Pot of Gold Coffee sent us a Christmas ornament with our regular coffee order. I love these guys! As you may have read, and read, coffee is a big part of our day. They put our names on the coffee bags, they send our Christmas letters, and special little gifts with our coffee order. And their coffee quality is simply amazing. It is so amazing that from the time we have gotten their coffee, more than 10 people we know now get their coffee through Pot of Gold. Even our office orders their coffee now through them.

Also in the mail was a present from my dear friend, Holly. Along with her annual Christmas letter, which I can appreciate a lot of work goes into, I got a “nightie on sale” and a hand-written note. Yay for mail surprises. Thank you Holly for your wonderful gift. Your nightie is a perfect gift to rectify the situation created by my sewing disaster. Marc said, when I held it up, “It’s missing those charming Vulcan sleeves.” Yeah I kicked him.

The last item in the mail was a post office package slips. These are always so mysterious. On Pender I especially love it when they say that ID is required. I work next to the post office. We share cookies. We car-pool. We see each other every day. They know who I am. Yet diligently, they will not hand over a parcel unless I can show my driver’s license. I suppose there are a lot of short, fluffy haired, brightly toqued, squeaky beekeepers on the island who could impersonate me. Our population is growing…

Today for advent I got hair elastics. I am constantly losing these as the kittens have taken a liking to batting them around the house and hiding them in their secret stash. (Filled with bobbypins, almonds, milk caps and yarn ends, no doubt.)

I am attempting double-pointed needle knitting. So far I am making a brightly coloured tube. Nondescript. Maybe it’s a tree trunk warmer. Or a kitten belt. Anyhow, it’s a lot harder than you’d think to knit with four needles as opposed to two. I feel like I’m knitting with a handicap. Is there an easier way to do this?

Happy December 8th!

I have started saying Merry Christmas today. Is it too soon?

Merry Christmas!

First of all.

Marc got me circular knitting needles for advent, ones that you can knit circular things like sweaters, toques and mittens.

I got him an eyeglasses repair kit.

Secondly, I spent a very festive evening with my Mother in Law Gail last night. We formed rum balls and watched Muppet Christmas Carol. And drank spiked eggnog.

*BRIGHTLY shone the moon at night!*

That is my favourite part in the movie.

And the Marleys.

Anyway.

Today the cold on the farm reached a new low. The mud even froze. The pond in front of the house froze. The ducks vacated. And even the kittens were eager to be inside by the wood stove.

And today, we went to look at goats.

This is the beginning.

Now, whether or not we acquire goats at this point is not the pivotal point. The pivotal point is the fact that our minds have tippy-toed from nomadic boat-living to F for Farming.

It is not my suitcase I have packed per se, it is my mind that I had bundled into a small space. And now I can begin unpacking.

I remember moving from house to basement suite to house with my little herbs all in their little pots. I remember when I moved here in June, I dug a hole with a small shovel. I up-ended my pot and placed my travelling Sage, Thyme, Lavender and Marjoram into the ground. It was a momentous day for me. Not because I planted some herbs. But because my mind had let go of something. And the tender roots could now dig their way into the soil. I felt relief.

How can putting down roots, which seems very restricting, actually provide mental freedom? I think for me, it was the fact that I was starting to feel root-bound. I was all crunched up in my head at the possibilities and then suddenly I didn’t have to think about “What Next?” and I could unfurl my roots into the earth.

So we have committed to chickens. To more bees. To the possibility of goats or other livestock. And to the growing of vegetables, the processing of fruit, the picking of berries, and the growing of ourselves as we stretch our small farming muscles.

Everything opened here all at once and Marc and I are putting one foot ahead of the other in faith that everything else will fall into place. It’s a small step, but with temerity. My mind unfurls at this and I feel that there is mental peace.

In saying this, it appears that it’s nearly time to tap some big-leaf maple trees here.

Wanna join the farming adventure? Give me some ideas. What should we do next? What animals do you think we should get? What things should we grow?

When Marc was a little kid, his mother started the Advent tradition. She would buy small gifts for Marc and Danielle every day from December 1st to 24th. Usually it was packs of gum, shoelaces and travel toothpastes. We decided to carry on this tradition because it gave us the opportunity to give to each other and remember the spirit of giving throughout December. More than the things, it is an exercise in our marriage at giving and receiving.

Today was more sewing buttons (different colours this time) and a travel egg carrier for the boat.

Someone recently highlighted an article of marriage that I read. It was about a couple who had a fairly functional marriage and they set about different ways to improve it. They went to psychoanalysists, therapy sessions, a two day communication session. It was a good article. The beginning of the article made me consider what marriage is and how does a good marriage look. She says that we try at raising our children, improving our careers, practise at our various hobbies or skills. But we often do not put a lot of effort into our marriages, just letting them cruise on an autopilot of sorts.

