be kind to yourself

Last night when I was up to feed Hattie, I was rehashing a gathering and started to regret how much I had talked wishing I had shut my mouth more often. This happens to me...sort of a later regret for telling too many stories, talking more than listening.

So I put Hattie back down and got out my laptop to write an apology email, ready to write and say I was sorry for...talking so much.

But when I opened my gmail, I found an email from another friend who had been to my house recently. She wasn't at the gathering I was going to apologize for, she had just been over for a play date. And in her email she apologized for talking so much.

Oh women. We are so hard on ourselves. I read her email and was so shocked she would write it. Never once had I thought she was talking too much. In fact, she left and I felt so grateful for the time with her to actually get to hear what was happening in her life.

I sat looking at the new message I had pulled up to write my apology email and decided against it. Because after really thinking about it, I think I was just beating myself up. It's okay that I talk. It's great that I listen. It's fun to be with other people. It's fun to share stories. It's okay to be kind to myself.

The song above is on Andrew Peterson's new album, The Burning Edge of Dawn. If I could buy you all this CD and send it to you for Christmas, I would. It's so good. But since I can't do that, enjoy the song above. And be kind to yourself.

december update

November ended and left the first snowfall. The first snow is always so fun and exciting. I made a great effort to get the kids out each day, which seems to bring a whole lot of drama.  Ivar has serious trouble coping with any fabric that bunches up...you may remember he was only one when he coined the term Sockie Boo Boo, a word that is as understood as any other. He hates wearing socks because of the bumps. He hates when his sleeves aren't completely flat under his coat. And you can only imagine how upsetting snow pants are. My new goal for the winter is to get everyone bundled and outside without any meltdowns. It's a lofty goal

But we are good Minnesotans, so we press on and push through the tears. Even when Elsie insists on wearing her Prairie bonnet instead of a winter hat. We can roll with that.

I taught my kids the game Fox and Goose, a game my mom played with us when I was little. You make an 8-slice pie with your feet and then play tag within the track. If you step out of the track you're "it." So you're either running around the circle or cutting into one of the spokes, and often get trapped. Ivar mostly liked following me and making the track. And Elsie mostly liked pretending she was a kitty "who loves to eat snow." In the end she taught us a game called "Kneel to Kneel" and then we all pretended we were kitties eating snow.

Our house has been in a constant state of christmas clutter. Every night requires a whole lot of tidy time. But everything is getting put to good use. The whole cast of the nativity story has been for many stroller rides, the tree skirt has been found to make great forts and ornaments come on and off the tree all day long. So far only one angel has lost her head, and one glass ornament shattered on the tile. Not bad for eight days in...

My mom has told me that my brother Mat always used to dress me up as a baby. So when I found Hattie like this, I felt very pleased. And made Ivar pose for a picture.

We had our friend Tony from church over for lunch this week and he told about how for a while he was a cowboy in South Dakota in charge of a huge herd of bulls. He told the kids stories of needing to use a lasso..and the kids were thrilled at the thought of a bull stuck in soupy mud. He left and they came down dressed like this, ready to play cowboy the rest of the day.

And the next day was Grandma Margaret's birthday so she and dad came to town to get her free hoagie followed by a trip to the cupcake shop. It was a delicious trip and a great way to celebrate. It's been a good start to our December!

christmas carol cards

I believe it was last Christmas when I was in the car listening to "Last Christmas I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away..." when I decided it was finally time to make these Christmas Carol Cards. Because that song is the worst. And Christmastime is supposed to be filled with the best.

So I had the same awesome artist who designed my blog do the artwork for ten of my favorite carols, a few that are hardly sung anymore, even in church. And a few that I wish I knew more than the first verse. 

And then when we were waiting for Harriet to come, Rory helped me set up an Etsy shop! What a great use of all that time! You can purchase digital downloads (you print them on your own) of each song individually or as a collection at a reduced price.

I wrote on the site: 

I started making Hymn Cards when I had my first child, wanting to be able to sing the great hymns of faith over him, while having the lyrics visible and accessible. I set them on a stand next to the rocker in his nursery and now he knows 12 songs that Christians have sung for centuries.

These Christmas Carol Cards were created with the same intention. I want my kids to hear the words to these songs, to recognize the lyrics, and to remember my voice singing these sweet carols to them. 

Of course these are not just for moms to sing to their kids. My hope is that they may be hung as art, displayed on a mantel or placed in a frame. Or sung during a personal quiet time, slowing down enough to remember the actual reason we celebrate each December.

