The Intentional Life

December is always  a month full of pictures. So many things happening that I want to record. I love the anticipation of December. The Advent.  I love the coziness of lights and the joy and excitement of children during this month. We had a bit of snow. We had a chance to see some lights. We had a chance to be together with family. All blessings in their own right. There are a boatload of pictures, and that's even after I sorted and rooted out a few. Thanks for staying with me...  Setting up the tree..... Madeline's homemade nativity scene... Getting quality time in with dear friends before they head back to Zambia....    A dusting of snow at the beginning of the month. It was the first real bit of snow so Hannah was out there stat building what became a one-ball-snowman. I came home from work one day and Owen was sweeping for me! My first thought was "what broke?" But he was just doing because he knew I would like it. Melt. ...

Not the best shot of the kitchen (more like the view from the kitchen) but it's the best I could find from my past pics (July '16) of what our kitchen island (lower part of picture) usually looks like... I'm guessing we all have it. Those spots where everything seems to accumulate. They just seem to just attract the clutter, the papers, the stuff... For our house one of those spots is the kitchen counters.  Definitely that big island in the center, but right along with it are the counters along the edge as well. The only reason this counter is clean in this picture is because just 5 minutes prior to this picture it was covered in homemade egg noodles that were drying overnight. Before that it was covered in a various assortment of miscellany - all items that had another home but for some reason just did not make it there. Then there are the side counters. Often it's the items that were on the island but had to be shifted so I could use the island for c...