New Year and new bends in the road

Hello, dear Reader. I hope the new year has found you warm, safe, and contented. 2024 already feels a bit like a whirlwind, and there are so many things on the horizon to plan for, work on, and look forward to. I’ll admit, the beginning of the year has left me a bit dizzy and reeling, but I’m beginning to right myself. I thought I’d share a bit of what I’ve been thinking about as the old year waned and the new was born.

This year will bring changes like no other year. I am getting married this year to the love of my life, my darling, Chance. The spring time will bring about the happy dream of many years. I will be a bride, blooming into a beloved wife, with the blossoming of the flowers and the such sweet beginnings that always herald the spring. Oh, dear Reader, could I ever explain the happiness, joy, and love my heart is singing forth? No, I daresay not. Poets have tried for eternity and yet we still always find there’s more to say.

With the happiness of our coming wedding, there are many, many things to do. My to-do this seems forever long, and something new is forever being added to it. I want to walk this path with grace and patience and kindness, making the journey pleasant for my groom-to-be and our loved ones, as well as make it a gratefully contemplative one for myself. Amid all the sticky notes covering my “Future Mrs.” planner with reminders to call that photographer and order this and that, there must be a reminder to myself to slow down and work on my heart throughout it all. Yes, I need to get the flowers in order, but my mind also needs to dwell calmly on what is good and noble. I must finalize a caterer, but I also must feed myself on goodness and quiet moments. I don’t want to look up and find I’ve planned a wedding and spent no time preparing my heart for marriage. To help me on this endeavor is my journal to write and scribble in; my Bible with the Word of guidance and truth; beloved works of fiction with women learning as I am such as Anne of Avonlea, Anne’s House of Dreams, and Little Women; and sage advice in homemaking and family life in books such as The Lifegiving Home: Creating a Place of Belonging and Becoming by Sally and Sarah Clarkson.

Things are changing, in beautiful and at times I’m sure unexpected ways. And somethings will inevitably stay the same. Names and families will change. Books and tea will forever beckon us as before. The everyday schedules will shift and adjust, but the art of making a house a home will forever be necessary. The world around us may change and seem to completely reconfigure itself, but the beauty of the world around us will always inspire and sooth.

Happy New Year, dear Reader. And happy I truly wish you to be.

With love,

Caite

With a Smile and a Song

Snow White

Who expected a little German fairytale to be so “controversial” in 2023.

Unfortunately Snow White bashing goes back several years. Some feminists have whined that she (and the other two early Disney princesses) are too passive, not strong enough, have no agency, and are all around dull, stupid, and naïve because they don’t wield swords, but do find love. Gasp! Shock and horror! I know; how dare she? How could a woman want to find love? How could an abused and neglected young girl want safety and a real home? How could a young woman with no money, no known extended family, no papers of recommendation even not just go out and find a job and “make her own money” in presumably a fantasy kingdom prior to 1850 (give or take)? For years people have torn the early Disney princesses like Snow White up one side and down the other. And why–because there are no princesses who are warriors and workers and fighters? (I guess just ignore Mulan, Moana, Tiana, Kida, and Merida then). No? Hmm then it must be because there are only warrior women who know advanced martial arts and want to fight and don’t have time for love in the world? There couldn’t possibly be women who are soft, enjoy homemaking, and — horror of pearl grasping horrors — want to fall in love and marry!

I’ll drop the sarcasm now. I think you get my point.

Yes, heroines that fight and are physically strong are awesome; however, that doesn’t make softer, gentler heroines stupid, impossibilities, or dated. There are many types of women and we can have a plethora of stories with all different kinds without throwing out or completely rewriting the more traditionally feminine and softer ones.

