A Beautiful Advent...

I had many plans for this Advent. I wanted to make it truly beautiful and focused this year, to prepare our hearts for Christmas better than we ever have before. I still plan on proceeding with that goal but won't be able to incorporate as many household activities as I would like due to the fact that construction is still going on. We are in the final phase (I think) but I am pessimistic about being finished by Christmas.

At any rate, I've collected quite a number of inspiring Advent ideas from some fantastic blogs. I may not be able to use them this year but I'm eager to share them!

The above photo is a Christmas crib designed and built by the amazing Catholic mother (Anne) at Under Her Starry Mantle. I love this idea. It has all of the sparkle power of a lighted Christmas tree added to the sublime beauty of the traditional nativity scene. The photo shows their empty crib (except for the angel) and the children will add figures each Sunday of advent.

O Antiphon Ornaments 


I'm also rather taken with her O Antiphon ornaments.
These do not look complicated but they are beautiful.









Advent Cubes 


This is one idea that I am using but have modified somewhat to adjust to our limitations this year. The instructions look a little overwhelming at first but I promise that they're not that bad. One adjustment I had to make was using fewer cubes than the ideal. The craft store didn't have enough and I couldn't justify a second trip, so we had to squeeze in some Jesse tree symbols and will be starting our cubes on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe instead of the beginning of Advent. No big deal.

Find full instructions and many more ideas at O Night Divine .

Catholic Cuisine 


If you haven't yet been to Catholic Cuisine then you'd better bookmark it asap! The abundance of creative and beautiful meal and feast day ideas is incredible. I certainly don't have time to try every one of the ideas (I'm grateful if I can manage one every once in a while) but I appreciate the inspiration to keep the liturgical year at the forefront of my daily planning and to bring more beauty to my home.

Some ideas from their holiday kitchens:

St. Nicholas Cocoa Mix - December 6

St. Lucy's Bread - December 13

O Antiphons - Begin December 17

I also found some lovely ideas for incorporating the O Antiphons into the household and table. And a nice template of symbols that could be used in a multitude of ways.

 Prayer for the Advent Wreath

Lord, our God, we praise You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, for He is Emmanuel, the Hope of all people.

He is the Wisdom that teaches and guides us.

He is the Savior of us all.

O Lord,

let your blessing come upon us as we light the first (purple) candle of this wreath.

May the wreath and its light be a sign of Christ’s promise of salvation.

May He come quickly and not delay.

We ask this in His holy name. Amen.

Waiting

 We light a candle today, a small dim light against a world that often seems forbidding and dark. But we light it because we are a people of hope, a people whose faith is marked by an expectation that we should always be ready for the coming of the Master. The joy and anticipation of this season is captured beautifully in the antiphons of hope from the monastic liturgies:

See! The ruler of the earth shall come,  

the Lord who will take from us the heavy burden of our exile

The Lord will come soon, will not delay.

The Lord will make the darkest places bright.

We must capture that urgency today in the small flame of our candle. We light the candle because we know that the coming of Christ is tied to our building of the kingdom. Lighting the flame, feeding the hungry, comforting the sick, reconciling the divided, praying for the repentant, greeting the lonely and forgotten – doing all these works hastens His coming.

Dreams Redeemed..

When I was a girl, I dreamed of being so many things.

In the first grade, I wanted to be a nun. I wanted to wear a veil and teach children. I used to sit on the steps of the convent next to my grade school and wait for a sister to pass by. In my dreams, a passing sister would ask, "Little girl, have you ever considered being a nun?" Then she would invite me into the convent kitchen and we'd have a long talk. The moment never came.

Throughout the years that followed, I dreamed of being a ballet dancer and a star on Broadway. I wanted to sing and make people cry with my music. I wanted to be fast and strong. I dreamed of being an Olympian. I wanted to be a teacher and change lives. I wanted to be a feminist activist. I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to go to a prestigious art school and learn to create beautiful things.

From one perspective, my worldly ambitions and dreams have all failed. "You can be anything you want to be" is the constant, pounding mantra of the schools. It is one of the hard lessons of adulthood that those dreams you spend so much time building as a youth may never actually happen. It may be an even harder reality to achieve those dreams and find them empty of meaning.

