November

Several years ago I became interested in the idea of starting to organize our family year in a more seasonal fashion, mostly using the liturgical year as a basis but incorporating a lot of the old seasonal rituals and folklore that used to be prevalent when we were all more closely in tune with the cycles of the year.  I don't remember exactly what started me on this but I definitely remember the first book I read about it - Sarah Ban Breachnach's Mrs. Sharp's Traditions.  I have to say, regardless of your faith or how much time you might have to engage in more optional pursuits, I can't recommend this book enough to start building your own family traditions.

I always turn to thinking about this topic in the fall.  There is something about fall that makes me feel like doing things, some primitive urge to put away and tidy and prepare.  In past years I've mostly satisfied that urge by making masses of preserves and cleaning the house out, but in more recent years I've had to change that up as schoolwork has become more intense and I just don't have the time to spend six hours bottling jam.

Today, being the day after Hallowe'en, and also All Saints' Day, is a good day to work outside.  The pastor is visiting the bereaved (a good day for that, as well), and the children are very happily busy creating a fort out of a large box, and so I am putting away the summer toys and bicycles, sweeping the decks, tidying the last of the gardens, picking up the clothespins that have flown from the line these many months, and stacking wood.

The lead up to Remembrance Day on November 11th is always filled with a lot of little tasks as we get ready for a day of several cold, windy, bitter services back to back to back - a day of standing silently in churchyards and at cenotaphs in the surrounding valleys and villages.  It does us good, like a fast before a feast, to start this season off remembering the saints, and stacking the wood.