The CMP Review — Week of December 18

December 18, 2023

‘The Waits!

Slowly they play, poor careful souls,

With wistful thoughts of Christmas cheer,

Unwitting how their music rolls

Away the burden of the year.

And with the charm, the homely rune,

Our thoughts like childhood’s thoughts are given,

When all our pulses beat in tune

With all the stars of heaven.’

—John Davidson.

“Children necessary to Christmas Joy.— … it takes the presence of children to help us to realise the idea of the Eternal Child. The Dayspring is with the children, and we think their thoughts and are glad in their joy; and every [p 281] mother knows out of her own heart’s fulness what the Birth at Bethlehem means… The old, old story has all its first freshness as we tell it to the eager listeners; as we listen to it ourselves with their vivid interest it becomes as real and fresh to us as it is to them. Hard thoughts drop away like scales from our eyes; we are young once more with the children’s young life, which, we are mysteriously made aware, is the life eternal. What a mystery it is! Does not every mother, made wise unto salvation, who holds a babe in her arms, feel with tremulous awe that, that deep saying is true for her also, ‘The same is my mother’?” (Vol. 2, pp. 280–281)

@tessakeath

December 19, 2023

In 1961, Olive Scrivener was the headmistress of a PNEU school that was so small we might think it was a co-op. She gave careful attention to each child and led them in a dizzying array of activities. As she did so, she applied principles to help them grow.

The principles fell under a threefold umbrella that she learned from Charlotte Mason’s PNEU. This threefold umbrella was a motto that organized much of Mason’s thought. The origin of the phrase is shrouded in mystery, but its application has been evident for generations. Read or hear how Olive Scrivener applied it to hers. Find it here.

@artmiddlekauff

December 20, 2023

Many cultures have traditional beverages that warm both body and soul during the winter months. Sweden has a spicy malted soda called julmust. Salep (or sahlab) is a creamy floral milk drink popular in the Mediterranean and Middle East. There are many versions of eggnog—called auld man’s milk in Scotland, gogol-mogol in Russian, and kogel mogel in Yiddish.

On my stove this month is the traditional Russian drink of sbiten that incorporates honey, water, herbs, and spices into a soothing warm elixer that’s also considered a home remedy due to the many potential health benefits of its ingredients.

What traditional drink is integral to your winter holidays? Let me know in the comments.

Find my recipe for sbiten and @aolander gorgeous photos in the new WINTERTIDE bundle from @wildandfree.co that’s overflowing with many other homey traditions (by subscription).

@rbaburina

December 21, 2023

Christmas was always the best time of year. And I don’t mean because of presents. I mean because at church and at home something was different. We were closer to God, we were closer to eternity, we were closer to each other. But then somehow, some way, the moment would end. I would be back to the daily and often difficult business of growing up.

When I became a man I became wise to the pattern. I knew that the moments of Christmas would be wonderful but that they would pass. For a minute or an hour on Christmas Eve the worship would transport me to heaven. And then in a minute or an hour later I would be back to earth, back to the daily and difficult business of raising a family.

I would watch my children enter the mystery of Christmas joy. I would wonder if they too realized it was fleeting. I would wonder if there was a way to stop the clock, to hold on to the moment, to hold us all together, gazing steadily into the gaze of our Heavenly Father.

The Preacher, the son of David, wrote that God put eternity in the hearts of men. But I am finite. I came to exist at a moment in time. I experience only one moment at a time. Minutes pass by too fast for me to hold onto them. The love, the joy passes through my fingers before it’s mine.

But God has always been. There was never a time without Him. Every moment is in His sight and securely in His grasp. And two thousand years ago something wonderful happened. The infinite became finite. The Creator entered His creation. God became man.

If the infinite can become finite, then perhaps the finite can become infinite. Though I have a beginning perhaps I don’t have an end. Perhaps eternity is in my heart because eternity is in my future. Perhaps the best moments of Christmas joy are the sign of a joy that will last forever.

If Jesus hadn’t come, I couldn’t know for sure. But He did come. So I can.

@artmiddlekauff

December 22, 2023

Earlier this month, my sister was making a very sweet little doll house for her 6 year old daughter’s Calico Critter families. Serafina helped by offering suggestions over FaceTime. (A few thousand kilometers of distance will not stop the creative collaboration between these two!)

Of course, Serafina wanted to join in the fun, so she also made some extra elements that could be incorporated in the house and we mailed them out to her in time for Christmas.

There is a cute fridge with doors that open and magnets holding various to do and grocery lists. There is a table with an open book, a clock, and a lamp. She made a candle sconce that can be attached to the wall. She also made a couple of bookshelves that can be hung on the walls, which include a candle, a potted plant, and an original piece of art (my niece’s favourite animal, the owl). She also made a simple cross that can be hung as well.

It was such fun for Serafina to create cute tiny things for her cousin!

Has your family made any cute handmade toys or gifts this year?

@antonella.f.greco

December 23, 2023

If you’re looking for last minute handmade gift ideas or something to do over holiday break, we have watercolor brush drawing tutorials (including how to paint these berries) as well as paper sloyd tutorials—all on video.

Check out our resource page to view them all!

@rbaburina

In Book II of Ourselves, Charlotte Mason narrates a passage from Sir Walter Scott’s novel Redgauntlet. Alan Fairford had worked hard to establish himself in his career. As a young attorney, he was having his first appearance in court and was making progress on a tough case. Then a piece of paper is handed to him. It’s a message from his close friend Darsie Latimer. His friend is in danger.

“He stopped short in his harangue—gazed on the paper with a look of surprise and horror—uttered an exclamation, and flinging down the brief which he had in his hand, hurried out of court without returning a single word of answer to the various questions, ‘What was the matter?’—‘Was he taken unwell?’—‘Should not a chair be called?’ etc., etc.”

Two sisters had a brother who was in danger. Like Darsie, they had a close friend. But their friend was special. Not only could He comfort, He could also cure. For He was the Son of God. And surely He would come quickly. Experience the moment in Charlotte Mason’s poem “The message sent.”

@artmiddlekauff