we light today's candle remembering to hope:
        See, darkness covers the earth
        and thick darkness is over the peoples
        but the LORD rises upon you
        and his glory appears over you.

       Nations will come to your light,
       and kings to the brightness of your dawn.  
                            ~isaiah 60:2-3

i love this verse of hope in this advent hymn:
       yea, amen! let all adore thee
       high on thine eternal throne;
       saviour, take the power and glory;
       claim the kingdom for thine own;
       alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! thou shalt reign, and thou alone.

advent ideas for week one

• an advent wreath is so simple - four candles in a circle, three purple and one rose-colored, with a center white pillar candle. light one candle a week, starting with a purple candle (the tird week is the pink candle).
• at the beginning of advent we find ourselves celebrating st. nicholas. read about this real man here. you can also find resources at this site for family crafts, recipes, and traditions to celebrate a real man (a saint!).  how does st. nicholas tie into the christmas story?
  
• for st. nicholas day, make bishop cookies (recipe below) and pass around to friends, family, and neighbors.
  

this is a recipe for a traditional Nicholas cookie that comes out of the Rhineland. The cookie is called "Speculatius" which means "image." In Europe, the "image" is the mirror-image of a Nicholas which had been pressed into a wooden mold and then turned out on a sheet to bake in the oven. As we don't have these molds, we roll out dough and use a cardboard pattern (about 7-inches tall) of a gingerbread bishop to cut around for the basic shape and everyone further decorates it as the imagination dictates.

Mix in order:

1 cup shortening
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs whole
¾ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 cups flour
4 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons allspice
2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cloves

Turn out onto a floured board. Knead in about one cup additional flour or as much as you need until dough is no longer sticky and is easy to handle.

Put into a plastic bag and refrigerate until chilled and stiff. Then you are ready to roll out and cut the cookies. Cut off a manageable piece and keep the rest cool until you are ready for more.

For many little cut-out shapes, roll out the dough thinly. Thin cookies are tastiest.

For the larger, decorated St. Nicholas cookies, roll the dough to about ¼ inch thickness. Cut out cookie around paper pattern. Place on greased baking sheet.Then get inspired. Use scrappy bits of dough to decorate your Nicholas. For a beard press a little dough through a sieve or a garlic press. Use little balls of dough for eyes or buttons.

The same dough lends itself to all sorts of shapes and symbols and is useful for making "St. Nicholas awards" to certain people on this special occasion.

Bake at 350º F. until golden-brown. These keep forever in tins in the freezer or for two–three weeks on the shelf.

i've been blogging here at smithical for a little over 3 years - when i was still pregnant with sawyer! when i first started, i only read mommy blogs. all i cared about in this world was raising my kids, so that's all i wanted to read about - other mothers and their experiences, trials, and joys of raising kids.

not that that has changed much, because i still crave the presence of other mothers, love to glean advice and support from other mothers, and still read several blogs dedicated to blogging. the next year, my blog subscriptions changed a bit. i added friends and family blogs, as they started their own, or i finally discovered an old blog of theirs. i read blogs from cooks, blogs on reading, and blogs on hobby farming (specifically chicken-raising).  and now? my blogline feeds are about 75% crafting blogs. this may sound corny, but i specifically love the crafting blogs dedicated to family living. two of these that are GOOD stick out in my mind: i have to say... and soulemama. these two blogs have really influenced my desire to make and create, and mostly for the sake of my family and friends. "i have to say..." has another blog called me and my girl in which she reports and demonstrates sewing projects (and other crafting) that she does with her daughter. soulemama is in the process of writing her second book and has one to be published this spring. go to today's post: she has a great list of lovely winter books - some of which we own, some are already on our wishlist!

i learned a little from blogging every day this november: mainly that i like to put words out here in cyberspacae and sometimes i care if i get comments, other days i forget that i've blogged and when a few emails pop into my inbox telling me i've received some new comments, i'm pleasantly surprised.

thanks for reading along every day this month. i'll be back - but not as often - in december!

today was a gorgeous day. the forcast called for rain and snow, but there was no precipitation at all and loads of sunshine.

but do you remember me whining about how we haven't gotten any of our leaves picked up yet? we did a bit of the front, and a bit of the back so far, but going outside and walking around (especially if you're only 18 months old) is very difficult in long grass and heavy leaves. so it makes days like this hard to enjoy outside.

