The year in review!

One of the great things about having little kids is that time just flies by, and they change so much. One of the hardest things about having little kids is that time just flies by, and they change so much.

Take Baby Guy, a year ago he was just learning to pull up and pull things off of shelves. Now not only can he pull boxes and jars off of shelves, he can open them and dump them out on the floor. He's his own vending machine. A year ago he could just kinda babble and point. Now he can say "I wan'" and "T'ank oo." There is nothing cuter than a one year old who says thank you.

A year ago Princess P was scribbling and had no idea of ownership. Now she draws cats, people, and has a sense of what's hers. She can tell stories and hold her own. She'll even be out of pull-ups soon.

A year ago Princess D was learning counting and colors. Now she knows letters and letter sounds, and has her first "real" bike. She's moved from care bears to Barbie. She had her first "real" classes away from home. In some ways, this is her big year, with kindergarten looming ahead.

Chip has had a huge year. He started kindergarten, played his first organized sport, took extra science classes, and so much more. He's gone from knowing half his letters to being able to read short stories from Dr. Seuss and the Beginners Bible. He makes friends everywhere he goes. He's just a joy to be around, and that's something I hope never changes.

Bob has grown a lot this year. He's a kinder kid than he was a year ago. He's realized that his drum is on the off beat, and is okay with it. It's still music. He's a determined, hard working kid. He earned his first real Bible this year...by reading his first chapter book by himself. His self confidence is building, and it's nice to see him coming into his own.

Our oldest is growing up at an astounding rate. He's really not a little kid anymore. I often refer to him as the changling. His basic nature is still the same, optimistic, funny, faithful...but he's getting into deeper waters, starting the process of really growing up. He's starting to realize that not all friends are equal, and that his values are his own, not something he just magically inherits from us. He's entering a world of swirling emotions and changing interests, wanting to be anchored to us, but still sail his own ship. The balance between work and fun, and realizing they aren't mutually exclusive, is his current struggle. The year ahead will determine a lot about him and his character, but so far so good.

As for me and Mr. M, we've had a good year too. Mr. M still has a job after massive cuts in the company. We have a church home where we can contribute according to our gifts. Our kids are in a great school with great parent involvement. The year ahead may bring us a new home, one we can really call our own. At this pause, we're looking forward as much as back, and enjoying the present immensely.

May you all have an abundance of junk food, friends, and entertainment to bring in the new year!

And on the fourth day of Christmas.......

we go over the river and through the geese to my Uncle's house. Uncle M & his wife live in a lovely neighborhood off a lake full of geese who are all thankful they weren't on the menu for Christmas.

Their house is always decorated for a magazine, complete with a really, really, tall Christmas tree and lots of musical snowmen, santa's and more. I always tell the the kids to pretend like they're in a museum when we're there. The problem is, to them, a museum=Wonderscope. We haven't taken them to the "hands off" kind yet.

But it's okay, there were presents. Musical ornaments that kept them entertained. A spinning Uno game, and some veggies, chips and juice. A fine afternoon by any kid's standards.

And when it's time to go, the only words we need are "slushees anyone?"

So on the fourth day of Christmas, my uncle gave to me, some cool kitchen stuff, and some musical ornaments for our tree..

On the third day of Christmas.....

We played with our Wii wannabe...and watched Kung Fu Panda x3.

Oh yeah, and we went shopping for some Merry Christmas to me! Mr. M's Dad & his wife sent each of our kids $10 to spend at Wal-Mart. They couldn't have been happier with bricks of gold. Our two year old daughter apparently has inherited the shopping gene. For her $10, Princess P bought a tinkerbell purse, a tinkerbell pillow with blanket, and a strawberry scented bath set complete with sparkly pink bag with a heart on it.
Chip was all about Spiderman bath stuff. A "mad science lab" with goggles and fizzles, and a couple of scrubbies.
Princess D found herself a complete set of makeup with about a dozen of everything, nail polish, body glitter, lip gloss, body glitter, nail polish, eye shadow, & some more body glitter, and "body art pencils." What are those for??? Not sure us parental types want to know.
Our oldest son is kind of a junk food junkie. He bought a bucket of "smore" candy, some Dove brand chocolates, a comic book, and a camping thingie that's a compass, thermometer, and clock all in one.
Baby Si just wanted a ball.
I think they all had a great time. Next up, on the fourth day of Christmas......

The game is afoot!

Tomorrow kicks off the "official week of holiday" around here. DH has the good fortune to be off from 3pm Dec. 24 thru January 2nd. If all goes well we hope to see two sets of parents, some siblings, an aunt & uncle w/ possibly a cousin or two, a great bunch of friends, a movie, a bowling alley, and Grandma's home arcade and entertainment haven. It's a busy week for a week off. Knock on wood that everyone gets/stays relatively healthy.

