Happy Friday!

Don’t know if you heard about the Winter Storm that Northern California is getting, but there’s been lots of hype. I think we were all hoping for The Big One – Husband kept checking radar, I checked rainfall totals, friends found new weather apps, other friends went to the grocery store to find them completely sold out of flashlights and batteries. Don’t get me wrong – I love the rain, and it was lovely and cozy and all those things you attribute to rain when you live somewhere that doesn’t get snow – but it hasn’t been the major storm that was predicted. But I’m thankful for the rain and all that comes with it. Here are a few things other things on my mind this week:

1. Obviously, this made me laugh.

2. Surprises. One morning this week, we were finishing breakfast, and I grabbed a Cutie out of our giant bowl of Cuties for everyone at the table. (You know what Cuties are, right? Those little easy-to-peel Clementine oranges that are in season this time of year.) Everyone started peeling and devouring the sections. In my first section, I found 3 seeds. I held it up and laughed, saying, “How funny! This section of my Cutie has a lot of seeds.” As I proceed to take apart the rest of the orange, I found at least 3 seeds in every section, and some with 4 or 5 seeds in them. I was surprised that such a small piece of fruit – known for being seedless – would have so many seeds. I dug each of them out and made a little pile on my plate, thinking about how this is like life. We make these plans, we have ideas about what our years and days and even moments are going to look like, and often, they don’t turn out like we think. We make big plans for the week, and someone gets sick. We sketch out designs to finally make that Advent calendar out of felt with pockets for each little ornament but then, once again, December 1st arrives, and we do Advent the same way we’ve always done it, with the ornaments in their little cardboard box. We pick up seedless fruit and we find 30 seeds inside. But it doesn’t make the fruit less delicious – it’s just different than what we expect. I’m trying to keep this idea in my head this week – and in the weeks leading up to the holidays – when things don’t go quite like I want them to go. They are still delicious, juicy, beautiful moments.

3. Wrapping presents like a ninja. Confession – I’m still working on my Christmas lists. BG’s birthday is next week, and I’m not finished with her gifts, so I feel guilty moving on to Christmas before that’s complete. But if I were finished, I’d be watching this video over and over to perfect the technique. Who am I kidding? I’m just watching it over and over again anyway – it’s mesmerizing. (Speaking of mesmerizing, this. It’s on a website called The Kids Should See This. I showed it to the kids. They were not nearly as enthralled as I was.)

4. I made baked sweet potatoes for dinner this week. In the slow cooker. Who knew you could do that? They were delicious. We had ours with black beans and avocado, but I think sausage would be great, too.

5. This quote.

What are you up to this weekend? We’ll be finalizing birthday and Christmas plans, laying low and resting up for the weeks ahead. It’s still really hard for me to believe it’s December already. I’m going to be closing my Etsy shop on Wednesday of next week for Christmas and New Years, reopening in January with some new pieces, so stop by this week if you’re looking for a special gift. Have a great weekend!