Category: Chill December

Chill December · home · rhythm of a simple spirit · Winter · yellow day

A heart for home

A spirit of simplicity3 Comments

Wednesdays are a yellow day and in the morning I use a yellow candle on the kitchen table, a yellow dish towel hanging on the stove and a yellow dishcloth at the sink.

We usually do seafood for dinner. I stop at the market on the way home from work to pick it up fresh. It comes in from one of the local fishermen. We live in the seaside town we grew up in and went to school with most of the fishermen.

Wednesdays are laundry day. I wash all of the clothing and kitchen towels that we’ve used that week. There is only two of us so it’s not normally over two loads. On Saturdays I wash the bathroom towels, the bedding, and any other little things that didn’t get washed earlier in the week.

I use the colour pink to categorize self-care. Wednesday’s are the day I check in with myself. What have I done for myself lately? What do I want to do for myself? What do I need to do for myself?

In 2020 I am going to pay a little more attention to how I do self-care. I will be 57 this year. I want to be happy with myself physically, mentally, and spiritually when I turn 60. So, I’m starting to make that happen this year.

I’d like to add some bible studies both on-line and perhaps at church. I have set up a walking routine for the winter months and in April, I plan to start running. Also, I plan to get a pedicure once a month. I don’t normally do this because I never seem to have the time. I’ve been letting my hair return to it’s natural colour. Which is brunette with a fair amount of grey. I don’t think I’ll be all grey till I’m well into my sixties. Self-care, for me, is not having to spend so much time and money at the hair dressers.

Strength and dignity are her clothing

and she laughs at the time to come.

She opens her mouth with wisdom

And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue

Make it pretty Monday

Home and garden Thursday

beloved · Chill December · Green day · home · Winter

Dark roast of the decade

A spirit of simplicity8 Comments

One day just after Christmas I was shopping at Whole Foods. I’m particular about what I buy there because they are quite expensive. They do have nice flowers at a reasonable price and bulk goods as well. I was there for panettone, which I just discovered this year, where has it been all of my life? It’s so delicious we ate 2 loaves and I had to go back for another one! Panettone French toast is to die for!

Unfortunately, we ate it all up before taking a photo. Even the third loaf was gone before we knew what was happening. Suffice to say that it was slathered with fresh butter and drenched in real maple syrup! Yum!

I stumbled across this coffee and thought…there’s only few more days left to this decade, if I don’t get it now it will be too late!

The year 2020 is going to be a year that I pay more attention to how I do self-care. So on Monday I went and got a pedicure. It felt wonderful and my toes look much prettier.

As you can see, Tucker, Joe and I had a nice quiet New Year’s Eve. I took this picture from my place on the couch…we were all in bed and sound asleep quite a bit before the ball dropped.

Today is my first day back at school/work since just before Christmas. The lovely thing about being a teacher is having Christmas break! I’ve spent quite a bit of that break walking all over town and starting the process of getting myself back into some sort of healthy shape. This is one of the little boat yards just around the corner.

Yesterday I spent the day at my daughter’s house. Her birthday is next week and I brought up the ingredients for her favourite dinner and a delicious oatmeal spice cake with chocolate cinnamon ganache. Bonnie went out to spend an afternoon sans children and Verne, Abigail, and I spent the day cuddling up on the couch watching movies. Verne helped me make the ganache and dinner was ready when Bonnie and my son-in-law got home. It was a win-win for everyone!

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beloved · Chill December · purple day · Winter

Farewell little Christmas tree

A spirit of simplicity1 Comment

Lay them carefully away,

Trimmings from our tree so gay,

Rainbow-light and frosted ball,

Silver star high over all,

Santa Claus and candy cane,

Reindeer in a jaunty train,

Dolly with a piquant face,

Red and green and tinsel lace,

Lay them carefully away,

For another happy day!

For another day next year

With the children gathered here!

Yellow-hair and curly-lash,

Dark-haired girl with crimson sash,

Brother growing tall and wise,

Happy wonder in his eyes.

Hearth-fire, will you shine as bright

As you did the Christmas night?

Can ensuing days be spent

Harboring this deep content?

Farewell, little Christmas tree,

You have made a memory!

This poem was written by my great-aunt Very Keevers Smith and published in a book of poetry she titled Poems of a Busy Mother. It was published in 1959.

Make it pretty Monday

Home and garden Thursday

Our home away from home

acres of sky · Chill December · home · Indigo day · Winter

The rhythm of a simple spirit

A spirit of simplicity3 Comments

I am not much of a resolution maker. I do like to choose a word for the year though, and this year I’ve chosen the word hope.

I also like to reset my own inner rhythm and with that the rhythm of my days.

I have become accustomed to both a morning routine and an evening routine.

These routines set up my day and allow me to run smoothly and also calm me at evening so that I sleep well and am prepared for tomorrow.

At the beginning of the new year I reevaluate my daily tasks, my thought processes, and the position that my heart is in.

I try to tune in to the natural world around me and find a simple and spiritual rhythm to set my inner metronome to.

Yes, there are storm in nature. Waves that crash errantly against the shore but under the chaos there is the rhythm of tide…ebb and flow, ebb and flow, ebb and flow.

I know there will be times throughout the year that may be filled with chaos, sorrow, and even joy…things that will not be under my control – things that I cannot know or even think of yet.

It’s the rhythm of the tide that I seek…they rhythm of the earth spinning, the sun and the moon and the stars. The rhythm of the seasons changing, the rhythm of my own heart beating and the rhythm of my own lungs breathing in and breathing back out again.

And when I have sat still enough to feel this rhythm…then I begin to add my own dance within it. A place for morning worship and evening prayer, a place for daily tasks and for self-care, a place for those I love, a place for driving to work and coming home again at end of day.

My own circadian rhythm that beats with the ocean, the leaves on the trees, the sun, and the seasons.

acres of sky · beloved · Chill December · Green day · Winter

Family Friday

A spirit of simplicity2 Comments

Saturday was our family Christmas gathering. Abigail and Verne were the stars of the show!

My sister’s eyesight is improving. She is able to see very large type but things are still quite hazy. We had much to celebrate. She is holding an orange clove pomander that wee made in honor of the winter solstice. My aunt is one pointing at it.

We spent Christmas Day at my daughter’s house. It was a treat to be able to spend so much time with Verne and Abigail.

We took the back roads home from my daughter’s house on Christmas Day. We drove past the pond around the corner from her house and it was frozen over and filled with a family having an impromptu hockey game together after their Christmas dinner.

Joe fell asleep in his recliner on Christmas Eve while wearing his Santa hat. I couldn’t resist sneaking a picture…he made me think of Santa taking a well deserved rest.

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