Monday, November 30, 2015

Jesse Tree Day 1

My favorite Advent tradition is reading daily scripture passages that start with creation and cover all the major episodes in salvation history through the birth of Christ. I hope you will enjoy sharing these readings at your dinner table with the lighted Advent wreath as much as I have over the years. 


Your light will come, O Jerusalem. The Lord will dawn on you in radiant beauty. We shall see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. The sign of the cross shall appear in the heavens, when our lord shall come to judge the world.   ----A Prayer Book of Catholic Devotions
Day 1 ~ Creation

Ornament: earth


Reading: {Short form in brackets}

{Genesis 1:1, 27} Genesis 1 & 2

Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath

[a]In the beginning God created[b] the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit[c] of God was moving over the face of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth.” And it was so.12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation.
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

Another Account of the Creation

[d]In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist[e]went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Hav′ilah, where there is gold; 12 and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphra′tes.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; 22 and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,[f]
    because she was taken out of Man.”[g]
24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.




Jesse Tree Day 2

My favorite Advent tradition is reading daily scripture passages that start with creation and cover all the major episodes in salvation history through the birth of Christ. I hope you will enjoy sharing these readings at your dinner table with the lighted Advent wreath as much as I have over the years. 


Your light will come, O Jerusalem. The Lord will dawn on you in radiant beauty. We shall see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. The sign of the cross shall appear in the heavens, when our lord shall come to judge the world.   ----A Prayer Book of Catholic Devotions

Day 2 ~ The Fall of Man

Ornament: a serpent or an apple


Reading: {Short form in brackets}


16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
12 The man said, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
    cursed are you above all cattle,
    and above all wild animals;
upon your belly you shall go,
    and dust you shall eat
    all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your seed and her seed;
he shall bruise your head,[a]
    and you shall bruise his heel.”

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Not Ready for Advent?

Happy First Sunday of Advent! I love this time of year...not because of all the frenzied shopping and non-stop, bad Christmas music, but because of all the little traditions we have in our family. We are modifying those traditions somewhat because we don't have many children at home anymore, and those that we have aren't little. The basic routine is the same though.


If you are in desperate need of a plan for the rest of Advent, here's the post I wrote last year outlining our routine. Reading over it just now confirmed to me that I have way too much Christmas Stuff! I'm definitely minimizing as I go this year. I did a little of that last year, too.

Since we have been through the readings for the Jesse Tree for so many years in a row, we are reading a few pages from Caryll Houselander's The Reed of God every night. I was hooked just by the introduction tonight, so I am looking forward to it.

God bless your Advent!
xo,
Sara

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Is Quiche a Pie??


That time your 13 year-old asked "What are you making?"

"Quiche."

<Really confused look on her face>

"Yes, quiche is supposed to have a pie crust!"

I guess it has been a very long time since I used a crust; usually we go crustless.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Our Nest is Blessed

“To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others.” 
Saint Pope John Paul II 


Our nest IS blessed. Not just by the physical gift of the 6 children pictured, but also by the gift of the lost baby not with us.  We are blessed by the personalities and circumstances that helped us grow from selfish youths into mature adults who think much less of ourselves than we otherwise would. 

Most of all, we are blessed by Christ the King, the God made Man whose majesty can only be glimpsed in the ocean behind His gifts. The numerous graces He has given may not be visible in a photograph, but they are there in abundance. Given and yet-to-be-given---there for the asking.


Sunday, November 22, 2015

A Knitter's Dream




I had a family funeral to attend on Thursday in Oklahoma City for my mother's brother, a kind and loving man who had the gentlest heart. God rest his soul.

I expected to have a half-day of airline flights, at least 9 hours in the car, and another half-day of flying in which to knit all this yarn. I was totally prepared for hours and hours of sitting!

Unfortunately, I always forget that I'm not a super-speedy knitter, and FB is more attractive than it should be. I expected to finish the purple mitts in a couple of hours, but I think I ripped out a couple of inches TWICE. Gave up on that and decided to start the brown shawl with my hand spun. That was going well, but required too much pattern reading for the car. As you can see, I didn't get anywhere close to finishing that travel-stash. j

I better spend a little more time thinking about projects and planning before I make any holiday road trips!

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

It's Really Fall! Yarn Along


~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading and I love sharing my projects and current reads here. I would love for you to join me over at Ginny's every Wednesday to share a single photo of what you are knitting (or crocheting) and reading too! Share your photo on your blog, on Instagram (#yarnalong), or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~

~~~
The epic, two, solid weeks of rain have ended. The sun is out, and the temps are seasonal---cold overnight and warming to around 60 during the day.  Thanks be to God!


I did finish an awesome book that I'm happy to tell you about, instead of simply the occasional update that I read for 5 minutes every night! Excited?



I finished The Boys in the Boat about the 8-man crew team from the University of Washington that made it to the 1936 Olympic Games which were held in Hitler's sanitized Nazi Germany. They are considered to be the greatest 8-man crew in history.

While the story focuses on one particular rower, Joe Rantz,  his poverty, virtual abandonment by his father, who struggles to not only survive, but also put himself through college, there is plenty of background on the other team members, the coach, and the craftsman who built their shells. All of the boys who were finally selected to be part of this crew---a match made in heaven, you might say---had something in common which forged an incredible bond. That bond made history. The story culminates with the dramatic final race in Berlin. I wish I'd seen it! In fact, there are videos on YouTube of the race, along with re-enactments after the race. If you admire grit and determination, you will like this!

For fun, and as a little change of pace, I crocheted up this infinity cowl. It is chunky and cozy! It's in the shop.













Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Finished Objects




A friend requested some fingerless mitts that she could wear at the office. She wanted them "thumb-less" also, so that she could push them up, off her hands and not have a thumb poking out, or just take them off altogether. The brown pair is elbow length, as requested, and the purply-blue pair is not quite that long, simply because I thought she might like another option.

70% acrylic for washability---which I think one would want at the office, and 30% wool for warmth.


Monday, November 16, 2015

Minimalist Blogging

For a while now I have joked with friends about my goal of becoming a "minimalist blogger"----not one who rarely posts, as I do, but one whose posts are short and sweet. I always feel too rushed to write a well thought out article worthy of sharing, so I end up just chit-chatting, which isn't exactly newsworthy or shareworthy. Lately, I have not had the time or inclination for that, either, but I find that I don't really want to quit altogether. Strange, but true. So, I'm going to give the minimalist blogging a try and see how that develops.


How do you feel about blog posts? Do you like long articles or short snippets that you can get through quickly? NB: I am relying on your comments here! ;-) Please comment and let me know what kind of posts you like, in general. Not just from me, but anyone.