Snow White is not a fighter. That’s not what her story is about or who she is as a character. She’s a gentle, kind, and hardworking young woman. She is thrown into a nightmare situation. Her worst fears of her stepmother, her only known, living relative, are true: not only does the Queen hate her, but she wants her dead. This mentally and possibly physically abused girl is forced to not only flee her only family and home, but also do so at a moments notice with nothing, but the dress and cape she is in. Running terrified through the forest, she encounters shapes and faces that scare her already perturbed mind, so much so that she eventually collapses onto the forest floor, sobbing from her panic and anxiety. Is that why she’s weak? Because she was very reasonably frightened? Because in the very next scene, she not only acknowledges her fear, but apologizes for disturbing the animals around her and does what so many have difficulty with: she cheers herself up, makes a plan of the next things she’ll need to survive, and sets that plan into motion, humbling allowing the guidance of the animals who know the forest better than she does. When she comes to the dwarves cottage, she doesn’t expect to be treated as a princess and waited on. She wants to earn her keep by tending the house and cooking for them. She has skills she’s acquired and she wants to serve others with it. Snow White will make the little cottage a home with delicious food and clean rooms, and in return she gets protection and shelter. But more than just a deal, Snow White befriends and respects each of the dwarves and has their friendship and love in return.

In her new life we see her dreaming of a prince she loves and hopes to marry. Here’s another moment that her critics seem to hate. They just met! That’s stupid and creepy! Okay, okay, but a) its a fairytale; it isn’t meant to be a blue print for real life and b) even applauded authors such as Victor Hugo have included love at first sight in their novels. Just because you’ve never experienced it or don’t believe it often (or ever happens) doesn’t mean it can’t be used in a fairytale. I don’t run into many transfiguring witches with magically poisoned apples either, but I digress. In my opinion fairly little time is spent on developing their relationship for a few, pretty valid reasons: it isn’t really necessary to (we also don’t need to see much to know the queen is evil), the movie is fairly short in general, and it isn’t the main driving plot point of the story (the danger of her jealous stepmother and her friendship with the dwarves is the main focus with love being a beauty chord throughout that brings the story to its happy conclusion).

And finally one of the biggest whines against Snow White is the kiss. From the movie as far as we know, the Prince did not know about the poison apple, let alone that the kiss would work. He was paying his respects to his true love whom he thought had died–which actually used to be pretty common. Many cultures, the American South included have traditions (not as common nowadays) of kissing the dead before the coffin is closed. It is a way of showing love and respect one last time before the coffin is closed and put in the ground. (And personally if I was in a coma with no way to wake myself up, I’d welcome my true love’s kiss or doctors intervention to help me. Food for thought). Sometimes we cannot save ourselves, and that’s okay! It doesn’t make us weak; it makes us human.

Snow White is a story of a young girl in horrible circumstances who does not allow the evil and maliciousness of others to define her or darken her own heart. She is kind, hardworking, and most importantly, hopeful. She doesn’t allow the Queen’s anger and neglect to destroy her hope for the future. While most of us don’t have royalty who know magic for relatives, many of us can understand being hated even though we try to please, of feeling powerless in a situation, or of coming from an unloving household and making sure our homes are never like that. Snow White’s courage, kindness, hope, and love are all sweet and admirable and still relevant even in 2023.

Rereading Classics for my heart

Sometimes, I am asked why I reread books so much. Every year (possibly multiple times a year) will find me reaching for familiar, much loved books from the likes of L. M. Montgomery and Jane Austen. I’ll pull down their stories over and over again at different times of the year, and my heart always delights in the beauty of the stories, the hearts of the heroines, and the rich language used by the authors.

I think my enamor with rereading really has two roots. The first being that it is familiar and comforting. I love a new novel with unexpected twists and turns as much as the next book dragon; however, there is still something special and lovely about returning to a story one already knows. I could probably recite from memory many, many passages from Anne of Green Gables. My joy doesn’t come from the shock of a nearly drowned lily maid or hard won success in a classroom, but with traveling that well loved path through Avonlea with a kindred spirit–of reminding myself of the slow, lovely ways of living and the sweet ways of being in this world. I learn lessons over and over again with Lizzie Bennet and Emma Woodhouse, to make the best of things and give thanks for our blessings with Laura Ingalls and Pollyanna, and to revel in the family love around me with the March sisters. Alongside the loveliness these novels contain in their stories and heroines is the language used by the authors. Such richness as my soul craves! To reread Jane Austen is a refreshment to my mind and an immense improvement to my vocabulary. Whenever I read those books that have stood the test of time with humanity, I can’t help, but notice the words used to stitch up the stories. They are beautiful, purposeful and impactful. I notice my writing in journal is more consistent with better vocabulary as well as my conversation. Like putting on a soft, cozy sweater and meandering down a well worn lane canopied over with gold and crimson with a little crisp wind billowing about, rereading these classics is comforting to the heart and refreshing to the mind.

