Seed pods and harvest

Harvest time.
My son and his family came for a weekend visit and the weather was perfect for spending time outdoors.  In this photo my grandsons are harvesting moonflower seeds.  The blooms on the moonflower vine were spent long ago and the foliage has nearly all dropped off the vine.  But the seed pods are full and heavy.  I showed my grandsons how to crack the dry pods open and retrieve the seeds.  The seeds will be held on to and stored until spring when we can plant them and wait once again for blooms.  From this one moonflower plant, four of my grandsons and I have harvested many seeds. (My oldest daughter visited last weekend and her two sons took a bag of seeds home with them.)
As we hold on to these seeds through the winter months, we often must hold on to our hopes and our dreams, patiently waiting through a cold winter of disappointment and despair before they bloom.  And as these seeds are hidden,  promises for us may be hidden - hidden in parts of our lives that have withered and dried.  Crack open those hiding places, trust in those promises, believe in those dreams, and patiently wait.  They will bloom.  Your blessings will multiply.

"An expectant hush, rather than a last-minute rush"

Let's approach Christmas with an expectant hush, 
rather than a last-minute rush. 

Anonymous

Expectant, not frantic.  Hushed, not boisterous.  Contemplative, not celebratory.
Advent is a time of waiting and preparation for Christ's coming.  Beginning with the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day (November 28 of this year) we prepare our hearts for the celebration.  We focus on  hope, joy, peace, and love.
When our children were growing  up we observed advent in our church worship services, but we also observed it at home.   I made an advent wreath.  We gathered around it at the dining room table to read scripture, light the candles, and sing advent hymns.  When the children had learned to play the flute and piano, they accompanied us.

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel's Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Setting up the advent wreath 1982

Our purpose and hope was to remind the children that the true joy of Christmas was not in the gifts under the tree, the cookies fresh from the oven, or the lights and decorations.  We wanted them to know in their hearts that "love came down" that first Christmas.  That we celebrate that love by sharing it with others.  That during advent we prepare our hearts to receive that love and to joyfully and expectantly wait for the second coming.

“Love came down at Christmas; love all lovely, love divine; love was born at Christmas, stars and angels gave the sign.”  Christina Rosseti

Our children have homes of their own now, and there are no little ones here to gather around our advent wreath.  But we realize that we weren't just doing it for the children.  We were doing it for ourselves, too.  Next week I'll set out my wreath with fresh candles.  The hymnal and the Bible will be close by.  We'll sing and read and prepare our hearts.

My husband blogged about advent and Christmas preparations in 2008 here.

For some advent resources go here.

Sweet dreams

Sleeping in the car - with your head on someone's shoulder - that's the way to travel.

(My oldest daughter at age 3, sleeping on my brother's shoulder.  My son and younger daughter resting on each other.)  

Who do you trust with your hair?

Life is an endless struggle full of frustrations and challenges,

but eventually you find a hair stylist you like. 

~Author Unknown

 

Cutting my son's hair 1982

My sister cutting my step-brother's hair 1975

 We've saved a lot of money in haircuts over the years, and not just from barbering the boys.  My sister and I started by using the scissors on our own heads when we were little girls.  I don't have that picture, but I've seen it - not a pretty sight.  But later on we improved on our skills.  My husband hasn't been to a barber since the early 1970s when he was required to have a military haircut.  My sister has been barber for both of her sons and her husband.  When her oldest was a toddler she cut his hair while he slept because that was the only time he was still enough. We had a beauty shop session on our last girls' weekend.  Shampooing, cutting, and styling someone's hair in this way is a laying on of hands of sorts. They're all intimate acts of service and the one receiving the service is putting trust in the giver.  Having someone shampoo and massage your scalp can be a healing experience.  

We hope to get together for girls' weekends several times a year - maybe we'll make the beauty shop sessions a regular part of them.  Those haircuts may not be professional, but they are blessings.

