Our traditions.

Have you seen the old tasha tudor book "A time to keep"?
I love this book.

I remember seeing old Tasha Tudor books in the past-as my mom is a
big fan and we had several growing up-but I read this book to Lydia
this weekend at the retreat, and fell in love with Tasha Tudor all
over again. Beautiful illustrations and simple stories of times past.

This book especially, as it focuses on a holiday for each month of
the year. And I'm a sucker for holidays!

I bought an old copy on Amazon for $10, and I plan on getting a
matted frame that will fit the pages, and rotate a page each month,
depending on what holiday is it. To remind me to celebrate even those
"minor" holidays with our girls. (It kind of feels weird buying a
book to take it apart, but I was inspired by Dayna's wall art in her
nursery, consisting of pages taken out of a beautiful children's
book!) There are so many things in life to celebrate, and I want to
get in the habit of celebrating on each and every occasion possible.
My mom was great at that. There was always something on the fridge or
the back door that acknowledged a holiday. Our holiday traditions
were often food-related too (imagine that, food being important to
the Horvath's!), and we celebrated with a special cake, meal, or
dessert that recognized the holiday. Even on voting day! Mom would
wrap a nickel and a quarter (I think) in tin foil, and bake into a
cake. As the story goes, whoever got the quarter would be guaranteed
victory for whomever they voted for.

I read a few pages out of another book this morning that happens to
be along the same line - treasuring God in our traditions, by Noel
Piper. I especially like the forward by her husband John, where he
talks about how their family sees God in everyday happenings. "Woven
into our family life is the conviction that God is most glorified in
us when we are most satisfied in him. His glory and our joy are not
at odds. He gets the glory. We get the joy." What a great outlook.
For so long I believed that by sacrificing things that I enjoyed, by
"giving up", that in my lack of happiness, He would at least be
glorified. And that's just so opposite of what it really is. Those
moments in life when we feel that all is well, that everything is
"right with the world", that we want to bottle up and keep forever -
that is what our hearts respond to.

Wow, what a rabbit trail.

We got some more of the house cleaned out last night - almost to the
point where we can take some pictures to share! (yes, let this be an
indication of how much stuff the previous owners left!) And in the
midst of the junk are treasures - I'm very excited about the old
wringer washer in the basement - I think it's going to be fabulous
for keeping bottled soda cold for outdoor parties in the summertime!