Those November Days

{Once again finishing a post I started over a week ago...}

Sigh....another month gone. I'm really not sad; November was a bit busy for my taste. I tried to hold back all the craziness from my family...freezing meals to save for days when I knew I wouldn't be able to cook, cutting out extra activities, being intentional about planning family fun and quiet, and working hard at becoming better at what I've long known to be one of the keys to a less stressful mommy-hood - using my time purposefully instead of just reacting to life.

I'm still learning how to embrace a purposeful existence and how to develop more consistency in my life and in my children's life. Having intentional plans for laundry and cooking has definitely helped to anchor my homemaking skills and the pattern that has ensued gives our home a rhythm and leaves me less frazzled.

As I strive to develop routines that become the heartbeat of our home and the skeleton of our children's growing years, I'm seeing the variety of ways routine can be expressed. With the business leading to inconsistent (although increasingly more reliable) works hours for the husband, I struggle to balance the need, for my both my children and myself, to have daily routine and structure with the need to have family meals and togetherness. Adam is not home at the same time every day, and supper times vary so widely some days I feel I'm in a perpetual state of planning, cooking, and keeping warm the meal. But I'm seeing that the routine that brings cohesion to us as a family unit is not just daily patterns, but weekly, seasonally, and annual occurences.

I longed for more consistent traditions growing up, and as I work to chissel out and develop meaningful traditions for this little family, I'm learning more and more that even the little things we do together on a consistent basis become the pulse that steadies us and holds us together.

Now, of course I realize there is a place for flexibility, but the term flexibile implies that there is at least some structure, some core element that isn't changed despite the bending and twisting.

And maybe my head cold is just too severe for this blogging stuff because I can see that the thoughts of this past month have sort of spewed out into repetitive paragraphs that do nothing to delineate or solidify the multiple micro-topics I have just touched on.

So I will look back for a moment to see how the past month evolved into memories.

We welcomed the first snow of the year, (and captured it with a crooked, under-exposed photo)

and dug out the boxes of Christmas Ornaments to hang on the tree, telling the story that goes with each one.

The geese honked their good-byes as the days turned much colder.

And we wondered how to pass the days indoors.

Although the calender did not yet declare winter's arrival, we felt it settle upon us. Our weekend family times together grew lengthier and less harried and although my week days were busy, the quiet of the winter weekend was a comforting balm after the business of packing in summer and autumn work and fun for 6 months.

We began to dig into the produce stored up in the basement and freezer, and all those weeks of planting, weeding, and gathering in the sun were appreciated. The harvest was over, the dust had settled, and the snow lingered.

The days have grown so short, but the evenings seem so long.

The cold wind howls through all the trees around us, but our hearts embrace contentment.

The snow drifts over the road to our house, but home is where we want to be anyway.

The land rests and we rest.