Tag Archives: holidays

‘Tis the Season

Mom poked her head into the kitchen.  I was making room in the fridge for the turkey and rice soup we had just enjoyed (Thanksgiving leftovers put to good use).  “Are you good, or do you want to drop it and help us?”

“I’m good,” I said.  I enjoy cleaning, and the kitchen was quiet.

They were decorating our newly-scored Christmas tree.  I was cleaning up after dinner in the half hour I had left before dance class.  It felt like I should be in the living room, even though it wasn’t really a family occasion–Spencer is back to college in another state, and Becca was at church.  The darkness outside that evening made the lights inside seem cozy.  I gave it up –I squeezed the soup pot into the fridge and headed for the living room, navigating the un-swept floor.  What was I doing by myself in the kitchen anyway?

I got down on my knees and started helping attach wire hooks to our glass balls.  I back and forth ran from the bin of decorations to the Christmas tree, and there and back again.  The glitter stuck to my jeans and my hands.

“I love this color scheme,” I said, looking over our fir, which was turning into a pillar of red and blue and silver.

“Good.”  Mom smiled.  “That makes me happy.”

She had turned on this gorgeous, gentle, instrumental music and the whole thing felt magical.  If there’s one thing that gives me nostalgia, it’s Christmas music.

I love Christmas, and I’m so excited for this new Christmas season.  Happy December, readers!

More ramblings (cause I’m still getting my act together), and happy new year!!

Happy New Year, my friends!

We’ve had three birthdays, New Years, and a Christmas party since I was here last, so the posting has slowed down.  I was going to post this yesterday, but Mom and the younger crew were watching The Sound of Music, so what could I do? 🙂  I’m hoping to post the behind-the-scenes for Cat’s Forest soon, but school just started, so we’ll see how fast I can move.

Technically, school started today, but all I had to do was lay around and read A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which I find quite enjoyable.  I’m doing all Shakespeare for Great Books this year (YIPPEE!!).  I decided to try and read Midsummer in one day (because I’m crazy), and Mama let me only do that for school today (because she’s wonderful).  Shakespeare’s writing style is one of the most beautiful things that ever happened.

“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows;
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in. . .” (20)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dover Publications, Inc.

In other news, I got all the geeky Middle Earth books for Christmas/my birthday, and I’m so happy!

I also got two other novels, so I’ve been mostly reading lately, and the written words have dropped significantly.  When I finish the five Christmas books I have left, I’m hoping to get back to my own stories–to be honest, I kinda’ miss them.

And (because random, silly Middle Earth pictures are apparently the thing right now), this is my favorite variation of this quote yet:

I’m loving this so much! 😉

Happy Thursday, my friends!

A post-Christmas post of ramblings

I should have realized how much Cat’s Forest would take over when I decided to post it almost everyday, in the busiest month of the year.  But I of course I didn’t.  Anyway, I didn’t post about Christmas much, except for my story.  I might do some deeper Christmas posts now, after the fact; but I think this was mostly a year of Catania, and that’s okay.

In the meantime, you should read this post that a fellow blogger of mine posted yesterday:

He’s Here: The Christ Candle ~ Ramblings of a Writer

This authoress has mastered the art of word-craft, and this post is simply beautiful.  The peaceful flow of the words is pleasant and calming, and it paints a crystal clear picture of the starry nightfall of the first Christmas.  You should read it.

 

Hopping down an unrelated bunny-trail, do y’all know about the whole “elf on a shelf” thing?  Well, my Mother found this, and I couldn’t help but share it:

So awesome, I really have no words.  I lost Santa elves about the time I found Middle Earth. 🙂

Merry Christmas, readers!!  Thanks for reading my rambles.

God Shed His Grace On Thee. . .

I have been brushing up “America the Beautiful” on the piano lately, and of course it has been on my mind today.

Not on my mind enough to convince me to practice piano today 😉 , but I’ve still thought about it.  I first decided i wanted to play it when I read through all the verses; they are so beautiful.

I love all of them, but the last two lines of verse 3 have become a prayer to me.  For my country.

America!  America!  May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness and every gain divine.

Because you don’t have to look too far to see America is losing her roots in God.  Not all that we call “success” today is noble, and not all our gains are Christ-like.  I have been praying for our country for a long time.

But after I read Counted Worthy by Leah E. Good I started praying for more.

I started praying that no matter what happened in America, the church would rise to meet it.  That they would respond in a way that honored the Lord.  No matter what.

Our pastor was speaking recently about common core, and he said that the church often responds in fear or anger, and we must respond in love.

We are the bride of Christ.

We have victory.

We have the last word.

So let us stop responding in fear.  Let us stop venting our anger on those deceived by Satan.  Let us respond in love.

We are more than conquerors in Christ, my friends–if God is for us, who can be against us?

O beautiful for patriot dream that sees, beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears!
America!  America!  God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

***             ★    ***

Have a happy Fourth of July, and go get yourself a copy of Counted Worthy, sweet readers.

 

** Excerpts from “America the Beautiful” by Katharine Lee Bates

April Fool’s Day

So.  Yesterday was April Fool’s Day, and it would have been the day to try and convince you guys I was publishing a book or we were adopting a sixteen-year-old from Ethiopia or something crazy.  That sort of thing.

(I’m realizing in retrospect that I should have posted a fake part of The Sacrifice and had Penny die.  Your comments really would have been hilarious. 🙂 )

But the fact is: April Fool’s Day always drove me insane–probably because I’m the most gullible person on the plant (don’t say it, Ellen.  I know I’m blonde, thanks.)  And I promised myself once (I think it was last year) that I was not doing April Fool’s Day stuff on my blog.  Just not.

So, here we are.  No April Fool’s Day jokes.  It’s just not how I work.

What’s your take on April Fool’s Day?

Happy Easter!!

Jesus Christ is risen!

IMG_2779

Our King is more powerful than death!  Is that not worth celebrating?

Happy Easter, everyone!

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!”

-Luke 24:5, 6

 

P.S. Sorry I didn’t get any more of The Sacrifice posted–we were pretty busy on Saturday!  Busy in the Spring-break, lying-around-on-the-couch-with-my-siblings, going-to-movies way. 🙂  Anyway, sorry I never got it up, I’ll catch up on Tuesday.  Or maybe you could twist my arm into posting tomorrow. . .

Good Friday

Today is quite the day, isn’t it?  Am I the only one who thinks it’s perfect that Good Friday landed on March 25th this year?  One real, one imaginary anniversary, that celebrate the triumph over evil.

The day love won.

But the reality of love is the cross.  Tears–pain–darkness–blood–sweat–grime–wood splinters in your skin.  God is love, and He loved us even when it meant abandoning His son to torture and death.  To love someone is not to be made happy by them.  It means choosing to hang on and never let go, and let them drag you through things you never wanted to experience and don’t know how to handle.  Loving people is painful. —My Valentine’s Day post

We say Valentine’s Day is the day we celebrate love.  But I think that it is today.  Today, that true love was revealed to mankind.

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command.  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

-John 15:13-15

Waiting

I was given a gift card to Sears at Christmas, and I used it today to buy myself an Easter dress!  Okay, Mama and Dad might have paid for part of it. . .

It’s obviously been a long time since I got a new dress, because it’s not the fanciest thing I’ve ever owned, but I feel like Cinderella in her ball gown! 🙂  I think it’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever touched.

And Easter’s a whole week away.

It feels like forever.

But really, isn’t that a big part of what Easter is?  Waiting for Jesus.  Waiting for redemption.  Waiting for the resurrection.

Easter is about new life, and things long hoped-for being placed in our hands as a gift, for today, and for forever.