Warm wrists

Easy little project, maybe?:


 
Pattern here. 




This looks easier: WRIST WARMERS from Little Cotton Rabbits  with pattern here 
( she has beautiful photos)

I like her words at the end:   Wear or give.

in a word or two

"God doesn't have grandchildren. He has children."  George Grant

" If the church of Jesus Christ does not become central to the life of growing cities
than the cities will become mere geographies of no singular place."  Thomas Chalmers

"The wider a man's knowledge becomes , the deeper should be his humility;
for the more he knows the more he sees of what remains unknown. 
The wider the diameter of light, the larger the circumference of darkness." 

~~Thomas Chalmers 

Opens Friday here

still November

I am so thankful it is still November.
We will flip the calendar next weekend , followed by  Handel's Messiah the next weekend. 
Emma and her Dad are singing in it for two performances.

Until then, the sun shines brightly here in the South.
Dry and cold at night.

Until then, hoping to get a chunk of ANNA KARENINA read to see the movie if it 
ever graces our theaters here in Charlotte. 

Until then, reading THE HOBBIT again. ( with my students) Movie comes out
in 3 weeks. 

Until then, don't think I will read Les Miserables before Christmas. How about you?
Aren't you excited for these wonderful films during the holidays?!

traditions

 Traditions to the table:

One daughter in law's  grandmother is in the hospital. Pneumonia.
Her grandmother's  tradition (for over 25 years) is to give Christmas ornaments to every grandchild.  

Tradition is  my mother's stuffing which is just Pepperidge Farms package recipe.

This year I made one recipe to stuff the turkey and another homemade.
Both were delicious. Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without it!

We moved Thanksgiving to late afternoon because one son ( above with ornaments) went to in laws for lunch.  Therefore, we could sit in jammies watching the Macy's Day Parade 
and start the rolls rising. It was quite a lovely day.

#1 son always has Thanksgiving tomorrow with his in-laws.

Apples to Apples ~ favorite game before Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving. 

The unguessed blessings of our being here,
The warp and weft that no one can unravel.

So I give thanks for our deep coinherence
Inwoven in the web of Gods own grace

( Malcolm Guite's lines from sonnet below)

Thanksgiving Sonnets

Two from over the Atlantic to where English has an accent we love to hear:

You will see that we have both been influenced by the ideas and language of CS Lewis’s fellow inkling Charles Williams.

Malcom Guite

and 
his poet friend

Holly Ordway

Day before Thanksgiving

No pants in that pile of laundry that came home last night!
He has pants here ~ thankfully.

Baking a paper bag apple pie while listening to this wonderful 
sermon by George Grant on the end of Phillipians.
Really good to soak into and lift your eyes to Christ as we celebrate with 
family Thanksgiving: 

Living as If People Matter

Home

College son is home. He sat in traffic for an hour when it should have taken
about 30 minutes. Everyone must be going home. 

Laundry going.
He said " I just brought my laundry instead of packing.  Figured it was easier!"

Thanksgiving photos

2009

                                                                           2010

                                Hoping we can get 2012 with two new daughter in laws but 
                                       one of the newlyweds will not be here until Friday.
                                 What did we do last Thanksgiving? I know #3 son was 
                                      not here but with his bride's family. Same 
                                                                     this year. 
                                                           

          
                                                        
                               
                                                  

Introductions

I met a woman last night who knew my name.
"Aren't you Bonnie............?"
When someone already has seen your name somewhere or heard of you, you hope it
has good thoughts alongside what they are going to say!
I think of words my mother would say when she called in a certain voice " Bonnie?!"
She sort of had that tone so my heart was bracing.
She asked, " How do you know Makoto Fujimura?"
Our eyes twinkled! She had seen my name on his facebook.
Guess what? She went to high school with him in New Jersey!

Introductions are the topic I am working on in writing with my students.
Titles and how to bring your reader in with listening ears as you write.
Here is a blog  What's in a  Title? from The Rabbit Room.

ON my way to the website , I found this  With Bach's Resolve by Sarah Clarkson on something
Emma's choir director does and then goes on to the sacredness of creating : each composer has a color hue.  I read it to her and  my voice quivered as my eyes well with tears.

"But I’ll write on, like Bach, to empty house or full. The audience size doesn’t matter. The depth of the beauty does, for it was a gift. To write it is my thanks. "

Weekend doings

It was  very warm Autumn weekend here. 
Farmer's Market, watered garden lettuce, mulched the  garden, made broth,
made pumpkin choc chip cookies, ate dinner with friends who live close-by 
to where Emma was at a friend's 16th party, read , and worshiped  this morning.

I am getting reports from my brother on Long Island, NY on the  hurricaine destruction.
The snow is gone now. ( even in Conn. as an update from my sister-in-law)
There were so many old trees blown over.

Halfway through A World Lost by Wendell Berry. It is Andy Catlett looking back 
on the death of his uncle Uncle Andrew. His namesake. It is my post election read.
Place and family. Still reading Berry's poems. I seem to be stuck in those themes
and words and it is good.  

What are you reading post election?

Movies coming out very soon.
Getting excited.

poem for this day after

Sabbaths 2002, X

Teach me work that honors Thy work,
the true economies of goods and words,
to make my arts compatible
with the songs of the local birds.

Teach me patience beyond work
and, beyond patience, the blest
Sabbath of Thy unresting love
which lights all things and gives rest.

Wendell Berry

Heavenly Singing

I am sitting on the living room couch listening to Emma play Chopin and Schumann
and now singing up the scales. TENEBRAE lifted our souls into a place in eternity
with their acapella singing of 15 singers with a sound  like a multitude of angels. Some
of the angels are bass! I found myself being led into prayer and worship as we sat
under the great Gothic ceiling of Duke Chapel. 

Emma was struck by their volume in singing. Her choir director is a voice teacher and taught them not to be at 10 volume. It ruins their voices. So most of the Vespers service was at 3-4 and then up to 7-8 just at points in songs.

from Twitter:

Tenebrae Choir ‏@TenebraeChoir

Concert 4 in the beautiful surrounds of Duke University Chapel capped off the first half of the tour on a high.

Friday

Today was home in the garden , in the leaves, in the kitchen cooking, with pen and paper ( letters) , seeing a dear friend to pass on our Book Club book, dinner here with a policeman
( my son) , and eating lettuce from the garden.

Today was good. Friday.
How about you?

Going to hear Tenebrae in a Gothic Chapel:  ( Duke Chapel)
on Sunday:

Lamb and cold

We have had some sort of stew or soup almost every night as winter and the storm 
came through. No rain. Wind. Colder. Heard from all my relatives in NJ and NY that they are safe but in the dark. No power. College son was snowed in up  the NC mts. and no classes at the beginning of the week. They are equipped for snow but it kept snowing. So early. 
Must get out my Nature Notebook. Or you can write in your journal for the generations to come to read about this disasterous hurricaine named Sandy. 

Tonight was this recipe with wild rice instead of barley and I added carrots:

Lamb Neck with lemon and barley from River Cottage in the UK.

Delicious. 
I used lamb stew bones.

All ok with anyone you know in the Northeast?