feasting

Christmas has come and gone and the new year is peeking just over the horizon. Home again, home again after a trip up north to spend the holiday with family. I honestly did not leave the house for three whole days. A change of scenery and a lull in household responsibilities is simply enough to quiet mind, body and spirit.

We were blessed with a snowstorm and waking up to the stillness and serenity of the outdoors was bliss. Trees frozen in time, white powdery perfection magically swirling at their steady roots.

In the quest to find good soul food, we took to some reading while away. Like a knitter, with her needles and yarn, there are always books tucked in when we leave home. And this time was no different.

With a budding, blossoming 'new' reader, a struggling, patient veteran reader and a hungry-for-life toddler on my hands (not to mention the steady, curious eleven year old), we must always pack a wide variety of reading material. Like a perfect picnic, one must spread wide the cloth and serve up this-and-that, something-for-everyone, the sweet, the savory, the nourishing for everyone present at that moment in time.

For us it was D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths, some Frog and Toad, a how-to guide on knot tying and an artist study book for young ones, Touch Mona Lisa's Hair spread unhurriedly and joyfully at the feet of my children.

What a feast!