December 21st is an important day to acknowledge....

Today marks the shortest day, the longest night in our yearly calendar. I know I mentioned that one of our advent activities this season is to celebrate and understand the winter solstice. I've been reading up on the solstice and I've learned so many interesting things and I am just bursting to share so indulge me, please....

I don't know how much you remember from your junior high science class, but, basically we on planet earth are in constant rotation on a daily, 24 hour basis; our planet spinning around in a full circle on its axis creating day and night. Its day for you when your side of the spin is turned toward the sun and night when it is away from the sun. Just to help make your head spin a little more (ha ha) our planet is also in constant rotation on a yearly basis, taking 12 months to make a circle (okay ellipse) around the sun. This, along with the way Earth tilts as it rotates, is responsible for how much light hits the northern part of the Earth and how much hits the southern part on a daily basis. This change in how much light from the sun we receive is what creates our different seasons. On the winter solstice, we in the northern hemisphere are tilted away from the sun and the sun has reached is lowest and southern-most point in the sky giving us the shortest amount of light of the entire year.

Now why is any of this of interest? Well way back when people were actually trying to figure out the world through observation rather than school and books and iphones, and life was just generally more precarious, having the sun reach its lowest point and face long, dark days was a very scary thing. Interestingly, the actual Latin root meaning of solstice is "sun stood still" because the sun pretty much ceases to move for 6 days in December, right around the solstice, appearing to set and rise in nearly the same spot. And being the keen observers they were, the ancients were concerned that the sun wouldn't move again, leaving them in a state of darkness with plants unable to grow, cold seeping in, and life around them dying.

Festivals celebrating the solstice were born out of this fear really, born both to thank the sun and to cajole it into continuing to shine to light our way and our ways of life. Religions and spirituality then were completely tied to Earth and to its constantly changing nature. And though we today have the luxury of being fairly divorced from this type of thinking and direct observation about the world around us, I think it is really interesting to point out that regardless of specific religion, nearly all the ways we celebrate the holidays around this time of year contain traces of ancient solstice celebrations. Here are a few connections I loved:

-Romans 2,000 years ago celebrated the shortest day with merrymaking and by decorating their doors with evergreen wreaths to symbolize that spring (and green growth) would return.

-Miseltoe, called "all heal" was an important good luck plant used in solstice celebrations by Druids.

-In Sweden, for the festival of light called St Lucia, girls wear crowns of evergreen and burning candles to help "rekindle the sun's fire"

-The twelve days of Christmas originates with the 12 "intercalary days" honored by the Romans linking the solar and lunar calendar cycles.

-The word yule is not only shorthand for this time of year but is also a large log set afire to "teach" the light to return.

I think I am eager to celebrate the solstice because it is such a direct way to acknowledge how miraculous the workings of the world are. The complexity of the sun and the earth locked in this dance of movement that gives us all life and rhythm and variation. It's beautiful and scary and completely out of our control. I love the idea of reveling in this and letting myself enjoy this super long day of darkness and reminding myself that the light will return. Tomorrow will be just a little bit lighter, a little bit longer.

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE EVERYONE! I am hopeful that in your own life and family you will take a moment to honor this unique day by turning off your house lights, lighting a few candles or a big fire, and opening your door, if only for a second, to the deep darkness outside.

p.s. I loved all the above books-good for me and the kids. I would absolutely recommend all of them.

TWENTY TEN

Hard to believe we are approaching a new year and a new decade. I love writing out TWENTY TEN instead of 2010. It looks graphic and more fun than the numerical. And so much more official, just as if I was announcing the new year on some kind of authentic new year's letterhead belonging to Dick Clark. I dig making resolutions and over the past few years Jaren and I have had fun coming up with a yearly mantra, of sorts. Last year was Just Be Better and I think we pretty much rocked it. We have some loose strings, of course, that can always use tightening, but it has been a killer year for buckling down and setting new priorities for simplicity, family, home, and productivity. We haven't decided on this year's mantra yet but I'm gunning for KEEP YOUR HEAD ON STRAIGHT since I think if we keep going down this path we're on without getting all disorientated looking over to the weeds, I think we will be in good shape. But I will have to wait for Jaren's vote before this mantra becomes cross stitch material.

