Whiskey the Wonder Gymnast

Silver Bells

Finals are officially over for both Joel and I, hurrah! We both had an incredibly busy last few weeks of school, so the relief of being done makes us fairly euphoric right now. I think I've commented the last three nights in a row that I would normally be doing homework, but I'm NOT because I'm FINISHED!! (The capitalized words mark the fact that I shouted them).
So now we're doing what everyone else does this time of year, finishing up the last minute present shopping, wrapping all the presents (one of my favorite things to do), humming Christmas songs and planning out what we will make for the Christmas feast. And of course, decorating our Christmas tree. It now has presents underneath it, these pictures were taken a week ago.





The extremely cold weather we have had lately created a lot of freezing fog, which has frosted all the trees in town. They really do look beautiful, and at night everything sparkles. Even for someone who doesn't like the cold (i.e. me), I can't help but love the way Moscow looks right now.

Artsy-Crafty

Last night was our church's Ladies' Fellowship get-together. It was very fun and festive, along with eating lots of yummy food and chatting, we also did some crafty projects. The first little Christmas decoration I made was a cute green yarn pom-pom. I would show you a picture of it, but alas I gave it to my cat to play with for a minute, and the next thing I knew it was in shreds on the floor. She's very vicious when she puts her mind to it. So instead I have posted a picture of the carnage. I promise you, it was a cute pom-pom in its time.



Perhaps I will make a new one, now that I know how easy they are. They sure do look cute on top of a Christmas present. The other craft is a paper Christmas ornament, shown here. So far it has escaped the ruthless claws of Whiskey, and I plan on hanging it on our tree, as soon as we get one.





Speaking of our kitten, I find it fairly disconcerting when I'm reading a book on the couch and I look up to see Whiskey staring fixedly at me from across the room. I'm not sure why this bothers me so much, but I've never had a cat who takes so much interest in me. I just try not to think about what thoughts might be in her little head. Probably none, actually.

Merry Christmas! (Early)

I promised myself I wouldn't put out any Christmas decorations this early... but then we started singing Christmas songs at school.... and I couldn't help myself. But I did limit myself to only two items. The first one to make its appearance was this fleece Christmas throw.



As you can see, one member of our household took a liking to the fleecy warmth. She spends most of her sleeping hours on the throw, either when it's draped on the couch or on my lap. While awake she kneads it incessantly. I was planning on getting more use out of it than my cat, but I don't have the heart to scoot her off of it when she looks so cute.

The other Christmas decoration that has found its way into our living room (and onto our piano) is this adorable snowman figure. I found him while shopping in Lewiston with my mom at a store called Real Deals. It's an adorable shop with very reasonable prices (hence the name) and I just couldn't resist buying this little guy. It makes me smile every time I see it.



Anyway, nothing really new or exciting to report on. We're having our good friends Lucas and Nicola (and baby Audrey) come and stay with us for a few days, so I'm spending the day airing out the guest room, washing sheets, cleaning the bathroom, grocery shopping, etc. I love being able to offer hospitality to out-of-town folks, it's nice to get some use out of our guest room and bathroom! Joel spent the morning at the school doing homework and is now seated downstairs munching on sunflower seeds and grading papers. Whiskey is taking a four hour nap in the basement. It's a wonderful Saturday.

From our favorite news source: The Onion

On the Uselessness of the Liberal Arts

This is from a speech one of the professors at NSA, Dr. Peter Leithart, gave a few years ago:

"We must concede that the liberal arts are, at least by all normal standards, useless.

But we must go further than concession: we must be willing to celebrate this uselessness. Lewis points out that there is always some crisis, some alarm that demands our attention; there are always a million and one things more important than reading Homer. Yet we continue to read Homer because we are not creatures whose behavior is solely guided by a crabbed criterion of usefulness. We are creatures made in the image of a Creator who makes things that He does not need, things that are not of use to Him. As we imitate His excess, we play music and recite poetry and tell stories—and organize liberal arts colleges so others can do these things with us. The liberal arts are useless in the same way that the centerpiece on a dining room table is useless; useless in the way a silk tie is useless; useless in the way salt and pepper are useless; useless in the way that perfecting a golf swing is useless; useless in the same way that most of what makes life rich and beautiful is useless. We should not be ashamed of the uselessness of the liberal arts, for making what we do not need, and doing what we have no ordinary use for, is part of the glory of being made in the image of the infinitely creative God."

The whole speech is great, you can find it here.

Yikes

Okay I know it's been a very long time since we've posted anything.... I really don't have a good excuse except that we're both very busy. I often think of things I would like to blog about, but then at night I remember how much homework I need to get done before tomorrow and then our blog gets abandoned, kicked unlovingly to the side where it slowly collects dust. But today I have my duster out. I came up with the brilliant idea of posting on Sunday afternoon when I don't do homework anyway! So here are our some pictures of our halloween festivities. A week before halloween we had a pumpkin carving party at our house, which is what these pictures are of. Then on Halloween the six of us watched a movie (the old version of the Haunting) over at mom and dad's house, drank spiced mead and took turns answering the door for trick-or-treaters. Very fun tradition.










Davey's pumpkin



Mom's Bat




My Ghost



Kate's Happy Vampire




Dad's Scary Pumpkin beside my ghost