"I Think It's Snowing."

My blond-haired boy just announced as he passed the window. "Yes. Yes it is." Then he quietly continued down the stairwell.

Two minutes later my daughter came tearing up the stairwell, "MOM! IT'S SNOWING! MOM! MOM! IT'S SNOWING!"

The third child then said in a monotone voice, "She knows. She knows. She knows." My daughter did not notice him. And later he added as he passed the same window as my younger son, "It wasn't suppose to snow yet. It is too early."

How does your family announce the 1st snowfall of the year?

I am cleaning the house. This is the 1st time since my two children were confirmed on Reformation Day that you can see that the furniture in my bedroom is made of wood. Everything that needed to be moved was put there, and I had not gotten back to it. A little Pledge and a vacuum cleaner will make it a peaceful and relaxing place once more.

While cleaning, I found all the books and papers I have been reading and writing over the last weeks. Don't tell me if you are more organized than this, please, because I don't even want to hear about it. I found my astronomy book that tells me the difference between types of telescopes. There under one pile was the Betty Crocker's Cookbook: Bridal Edition the newest one I had purchased, that I was reading. It was the closest thing I could find to be a basic, old-fashion recipe book with great tips and food that we, here on the farm, would make and eat: muffins, baking powder biscuits, pumpkin pie--recipes that I can make from the food that normally fills my cupboard shelves.My old copy of The Well-Trained Mind was found with papers still poking out of it; I will need to use the list I was making and the list from Let the Authors Speak to update my son's reading requirements for the year. His reading level has gone from struggling to read a phrase like "the cat sat" to completing The Lord of the Rings Trilogy in the last two years. I find it hard to know what to "feed" him in literature class! I found a pair of scissors that was lost a while ago, and the belt my husband has been missing, a little laundry and a pair of shoes. Cleaning day can be rewarding!

My husband has volunteered to take the poohs with him when he goes shopping this afternoon. Will I really have a quiet house for a few minutes? What shall I do? Clean? Read? Watch a Voyager tape? Make a pie or an Angel Food Cake? Such luxury!

Tomorrow is the 1st day of Advent, isn't it? It will be time to start our preparations. Shopping, cooking, baking, making gifts and doing just what Advent is meant to be: a time to prepare for the celebration of the coming of the Christ. We will not decorate until our preparations are made.

Life is good.