This morning I was overwhelmed in reading this article in our local paper about 700+ families in the local area who had NOTHING for their kids this Christmas.

One of my favorite things to do every Christmas is to shop for gifts off of the angel tree at church. I had a terrible time this year finding the specific toys requested. In some cases, I drove around to four or five stores to find the right thing.

My irritation at finding the presents seems so silly now.

It was interesting to see how the people furnished and decorated the spaces.

Most, if not all of them, had:

• a grandfather clock
• smallish kitchens
• furniture of all styles and periods mixed together
• a print–A View of Winchester
• formal dining rooms
• original paintings
• beautiful drapes

It struck me how understated many of the houses were. “Old money” vs the ostentatious display of new wealth.

The houses were also filled with items of meaning–things the owners had clearly picked because they loved them, and they were interesting items even though, in many cases, they didn’t match.

Food for thought as I look around our house.

Fill your house and life with people and things you love and bring you joy and have meaning–get rid of the rest.

Now off to the storage room….

If there is anyone out there reading this, hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

I just purchased this pattern for a quiet book from SW designs on Etsy. May be a bit ambitious for my sewing skill level, but I want to try at least a couple of the letters for my good friend’s daughter’s christmas present. I am also excited about this Color Book Kit from the same shop.

I have been checking out preschools for LM since he will be going next year, and I want to make it to a couple of open houses this year. There is a Montessori school in our town, so I looked into that as well. There are six areas covered in Montessori: Practical Life, Sensorial, Cultural, Science, Language, and Math.

We do a fair amount with the Practical Life, Sensorial, and Language already. I had not really thought much about teaching the cultural though. I looked tonight for a world map, and I have some ideas like cutting pictures from my travel magazines and putting them on the right places on the map. I have tons of those magazines and should put them to good use because goodness knows we are not traveling any far in the near future.

Money–I read a fair amount of blogs written by women with families, and none of them discuss money. Maybe I am reading the wrong blogs, or all of the same type, but I find it interesting that out of all of these women who write the most intimate thoughts about their children, spouses, and sex lives do not write anything about money. I find this very intriguing. Something to think about….

I love my son very much and love spending time with him, but honestly when I get home from work most days all I want to do is decompress and rest. All he wants to do is play with me. Chanting “time to play” “time to play” and tugging on my hand. How can one resist. I think I would enjoy being a stay at home mom. I wish there was some way that I could take a sabbatical from work and just try it out before actually quitting.

I waste too much time surfing around Flickr. Less time at the computer and more time doing my projects is what I should do.

I wish we did not have a TV. I find myself watching too much of it when I am tired. I don’t even really like very many shows. I would be better served just going to bed.

Clutter–I have written about this before. I was looking at pictures from a thousand words. I really like her decorating style and photographs, but I had to chuckle when she posted photographs of her “messy” house. I should post some of my house for comparison sake and a good laugh. My sisters give me the hardest time. No matter what I do; no matter how disciplined I am, there is always a stack of something on the kitchen countertop. I just cannot seem to get rid of it. At least in this house, the dining room table remains clean. I don’t know, maybe I am giving myself too hard of a time. Afterall, my child is fed, loved, and clean (at least before bedtime); my husband and I have a strong commitment and love to each other; we usually have groceries, and the level of actual dirt and grime in the house is relatively low. (we live in the country, so it is virtually impossible to keep all dirt and mud out all of the time.) The dog has food and water, and I even manage to get some sewing and other projects done.

Keep things in perspective. We are so blessed to have this wonderful house and all of our family nearby and healthy. Have you read this about the woman and her husband from the Nie Nie Dialgoues?

It doesn’t seem possible, but I already feel the press of Thanksgiving and Christmas upon me. ugh. I really like both of those holidays. I just need to find a way to do the things that really need to be done and that I enjoy and let go of the rest. I really do not like buying presents for people who do not need anything just for the sake of buying them something.

Had no intention of writing so much tonight. It is good to get these random thoughts out of my head; maybe I will get some rest this evening.

If there is anybody out there reading this, have a good night and upcoming week.

Just for kicks, here is a funny picture of me from the eighth grade. That hair required a special technique of blow drying and hair spray

Despite the forecast for rain, the bad weather held off for a very special day. Granny was just tickled to be in the parade, and we all felt very blessed that she was well enough to participate.

The parade was just the right length–about fifteen minutes and had all of the elements of a good parade: fire truck, girl and boy scouts, candy, clown, a big flag, historic vehicles, and the color guard.

Shepherdstown is a cute town. I had been there only once before and didn’t really have any time to look around. One Two Kangaroo is a great toy store; I could have dropped several hundred dollars in there. They had a lot of wooden toys and Melissa and Doug art supplies, which are our house’s favorite. There was also this baby store, Lullaby Lu, that had some of the most beautiful handmade items in it that I have ever seen.

After the parade, everyone came over to our house for supper. It was pouring rain though by that time, so we moved everything inside. Too bad–I had planned on having a campfire with smores and had gotten bubbles for all of the kids. Oh well, maybe next time.

Went to Joann’s Fabric store this afternoon and got fabric to make S a dress. I’ll post pics when it is finished.