I haven't set down a full list of resolutions for the new year yet but I took a step toward one this weekend that I'm excited about. In TWENTY TEN I am hoping to feed my family only locally raised, sustainably produced meat. Through the wonderful local chapter of Slow Food International, I learned about a small family farm that raises hogs and allows people to purchase as little as 1/4 of the pig which is a lot of meat, but isn't so much that you need a full meat locker in your basement. I have a second fridge in the garage and the meat is packed tight in there, but it is manageable. So the farm is Christiansens Hog Heaven and I had the pleasure of meeting Christian and his wife, Hollie, this Saturday when I picked up my 1/4 pork from the back of their white Ford Superduty 150 in the parking lot of Home Depot. I loved the gritty fact of picking this meat up in a random parking lot, straight from them and their truck with their 3 kids watching a movie in the cab. It was fun and it felt good to support them so directly. There was a line of other people waiting for their meat (they had 44 orders!) and it was heartening to see this and to know that other people out there are looking outside the grocery store case to find a more natural order in the food chain. I made a couple rashers (look at me and my new butcher talk!) of bacon this weekend and it was delicious--thick and chewy and not too salty. I love the look of all those wrapped freezer paper bundles stamped with the cut of meat. I am now the proud owner of a ham hock! Wow! Beginning this February, the Christiansens' are going to be adding grass fed beef to their offerings--all pasture fed, free range, and humanely treated. And they will be offering it in small 1/8 sizes too which is lovely for small families and small freezers. I think you still may even get some choices about what cuts you want. They may have pasture raised chicken and turkeys ready by spring too, which means they may just become my one stop local meat shop. If you live in Utah, eat meat, and have concerns about where your food comes from, check out their blog via the above link and consider supporting them. All you need is a freezer and the will to help change a broken system!

Another resolution I have for the new year is to move to a cash only spending situation. I have to face facts. I am not responsible enough to have a credit card in my wallet. It is just that simple. I am a flibbertigibbet and so full of impulse and attraction to beautiful, shiny things that I might as well be a magpie. I just don't do well without parameters. If I am to ever stick to a budget it has to be one that I can relate to in a tactile way. I've tried spreadsheets and mint.com and setting goals. I've had a piggy bank and a high interest cd. But somehow it is never real to me if I only see the balance on the screen. It is real to me, however, when I see the thread bare lining of my wallet. It's that simple. I'm 5 when it comes to money. If I see it, I have it. If I don't see but have a debit or credit card handy, I just pretend to see it. But if I don't have an alternate form of payment and I don't see it...well, you get the idea.....it's gone! I have no more money to spend. I'm done. Again, so simple my kid can do it. So maybe I can finally do it too and stick to a hard and fast budget in TWENTY TEN? If I keep the old head on straight, I don't see why not.

advent...follow up

i've gotten a couple requests for the actual list of activities we are doing each day for our advent, so here goes:

01. breakfast for dinner by candlelight

02. make a homemade gift for someone

03. make gingerbread houses

04. go pick out our christmas tree and then decorate it

05. watch a christmas movie with popcorn

06. take a moonlit walk

07. have a holiday song sing a long

08. read christmas books at the foot of the tree

09. family spa: manicures, pedicures, foot rubs

10. cut out paper snowflakes

11. make 5 ornaments for our ornament exchange via Crafty Crow

12. bake & decorate Christmas cookies and share with family and neighbors

13. drive to Christmas street and look at holiday light displays around town

14. have a shadow puppet theater night in our PJs

15. read the nutcracker and listen to the music

16. make gift tags and more homemade presents

17. take a wintery walk and make snow angels

18. pray for peace and take food to the food bank

19. play christmas bingo & help mom make yearly hot fudge sauce for friends

20. celebrate the winter solstice with an outside bonfire and hot drinks

21. ride the polar express!

22. make fancy hot chocolate with homemade marshmellows

23. sit by the fire and read about baby jesus

24. wrap presents and leave santa a plate of cookies and thank you note.

advent. the big count down begins.

ah, back to a normal week. as the photos attest, it was a marathon holiday weekend of activities with cooking and eating being the thread that linked them all. i think i enjoyed the quiet moments of creating and cooking the most-making a flower arrangement for the turkey day table and trying to perfect my homemade piecrust top the list. with my piecrust, i think the flavor and texture are there but the rolling out technique still needs work. where is a pioneer or southern woman circa 1920 when you need one? it was a pretty fugly looking crust, though that would be par for the course with me since i like to say that i specialize in making ugly desserts.

