Sancta Simplicitas: Taste

My newest delight: afternoon tea. (thanks to LL Barkat and Rumors of Water)

Just the way my mom comforted me.  Perfection.

Completely from scratch by the Dancer: Mocha cupcakes.

Breakfast cake fit for an Incarnation morning celebration.

Comfort food straight from my dad.  Better than perfection.  Cheese grits, y'all.

Oh, the Wonder

Infinite, and an infant. Eternal, and yet born of a woman. Almighty, and yet hanging on a woman’s breast.  Supporting a universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother’s arms. King of angels, and yet the reputed son of Joseph. Heir of all things, and yet the carpenter’s despised son. Oh, the wonder of Christmas.   ~Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The Weakest Link

Jesus Christ founded His Kingdom on the weakest link of all—a Baby.   ~Oswald Chambers

Waiting and the Winners

For the greatest, most profound, tenderest things in the world, we must wait.  It happens not here in a storm but according to the divine laws of sprouting, growing, and becoming. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer


The two winners of The Circle of  Seasons are Audra (commenter #1) and  Jane (commenter #4).  Please email your addresses to me, and I'll send the books out this week.  Congratulations!

Fanning the Flame: Advent & a Giveaway

The books stack up next to my bed and on my Kindle.  A new kind of season has been brewing for years, starting six years ago when we fessed up to our kids about Santa, and it's been a slow snowball rolling ever since.  There is a deep longing for something real that I've been feeding for a few weeks.  Here is a glimpse into my feast.

Using for the first time and diving deeper into the Word: The Daily Lectionary

A beautiful read:  God in the Manger by Dietrich Bonhoeffer


Follow Mark Roberts on his own personal journey into Advent: Discovering Advent: How to Experience the Power of Waiting on God at Christmastime

We're using this for our family lighting of the Advent candles and for a little perspective:  Waiting for the Light: An Advent Devotional

Our family read aloud found through Noel Piper, Behold the Lamb of God is a lovely narrative retelling of the birth of Jesus.  Just. Beautiful.

Still awaiting this little book recommended in Kimberlee's book (see below):  The Vigil: Keeping Watch in the Season of Christ's Coming

Just starting Madeleine L'Engle's The Irrational Season and can't wait to get into it.

And now for the giveaway.  This lovely book, The Circle of Seasons: Meeting God in the Church Year, came across my path, and I devoured it in a couple of days while waiting for Little Bug to finally crash hard at night.  For someone raised in a non-liturgical church, Kimberlee's walk through the church year is a refreshing look at the seaons, giving me a whole new perspective on our year as a family, as a Body. 

I am giving away not one but two copies in honor of our twin daughters' birthday.  Their lives did more to make us cling to our Savior during this season, and I can't think of a better way to remember them than to help others find their way into a Jesus filled year.

To enter, please leave a comment.  Two winners will be randomly chosen on Friday.  The giveaway will close on Friday, December 2 at midnight EST.  Winners will be announced on Monday.

500 Miles

[There should be a video to The Proclaimers' 500 Miles, but, alas, You Tube is not my friend tonight.]

I threw my head back and belted out a good laugh every time it came on the radio.  Eighteen years ago, this was the song we grabbed hold of.  Silly as it was, it seemed define the start of our story.  He was well over 500 miles away and fought every chance he had to get to me, burning the road along the way.

We had to separate in those early days, me with only an emerald ring on my finger.  Purity begged for one more day while Passion pounded hard at the door.  So, he took to the road, back to his home where Distance could stand guard over Purity's heart.  But, when the road shortened and curved back to me, the vigilant watchman weakened, and we struggled on our own to stay within the lines that separate the smooth ride from the head on collision on the other side.   We swerved and drifted and hit the bumps that sent us spinning and by grace avoided the crash until we met in the middle and made a home in each other.

We're still on that crazy ride.  The road that now takes him 500 or more miles to work always twists in the oddest, most poetic of ways to lead right back home.   And Purity, she still pleads for another day, but Passion joins her cause, closing the distance.  It's the hope of that beautiful collison that burns up the road home and drives us time and again headlong into one another.  

Sancta Simplicitas: Spontaneity