Things of Beauty: November - December

November and December were months of longing and tears and deep God-given joy in life. Of course, all joy is given by Him, but this time I realized a new depth in it.

Very Favorite Things

Teaching our current bottle calf to drink from a pail (so much satisfaction!) and I did it while wearing my mud boots and 40’s trousers, which made me feel very neat and story-ish indeed). Snow on the rolling hills of Montana. Christmas lights strung everywhere around the house. Hiking in pine forests and along lakes with my Pappy. Visiting with family and friends of old. Putting up Christmas lights + decorations with my sisters, cousins, and my cousins’ crazy chocolate lab (So. Much. FUN!). Going with my Grammy and parents to visit and talk with my 103 year old Great-Grandma (she is one amazingly strong and fun spirited lady). Every day of that vacation was a highlight of my year, but that day was a highlight of highlights. :)

Reading

In one title... The Daughter Pays by Mrs. Baillie Reynolds. I sighed over, thrilled to, and stayed up reading that book until midnight (which is something I never do, if I can help it, but I couldn't :)). And oh, was it totally worth it, because I spent the next day in a glow of joy, which shows what a treasure of story it is. BTW: I picture the heroine almost exactly like Lily James’s and I really think she would be perfect in the role, hence the significance of the photo above!

Writing

I didn’t miss a day on Clarkson and Elise, except for one. It was the day we left my Pappy and Grammy’s, and I was simply so sick with sadness that I just plain forgot. Yes, I was feeling truly awful.

Out-Of-Doors

It felt quite different from other recent years. It was brown, chilly, and there was a height to the wind and sky that told of adventure.

Cooking

Stuffed Southwest Sweet Potatoes from Everyday Detox -- these are utterly scrumptious -- and my chocolate breakfast smoothie. It went through several variations during the year, but that thing was definitely my #1 most loved and eaten recipe of 2015!

(Re)-discoveries

Blogilates

I’ve known of Cassey Ho for years (literally, I first read of her on this post of Rachel Heffington’s) and I’ve done one or two of her workouts before. However, I first started doing it regularly on my trip. And fell totally in love! I completed the calendar for December and am now into January. Her workouts make you feel so toned and strong yet nicely sore at the same time and oh, am I relishing it.

And this is the big one…

Learning that, even while your heart is aching with terrible longing for one place and people you can still be perfectly happy and content somewhere else. That’s Grace for you. This is one that you certainly must keep learning over and over again and sometimes the ache leaves almost no room to think of other things, but grace flows on and that’s the miracle of it.

So that is my last collective for 2015!!! And I enjoyed writing all of them and your comments on them so much that I’m definitely planning on continuing them in 2016!