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Taking another run at sharing Something Loved, Something Said, Something Learned, and Something Read and getting it done before the link closes! Perhaps I could put down as Something Learned - I learned that the link-up opens on the last Friday of the month and is open for a week. So if you'd also like to join, you have a couple more days.
Something Loved
There was a lot to love about the week of Thanksgiving! The day before Thanksgiving we did a Thanksgiving meal with my husband's hockey league, as is our custom. Their league (called Old Fat Bald Guys!) plays a pick-up game on the Wednesday night, followed by a potluck style Thanksgiving dinner with the families. We used to do this out in the parking lot of the hockey rink, tailgate style! But a few years ago it was super cold, so the rink invited us inside and we've been able to set up inside ever since. Honestly, I don't know the other wives very well since we don't live in the same neighborhoods and our kids don't go to the same schools, but it's still fun to get together with this crowd for this annual event and for the couple of tournaments the league hosts each year.
Then there was our family Thanksgiving dinner, which involved fun and shenanigans. Things like this - I asked the kids to put the cranberry sauce and jelly on the table, and they decided to use the apple corer to slice the jelly. Ridiculous, but actually a fairly clever life hack once we thought about it!
And we carried on a tradition that my siblings and I started. My mom used to try to get a family picture at the holiday table, and my sister and brothers and I would NOT cooperate. Instead we would freeze with a forkful of food partway into our mouth or a glass held to our lips until she gave up and took the picture anyway. The first few times she was so frustrated, but it was so funny that it became a family tradition and now there's decades of family pictures that look sort of like this:
And I love that this silly tradition is one we're carrying on!
At the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, my choir had its Christmas season concerts, and Kennady came for the first night. We've been taking mother-daughter selfies at all the musical events we attend this year, and I figured that should include the events that one or both of us are performing in.
And then we also celebrated my husband's birthday, which meant homemade (by me!) chocolate cheesecake and coffee!
Something Said
In a small group study I participate in, we are listening to
podcasts from The Bible Project about the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament, and discussing what we read and hear. The following quote from Blaise Pascal was shared in the podcast and I thought it was such an accurate description of most of us in the modern world. And to think that Pascal wrote this observation in the 1600s!
We do not rest satisfied with the present. We anticipate the future as too slow in coming, as if in order to hasten its course; or we recall the past, to stop its too rapid flight. So imprudent are we that we wander in the times which are not ours and do not think of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists.
Let each one examine his thoughts, and he will find them all occupied with the past and the future. We scarcely ever think of the present; and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to arrange the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means; the future alone is our end.
So we never live, but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so.
Something Learned
In that same small group, and as part of the podcasts and our discussion, I've been learning about the Hebrew word "hevel" that is translated as "vanity" or "meaningless" throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. Hevel is a word that can mean smoke or vapor or fog, or in a more abstract sense it can mean something that is an illusion. It looks real but like smoke, when you try to grab it, there's nothing there. That gives a different slant to all the times the Teacher says that things are "meaningless", doesn't it? He's not saying that the things of life have no meaning, he's saying that things like labor and wealth and glory are transitory and that things "under the sun" don't always follow the formula of "do the right thing and only good things will happen". Sometimes we can do all the right things but we don't get the promotion at work - or we get sick anyway - or we lose someone we love - or a relationship goes wrong . . . The Teacher acknowledges that life "under the sun" isn't always fair or just, and it doesn't always make sense. But God is still good.
Something Read
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by Oscar Wilde - A dark, haunting class that explores the question of whether our physical appearance hides or reveals our character. Can the ugliness of a wicked soul be seen on a face? (Read my full review 
by Louisa May Alcott - I joined a reading club in a Facebook group, and this was our November pick. I'm just about finished. Fortunately, I've read this classic enough times in the past that I was able to participate a little in the discussion even though I hadn't yet finished the book!
by O. Henry
by Alan Noble - (Read my full review 
by Kory Stamper - Although this behind the scenes look at how dictionaries are written is interesting, I got sidetracked and busy and haven't read very far. I'm hoping to get back to it before the library wants it back!
by Harriet Beecher Stowe - This is required reading for the History class I teach, so I started reading it too. But we only the one copy and my daughter is the student, so she's reading it now. We found it a little awkward to keep handing it back and forth and keep two bookmarks, so I'll wait and finish it after she has.