~~~



I whipped up these mittens last week out of Paton's Classic Wool. Made to fit my hands, they seem a little long in the fingers, but that may be true of all mittens. I know that mittens have been made out of pure wool for ages, but these will definitely felt if I make too many snowballs with them! Maybe that would be a good thing?





Monday, November 2, 2015

My Whole30 Recap



WOW! It's been a while since I posted! I guess the floors were being installed in the basement that day, and ever since then I have been trying to get all the baseboards and doors repainted and everything put back in its place. It has been a lot of work, and it's not quite finished, but that's not what I'm here to talk about today...

Around September 29, I decided, pretty much on a whim, to start a Whole30 on October 1. My diet had gotten out of control, and it was past time to rein it back in. Suddenly, it is November 2 and the (first) Whole30 is over! Surprisingly, it was much easier than I expected, possibly because I generally try to eat a primal/paleo diet, but I still had to restrict a lot more than I'm used to. I was NOT excited about giving up every last form of grains and my  beloved dairy. Alcohol I can live without, but the rest was going to be a bit of a struggle.

However, while it was sometimes challenging, getting rid of all the cravings made a big difference. The Whole30 timeline is invaluable in helping you understand what is causing your symptoms---because your body, emotions, and energy level will change during the whole month! It was great to just check the timeline, see what was happening and get some support.

What did I eat, you ask? Lots of eggs. :-) Not so many that I am sick of them, but they definitely came in handy when, because of my poor planning or busy schedule, dinner was something I simply couldn't eat. I have this Whole30 cookbook...which I don't think I used more than once this month...but the whole family has loved recipes I have made in the past. Honestly, this month has been so crazy busy with the basement and regular life that I didn't plan out meals as I should have. Where I normally would have added rice as a starch, I used potatoes, white or sweet. Yay! Potatoes are allowed! Burrito night was taco salad for me, sadly, minus cheese or sour cream. One new favorite is PaleOMG's Pizza Spaghetti  Pie . That came in handy for lots of easy leftovers, even though I had to keep everyone else from eating it!

There were a few cheats that I allowed myself out of necessity. The breakfast sausage we use comes from a local farmer and has a little sugar in it, but in lieu of spending hours finding an alternative, I decided to use it, though less than usual. I also allowed myself Primal Fuel meal replacement shakes because the ingredient list is pretty stellar even though it contains a little sugar. I made these choices knowing that neither of these options causes sugar cravings for me. (Pro-tip on the Primal Fuel, which is pricey: I discovered that my serving size (1.5 scoops, not 2) is cheaper than other protein powders if I use the auto-ship option. I love that---the higher quality shake for less money!)

The other actual cheat meals were a Tropi-Kale smoothie from Robeks which had yogurt in it. I didn't know that until after I drank it! That cheat was caused by poor planning for a long day out. Meg's feast day celebration included her favorite cheese fondue (alcohol, dairy, and grains--cornstarch!) which I ate with cauliflower, not bread. The fondue was a "safe" cheat because I knew it wouldn't derail the whole diet as a cupcake or cookie would. I can't decide if Chik fil-a waffle fries are a cheat or not, but they came in handy and made me happy. Eating at Chipotle a couple of times also made life easier. Their rice bran oil is probably, technically illegal, but as they have switched from the endocrine disruptor and illegal legume, soybean oil, I'll take it.

To wrap up, I lost about 10 lbs.! A few of those were gained just before I started, so probably came off quickly. I didn't count carbs or calories at all, which might improve weight loss, but I was rarely hungry. If I was hungry, it was real hunger, not head hunger. And I simply forgot about the rule that we're not supposed to snack between meals---and still lost 10 lbs. My belt is 3 (!!!) notches tighter, so that is 3" off the hips.

Am I going to continue? Absolutely. I feel great---happy, even-tempered, energetic. Thin. ;-) I experimented with a little dairy this weekend----cheese tasted terrible. Cream in my coffee was not appealing. Sour cream on my taco salad tasted great, but I was puffy and bloated this morning. My Halloween treat was 1 bite of a fine chocolate that actually tasted good, but I didn't want to finish. I got out 5 chocolate almonds later to treat myself, and the first one tasted dreadful so I put the rest back. I call that a total win.

Have you done a Whole30 or are you thinking of starting one? Let me know in the comments!

xo
Sara


LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...