December starts this week. The season of anticipating is here. If you are looking for a way to celebrate with your family in the midst of the anticipation, Ann Voskamp just finished her Jesse Tree Advent Devotional. You can download it for free here. I’m not sure we’ll do it this year, as we are still trying to build the Sunday Advent tradition with our kids. Maybe we’ll work up to the Jesse Tree next year. Still, I’m keeping her thoughtful work for the future.

My friend Kari is pregnant, due just after Christmas. She wrote a beautiful post on Advent that is worth the read. It is a letter to her son, Atticus, and in it she honestly shares her perspective on the whole thing. I love it.

“Your dad is the feeler in this family. I will be interested to see which you are. I don’t think I know what it means to be seized by the power of a great affection, but Christmas and Advent are as close as I get to understanding what that feels like.”  -Kari

Finally, I am so excited to be writing about that today over at Christmas Change. Even more exciting to me is that my husband is joining me there, and together we share some of those things we are thinking on as we enter into December. I would love for you to join us there as we write On Returning.

After spending a month writing on a focused topic everyday, I have found myself mush-brained this week. When I told my sister that, she agreed she felt the same way and said, “Um. Hello? I wrote about Adam Lambert.” And I laughed hysterically until I realize that her post about Adam Lambert is pretty much all shades of awesome. So I win in the mush trophy.

So while she’s over there teaching decorating truths she learned from Adam Lambert, another fellow 31 Dayer has the nerve to be brilliant as well. Kendra at My First Kitchen is hosting A Cookie and a Story Contest until November 14th. You can read the details at her blog, but basically she is looking for cookie recipes and a story to go along with it from you. Super fun.

Meanwhile, I can tell you that June from Bye Bye Pie came over a few weeks ago and brought her puppy. That’s right. I am now a hoster of dog play dates. I would write more about it, but June already did and we all know she is much better at these dog types of writings than I am.

And while I’m telling you about awesome things, Melissa at Events by Design is hosting Something to Celebrate for the month of November. She has great recipes, fun tips, lovely photos and giveaways! Her tagline is Where Celebration Comes to Life, and let me tell you: this girl knows how to celebrate. Ask anyone who knows her in real life, and they will smile and tell a story of how they have received invitations from Melissa for an “It’s Spring!” party or “It’s Tuesday!” party or an impromptu girls tea party in her daughter’s room. Can you guess what she does for a living? Of course she is an Events Designer. I love the stuff that girl is made of.

So here’s to hoping next week begins with less mush-brain. While you are weekending, keep your eyes open for those everyday graces that are at risk of going unnoticed. Write it down, take a picture, and then link up with us here on Tuesday for Tuesdays Unwrapped.

Speaking of photos, when I went to add a new photo to my about page yesterday, I realized the information there was nearly two years old. So I took some time to update it and ended up writing way more than I meant to but I just didn’t know where to stop. I always struggle with doing an about page – do I talk about me? My writing? My blog? My family? I talked about all of those things. Do you know of any blog about pages that you particularly like? Do tell. In the meantime, I’m off to see if Adam Lambert has anything to say about creating space for your soul to breathe.

You have all made me cry in a good way this week. Thank you for your overwhelming support and enthusiasm about this book thing. I have indeed started to actually write and I am beginning to realize how much fun this is going to be! Many of you asked about the publishing process and I’m working on a post to tell you what I’ve learned. I am not an expert by any definition, but I can certainly direct you to those who are.

In brainless news, this girl here? Love her voice. You should give her a listen.

And just as fun but completely unrelated, my friend Amy has been doing a tour of her house on her blog and you simply have to go nose around over there. And? She and her husband basically did all the work themselves.  Here is the first post.

image from Playing Sublimey

Finally, Amber wrote a lovely post that she calls a non-post (but we know better) on writing and such. She asks a question at the end and since I’m on a panel with her at BlissDom in a few weeks, I would love to hear what you have to say. I always love to hear what you have to say.

It’s coming. That day in August that has been looming heavy at the end of my summer is coming fast and furious and there is nothing these mommy arms can do to stop it. One of the girls is in a size 2 and a half shoe now. With laces. The other one has finally learned to ride a bike without her training wheels. When I dropped them off at a friends house yesterday, they could hardly wait for me to leave so they could get down to serious playing business. They’re five. Aren’t they supposed to be 13 before they do stuff like that? One month is all that’s left between having them home and having them in kindergarten. So I’ll hold on and unwrap the moments today, but it won’t change the fact that my girls are growing up.

Do you have a life stage you are longing to hold onto? Have you noticed something lately that typically gets buried beneath the busy and the task? Link up to a post explaining how you have found a gift in the midst of the messy, the lovely or the unexpected things of life and share them here with us. To find out more about Tuesdays Unwapped, or if you don’t know how to use a permalink to add your post, simply click here.

Some of my favorite spring things these days are  Kimba’s beautiful pins @ A Soft Place to Land. I am not the best accessorizer in the world. But these pins give a fun color splash to anything. I think I now own five of them. Here’s one. See?

Speaking of spring, there is a  spring cleaning party @ Simple Mom starting next week. I would like to think I’m going to do it. But I am making no promises.

I already have a jump start, though. We are having a neighborhood yard sale tomorrow. If you are local, come on over! You know what they say about one ma’ams trash.

Jen @ Balancing Beauty and Bedlam has a great post about yard sale tips and tricks. Just incase. Now I gotta run and go price my stuff!

So I’ve been doing stuff. Like today, I was busy not taking a shower and watching my kids eat oreos while I also gazed at the pile of laundry that needed folding. And tonight I stared at our kitchen cabinets for a loooong time. That took a while.

I did make dinner. And I cleaned the children. And I finished a novel that I started while I stood in line on election day. It only took me 4 months to finish a book. Awesome.

I will say the knobs on the cabinets are half done. I maned up and worked that drill. Arg. I’ll be able to show you that soon.

So yeah. I’ve been doing stuff. In the meantime, it’s Chickadee’s birthday this week and she’s hosting lots of giveaways. There’s two days left so you still have time to enter.

Admin Note: The comments are going to look a little crazy for the next day or so, but they’ll still work just fine.