It's a Classical Life

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our house! The kids are all on holidays now and the sun is shining. After a couple of mediocre summers I am embracing a long, hot summer with Christmas to look forward to. What's it like where you are? Hot? Snowy? Windy? (We've had some really bad storms already this summer with wind taking down trees all around us). I have created this word search for you to enjoy this weekend. Christmas is the theme and there are twenty words for you to find in a large, easy to read font. The water paint was a new one I did this week; my first attempt at holly!   Downloading the word search is simple. Either click on the jpeg image above and print it, or you can click on the pdf link below. Christmas Word Search If you're interested, you can find the other word searches that I have created  here . My goal was to create one word search a month; this year I created and posted six. Fifty percent success rate! Not too bad. If you are interest...

  I absolutely love this quote and when I came across it again recently in my reading I knew I wanted to share it for Advent. Even if you aren't a follower of an organised religion or have a deep connection to a spiritual journey, I think there is much to be said about this time of year of peace, hope, waiting, and love. We can get caught up in all the bad things that are going on in the world but Advent and Christmas are meant to be times when we can focus on love, beauty and hope for the future.  The smallest acts of hope and kindness can mean the most to those who are suffering, especially at this time of year. I have just come back from a shopping trip on the other side of town and I was impressed by how kind and helpful the shop assistants were. There was no panic, no rudeness or impatience. One shop attendant even chatted with me about the weather! I was on a mission to get my shopping done and had to slow myself down to appreciate the moment for what it was - a blessing...

Originally, I was going to name this post Can We Live More Simply? I was recently reading an article on Nicole Lutze's blog about living simply enough. She reminds us that living simply is unique to all of us. She also adds, that simple living is about spending more time within our homes, and less time working for money. I believe there are many books that we can turn to that have a focus on the home to inspire us to live simply and to live well, but when I thought about it, really thought about, one book came to mind: Louisa May Alcott's Little Women . And what better time to remind ourselves of simplicity than the holiday season when things tend to get blown out, we become overwhelmed and we all wistfully remember that dream of living more simply! If you're interested, you can also read last year's post on Lessons to Remember These Holidays from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol ". Tip #1 Ditch the plastics - eat like the Marches and grow some of y...

  A Christmas Carol  by Charles Dickens is one of the most well-known and well-loved Christmas stories of all time. If you haven't read it, the story is based around a miserly employer called Ebenezer Scrooge, who is visited by the ghostly apparition of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future. During these visits, Scrooge's attitudes towards others and Christmas change significantly. So, what lessons from A Christmas Carol - a book written in 1843 - should we keep in mind as we approach the holidays in 2021? Treat Others With Kindness Oh, that poor Bob Cratchit! Scrooge is so hateful and mean to his employee, Cratchit, that by berating him verbally and keeping him in the cold and the dark (literally), it is such a stark contrast to his nephew Fred's behaviour.  Fred is a lovely character, one who reminds us to reach out to those in our lives at Christmas who we may not be on the best terms with. He t...