cleo and i decorated the kids' christmas tree on friday. i am plenty anal when it comes to holiday decorating and have declared an adult christmas tree and a kids' tree a necessity since i won't let nary a colored light or a stray ornament touch my tree. i like to style a new tree every year, and inspired by my new glossy white living room floors, i have a hankering for an all white luxe themed tree this year....just plain clear glass ornaments and maybe some feathers...something really airy and simple. but alas, after checking our current bank balance and going through all the boxes of things i currently own, i can't justify buying a new batch of holiday decor. the white tree will have to wait and i will have to breathe new life into last year's woodland inspired tree full of pine cones, tree branches, and moss.

christmas decorating can be so much fun, but like so much of the holiday crap, if i let it stress me out or make it feel like an obligation then the purpose, and the joy, are lost. i think one of the most successful ways i've found to keep the fun spirit of the season in mind is to do a christmas activity advent calendar. there are many versions of the advent tradition which is basically just a count down to the arrival of christmas day. there are lots of cute iterations swimming around online by far more crafty and talented folks than i (check out the link to see a listing of some great ones.) but i keep mine super simple and it works just fine by my standards. this year i cut out 23 little squares of green construction paper (and one brown one for the trunk) numbered them, and taped them up in the shape of a tree. i write a simple holiday or family activity on the back of each square, one for each day leading up to the big dec 25th.

and since i'm trying hard to hum a homemade and frugal tune this holiday season, there is only one activity out of 24 that will actually cost us money. lucky for me a two and five year old have pretty manageable expectations! a sampling of the activities i included: reading the nutcracker together then listening to the music, making hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows (something i've been dying to try), taking a moonlit walk, baking christmas cookies to deliver to our neighbors, etc. i tried to think of things that were simple to do and wouldn't take too much planning on my part and would encourage the kind of pace, home time, and thoughtfulness that i want this season to represent in our home.

one of the things i'm most excited to include in the advent is a real acknowledgement of the winter solstice on dec 21. this is the longest night of the year. the shortest day. and i think i've always focused on this aspect of darkness instead of realizing that what traditionally cultures are really celebrating is the return of the light; the return of warmth and the growing season and plenty. each winter day going forward from the solstice is a less dark one, a longer day in which to live. i think that is such a beautiful sentiment and definitely worth my family's notice. and not coming from a decidedly christian point of view, i feel very happy to embrace and teach about yet another reason we gather to celebrate this time of year. yay for jesus! yay for light! yay for a reason to be with those you love and party! that's what i say.

so if you have a spare minute this week, create an activity advent. it's like a fail-safe for christmas joy, ensuring that at least once a day you will share a moment that consciously sets this season apart from any other. added bonus: your kids will think you are nearly as fun as santa and they just might give you a small breather from the "is it christmas yet" chanting.

giving thanks

thankful |ˈθa ng kfəl|

adjectivepleased and relieved : [with clause ] they were thankful that the war was finally over | [with infinitive ] I was very thankful to be alive.• expressing gratitude and relief : an earnest and thankful prayer.

when it comes to holidays i play favorites. thanksgiving is the best. i love that it centers around simple joys like food and family. i love the origins of the story as well, pilgrims and the mayflower, plymouth rock, and squanto. it really is the story of the start of our country-venturing out, pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, and defying expectations--and our collective legacy of combining cultural backgrounds to make something new and different. that thanksgiving continues to be a yearly tradition in our lives means something. i think we as american people recognize the value of reflecting on all that we have and that is a cultural trait i am very proud to claim.

today i wanted to give lip service to the obvious. thanksgiving is truly about being thankful and letting the gratitude i feel for my life and my circumstances take center stage. and in my world this means articulating what exactly i feel thankful for. living as most of us do in relative plenty and nearly absolute freedom, i have so many things to name. i live a very lucky life. i am healthy. i am surrounded by good family and love. i am happily married to a soul mate. i am raising two children who delight me and make me understand the meaning and importance of selflessness. i have friends, near and far, who buoy my spirits and inspire me with their smarts, creativity, wit, and caring. i have choices about what to do with each day i live and i know that there are places and people and circumstances not so lucky. i feel a profound gratefulness toward nature for all it teaches, inspires, and provides in my life.

i could rattle on and on and am guessing you could too. one of the things i try to be mindful of is that even when life is really going awry and down the tubes, there is always something worth my gratitude. on a really shitty day the fact that i am breathing in and out, alive, comes to mind. on a better day, i can get a little more specific! i think that's a trick to contentment, to just remember that there is always something worthy of our thanks, or if you want to put the half empty spin on it: things could always be worse!

so this week as we're all feasting, sitting around various tables with those we love, let's let ourselves be awash in gratitude and attempt to name it in whatever way feels right and let's celebrate that for this one day a year there is a collective moment, a national mindset of thankfulness.

