Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Pilgrims & Whispers: part one

A Friday morning wakes me with a sore throat and tired body. The day begins - breakfast, laundry, putting away clean dishes.

I am willing to just have a go-with-the-flow day. We stay in our jammies and play paperdolls and read and just hang out together.


We've been studying the Pilgrims this past week and I just don't want to pass the opportunity to make Wampanoag Corn Bread (thank you, Story of the World) so I set out the ingredients and get ready for little helpers.

Side note: getting ingredients ready like this has been huge in reducing my stress of help in the kitchen! Their favorite things to do are dump in ingredients and stir anyway - and I'm all for reducing stress.


We don't exactly have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner since I'm under the weather. But, I had fun pulling out homemade things - grape jelly, applesauce, local honey, a trivet that David made as a child and hot tea for soothing throats.

I opened a non-homemade can of soup for further comfort and what a comfort it was! Even when I wasn't feeling good - it revived my soul and mind to just do these small things of beauty. Setting a table, arranging glass jars, pouring warm liquid and smelling the homemade bread.

Simple, lovely, cultivating thankfulness. This is truly what the first Thanksgiving was all about wasn't it?

It was a milder day outside and our porch beckoned (mainly because the table was clear - ahem) and I enjoyed the simplicity and lovliness and nourishment of the food and time.

As I was forced into a day of whispering to preserve my throat, I was thinking about quiet and what I could learn from this forced silencing.

... to be continued tomorrow.

6 comments:

LynnMarie said...

Get well, I loose my voice a lot so be careful.

Riverswamp said...

Monica,
Good for you for taking the time to slow down and do all the extras that make home educating so rewarding.Your children will learn from and remember these days far more than any 'fill in the blank' worksheet.

Ami said...

My voice seems to be on the way out...and I leave for a women's retreat this weekend. Maybe I need to listen more to the women I'll be getting to know?

angie said...

Truthfully, your post made me terribly hungry for homemade bread and apple butter! But I also felt nourished by your admonishment to slow down when our bodies are nudging us to do so.
Hope you are feeling much better now.

~katie~ said...

Despite feeling under the weather, it sure looks like you mustered up a lot of sunshine under one roof! =) Sweet simplicity.

Praying for you to get better real soon!

Mom said...

Seeing these photos and reading your account of this day felt like a soothing balm -- hope it helped you feel better!! Love you, Mom