This Advent

This Advent...

We are not just getting ready for baby Jesus (as if that weren't enough)but also for our baby boy that is due to be born at the beginning of January.  I wish I could write some kind  of deep reflection about expecting a baby at this time of year but nothing of interest really comes to mind.  Mary was about to give birth at this time of year and so am I.  I have a lot that I would  like to do to get ready for Christmas but I also have a lot to do to get ready for a baby.  There should be some kind of spiritual lesson to learn here, shouldn't there?  Alas, I am not able to articulate it. 

Hubs has been doing a great job of making sure we gather around the Advent wreath every night. This used to be my job but I am happy to have him take the lead.  We light the candle, say the Advent prayer and read from the days Gospel.  We then sing Advent songs like Maria walks amid the Thorn, and Gabriel's Message ( I think it is called), and a Christmas Carols so the kids can learn some before Christmas.  He calls Advent "ours" because neither he nor I grew up with any Advent traditions to speak of but we have developed our own with the help of Catholic websites and bloggers.  

We have some Jesse Tree ornaments that we made together as a family when my oldest was an only child.  We tape those to the fireplace mantle after I tell the kids a little bit about each one.  We also have an Advent Calendar with little books for each day that tells a bible story in Jesse Tree style or has a Christmas Carol to sing or a little prayer to say. 

These are some really very simple things that we have been doing as we have built a little bit of an Advent repertoire over the past few years with the help of websites like CatholicCulture.org.  The best part is that we have been praying as a family every night this week.  I'm grateful and hope that we continue at least throughout this season of Advent. 

Dreams of a Clothesline Realized

Alleluia! I finally found a workable solution for a clothes line at a fairly reasonable price.  On last weeks quick takes I talked about my woes in digging a hole in the ground for an umbrella style clothesline and how some of the freestanding clothes lines online were $200 or more.  Well I took a look at the local hardware store and what did I happen to find but a Sunline Tripod Portable Clothesdryer with 64 feet of drying space at about $60 dollars.  Here it is holding its first load of laundry.  It didn't hold everything from my relatively large load of laundry but it held just about everything.  I can use it indoors too.  I think that's pretty good and am very happy with it.

Spring Flowers Everywhere

Most mornings the little ones and I go for a leisurely stroll around the block while Angelboy does his school work (poor kid).  Today was just beautiful. And now along with the daffodils (which have been out for at least two weeks and are just now starting to fade), tulips (which have been out for at least a week), and dandelions and small violets (which I have just started to see in the last couple of days) the trees which produce flowers have been producing them in full.  Spring flowers don't last very long so we're trying to enjoy them while we can.  Soon we will be seeing Lilacs too as I am just starting to see them bud.

I didn't see any dandelions until a few days ago and then they just seemed to appear over night.  They are plentiful and still pretty.

Along with the dandelions I started seeing violets spread throughout the lawns.

A note on daffodils

This spring I have been taking note of the timing of the appearnce of various flowers.  The daffodils seem to be the earliest bloomers and are noticeably plentiful this year.  I have never seen as many daffodils as I have seen in this neighborhood this year.  I didn't think it was possible, but I am almost sick of them just because there are so many.  They must be somewhat fashionable these days.

Some Special New Touches for Advent

We are doing a few new things for Advent this year. We have done the usual Advent Wreath for a few years where we light the candle(s) on the wreath and then read the daily mass readings or another appropriate reading. We have a brass ring with candle holders for the candles and in past years I had put an artificial garland around it with a purple ribbon. This year, however, due to the inspiration derived from reading blogs such as this one , showing off homemade Advent wreaths, my husband went and cut some branches from one of our pine trees outside and used these to put around the brass ring along with pine cones (also collected from my husband outside). I haven't actually attached the pine branches to the ring but it seems to work just fine like that as it is mostly likely to stay in one spot for the whole of Advent. Adding in some purple ribbon or some wire to fix things a little more securely would be simple enough though.

Something else we are doing for Advent is a continuation of a Jesse Tree that ds1 and I have been working on the past few years. We started drawing Jesse Tree Ornaments two years ago and it is our goal to finish them this year. There are different events and persons that may be used that lead up to the birth of Christ for the Jesse Tree but we chose to use this version which starts December 1 as opposed to the very beginning of Advent and includes the O Antiphons beginning December 17. In previous years we taped the ornaments on our fire place mantle but this year we are using a branch that my husband cut when he was trimming the tree in our front yard.
It feels good to be able to do these easy, little homemade things that don't require purchase from a store.