I woke up this morning and realized that it's already Friday.

And already late November.

Now how did that happen? (Either or both.)

 

As I wrapped my hands around a cup of tea in the early darkness, I peered out into the valley where everything – and everyone – was dusted in snow.

Beauty. Stillness. Magic.

 

And yet here I stand wondering how it could have gotten so late so soon.

For all of it's cold winds and grey skies, November's dark days certainly move fast each year.

 

Our family is in the thick of prepping the farm for winter.

It's also deer season.

And it's LüSa craft show (and holiday gift) season.

And then of course there is Thanksgiving to prepare for and Solstice gifts to make.

Oh, November. You are predictable madness.

 

So today I'm hoping to get organized.

Collect the supplies for our holiday gifts.

Make some lists.

Start crafting.

And maybe even clean my floors.

(Okay. Probably not the last one.)

 

Before I go, I have a few small announcements and links you might enjoy…

1. I'm on Instagram now!

I'm just getting my sea legs with this smart phone, but I'm catching on. Slowly.

You can find me right over here if you care to follow along.

It seems like it might just be my ideal way to stay connected social media-wise, as I love to speak through pictures.

 

2. I've been gathering up DIY holiday gift ideas for you.

If you're feeling like digging in to some homemade gift giving this season, I have a new Pinterest board that is brimming with simple inspiration for kid-made and adult-made gifts.

I'm so inspired by other people's creations, and the pins here have gotten me pumped for making (and giving).

My kids are choosing projects to pin here, too, so many are appropriate for your little ones as well.

 

3. If you're also buying gifts, may I boldly and shamelessly suggest LüSa?

Crafting gifts is a beautiful thing, but sometimes we purchase a gift or two as well.

I'd be so honored if you shared something from my small business.

Because I write here simply for the joy and the journey. As you might suspect, I don't get paid to do it.

LüSa Organics on the other hand is how we stock the pantry and pay the bills.

It is our everything.

You can find our special holiday gifts here (which I promise – you will love!).

Thanks so much.

Truly.

In that vein, today I'm loading the truck for a LüSa Organics holiday show in Madison tomorrow (the Craftacular). If you're local do come on by and introduce yourself! It's always fun to meet readers and LüSa customers alike.

Love to you all this snowy November morning. Have a restful, productive, good-messy sort of weekend, friends.

Wherever you may be.

Rachel

Edited: Just one more thing. A friend just sent me this. It's lovely and beautiful and answers the question of "what do stay at home parents do, anyway?" Love.

When I was a child I don't think I really "got" Thanksgiving.

Sure, we gathered around my grandparents table and used the fancy dishes. We said grace and ate a glorious meal.

But I didn't get it.

Not really.

I knew the story of the first Thanksgiving (the version we were told at school anyway), but the meaning was lost on me.

Because grace was just a prayer we said before meals.

It was a memorized and recited, not felt or understood.

I was glad to gather and eat my grandma's cooking, but that was as deep as my gratitude ran.

 

And then one year – as an adult – I got it.

I really got it.

I'm not sure when Thanksgiving clicked for me, but now I count it among my favorite of the year.

Because it's all about gratitude.

("Well, duh," you say. But truly. It didn't sink in until adulthood.)

It's counting blessings. Being thankful for the abundance that we possess.

It's about deeply feeling and noticing all that we have.

And as you might guess, I'm all about that.

And now I look forward to Thanksgiving like I once looked forward to Christmas.

 

Several years ago we started a Gratitude Tree tradition.

It quickly became our favorite Thanksgiving tradition, and one that really brought home the meaning of Thanksgiving for our kids. And come to think of it, for the adults as well.

The Gratitude Tree is a place to note all that you are thankful for.

A way to count your blessings and be mindful of all the richness in your life.

Quite simply it's a tree branch decorated with leaves upon which you've written what you're thankful for.

But it always seems like more than that.

So much more that my mom sometimes keeps the tree from the previous year on her dresser until the following autumn.

Because these blessings are worth remembering throughout the year.

Want to start your own Gratitude Tree tradition?

I thought so.

But keep it simple, won't you? We get so carried away trying to make our traditions picture-perfect to the end of losing our way and forgetting why we're doing it to begin with.

Don't let perfection stand in your way.

Materials

• One branch (or bundle of smaller branches) small enough to fit in your jar or vase
• Mason jar or sturdy vase
• Marbles or stones (optional) to stabilize vase
• Paper (colored paper or old water color paintings are nice but not necessary)
• Paper punch or something pokey to work a hole through your paper
• Yarn or string
• Scissors
• Pencils or pens

Process

Create your "tree"

Cut your branches.

My kids go out each year with clippers and select our branch. It isn't always the most perfect specimen, but I love the role they play in selecting it. If you want a stunning branch, select one on a hike well before the hustle of Thanksgiving.

Feeling fancy? Coat that baby with silver or white sparkly spray paint. Yowza.

Trim the branch so that it isn't obnoxiously tall or wide on your table. You're making a centerpiece – not a brush pile, my friend.

