Our (mindful, minimal) Advent

(all photos in this post are from years past)

When my daughter was just shy of three I decided on the eve of December to put together a simple little advent calendar for her.  It was the first year I felt she was really of an age to get into the anticipation and celebration of the season, and I wanted a simple way to pull more from the short and darkening days as we approached the winter solstice and Christmas.  Parenthood certainly amplified the seemingly light-speed passing of time, so I welcomed most anything that helped remind me to put on the brakes, slow down, and be in the moment.

When I say 'on the eve of December' I literally mean that I was sitting in the hall just outside her door quite late at night on November 30th cutting and fastening and decorating and hanging little colorful paper pockets numbered 1 through 24.  I'd seen all sorts of ideas about ways to put together a simple little calendar- from small packages strung from a branch to paper stars stitched shut with a little trinket inside to toilet paper tubes filled with treats and sealed over with tissue paper to wee little gnomes carrying scrolls of paper- ideas aplenty abounded on the inter webs, each one as lovely as the next.  Drawn as I was personally to the brown kraft paper and twigs look, I ended up going with brightly colored paper hoping to catch her two year old fancy.

Well, it worked.  That first year I often tucked a small treat inside the pocket- a candy cane maybe, or a new ornament.  A gift of a book or some other such thing with the paper pocket from that day clipped to it.  Those little capsule things that 'grow' into animal-shaped sponges when placed in warm water.  Treasures.  More often than not though, what was tucked inside the pocket was a note with a suggestion for something we could do together.  Sometimes service or community oriented, often a small way to mindfully yet meaningfully celebrate the season together.  In the mornings she would wake and we'd hear her run over to the calendar and reach her little toddler fingers into the pocket for the slip of paper for that day and come pitter-patter-stomping into our room for us to read it to her.  And a sweet and simple (and certainly a favorite) holiday tradition of ours was born.

At the end of each December day there comes the second part of our advent calendar tradition- my favorite part, the part that has the magic and the staying power for me as a mama looking back over the years.  Beginning that first year, when she was still so little, I'd ask her to tell me something that she was grateful for, thankful for, something that made her happy.  And then I'd write it on the back of the slip of paper and clip the paper atop the pocket from that day (which made it easier for her younger self to find which day came next).  Over the years (6!) since I first made this humble little advent calendar, I've kept all of those little slips of paper and I am not sure I have the words to describe how very much I love looking back over the gratitudes on the backs of those little slips of paper.  From that first year :"the cheepy sounds the birds make", and "gorillas".  From the past few years there have been all sorts of favorites ranging from "warm, snuggly mama" to "Ollie" (our handsome grey feline), "the land, the planet", "the air we breathe", "our good, happy life "our town, and our walk to town today" and so on.  They don't look like much, just colorful little scraps, sometimes bent up and crushed a bit.  But they're like magic to this mama's heart.

The things I write daily for the calendar- they aren't grand gestures.  Sure, there are a few pretty special ones each year like going to the Nutcracker and getting our tree and things like that.  But so many of those slips are filled with the simplest of suggestions for things that, honestly, we often do anyway.  They're just dressed up a bit for the advent calendar, is all.  Drawn from a little colorful pocket, they become special and are promoted to an almost ritual-like status. The joy that she gleans from these simplest of things shows me that, simply by being mindful and deliberate in how we go about our days, we can elevate our experiences and enjoy them even more- even if only because we decide that we will.  There is power in that, I think.  Power, and peace and hope.

Here are some of my favorite advent calendar suggestions:

*cut paper snowflakes
*set up our advent spiral
*make swags, garland, wreaths (bring some to neighbors and friends)
*string pinecones and orange slices for decorations
*bake cookies (deliver some to the library, to friends, to family)
*bring a box of groceries or other needed items to the local food pantry (truly, straight up money is probably the most helpful there as they can likely stretch it further than we can in purchasing)
*make treats for the birds (we often do this on the solstice)
*hike to 'Gary's Tree' and add a decoration, bring hot cocoa and a book with us (this is a random tree just off the path on one of our favorite local trails that folks have been decorating for years)
*go to the town Christmas parade
*get our tree
*decorate it (of course)
*hot cocoa with breakfast
*library trip for wintry books
*walk to town for hot cocoa
*candlelit solstice dinner
*bonfires
*crafting with friends (making cards, bird treats, ornaments, anything!)
*visiting with friends and family
*go see The Nutcracker
*plant narcissus bulbs
*watch a movie together
*make gifts for friends
*caroling party at a dear friend's house


There are endless options, really.  You can make just about anything feel special and meaningful with a little bit of time and intention.  And the added magic of pulling it out of a taped together pocket of bright construction paper, of course.

Cheers to you and yours this holiday season!

Here are links to some holiday posts from years past:
Winter 2016
Thanksgiving to Advent, 2015
Joy and Cheer 2014 
Advent Activities 2014 

around here :: fleeting summer days

A bit of juicing, a bit of elderberry medicine-making, a bit of silliness in the form of bathroom mirror selfies....  some art-making and bike-riding and kraut-making.  Asian pear butter, pickles, hot sauce, salsa.  Got the garlic trimmed and cleaned for storage.  Loads of veggies, and happy dolls finding a new perch in her bedroom window.  (I love that she still loves her dolls and I so hope that love lasts a good bit longer).

