These Days...

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These quiet days tucked between Christmas and New Year's are unfolding in peaceful, restorative slow.

Amen.

I've needed these days, having felt not at all like myself by the end of Christmas Day, and not very much liking the person who'd come to live in my skin. Too much hurrying, too many problems to solve, and this year (for the first time) I think too much consuming. As if the perfect package tied with a pretty bow could somehow make it all better, whatever "it" was.

But these days are not that at all. In these days, little girls squirrel away with the mug of leftover chocolate kisses and make brightly colored confetti messes of the wrappers. I sigh, leave the mess until after the picture, and remind myself that there will be no more candy until Valentine's Day at the earliest.

I have made endless jars of stock with the carcass from a dinner that actually reduced me to tears the night Patrick came home from school. I'm not a very accomplished turkey chef, it seems. Furthermore, I'd forgotten how overwhelming a suddenly full home can be. Now, there is golden stock, simmered 48 hours to render every healing property within, captured into jars and waiting in the freezer for whatever may come our way. Redeemed that tearful meal I did.

I ventured back into the dance studio after a brief post-Nutcracker respite. We enjoyed planning and hosting two "Princess Teas" for friends and neighbors. Any time there is an excuse to dip strawberries and snip flowers, I'm there, even if it means venturing outside during the days intended for staying home.

I've nearly finished tidying the sewing room where so much that is good happened in the last few weeks. And I've made grand plans for many merry hours of creating to come. First though, there are mountains of laundry to tackle, some household puttering kinds of projects to do, and a great deal of renewal still to squeeze out of this year. 

After a season of excess and stress, the tub fills with a magical mixture of salt and oil and clay and vinegar; long soaks coax the gremlins and the grime from weary bodies. Restorative healing salve is slathered onto fresh skin and we're all set for the highlight of the day!

Every evening, the girls have climbed into my bed and we've watched Lark Rise to Candleford. Before this week, I've staunchly resisted the phenomenon that is the BBC streaming (I've never once seen Downton Abbey or Call the Midwife, either). We are so hooked. I've been forewarned that the series ends abruptly and that makes me sadder than sad. This will forever be the Christmas I discovered the great gift of knitting while watching a costume series streaming on Amazon Prime...

I'm grateful for the gift of time and the slowly returning peace that has come with hours of intentional quiet. One thing has crept into the margins of otherwise lovely days and I have resolutely pushed it away again and again. Mike has been gone. This was Stephen's year to play in a tournament in Disney the week between Christmas and New Year's. They left on Christmas night and Patrick and Nicholas went with them. It's true that their absence ensured quiet. There are very few squabbles without them here. No one shouts at the TV. No one stays up too late and then makes all kinds of noise while getting settled into bed. But they're gone. During this most wonderful week, we aren't together. Mike has all these days off and I don't get to have him for even a minute of them. One day, when I am old and someone asks what we sacrificed for our children, the weeks we've given to the Christmas Disney tournament will always spring to mind. It's a big deal tournament. And I hate it every time.

I miss Mike. There cannot truly be renewal without him here. It's all so incomplete. They return tonight--or more precisely, in the very dark hours of tomorrow morning. I'll shoo the little girls into their own beds after tonight's knitting and British TV binge. And I'll be so glad to wake up next to him when the last day of the year dawns.

Renewal Soak

1/2 cup bentonite clay (to stimulate the lymphatic system and draw impurities out through the skin)

1 cup of apple cider vinegar (to soften itchy winter skin)

2 cups Epsom salts (so good for easing aches and pains and the puffiness of overindulgence)

10 drops essential oils (I like a combination of lavender and eucalyptus)

Run a very warm bath and add the ingredients. Swish all the ingredients throughout the water. Soak as long as you like, but at least 20 minutes. 

This makes a mess of the tub. Leave the water there while you tuck yourself into bed. The clay will stay soft and you can drain and wash it all away in the morning--after you've had a very restful night's sleep.