Our Holiday

I hope you all had a joyous holiday surrounded by loved ones! 

We had a lovely one and have been enjoying the time together just the 5 of us, hence the lack of bloggyness on my behalf. 

We had 2 birthdays too! My husband on the 23rd and our oldest son turned 10 on Christmas Day! Our baby boy will be turning 1 in just over a week....and I'm so not ready. This year flew by faster than any other I can recall. 

As we approach New Years I am looking forward to more cuddling, hot tea, and watching more snowflakes fall. 

From our family to yours: A Very Happy New Years!!!!

And now stay tuned for a photo onslaught :)

retreat

I woke up today and everything looks as if it shrank overnight.  All of my plants, that were open and basking in the "warmth" of the past two days are now shriveled and shivering.  My sensitive plant does, indeed, shiver.  He also gets mad when I move him around, turns a few leaves yellow and drops them in defiance.  The entire plant crew is looking scared and reserved today and no doubt the drop in temperature from a "balmy" 40 degrees to a painfully oppressive 5 degrees (windchill -8!) is the culprit.

Kind of fitting though, all of the shrinking and retreating inward, less than two full days before the new year.  I plan to do the same.  It's been a really long time since I've attended any kind of New Year's Eve festivities and I'm ok with that.  I've had my share of the sparkles and noisemakers, the champagne and countdowns.  I've staged early countdowns for kids that shouldn't be up too late and I've let a few actually stay up until midnight.  

This year, I'm all about ease.  I have to work on New Year's Eve and busy days at work usually mean I have an evening of recharging on my couch ahead of me.  I have this crazy idea to set my intention for the coming year by where I choose to focus the evening before.  Of course I want fun and parties and loved ones and midnight kisses for the coming year but I also want peace and quiet.  I want to be warm and rested.  I want to snuggle my family and have down-time.  

I also want to be prepared.

So tomorrow night, with pen & paper in hand, I'm going to curl up in the corner of my couch.  Feet tucked under the cushion, wrapped up in the coziest blanket I can find, I'm going to ring in the new year and let the ideas flow into my ideas journal where they will patiently wait for their chances to shine in 2014.

and I'll probably fall asleep before midnight.  ;)

St. Nicholas Day

Do you celebrate St. Nicholas Day? I never had even heard of it until last year when my children came home from school on December 6th upset because they were the only kids who didn't wake up to a shoe or stocking filled with treats from the saint. 

Apparently St. Nicks Day is much more popular here in Wisconsin than in my native New England. It makes sense, it's a German holiday and this is a predominantly German region. Interestingly, this is our first year doing a Waldorf inspired homeschool and St.Nicholas day is also celebrated amongst many Waldorf families.

This year I was not going to be without a plan on the eve of December 5th. 

St. Nicholas was a real person, who really helped other people. The day isn't about gobs of presents, rather a few treats and maybe a trinket. 

I found some sweet hollow chocolates from Germany for the older 2 boys, and since the baby can't have candy I made him a small set of clothespin dolls with knit hats and scarves. 

After stockings were opened, we had a nice discussion of things we could do to help others. We planned a meal for a family with a child in the hospital and the boys made a plan to shovel for our widowed neighbor. 3 snowstorms in and they have kept their commitment :)

I think St. Nicholas day is becoming one of my favorite traditions of the holiday season. 

How do you celebrate St. Nicks day? If you haven't before will you next season? 

This website has some excellent info, history, and ideas for celebrating!

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/st-nicholas-day/   

Happy Holidays!!!

Twas a week before Christmas and all through the house...

A BIG MESS.

Every year I tell myself that I'm going to get all of my crafting done early and enjoy the week before Christmas with movies, zoo lights, Christkindlmarket but NO! NO! NO! Santabecky is busy again this year.

Tonight I'm forcing my darling boy to listen to Christmas music on pandora while I package up another set of candles for wholesale (anyone local to the west burbs o' Chicago, I'll tell ya where to find them).  Finishing up the last of the etsy orders, smiling all the way.  Every minute I spend preparing packages and wrapping up my creations is a moment of true joy for me, it really is.

when you run out of proper branded labels...

...you improvise.

my favorite scent of all time

Only 4 more orders to go!  What are YOU working on right now?

Early Un-Resolutions

I'm terrible with New Year's Resolutions.  List-making, in general, is difficult for me and usually causes more anxiety than motivation.  This year I decided to do something a little different.

First off, I'm starting early; waaaaaay before winter solstice, even.
Second, I'm listing things I'm going to do MORE of, instead of ways I need to improve myself.  My usual lists include things about losing weight, cleaning the house, etc... how I'm not doing enough and insisting that MORE DISCIPLINE is the answer.  More discipline is never the answer for an indigo like me, that's for sure.

So here it is, my Un-Resolutions for December 2013-December 2014:

1.  I'm going to keep myself thoroughly hydrated and well-rested.  If something is off and I'm not feeling 100%, my first line of rebalancing is to drink water and take a nap!

2.  I'm going to keep my body energized and active, at least once a day.  Going for a walk, dancing in the kitchen, doing a cartwheel in the parking lot after work... whatever it takes.  This is the only body I get and if I can wake it up at least once a day, I think it will do wonders for my energy and mood.

3.  Keep a sabbath.  Doesn't matter which day, but at least one day a week is for family, for recharging and to ENJOY.  As it stands right now, I have one reason or another to be out the door by 745 EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. of the week.  My Sundays will free up in January so that's a major step in the right direction.

