louissa sinclair

while shopping with my mumsie in october, i decided to look ahead and purchase christmas cards. looking at the shelves in The Christmas Tree Shop i found my cards with a cute snowman on the front and red snowflakes on the inside. i bought them.

a pile of christmas cards sit in my room, filled out, addressed, and unsent. perhaps my new year resolution will be to actually put a stamp and mail out my christmas cards next time. or maybe resolving to do something now for next december is a bit too much planning ahead-ish for me and i should just hope i remember.

maybe you can help me. december 1, 2008. remind me to mail my cards.

- - -

praying. praying for a tiny little girl and her tiny little heart. please pray for her as well.

the big boy had closed himself into one of the downstairs room and we could hear the soothing voice of the lady on the yoga cd coming through the doors.  a “little” tall woman gathered digital cameras to make sure all photos that were taken yesterday were collected.  the little boy sat at the dining room table learning new card tricks with the papa of the family.  a new cd played in the kitchen while the rest of the little women in the house scrambled about with vacuum’s, dusting rags, and arms full of gifts that were brought to their designated places.

it’s the day after a wonderful day.  which happens to land in a wonderfully busy week.  our party plans continue until after the new year — evenings filled with company at the house so we can watch movie, play games, finish all the Christmas cookies still in our tins, and enjoy this time with us.

it really is the most wonderful time of the year, isn’t it?

(there are pictures from our wonderful day here)

“your blog is like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re going to get.”

ohgoodness. i know the nicest people. no really, i do. i know that you think you do but you’re totally wrong. the nicest most wonderful loveliest people are the ones i know.

and all this means that you should really get to know them as well. and then you can say that you know the nicest people in the world too.

< EDIT>

i just finished chatting with one of my sisters. it just so happens that we are in the same house at the same time, but instead of speaking to each other, we were sending messages back and forth using the favorite “google chat”. after all, chatting online is so much more convenient than actually getting up, walking the ten steps to the room she’s in, and actually talking aloud.

yes. it requires much less energy too.

< /EDIT >

note: this post could be catergorized as “online bantering.” this is me just continuing with a joke with my family.

i am the disgrace of my family. there are some standards that come with this last name and i’m just not cuttin’ it at this point. i’m afraid that pretty soon i’ll be the outcast, the one in the corner, while they ignore the oh-so-un-sinclair habits that i have.

sinclair girls know how to cook. they use real food with no preservatives and we don’t know very many shortcuts. everything in our refrigerator requires actual cooking and we don’t use any of those “short-cut” ingredients that so wonderfully decorate the shelves of our local grocery store. i appreciate this about my family and i am a privileged individual who is able to enjoy the cooking of so many talented females.

i’m not all that great of a cook. i use recipes and i like to use the amounts called in the recipes. my family has an amazing ability to look in the fridge, grab the most unlikely food combinations you might put together, and make it the most mouth-watering meal you’ve ever had. i look at the onion, the broccoli, the rice, and the yogurt and wonder why on earth mumsie doesn’t do more grocery shopping.

my family eats real food. we don’t have any frozen meals in the freezer and we don’t have any beverages that might rot your teeth out. there are just some things we don’t do.

but after years of babysitting i finally mastered putting frozen pizzas into the oven and making ramen noodles without wondering too many times what i was supposed to look like, and i’ve found that this one thing my family doesn’t do — i do. with every confession of my love for rice krisipie treats, kraft macaroni and cheese, and fruit roll-ups my family cringes a bit more and wonders what happened to me. what did they do wrong?

yes. the disgrace. don’t worry about me too much. i’ll just be in my own little corner with my pre-made lasagna loving every minute of it while they whittle away the hours in front of the stove and oven making heaven knows what (they never know what they make).

almost all my family is here.

family devotions (you all didn’t have church but we did!).  a steelers game.  a favorite family movie.  a fire in the fireplace.  gingerbread houses.  babies playing.  christmas cookies.  a white world.  a warm house.

i love today.

