I don't remember the first time I heard the saying, "We make plans & God laughs." Yet, I do recall thinking about the phrase almost every day once the ultrasound technician said to me and my ex-husband, "I have good news & I have bad news...you are having twins! You are having twins..." Goodness knows, I've made plans, and I've also lived them, and they often look entirely different. I also recall thinking (this may be a rationalization), wouldn't life be dull if we always knew what was going to happen? Yeah, I'm going to stick with rationalization.
If you've been following along, this fall has once again proven that I can plan, but in the end, I can't control. After an intense, emotional, and lots-of-driving kind of week, my father woke up on Sunday. He chatted as best he could, given that he had just undergone brain surgery and had been sedated and intubated for the better part of a week. My daughter, Anna, and I were there. I did a bit of Reiki, sprayed some Aura Spray, and even played my singing bowls (my "woo-woo" stuff, as my daughter called it).
Dad still has a great deal of healing to do. Pneumonia set in (a very common complication of intubation), so he's receiving antibiotics and is sedated again. Still, there is every reason to be hopeful. He woke up. He knows who he is, he knew who I was, and he knew who Anna was. Granted, he thought he was in Maine. But given that I live in Maine, that makes sense (he's in a very good hospital just outside of Boston). Everyone has returned home. There was lots of car travel and flying with five children and three adult grandchildren (there are lots more grandkids, but they are younger and stayed home).
Now it's time to go back to focusing on the season at hand. One my grandmother would have told me I was late in getting to in the first place. She died in January of 1996. She had already started her Christmas shopping for the year. So, by November, she was in full swing with collecting greens, floral tape, wire, baskets, and floral blocks for the cemeteries. She already had a large stash of gifts that she would spend at least a month wrapping. I, on the other hand, have been collecting acorns, pinecones, apples, crab apples, and pears. I did buy oranges, only because we don't grow them here. I've been drying them over the wood stove. I have so many projects I aspire to create.
I love this time of year! No doubt inspired by my grandmother's love of this time of year (but, I don't want to mislead you, Gram loved to celebrate EVERYTHING).
I will be sharing what I make, so be on the lookout for new products coming to our online store. There are plenty of projects taking shape around here, and some of them are a little bigger than others. Rob and I will also be attempting something we've never done before. Shocking, isn't it? Christmas lights through our pine tree thickets! We have no idea exactly how this is going to turn out, but that's part of the fun. Do stay tuned as we make progress in lighting up the woods. We'll also be opening the store for limited holiday hours (and days), with more details to come. And I'll be offering more workshops beginning in the New Year.
I suppose that's the thing about this time of year. We make plans, we gather things, we create, we celebrate, and sometimes life has other ideas. But we keep going, finding reasons to look forward to what's next.
Regardless of what you celebrate at this time of year, we hope you'll find a reason to stop by, spend a little time here, and perhaps begin a new tradition with us.
Warmly,
Crystal & Rob