Sewing the memories

Easter 1982

When my girls were young I made Easter dresses for them every year.  The dresses they're wearing in this picture were my favorites.  They're slightly different variations of the same Vogue pattern, with tucks in the bodice and tucks around the hem.  The fabric was from Wade Mill where my mother-in-law worked and was printed with tiny rosebuds.  My son was wearing a Carolina blue John-John handed down from his cousin.  I wish I remembered what he was laughing about!
I made many of the dresses and other clothes that my girls wore when they were growing up.  I made costumes, confirmation dresses, cocktail dresses, and later their wedding dresses.  I made pocketbooks and book bags and Barbie doll clothes.  It gave me much joy. Most of those things are gone - handed down or worn out.  But they survive in these pictures, and for that I'm grateful. 

Ice cream and pigtails

My sister and my daughter cranking ice cream.

Summer 1974, making ice cream at my husband's parents home in Anson County.  Probably peach ice cream made with Georgia Bell peaches.  Hand cranked, the old-fashioned way.  It was our semi-annual visit to North Carolina during the years that we lived in Fairfax County, Virginia.  My sister, between her junior and senior years of college, was traveling through and stopped by for a visit.  We soaked up all that family time in those semi-annual visits and lived off of it for the next six months.  While in North Carolina we'd buy jars of Duke's mayonnaise and six packs of Cheerwine.  We ate crowder peas and Silver Queen corn and fresh tomatoes from my in-laws garden.  They'd give us jars of pickles to take home. 
My oldest daughter, then 3 1/2 years old, helped crank the ice cream.  She now has a 3 1/2 year old of her own.
Family, vegetables from the garden, homemade ice cream, and a 3-yr-old in pigtails.  Blessings all.

One photo, many blessings

So many blessings in this picture

• The man leaning against the lamppost is my husband.  He would soon be leaving me for four months in Coast Guard Officer Training School.  We swore we'd never spend another night apart after those four months.  His draft number was 29, but he escaped the draft by joining the Coast Guard.
• The coat he's wearing was his daddy's Navy pea coat, worn in World War II.  One day, years later, I left it in my unlocked car and someone stole it.  My husband wrote about it in his weekly newspaper column and a kind woman knocked on our door with her own husband's pea coat in her hands.
• The house in  the background is the much loved family lake house when it was only a few years old.
• The larger dog is Sam, who adopted us one summer.   He appeared one day and was so hungry that he tried  to eat the hose.  He loved us all but he and my dad had a special bond.
• The smaller dog is Zippy. She came to us when we were children and she was a puppy.  When Sam came to live with us Zippy was an old lady of a dog,  but Sam gave her a new outlook on life.  
• The car in the carport, a Carolina blue Toyota Corolla, was our first new car.  We kept it until our oldest child was old enough to drive it.

Gratitude is the memory of the heart.  ~Jean Baptiste Massieu, translated from French

A storehouse of blessings

Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day. ~Robert Caspar Lintner

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings! ~Henry Ward Beecher

Warm happy memories are like a storehouse of blessings.  When the days are long and dull and that normally thankful heart is having difficulty finding the blessing in every hour, we can draw on those happy memories.  They cheer us, bless us, and transport us.

A few months ago I purchased a relatively inexpensive slide scanner.  In the 1970s and early 1980s we used slide film for our photos.  We have boxes and boxes of slides stored in a trunk.  Occasionally we get out the slide projector and have a viewing, but digital photography has spoiled us.  And we want to be able to preserve the slide images and share them.  

And so I've been scanning - an entire tray at a time in the beginning and a few slides at at time recently.  The scanner doesn't like flash pictures or any pictures with a great difference in light levels.  But nevertheless, I am happy to get as many images as I can stored on my computer.  And even happier to be remembering all of those vacations and holidays when we were young parents with small children.

 Each one of those memories is a blessing.  Through the month of November, I want to share some of them with you.  

 We're a family of readers, and the children got an early start.  My oldest daughter was almost always happy to read to her sister and later to her brother.  

I did a little running in my younger days - even ran in a couple of 10ks.  My sister encouraged me and stuck with me through those races.  Here we are returning from a run on Thanksgiving Day in the early 1980s.  Don't you just love the socks?

Summer vacations at the lake - the hammock - so many great memories!

More to come - stay tuned!