Molly Piper

Since all the major retailers are telling us what to buy for the Haaallllidayzzz, and giving us all kinds of crappy ideas for things we don’t really need…I figured I’d put my recommendation (which isn’t crappy) into the mix.

Ladies and gentlemen…

Wait! Wait! let me rephrase…

[Ahem]

Ladies and the people who buy for them…

May I present the Makita BCL180W!!!

 Now you might be thinking, “Really? a vacuum? for Christmas?”

Let me just counter that with, “No, really…a vacuum…for Christmas.” (See how easy that was?)

 I got mine 2 Christmases ago and still use it multiple times a day. If you have hardwood floors, it’s amazing! It’s seriously the best practical gift I’ve ever been given.

I haven’t actually done this yet, but every time we leave the house to go on a trip I consider packing it to take along, that’s how much it’s a part of my life. I’ve even thought, as I’m happily vacuuming along, “I’d like to be buried with this here vacuum.”

 Why I love this Makita Vacuum

• It recharges quickly. I just disconnect that black battery and slide it onto the teal battery charger thing, and it’s done in maybe 15 minutes, max (just enough time to clear the dishes, load the dishwasher, and deal with the leftovers).
• It holds a charge for awhile. I probably charge mine every couple days (more if I’m using it more heavily).
• Great swivel action. (And we all want a little swivel in our lives, ifyouknowhatImean).
• You can take that long part off and use it as a dust buster thingy. Or attach the pointed part for corners or couch cushions. Basically all the parts are interchangeable for whatever your vacuuming needs may be!
• The filter thing on the inside is washable, so therefore, reusable. BOOM!
• This thing is a Makita power tool, so it’s really tough. I think they market it for construction dudes, but I think it’s a miracle product for moms.

And if I didn’t convince you, let the good folks at Makita try (**SPOILER ALERT!** Rad metal music and awesome feats of vacuuming strength to follow!)

This vacuum sucks in all the right ways. (I’ve been waiting to use that line for the whole post! I know, total dork.)

(Now for the fine print: Makita has no idea who I am or that I’m insanely happy about this product. They have offered me absolutely no compensation for this post. So you might be wondering, “Why are you doing this, Molly?” Basically, I’m just a woman who can’t help recommending awesome things to her friends. I hope you get one for Christmas!!!)

Grateful tears this morning over my pile of potato peels while this song plays again and again:

Thank you for the way you make the flowers grow
Up through the cracks in my fractured soul…

Whispers of thankfulness today for so much.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Listen/watch the new Ben Kyle album (one of my favorite Minneapolis musicians).

I basically don’t even need to write this post, because you probably kinda get it after the title.

I’m making one of the Thanksgiving turkeys this year and I’ve never brined anything before, so I’m basically just curious if I should! I’m usually not very fussy, culinarily-speaking, so brining feels kinda fancy to me. But trying something new is also kind of appealing.

Whaddayathink? Should I brine the bird? 

I’m also kind of in love with this idea:

I probably won’t brine this one.

Here we are–younger, thinner, more energetic–in the arrhythmia of our new love.

The slow, steady beat of time has seen laundry, labor, long nights, loss, laughter. You and me, babe.

You and me.

Nine random memories for nine years:

1. The “pub crawl” in London: I’m still so sad you didn’t earn your t-shirt. The elusive Dick Whittington…

2. On top of Pike’s Peak on the 4th of July, 2011. On top of the world!

3. That time we got stuck in the rainstorm in Cambridge and then we stopped to make out in that little gazebo thing.

4. When you wouldn’t make out with me at church that one time. You were “cold” or something.

5. One big blur of pregnancies, laying on the bed together late at night, freaking out about the alien-like movements across my abdomen. Now we see those kids every day (at least four of them).

6. Bringing our first baby home from the hospital, on that first night when he had his days and nights mixed up and I was crying with the delirium of new motherhood and you were just trying to figure out what to do with this weeping woman and screaming baby. “Babe, I really think he just wants to eat again.”

7. The California trip. There are almost no words. Thank you for taking me there. Changed my life!

8. Driving west on I-94, crying and blasting Fisherman’s Blues. You were wearing your orange sunglasses.

9. When you and Phil tilled up the old yard in the pouring rain so that we could have a yard, bumpy as it was. We had grass that year because of you.

You are the love of my life. I can’t imagine this without you. Thanks for loving me.

This was almost a month ago, but I’m just now looking at pictures from the twins’ birthday. Here’s one of me & Cay-Cay!

You all have certainly heard of yarn bombing, right?

Well in the spirit of the XXX Olympiad…

This actually happened months ago, but I still love it. Whoever did this, you’re amazing. I love you. The amount of time it must’ve taken…

One thing I love about art…and yes, I’m calling knitting art…is the need, the compulsion, to express. What was driving this person/people to do this? Certainly not the money! And they could’ve just said, “Nah…that’s gonna take too much time…” So glad they didn’t!

