Edit, Add, Appreciate

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Edit- I did it! I broke through the barrier that has paralyzed me for years as I struggled to get the Halloween decor out of the way before Christmas was truly here. I also did something that I hope I remember to do next year. I took all of the fall stuff down, and left the living room bare for a few days, then began working the Christmas stuff in at a leisurely pace rather than the one all nighter I used to pull switching out the seasons. Gave me lots of time to appreciate the layers and layers of memories that each of my decorations come wrapped with.

Add- I won’t say what, but we did do a little decorating that we’ve never done before. I think we are all just so excited to have the 2 college kids come home that we have had more fun getting things ready for their homecoming.

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Appreciate- Our Advent worship has been building on a series- A Light In the Window was the first week. Yesterday was A Knock At the Door. Next week is A Quickening of the Heart, followed by Christmas Sunday when we celebrate A Meal At The Table. I am enjoying the incremental process of preparing my heart for the Christ child.

8 Things

8 Good Things from this day

1. Mid-day call from my son at college. He is my sunshine.

2. Late night call from my daughter at college. She is my anchor.

3. My dear friends Gwen and Barb invited my younger daughter over for dinner and took her to a high school football game. I stayed home. Alone. And loved it.

4. Outing to JoAnn Fabrics which has become my new favorite place. I love that they have a whole wall of fat quarters of every color of fabric. Got some fun and funky colored yarn so that I could ………..

5. make a pile of granny squares. Yay!

6. Made a batch of the cinnamon sugar mentioned on my links yesterday- surprise toast for K in the morning!

5. Got the good news that I don’t have to have K at a tournament tomorrow until 11! Yay!

6. Nice visit with friends when they brought K back home

7. Averted a migraine with magic meds. Thanks magic meds!

8. Got to have a nice long uninterrupted phone chat with Bev catching up on everything.

Edit, Add, Appreciate

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Edit- It is August and only this weekend did it hit me. I’ve been less than satisfied with my yard this summer, and mostly thought it was just because I haven’t given it the time it deserved. This weekend I realized that there is nothing out there that gives me great delight. It has been my tradition to always have a yard full of whimsy- croquet mallots and sticks as stakes for plants, my old bottle tree, old suitcases and cowboy boots with plants growing out of them, pieces of junk off piles all over Louisville “growing” everywhere. Sure, I do still have a bust of a man with the inscription, “He got the whole refrigeration thing going” but it’s grown worn and is fairly hidden. From the street, this looks like the house of some pretty traditional folks (who don’t spend nearly enough time on their yard.)

My friend Terri Farless once told about a house that she passed every day that had a wreath on the door that said, “Love grows here” and that she thought it was pretty cheesy….until one day it hit her that that wreath was that family’s manifesto for all the world to see. I want something that says to all who pass, “some pretty fun folks must live in that house”, something that stakes our claim to be less than traditional. So, I”m on the lookout. Suggestions?

Add- The days are starting to get a little shorter and there has been a hint of fall in the air this weekend. From fall to summer hardly a night passes without a candle being lit in this house. I don’t know if it means anything to my family or if they even notice, but for me it has this whole complex meaning- it adds a certain cheer and sense of home on a dark night, it says that we are under roof and hunkering down for the night. And so last night, pulled along by the earlier darkness and a premature coolness in the air, I lit the first candle of fall.

Appreciate- Tonight I am appreciating my little church. Our pastor talked to us today about being a peculiar people, which indeed we are. She started with the Flannery O’Connor quote, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd”, she told the story of the wife of a man who came to interview for a position with the church being overheard saying, “they kind of look funny” and that only at Jeff Street would we see that as a compliment. Probably not many churches in town worrying that they are might be leaning too close to normal, worrying that the neighborhood is getting too nice for them. Thanks be to God for our great and generous eccentricity.

Edit, Add, Appreciate

Edit- This week I begin carpooling with my son and because it’s his first week on the job, he has to be in 1/2 hour early which means I will too. That puts me at a 5:30 wake up call, and sorely in the need of an earlier bedtime. I have 15 minutes to make my goal for tonight.

Add-I want to treat myself kindly this week by treating myself to something that makes me feel rich and gives me joy each day. Could be listening to music that I love, or doing a little piece of art, or writing a note to a friend, or sitting in my back yard with the candles lit.

Appreciate- In my efforts to reclaim my wild and hard scrabble back yard, I finally decided to let one of the beds lie fallow this year so that I can amend the soil more before I plant there next year. I mulched over one large spot of it and did a little arrangement of pots with succulents in them. Maybe a picture will follow tomorrow. I thought of it after I found a little hen and chick rooted in the crook of an old railroad tie back there. They ask for a little bit of water from time to time and otherwise live very simply on whatever they can find to live on.

