End-of-December Daybook

This is my own Cajun Cottage version of the Simple Woman's Daybook (how neat to see that, as of this posting, we share the same cheerful Christmas-y template)

Outside my Window...crisp winter day with sunlight cascading over blue skies.
I am thinking. . . how fitting it is for the liturgical Christmas to follow the commercial Christmas.
And how long it has been since I wrote a "simple" daybook. Any daybook! Goodness! And, just think, it's one of my favorite blogging pasttimes.That must mean I've been really too busy. :-)

I am thankful for. . .a number of things.

From the schoolroom. . .one more free week and we start again. One of the topics my husband and I are discussing tonight.

From the kitchen. . . the Christmas leftovers (sans the sweet table) are almost gone, wonder of wonders. Tonight is a Mexican dinner date with my husband. I need a major slow-cooker game plan come January.

I am wearing. . . a pink top w/ embrodiered trim over another pink tank top (it's cold outside, windy and 25 degrees this morning), gray slacks, pink socks

I am creating...a liturgical year plan to teach to our Religious Ed program
I am going. . .on a Mexican dinner date with my husband in a few hours.

I am reading. . .Stillmeadow books by Gladys Taber and Amish Cook books by Elizabeth Coblentz & her daughter Lovina.

I am hoping. . .2011 is as calm and uneventful as 2010.
I am hearing. . .the clothes dryer whirring
I am praying...for all the children who were too sick this Christmas to enjoy the tree and the lights and the songs and the parties. Those children who, all too soon, are given a cross too heavy for little shoulders to bear.

Observing the Liturgical Calendar...I really want to do a better job this year and am using Pope Pius XI's Quas Primas (On the Feast of Christ the King) as my guide...in home and at church.

"For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year—in fact, forever. The church's teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man's nature. Man is composed of body and soul, and he needs these external festivities so that the sacred rites, in all their beauty and variety, may stimulate him to drink more deeply of the fountain of God's teaching, that he may make it a part of himself, and use it with profit for his spiritual life." (Pope Pius XI)

Around the house. . . (This is dated back to May 2009 and it has not changed...at all)

May 2009
I'm too tired to look. One day it's clean. Another day it's cluttered. Let me just say...'tis lived in.*
* This has not changed since last week's daybook or the week before that or the week before that.
I really thought after April things would slow down. They haven't. If anything life has gotten busier. Yesterday I added five more things in my planner. I have to remember what a good friend told me one day at co-op:
"We pick our own stresses in life." I have to look at each "stress" I write in my planner (no one is forcing my hand) and count them all as blessings. It's a life full of planning and preparing, giving and receiving, loving and living, pruning and growing, learning and embracing. It's all good! It's a marvelous thing called life!

UPDATE Dec. 2010: Really the house isn't that bad. Our oldest daughter cleans floors and bathrooms weekly. The youngest daughter is in charge of folding towels, caring for the living room area, and does a great dusting job. Middle daughter takes care of the dishes and kitchen area. Older four tend to their own laundry. They all have a "pet" to feed and water and they are all responsible for keeping their own bedrooms picked-up and cleaned. Well, "responsible" might not be the best choice of words. Most of their bedrooms I choose to turn the other cheek. Afterall, the second reading this past Sunday did say, "Fathers, do not provoke your children, so they may not become discouraged."  I'm sure it means the same for children provoking their parents but one must know when and where to tread lightly.

Yet, even with all these tidy little organizational jobs, the paper piles and clutter threaten my innermost peace.

One of my favorite things. . . Christmas-time

A few plans for the rest of the week. . .husband is going deer hunting. His first time in, like forever! Household and college expenses have always prevented this manly outing. This year he was blessed by a good friend and an offer of time away in the wild woods. Weather predictions are for constant rain. The girls and I are staying home. My God-son and Kayleigh's God-daughter are coming to play tomorrow. I've invited some friends to join us. I'll cook. We'll all cook! It's our last official week "off" until Mardi Gras. Deep breath!

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

The girls and I love going to our local Books-A-Million and selecting the books to send to St. Jude's Hospital. It's a pleasure to sit in the aisles and think of the children who will receive our humble offerings and try to fill their personal needs of beauty and color and light and hope. This year, Annie added the gift of a tea set in hopes that a little girl will enjoy it on a day she's feeling well. I'm thinking that in 2011, I will keep my eyes open throughout the year for some older reading material for older children. And possibly some new books for the mothers and fathers of the children. Heaven knows they need up-lifting as well. If anyone has any recommendations, please email them to me.

Thank you and God Bless!