But around my 17th year, God began to reclaim His own and introduce the dreams that He had for my life. My future husband appeared in my life and took a risk. He introduced me to an authentic life in Christ and walked with me through my first frightened steps. My conversion to the Heart of Jesus was like taking a step off a cliff; except that this man who loved me never let me look down and he entrusted my safety to the arms of his Savior. It has always been a mystery to me why he chose to love me. He is a very careful planner, logical and philosophical, and several years older; the more I know about him, the less I understand the risk he took and the more I see how powerfully the grace of God was working in my life. When I was 19 years old I married him. I was 21 when I had my firstborn.

As I spent endless hours nursing and rocking my high-need baby boy, I would pray fervently for guidance. I prayed that God would show me the direction for my life and help me to fulfill my dreams. I questioned why He was silent and begged Him to show me who I was to become. In my blindness, I shouted, "What do you want me to DO?!" as I held the answer to my prayers in my arms.

I was so busy grasping at childhood dreams that, for a time, I missed the beautiful truth that He had given to me in my vocation. I was focused on my failures because I had never been taught to view motherhood as a legitimate and worthy life path. I saw that actresses and business owners and scientists and athletes were also mothers instead of the other way around. The moment that I stopped running away from my motherhood was the moment that I began to see God's dream for me.

I have fulfilled none of my dreams...and all of them. 

They have been refashioned by the hand of God to give me a greater joy and peace than I could have dreamt for myself. It is my adventure, my purpose, my path to Heaven.

I still struggle; sometimes mightily. The modern formation for little girls is very linear and masculine; focused on specific future material goals. Worldly success demands clear and constant physical measurement that isn't always possible with a woman's vocation. It is the kind of dysfunctional view of life that would cause a married adult woman with a child to continue to ask: "What do I want to be when I grow up?"

We want to win something, get trophies and medals, become millionaires and see our names in lights. It becomes the primary purpose of our lives. Years of indoctrination into that mindset are not easy to undo. We don't win ribbons or applause or a paycheck for changing a diaper or doing dishes. We have nothing of significance (other than marriages or births) to have printed in the alumni updates of our alma mater. We spend the entirety of our childhood and youth training to "win" and many of us must overcome the tendency to view our actual successes as failures. By the grace of God I am continually reexamining the gift of femininity, marriage and motherhood and continue to be awestruck by the magnificence of His plan.

My own girls dream big. They want to be religious sisters. They want to be mommies. They also want to be artists and athletes, cowgirls and authors. I want my little girls to dream big. I want them to see God's great big beautiful world and dream of their own place in it. But I pray that their dreaming will never blind them to the miracles and purpose present in their daily lives. And hopefully, I can help them see that fully living one's vocation will provide more reward and adventure than they could have planned for themselves.

--Pope John Paul II (The Genius of Women )

A Homemade Christmas Week #1: Felted Rosary

Every year I look for ways to incorporate my crafty talents into Christmas gifts for others. While there's nothing wrong with purchasing gifts, I find that making some helps me avoid some of the commercialism that is so pervasive in our culture during the Advent season. I like to pray for the recipient while I work as well. Also...well...I just really like to make beautiful things:). Hopefully, people appreciate handmade gifts. I have a very loving and kind family so one can't always be sure; but I hope it at least communicates to them how much they are loved.

I recently stumbled across an annual blog meme called A Homemade Christmas at SimplyVintage Girl . I don't generally participate in memes but this one is easy for me. And I love her mission:

Through this, I hope we can inspire and encourage one another in our preparation to celebrate...the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Here's my first contribution...

Week #1: Felted Wool Toddler Rosary

I was inspired to undertake this project by Allison at A Broken Fortress . I entered her very excellent giveaway to try and win the one she made; alas, I didn't win, but I was motivated to use my stash of pretty wool roving to make my own.

One of the most exciting parts of fiber arts for me is seeing the beautiful raw materials take shape into something with specific purpose. The new item is also lovely but very different.

 I have completed 2 decades of this Rosary so far. Having never actually done wet felting before, there was a bit of a learning curve but I'm going more quickly now.

See one of my favorite dry felted creations here . (He now lives in New Zealand with a customer who bought him at Easter time last year.)

I have a couple more projects in the works and can't wait to share them in the coming weeks! In the meantime, I'm headed to vintagegirl to see what other people are making...