Much as I love autumn and her general crispness and startlingly blue skies, I find myself hanging on this year, just a bit, to these fleeting late summer days.  The crickets are so loud at night, practically screaming of summer's impending end, but the sunshine stills falls heavy and pleasant on my shoulders.  I am loving the cooler nights and mornings that often necessitate a sweater, and I see the light changing its game in a way that day-to-day seems to be sneaky and slight but when taken by the week is actually quite startling.  And so, I am both basking in the midday sun and enjoying the barefoot-ness of this time of year, and happily awaiting the increase in hot tea drinking and sweater-wearing.  It's a good time of year.  My favorite.

'round here

These summer days typically start off with a cup of something warm (usually enjoyed in the garden).  Generally, it is accompanied by fruit.  Often, melon or berries.  Cherries, too, since it's their time to shine.  I find myself buying a bag of cherries every couple days and easily justifying all the dollars spent on the glorious little stone fruits based on the fact that they are not available fresh for very long, so I (we, but......if I'm honest I have to admit that I definitely squirrel away the majority of the tasty orbs) have been devouring them quite steadily. yum, yum, yum.

Also, kombucha.  So. much. kombucha.  I brew it for most of the year, but come late fall the temperature in my house just isn't quite adequate for a good fizzy batch and so somewhere along the line, I inevitably let it slide and then scout out a new SCOBY and start again in the spring.  I was the happy recipient of a healthy, happy, newborn baby SCOBY from a friend earlier in the spring and started with a gallon and have been doing all sorts of fun secondary ferments (the favorite this year so far has been blackberry lime and, for me personally, the tulsi-rose-cardamom).  Just before we left for our recent trip I started a four gallon batch and we kegged it upon returning, so now we've got kombucha on tap.  Heck yes.  I feel like we took it up to a whole new level right there.  There is a nice fizzy brew at the ready without having to juggle the refrigeration of so many swingtop bottles.  (the keg refrigeration we have covered because, um...... well.... we have a kegerator on the front porch.  we are so classy.)

Berries.  Berries, berries, berries, berries.  The raspberries started early and had a nice long several week run.  At first, as always, we started by simply eating bowls full of them.  Then we moved onto just handfuls and tossing them into smoothies (and salads, and kombucha batches, and oatmeal...) and then, eventually, I mashed up the rest and froze them on a hot day for later jam-making because I just couldn't imagine all that steaming and boiling at the moment.

There has been a color shift though, and we've since moved on to the blackberries and blueberries.

The makings of a fine lavender-peach jam.  I use Ashley's delicious peach-lavender butter recipe as a starting off point and always set aside some without lavender because the other people that live in my house seem to think lavender in food is akin to eating lotion (silly people), and I use honey to sweeten both batches, 'lavendered' and 'un-lavendered'.

The first time I've kept an orchid alive long enough to see it flower again.  I feel so accomplished, but really, the success belongs to the orchid.  She's so pretty.

Chanterelles!  yum, yum, yum.  A friend posted photos after foraging and I was having mushroom envy and thus was inspired to go out hunting myself and lo and behold, I found a basketful with not a lot of looking.  In this batch though I did collect four False Chanterelles (I tasked Mike with checking for lookalikes while I was in the shower- glad he did, as false chanterelles, though not deadly poisonous, are known to cause a good deal of digestive unhappiness).  The rest we sautéed in butter and put over rice pasta with some crispy kale.  Simple and delicious.  Buttered noodles become adult food when you add wild mushrooms and greens.

Pictured below is a second batch of chanterelles, from the same spot, and some recent backyard garden goodies.

A bit of canning~  Dilly beans and beets, and the aforementioned lavender-peach (and just plain peach) jam.  More pickling and jamming to come soon.  The beans and beets and peaches and berries are calling my name and I just haven't felt like dealing with them lately....... but alas, I know my six-months-from-now self will be so glad that I made pickles and jam, so... soon.  Really.

The other day I got in a bed of fall greens, along with some late plantings of bush beans and squash.  Still plan to add a small planting of root crops and green onions.  Mostly now though the garden calls me for weeding, harvesting.  The planting and seeding has definitely slowed.

Pink and purple blooms, dusky purple gloaming.

Some glimpses of these fleeting summer days~

flowers. light. food.

Flowers in a sunny windowsill.

Surely one of life's sweetest simple pleasures, I think.  While it is a common site for us to have a few bouquets of fresh backyard flowers around the house once the season really gets going, there is just something about those first flower bouquets of the year.  Most of these ended up being collected just in time for a hard freeze (well, the tulips were a gift from my main squeeze, but the others, anyway) occurring in between stretches of warm sunny days,  as our late winter/early spring days have been very............. back and forth.  As they often are.  As, I suppose, they are meant to be.

Spring has never been my favorite season~ it's just so hard to compete with fall in my book.  This year however, much as I've learned to treasure the quiet and inward bundle-up-by-the-fire pace and pause of winter, I have so anticipated spring and I am quite literally out basking in it's warm glow and sinking my hands into the soil whenever the opportunity arises.  The flowers are, of course, a big happy bonus.


Also, food.  Lunch, tahini-almond flour cookies (SO good!), pumpkin 'bread', a small addition to the maple syrup stash (we were able to tap a couple trees again this year and ended up with a bit over a gallon- a smaller haul than our usual, but I suppose that just means we'll treasure it all the more), and some newly bottled cider from last fall's pressing.  yum, yum, yum.