Are there any books that are constant rereads for you? What worlds and stories can you not get enough of?

Happy reading!

With love,

Caite

An Autumn Cottagecore Booklist

Do you like to read “seasonally,” lovelies? I’ve begun to notice that I do. I reach for some familiar titles each year around the same time. Spring is nearly always spent with The Secret Garden, Christmas takes me back to Orchard House or the Little House in the Big Woods. There’s just something about a good book that really captures the feeling a season. It helps me keep my mind musing on the now (instead of always dreaming for the just-around-the-bend) and is a way of celebrating each season in a small, simple way.

My personal taste (in books as well as life it seems) veers towards cottagecore. I adore this sweet aesthetic of romanticizing a simpler time of living closely with nature, gardening and baking, and finding beauty in the everyday. I read many historical fiction novels, as well as classics and others, that have a similar thread of the simple and sweet rural living of cottagecore.

So without further ado, here is my list of some autumnal cottagecore-ish booklist:

1. Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery- of course I must start off this cozy list with one of my favorite novels from my favorite series. Taking place year round, but beginning in early autumn, Anne of Avonlea finds Anne as a school ma’am in the Avonlea school, as well as an active young lady in her community. It is a lovely book full of autumnal beauty, deepening friendships, and trials and triumphs, all sprinkled throughout with cozy moments snug in Green Gables: cooking, gardening, and just lovely sitting and seeing. Dear old Avonlea is always ready to welcome you back each time you pick up a book.
2. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien- an unforgettable tale of a very small hero having a fantastic adventure he never could have dreamed of. This well known story follows Bilbo Baggins of Bag End long before the events of the Lord of the Rings. He’s a well respected hobbit who is perfectly normal, thank you very much! That is…until the wizard Gandalf shows up and sends him on the adventure of a lifetime. Plenty of food, hobbithole loveliness, and some “comforts of home” are showcased on this most unusual and Tookish adventure. (did I need to describe this one with the movie and whatnot well known? Probably not. Did I want to? yes, yes I did).
3. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett- this is a newer one I read a few months ago, but is just begging me to take it down and have another read through this autumn. This newer novel is a historical fantasy; it is set in a 19th century Europe that knows and accepts the existence of fairies, so much so that there is an entire branch of science devoted to them which one can study. Emily Wilde is just such a scholar and professor at a British university, but this story finds her in a remote northern village called Hrafnsvik to study an elusive species of fairy. Beginning in October, this story–written like a field journal–watches Emily not only learn about the fae, but also about making connections with those around her. The fairies in this book are written in keeping with European mythology of them: they are more often than not menacing, untrustworthy, and uncanny, but not scary. It is a very interesting and kept me flipping the pages as I read about Emily in her cabin, searching the woods, and visiting the local’s tavern.
4. Pollyanna- I just finished reading this children’s classic a few days ago for the first time! I grew up adoring the Disney film with Hayley Mills (to be honest, I still watch it quite often; its a comfort movie for me), and while it was very different from the film, I still enjoyed the book and thought it deserved some love. Where the movie feels more summery, the book happens in late summer and throughout autumn. Pollyanna is still as sweet and hopeful as the film. There are lovely tea time moments throughout the book as well as many moments in nature. It is a lovely testament to how powerful our minds are to make us either miserable or joyful. I must confess, I still love the film better. In my opinion it was better at tying together all the little interactions and gave more solid reasoning for character’s actions than the book. That being said, it was a sweet, wholesome book that I know I’ll return to in the autumn.