Place the branch in a jar or base. Add pebbles or marbles (optional) to give it a more stable base.

If you have young children and visions of broken vase and bits of tree branch wedged into your turkey, consider a smaller centerpiece. Or as an alternative you can suspend a single branch horizontally above the table. Gorgeous.

Make your leaves

From your old watercolor paintings (or colored paper, or old telephone bills or whatever you've got) cut out leaf shapes. I free form cut simple almond shapes with a little stem, but you can use these templates if you want something more refined.

Punch a hole near the leaf end of your leaves and thread some scrap yarn or string through. Knot.

Arrange your table

Place your tree on your Thanksgiving table.

Surround the tree with scattered leaves and pencils. (Glitter pens would be lovely, but we eat Thanksgiving on Great-Grandma's handmade lace tablecloth. So pencil it is.)

We put our gratitude tree on the table before the guests arrive. Then throughout the evening we all write down anything that we're inspired to share.

Even my dad – not famous for pouring his heart out through the pen – gets into the act.

Share your blessings

After dinner we remove the leaves from the Gratitude Tree and place them in a basket. Then as we gather for dessert or a glass of wine, we pass the basket around the room, taking turns reading the anonymous blessings that were shared.

It's a magical time – sometimes resulting in tears – as we find the words to express all that we are thankful for.

So. Good.

Want more? Five Family Projects to Cultivate Gratitude might be just the ticket. (A post I wrote for Simple Homeschool last year.)

How does your family make Thanksgiving (or a similar holiday in your culture) more meaningful?

Happy Halloween! From our goofy little perfectly normal family to yours.

Love,
Rachel

P.S. I love living in a town where homemade gluten free cookies are part of the Halloween deal.

P.P.S. Yes, there was also a lot of skanky candy. Here's where it's going, in case you need inspiration!

Some of the less questionable stuff is sticking around, and another bag of treats that I just can't let my kids eat is being taken to the coop for a trade out. Since I give them a little extra trade in value they're jazzed by my hippie up-sell.

Sweetest dreams!

Thank you for all of the sweet birthday cheer yesterday – here, on Facebook, and in my inbox. You all really know how to throw a party!

And it turns out, so does my family.

My vision of spending my birthday out in the fresh air and sunshine, cooking down sap (and cooking our lunch) over the maple fire was dampened by an all-day downpour.

No matter. It only made for more time for sewing, knitting, and otherwise snuggling in with my three favorite people.

Lupine decided that the best thing to do on one's birthday was to read books aloud (to her) and color together, so we did some of that too. (Her book selection? "Happy Birthday to You!" by Dr. Seuss. Adorable.)

Pete and the kids were on their game, delivering sweet handmade gifts
and yummy handmade food from dawn until dusk. I could easily turn forty
once a week to get this kind of treatment.

And a gift for myself? Why yes. That, too. There was the list I shared a peek of yesterday of "forty things" I plan to do, and also the rainbow banner in the photos above.

Because my kids have a birthday banner. What about me? Forty seemed like the right time to make one for myself.

I used bits of Sage and Lupine's slings for the brown and green pennants, so it's a super-extra-sentimental sort of special. (My tutorial to make your own is here.)

Oh, and one more thing.

The best part of my birthday might have been this mess.

Because I didn't clean up a thing.

Today is my 40th birthday.

Forty! I'm planning to spend the day at home with my family – eating great food, boiling maple sap, knitting and sewing, and wondering at what the next forty years might bring.

Forty trips around the sun! Now how did that happen? I swear I'm still 28.

Love,
Rachel

We had a lovely and simple celebration on Sunday with my parents joining us for the day. It was cold, but spring none the less. (Gray sky and cold winds be darned.)

I took every aspect of our celebration down a notch this year, from fancy clothes to dying eggs to the gifts in their baskets.

In fact this year there was nothing handmade at all brought by the spring bunny. Nada.

As I said on Saturday, there are days where you decide that enough is enough.

Instead
of crafty goods the bunny brought a bird feeder, bag of seed, and
garden tool for each child along with the flower seeds that they receive
each year.

And – of course – the kids were as tickled as ever. It seems like whatever is given is met with grace, enthusiasm and gratitude. Because it's about the magic, not what they receive.

And to be honest, there was relief for me in toning things down.

In having a
holiday that wasn't picture-perfect. (Heck, Lupine even talked me into a
bag of plastic eggs at the thrift store, so those were mixed in with
our wool and paper mache homemade varieties.)

Because why not? I find no joy in perfection (especially the journey to it) so why not chill out a little?

Indeed. The magic was alive, but not the hustle and worry and business. (As Lupine's face will attest in the photograph above just after the "Wish Bunny" was found.)

Don't get me wrong. I still value craftiness. But I think it's important to know when enough is enough.

Because there in lies balance – and the joy – of a perfectly simple celebration.

 

Wishing you a weekend of simple joys and celebrations.

May you feel the sunshine on your skin, the breeze in your hair, the earth beneath your feet, and the love that surrounds you.