The kids are wild with excitement! Tomorrow is Uncle D! Why didn't his plane come today? Well, that white Christmas we all love dear isn't exactly an airplane's best friend...but tomorrow...tomorrow we'll see.......

Then tomorrow they'll be saying "One more day until CHRISTMAS!" and the one night of the year we desperately need them to go to bed early, they'll be up trying to think of excuses to come try to sneak peeks at presents. Except the presents don't appear until they're asleep. So it makes a VERY late night for mom and dad, especially on years like this, where a certain little girl is getting a b-i-k-e. (One year we had three! What were we thinking?!) Us elves need those cookies.

THen Christmas morning will come wa-ay too early, but no one can leave their room until 8. (Of course there are "spy runs up and down the stairs, and much whispering about the mystery of who gets which wrapping paper and which stocking.....All the presents for each child are in the same paper, with NO name....It does a pretty good job of keeping them from opening them before we're ready. Then all we have to do is have one parent yawn, and with a eek, giggle, uh-oh off they go.) The rest of Christmas will just have to wait. No one wants a blog opened about it too early.....so to all a good night.

Being content

I know it's been a while, but we had a case of sick kid followed by very sick mom around here. This exact moment is the first moment I've felt fully human since Thursday morning. I'm far from over it, and my sleep schedule is all upside-down, but I'm definitely going the right way now. So I thought I'd post a note on a study I did a while back.. Not exactly Christmas-y, we'll get back into that when my brain has fully returned, but meaningful nonetheless. So here's my take on 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 The verse will be boldface. My thoughts will be italic.

Make it your ambition to live a quiet life

(This goes smack in the face against what our American culture tells us, but it's truth. Quiet = contentment, whereas if one always seeks thrills, it seems the thrills keep having to get bigger.)

To mind your own business

(Ouch. How hard is that for most of us? And again, it goes against our culture. Tabloids would not exist if people could just follow this one simple command.)

& to work with your hands.

(God made us to work, not to try to get out of it. Why? Keep going.)

so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders,

(Lifestyle witnessing is the best!)

and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

(Work hard so you can be free!)

That's all for tonight, but it's great to be back.

Exhausted in futility.

Some days just feel like an exercise in futility. Today is one of them. I went to the store last night to get a fruit tray for church this morning. 8am call, it's canceled. Well, at least the kids are enjoying the fruit with their lunch.
Fast forward to 10:45.

"Guys, it's time to get ready to pick up Ethan!"
"But word world isn't over yet!"
"That's okay. It takes longer to get ready when it's cold."

10:55. The girls are playing in their room.

"I MEAN it this time. Let's get our socks and boots on."

"Noooooo!" Says the two year old princess P.

10 minutes later. We're supposed to be at the school NOW.
Princess D is ready, after much convincing.
Baby Guy has everything except his boots on, but his boots are in the car Dad took to work. I'ts okay I can carry him.
Princess P has been wrestled into socks and a coat, but mittens and boots are still a no go.
another 10 minutes go by. She has mittens on, but is still screaming about the boots.
3 minutes later, a teacher's aide knocks on our door. She brought Ethan home for us.
"Thanks. "
"We have Ethan now mom! Can we take this stuff off and play?"
"Sure Honey."
"Mo-om! Can I have lunch?"
"In a minute honey. Mom needs a rest from getting ready to get you, okay?"
"Okay."

We now interrupt our regular holiday programming

for a snowfall outside, an avalanche of drawings, and a sick 17 mo old boy. Yep, baby guy has been out of sorts since last Friday afternoon. His fever broke Sunday night, but he's still a tad congested and has a bad case of velcro-lint syndrome. Anyone ever try to pick lint out of velcro? Well, that's the effort it takes for me to remove baby guys arms from around my neck. I'd just let him stay there, but I do have to cook, tend the two year old and stuff.

Now he's starting to feel better he does occasionally detach himself, to color with markers, steal his sister's drink or his brother's lunch, or strip. Yep. If it's just a t-shirt or elastic waist pants baby guy is proving his non-babyness by removing it. Today he's zipped into a sleeper so he's stuck.

Baby guy is also starting to speak in phrases like "where'z i' go?"

He's growing up pretty quickly. MaybeI may need a new, more age appropriate name for him on here. Or maybe not. As long as he wears dipes and drinks from a sippy cup...nah. He's the youngest. He'll always be my baby guy.

