Renew My Home: November 2017

Monday, November 20, 2017

The House at Christmas, 2017

In the bleak midwinter

Frosty wind made moan.

Earth stood hard as iron

Water like a stone.

Snow had fallen

Snow on snow

Snow on Snow

In the bleak midwinter

Long ago.

(Christina Rossetti)

When the snow fell, in early November,

our place turned into Christmas, overnight.

Suddenly it seemed right and proper to clip boughs,

wrap gifts, and sprinkle fairy lights around the house.

We used pink this year, and tiny bits of red:

vintage ornaments that we've collected for years,

and glass birds, and plaid flannel we already had.

The tree is narrow (I love how narrow it is), and it's standing in an old wood box from Antiques Downtown in Elk River, MN.

Our favorite vintage ornament, capturing light, mirroring and refracting little bits of Christmas.

Our packages this year. We ordered the butcher paper from Amazon, the craft paper is a painter's roll from a home improvement store, the ribbon and bells are from Jo-Ann. Our youngest daughter does most of the wrapping and all of the lettering.

At dusk, the tree and mantel lights begin to glow, and I can hardly wait for dark to fall, when we'll sit here together, gazing. It sounds boring but it's probably my favorite part about Christmas.

And every morning, I flick on the tree lights and feel a quiet joy settle over me.

Christmas lights are always the right amount of light, no matter the time of day.

I kept simplifying this cabinet top, till almost nothing was left. If your Christmas house is making you anxious, try taking things away before you add anything.

Quiet your space.

You'll find when you do this, your heart has more room, and you can breathe easily.

The mantel.

Here too, I kept taking things away, till all that was left were white pine branches, lights,
and one little bird.

Then we hung the linen stockings.

I made these six years ago, when I was pregnant with Malachi. The kids didn't know about the

baby yet. I told them the fifth stocking (not shown here) was for the dog.

The stockings are made from old linen clothing, and trim from vintage pillowcases.

The dining room table.

Cedar branches, cranberries in canning jars, tea lights.

There are four of these candle jars, so we'll use them as an Advent Wreath.

A Target tree on the shelf,

a bit of eucalyptus on the island.

Green in the wintertime:

life-giving.

The tree is in a vintage pewter cup, with a bit of faded flannel tied around it.

My Grampa made the wood rooster.

Now for some random glimpses of Christmas around the house.

Here's the lettered piano panel in the tiny library.

(all lettering done by my daughter)

The library sofa, with our shabby silver tree in an ice bucket.

This sofa has been with us since we married, it's from my parents. We've had it recovered twice, but now it has a new linen sheet thrown over it. It looks tidy, but only because we rarely use it.

Our shiplap headboard, with linen twine strung above it, and a few vintage ornaments.

Malachi violently objected to this particular decoration.

Anna Kate's room is all decked out, thanks to her love of paper art.

Here's her new scroll.

Her shelves, with a new paper tree in a vintage clipboard.

What can I give him,

poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd,

I would bring a lamb.

If I were a wise man,

I would do my part.

Yet what I can I give him,

give my heart.

-Rossetti

I pray for you a Christmas full of warmth, rich in love, simple as a stable, with room for the treasure that your heart is longing to receive.

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Hush

"Can we say 'Hush' to ourselves? Can we command our thoughts? I believe we can. God has given us the power to close the shutter of our minds upon hurtful, weakening thoughts. He has provided all manner of shutters. A book that swings us off ourselves and into another world is a very good shutter; a song set to music; beauty; the dear love of those who love us. Above all, there is this: look at Calvary. Look steadfastly. Take time to look and all within you will be hushed, for power streams forth from Calvary. We need never know defeat." (Amy Carmichael)

A Prayer (Not by Joel Osteen)

"Take from me, Oh Lord, that self-pity which love of myself so readily produces, and from the frustration of not succeeding in the world as I would naturally desire, for these have no regard for your glory. Rather, create in me a sorrow that is conformable to Your own. Let my pains rather express the happy condition of my conversion and salvation. Let me no longer wish for health or life, but to spend it and end it for You, with You, and in You. I pray neither for health nor sickness, life nor death. Rather I pray that you will dispose of my health, my sickness, my life, and my death, as for Your glory, for my salvation, for the usefulness to Your church and Your saints, among whom I hope to be numbered. You alone know what is expedient for me. You are the Sovereign Master. Do whatever pleases You. Give me or take away from me. Conform my will to Yours, and grant that with a humble and perfect submission, and in holy confidence, I may dispose myself utterly to You. May I receive the orders of Your everlasting provident care. May I equally adore whatever proceeds from You."
-Blaise Pascal

Solitude

by Henri Nouwen

We enter into solitude first of all to meet our Lord and to be with him and him alone.
Our primary task in solitude, therefore, is not to pay attention to the many faces which assail us, but to keep the eyes of our mind and heart on him who is our divine savior.
Only in the context of grace can we face our sin;
only in the place of healing do we dare to show our wounds;
only with a single-minded attention to Christ can we give up our clinging fears and face our own true nature.
As we come to realize that it is not we who live, but Christ who lives in us, that he is our true self, we can slowly let our compulsions melt away and begin to experience the freedom of the children of God.

A Meditation

by Henri Nouwen

To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept. Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that, those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even dare to be silent with you.