Do you have any cottagecore books in your tbr pile for autumn? I’d love to know your suggestions for my next library visit! Please share in the comments!

With love,
Caite

Home, happiness, and hope

It goes without saying: life can be complicated, overwhelming, and discouraging. It can be hard to face the darkness and chaos of the world. But while we cannot control the world, we can seize control of our own minds. Our attitudes and the atmosphere we carry around us more largely depend on ourselves. We decide what we focus on, what we fill our minds with, and how we’ll respond to those things we cannot change. It begins in our hearts and cascades down to our fingertips. We can’t control everything, but we can build up good, true, and beautiful things around us and those we love.

So here’s to the homes we make, the happiness we cultivate, and the hope we cherish.

Nestled among those tender blossoms, we live. Like birds of the sky, we must have our nests, safe and dry and warm, to fly back to as dusk and dew settle for evening. We work diligently on these homes. Beds are made: floors are swept. Clothing is washed and mended; food is cooked, and meals eaten. But none of this can transform a barren house into a home. That comes from the softly spoken “good morning” as the new sunshine spills into the room, mingling with the fresh breeze slipping in through the open window. It is the smell of “our” biscuit recipe as the cast iron skillet comes out of the oven. It is cleanliness and order softened by love and grace that give the mind a place to rest. It’s the familiar crackle of a favorite record and the gentle hum of a lullaby sleepily drifting out the window to the stars. It’s beloved books on shelves and dear faces smiling from picture frames. It is love and peace hanging thick as Mississippi humidity throughout the house that regretfully sends you off and lovingly receives you back.

And what of that happiness? I said ‘cultivate” very purposefully. Happiness cannot merely be found. It must be planted, watered, tilled, and grown. Cultivated like sweet, tender roses. I’ve noticed a tendency amongst people of my acquaintance (and myself!) that we sometimes expect to go out and “find our happiness.” We expect it to round the corner and finally embrace us. Sometimes happy moments do just fall into our laps, and what a lovely blessing they are; however, they are not the norm, nor should we wait for it to hopefully come along. Like Snow White and Cinderella, we can make happiness for our lives, even in more trying circumstances. We can choose to sing that sweet song. We can set out our lovely tea cups for afternoon tea with a beloved friend. We can spend time with Jesus, giving Him our anxieties and reading His Word. We can stand outside, feeling the wind brush our cheeks and the sun kiss our skin. Each and everyday we can make intentional choices to focus on those things we can and should change. It takes a bit of work and intentionality, but we can do it.

And finally, dear Reader, we come to hope. Oh brave Hope, that tiny flame burning against insurmountable darkness. To some you seem foolhardy, or even worse, impossible. How thankful I am that hope is possible, that it neither hinges on our strength nor on our abilities. My hope comes from many things: the sun rising warm and bright through the pine trees, seeing children laugh and dance in green grass, and most of all, in reading over and over the Word of God telling me to “Hope in God” (Psalm 42:11) and “delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart”(Psalm 37:4) and that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). I have a hope larger than myself–that has been proven over and over again through the ages. I see it again written in the gentle new leaves of spring, in the soft buzz of bees amongst the clover, in the steady beating of waves upon a seashore, and in the best of humanity that will show itself in humble heroic deeds of kindness and love. Hope, like happiness and home, takes a bit of work, us turning our hearts, eyes, and minds to what is good, true, and noble.

I hope if your heart has been hurting and your soul aching for you know not precisely what, you can find a way to create beauty around you, to lean into lovely literature, good habits, and the beauty around you. I hope you feel peace.

With love,

Caite

Winter Reads

Despite what my spring-loving heart may wish, dear Reader, we are in the thick of winter these days. Yes, even here in the deep South, winter doesn’t end with New Year’s. Maddingly inconvenient at times.

I truly struggle with realizing that winter goes merrily along (with various inflections in temps because we are in the South after all) through February. I’m perfectly able to revel in all winter has to offer: frosty mornings, dark evenings, stews and soups galore, deep greens of winter hardy pines and cedar against the pearly grey sky and dark bare bark of the other trees. …at least up until Christmas is over and New Year’s as come and gone.