a crafty mindset

a momentous thing occurred yesterday: cleo has her first wiggly tooth! she has been aching to join the ranks of her toothless cousins and friends and lose that first tooth. she was beyond thrilled to feel that rare twinge of pain and ache that a loose tooth brings. for me those little baby teeth falling out signal the end of an era and so i feel it is worth commemorating in some small way. i want to be ready when that first one falls out and i have noticed a slough of cute little tooth fairy pillows and things in stores and online. i actually went somewhere yesterday to buy something like that for cleo but didn't find anything i liked. then i remembered seeing a super cute tooth fairy bag project from the purl bee. (this site is great if you like to get in there and DIY and get crafty.)

now, let's be clear. i have long thought of myself as a creative, but i rarely get crafty, and when i do the results are almost universally disappointing and non-spectacular. i am not very gifted with patience for finite details, i'm more of a broad swath kinda gal. so let's just say that i was more than pleased to realize that this little bag was absolutely within my limited range of craft ability and know how. and to my utter surprise i even had decent felt in my fabric box that was perfect for this purpose. i was able to bust out a tooth fairy bag for cleo in one night! a personal best for my crafting record. it definitely isn't perfect, stitches are off kilter and different sized, as is my sewing way, but it is cute, it functions, and cleo is thrilled. actually i could be more thrilled than she, but that's the way it is with handmade gifts right? i think they often give just as much pleasure to the maker as to the getter.

this little project was a perfect thing for me to have accomplished on the cusp, as we are, from holiday mania. if the onslaught of catalogs and end cap displays at the stores are any indication, then christmas is next week. (well, it is actually in 6 weeks, but holy crap, that's soon!) i love christmas and i love to be a giver of fantastic gifts. i felt tangible magic around this time of year as a child and every year of my adult life i notice that magic shrinks a little bit more and gets replaced with what i would call a frenetic pressure that exhausts me and make me forget to sing along to andy williams in the gleeful way my sister and i did every single year of our childhood. it doesn't take a genius to realize the reason i feel less magic around the holidays is because i let less magic in....i have replaced the spirit of the season with over scheduling and obligations and frantic buying and not left enough spare time to entice the peaceful, carefree, 'hap-happiest time" (insert jonny mathis voice-over) moments the season was created to entice in our lives.

so maybe one of the ways i can achieve more of these kind of moments this year is by carving out more mindful time at home making gifts for the special people who surround me. this little bag project reminded me just how much satisfaction comes from truly thinking about someone and their needs and dedicating the energy to make something just for them. i don't think every gift has to be handmade to be a good one--thoughtful, perfect buying is an art form too and lord knows there is plenty of great stuff out there to hope and pine for--but in my own experience, the handmade gift is always so full of love, so full of care and attention, it can't help but stand out and be treasured. it is the opposite of generic, it is utterly personal on both sides of the equation and it is as much a gesture as it is a thing. and i think cultivating that during the season that is turning into excess on every front, mindless shopping sprees, and hectic exchanges, is a quiet magic all its own. i can't promise 100% homemade this year, but it is something i'm going to work toward starting now. nothing worse than rushing and feeling pressure over a handmade gift!

anyone else out there need a tooth fairy bag? i'm on a roll!

Nurture Nature

When was the last time you and your family spent time together outdoors? Do you allow your children the chance to play unsupervised outside, whether it is in the backyard or down the block? Do your childhood memories contain experiences in nature? Have you splashed in a puddle or looked at the stars in your adult life? Do your children regularly do these things? Do you take your children to places outdoors besides the park and the zoo? Have you ever been in true wilderness, untouched by man? Do you look out the window when you are in your car? Do your kids?

These questions have been on my mind because of a very interesting book I've been reading called Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Writer Richard Louv makes a strong, empassioned case that today's children (and actually beginning with my own generation of children of the 70s) are disconnecting from Nature because of a steady decline in the amount of time people spend outdoors, and particularly a decline in time having direct experience with Nature--meaning time that you aren't just playing soccer at the park or riding your bike down the block, but truly interacting and engaging with the natural surroundings. Louv cites a lot of reasons our kids are spending less and less time outside roaming free as many generations before did. The top ones are simply having less free time for both family and outdoor play, diminishing access to true "wild" nature as communities and suburbs expand, being literally plugged in more than unplugged whether it is to play stations, tv, computer, or ipods, and of course the modern day fears of letting children play unattended in a dangerous predatory world, as well as the legal/liability fears about children getting hurt while doing something 'dangerous' on community or personal property.

