Hello friends!
November has been a month of contrasts; white, drizzly, enfolding mists alternating with rich, vivid displays of autumnal leaves spectacular against crystal clear cold blue skies. It began with All Saints Day, encompassed Bonfire night and Armistice Day and is now leading us into the season of Advent.
I have grown to love Advent over the years, as a season distinct from Christmas. In the church calendar it is to Christmas what Lent is to Easter, and amidst the inevitable preparations, lists, cheery songs and sparkling lights, I try to carve out time each day still my heart, gather my scattered thoughts and be still before Him who entered our world as a vulnerable baby and one day will come back as our glorious and mighty King. We’ve developed a number of rituals and traditions over the years to help focus us on preparing spiritually for Christmas, some of which I’ve written about here .
As our world continues to be in heartbreaking chaos, may we all be able to still ourselves before our King, hear His voice amidst the clamour and know He alone holds the past, present and future in His hands.
Molly x
Nature notes and homestead jottings
It’s been a fairly quiet month on the home front. Abundant rain has made it difficult and not very appealing to work in the field; it still needs a tidy up and plastic put over the pumpkin and potato patch to try to suppress the bountiful weeds. We’ve enjoyed some indoor tasks; making toffee apples for All Soul’s Day (1 November), and bath bombs for Christmas presents. I’ve also used my horse chestnut laundry liquid. I’m knitting washable dishcloths too; some for Christmas presents!
Homeschool journal
Look! A brand new Christian home ed podcast! Over this last year my good friend and Mended Teacups home ed podcast buddy Helen and I have felt our own teacups have become rather depleted, so have been mulling and praying over what to do with Mended Teacups podcast which we’ve been running for several years. While at the Modern Miss Mason conference over the summer so many people came up and told me they found it encouraging, I felt a little hesitant to divulge that we were metaphorically hanging up our mics. More pertinently though, as I prayed about it, I felt that the need for a Christian home ed UK based podcast is just as great, and may become even more so as the number of parents removing their children from mainstream schooling seems to still be increasing. We need more, not less, so we’ve gathered together a fabulous group of fellow home educating mums, and with a wide and deep range of home educating experience between us, have launched Rooted to Flourish home ed podcast. I’m really excited about the potential this has. Take a listen…from the website or on Spotify. It’s coming to I Tunes soon!
Musings for our time
I often have to challenge myself about the the voices I listen to; in an age when there is constant clamour vying for our time and attention, how much time do I spend in prayer, worship and reading God’s Word in comparison to consuming news feeds, social media and the like? It obviously helps to be informed as we pray, but it seems that our world has become so intent on dividing us into one camp or the other on any given issue, that I can feel I am hearing two completely different stories as I listen to the narration of the same event on alternate news channels. So whose word is true? Ultimately it’s God’s Word. I am trying to develop the habit of hearing or reading one news story, one set of headlines and then switching off and praying about it. I am trying to dig into what the Bible says first and foremost. This isn’t easy as our world and its issues are so complex and multi faceted, but I know I need to have a plumb line against which to compare everything else.
Advent offers us a great opportunity to intentionally tuck ourselves away, albeit it for short moments if you have young children, and be still and listen for His voice.
May you have a blessed Advent as you prepare to celebrate Jesus’ first coming into our world at Christmas and look forward to his second coming as victorious King.
Mothering through the seasons 