I Got My Christmas Wish

A belly full of Chick-fil-a!

Thanks to sweet husband for braving a mall full of crazies in Indiana right before Christmas so we could get to the food court. I know, it's a disease. I need help, people.

But for me, it's not just about the food, but the memories associated with it...Houston, baby boys, sweet Ashley....

Your turn! What food conjures up good memories for you?

A Belated Christmas Poem

I found this on one of my new favorite websites - The Rabbit Room.  If you are familiar with Andrew Peterson's music and books, you'll see why this is a place for hunkering down. 

When I read this poem, I had to share it with you:

Breath
by Luci Shaw

When in the cavern darkness, the child
first opened his mouth (even before
his eyes widened to see the supple world
his lungs had breathed into being),
could he have known that breathing
trumps seeing? Did he love the way air sighs
as it brushes in and out through flesh
to sustain the tiny heart’s iambic beating,
tramping the crossroads of the brain
like donkey tracks, the blood dazzling and
invisible, the corpuscles skittering to the earlobes
and toenails? Did he have any idea it
would take all his breath to speak in stories
that would change the world?

Book Clubs and Bad Coffee

Note to self:
When hosting a book club, remember to have Aaron make the coffee. I should stick to the books and baked goods.

So, I keep forgetting to share one of my favorite new things in life: being in a book club!

I walked around my neighborhood back in October, before everyone began to hibernate, and invited women to join me in November for an info meeting if they wanted to hang out once a month and talk about great books. I was scared to death, but more scared of regretting NOT doing it.

Our first book was called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin - an interesting experiment about how to make yourself happier, which makes the world a better place, believe it or not.

And our second book is this one: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I know, it looks bizarre, but it's been getting great reviews and comes recommended, so I'm excited to get started.

What I love about my particular book club is that these are women I would not have known otherwise -- different ages, different places in life, different perspectives on the world. They are smart, sassy, and (thank goodness) kind and gracious. There are only 6 of us right now, which I think is a perfect size.

If you're interested in reading the book and joining our club "virtually" just let me know in the comment section! I can post questions in January for you to share your thoughts.

Have you ever been in a book club before? What suggestions do you have?

Poetry Thursday

How To See Deer
by Philip Booth

Forget roadside crossings.
Go nowhere with guns.
Go elsewhere your own way,

lonely and wanting.  Or
stay and be early:
next to deep woods

inhabit old orchards.
All clearings promise.
Sunrise is good,

and fog before sun.
Expect nothing always;
find your luck slowly.

Wait out the windfall.
Take your good time
to learn to read ferns;

make like a turtle:
downhill toward slow water.
Instructed by heron,

drink the pure silence.
Be compassed by wind.
If you quiver like aspen

trust your quick nature:
let your ear teach you
which way to listen.

You've come to assume
protective color; now
colors reform to

new shapes in your eye.
You've learned by now
to wait without waiting;

as if it were dusk
look into light falling:
in deep relief

things even out.  Be
careless of nothing.  See
what you see.