Monday, November 21, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving week, and Advent plans!

Hi all! I am home on vacation for the entire WEEK. The children are in school, I am in my pj's drinking coffee and crocheting non-stop, and I am downright blissful about it. I realized this weekend that this semester really started to eat away at my spirit. I lost my passion for my hobbies and the creative endeavors that I derive satisfaction in. I felt down and downtrodden a good portion of the time, and on the whole I was just beleaguered. Over the course of the semester, I held onto my love of writing via our Autumn Prayer Journal Curators/INSPIRE series, and in November, my choreography endeavors and holiday crafting revived that dormant creativity within me just begging to come alive again. It feels really, really good.

And so on this wintry late November day here in WNY:

First snow!
I am excitedly planning several things. First, this winter, I am planning lots of new dance and crafting stuff. Stay tuned for all sorts of posts on those this upcoming season!

In that vein, here is my current work-in-progress that I began this weekend:

Gryffindor scarf for Henry! The pattern is available for free here.
It's Tunisian crochet, which is a totally new craft for me. You use a crochet hook to pull up stitches in a long row, then do a backwards pass to finish them off all at the same time. This uses the Tunisian Knit Stitch, which makes the front side look just like stockinette knitting, but provides a much thicker fabric on the back. It's fascinating!

And on the dance front...my mind is completely awhirl. I'm taking a choreography workshop at my studio that starts in January, the spring hafla is in April, and I'm contemplating going to an out-of-town workshop with a well-known dancer in June. Just thinking about it all makes me feel so  happy.

The other part of my planning process involves Advent. I have started compiling a few little somethings for the kids for the feast of St. Nicholas, and those have begun to arrive, like precious little St. Teresa of Calcutta here:

Shining Light Saint Dolls
Henry is getting St. Dominic Savio this year, he is still on his way. And I'm thinking that we'll definitely do an Advent series right here on this blog. I'm calling it "Anticipating Joy," and each week we'll have a theme and write in to each other with an anecdote about our week related to that theme. I'm going to be using Advent with St. Teresa of Calcutta, but I also have a new prayer journal and an additional devotional, and my theme could be inspired from any one of these. Your anecdote can be related to something you found in a devotional, or just something from your life generally. I'll probably post them on Wednesdays, I think that mid-week slot. Sound like a plan? We'll begin next week!

Speaking of next week, that is when I will be blogging again. I will be on blogging hiatus for the remainder of this week for the holiday, including Tea Time. But it's going to be a GREAT Advent and Christmas season this year, I just feel it, and I love that we're sharing it together. *heart*

What are your plans for Thanksgiving, dear readers? Mike and I are hosting our parents and my grandmother, so we're in full-on cooking and house cleaning mode. How about you? Write in and tell me all about it! And I'll be with you again next week. Until then!

4 comments:

  1. Yay Gryffindor! That's my house too. Anticipating Joy is a perfect name for an Advent series. Sums up Advent in two words. The youth group at my parish sells devotionals for Advent and Lent and I'm planning to use that one this year. Thanksgiving is at my parents this year. Since most of the people coming are adults we split up the dishes between us and everyone is bringing something (or the ingredients to cook something at my parents house). That way my parents don't have to cook but if my mom want to take a nap her bed is just down the hall.

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  2. Anticipating Joy - I love that! Very fitting for the season. :-)

    I'm heading home tomorrow afternoon for the rest of the week. I am looking forward to it very much. We're having Thanksgiving with dad's family this year. My aunt is hosting. I'm excited to see all the cousins, especially my cousin who lives in NY. She's bringing the babies (14 mos & 2 mos) with her! So many babies! There haven't been this many babies at a Campbell holiday gathering in almost 6 years!
    Looking forward to being able to relax and not worry about school for a while, since I have kept up with my assignments. :-)

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  3. Hi Melanie! I'm so glad you like the title of the Advent series, and will be participating! Sounds like a great idea to use your parish devotional. We do a similar thing on Thanksgving. We're hosting and are doing the turkey and stuffing, but our moms help out by bringing side dishes. :)Happy Thanksgiving!

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  4. Hi dear one Sam! That sounds like a lovely Thanksgiving indeed! And so fun with all the little ones. <3 As a student, I always loved the Thanksgiving break. So very needed at this point of the fall semester.

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