So many of the things that make winter cozy are seemingly packed away for next year. I find myself turning less and less to draw the curtains and light a couple of candles and more and more to desperately wanting to open the windows and start work in my garden.

As much as I adore spring–and will begin little projects for it before planting actually begins in earnest–I want to appreciate and enjoy each season as it comes. Life still happens and can be quite beautiful in those seasons we’re wishing would go by quicker.

One way I am focusing on enjoying winter is in what I read. I’ve read quite a lot lately. Five since the new year began which is fairly quick for me. The two standouts for me were novels that have winter as a key backdrop. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder was the first one. This lovely tale of family, home, and slow seasonal living was just perfect to curl up with in the cold of January. As always, I was in awe of Charles and Caroline Ingalls and all the useful skills they knew. It helped also with propelling me to learn new things and practice practical skills in these colder, slower months, such as pick up my crochet hook and tend my sourdough starter and baking. There is something so indescribably soothing about crocheting with a deep crimson yarn while the sourdough rises in the warm kitchen, a cat purrs in your lap, and a candle flickers on the table close by.

The second wintery book I read was Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. A very quick read, the book was a fascinating study of character and motive all set before the backdrop of a train stuck in the deep snow. I am a fan of Hercule Poirot, and I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. First impressions were revised, initial wonders or pauses at something a character had mentioned revisited, and elaborately tangled strings pulled taunt. It is a perfect mystery novel for devouring in the early dusk of winter with a hot cup of tea at your elbow and warm blanket wrapped around your shoulders.

What are you curling up to read as the January wind howls outside? Let me know below!

With love,

Caite

“Home” is a beautiful word

It hardly seems possible that it has been five months, since we moved into our new home. What an adventure it has been! Anyone who has moved can attest to how draining the unpacking and reorganizing process can be. Our library and office are still stacked with boxes, I’m fairly certain half our mugs are somewhere buried deep, and a cookie sheet has somehow managed to wiggle its way out of the under oven drawer and is just chilling under there to wait for the good Lord I suppose. No, to my shame, our home isn’t completely unpacked.

But it has, dear Reader, become a home.

Slowly, but surely, this house has transformed into our home. With a thousand and one little “trifles,” we feel like our roots are settling deep. Our little nest is becoming. I wish I could define in more clearly. Maybe someday I will. I’m sure others have. It’s become a home with those little touches that make it feel homey, comfortable, inviting, and serene. It’s in the candles I light in the chilly evenings. It’s the fresh air dancing its way through the open windows on warmer days. It’s handmade quilts draped over the couch. It’s the smell of homemade sour dough bread just coming out of the oven. It’s pictures of beloved family and friends adorning the walls. It’s cherished books lining the shelves. It’s my apron hung on its peg and C’s coffee machine dripping merrily in the morning. But it’s more than all those things. This house is our home thanks to the hours spent caring for it, to welcoming weary friends to sit and rest awhile while biscuits bake and tea steeps, and to that intangible, but very real sense of care and love that winds through it all like a soft, summer breeze.

Once all our furniture had arrived, and we’d set to arranging and cleaning, we naturally had more visitors (a joy as we are true Southern host and hostess). Friends said lovely things about the house and land, but I think my favorite comment was from my sister. She stood in the living room (after not having been in any home of mine in about four years due to distance and time constraints) and looked around at the books and knickknacks on the shelves and pictures and art on the walls. She looked at me and said, “It’s just so homey!” I was beaming. That comment–and others like it–make my heart so happy because it is my prayer as I go about my homemaking to make my home a safe haven, a place where people want to stop and rest, talk about lovely things or read quietly. I want the home to welcome both family and guests in with a warm embrace and a seat in the glow of the hearth.

We still have much to do: improvements we want to make, a garden to plant this spring, and things to unpack, but I feel so much peace and cheerfulness just knowing that this is our home and every morning I can watch the sunrise from my kitchen table.

With love,

Caite

What about Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island?

