Shared Moments

We are having a bit of winter weather here today...

That was church as we left early this afternoon.  Not surprising but attendance was down today.  Our children's director asked if I could stay for the second service to help in a children's class since many of the teachers couldn't make it to church.  I had 7 in the kindergarten class...and 3 of them were mine! (not kindergartners, of course, but I took the 3 little kids in with me).  So yes, attendance is down.

Anyhow, during the service, Shane and I were remembering that it was a day much like today 4 years ago when we visited Harvest during a trip up here from Kentucky.  It was snowy that day too.  We stayed to talk with our pastor and his wife for a bit after the service.  And a few months later, they asked Shane to talk to them about the high school ministry position here.  The rest is history!

Here is the snow today right outside our garage.  Shane thinks we've gotten about 6 inches so far.  It is still snowing and supposed to continue for a while.  Right now its 9 degrees.  Tonight the low is -18 and tomorrow the HIGH is -9.  Brrrrr.  We are not planning to go anywhere.

So while we're snuggled up here on the bed this afternoon, I was looking through some of my favorite shared moments over the past month or so...

So glad to have Papa here to visit.

Showing Nana the tree.

Mom and her girls at Thanksgiving.

Playing with Nana at the Children's Museum.

One Sunday after church.

Always so good to be together.

Playing at Silas' school before his Christmas program.

It took a village to decorate gingerbreads!

It definitely required 1:1 supervision.

They enjoyed the process, ate lots of the candy, and didn't care much for the actual gingerbread.

Reading one of our daily Christmas books.

Watching Silas play soccer.

He had such a good time this session and has really improved!

Hanging out at the top of the bleachers.

Last Sunday with Nana and Papa here.

A moment for the books...my parents checking in at the airport to fly overseas for the last time.  

Sometimes the picture I imagine in my head never happens.

Saying goodbye...loves and kisses.

Heading home in the snow after a night at church.

Love the hand-holding.

Crafts with Miss Natalie!  Love that she had an ornament even Blaise and his friend Layton could make.

Between crafts at Natalie's.

Patiently waiting for a Christmas gathering with Shane's mom and brother's  family.

Are they here yet?!?

Celebrating Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma.

Cousins! and Presents!

Helping Grandpa open a gift.

Lieren got a sweet ring from Grandma.

All ready to go on Christmas Eve.

Playing with Grandpa Mike.

Cousin play is so fun!

These sweet girls both got dress up stuff from each other...and promptly wanted to put it on!

Cousins again! and Presents again!

Our first outing after the sick Christmas...going to see the Festival of Lights.

The kids loved it, even Blaise.

This could generally have happened throughout the season.

Loved these shared moments all these weeks!

Holiday Thoughts

Well.  Tonight the living room is in a state of disarray once again.  I had it all cleaned up from the new-Christmas-toy/clothing/random item madness but am now in the process of putting all the Christmas decorations away.  Pretty much everything is down and packed away except the tree itself.  But the boxes and wrapping stuff are still scattered in the living room.  Sitting here, I keep thinking how pretty the tree is with just lights.  Some years I think I would like it like that, no ornaments or anything.  So plain, so simple, so pretty.

Even before the Exhausting Sickness of 2013 hit our household, I was already vowing that next year I was going to make some changes to the season.  At one point I said to Shane (I think it was on Christmas Eve afternoon), "I mean, when am I going to sit and reflect upon Christ?  He is the reason we are doing this after all!"  And Shane calmly replied, "The rest of the year?"

I love him.  So level-headed in the wake of my manic.

I have a cousin who writes a great blog here.  One thing she always says is, "Life doesn't have to be perfect to be great!"  I thought that hundreds of times this season.  Thanks, Missy.  I needed a voice of reason.

Honestly, there were a lot of sweet moments talking about the Christ child this season.  And several things we did this year are things I will continue:

1.  Opening a book each evening starting on December 1st.  The children love this.  We only bring these books out for December so it is exciting each day to see what book is being opened.  The kids also love just getting to unwrap something.  Some books are about Christ, some winter-y, some silly, some Santa...all give chances to talk about the season.  I already have "First book" and "Last book" marked in the pile and tucked in a box with all the other books for next year.  I was so glad I stuck those labels on last year.  They each really do make good first and last books.

