Searching for a Balance

 "As our houses are deluged in a cascade of cosy Christmas images, glittery frosted cards and happy, holy families who seem to be remar...

 A very Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this blog.  a welcome gift For the Old Year's sands are well-nigh run; This is the Birthda...

We sang People Look East at Mass this morning: "Make your house fair as you are able; trim the hearth and set the table." a beauti...

  The week flew by and I don't know where to.

It's the last of the O antiphons tonight, O Emmanuel. Together, they have a message.  O E mmanuel O R ex           O O riens       O C l...

 The little tree on my desk at work.  

  I had Mary and Joseph on a small shelf above the sink. Then one day I heard a *clunk*; the Blessed Mother had taken a fall. Now they are r...

I am working on mending a favorite shirt of my brother's; he likes button-down collars and the button pulled away from where it was sewn...

 Bill and Dianne's front yard is populated with all manner of lights, shapes and creatures; it's so cheerful. I got some pictures - ...

 Advent began a week ago, and with it I started on the Christmas cards. I figured out that if I do five cards each night, I'll have plen...

 I'm lifting this straight from Magnificat, but it's so interesting. "My mother used to say that the days of Advent were the da...

"Upon that way [the way of Advent], we go to meet the Lord as he comes to meet us. The ways lies through our own heart. Let us clear it...

 It's time for baking, and I'm really trying to be faithful to it. There was a butter cookie recipe in my magazine the other day, an...

 “What matters in the deeper experience of contemplation is not the doing and accomplishing. What matters is relationship, the being with. W...

It's already the feast of St. Nicholas. There's a quilting group which meets at the library, and some of their winter-themed work is...

  The watchmen cry throughout the night, Reminding God to save,  Nor shall they rest till early light Announces dawning day. As sentinels aw...

 "It is a disconcerting fact that while the Lord who comes to us in Holy Communion is exactly the same person who will come to us on th...

 In our town there's a winter festival on this first weekend of December every year. Since the library is in the center of town, we have...

"To the average man, life presents itself, not as material malleable to his hand, but as a series of problems of extreme difficulty, wh...

The copper tea kettle is in the front window. The shadows are on the side wall.

 Daisy likes my brother's new blanket.

 I went outside today to survey the kingdom and sprinkle some super phosphate on the bushes. This is an old practice I first learned from Ma...

The liturgical year, that is. Next Sunday begins Advent; today we celebrate Christ the King. In the course of the year, the church goes thro...

 I bought an extra bag of dry cat food; I put it in the basement.  Not long after, I was down there doing laundry or whatever, and there the...

  O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever.                                       - from  Psalm 136

 Well, tomorrow's Thanksgiving, and I've made cookies, the sweet potato pie and the broccoli gratin. The pear sauce (pears were on s...

 What I forgot to mention the other day, was that somebody was selling the Christmas issue of (British) Country Living on ebay. The price wa...

 From Magnificat - For those who are blessed with a cheerful heart: - may they bring joy to others always. For those who are blessed with a ...

 I made out very well at the thrift stores on Thursday. An off white flat sheet, brown velvet scarf, wood desk organizer, a little mason jar...

 We are having two days with temps in the sixties - how wonderful. I emptied out a bag of compost into one of the raised bed squares.  It lo...

 Grace Hamman has a monthly newsletter on substack called Medievalish, sent out every 12th. The November one included a beautiful poem/praye...