St Gabriel Windows

St Gabriel Windows
Photocopy c. 2013 Jamie Laubacher

Thursday, December 03, 2015

The Season of Waiting and Anticipation


The weather God has given us: 
As we entered into Advent, our weather has been unseasonably warmer than usual for this time of year.  I am not complaining!  There has been sunshine in more abundance, and that does one of my children a great deal of good as he battles Seasonal Affective Disorder and it begins to creep its way in around late November and peaks to a negative frenzy around mid January. Medication helped him last winter when it was at its worst.  He continues the medication and  I am hoping with some more therapeutic helps (supplements, exercise and sun lamp therapy + counseling to talk his way through it with a professional), in place for him that this winter he will not succumb to it quite as dramatically as last winter.  

A personal note:
I continue to improve regarding my autoimmune liver problem.  My blood work is looking better, the levels coming down to where they should be.  I continue the medications with little side-effects other than insomnia and occasionally when I don't watch my sodium (like at Thanksgiving), I swell a bit in the face.  But it leaves quickly once I watch my sodium and eat more potassium rich foods.  Seems to balance it all out.  I am grateful for western medicine at this point because I can not imagine how I'd be doing without it! 

On the home school front: 
Our home school is moving right along and we are nearing the end of our first semester; I already have many first semester assignments in and ready to go to our own consultant in January. We have made good progress.  I am ever so grateful for home education and the ability to meet with my children personally and help guide them and instruct them and help them with their studies.  It is a mantra I will chant over and over in my lifetime; that I was able to have this special time of formation with my own children and really be fully engaged and involved in their very formation. The discussions we have are priceless and such treasures .....over history, literature, sciences and religion....even on the hardest days it makes my heart swell with joy that this can be.   That my children can be deep and pithy and well read.  

Waiting and Anticipating:
And so, amid regular daily life and family goings-on, we prepare, and wait and anticipate the glorious event of the Nativity of Christ .....praying, lighting the Advent wreath, reading the scriptures and seasonal literature....decorating and adding a bit more light here and there to give way to a warm and welcoming environment around us, as we wait for the Christmas Eve vigil that marks our way to Christmas day....

May you reap the glow of this season and enjoy a beautiful Christmas as it approaches....

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