4.  My 20 minutes "in house".  I do so much better throughout the day if I've had 20 minutes to myself in the morning or 20 minutes to myself before bed the previous night.  Often I meditate, but I've noticed that since I'm out of practice, I'm only up to 11 minutes before I lose focus.  Something to work on in the months ahead, for sure.  I get my best creative ideas in the silence, too, so... win-win.

5.  Smile pretty!  I've noticed that in my attempts to cram every little task into my already draining schedule not only do I fail miserably at accomplishing even half of what needs to be done, but I also look pretty haggard doing it.  If I have to fall and make mistakes, I can at least look cute on the way down!  I'm not a huge makeup girl but I am DETERMINED to figure out the cat eye.  I'm aiming to be "selfie-ready" at least half the week, any week... and really, if we aren't selfie-ready, are we really ready at all?? ;)

6.  RENEGADE.  This is an actual goal goal that I'm slipping in at the end.  This holiday season, I've had a bigger demand for my handmade creations than I've ever seen and it has my inner artist beaming.  I did an art festival this past fall and I was totally bit by the craft fair bug.  I'd like to expand and do more of what I love, which is creating!  My ultimate goal is to be ready to vend at Renegade Craft Fair (which runs twice in Chicago in the fall and closer to Christmas).  It's a big goal to aim for but I feel that it will make me make a conscious effort to create and offer my goods both online and in local fairs throughout the year, and one major goal for the year is about all I am ready for.


Thinking about resolutions yet?  Ready to make un-resolutions with me?  Coincidentally, tomorrow's full moon is in Gemini which reminds us to revamp our "wish-lists" and focus on what we really want from the days ahead.

So, come on and Un-resolve with me in the comments below or if you blog about your own un-resolutions, list the link below so we can cheer you on!

A Thanksgiving Reflection

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! At the moment I'm very thankful I'm feeling well enough to cook tomorrow as I've had a rough go of it this week. But I'm on the upswing and the pumpkin pie is baked and tomorrow promises a morning filled with a busy kitchen and some great food! 

As I was rolling out pie crust tonight I got to thinking about thankfulness. Some people choose to pick something to be thankful for each day of November, others will perhaps take turns going around the table tomorrow and sharing their thankfulness while enjoying turkey. 

All great choices, but sometimes I wonder how deeply we reflect on the powerful moments that shape what we are thankful for. 

One of the most common responses is being thankful for ones family (which of course is a wonderful response). Let's face it, we'd kinda be assholes if we didn't say we were thankful for our family, our children, our significant other. But it want to take it deeper than that. 

This summer I had the most powerful experience of my life. The experience that showed me just how deep the bonds of siblings run. The experience that defines thankfulness for this family of mine.

We welcomed our 3rd beautiful baby boy last January. 

In May we found out that he was born with a condition called craniosynostosis and would need major skull surgery in July. We were beside ourselves with anxiety over it. I can't even remember much about the weeks leading up to surgery, I didn't sleep much and was pretty much a mess. 

Surgery was hard. Because of a hereditary bleeding disorder (sorry boys, you got that from mama) he had to stay sedated for 24 hours post op. That was the hardest. Not being able to hold your baby for 24 hours,while you watch them moan through the pain despite morphine and being sedated....well it makes your heart break a little. 

When he finally was able to come out of sedation the swelling really kicked in. I could now pick him up but his head was so swollen it felt like 3 times the size. His big beautiful eyes swelled shut, all but a little sliver shone through on his left eye. He moaned but was otherwise unresponsive to us, and then the most amazingly powerful thing I've ever witnessed happened. His big brothers arrived. As soon as he heard their voices and felt their hands holding his, my sweet little baby started to babble to them. He even smiled a little. Those wonderful big brothers, even though they were a bit dismayed by the incision across their baby brothers head, and his face which now resembled a sumo wrestler (even his poor little ears swelled) they just kept rubbing his hands and talking to him. And that's when I knew just how amazing the bond my children have with each other is.

It's that moment I thought about while mixing up the pumpkin pie. I'll never forget it, not in all my days. The love of siblings, the love of a family. 

So this Thanksgiving, as you're passing around the cranberry sauce and the gravy, take a moment to really think about the powerful experiences that have shaped your thankfulness. 

And do share them here :)

Work In Progress: The Startover Scarf

Backstory:  I started making this scarf for someone I've never met.  It's a friend of a friend that has been going through a lot of challenges lately and basically has to start from scratch.  He somehow ended up here, in Chicago, right before winter hits without even a winter coat.  As my friend was finishing his story about this person, I picked up my knitting needles and started this scarf.  

I named this piece "The Startover Scarf" because it's a part of someone's new beginning.  Little did I know that it would take on a life of it's own and live up to its name before all is said and done...

...this is the 3rd time I've pulled apart and restarted this scarf.

(startover, indeed)

I'm using super bulky wool and size 17 needles (yeah baby).  How long will it be?  Until the yarn runs out.  :)

I have a picture in my head of a double or triple wrap scarf that connects with 2 big wood buttons.

Manly and adorable all at the same time, plus it's wool so it will be nice and warm for the winter.

I'm at the halfway point right now... time to finish up, add the buttons and send it off to its new owner!

What are YOU working on right now?