Small Successes (First week of December edition!)

I'm telling myself that any post is better than no post, and just jumping in for a quick update, small successes style.  Many posts are rattling around in my mind just waiting for the time and opportunity to get out, and if I can just find a few seconds, I'll share more about my Jesse tree project (with pictures, I hope!).  But for now, just a few successes from the week:

1)  I don't think I've shared about this one before, but if I have, forgive me; it's late and my brain is very fried these days.  I recently (OK, so it doesn't really count as totally a this week success, but it's on my mind since I did it for the second time ever tonight in the course of dinner preparation) learned how to de-bone and de-skin split chicken breasts!  Since we generally buy the expensive hormone free "natural" chicken at a whopping $5.69/lb, anything that drops my meat into the ~$3/lb category is most welcome.  And it's so easy!  I don't know why I was so afraid to try.  Bonus goes to my Mom who reminded me that I can save the bones/skin etc in a bag in the freezer, and let them accumulate until I have enough to try making chicken soup again.

2)  The aforementioned Jesse tree project: completed, and all for under $10.  I even scored the perfect mini artificial Christmas tree to hang the ornaments on, at the perfect price: $1, at the dollar store.  Once I ripped off the chintzy glued on "presents and bows", what was underneath became a lot more respectable looking.  We started doing readings tonight, and only had one day to make up.

3)  I finally talked myself into spending money on a Nativity set, in celebration of our third married Christmas.  For the past two years, I've looked longingly at them, missed the one I grew up with, missed having one in the house, but have passed them up with a "we can't afford it..." and "maybe next year."  This year, having found one for a reasonable price that was pretty and had the main two features I was looking for (removable baby Jesus, and not-porcelain so less breakable), I finally reasoned that it would be better to spend money on something that draws our minds towards the reason for the season, rather than anything else I might fritter it away on.

And a bonus 4th small success, which isn't really a success (hence I'm allowing myself to go past three) but much more of a small blessing:  I happened to catch my cousin on Skype this morning.  No biggie, you might think, but she's spending a year in China at the moment.  Think it's difficult to find time to get together with a friend for coffee?  Try juggling an eleven hour time difference, and vastly different life circumstances!  She's one of my very best friends in the world, much more like a super close sister than a cousin, and I miss her dreadfully; I've been feeling down and lonely lately, so it was an especially lovely surprise and great way to start the day.  Small blessings = small gifts of love from our Father who knows just what we need at any given moment!

Anyway.  Lord willing, I'll write again soon.  You are all in my thoughts and prayers, and I have many things I'd love to be writing about, but I've realized that I have to keep keeping my primary vocation first and foremost; if that means putting down the computer before I ever get the chance to write (time and again) for my daughter's more pressing needs, than so be it.  I reminded myself tonight, as I thought this over (multitasking, while cooking dinner) that if God wants me to write, then He'll make the time for it.  If He isn't making the time for it at the moment, then it must mean He wants me to focus on my other duties, and let those be enough for me.  So that's the state of things!  In the meantime, all you who do stop by, please say hi!  Comments make my day, as do all of your own posts.  I may not have time to write, but I do mostly still have opportunities to read (probably because I can do the latter much more quickly than the former).  So, have a blessed and holy Advent, all.  Keep writing and praying!

All quiet on the northeastern front...

Our landlord had some updates to do on our apartment, so we had to "clear out of dodge" for a few days.  Hence, I'm also clearing out of here for a few days, since we're visiting family and hopefully doing some vacation-y mini-family stuff as well (or as best as can be done, with a 1 year old).

In the meantime, though, I'll leave you with another L'Engle quote that I've been pondering today.  But first, a very abbreviated background of *why* I'm thinking about all these quotes about writing, and who we are, and what we are meant for...

Before college, I wanted to write, and did write, often.  I filled journals with thoughts, I wrote poetry and short stories, and I turned to the fictional friends of my right hand - Emily, Anne, Vicky, & Meg - to help me feel my way through the angst of adolescence.  In college, I wrote term papers, and received good grades, along with lots of encouragement from my professors; I also privately wrote my way through some heartbreaks that were pivotal to forming the person I am today.  I went to graduate school for a brief stint, taught English as a T.A., dropped out due to the complete misery of being too far from family, friends, and my boyfriend (now husband), but kept writing.  After college, I finally published a handful of meditations in a magazine and a few poems, but life got in the way - a whirlwind of engagement, marriage, and new baby temporarily ceased the flow of words, and only recently have I started to put pen to paper again.  But I'm trying to listen to that renewed impulse, which is part of what this blog is about.... and so I'm also reading again, all my favorite authors who taught me that story can show the way to truth, and reading some of those authors (like L'Engle's) own thoughts on writing as well.  So for all of you who have that same creative impulse burning inside - perhaps her words will resonate with you today as well.

"My husband is my most ruthless critic. ... Sometimes he will say, 'It's been said better before.' Of course. It's all been said better before. If I thought I had to say it better than anyone else, I'd never start. Better or worse is immaterial. The thing is that it has to be said; by me; ontologically. We each have to say it, to say it in our own way. Not of our own will, but as it comes through us. Good or bad, great or little: that isn't what human creation is about. It is that we have to try; to put it down in pigment, or words, or musical notations, or we die." L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet

Now - back to quiet I go.  But before I do - a big thank you, to my blog friends, for listening to my attempts to work writing back into my daily life :)