and yet - it is always beautiful.
we are getting settled here. we are cozy. i'm finding places for my favorite things. this advent, this season of waiting, in it i am learning. learning still more patience. but also learning peace. i find that i am more peaceful in the waiting, more peaceful in the trusting, more peaceful on the days that try to overwhelm me. peaceful even in sadness. peaceful amid some great change.
peace i leave with you. my peace i give you. i do not give to you as the world gives. in this world you will have trouble, but take heart! i have overcome the world.
this morning i woke up so warm and rested. i made breakfast and lunch for ben. i made the bed and really looked at some happy bits in my home.
and then i set in to a really long to-do list of phone calls and emails and things that i need to take care of so that 2014 can start off well. i don't want to be dragging things that should have been accomplished and tied up and set right into the new year with me. sometimes it's so hard for me to pick up the phone and start the conversation, but everything is always better when communication is maintained. and often, the innitiative is what it takes to get things settled in such a way as to be do-able and wrapped up. i crossed off ten (kind of big, very important) things in three hours. and i feel really good about that!
and after the snow this morning, the sun came out. so maddie and isaac and i and miss n. bundled up and enjoyed sunlight on fresh snow. the sleds and g.i.joes came out, too. and there was lots of smiling and laughing and tumbling down the hill and digging a tiny fort and more laughing at a tiny lady all decked out in pink and purple snow clothes.
now maddie is off to grandma's house for some christmas elf-ing. and i have an elf-ing assignment from my dad to help him find a surprise for my mom. and isaac and i are going to make some cookies and do the dishes. (miss n. is soundly napping). it's time to put on some christmas tunes and get down to business!