live now in actual space and land, instead of the strange surrealism that plane travel begets.

 Our week in Atlanta was very relaxing with some priceless family time and a very special Thanksgiving Day.  I was thrilled when Mom suggested we try something new by visiting a farm South of Atlanta for a "farm to table" locally grown meal.  Gray skies and fog gave way this morning to blue skies and bright sunshine for one of the warmest Thanksgivings in Atlanta history.  Temperatures pushed into the 70s creating a perfect day to drive thirty miles to a renovated old farm called Serenbe.  The farm and restaurant are on 25 acres of land dedicated to organic farming and the art of really yummy Bloody Marys.  A beautiful and wonderful day.  Thank you Nana for a GREAT week!  



The 'in ground' Trampoline





some yard art




The Treehouse




The Farm Animals




The Pig



Mom's Bloody Mary with Okra!  Back in the South baby.



Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Today Eleanor and Jason celebrated Thanksgiving at the annual Kindergarten Father's Thanksgiving Feast.  The children dressed as Pilgrims and the daddies came as Indians.

 Before feasting together Eleanor shares all her studies and crafts on various Native American ways of living- longhouse, wigwam, tipi, etc..

Pilgrim mommies dished up some Thanksgiving fare...

 ...while Indian fathers listened to some Thanksgiving songs.

My favorite song- "Every Turkey Can Tango"

I'm sure the pilgrims sang this one at the first Thanksgiving.

 The children also enjoyed a special treat at school this week.  Each grade got to have a visit with Nick Hockings, a tribal member (can't remember which one) from Wisconsin.  He made REAL fire.

Eleanor and her Kindergarten assistant teacher, Ms. Van Dam, looking quite angelic in the afternoon light

Eleanor (in the purple shirt) dancing behind Nick Hockings

...and a few weeks ago Rynn visited The Grove where she studied first hand how local Native Americans built and lived in longhouses.

Playing a corn dart game

Trying to make her own fire!

A Happy Thanksgiving to all!

A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg

I was a bit skeptical of this book at first.  I've read about it on a few blogs over the last year, and it seems to me like a book published on the wave of a 2009 trend.  Girl loves food.  Girl writes blog about food with a French twist.  Blog goes viral.  Girl gets sweet book/movie deal.  Sort of Julie & Julia -esque.  I saw it on the library shelf last week and decided to grab it, throw it in my grocery bag of books, and maybe pick out a recipe or two. I find, as I flip pages looking for recipes, that I am drawn into her stories as well!  Who knew reading a cookbook could be sort of relaxing?  A large portion of the recipes tend toward the sweet, and I prefer the more savory approach. Nevertheless, if you enjoy reading blogs and enjoy reading about food, you will probably enjoy this book/cookbook(check out her blog @ orangette.blogspot.com).  It is the perfect book to read when your children are making noise in the background or you have a quick moment that will likely be disturbed by interruptions.  If you like sweet food with a French flair you will find much in which to delight.  There are also a few hidden treasures such as a fennel and pear salad (p. 238) which Jason made tonight.  It is simple, fresh, and yummy.

Perhaps my favorite lines from the book are her comments on blogging.  She writes,

"I've never liked the word blog.  It's kind of weird and lumpy.  When you say it, it tumbles out of your mouth with an unbecoming thud.  Plus, the whole concept is a little weird: a Web site where a person can write about whatever they want to, inviting comments and feedback from the whole world.  At their best, blogs are smart, funny, and informative.  At their worst, they're blush-worthy rants written at 2am after a bad breakup...but still, having a blog is strange.  I never know whether to be proud...or sheepish...It's a classic love-hate relationship.  And like the human-to-human kind, the human-to-blog kind is oddly addictive.  It's hard to beat the rush that comes when you press PUBLISH, sending your words out into the ether, or the satisfaction that stems from someone leaving a comment on your site." (Wizenberg 195). 

(that's not a hint or anything...)

Some Family Photos

What happens when brand new iMacs fill the school computer lab? 

 Your children know how to use your computer better than you do.  

Tonight they entertained themselves (and taught me how to use) PhotoBooth. Feeling bored?  Give it a whirl...

Feeling a little SQUARE

Trying for a Christmas card...or maybe an album cover.

Sisterly angst

Family Relations

Togetherness

guest blogger

No Resurrection

      written by Jason Little

Biking my daughter Rynn to school today, I witnessed the shortsightedness of modern efficiency.  I stopped.  My heart sank.  On the far side of a chain link fence a front end loader pulverized the dusty remains of our neighborhood Lutheran church.  Ashes to ashes dust to dust.

You might expect that the local Presbyterian minister’s sadness would be a response to the diminishing number of congregations in his neighborhood.  However, this was not the heart of my sorrow.  I am confident that the saints who once worshipped inside those walls have been scattered like salt to season this world with grace and life.  My incredulous grief was in response to the growing pile of good wood, stone and copper becoming no more than rubbish and waste.  A living building would soon lie useless, lifelessly buried in a landfill grave.

I asked the foreman of the demolition crew, “Are you going to salvage those beams, or the stone?.” 

“No time.  They just want it down and gone,” he said.  We both shook our heads, knowing the value and gift of the earth those 100 year old timbers and moldings truly are.  Our woodlands no longer have gifts like those to give.  

With patience and time a craftsman could have salvaged enough tight grain timbers to build a fine and sturdy home or two - better materials than you could ever find at Home Depot or your local lumber yard.  Solid wood doors were splintering between the teeth of the diesel beast.  Wood flooring, hardwood window frames, the copper steeple and cross - all pulled down in haste, without gratitude or imagination.

The stone-flesh and timber-bones of this church awaited a wise and patient craftsman.  But the executioners arrived first. The empty building could have been reborn as a home - place of shelter, life, and beauty.  Instead, it was damned to rubble.  The trees that collected sun and water for hundreds of years gave their gift, and we, like spoiled children on Christmas morning, forgot the the gift given.  

In three days this building will be dead and gone - broken and buried.  For this gift of stone and timber there will be no resurrection, only the dying memories of her former congregation and several passers-by who shook their heads and walked on.

A Visit with Leigh & Gail

We've had the joy of having some house guests over the past month- family and friends to fill our home and make it more home.  One great thing about Chicago...people pass through here.  Kinda nice.

My cousin Leigh stopped in after speaking at a conference in Milwaukee.  The girls couldn't get enough of her. 

Checking out Leigh's cats on Flickr

  Leigh and our friend Gail,  in town to speak at a women's retreat West of the city, bunked together in Rynn's twin beds.  

We had unseasonably warm temperatures yesterday.  It was a perfect day to check out The Bean and wander through the Chicago Art Museum.

Me, Gail, & Leigh twisted in the Bean

Chagall's Windows- a new exhibit at the Museum