Thursday, December 4, 2014

Beauty in the Day to Day



With winter here to stay, our days are slower.  I stay in my pajamas longer, doing the morning outside animal chores with them under my winter coat, hat and mittens.  Even that I now wait until about 8:30 to go out - to break the ice out of the goats' buckets, set up a bit of grain and leave the hay under their outdoor shelter before I let them out to get at least a couple hours of sunshine before the sun gets to low to reach them.

When I return inside the morning baking usually begins and I choose whatever household chore needs the most attention.

The children and I are doing a study of the names of Jesus for December with no other formal instruction so I usually have the name and Bible verse up on our blackboard painted wall.  They each have a book to write in and I try to engage each in a conversation about the name of the day as they come downstairs at different times to begin their day.

I also usually put out some sort of art supplies for the younger ones on a cleared dining room table. 

Our day then proceeds with each child mostly determining the direction of their day and my engaging the older ones in conversation about what they are working on.  They do have certain chores to do around the home and homestead.

Our business is what keeps us most busy right now - wood burning ornaments fills most of my afternoon along with packaging the ornaments and other orders.  I keep my mind focused on the fact that this is the holiday season for our business and it is completely possible that it may slow way down in January and February so I need to be thankful for each order that comes our way and not think about all of the other Christmas projects I would prefer to be working on - that does no good.

So as I scurry around the house, picking up here and there, cooking and baking, hanging laundry to dry, asking a little one to please be kind, wood burning, packaging, getting back to customers, etc, etc..  I am remembering to stop to knit in the rocking chair by the wood stove for even just a row or two,  hold my face to the sun when I am outside for a minute or two, and find bits of beauty in our rustic home.

7 comments:

  1. Sounds like a beautiful life! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely post! You have reminded me to look for the beauty in the day to day things!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Even though the everyday can be overwhelming, it is still quite beautiful. ...You have shown that through this post...thank you for that. Mari

    ReplyDelete
  4. what a lovely purposeful day. I tend to like days that have moments where I stop and focus and yours has them. I love the early morning especially before the sun shines and it's dark, quiet and my alone with coffee time. Something reverent about it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for such an inspiring post. You have a beautiful spirit and it shines through your writing. I'm so glad I found your site.

    ReplyDelete