A Tale of Advent Woe

So, one of the things that I really wanted to accomplish with this blog, is to give a little glimpse into our home and family, and show that it isn't all rainbows and roses.

Yes! - we have lovely, inspiring times, where everything flows beautifully, and all is perfect, but truly, those times are rare.

There are other blogs out there, that portray that perfect life, with a lovely home, that is always spick and span, where the children are engaged in beautiful crafts, and eating fabulous homemade meals. Those blogs are lovely, and I enjoy a number of them. But that isn't us.

See, as much as I like to read those blogs, I often find myself playing the 'why can't I' game after reading them.

Why can't I keep my home looking like that?

Why aren't my Little Ones perfectly behaved like theirs?

Why don't my handwork project looks as beautiful as that?

And here's the thing. I'm going to guess that the stories and the photos in those blogs only show the slice of clean house that they want you to see. That not all the crafts are lovely, that not all the meals are nutritious and lovingly prepared. I have to remind myself of this, as I take a peak into these blogger's 'perfect' lives.

And, so on to my tale of Advent!

I had this idea of celebrating the four weeks of Advent, and what a lovely thing it could be. We are already doing a Candlelight Night each Sunday, so this seemed perfect. That we would recognize Advent, talk about the season, and get out the birthday ring with some special Advent decorations, adding a couple each week. It sounded perfect in my head.

Last Sunday was the first day of Advent, and it didn't go quite as planned.

The Little Ones were hungry and cranky, so all three were weepy and short-tempered. Dinner wasn't the lovely meal I had planned, but fast food, which wasn't all that good. The table hadn't been cleared, so we still had leftover crumbs from lunch and the day's projects all over it. I couldn't find the Birthday Ring, or the special ornaments, until halfway through the meal. And then I remembered that I didn't have any of the special beeswax candles for the ring anyway; I had forgotten to buy them. So I found a half burned candle, and used that but it looked a little wonky.

This is where I could have become really discouraged. But instead, I just sat down and laughed. I should have known really, that with all the busyness in our lives that the notion of this lovely candlelit evening talking about the significance of Advent was over-reaching.

But it's okay! Really! Life is messy, and chaotic, and even more so with Little Ones.

And of course, the joy of Advent? We get three more weeks to get it 'right'! I'll keep you posted :-)


Have you been doing anything special to celebrate Advent in your home? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

Food Waste Friday ... And An Advent Blessing

 

I just love The Frugal Girl blog. Really - just love!

Each week (well - most weeks) she blogs about her food waste, a kind of public declaration, aimed to reduce her own food waste. ,

Here's the funny thing about Food Waste Friday ... when you know that its coming, you try really hard not waste anything. So I have a zero waste week.

Nothing!

Which is good for my fridge and pocketbook, but doesn't make a particularly exciting blog post.

So, rather than leave you with that, here's a picture of our Blessing Board! Every couple of weeks, I change out the blessing on our chalkboard, and we recite it before our evening meal. A nice little ritual :-)

More on Advent another day (ours so far has been ... interesting, and unexpected!)

How was your food waste this week? Feel free to share here, or at Simply Being Mom (where Food Waste Friday is being hosted this week!); I'd love to hear from you!

A Nature Shelf! {week 1, December 2012}

One of my original intents with posting about our Nature shelf, was to show that a Nature Table/Shelf could be done without a lot of time, money or talent; a little glimpse into the life of a 'real' family, with 'real' obstacles and constraints.

And this being real life,  I fell asleep on Sunday night, the night I switch out the Shelf and write up the blog post, and then forgot to do it on Monday too. So there you go!

This month's shelf is brightened with a lovely window star, made from kite paper. I really love making and decorating our home with these.


And what are you doing this month to bring a little nature into your home? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

Upcycling Sunday!

*Sorry this is getting out to you a little later than usual; I had technical issues, aka I forgot to press the 'publish' button. Oops!

Upcycling, def. the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value.

Wikipedia.org

Maybe it's the colder weather keeping us indoors more, or maybe the fact that we are getting the house ready for guests in a couple of weeks, but I have suddenly been hit by a bit of a de-cluttering bug.

I've been toying with the idea of becoming more minimalist for a while. Our small home feels so much smaller with lots of 'stuff' in it.

I always like to find other people who are doing the smae thing as me, so I was excited to find a group on Diaper Swappers who have given themselves a challenge; 2012 in 2012 - that is re-gifting, donating, selling or throwing away 2012 items in the year 2012. Joining a little late, I signed up for the mini-challenge of 168 items in the month of December. (2012 items equals 168 items each month!)

I love a challenge!

One day in, and I am already 63 items down, leaving only 105 more items to pass on to reach the challenge. (I was lucky enough to be able to Freecycle most of these items, but some just had to go in the trash ... old tea bags from 2002 and dried out markers are two examples).

I won't bore you with pictures of all 63 items, but here a couple of highlights!

 

So, yes! - this is all kid's stuff. But, going through it and getting stuff out of the house feels so good :-)

How about you? What did you Upcycle this week? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!