i found myself it quite the ditzy predicament last night. it was my first “uh-oh” when it comes to vehicles, the first time i’ve ever “called myself in” to a police department and the first time there’s ever been a cop whose “pulled over” because of something i did.

i locked my keys in my families van. it was running. it had a headlight out. and it was in a “no parking/no standing zone.” yes, it was classic. a friend had to run home to retrieve mumsie’s set of keys, a cop found the vehicle standing in the CROSSWALK (smooth, louissa) quite interesting, and over all, i found myself feeling quite silly.

being little is so much easier.

i have to admit that i don’t usually read blogs when it’s full of quotes and not something that the person has personally written. but i was reading today and knew that these three passages capture what i’ve been feeling and going through these last few months.

“God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made thirsty still.” - A.W. Tozer

“When a man pants after God, it is a secret life within which makes him do it: he would not long after God by nature. No man thirsts for God while he is left in his carnal [i.e., unconverted] state. The unrenewed man pants after anything sooner than God: . . . It proves a renewed nature when you long after God; it is a work of grace in your soul, and you may be thankful for it.” - Charles Spurgeon

“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.” - Psalm 63:1-5

i have come to the conclusion that i desperately need to purchase my first hair “appliance” and buy myself a blow dryer. my winter cannot continue the way it’s been going these last two weeks.

every morning, approximately forty-five minutes after i shower, i put a scarf, gloves, my coat, and a red hat that has a blue pom-pom of sorts that sits at the very tip on. yes, i walk around town with a huge blue ball sitting on top of my head. remember, i only do what’s hippest and most current.

every morning i walk the fifteen minutes to work. at first it was refreshing, invigorating, really, one of the most productive fifteen minutes of my day. now the better part of me has to tell myself it’s all those things because the bad half is saying that it’s cold, annoying, and a plain old nuisance. by the time i reach the top of the driveway my good half can’t really put up much of a fight since at that point i can’t feel my legs since i tend to be overly concerned about layering the top half of me and forget about the bottom (my thin chinos just don’t cut it in this weather).

every morning i arrive to work and promptly pull off the red hat with the sorry excuse of a blue pom-pom on top, ready to retire it for the rest of the day. the hat has been able to keep my ears and top half of my hair warm, but the strands left to fend for themselves have become frozen globs of hair that feel rather strange in my tingly fingers.

every morning i try to revive my hair to it’s usual state but have give up when i realize that the hat worn for fifteen minutes has flattened the first four inches of my hair and the rest doesn’t know what to do with itself since i let it freeze.

every afternoon i put my hair in a pony tail because it looks so psychotic. my hair, which is quite confused at that point, doesn’t know what to do besides stick straight up. isn’t gravity supposed to affect even on your hair?

every afternoon i have a “fountain” effect on top of my head. so pretty much, for the few hours inbetween the hat coming off and the hair going up is the only time i don’t have something that resembles a pom-pom on my head.

yes, it’s time to buy a blow dryer.

i walked to work today. the snow was coming down and i wore a hat with a blue pom-pom on top (i know, cool, right?). i’m not known for loving winter, cold, or snow, but i must admit, it was somehow invigorating to be out there so early.

i’m so my mother’s daughter.

i came home early today from work. i cleaned a bathroom and decorated christmas cookies and spent time talking with my sisters. then tonight we decorated our christmas tree (there are pictures here) and right now we have charlie brown’s christmas on.

it is christmas time.

who says i’m not good at anything?

i almost hit a deer last night. seriously, this was the closest i’ve ever been to hitting one of these annoying jump-in-the-road-whenever animals. don’t worry, my amazing driving skills saved us. just like they kept us safe this past tuesday when the van was swerving and not stopping because it didn’t like the snow very much.

that’s right. i just claimed to have amazing driving skills. i might go the speed of a grandma, but you can’t complain. i’ve never received a ticket or been in any sort of accident (we’ll ignore the fact that i’ve only had my license for a little over two years and i was abroad for one of those).