Marc and I have been together for five years, been married for nearly four, and I remember thinking, when we tied the knot, that this was just the beginning. We’ve both had marriage modelled by our parents, who have been married 30 years and 28 years respectively. It has been very helpful and it’s interesting to see what things have carried on to our marriage from our observations of our parents’ marriage.

Marc’s dad planned this surprise trip for his mom once. For their 25th wedding anniversary, he secretly booked a trip to Tahiti and planned all the details, as well as booking time off from her work without her knowing. This was a masterful plan which took months in the making. Though Marc hasn’t whisked me to Tahiti yet, he has pulled off some very amazing secretive stunts like this based on his expectation of his role, modelled by his father.

My parents have been very good at making time for each other. They build it into their schedules. My dad would come home from work and they would talk while Mom made dinner. For the most part, we as children knew not to interrupt their time together by our nattering.

From this example, Marc and I have tried to build time into our “regularly scheduled program” by setting aside moments in our day to be together. When we slip at this, one of us reminds the other and we find that we both really miss it when we forget.

Something that the article touches on is monogamy. It is a given in our society that a healthy marriage equals monogamy. The article said that the couple had been sexually faithful but the husband felt that his wife had betrayed him with her mother. Stay with me on this. He felt that when there was a decision regarding the children, his wife went to her mother and they made the decision without his input. I found this very interesting. I examined my own marriage and found that if there was anywhere where I could be accused of not being monogamous, it was when I put my own needs above the needs of our marriage, or the needs of Marc. Often by my own selfishness, I was damaging our marriage. After apologizing to Marc for this, I hope I can slowly improve in this aspect.

For a marriage to grow, it seems to require a lot of vulnerability and a lot of apologizing. In theory, I think this will be very good for me. In practise, it sounds a bit uncomfortable.

Perhaps marriage is a bit like beekeeping. Sometimes it stings, but the results are sweet.

He got me little foam snowflakes that I can tie to the tree, to the bannister, to the lamp shades for true Christmas spirit.

I got him little squeeze tubes for the boat. They are recommended for peanut butter, jam, honey, mustard, mayo for camping, packing or hiking.

You will also notice my unmatching socks. My Nana made me wool socks a few years ago and unfortunately I lost the mate to each of these socks but I love the socks so much that I re-mated them. They say socks mate for life, but really, what do they know?

On Dec 5th,

-1360 the French Franc was invented. (Now replaced by the Euro of course.)

1492- Christopher Columbus is the first European to set foot in Haiti.

1791- Mozart Died

1932 Eistein was granted an American Visa

1901 – Walt Disney was born

In 2003, the creators of Ninja Burger declared that December 5th would be celebrated as Day of the Ninja. On this day, people are encouraged to dress as ninja, engage in ninja-related activities, and spread information on ninja online.  Perhaps this day is closely related to a day with equal credibility, “Talk like a Pirate Day.” (which is in September.)

When we were kids, last night we would have put our shoes outside our bedroom door, and in the morning we would wake up to find them filled with gold-foil coins. St. Nicolas Day is celebrating a Saint who was known as the “Wonderworker.” He also had a happy habit of putting gold coins in shoes left outside the door. He actually became the model for Santa Claus, with his snowy white beard and his gift-giving tendencies.

Though we all know that Santa Claus was truly exploited by Coca Cola who made him universally famous by plastering his jolly face on their pop cans.

Happy Ninja, Walt Disney, Comemorating Mozart, St Nick Day of December 5th!

Scissors for me.

A Memo pad for him.

No photo this morning because I was delayed this morning leaving for work as there was a frantic push to get the fire going as the frost was thick this morning. Then there was no wood in the house. Bla bla bla. You know the minor complaints of living with a wood stove as your primary heat.

I’ve been reading these very nomadic blogs, as well as I’ve had some interesting farming opportunities. Tell me what you think.

There are so many different ways to live life and I have two choices and I’m trying to decide how deep I want to sink my teeth in.

Do I want to keep my roots lightly planted so that I can leave at a moments notice? Or do I want to dig deep into farming since the opportunity is presented to me?

The nomadic lifestyle appeals to me because, to quote the Dalai Llama, “The less you have, the less you have to worry about.” This train of thought appeals to me and makes me want sell everything and leave with a stick-tied hankerchief.

On the other hand, an opportunity to have chickens and goats running around. More bees? *sigh* Decisions! And really, as I always say, so much time is wasted on indecision. So we just need to decide.

So what do you think?