Princess P prefers purple paper

Princess P drew bears with bellies on every piece of purple construction paper in the house today. They all had four limbs, necks, bodies,two eyes, two ears,a nose, and big smiles. She was so proud of herself. So proud, that on Dad's watch...she tried the same thing with finger paint on furniture. Ah, the joys of being two.

Princess D is much more pristine. She spent the afternoon carefully tracing stencils onto white paper, making sure everything lined up just so. Paper and pencil and her imagination keep her busy most of the day. And she is the princess in almost every scene, and her noble brother, Chip must rescue her.

Nah, he'd rather be the dragon. She can save herself.

Or maybe they'll just get out the big legos and build a castle....for baby guy to knock down.

Really, even the most ordinary day is an adventure. And it looks like we might still have some purple paper for tomorrow after all.

We all love Horton

Our family watched "Horton Hears a Who" four times so far. Since we missed the nine pm deadline for redbox last night, I'm pretty sure I'm going to see it a few more times today.
The messages Horton has are important, so I really don't mind. "A person's a person no matter how small" is one of our key mantras around here. "An elephant's loyal 100%" and "I meant what I said, I said what I meant" are important too. Even adults have problems following through on promises sometimes when the going gets tough for them.

Besides, everyone knows that Horton being an elephant is the most important part. Well, at least Princess D knows. Elephants are her favorite animal. We have a book about an elephant in Africa. We have Dora's talking baby elephant. We have a couple of Kohls' cares for Kids elephants, including Horton.

But for now, Princess P has claimed Horton. He was right next to her in bed last night, lovingly tucked in with jag. Horton must really made an impression on her to share Jag's spot. Probably because he acknowledged her, after all " a person's a person, no matter how small."

Perfect snow

Yesterday we got the perfect amount of snow. Just enough for the kids to play in and melt off the roads by morning. Last night our oldest and his friend J went out and had a snowball fight, complete with boots and mismatched gloves. It was ten year old heaven.

This morning, the toddlers were glued to the sparkly stuff outside the window. When it was finally time to pick up Chip from Kindergarten, they could hardly contain themselves. On with boots and coats, and out to make tracks. literally. Baby Guy and Princess P just couldn't believe it. Everywhere they stepped, a hole in the snow was left behind. This stuff was magic....until they stuck their hands in it. Then it was just cold. That's okay....Mom's coat has pockets. A toddler on each leg just slows her down a little.

Princess D was very insistent on NOT wearing her boots. She was sooo ready to come back inside by the time we got home. Snow inside your tennis shoes doesn't feel very good. Nothing a nice warm water soak couldn't fix though.

Chip is still outside playing. He's dragging a plastic bat through the snow to draw pictures in the back yard. Maybe he'll build a snow-leaf man with his brothers when they get home later.

I still love the snow too, on days I don't have to drive. It's just so pretty, so sparkly, so Christmasy. It's like the stars have fallen onto the ground. It's a wonder to behold, as are my children's different reactions to it. Let it snow...and snow...and snow.

I don't care if I'm ever rich or famous....

I just want to be a star....Remember that song from Nunsense? I''m pleased to say, although neither rich nor famous, our kids were all stars tonight at the Christmas pageant, complete with bathrobe costumes.

Our oldest was the "lead shepherd, who knew all the on/off cues, and helped the others remember their lines. He enjoyed hamming it up w/ the boyz2men version of "When shepherds watched their flocks by night"

Chip just enjoyed jamming to the music. He was appropriately kindergarten cute, especially in his over-sized silky burgundy and navy paisley robe.

But, it was Bob who stole the show. He had that perfect little kid loud voice. His line was spoken sweetly, and his singing solo had mamas in tears, not just me. He was truly the star of the show...and everyone knew it. Sure a fifth grader had the lead, and his brother had more lines. Yet, it was the tiny second grader who put his whole heart into every song that won the audience today.

Good job boys. There will always be room for you.

Which holiday is it?

This morning Princess D is sitting at the other desk behind me happily making valentines.

"Mom, where's the valentine stuff?" she asks, peering into the craft cabinet.
"Honey, it's not out yet. It's only December. Valentines Day is in February."
"Oh." she sighs sadly, with her head tilting down.
"But you can make valentines anyway if you want to. There's construction paper right in front of you, and we have glitter glue and everything."
"Really! Glitter Glue?!"

You'd think glitter glue was the world's greatest treasure from this response, and to my kids it probably is. I only buy the stuff a couple of times a year. It has a mess potential only rivaled by paint. I should probably buy it more often. It's a lot easier to clean up than paint. On the rare occasions I buy paint, they look up to the heavens to see if the sky is falling.