That's a tall list in my book and all of those reasons are things that I contend with when I think about why my own children don't spend more time out-of-doors. I feel a sadness that the current generation of children doesn't have the access to wide open space and the freedom to roam that I did as a child. I really do notice a difference. I know the world is a busy place and our private lives are busy too. But it seems crazy to think that there is no place, no time in our lives for Nature anymore. I just don't believe that can be true.

So what are children (and we adults) losing if they don't spend time engaging with the natural world? Louv, and a rising number of psychologists and educators, believe that by losing touch with Nature, children are losing touch with a vital source for a huge array of skill sets. Playing outdoors provides access to hands on, direct experience and generally experiences that engage all the senses--something plugging into a screen can never hope to do. Nature play encourages attention to detail and the sort of unstructured playing that fosters creativity and intelligence.(Studies have linked ADHD with Nature Deficit as well as Nature as a remedy for increasing children with ADHD's capacity to maintain attention.) Children who spend time in Nature glean basic knowledge and understanding about the natural sciences and the process by which life grows and changes. They develop a bond with their surroundings that can naturally bring about an understanding of the need for wilderness protection and conservation. And of course as anyone who has watched children running around in the wild knows, playing outside without fear of strangers, cars, or safety builds a child's sense of wonder and delight. It is endlessly entertaining and I think really cathartic for kids. It gives them a chance to blow off steam and be truly free of agenda.

I feel really connected with this line of thinking because in my own life, and in my life as a mother, I have seen the transformative power of Nature to bring focus and mental and emotional clarity, and to provide endless teachable moments and endless streams of questions. The environment around us was the original thing we humans had to figure out to survive and I still think there is a yearning deep inside each of us to continue to uncover it. Maybe part of the modern day depression epidemic is that we have begun to deny ourselves this most basic desire?

Nature can't help but be fascinating. There is so much there, so much at a glance that we don't immediately understand. This is just as true for adults as it is for children. I think of Nature as being the most direct empirical evidence we have for something bigger than ourselves; the perfection of it, the majesty, the absolute diversity of creatures and climates and details. It is astounding and it makes sense to me that if we don't encourage ourselves and our children to spend time being outside then we risk alienating ourselves from what makes us tick. We are a part of the landscape even though we try very hard to deny this.

Though I think my children are lucky to have already spent a good portion of time outside hiking, camping, and playing, this book has been a very nice reminder that it will take commitment to keep this as a continued goal in my home, particularly as my children grow and undoubtably become more and more plugged in. I agree with Louv, a relationship with the outdoors shouldn't be an elective course in childhood. It is something we need to nurture and allow.

We live in one of the most beautiful countries on Planet Earth. I'm almost certain that there is something beautiful to see and discover around every bend and in every town. And unlike a lot of the modernized world, we still have some open space to explore. We still have true American Wilderness. But even if we can't always jet off to Yosemite or Alaska or manage a hike, there are so many ways to encourage an awareness and a love of Nature in our lives. I have been making a little list of some of the things I do in my house to help make Nature accessible to me and to the kids and thought I would share, but I think the most obvious one is the most important..> JUST GO OUTSIDE!

-Encourage collecting: leaves, shells, acorns, rocks, bugs, berries. Kids are natural born collectors and this teaches them to take note of the little things and see that Nature is the sum of its parts.

-Have a nature table or spot where nature collections can be displayed inside. I use simple glass mason jars for Cleo's collections.

-Clip flowers and leaves from the yard or a walk and display them in a vase. Give Nature pride of place.

- Plant seeds together and watch them grow. Garden!

-Let your kids work in the yard with you and talk about what you are growing or why you are raking, weeding, etc.

-Go outside, even in bad weather. Taking a walk in the snow or in blustery wind and rain engages the senses and makes it an experience instead of just a walk down the block.

-We love the park and zoo but I try to sometimes offer other outdoor settings-hikes in the mountains, arboretums, throwing stones in a nearby river, etc. One of the great points Louv makes is that Nature happens in the edges, in places between places. If you have a usual park, try going off the path a bit into the bushes or under the trees instead of hitting the playground or grass.

-Mix it up at the library and try to find good nonfiction books about Nature. Subjects like weather are fascinating to kids and I have found that I'm pretty rusty on these subjects too and end up learning a lot myself! We also love field guides about bugs, birds, plants, and animal scat (poo!). It is pretty empowering to be able to name what you see.

-Install a bird feeder in your yard and watch birds.

-Take the time to comment about Nature to your kids...if you see a beautiful sunset or flower, tell them!