Creating a comfortable life one moment at a time
The girls and I love to watch “The Great British Bake Off.” We enjoy the mix of drama and humor, getting to know the contestants, and learning something new about baking every episode. Most of all, we love the camaraderie in the tent and how the bakers are always willing to help each other. A baker on a different show—”Nailed It!”—best explained this type of competitive philosophy: “As a Hufflepuff, I want everyone to win by me winning.”
[Read more…] about Gingerbread and Eggnog Trifle
Twenty-six years ago today, Tim Taylor proposed at the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C.
I remember it was a very cold night, but Tim insisted on driving to the White House to see the tree. I bundled up in a warm but desperately unglamorous sweater. A choir stoically performed the “Hallelujah Chorus” to a crowd of three—me, Tim, and a homeless gentleman. Afterward, as we walked along the Ellipse, admiring the trees, Tim took me completely by surprise by dropping down on one knee and asking, “Will you be my wife?”
[Read more…] about Advent Reflections: Love
My mom gave me Ross Gay’s BOOK OF DELIGHTS last year for Christmas. Gay, a poet and professor at Indiana University, spent a year writing an essay every day about something that delighted him. In an interview with MPR’s Euan Kerr, Gay explained his definition of delight: “It feels to me that it often involves an element of surprise or an element of ‘I didn’t know that,’ or ‘I didn’t know that I knew that,’ or ‘I forgot that.’ Or something [that is] sweet and reminds us of the good. It’s a category of joy.”
The Christmas season is filled with moments that surprise us with delight. The first time we rode the ferry (a delight in itself) to Seattle at night and saw the Ferris wheel lit up like candy canes was a delight.
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For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved making things. I come by this honestly, with grandmothers, grandfathers, parents, aunts, and uncles who are creative souls, whether they’re cooking delicious food, building furniture, painting, sewing, or producing all kinds of homemade treasures from scherenschnitte pictures to stained glass windows.
[Read more…] about Advent Reflections: Homemade Treasures
It’s a chaotic morning. I’m at my “desk,” aka the kitchen table, trying to write, but family members, both the human and furry variety, constantly stream in and out. Andrew’s in a rush to get to work, which causes a sudden flurry of activity because cars need to be moved so he can get out of the driveway. The Shark Ninja that Tim ordered on Black Friday arrived and is zooming around the house, much to the chagrin of the dogs. The girls want to put googly eyes on Bruce (get it? from Finding Nemo?), which I support, but I have to stop what I’m doing—again—to go dig them out of the craft supplies. I’m starting to feel Grinchy because Christmas is coming and I have Things To Do and these distractions aren’t helping. All may be bright, but calm is evading me.
As I was writing about peace the other day, I wondered, briefly, what the difference is between peace and calm. I didn’t have an answer, so I just kept writing about peace. Today, though, I’m thinking maybe the difference is that peace is more of a state of mind. A general sense of “God’s in His heaven—All’s right with the world,” as Robert Browning wrote. And perhaps calm is more of an active verb. We calm a baby, calm our nerves, calm down.
[Read more…] about Advent Reflections: Calm