No.713: The Wednesday Five #31

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

Happy Wednesday!

A QUOTE

The Church is saying to us again and again, “Now is the acceptable time” (2 Cor 6:2).  This Advent will never come again…We recall the classic words of the poet: “The tender grace of a day that is gone will never come back to me.”  The graces of this day will never come again.  The opportunities for being loving and humble and generous and self-forgetful in this day will never come again.  That is a large thought, and we should fill our minds with large thoughts in this season. – Come Lord Jesus, page 65

I’m reading my favorite Advent devotional again this year.  There are so many little nuggets of wisdom and I reflect on something new each time.

TABS OPEN IN MY BROWSER RIGHT NOW

• this new-to-us option for the cookie tins
• this post about an old-fashioned heating source (I want one!)
• this vintage radio program that would be fun to listen to with the kids
• a cool website to help use up random leftovers

A BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF ART

“The Day Before Christmas” by Carl Larsson (found here)
How cute is that sweetie pie on the left?!

A POEM FOR THE SEASON

In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 106
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

WHAT WE DID FOR SAINT NICHOLAS DAY THIS YEAR

The kids put out their shoes last night in anticipation of a gift from Saint Nicholas and he didn’t disappoint!  Along with the obligatory gold chocolate coins, they always receive something to enjoy together.  (One year, they found a few Christmas movies, another year was playing card themed, etc.)  2022 will go down in history as the year Mom and Dad chose completely random things!  I picked a board game called LineUp and my husband chose a Battle Jousting Challenge Set.