Right?

It’s been a slightly strange Christmas season around here so far. I had a bad cold and cough from the beginning of November to the beginning of December and then we were all felled by the stomach bug. Jane, Mendy, Cate, me, Telfer and then Chris. The grandparents might be re-thinking the loveliness of our proximity about now! The stomach flu is just, well, gross. This kind of says it all: at one point Telfer had to make an emergency Costco run for more laundry detergent. But I think everyone is better.

We are decorated and decked out in twinkle lights. Jane has managed to leave the tree mostly alone. After several friends mentioned it, we started Elf on the Shelf this year. Cate named the Elf RYAN of all things. Pretty sure our friend Ryan Scully is the only Ryan she knows, so hats off to you Ryan, our Elf is named after you. We have one of Ryan’s paintings in our bedroom so we talk about him and how he’s an artist and what that means, etc. Ryan the Elf shows up in a different place in the house every morning, after a night spent back at the North Pole tattling to Santa. It’s pretty fun.

We have a tree in the living room but I also decorated a little fake tree in Cate’s room. It’s a Chicken Soup with Rice tree after Maurice Sendak’s Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months (one of volumes in the Nutshell Library). I filled clear glass balls with rice, tied on spoons and set bowls in the branches. I am the delighted one, Cate thinks it’s normal to make a Chicken Soup with Rice tree.

In December I will be
A baubled, bangled Christmas tree
With soup bowls draped all over me
Merry once, merry twice
Merry chicken soup with rice

Good things lately:

1. Cate and her cousins bonded at Thanksgiving.

2. These two pictures. Telfer took Cate to the Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree. When the saw turned on, this is Cate screaming, “TOO LOUD, TOO LOUD!”

3. Telfer and I spent a night up in Seattle two weeks ago marking our first time out together for a night without children. Unless you count the romantic weekends in the hospital while awaiting Jane’s birth. Believe it or not, I do NOT count them! Chris and Mendy watched the girls – all involved had a good time – except for the spread of the stomach bug..

4. I came out of the bathroom the other day after taking a shower and found the girls sitting like this at their little table. Doesn’t Jane look like a big girl? That’s mostly a figurative comment as she had her 15-month check-up yesterday and is still not on the chart for weight. BUT! In keeping with tradition, she has a gigantic head (90th percentile for head circumference!) So sweet to see them together like this.

I think I am finally done here…

So far, a low-key day. Telfer is on call today and will probably work at some point, we are just hoping that it's not at dinner. Which usually means he will be working at dinner. Or Telfer-style, he'll arrive just in time. He always finds the best parking spots.

This is Cate this morning at breakfast. Notice she's rocking a headband. This just might be why I am not eager for her to wear a lot of hair ornaments. She ends up looking like an 80s aroebics queen. She would correct me if I told her this – a princess, not a queen. Just add legwarmers.

All of Telfer's siblings are in town (minus one) and we are so looking forward to our Thanksgiving meal later today at Telfer's parent's house. I am bringing several things that have made my house smell good. Last night I was making stuffing – it's sausage and chard stuffing – it tastes fine but… Safeway didn't have green chard, only red. I didn't think it would matter much. So we will be eating pink stuffing today. Think of us.

Telfer took this series of Jane on the Rody horse yesterday. What? You are scandalized he kept taking pictures instead of consoling her? 

As I am sitting here this morning watching the dark clouds race across the sky (I love how quickly the clouds move around here) I am truly grateful. I hope your Thankgving day is a good one.

So much to say again! We had a lovely, lovely, lovely time in Nampa last weekend for our 10-year-college reunion. I didn't take any pictures. Telfer took one: 

You can see my back! And Jayme Lenker and Bob Van Allen and I think Erin Van Allen's leg. Such a great photograph. Thankfully, RaChelle took lots of pictures and has a nice little synopsis over here. I am so blessed to call these people my friends. RaChelle is also very gracious because you will notice that Claire has a black eye — yeah, pretty sure Cate gave her that black eye. None of us were in the room so it's hard to say exactly what happened. But I have my suspicions.

Also, I got an NNU sweatshirt that I am wearing at this moment. Anna, at my request, made me the perfect apron. I love it. This is me with my apron on right before naptime (the girls', not mine). I put it on so I wouldnt' forget to ask Telfer to take my picture. This wasn't what I had in mind but hey.

Yesterday we got to meet our first nephew. Why haven't I mentioned this? Yes, we finally, finally have a boy in one of our families! Reuben and I share a birthday (August 17) and he is a happy, squishy little guy. So great to finally meet him.

And then this is slightly nerdy but I am really excited about this. So I love Clorox disinfectant wipes and they are a permanent counter-dweller. Telfer tries to put them under the sink but I move them back up to the counter because I love them. 

