Almost

The scene is set. The gifts are wrapped. Let the merry making commence.

Winter

A wrinkled crabbed man they picture thee,

Old Winter, with a rugged beard as grey

As the long moss upon the apple tree;

Blue-lipt, an icedrop at thy sharp blue nose

Close muffled up, and on thy dreary way

Plodding alone through sleet and drifting snows.

They should have drawn thee by the high-heapt hearth,

Old Winter! seated in thy great armed chair,

Watching the children at their Christmas mirth;

Or circled by them as thy lips declare

Some merry jest, or tale of murder dire,

Or troubled spirits that disturbs the night,

Pausing at times to rouse the mouldering fire,

Or taste the old October brown and bright.

-Winter, Robert Southey

(picture by Chris)

Today is the Winter Solstice. I love knowing that. I love each seasons change. Each just long enough to enjoy, not so long that you grow weary of it. Winter is a season most dislike. But I find great comfort in the winter. Winter is a season for savoring long, quiet stretches of just being. It's a season for a bit of solitude. Winter is the season of snow, so beautifully peaceful. Winter is the season for hot chocolate and warm fires. It's a time for huddling under blankets in the comfortable presence of someone dear. It is the season of rest. The earth goes to sleep and rejuvinates it's soul so that at Spring's arrival it can burst forth in energetic displays of color. It seems to me the human soul needs the same. I find with each new year that my melancholy spirit settles into winter especially well. A season of rest. Quiet. I do love a long stretch of quiet.

Candy Cane Therapy

We all need a candy cane and a break.

Yesterday we fell apart. This morning we stumbled around. We need rest. Deeply.

We start school very early here. 7am early. Too early for little bodies. Those little bodies are tired.

It's been a trying school year. Constant assessing and testing. Constant pushing to the limit. A school system that's a bit budget-cut chaotic. And these little ones who are overwhelmed and stretched.

We need a candy cane and a break.

Yesterday the youngest threw a full out tantrum because she had no homework. Yes, I did say because she had NO HOMEWORK. She's just irrational and tired. She's so used to getting work that she thought I was wrong and that she would get in trouble. Then she thought she was being left out of the homework fun. So she followed me around telling me so, tears streaming down her face. I told her that she could go and play, have fun with her toys. Instead, she hit her brother in the arm and asked him to give her homework. It was like a mouse hitting a lion. He was sitting at the computer already on edge and near tears over a social studies project. So the lion ate the mouse. He shoved her and called her stupid. Something he knows he shouldn't do and would later cry about. Being a feisty one she scrambled back to her feet and started a full out brawl. Meanwhile the middle one erupts into tears because everyone else is yelling and screaming. Her sensitive heart couldn't take it. And I, in an embarrassing moment of childishness, threw a box of colored pencils and a binder full of paper against the wall. In the movie version of this scene, the pencils would make a great crash and then the screen would go silent as the white papers float back to the ground slowly with the four people staring at it in stunned silence. Then they would all turn on heel and go off silently to separate corners. Oh wait, that's what happens in real life too.

It was not our finest hour. After sitting in silence in our rooms for a little while, I went to each one, apologized, and hugged them. They also apologized to me and to each other. We all cried and hugged and took a deep breathe. We had Chick-Fil-A for dinner.

We're done. We're tired. I've considered homeschooling.

We need a candy cane and a break.

A Lesson on Rockwell

We've been studying Norman Rockwell at the studio. I've been using his work to teach my students about illustrating everyday moments. Being a huge Rockwell fan, I've loved this study. Rockwell embodies ideal American life. He captures moments that make us wish we were there. I especially love his holiday portraits. They wrap up everything I want the holidays to be. Which is why I chose to start this project this time of year. This way I've gotten to decorate the studio in all of my favorite holiday Rockwell prints. My heart smiles every time I see them.

I know I don't often share studio work here. But the finished projects are definitely on my list of all time favorites. We made "Sunday Evening Post" covers. (Yes, I know it's supposed to be Saturday, but you know, copyrights and all.) I love them. I especially love this one:

But I'm a little biased given that the artist is my smallest sprite. The picture is of my sister and her husband out for a walk with the baby and the dogs. It's a very sweet picture. She started drawing it right after Thanksgiving, thus her inspiration. This one is definitely going in a frame. I'm absolutely in love with it.

If You Let a Boy Make Cookies...

It started like this...

just a boy and a double boiler. But somewhere between that and this...

I ended up with a kitchen that looks like this...

You have to be careful this time of year.
Otherwise you may decide to let a boy make cookies.
Which will lead to you getting caught up in the baking.
Which will lead to remembering all of the people you should bake for.
Which will lead to approximately 300 cookies and some candy on the side.

Treats anyone?

Heart Smiles

Christmas is coming.

My heart smile gets bigger as each gift is wrapped, each advent door opened, each cookie made. This is joy's time. This is hope's time. This is Christmastime.

“Fail not to call to mind,

in the course of the twenty-fifth of this month,
that we celebrate the birth of the Divinest Heart
that ever walked the earth;
and then smile and enjoy yourselves for the rest of it;
for mirth is also of Heaven’s making.”

~Leigh Hunt

"Sick" Day

OK, so I admit I probably could have sent her to school. I don't think a runny nose counts as being really sick. But later she played me a little song and I was glad that I didn't.