"Take a leap of faith and begin this wondrous New Year by believing. Believe in yourself. And believe that there is a loving Source~a sower of dreams, just waiting to be asked to help you make your dreams come true." ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach~
Happy New Years Eve!
I'm kind of glad to say goodbye to 2016. I don't know about you but it was a year full of tumultuous emotions for me and I think for many others in the world. Peace is still not reigning around the world and terrorism has been far too much in the news but I hold onto to hope that happier times are ahead.
"Hope Smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering 'it will be happier'.....
~ Alfred Tennyson
and peaceful too.
Also, unusual for us, I had a long list of things I wanted to accomplish last year but many of those tangible dreams did not come true. I did at long last bring chickens to our homestead and they have been a delightful addition to our home/yard. The little girl's dreamlike loft bed was built and they are happily settling in to their new beds and cozy space.
Our attic renovation has been stalled along with the below zero temps outside and the new retaining wall above the pool will have to wait until spring arrives.
And yet.....
I am optimistic about the new year and as a proverbial goal setter and list maker, I'm rather excited about what 2017 will bring to the world and our family. There will be goodness and movement towards a more peaceful and healthy world. I'm holding my vision and all my dreams have come true....eventually they always do. (One of the keys in manifesting dreams is to believe they are already here...the other is to be joy filled and grateful for everything, ALREADY, in your life)
Of course, the Christmas season is a wonderful way for the year to end in my opinion. It's the season of love and light, the season of joy and hope. Even if you don't believe in the Christ Child or the spirit of Santa, to keep breathing and living in such a world, you have to have a seed of something....something in the way of faith.
"You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood." ~ that an excerpt from a response that Francis Pharcellus Church wrote back to Virginia O'Hanlon who wrote to the editor of the New York's Sun in 1897.
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| When I look at our twins, they remind me in a very tangible way that holding fast to dreams is the key in life |
What sort of things are you wanting to accomplish in the new year? If you are following my blog and are likeminded, you may want to shift towards becoming more sustainable and perhaps you and I can build a bit more garden space in our yards, we can produce more of our own food and process it, we can consciously consume less and create a life that is revolved around healing our souls, our fellow man and the earth.
Personally, our short term goals are reducing our waste, continuing on our minimalist path by donating or selling unwanted items in our home, reassessing our lifestyle with regards to activities and things we say yes to and the food we nurture our body with.
Our long term goals are still to find an acreage, not too far out of our community and build an energy efficient small home. We would like to transition to using an electric car that we can plug in via our solar panels. (with our size family we need an energy efficient larger vehicle) We want to be less reliant on "the man," and more reliant on ourselves. No matter where you are on your journey, it's all good and you....and I are exactly where we are meant to be.
What are some of your goals? Something that I saw on Facebook late this year really inspired me to start a gratitude jar. It's can be as simple a mason jar in which you place little notes holding all the wonderful things that occurred throughout the year. On New Years Eve next year, you open up the jar and read all the notes. I love that idea....do you want to join me in starting a Gratitude Jar in 2017?
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| Let me start by thanking you for coming and sharing in my life |
So the holidays are almost over, tomorrow we will take down our trees and other decorations and we plan to do a thorough de-clutter and continue to move in the direction of less stuff and more life. If we are going to eventually downsize to a smaller, more energy efficient home, we need to review each item we own and ask ourselves, "do I need this and does it make me happy?" Later in the day we are going skating....'cause everyone knows how to skate in our house now! YEAH!
It's all about life choices.
As I write this post the snow is gently falling and our three little ones are outside adding to their snow fort, since they now have fresh material to work with. Oh, can I hear them.....they must be having a really good time!!! Each of us are creators and builders from an early age!
Before the New year begins though I wanted to share a glimpse into our home over the holidays. I have had a few friends who have smaller families than ours, ask me how we financially manage to celebrate Christmas with our 8 kids, so I thought I would take this moment and share a bit of what we do each holiday.
Again this year we went to the Mountains and brought home specially chosen Christmas trees....cost NOTHING........but full of....abundant memories. (Next year, only one tree!)
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| The kid's homemade ornament tree in the family room |
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| Our living room had a larger tree full of keepsake ornaments from past Christmas memories |
From the time our oldest was small we decided to focus on less stuff, although there always seems to be way too much. Each year we take time to really think about our values before we give gifts. We give our children new p.j's on Christmas eve which they open while their Dad reads the classic book, "Twas the Night Before Christmas," given to me when I was a baby.
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| Early on Christmas morning, a last look at the family room tree |
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| Christmas morning, I got the turkey in early and the kids were anxious to see what Santa had left them |
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| The kids checking out the cup of eggnog and cookie plate we set out for Santa the night before |
The next morning we eat Cinnamon buns and mandarin oranges while taking turns opening up our stockings, which are stuffed full of things that are either consumable, (tea/coffee/chocolates) or useful, (toothpaste, toothbrush, new underwear). A highlight for a few older kids was receiving David's tea and sugar free gum.
Since there are 10 of us, this can take 2 hours as we go around the room, youngest to oldest taking turns pulling things from their stocking...I know sounds excessive as I write this but it's fun....and again, for the most it's items we would buy anyway. At the top of the stocking there are usually fun things, little toys, craft items, for the little kids or new IPOD ear buds, beads to make earrings for the older ones, etc.
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| Alyssa made some earrings with her Christmas beads from her stocking |
After getting dressed we meet again in the family room, make some eggnog lattes for the adults and cranberry juice for the little ones and take turns opening the one gift each we receive from Santa and the one gift from Mom and Dad. These gifts are commercially purchased but now that we are moving towards being more minimalists, they are the bigger things we need or have dreamed about for a long time.
