Manic Monday: Closing in on Christmas

We're in the homestretch. My kids, especially my tween, are practically hyperventilating with excitement. Okay, not the teen. He's keeping the excitement close to the vest. I've been too busy with work to even realize Christmas is so close, which could be bad news for those expecting presents.

That's our Christmas tree, over there on the left. Fred the Cat is standing guard. I tried to remove him from the picture, but he jumped back in every time I got set up. So, clearly, he was meant to be in the shot. Oh, and that's one of my Nativity sets -- my main Nativity set -- in the header at the top of the blog. I collect them. Nativity set, not blogs.

So, here's our Manic Monday rundown for the week...

Bookshelf: I'm reading too many books to list here, most of them as research for the book I'm writing. What I'm reading for fun, inspiration, enjoyment when I have time is a magazine I discovered on the shelf at Sam's Club: The Soul Body Connection, a special annual publication of the monthly Spirituality & Health. If you are into meditation, centering prayer, mindful eating, breathing exercises, prayer in general, check it out. It's wall-to-wall articles, and what I really love is the fact that this Eastern-leaning publication includes lots of Christian information, including a Q&A with Trappist Father Thomas Keating, a leader of the centering prayer/contemplative living movement.

Soundtrack: Christmas music, of course. Here's one of my favorites, a rocking version of Angels We Have Heard on High by Relient K, a very cool band.



Viewfinder: While other people were out shopping this weekend, or baking Christmas cookies, I was with the nine girls in our Daisy troop, along with four other moms, for an OUTDOOR winter discovery day. Who thought that was a good idea in upstate New York in mid-December? Actually, it was a really fun day. And a warm-up for our January winter camping trip.

Here's Chiara working on an animal track rubbing:


The whole gang:


Olivia decided she really wanted pomegranate seeds for lunch. So there I was, working the seeds out of the pomegranate below at 7 a.m. Whatever happened to PB&J?

Since I had about three million seeds after I finished, I decided to throw a few on top of my usual bowl of oatmeal (below). Added a nice crunch. Doesn't it look lovely? Yes, that's a candle beside my oatmeal. Truth be told, the absolute best prayer time I have every day is when I sit down to my silent, mindful breakfast and pray before I dig in. It's become an almost-daily prayer practice for me, one I really miss when I can't find the time, or the silence. Which is often in this house.


So, onward, as we celebrate the fourth week of Advent and pray the O Antiphons each evening as we light the candles on our wreath. Enjoy these last days before the feast. Shop, bake, party, but remember to breathe deep and find a few minutes each day to sit in silence and contemplate the reason for this season.