Advent Week 3: Angels We Have Heard

 

In days of old, a man entertained strangers often.  Doors were opened and the stranger was welcomed within.  No decent man would turn away a stranger who appeared.  In Biblical times, hospitality was not simply inviting someone to stay to supper.  It was a spiritual obligation as much as a personal one to offer one's home and comforts to a weary traveler.  It was more than entertainment.  Hospitality was something deeper.  It was a reverence for the person, stranger though they might be.  Hospitality was an offering of refuge, refreshment, rest, and restoration.  It was the essence of 'Love thy neighbor'.

The Week Ahead: Double Time

I'm going to skip the room reviews until the end of the year.   

In my home this week, I'm going to be busy, busy.  I was thrown off my preparation plans for the Family Day last week and this week will be hectic as can be as I try to get things ready.  I have gifts to wrap, cards to finish addressing, decorations to finish, cookies to bake, food to prepare and Caleb to keep all week long, as well.   It's going to be a busy week.  

The First Week Of Christmas

Saturday:  When he got up this morning, John lit the tree.  That made me smile.  I usually don't decorate it right away but it's still pretty and very pleasant if one is sitting in a semi-dark room which John was doing.  He didn't open the curtains behind the tree at all, and I left them closed so that he could enjoy the lights.

A Brief Coffee Chat

 

Hello dears, do come in.  There are Snickerdoodles and Hot Cocoa, Coffee and Tea.  Take your choice of hot drinks and come sit with me here near the sparkling Christmas tree which to date has only some inexpensive pinecone ornaments attached.   I plan to do more to the tree, but Caleb...hence the inexpensive pinecones.  I know that his little fingers are so tempted and if no one is the room he must touch and remove something from it as he did this afternoon and who can blame him?  It's asking far too much of a two-year-old who is entranced by this lovely tree that has appeared in the middle of his favorite window, to also say "Don't touch" and think he's going to mind.  Of course, he's going to touch!  and stand and stare and talk to himself before it.

Advent Week 2: Prepare the Way

 

Often enough the waiting season comes on the heels of a hard season, one in which we'd already begun to question the reasons of our own place in life.  There is sometimes a shock when we find ourselves in the waiting zone, but waiting has many purposes.

1.  It's a time for rest.  Our time at synagogue came on the heels of 10 years of intense involvement, work and study within the churches and synagogue.  When John finally agreed to attend church with me, he encouraged us to be active in services, study groups and activities.   We often attended church two or three days a week.  John entered a period of intense creativity and wrote numerous songs, got involved with the worship team at church and became an ordained worship leader for our synagogue.  I started a church newsletter at one church and volunteered for various activities, including church clean up.  John mowed grass.  We planned vacations to fall between church services.

In My Home This Week: The First Week of Christmas

I think this is likely a style from the very late 1920s or early 1930.  I thought it would be fun to share various rooms throughout the house, but I have to say that honestly dining rooms are pretty much classic, aren't they?  I would think the hutch was newish to the era but the buffet at the back is common enough and seen from the 1800's onward.

The Duncan Phyfe style table and chairs shown here were very popular around this period and many reproductions appeared.  I saw this style often in older family homes during my childhood.  The buffet in the room is likely a holdover from Victorian days and probably was a family piece.  But that China hutch?  20th century.  The secretary to the left here might well be another antique, older than the buffet.  This room is a true mixture of modern and antique and yet manages to be harmonious.  

Diary of a Homemaker: New Days Ahead, Part 2

 

Sunday:  Up early this morning as John was off to church and I had Caleb coming so that Katie could work an extra shift.     After John left home, I realized with a start that he'd had no breakfast.  I was so in the Caleb schedule zone that I never even thought of making anything before he arrived.   As for John, I hate he left without eating, but we (including himself) all know that he knows where foods are kept and how to make them.  I like doing things such as that for him but if it's obvious I'm unwell or zoned into a different schedule he can make anything he likes without fuss from me.