.my small cup of life.

loving my sunny tiny home in the spring.

loving filling it with friends and flowers.

my girls came over on sunday to help me garden.

kim went to the farm store with me the night before to help me pick the best seeds for cutting bouquets.

everyone out and about in the warmer weather

means afternoons at the park

and more spontaneous drop-by visits

(9th grade boys knocked while I was melting old wax down; so they made candles too).

potted plants and watering new green,

vases full of color in every room,

lots of dates at the town bakery, dinners and baking and walks...

i am enjoying this season.

"[The wren] delivers such a cantering praise-

for what?

For the early morning, the taste of the spider,

for his small cup of life

that he drinks from every day, knowing it will refill.

All things are inventions of holiness...

window note by Avery across the street, age 7.

left in our shared laundry room by my next door neighbor.

a 10-year-old doing homework at my kitchen table

(requested no face in the picture. note the socks.)

Fawvers made new counters. It's way exciting. I "helped" (ate their food while they worked).

...every morning, there's my own cup of gladness."

-Mary Oliver

.how silently, how silently, the wondrous Gift is given.

"Waiting is essential to the spiritual life.

But waiting as a disciple of Jesus is not an empty waiting.

It is a waiting with a promise in our hearts that makes already present what we wait for.

We are always waiting, but it is a waiting in the conviction that we have already seen God's footsteps.

Waiting for God is an active, alert- yes, joyful!- waiting."

-Henri Nouwen

We were playing hide-and-seek. Not sure she super gets it.

Last year my mom sent me some of our family's Christmas decorations. I love that.

I miss Chicago's snow, but Oregon's mist frozen is a different kind of winter beauty.

Christmas carol serenade to cookie-baking.

(Glitter + leftover Halloween candy + end of cereal boxes)

"God cared enough to come and be one of us.

We matter to God. We matter that much.

He cared enough to be born.

That's the whole point of it all…

that He cared enough to be born."

-Madeleine L'Engle

Cross-continental shared joy.

Out to dinner by the river to watch the Christmas-lit ships go by.

"So the Christmas message for all people runs:

You are accepted, God has not despised you,

but He bears in His body all your flesh and blood.

Look at the cradle!

In the body of the little child, in the incarnate Son of God,

your flesh, all your distress, anxiety, temptation,

indeed all your sin,

is borne, forgiven, and healed."

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Favorite movie by Christmas lights.

.let every heart prepare him room.

...working on that universal december-balance question

of truly making the most of this month

without hitting that point where it becomes exhausting and defeats the point.

i feel pretty happy with it so far.

i don't feel like i'm doing too much,

but i am trying to have intentional activities 

that make me (and hopefully others) feel happy,

help me love God and remember His coming,

and are fun and festive and Christmasy.

...in the last week...

i made and mailed some Advent love.

thinking about advent was so good for my heart,

i felt all christmas-package-proud of myself for getting to the post office,

and it also filled a Christmas-crafting need (hello, clothespins and twine! why yes i do love pinterest.)

...snowflake-making-to-christmas-songs afternoon with some beloved friends...

what snowflake doesn't look better with some chocolate on it. fo realz.

(can you get enough of this face? i can't. his, not mine.)

 the three year old made it! jk. it was kim.

...enjoying weather that feels like Christmas!!!...

...so much town fun...

like the annual kids' craft sale at the library!

(and please note the hug happening behind them. it made me happy that i got that on camera.

um, i'm not creepy.)

...one of my favorite Newberg nights of the whole year...

with some of my most favorite people (any time of the year)

...advent readings this year: mostly meditating on Christmas carols (seriously), but also enjoying some selections from this again...

...a long wonderful saturday date by a fire...

...actually going into the city like we live near it or something to see the lights...

...an evening of gingerbread house making!...

 ...and starting to decorate my little home. hoping to get the tree up tomorrow!

.hoping for much of that last one, to you and yours.