A Mindful Life

This is a perfect capture of Christmas morning: A little later, this was the state of affairs: It was a wonderful Christmas. It shall be a quiet New Year’s Eve. May 2011 bless us all!

From Recuerda Mi Corazon, read The Perfect Scent of Pine — a lovely, heartfelt, poetic tribute to Christmas. I hope that when Claire is grown, I will be able to grace paper with words in a similar way. Let there be light and joy in your heart; may you hear music that sends your soul [...]

Some unknown guy created a rap tribute to NPR and other public radio stations. Genuine pleasure. Reminds me to renew my membership!! If embed doesn’t work, here’s a link: NPR Rap.

Raspberry Almond Thumbprint Cookies 1 cup butter, softened 2/3 cup white sugar 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar 3/4 teaspoon almond extract 1 Tablespoon milk Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium bowl, cream together butter and white sugar [...]

I wrote the following on October 20, before I got ahold of Geneen Roth’s book, Women Food and God. I like to eat. I like to eat sweet, salty, and calorie-dense foods. I eat when I am not hungry. I eat when I am bored. I eat when I feel stressed. I resist the idea [...]

I haven’t been knitting much this year. My last project I resisted — I just didn’t like how the yarn handled and was uninspired (it was a project for someone else). In late summer I made a wool-silk blend scarf, short and lightweight, to use as an accessory on cool days. It provides just the [...]

Today Claire asked, “What is a symbol?” I tried to answer. A symbol is a small picture that represents a thing that has a certain meaning. The letter T for the “t” sound, for example. Words are symbols. A red light is a symbol, telling people to make their car stop at it, while a [...]

To forgive does not necessarily mean to forget. Sometimes to forget is not wise, but to forgive is wise. And it is at times not easy. It can, in fact, be quite challenging. It will come as no surprise that one of the most difficult people to forgive can be yourself. Yet with patience and [...]

Today’s project! She ate almost as much candy as she put on the house. And ironically (is it?) she also had a dental appointment this morning (for which she was most calm and cooperative, and her teeth are just dandy).

What a busy day we’ve had. First we began with an alphabet craft project, the letter L, for leaves and ladder. Then we went and got haircuts. After that, we went to the grocery store with $5 of Claire’s money (from her aunt) to purchase food for the food bank. First Claire chose three bags [...]