Let me begin, dear Reader, by saying I love the 1985 Anne of Green Gables adaptation by Sullivan Entertainment. It was a staple of my childhood, and I still and always will adore all the cast in their respective roles–they truly did a fantastic job.

However,…I cannot abide with the sequel (and don’t even get me started on the third, or if you really want to get me started on the third, leave me a comment below and I’ll do a follow up blog post on it!)

There are various reasons why I’m not a fan of the sequel. Where was Anne’s time as an Avonlea school ma’am? Where were wonderfully mischievous Davy and prim-as-a-china-doll Dora? Couldn’t we have had sweet Miss Lavender and her darling stone house? And Mrs. Allan! I would argue one of the biggest influences on Anne in the whole series just cast aside. It’s a shame. I’d have loved a true to book Anne of Avonlea. Any one else agree?

The biggest lack for me through was the absence of one of the biggest theme of the third book Anne of the Island. In the novel Anne must relinquish childish ideals for the true and beautiful reality of what love is. Some of her adult realizations are absurd or just less fun than she thinks, such as staying in a spare room or Jane proposing to Anne for her older brother. Anne clings tenaciously to the ideal man for her: a tall, dark, handsome, melancholy “Lord of the Manner,” brooding and Byronic. But like Diana tries to tell her, “People’s ideals change sometimes” and what is fantastically romantic in novels ends up lack luster and wanting somehow in real life (a trifle like fainting, I suppose). Enter Royal Gardner. Handsome, rich, moody as anything Anne could cook up in her imagination. She’s found the hero of her dreams.

The fact that Roy answered letter for letter to Anne’s hopes and dreams was crucial at Anne’s revelation. She had to see her perfect ideal standing before her, saying all the things she had ever hoped he say, to realize that he was not what she truly wanted. He wasn’t a dear friend who could laugh with her and be not only a romantic partner, but a pleasant partner in everyday life. Someone who was friend as well as hero. Forgive me if you disagree, dear Reader, but I cannot buy that Anne’s ideal is a middle aged, not very romantic at all father of one of her students. I’m sorry I just can’t. Could he be someone’s hero and ideal? Absolutely! But Anne was supposed to be in college when she met and was courted by Roy. I can’t see young, fresh, idealistic Anne’s melancholy hero of her youth being Mr. Morgan Harris.

Part of what makes Anne’s realization of love so powerful is because she is supposed to be confronted with absolutely ever tiny detail from her list in the flesh. So when she realizes that she can’t marry the personification of her ideal, it is so powerful and such a turning point in the story and Anne’s life. She realizes that she’s fooled herself into believe she loved Roy, but in the end she knows she needs real, abiding, and natural love to make her happy. Enter our true hero, Gilbert Blythe.

Even with my disappointments with the series, I still truly believe that (so far) the 1980s films with Megan Follows and Jonathan Crombie are by far the best Anne of Green Gables adaptations I’ve seen yet. Even when they strayed in the first two films, they still kept the heart and soul of L. M. Montgomery’s work, which is the most important part of a book adaption in my opinion.

XOXO and happy reading!

Caite

Comfort and Joy

It seems hardly possible that somehow we find ourselves in December and upon Advent and with Christmas on the horizon. Outside the crisp wind, sweet with winter’s first freshness, and the clear sunshine beckons you to bundle into sweaters and scarves and steal a walk in the autumn’s fading glory. I also feel beckoned to slow my pace–no small task when there are presents to buy and wrap, get togethers to bake for, and family and friends to visit with. All these things are lovely ways to celebrate the joy we feel as this “weary world rejoices.” I want to challenge myself this holiday season to move through my tasks and celebrations with intention and a grateful heart that deliberately works to each task and fully immerses itself in the joy and calm that Christmastime offers rather than the neck-break paces the commercials seem eager to encourage.