I love the spirit of the Olympics… competition, hard work, victory, defeat, and the togetherness of the world’s eye’s watching.

Perhaps these were some of the reasons they were driven to create.

Kingdom Undone is a beautiful, well-acted piece of theater happening in the Twin Cities through Easter Sunday (April 8) at the Southern Theater. I hesitate to call it a Passion Play, simply because I don’t want people to dismiss it right off the bat, but that’s what it is–a theatrical account of the last days of Jesus Christ.

This is a brand-spankin’-new play written by homegrown talent Jeremiah Gamble of Theater for the Thirsty. Their website describes Kingdom Undone as follows:

When revolution spins out of control, Judas Iscariot, and a young Zealot named Isaac rush toward their ultimate liberation, or their undoing. Kingdom Undone merges earthy drama, music and unexpected humor with the passion of Jesus’ final days and the messy justice that turned the world on its head.

The acting was fantastic. The man who plays Judas is just awesome, and Jeremiah Gamble plays Jesus, and does so with such grace and strength. It was phenomenal to watch him bring that character (of all characters to have to try to play) off the pages of our Bibles and attempt to convey his heart in flesh-and-blood form.

For me, I love a reminder that the people I read about in the gospels were actual people. They had inflection. And voices. And mannerisms. And personality conflicts.

And Jesus himself truly was a God-Man! He had an actual, physical voice and warm-blooded hands that touched the poor and needy and unclean.

I’ll admit that in reading the same gospel accounts over and over, it can become kind of rote and unimaginative for me. And therefore kinda heartless. So I’m thankful for people like Jeremiah and his cast and crew who take the risk and put these sacred words into human form for us to remember.

I’d never seen a Passion Play before and I’m so glad this was my first. It stirs the heart. It sparks the mind. It feeds the soul. Loved it! Five stars!

I’d also not be giving the show enough credit if I didn’t mention how awesome the actual stage is (the Southern is a really cool space), how creative the set was, how moving the music was, and how stunning the lighting was. I could go on and on. Really, this is all-around a beautiful piece of theater.

They also have a Facebook page to peruse, so go ahead and do that on your journey to purchasing tickets!

Orison led the charge in writing these letters to Santa on Christmas Eve. He even served as scribe for Morrow for his letter!

Thankfully we already had a remote control car for Orison and a clipboard lying around the house to give him. A friend of ours ran an 11th-hour errand to pick up the construction paper. Orison was thrilled!

Morrow didn’t seem to notice or care that he didn’t get anything on his list. I think probably the power of suggestion (read: Orison) was responsible for most of the things on there anyway.

And bonus points for anyone who can tell me the source for the question to Santa, “Did you have a good summer?”

[photo via the amazing Wendy Maybury]

Some of you will have gotten one of these in the mail recently, but not all of you. I wish I had the money (and time) to send them to all of you, because getting personal mail is just that awesome, isn’t it?

But I do sincerely want to thank you all for your continued participation here on my site. And I wish you the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of New Years from our Piper clan!

I’ve mentioned before that music was unspeakably healing to me in the first months and years of grief after the death of our daughter.

For some reason, Christmas compels me to share a couple. Maybe it’s because there’s so much frickin’ happiness at Christmas, and I remember feeling so desperately unhappy those first couple Christmases. I remember getting the album Snow Angels at Christmas time in 2007, our first one without Felicity.

I have particular memories of playing–no, blasting–this one over and over with tears streaming down my face anytime I was in the car alone.

I don’t want to explicate why it was so comforting to me. That’s not how music works. If it grabs you, it grabs you. If it doesn’t, then no amount of my explaining it will help you feel what I feel when I hear it. It punches me in the gut still today, in the best kind of gut-punching way.

Don’t forget to pray this week for people shedding more tears this Christmas than sharing smiles. Remember them. Listen to a song for them. Light a candle for them. If they can’t ask for the white horse for Christmas for themselves, hold out hope for them and ask for it for them.

White Horse
(Words and Music: Detweiler)

Bring me a white horse for Christmas
We’ll ride him through the town
Out into the snowy woods
Where we will both lie down

Underneath white birches
Our faces toward the sky
We will make snow angels
With our white horse standing by

Hush now baby
One day we’re gonna ride
Hush now baby
Our white horse through the sky

Bring me a white horse for Christmas
We’ll ride him through the snow
All the way to Bethlehem
2000 years ago

I wanna speak with the angel
Who said do not be afraid
I wanna kneel where the oxen knelt
Where the little child was laid

Hush now baby
One day you’re gonna ride
Hush now baby
Your white horse through the sky

No bridle will he be wearing
His unshod hoofs they will fly
Keep a watch out this Christmas
For that white horse in the sky

Hush now baby
One day we’re gonna ride
Hush now baby
Our white horse through the sky

Hush now baby
Let every angel sing
Hush now baby
One day we’ll ride again