Happy Homemaker Monday

 

On this December Monday,  I'm taking a few minutes to join Sandra for this link party over at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. 

The Weather:::

 It's 25º and cloudy, with fine snow flurries in the air, at 8:20 am. Snow was not in the forecast, but it appears to be sticking to the ground ... which may impact my plans to walk later on.

As I look outside my window:::

Snow-covered ground, leafless trees, an icy driveway.   Snow flurries in a cloudy sky.  

Right now I am:::

 Working on a blog post. 

 
Thinking and pondering:::

 About many things, including a few gifts I still need to figure out. 

As I am reading Glad and Golden Hours, I of course started at the beginning, so I am late when it comes to Advent preparations.  More about that later, but one thing I am pondering is that, if the Lord tarries, next year I will do better.  In addition to wise spiritual counsel, Lanier Ivester offers much practical wisdom, and here is some of what spoke to me:

"November is the time I like to start thinking about which Advent devotional I'd like to use that year.  [Me, too.]  It is also when I begin to make space in my calendar for a few simple household tasks which will facilitate easy hospitality in the weeks to come, like cleaning out the back hall coat closet and taking stock of my candle supply.  I always organize and scrub the larder shelves before Thanksgiving in advance of all the extra ingredients ..." She adds that she clears the freezer of freezer-burned vegetables and ham bones and the like, "to clear the way for cookies and cakes, casseroles, bags of pecans, and pans of cinnamon rolls."

Now I have done some of this.  But we did not remove the frozen turkeys we've had in the freezer much longer than we should have, and I did not "organize and scrub the larder shelves", all of which would have simplified my life greatly as we began the holiday baking and even now as we are fully into it.

On my bedside table::: 

 A lamp, 2 books a mint, and a pen

Listening to::: 

Literally, silence. 

On the Breakfast plate::: 

I do intermittent fasting so don't have breakfast. Lunch will be a salad of leaf lettuce, cubed ham,  and provolone.

On the dinner plate::: 

Planning to cook a pork roast in the crock pot.

On the menu for this week::: 

 A few meals on my menu plan:

Hamburgers, roasted Brussels sprouts

Chicken divan

Taco pie, green beans

 

On my reading pile:::

  Glad and Golden Hours, by Lanier Ivester -- an early Christmas gift from my daughter that I am loving.  I am also doing my more-or-less annual reread of Shepherds Abiding, by Jan Karon.

 

On my to do list today:::

 

 Spend time cross stitching

Write some Christmas cards

Bake a coffeecake and make some granola for a friend who's having loads of family for Christmas
Maybe bake some cookies
Switch out some of our regular artwork for Christmas pictures
Wrap some gifts

Work on some Etsy listings

Crochet a square for my temperature blanket

Add a completed row to temperature blanket 

 

The Cranberry Coffeecake I'm planning to bake

Plans for this week:::

Etsy listings, especially Christmas things (only if my desktop computer cooperates)

Ironing
Take a bag to the thrift store

Blogging

Start a pillow quilt

Christmas cards
Baking and candy making
Wrapping gifts

What I am creating:::

 

⛄  Winter cross-stitch projects

⛄  Need to start a pillow quilt

⛄  A granny square temperature blanket

 This photo was from back in April, about 3 months into the project, but it gives you an idea:

 

Bible verse, Devotional, Quote:::

 

Another quote from Glad & Golden Hours.  Lanier Ivester urges that we "prepare not only our hearts, but our homes, offering clean rooms and a stocked larder alongside a newly swept conscience and gleaming motives."  She writes: 

 

"This is no time to compare our 'best' with someone else's, or to start making frantic lists; this is the time to pause and reflect upon  how we might actually welcome Jesus into our lives and our celebrations, and how we can welcome others in His name ... Above all, how are we going to protect that 'better part' (Luke 10:42) of an attentive, listening heart in the midst of our planning and preparations?"

On my prayer list:::

 

Friends & family
Church family
Missionaries
Our country

 

And there's the Happy Homemaker Monday  for this week!