You'll notice these Christmas Carol Cards are a bit different than your typical word art. Rather than just a phrase or a sentence, these Carol Cards have all the words to the entire song. That's because my hope is that you read all the words, and sing all the lyrics. These carols are packed with reminders of why we celebrate the birth of Jesus, as well as reminders of the real story we cling to during this season.

I hope you love them like I do. And that you use them, and sing these songs that have stood the test of time. You can find my etsy shop here. The original Hymn Cards, created for kids rooms and nursery's are also in the shop as a digital download set. Happy Singing!

Santa Lucia

Gather round all you aunties and mama's and grandma's and people with little girls in your life. I've got a sweet gift idea for you.

Every year on December 13th, my cousin Kristin posts pictures of her oldest daughter all dressed up as Santa Lucia and serving her family cookies and hot chocolate for breakfast in bed. The pictures are adorable and as a good Swede I've been waiting patiently to get to do the same with my daughter one day.

A little background:
St Lucia was a young Christian girl who was martyred, killed for her faith, in 304AD. The most common story told about St Lucia is that she would secretly bring food to the persecuted Christians in Rome, who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city. 

I found that paragraph written on this site, and there is lots more to read there if you're interested... And this was written on the Gustavus website:

According to Swedish legend, a ship carrying a maiden "clothed in white and crowned with light" appeared on the shore in Värmland during a great famine. The maiden, widely believed to be Lucia, distributed food and clothing to the needy, thus endearing herself to the Swedish people.

To celebrate Lucia and remember her generous giving and servant heart, daughters all over Sweden get up early on the morning of December 13th and serve their family wearing the traditional outfit.

So last year I decided to put together a few Lucia Kits for Elsie and my nieces Ruby, Nellie and Svea. And I want to share where I got all of it, so that you, too, could order all of this and have it ready by December 13th!

First, I found a really sweet book, Lucia Morning in Sweden, that explains the tradition nicely for little kids. I read it three times yesterday to my kids, so clearly it's a fun book for them as well as a good teaching about the holiday. Then I ordered the white robes from Oriental Trading. I got the red ribbon from JoAnn's and then found the candle head piece online as well. (And don't forget to get 5 AA batteries!)

Here's the list of what I got for my Lucia Kit with a few links for where you can order them from:
Lucia Morning in Sweden
White Robe (they have a few different sizes...)
Red Ribbon
Candle Crown
5 AA Batteries
Cookies or Lucia Buns (Lussekatter) or Ginger Snaps (Pepparkakor) The recipes for these are in the back of the children's book.

Elsie is excited to be "Princess Lucia." Ivar is very excited to get to eat cookies for breakfast. And I am the most excited to begin this tradition in our home! I got to be Santa Lucia at Gustavus when I was a sophomore. It was a sweet honor and I still am thankful my head didn't catch fire as I read the Bible during chapel with five lit candles on my head.

There also is a song that goes with the day and since I was in the Lucia Singers choir in college, I even know the song in Swedish. My kids like it as a lullaby and I like that I can sing it while reading the book to them.

I hope this idea gets some of you excited out there. It's such a fun family tradition and over the years I believe it will lead to so many good conversations: would you ever die for your faith? how can we live our lives with a generous and giving heart? what does it feel like to serve and be served? how do you think God has called you to be a light? I can't wait for those bigger conversations. Until then we'll just eat cookies for breakfast!

our christmas card

You may remember last Christmas when tinyprints contacted me to use some of their product. I ordered adorable stationary that I made into Thank You notes for houses in our town that had impressive Christmas light displays. Go back and read this blog post again if you're needing a laugh today. It's one of my favorite stories, full of awkwardness and good intention.

This year I opted for a more traditional order from tinyprints: their holiday cards. To get to work with this company pleased me to no end because it seems the cards I receive each December that have me flipping them over to see where they came from always come from tinyprints. They make lovely cards.

I spent one quick afternoon scanning all of the choices for Christmas cards, found the one picture of the five of us where I have my hair down since Harriet was born, and just like that, I had my Christmas cards ordered. It was so easy and I am so grateful to have such lovely cards to send out this year. 

And, as luck would have it, when I just set up the link to the tinyprints site, I saw that Christmas Cards are 50% off for cyber Monday. Hooray for a sale!

Now if only writing Harriet's thank you notes was as easy as ordering our Christmas card...