fortunately, we were able to spend an hour picking up the leaves around the boys' jungle gym, and we hope to finish the rest of the yard on saturday. because saturday night we are expected to get a snowstorm. and last year, once it snowed, the snow was on the ground for weeks and weeks. and weeks and weeks.

there are days when i wish a leaf blower was all we needed. but then, the boys wouldn't have all this room to roam....

this year, we're really going to observe advent. we talk about it every year and last year we got somewhere with some of our traditions, but this year, we're really going to observe advent, and celebrate christmas on the twelve days after christmas, culminating in a 12th night celebration.

i am noticing a lot more talk of "getting presents" between rowan and sawyer this year. they're getting more and more excited about christmas, and while i don't want to steal their excitement in the giddiness of receiving, i want them to also begin to get excited about giving. i know they have it in them. this year, i made a raggedy ann doll for my niece ramona, and the boys fell in love with her as she grew from fabric in a bag to torso with a face to doll with hair and clothes. they constantly asked to play with her and did everything they could to keep raggedy ann a secret from ramona until we opened gifts on thanksgiving night. i think it was sawyer who just couldn't wait any longer and told laura (ramona's mom) about the doll the day before thanksgiving. but when it was time to give the doll to ramona, as she opeend the present, sawyer stood over her dancing from one foot to another, totally giddy to see raggedy ann in her new owner's arms. when she opened the present sawyer scooped up the doll and held it up high for her parents to see and then finally gave it to ramona.

so in advent, we will prepare our hearts from the coming of the chirist child and His return. i am looking into some celebrations for the different days in advent (the four sundays, st. nicholas day, st. lucia day, etc..). i'll share what we find and what works and flops this year. i have a feeling it will take us a few advents to figure out what traditions are good for our family. but i can't wait to see what takes shape as we learn how to prepare our hearts for the coming of the King.

Thanks to Stephanie, a fellow blogger and lover of sewing, I was tagged for this meme. I'm going tag Sursumcorda (because I know how much she LOVES memes!), Kelly (Kelly, my link goes to your husband's blog and I can't find your's anywhere - do you still have a blog?), Bonnie, Reynie, and Serina.

 5 facts about me, some random and some odd:

 1. I used to live two blocks away from Princess Diana. For six whole months.
 2. I had better seats than Prince Charles at a play in Stratford Upon Avon. I "discovered" him at the end of intermission, couldn't watch the rest of the play because I was star-struck, royally pissed off the little old lady behind me (she called me a damn yankee! Really!) because I was distracting her by staring too much at the Prince.
 3. I cannot eat meat with gristle or fat. Once I bite into a piece of fat or gristle, I'm done with meat for a good long time.
 4. I have a soft spot for cheesy music. Like Barry Manilow, Air Supply, Sheena Easton, and Styx.
 5. I think it's all the rain we've been having, but I'm just not anywhere near being in the Christmas spirt this year. Normally I can't wait for the Christmas seaons, but this year, I could probably do without it. I'll just have my Advent and move on, thank you.

Here are the meme rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Don’t break the chain!

i can't speak highly enough of a particular book series that has been in our home now for two months. i recently read somewhere that when your child can recognize their name written down, they are ready to begin reading. rowan has recognized his name for several months now, so i jumped at the chance to begin teaching him to read.

i scoured web sites and blogs for recommendations on "how to teach your child to read" books but none of them grabbed my attention as much as the bob books. these books are not teaching books so much as fun little books that make it fun for your child to read by themselves. i bought the first in the series two months ago. the books are full of short words and characters with short names like Mat and Mac. they have pets like a dog and a cat. filler words like "mad" and "sat" complete the story.

both rowan and sawyer sat down with me on our couch and we opened the first book: rowan began sounding out the first word: MMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT. MMAATT. MAT! MAT! all i was doing was pointing at the letter and he made the letter's sound as my finger went across the word. he immediately learned how to sound out letters in a word. that first day, he completeled reading one whole "bob book" on his own - without my prompting him in his sounding-out.