May you unplug and be present in this magical moment, whatever your weekend brings.

Spring!

Love,
Rachel

In case you are in the hustle of last-minute Easter celebration prep, here is my tutorial for felt easter eggs pockets and here are paper mache treat eggs (both seen above). You can also find my tricks for natural egg dyes and thoughts on simplifying Easter or Spring celebrations both here and here.

Happy spring, northern friends! (And happy autumn to those of you south of the equator.) I send this wish wearing long johns, wool socks and my coziest sweater.

Oh, yes. It's spring! (In that drifting snow and icy roads and biting wind kind of way.)

While it feels nothing like spring around here, I'll take a long cold winter any day over the crazy early, crazy dry, crazy hot spring that we greeted on this day one year ago.

It was 80F/27C last March here in Wisconsin. And frankly, that was terrifying.

Today it is -8F/-22C with the wind chill. Um. We have over corrected.

And so that brings us back to spring. And holidays. And celebrations!

Holidays in our family are not religious, but seasonal. Solstices and Equinoxes. And as you may recall, spring is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate. It is right up my alley in every way.

But where I live, Spring Equinox (or Eostre) rarely resembles spring.

Where I live there is normally a decent snow cover on the Vernal Equinox. So this celebration we push out to Easter each year. It adds a bit of normalcy to our family rituals to celebrate when most of our friends and family are also celebrating.

And it keeps the spring bunny from getting snow in her fur.

So today will be an ordinary "winter" day. We'll boil some maple down (if it warms enough for the sap to run!). We'll do some crafting. Sage will work on his robot. We'll read books. Maybe take a quick, bracing walk. I'll keep stitching away on Lupine's spring dress. 

And with hope in our hearts, we'll plant another flat of seeds.

Because spring always arrives. Eventually.

And really – I can hardly wait.

 

Welcome 2013. I'm grateful today for so much. Including…

1. Holding hands.

2. Walking beneath the stars.

3. Amazing coffee roasted by our friends.

4. Soft yarn and the promise of a new project on the needles.

5. Summer garden dreams.

6. Perfect bacon.

7. Making art (especially the project I showed you yesterday and the shelf project above).

8. Snow that sparkles in the sunshine.

9. The sound of the creek across the pasture at night.

10. Wool slippers.

11. My family.

12. Reading your comments right here every day.

13. This life.

And now it's your turn. What makes your heart glad today?

Love,
Rachel

So. How was it?

I hope your holiday was peaceful, joyful, and full of connection.

Or at least peaceful. (wink)

We had a lovely (albeit a bit overstimulating) holiday at my childhood home.

The overstimulating part is fascinating, considering that it is simply the four of us plus my parents and my sister. (I'm beginning to suspect that my people might be a large part of the stim-factor. [See cookie plate above.] Hmmm…)

Indeed, my sister, the kids, and I got carried away on the grain-free and gluten-free treats, so no one was lacking in the sugar buzz department. We even recreated some old family favorites like peppernut and pecan puffs, sans-gluten. Next year? Kling. (Sweet, non-potato lefse.) Oh yeah.

Truly in all it was a perfectly lovely holiday.

I left feeling the gratitude I always do after a holiday with my family. The word that comes up for me is thougthfulness. No hastily bought gifts, no excess of stuff, few off-limits treats that my kids can't enjoy.

The gifts in particular are a treasure.

Goodness, my mom bought me not only the cookbook I've been coveting, but also a vintage manual egg beater and yes, a pStyle (TMI? Sorry. But public toliets weird me out plus we're often out in the woods. This thing is brillaint. I can't believe I just told you that.)

Really. Who gives gifts like that? She's fabulous.

As for my kids, it's even better. My parents gave each of my kids four things: a pair of pajamas, a pair of pants, and a book. They also gave Lupine a headlamp and Sage a watch.

That was it.

Practical, simple things. No noisy electronics or plastic or junk.

It felt a tiny bit like Little House when Mary and Laura each got a peppermint stick and new mittens and were happier than ever.

Okay, not exactly like that, but close.

I've talked about this before and tend to get a lot of emails asking how I got my folks on board.

The truth is, I got off easy. My parents just inherently "get it".

You see, my grandparents went over the top for my sister and I and it troubled my mom. She asked them to ease up and they didn't. (20 gifts for each of us was not unusual on Christmas back then.) And it really bothered her. It was way too much.

So when I asked my mom to give few gifts and ones that aligned with our values she agreed. Embraced it even.

I know for many it isn't so easy. All I can suggest is to keep at it if it is important to you – lovingly and respectfully – and hopefully they'll catch on. Do your best to see their hearts. They are probably doing their best with what they understand and how they see the world.

One resource that might help is the Alternative Gift Registry. Here you can ask for whatever you are wanting and guide your loved ones towards choosing appropriate gifts.

 

And now?

I'm so glad to be home.

Back in the quiet of these hills.

And I'm ready to get on with the rest of winter. To snuggle in and find our rhythm again. Because no matter how magical a holiday is, finding our everyday groove is always cozy comfort.