mindfulness

Thanksgiving 2012

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For about six years now, my hubby and I have been the proud hosts of our family’s annual Thanksgiving celebration.  We prepare for this day all year long, with our next year’s theme in mind before the current year’s festivities have concluded.  We gather the necessary ingredients from farmer’s markets, local farmers and our own garden throughout the year, and take the necessary steps to preserve that food until the big day.

The week of Thanksgiving, the whole family assembled in the kitchen to fashion the meal.  This year we faced a few road blocks, like a daddy who was sick the entire week prior to the feast, and I can’t leave out the fact that my oven broke on Wednesday.  Yes, the oven.  It is a wonderful blessing that I live so close to my parents.  I just strapped on my running shoes and ran pies back and forth the whole day.  So really, it worked out quite nice.  I got in a bit of a work out, so that I could eat more of the pie 🙂

The theme of this year’s event was “An Ancestral Celebration,” so we spent the day honoring those members of our family who are no longer with us.  We feasted upon recipes from their recipe boxes, and relished in the grateful bliss of food, family and fun.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and are enjoying this beautiful Christmas season that is now upon us. 

Family

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This past week, I was so fortunate to spend a great deal of time behind the lens to document four days of outdoor fun, crafting, and most importantly, family.  My husband’s cousins from Idaho came to visit and our whole family gathered at my in-laws’ home for an amazingly wonderful time.

The kids spent their days crafting with Grandma Mimi and playing outside, while the adults enjoyed one another’s company, laughed, and cut down some trees.  I mean really, what family gathering is complete without a little chain-saw action?

 

As we move into Thanksgiving week, I am reminded of what really matters in life.  It is not the objects one possess, the clothes one wears, or how much money one has in the bank.  Instead, it is family and the health and well-being of those closest to us that truly matters.

I will surely go into this next week with gratitude in my heart for the family I have in my life.

I wish you and yours the most blessed of Thanksgiving weeks!

Outside Versus In

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On this sixth day of November, the day greeted us with the first signs of yet another change of season.  The first flurries of the year fell from the gray sky, melting into ice old pools of water in the garden, school parking lot and curbsides.

Although it is quite nasty outside, when we peered under our temporary greenhouse we found it teeming with life and vibrancy.  We do plan to eventually put in an actual hoop house, but for the time being our little makeshift project seems to be doing just fine and is supplying our family with fresh verdigris for our dinner this evening. I do believe I see a fresh arugula salad with dandelion vinaigrette dressing in our very near future 🙂

Unplugged

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This past Saturday, we made a family pledge to unplug and reconnect with one another.  That meant no email, no texting, no movies, no computer.  We are definitely not the crazy techie-types who constantly surround themselves with a barrage of technology, but we had been finding ourselves in front of the computer more, and spending less time with each other and the tactile activities we so dearly love.

Saturday found us surrounded by puzzles and pencils, leaves and s’mores.  And most importantly, we happened upon a day filled with the enjoyment of each other’s company, free of all the noise that seems to consume our lives so often these days.

Giving Thanks

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Two days ago, I hopped in the car on an absolutely beautiful fall day to make the short drive to Lake Geneva to pick up our side of beef.  This is an annual trek we have been making for four years now and once again I find myself sitting here on this first day of November, grateful beyond words for what we now have in our home.

With each piece of meat, wrapped neatly in crisp white butcher paper, I placed into our deep freezer, I was reminded of the farmers who went out each and every day to bring cool water to this animal.  Who raised it with the utmost care and dignity.  Who allowed it to roam free upon the fields of grasses that it was created to consume.

And I too am so very thankful for the animal itself, who gave of its life so that my family may have sustenance.  I cannot think of any other way I would rather consume meat.

My entire family is very well aware of where this food came from.  We have walked upon the green pasture where this steer roamed.  We shook hands, chatted and laughed with the farmer who raised it.  We know our food.  We know our farmer.  And for that, I am ever so grateful.