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Showing posts from 2011

Santa Claus = St. Nicholas?

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Enjoy this lovely image of St. Nicholas from artist Susan Seals, and purchase a print here . A friend of mine posted on a message board wondering what I've heard many Christians (Protestant and Catholic) wonder: how a person can encourage his or her children to believe in Santa Claus, as opposed to St. Nicholas, the Catholic saint. Are they really the same person? First, it must be pointed out that Santa Claus IS St. Nick, at least literally. Santa means "Saint" and "Claus" is an abbreviated form of Nicholas (as in Ni-KLAUS). In our house, Baby Jesus gives the gifts (and hence all requests for toys are addressed to him). We tell our kids the gifts come from Baby Jesus but St. Nicholas delivers them, and St. Nicholas lives in heaven, which is a lot nicer than the North Pole. We let them think what they want about reindeer and elves. With our own children, we don't really encourage them to watch movies that propose to explain the Saint as a secular phenomenon,

Evi Doll Patterns at last!

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Many of you know I'm big fans of the Nova Natural Evi dolls . Two years ago, Nova released their popular all-natural fair-trade dolls in "dressable" form : and I lost no time in buying the "mother" doll (who can pass for a fairy-tale princess in my book!) and outfitting her with a wardrobe. Some of you asked for the patterns I used. It's taken me two years, but at last (Merry Christmas!) I'm posting the patterns I made. If you would like to download the PDF of the pattern book I made of clothes to fit that doll, click here . I believe the clothes would also fit the flower fairy dolls and some of the fairy tale dolls (they would have to go over the existing clothes those dolls wear unless you, like my daughters, cut the clothes off the doll). The six-page book can be printed onto letter-sized paper in black and white. The patterns presuppose a knowledge of sewing and dress construction. So I didn't really include any directions, just the pattern pi

Flowers in the Snow

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The other day we were surprised by an early snowfall two days before Halloween. Activities were cancelled, electric currents flickered, and the family stayed home by the fire instead of rushing about in a frenzy of fall activity. My herbs and snapdragons, the first I've succesfully gardened, were caught unawares but bloomed bravely on. The unseasonal chill seems to have strengthened them: they are flourishing even more fiercely now.

Looking Up

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I've been so busy in my life for these past few months (as my hiatus from journaling shows) that I feel I'm always looking down - down at my keyboard, down at my checkbook, down at the mess of the house and the chores needing to be done. How often do I look up? Not very often, I realize. Even when I take a walk, I find myself looking at my feet, anxious not to make a false step and stumble - instead of looking at the beauty all around me. I found this picture my daughter took, while lying beneath one of the trees in our front yard. She was looking up - and I'm posting this as a reminder to myself. I want to be looking up more - looking up at the sky, at the fall leaves and colors, and at our Heavenly Father looking down at us. He may just be smiling at me, but I'll never know if I don't look up.

Blessed Easter!

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He is Risen! Alleluia! My daughters colored these eggs and created a nest for them of colored paper, two colors of green photocopy paper run through my husband's office shredder. The result was as vibrantly colored as the Easter eggs, a true match and a nice change from the pale pastels such papers usually come in.

Black and White, Lamb and Cat

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One of our sheep gave birth to twin lambs but rejected one. So, much to our children's delight, we have a temporary house pet named Oreo, who drinks from a bottle and wears a diaper at night time (we only allow him on the wood floors). He has gladly adopted us as his flock and baas most disapprovingly when we go away in the car. The other party delighted with the addition of a sheep is our youngest cat, Hotaru, who takes every opportunity to play with him--whether or not the lamb is interested in playing with him . For me, one of the highlights of owning farm animals is the opportunity to observe their beauty, and Oreo and Hotaru are both rewarding in that respect.

The Refinisher's Two New Best Friends

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I've been meaning for a while to blog about two newer products I've discovered that have made home improvement projects so much easier. If you refinish furniture or do woodworking, you want to check these two concoctions out. It used to be that stripping paint meant donning heavy-duty gloves, a breathing mask, and seting up shop far away from any inquisitive children. With Safest Stripper from 3M , those days are over. This paint remover looks deceptively like Elmer's glue, and feels just as safe: it causes little or no skin irritation (gloves still recommended, but I speak from experience!). Spread on a thick coat, let it sit according to the directions, and the paint begins to gel and crack, and can be easily scraped up with a plastic or metal putty knife. I've had to search hard to find it: our local Lowes doesn't carry it, but our small-town hardware store was willing to order it for me. It works easiest on latex paint and varnish, but with hard work and plastic

Pig Butchering and the Art of Sausage Making

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The depths of winter are the poor man's butchering season. For those of us without walk-in freezers in our homes, it is a far easier chore to butcher your own hogs when your garage has acquired the temperature of a cold refridgerator. So these January weekends we are butchering, with lots of help from family and friends. Some aspects of pork butchering are easy to learn: after the men have done the messy work of gutting and hanging, what remains of the pig roughly resembles what one finds in the store. Cutting a ham is simply, if not gracefully, done, and with a pair of sturdy sterilized tree pruners in hand, chops and spare ribs are easily cut. But sausage making is not such a simple proposition, as we have discovered over the course of two years of pig butchering. Combining cubes of fat and odd bits of meat with an array of spices is truly an art, and not one that can be swiftly mastered. Since sausage remains our family's favorite dish, we are striving hard to be careful a

No Room in the Stable

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During the Christmas season, our cats discovered that the apple-crate stable we were using for our Willow Tree nativity figurines was the perfect napping place. Hotaru, our calico, had no qualms about knocking over St. Joseph and displacing Mary, baby Jesus, and the various stable animals from their shelter in order to take a relaxing sleep. Or perhaps he just wanted to be a part of the scene?