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| The Kit and Molly doll were under the tree sitting on boxes....from Santa, Aka...older sister Alyssa who was happy to pass them down....Molly has glasses like Victoria who got glasses in the summer |
While everyone appreciated these gifts, in my opinion the best gifts are yet to be opened.
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| William and Alyssa on Christmas afternoon making a puzzle that Will got in his stocking |
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| On boxing day William enjoyed playing his new Zelda game on Wii U....his older brother is helping maneuver in the game |
The best part of Christmas day in my books and I think the kids would agree is after dinner. We of course are stuffed but the kids pulled out their music books, stands, and instruments and put on a little concert for the family. Even the little ones performed this year; Kate playing the piano and Tori, singing two songs she learned at Kindergarten, "with dramatic actions and flair," I might add.
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| Grace before the Christmas concert playing a grade 8 classical piece |
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| Mitchell and Will played a few songs together on the cello....(note typical teenager in the background..on his phone) |
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| Kate and Victoria have been taking piano lessons and they know a few Christmas songs this year |
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| Clark and Harrison on violin, Mitchell on cello and Alyssa on piano played through their book of Christmas carols |
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| We wish you a Merry Christmas...... |
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| A future drama star....Ho! Ho! Ho! Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, lean your ear this way....... |
After that we make a circle in the living room and the kids open the homemade gifts they created for one another. I think these are the most treasured and appreciated gifts of all. As I wrote earlier, there were tie dyed t-shirts and peppermint fudge...a big hit for the guys, peppermint bath salts and peppermint white chocolate bark for the girls, a homemade board Christmas board game for William, CD's of the little one's favourite Christmas music, and caramel popcorn.
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| Clark with his new tie dyed shirt and tin of fudge and almond bark |
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| Alyssa with her peppermint bath salts and peppermint white chocolate bark |
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| William's homemade Christmas board game....the Incredible Journey to finding Christmas, complete with the animals from the Homeward Bound adventure....also little gingerbread tokens and dice and cards...pop up trees..AMAZING! Good job Alyssa....you are so creative!!! |
The highlight of the evening had to be when the little girl's opened their Christmas angel dolls that I had stayed up late sewing.
It's a long story, but when the little girls were newborn, I had made each of them a little pillow with their middle names embroidered on them.
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| Kathryn Mira (her pillow says Miracle) as a newborn |
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| Victoria Hope when she was newborn |
Over the years, with all the washing the stuffing had gotten lumpy in the pillows, so I decided to take the embroidered part of the pillow off and sew it on a larger pillow cover. I gave these to them on Christmas eve and they were so happy to have new, bigger pillows and bonus...they coordinated with their new bedding nicely.
As I was making these new pillows though, I took out the old stuffing and wondered what to do with it.....hmmmmm.....! Then I remembered something I had seen in one of my Christmas craft books I had borrowed from the library and it was a beautiful homemade angel doll. I had ooohhhh and ahhhhed over it and thought it would be so great to make something like that for the little girls but I didn't think I would be able to create something that elaborate......well.....as it turns out, it's not hard to make little stuffed dolls after all. Okay, it's hard to make their faces...but sewing their body, making little dresses, even making hair.... not difficult...just time consuming.
It did take a few late nights but with scraps from my sewing box, and the new stuffing from the old pillows, I had everything I needed to make the angels. Clark, who had drawn Victoria's name happily wrote a story to accompany Victoria's doll and I'd like to share that with you now.
The Christmas Angel by Clark Reynolds.....written for Victoria Hope Reynolds
Every Christmas angel has a child to look after, that's the rule, after all. Before Christmas had come and gone, they all needed to find their child, and were only given one letter, the first letter in the name of the child they would be the guardian of. As Christmas Eve drew closer and closer, there was one angel who despite her best efforts, could not find her child. She looked around at her friends and saw them all smiling, busy bringing hope and joy to their little charges in time for Christmas.
Looking down at the letter she had been given, she recognized it as a "V,"but had no one to match it with. The angel flew from house to house, but no matter where she looked all the children were under watchful eyes. She knew that if she didn't find the little girl with the "V" name, she would be alone for Christmas, as all the other angels celebrated the holiday. Despairing, she began to cry. In the midst of her sobbing, however, she felt a hand on her shoulder. There was another angel, holding a heart with the letter K, also without a child. The other angel smiled at her and gestured downwards.
When she looked down she saw a small girl with curly light brown hair playing with a dollhouse in her room alone. Suddenly, another girl burst through the door. "What are you doing Victoria. Come upstairs and play with me!" she insisted loudly tossing her straight blonde hair and the commanding little girl ran upstairs. Victoria gently put the little Victorian doll she had been playing with back into the doll house and yelled, "Wait up Kate!"
The little angel looked down at the heart she had been given with the letter "V" on it and noticed the angel who had comforted her also had a heart but it held the letter,"K." It was now that the angel knew she had found her child and she wouldn't be alone on Christmas, or ever again for that matter. She smiled at her angel friend and looked down again.
Before Victoria ran upstairs to join her sister, she paused and looked up, she felt like she wasn't alone as a joyous feeling settled into her heart and for every Christmas thereafter it would remain.
For Victoria,
Love Clark
Wasn't that the sweetest story.....such a simple gift to give a little one. Knowledge that they are never alone and are loved.
And now my family and I are counting down to the end of the year but before I join them in the celebrations, I wanted to thank you for sharing in my journey this last year and allowing me to be part of your life too.
Farewell 2016
I hope you come back to visit me and my family next year on this journey called, "life."
Until we connect again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Happy New YEAR! 2017
Blessings from Hope
