Three again

Look! All three kids together again...and willing to jump out of the car by the side of the freeway to pose next to a giant cow (or, to be more precise, a giant bull).
Really though, who can pass up a photo op with a giant bull?? 
Not me, that's who. 

With Lauren home, there's more laughter & joyful noise, later bedtimes, and we go through a few more bagels. We're looking forward to a hyggli, laid back summer. Although they each have some scheduled, structured obligations (work, scout camp, etc.), we're also planning on basking in our last New England summer: hikes, bike rides, beaches, and a quest for the best ice cream cone, best hot dog, and best lobster roll in the area.

And if we can just sell our house, I can stop being OCD mom; it's a challenge with everyone home full time. I am so grateful for appliances and the trunk of our car for their cavernous ability to hold a bunch of random clutter gathered and thrown in as we sweep the house frantically before a showing. Pay no attention to the shoes and charging cords in the washer, sports equipment in the dryer, and piles of mail in the dishwasher, home buyers! Everything else is in good shape! Go ahead and make an offer!

Nesting and pruning

Today I realized that I'm having kind of a rebellious, who says holiday:

Who says you have to decorate your tree before December 23rd? 
Who says you have to have Christmas cards all made and sent by now*?
Who says you have to stress over every little detail?
Who says you have to say yes to every invitation or event that comes along?

Certainly not me, not this year anyway.

It feels good to have all my chicks under my wing. Some Decembers I love darting around, bringing home little bits and treats to the nest, thriving on the bustle and the go, go, go. This year I just want to nest right here, thankyouverymuch (with a special thanks to Amazon, my gal Friday). We've jettisoned the parts that were stressful and tried to keep the meaningful bits for this precious stretch of days when we're all together. Someday we'll have a more high energy holiday again but this year, we needed hygge.

Tonight we put a few ornaments on the tree (we wanted to wait for Lauren to be home) and pulled out a gingerbread house kit we still had in the basement left over from last year:

It was great. Epiphany: The holiday season can be whatever you need it to be.

And who says your gingerbread walls have to meet exactly at the corners? 

. . .

*We'll still plan on doing cards eventually; we just had to wait for the college girl to get home to do photos [Note to self: take photos in the summer from now on].

Stepping outside

 

On Friday evening, everyone was swirling around the kitchen after dinner. Dishes were done. Sam was strumming Hey, Jude on his beloved new ukelele. Laughter. Glow. Singing. It was delicious, hyggli. And, suddenly, too much. I stepped outside to the twilight yard and sat on the patio to cleanse my palate of the sweet heavy rich thoughts and memories we have been serving up lately.  

Lots of happenings around here in the last week: Sam's birthday on Monday, lovely family times, Lauren's breathtaking patriarchal blessing last night, her birthday today, sorting and packing and shopping and (tomorrow) flying west with Lauren to deliver her at university. All wonderful, happy events with an aftertaste of leaden, sweet melancholy.

Truth is I've been avoiding writing here. The emotions have outpaced my ability to step outside of it all to reflect and do it justice. I crave sparse and spare and breezy lightheartedness.  Luckily I live with these guys:

"Pteradactyl!"

Or, at least, I do for another 12 hours, give or take...  

See? I can't be trusted not to take a maudlin u-turn.

I know: She's going to have a fantastic time. She'll be back home in that bed of hers and I am her mother whether she's near or far. But I'm fighting those pesky lumps in the throat today, this week. Far seems                             far.

Thankful things

We are anxiously anticipating a fun time next week with out-of-town visitors and lots of hygge. I've been collecting some ideas and images to inspire our celebration.  Just thought I'd share a few...

 ^The I am thankful for chain template. We usually have a bunch of little slips of paper and a jar for everyone to note all the things they're thankful for. I think this year we'll graduate to these lovely graphics for our gratitude notes.

 Or these thankful cards downloads from Cathy Zielske (plus ideas for making into a mini album)

 

^I've been enjoying Leah's daily thank you notes at ThxThxThx--and the reminder that gratitude is not just for November.   

^ Fun ideas from the brilliant gals over at One Charming Party: paper bag turkey with popcorn inside, New World boat game (which technically should be Mayflower boats instead--not sure why they used the Columbus boats), and mini pumpkin pies. What fun!

I love The Pioneer Woman as much as the next gal but I want to tell you about my other go-to food site for Thanksgiving recipe and planning this year: Annie's Eats (not me, no relation). I love her cheerful approach; her posts include timeline planning, great ideas and step-by-steps for recipes. Totally worth subscribing. 

. . .

It really is one of my favorite weeks of the year: all food, family, and gratitude.

. . .

And now, off to the weekend! Hope you have a marvelous one.

November comfort

Well, hello November. Around here half of the leaves are still hanging on bravely by their little stems but the temperatures have dropped and I feel compelled to have soup simmering. And a cozy book--a comfort read.

Like Gretchen Rubin, I find myself turning to comforting + familiar books when I feel a little stressed. Or, in this case, when the weather turns Novembery.  It's the literary equivalent of comfort food (which, incidentally, you may have noticed that I also turn to in cases of stress or November).

To Kill a Mockingbird, for instance. I just finished reading this out loud to the kids last week. My voice quivered as I read the Halloween eve passage: the ham costume and the suspense and the "hey, Boo" and the final words: 

"Atticus, he was real nice...."

His hands were under my chin, pulling up the cover, tucking it around me.

"Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."

He turned out the light and went into Jem's room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.

My voice quivered because I always get teary there. But also. It was one of those golden-tinged moments and I felt it as it happened: remember this. I am sitting here with my three children and sharing the string of words that Harper Lee threaded together. I am transferring something I love into their open hearts. Or something like that.

Other comfort reads for me: Anything by Rosamunde Pilcher: September, The Shell Seekers, Coming Home. They are long + lovely British family sagas. They make me want to have an Aga stove and a scrubbed pine table with lots of people around it. They are not intellectual or high brow and I love them. Right now I'm reading Coming Home. Again. Same thing with Maeve Binchy's Irish saga books. 

Speaking of November comfort, here are a few Novembery images that have warmed me up a bit, via my gather tumblr (which I use as a clipping file, basically):

What about you? What's giving you comfort this early November day?

p.s. I'm working on some technical glitches right now. If you're reading this, you probably came via some other route than basic-joy.com

Thank you so much for the several heads-up notices about the wonkiness. I'm keeping calm and carrying on, hoping to restore everything soon. xo

[edited to say: everything's fine now! Thanks for being patient!]