Daily 5 - Year 3, Day 116

Today's Daily 5:

1. A long hot shower
2. buttermilk pancakes, made from scratch, and not a mix
3. the normalcy of settling in to fold a couple loads of laundry in the quiet
4. Christmas (and birthday) shopping with my sister-in-law this afternoon
5. the chance to be creative in several different mediums tonight
6. unpacking from the weekend and bringing order to my space
7. a chocolate advent calendar
8. leftover soup
9. gratefulness for friends made online
10. cozy boots

Daily 5 - Year 3, Day 115

Today's Daily 5:

1. A restful sleep
2. quiet and space after a people crammed evening yesterday
3. leftover Italian wedding soup
4. knitting quietly
5. a mid-afternoon nap

Daily 5 - Year 3, Day 114

Today's Daily 5:

1. Curling up under a pile of blankets to do some knitting
2. finding a few "must try" ideas on pinterest
3. the continued chance to rest
4. the chance to watch and join in as friends and family partied and celebrated my brother's recent engagement
5. a reminder of family scattered in a moment where it would have been easy to feel out of place

An Advent Prayer

I've still been reading that book of Walter Brueggemann's prayers, and am quite caught by this prayer for the advent season:

The grace and the impatience to wait

In our secret yearnings
we wait for your coming,
and in our grinding despair
we doubt that you will.
And in this privileged place
we are surrounded by witnesses who yearn more than do we
and by those who despair more deeply than do we.
Look upon your church and its pastors
in this season of hope
which runs so quickly to fatigue
and this season of yearning
which becomes so easily quarrelsome.
Give us the grace and the impatience
to wait for your coming to the bottom of our toes,
to the edges of our finger tips.
We do not want our several worlds to end.
Come in your power
and come in your weakness
in any case
and make all things new.
Amen.

Daily 5 - Year 3, Day 113

Today's Daily 5:

1. A long hot bath with a good book
2. making a new recipe
3. the look on my brother's face when we delivered all the fabulous food for the kids he works with
4. a really awesome house church gathering, with great discussion and insights as we studied a portion of Mark together
5. a hug goodnight from my favorite little guy as we were leaving