One of the ways I am going to intentionally enjoy this season is by going about my various tasks with a grateful and hope-filled outlook. It is an age old truth that many battles are fought and won or lost in the mind, so I feel that’s a good place to start. Today as I mix my gingerbread dough I will focus on not fretting over the added mess to my kitchen or the tasks I have to rearrange in order to bake for my family Christmas party the following day, but rather smile and be thankful that I have a family recipe that was passed down to my and I can someday pass down to my children–and how “Miss Caite’s Gingerbread” has become something friends and coworkers look forward to each year. While I tidy and put my home in apple-pie-order before the weekend, I wont grumble I’m having to lug out our heavy vacuum, but thank God that I know live close enough for my dad to come visit tomorrow morning and that I have a home to clean and work on. It’s a matter of counting roses instead of thorns.

Another way involves those good/bad inventions: the smart phone. I want to be intentional about my time and not waste it in unprofitable, mindless scrolling I can be guilty of. I’ll lose way too much time (and if I’m being completely honest, happiness as well) scrolling through random stranger’s pictures, wanting this or thinking how nice it’d be to have and do that instead of getting up and doing something myself. I have a beautiful backyard with more trees than my heart ever dared hope for, so why just stare all day at other people taking aesthetic pictures in the woods, when I can brew a cup of tea and stroll through mine? When we keep our heads down too much, we miss a lot. I want to be intentional decorating my home with my loved ones, hanging beloved ornaments that have a “do you remember when” story attached to them. I want to remember why It’s a Wonderful Life and White Christmas are my two favorite Christmas movies, not just post about it or look at pictures of other people’s movie night. I want to be present, body, mind, and heart, and that beings with practicing what I actually want to do.

And finally I wish to revisit some of my favorite cozy holiday stories. I want to spend Christmas with the March sisters as they learn and grow. Journeying to the Big Woods of Wisconsin while Bing Crosby’s voice lifts up from the vinyl always reminds me of my childhood Christmases and rereading about the Ingalls family every year. I will revisit Ebenezer Scrooge and watch him repent of a life of greed and welcome Christmas into his heart. And of course, I’ll read the greatest story of them all, the story of Jesus Christ’s birth, why I celebrate to begin with.

How will you slow down and enjoy a quiet season of joy this year?

With love,

Caite

In the Quiet of the Morning

As the pale November dawn spilled softly through the kitchen window, I poured a cup of tea. Steam curled up from it, dancing with the light of the new morning. I gazed a while at it. It was one of those soft moments of peace and fleeting loveliness that we so often miss in our too fast world. So I lingered over it. The promise of a fresh day beckoning and the hopes and peace of my morning prayers mingled together above the kitchen table.

I love morning–especially now that I get up before sunrise. It feels like a quiet, sacred time to wake gently, prepare my heart with God, and map out the day. For me this sets the tone for my whole day. The days that I do not make time for it are punctuated with hasty words, needless worries, and, more often than I’d like to admit, a lack of patience. Does my day go perfectly everyday I begin it slowly with prayer and homemaking intentions? No, nor do I expect it to. It does, however, help me to meet the inevitable hiccups and mistakes with much more grace and kindness. I’m not super groggy because I greeted the sunshine as it rose. I’m better about reminding myself of Jesus’ promises and love during moments of anxiety and discouragement. And I have a list to go back to for encouragement and direction should I veer off course throughout the day.

After waking and drinking some water, I like to pray and listen to the Bible in a Year podcast or read a chapter from my Bible. Then I make a pot of tea and breakfast (lately this has been frying an over medium egg in the cast iron), and I’ll map out my day. I developed a format for how I like to make my to do list. I like to include a verse and a quote to set the tone for the day. I find this helps me keep my heart focused in a positive direction throughout the day as I come back to it to check items off. Here is today’s as an example:

Tuesday: supportive and sweet

❤ May your kind spirit guide me. –Psalm 143:10

❤ “Remember you’re the one who can fill the world with sunshine.” –Snow White

❤ to do:

-go to Kroger

-pray novena

-laundry (wash and fold)

-tidy living room

-write blog post

This helps set the tone for my day as well as give me a good expectations of what I’d like to get done today. I hope some of you, dear Readers, find this format helpful in creating a positive and cheerful to do list for yourselves.

Do you have a morning routine? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below! And now matter how you begin your day, I hope it is filled with happiness and peace.

With love,

Caite