Not that cute, right? So I asked a lovely Etsy seller, Di Nuovo, to make me a cozy to cover the container. She loved the idea and $15 later, this is what they look like:

How cute is this?? Cute!

And FINALLY, Cate and I went up to Seattle today to go see Yo Gabba Gabba Live. The theater is in Elizabeth's neighborhood so we met her and one of her friends for lunch before the show. Cate was in a rare cuddly mood so it was pretty much my perfect afternoon. Picture a crowded theater with parents and grandparents and many, many children under the age of five. It was kind of awesome. 

For a long while there I didn't have much to say but suddently I am so chatty!

First off, last Thursday the girls and I went to Prineville to stay with my sister and her family. Alyssa and I attempted some projects that we have seen on Pinterest. We were getting a little tired of pinning a lot but then doing nothing. I obviously needed my sister to help/do most of my crafting as I am not particularly good at this kind of thing. So here are two of the projects we did:

We took a bowl of felted wool balls:

And then made a wreath (after wrapping the wreath in pretty green yarn first):

Here's the pin that inspired us to make this wreath. Ours is much, much smaller because the felted balls are quite expensive. 

And then we made framed pears. That is fun to say but we were inspired by this pin. We think ours is cuter. Telfer spray-painted the frames for us and we used Alyssa's fancy cricut machine to cut out the pears. We also made framed trees and next time we are together we will make other scenes for different seasons of the year (snowflakes, hearts, etc). 

Of course the cousins had a wonderful time together and then Mom & Dad came over for the weekend. And let me just say this: my children are horrible sleepers in any new situation. Maybe this is my fault somewhow but I literally got ONE hour of sleep the first night we were there. It got a little better as the days progressed and it was all worth it.

And then Halloween. Witness the cutest mouse and elephant you have ever seen:

We took the girls trick-or-treating in the neighborhood and at Grammy & Papa's house too. We let Cate stay up and watch Charlie Brown's Halloween and eat candy. She liked it. Telfer also carved this utilitarian pumpkin for our porch:

And now we all have colds but are preparing to leave tomorrow for our ten-year-college reunion in Nampa. I am bringing ear plugs for our hosts, Claire & Nate, because it could get, well, loud, particularly around 3:00 AM. We are looking forward to seeing some of our most favorite people in the world. I am so excited I can barely stand it.

Also, reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver with some of the girls for our very periodic book club. I need to get cracking as I am only half-way through. Ah, it really does feel like college again. All night readathon? 

I pinned this cookbook on Pinterest but if anyone (Anna) wants a cookbook for Christmas this is my favorite, favorite new cookbook ever. All the recipes are fabulous and not that hard. Fall makes me want to cook and try new things and spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

Also very, very excited by this bit of news. God is good!

October is a good month for our family. Cate & Telfer have birthdays, ending the Griffith family birthday run. Also Telfer has started a very lovely tradition of taking a week of vacation. The thought of traveling somewhere sounds horrible so we called it a staycation. And we had a lovely week last week. We did Fallish things like visiting the pumpkin patch and walking downtown for coffee in coats and blankets over the girls in the stroller. We also went to the Seattle Acquarium (Jane actually was with it a bit this time) and finally had our teeth cleaned (it's been so long). We had a date night that ended at the movies which defines the perfect evening for us. We also gifted each other one whole day to each other. 

My day was Tuesday and I sort of desperately needed to get away. When I start feeling like an unpaid maid and say "Really?" a lot to Cate as in "You said you wanted an egg for breakfast and I made you an egg and now you are screaming? Really?" And then I almost, almost use a swear word. And that, my friends, is how I know I need a little break. I used a good chunk of my day to reread Kathleen Norris' little book: The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy & Women's Work. Don't worry, it's not all high-minded here. I also got my nails done, went for a walk, ate pastry, and had a massage. 

But some needed reminders & beautiful words here:
Laundry, liturgy and women's work all serve to ground us in the world, and they need not grind us down. Our daily tasks, whether we perceive them as drudgery or essential, life-supporting work, do not define who we are as women or as human beings. But they have a considerable spiritual import, and their significance for Christian theology, the way they come together in the fabric of faith, is not often appreciated. But it is daily tasks, daily acts of love and worship that serve to remind us that the religion is not strictly an intellectual pursuit, and these days it is easy to lose sight of that as, like our society itself, churches are becoming more politicized and polarized. Christian faith is a way of life, not an impregnable fortress made up of ideas; not a philosophy; not a grocery list of beliefs. 

And also Norris quotes Kierkegaard: Repetition is reality, and it is the seriousness of life…repetition is the daily bread which satisfies with benediction.