So, glitter glue, construction paper, and scissors have occupied our daughter for the entire morning so far. Valentine's Day, Christmas. It's still about love.

I wanna hippo.....for Christmas

That is the one Christmas song guaranteed to put a smile on my face and a giggle in my throat every year. AND this year, with the Kohls cares for Kids Curious George special, I may get one!
I haven't heard it on the radio as much in recent years, so I sing it for my kids. They think it's a scream too.

My older boys prefer Jingle Bell Rock. The toddlers singing Away in a Manger, complete w/ twinkly star hands, gets me every time.

Proof of Mr. M's maleness is his taste in Christmas music. The redneck twelve days of Christmas and that great classic, Grandma got Run over by a Reindeer. "Chipmunks roasting on an open fire" and the Christmas version of "Here's Your Sign" get honorable mention. Christmas is the only time he'd be caught dead on a country station.

We like to sing carols when we light our advent candles too. Usually the more solemn ones like O Come O Come Emmanuel, Silent Night, and O Holy Night. After all the fun, it's good to quiet down and remember what Christmas is all about.

A day in the life of Baby Guy

As I sit here holding a sleeping baby guy, the afternoon calm just washes over me. Toddlers smell so nice right after a bath. And this nap was hard earned, by both of us.

He's had an exciting morning of pulling ornaments off the tree, then storing them under the couch; climbing things that aren't meant to be climbed like toys, tupperware, an empty cider jug an older kid has kept around for a craft, whatever; jumping off various pieces of furniture to discover the best way to land, and so much more. He ate a yummy lunch of rice pasta with butter and shaker cheese with a juice box chaser, and was back in action.

Then, the big bad mommy declared it bath time for him and Princess P. He's okay with water now, so that's an improvement. He likes to play with buckets and bubbles and rubber ducks. Bath time would be just fine if he didn't have to be washed! He does need to be washed though, so howling like an injured hyena, with his head on mom's lap (just to make sure she gets wet too!), he pays his dues, and plays in the tub until his lips quivering give away that he's getting cold.

Nothing like getting out of the tub in clean clothes, eating a banana, and smooshing it around in your hair.....screaming hyena part two. All that screaming sure wears a guy out. Where's my boobie bar?!

And so it goes. Life with him around is never dull, and really quite fun.

Not of this world....

As a moderately conservative Christian, I sometimes get put out by how we don't fit in. My kids haven't seen the movies their friends have seen. We've missed several PTA events because they're scheduled on Wednesday. And now, an organization my kids participate in that is supposed to "support" spirituality has scheduled their "holiday bowling party" for 11.am. on Christmas Sunday. So of course, our boys won't be able to attend. I feel like the Grinch.

Yet, the boys have taken it in stride. As soon as they saw the date and time, they instantly understood. They didn't try to beg or wheedle. They didn't grumble about it being unfair. I was truly uplifted by their response. I am proud of who they are, and the character they demonstrated. I predict a family bowling outing will probably occur during Christmas break.
Mr. M has the week off work. It should be a great family time.

But seeing what's coming doesn't make dealing with the present any easier....kind of like waiting for heaven. The Bible warned us about this feeling. That we'd be strangers and aliens. And really, it beats what our brothers and sisters around the world are going through by miles. It's kind of like complaining about a hangnail when your brother is hemorrhaging. Sure a band aid might be nice, but there are bigger things out there that need our help. I'm so proud of my friends who are missionaries, both long term, like the folks we know in Ireland, and short term, like my dear friend who's going to India for fifteen days leaving her husband and four children behind whom she's so very dedicated to day in and day out. They all sacrifice their personal wants for the good of the Kingdom. My prayers will be with them all. May we all continue to grow in faith.

Getting ready for Christmas.

This weekend was spent getting ready for Christmas. We put up our tree, strung and hung the ornaments, and got out the snow globe and advent wreath. Maybe by next weekend we'll have candles and find the mystery tote with the advent calendar and stockings.

Some of the AWANA kids were getting ready too, buying their family presents in the store. My kid, not so much. He bought a pair of "foam disk guns." He did participate in the spirit of giving though. He gave one to his younger brother promptly upon arriving home. They then "exchanged" shots in the holiday spirit, much in the same manner they exchanged snowballs earlier in the afternoon.

Princess D looked outside and saw the snow. "Is it Christmas?" She wants a barbie with a horse that eats carrots. You know she's ready.

Princess P and Baby Guy are all aglow with the lights and music. "LOOK! 'OOK!" they chorus together.

By the end of the weekend, mom & Dad are tired, but the house is twinkly. The first Sunday of Advent has passed. O come o Come Emmanuel.....and to all a good night.