sawyer is so eager to read them just as he hears his big brother reading it. he knows the sounds of letters, but is still learning the lower case letters - he doesn't quite recognize them as quickly as rowan does. adam loves the books because they're just his size. they're a little bigger than the larger-type index cards and only 10-15 pages long. he sits with one of the books in his lap turning a few pages at once making the same sounds he hears rowan saying: "MMM," "CCCC" or "TTTT."

i'm loving watching the excitement rowan has when we tell him how proud we are of him. i love the enthusiasm of learning he's displaying. can i wrap this up and save it for everything he and his brothers need to learn? will they always be so enthusiastic about learning new things? i'm excited for the day that all three of them are sitting in their favorite spots devouring a favorite book on their own.

tonight, i carry on the cleaning frenzy. i hadn't one moment to straighten up over the past few days. fortunately, i had a lot of help from guests cleaning up in the kitchen, but the rest of the house was neglected by me, and now it's getting a clean sweep through. i'm only straightening...the cleaning will come once we bring up the christmas decorations. and since we only put them away just a few months ago (hey - at least they were in a box in the corner of the living room, and not still displayed!), i'm not in any hurry to bring them back up. but for the sake of the kids, a christmas tree will happen, and so will the twinkle lights.

tomorrow is laundry day, play-time, and down-time. perhaps a batch of cookies will be made.

next sunday begins advent...my favorite time of year. we have a busy week in preparation for advent...lists and gifts; traditions to begin and to carry on. i will probably blog a little less (especially after another post-a-day-november), but hopefully get to spend some solid time preparing and waiting; as is advent.

it's late-ish night, and i'm about to have a late night bowl of cereal. is anyone else a cereal-at-night snacker? i actually prefer it to morning...

today's entry is is short. it'd be sweet if i didn't choose raisin bran for my bowl-o-cereal choice for the night...so it's just short. we still have a housefull of guests, and we're all in zombie-mode. :)

g'night.

Thanksgiving Chickens Adventure
After getting to the 400-mile place, Uncle Kenny and Aunt Lizzy's house, we begged and begged. Finally he let us go see his CHICKENS! When we go thtere, all 15 chickens were asleep. When we went back, mom said it was time for bed. We couldn't sleep so we got lucky...mom let us stay up for a couple more minutes!

The next morning, we got dressed. Uncle Kenny said that we could go out, feed the chickens and see if there are any eggs. They layed three eggs and I got to feed the chickens two times! Uncle Kenny told us we could feed the chickens scraps later on, when the rain cleared. I was having a great day!

I also got to make a turkey. I also payed the piano. I also made a craft. I also made a friend named Miss Pretty Pretty (a brown araucana).

The End.

I can tell you for sure that there were a few more visits out to see/feed the chickens (those chickens had their very own thanksgiving meal scrap plate), and much more talk about how they were doing.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

if rowan is this excited about thanksgiving, i can't wait to see his anticipation of christmas. we are busy and bustling around today...the kitchen hasn't had a moment of peace.  we have some baby backs in the smoker for dinner tonight to go along with a mexican lasagna, steak fries and steamed broccoli.

thanksgiving checklist:
 - turkey has been picked up and chilling in the fridge
 - two pumpkin pies baked and cooling, one apple pie cooking
 - stuffing assembled in the garbage bag
 - beer and wine chilling in the fridge
 - one visiting family here, one on the way
 - presents made and wrapped

and looky at what i get to snuggle with anytime i want (and give back to the proud mama and papa when she starts to fuss)...this is baby astrid millay, 3 1/2 weeks old.

every night, we are asked the same question by rowan: "how many sleeps until ramona gets here, and then how many sleeps until sadie and gabe get here?"

today, ramona and astrid and their parents (my brother andrew and his wife, laura) arrived safely here in our little neck of the woods. we enjoyed a big dinner at mom and dad's house across the street while sawyer found his wrestling match in ramona. the girl can body-slam like hulk hogan. they wrestled and played, giggled and ran around. tomorrow, the rest of the cousins arrive. sadie and gabe have a little baby brother, charlie...but last time rowan and sawyer saw him he was merely a baby blob. they probably won't remember him until he's old enough to wrestle either.

as i type, our three boys are snuggled up sleeping soundly ready for the big day before thanksgiving: when everyone is here, we get our turkey, and the house fills with smells of apple and pumpkin pies.