Makes me think of my mom, who within 10 minutes of arriving somewhere , be that a tent or travel trailer or a hotel room or a hospital room has to “set up our house” and makes it our very own.

So, today I am appreciating all of the tenacious hens who make homes out of whatever they can find for their chicks, who ask for little and give much.

Edit, Add, Appreciate

Continuing to follow Graceful Creative on theEdit, Add, Appreicate it thread on Sundays.
So, for this week:

Edit- About a year and a half ago when my father was diagnosed with lung cancer, a wise friend who had recently lost her own father to cancer reminded me of Anne Lamott's admonishment to "as much as possible, live in the present." When someone has a life threatening illness, your eyes are always scanning the horizon, you are always trying to think through what could be ahead, and you could almost miss the time you have with your loved one. I appreciate that wise counsel and have shared it with others- like pressing a secret into their hand as they start down a dark road. As much as possible, live in the present. Tuesday will mark one year without my dad. This week I am giving myself the very advice that served me so well before. The temptation is great to revisit that exhausting day a year ago, to wonder if we made the right choices about his care, to wish we might have said more or done more. And to do that would be a disservice to my father who loved life and clung to it, and who lives forever in our hearts. This week two of his grandchildren are graduating from high school, one of them being my own daughter. What great joy he took in them, and what high hopes he had for them as they cross this new threshold, and I choose to honor him by being very present with them in this joyful time in their lives. As much as possible, I will live in the present this week.
Add- I will add in more contemplative time this week. Shelling peas, as I did tonight. Carrying water to my plants in buckets as my hose is broken. Honest repetitive work that is quiet enough for me to hear my own voice.
Appreciate: Especially appreciating my sister this week as her sweet boy, my precious and perfect nephew graduates. She has done a million trillion wonderful things for me, but none better than making me an aunt.

Edit, Add, and Appreciate

I stumbled upon Graceful Creative this weekend and have enjoyed reading from the archives.

One of the things I found there was the Sunday habit of reflecting on Edit, Add, and Appreciate. It is explained in this way:

Edit one thing: material objects, bad habits, negative thoughts, or activities that don't reflect who you are as a person. It doesn't have to be a physical thing; Sometimes bad habits and negative thoughts are more detrimental than physical clutter.

Add something: bring in something or reinvent one thing in your life- thoughs, habits, clothing, objects. Add something that will help you be a better person. And yes, sometimes a new pair of jeans can help.

Appreciate somebody or something that is already in your life. Hug your children and tell them how special they are. Call your spouse, just because. Be extra polite to the guy who makes your latte. Frame that piece of art.

Feel free to hop on and join us on Sundays.

Edit one thing: Somewhere over this past very busy week, I told myself it was okay to go over my limit on drinking pop. Just a little consolation prize to myself has turned into full blown debauchery in no time flat. I feel yucky, I don't sleep well, I'm embarrassed that I can't/don't do better. For everyone's sake, tomorrow needs to be judgement day for me and Dr. Pepper. I will replace all but two of my Dr. Peppers tomorrow with water, cold and sweet.

Add something: I am adding back into my schedule some time to write snail mail letters and cards. Thirty years ago, I set aside every Sunday evening to write letters- long and heartfelt- to several college age fellows. I wrote little notes of love and concern to people who were on my mind. In the simple act of faithful correspondence with others, I knew my self better. I would like to add that tradition back in, altered a bit now for an older woman with three teens and a husband and two demanding dogs.

Appreciate: Yesterday we went to my son's college to bring him home for the summer after his freshman year. My husband decided to make this trip a learning experience. He mapped out the scenic/non-freeway route and decided that my youngest (who has barely driven around the block a few times) was going to drive that route with him. She was excited and flattered that he thought she could to it, but she was scared too. It took them four hours to our two that it took my middle child and I to drive on the freeway, but that gift of his time and his confidence in her was monumental for her. She made it. Yes, she had to pull over often to let the long long line of cars impatiently driving behind her go around, but she stayed the course. So, for the trip back, he decrees that the middle child will drive back on the freeway- and she has only driven on the freeway once ever. He was very brave to ride with either of them on these maiden voyages, but I have every confidence that when they are teaching their own teens to drive, they will recount the day their dad "forced" them to stretch and grow. I admire him for the courage to be the passenger on these trips, for his kind and calm demeanor as he coached them through, and for the wisdom to know that the time was right.