2.  Our advent calendar.  Again, to count down to Christmas, but it forms a nativity scene so gives plenty of opportunity to talk about Christ's birth.

3.  Crafts.  My children love these.  We did several at home and as long as my friend Natalie will keep up the tradition, we will do one with friends.  Craft day with Miss Natalie was a highlight for my kids this year.  They have showed almost everyone who comes over the ornaments they made there.  These, however, are ones we made at home...

4.  Catechism.  This is a simple one.  I do a weekly catechism with our kids (don't think too highly of me for it...it is super simple, I got the idea from someone else, and we are going through it veeerrrry slowly).  But I read online (see, I get almost all my ideas from others!) a few catechism questions to add about giving/getting/Jesus.  It was a spontaneous addition this season but was so good to solidify a couple things for our kids and to give another opportunity for conversation.

5.  Let the kids help pick out a gift for someone else.  This year we gave a gift to a child about Silas' age who probably wasn't going to get much for Christmas.  We've done Operation Christmas Child in the past or something similar through our church.  I like getting the kids involved (although I have to keep my expectations low, they do get distracted thinking about themselves when looking for others; it's a process).

6.  Thank you notes.  I am doing these this year for the first time.  It is a great way to remind our kids how much someone thought about them when they picked something out.  Just trying to breed some gratefulness around here!

(Oh, sorry for the spoiler to those who haven't gotten their notes, we're still working on them!)

7.  Spending time with as much family as we can.  I know others try to cut back on this at times and maybe someday we will have to also.  But with my family living far away, being with family is super important to us.  So we will do all we can to see everyone that we can, even if it means lots of celebrations in a little amount of time.  And even if it means we feel like this when it is all over...

Now here are some things I am planning for next year:

1.  Simplify the Christmas card issue.  I already have "Christmas picture" on the calendar for September.  If we don't have a decent picture then, we will have one taken RIGHT AWAY.  And I have a plan to make it easier to still write a Christmas letter, which I love doing, but not have to print out 80+ of them.  Hallelujah.  Next year is going to be awesome.

2.  Have each child pick out a toy he/she no longer plays with to give away during December.  Again, to foster gratitude and an understanding that we don't need everything we have.

3.  Let the children exchange names and give a gift to one another.  We've never had our kids give each other things but I think they would be so excited to help pick out something one of the other's want.  It's that whole idea that there really is a lot of joy in giving.  I think they will get a kick out of actually handing a gift to another that they helped pick themselves.

It feels like it's been a long holiday season this year.  But even with all it's imperfections, it's been a very, very good one.  And now I have my list all written out so I am ready for next year...ha!

Worstest Day Ever

At about 1:30 on Christmas afternoon, Silas declared it the Worstest Day Ever.  I didn't really disagree with him.

Our three big kids woke in the middle of the night Christmas Eve, sick as can be.  I was in with Lieren when Silas came in sick.  Shane joined us to help and it wasn't long before Simeon was awake, sick too.  So we had an unplanned and unenjoyable slumber party in Sim and Lieren's room the rest of the night, all on the floor, sleeping and waking, as one or another got sick.

The kids nearly forgot about getting up early to dig in their stockings and unwrap gifts.  We had a late night Christmas Eve after spending the evening with Shane's extended family.  The kids had not gotten to bed till nearly 10:30 so even Blaise, who was not sick at this point, slept in.  He finally woke the rest of us and we slogged out of Sim and Lieren's room close to 9.

It was a sad morning.  The kids didn't feel good enough to enjoy anything.  At about noon, Lieren finally told me she wanted to see what was in her presents.  I opened them for her and instead of her joyfully declaring, "MEOW!" (fyi, meowing is standard for her these days), she just looked at them.

The boys kind of tried to play here and there but really just got through till the afternoon when all the big kids laid down for a 3-hour nap (fyi, not standard for them these days).

Here is the general scene for the day; Sim trying to play, Lieren and Silas lounging, Blaise thinking about eating (Blaise didn't eat much all day, which had me wondering.  Then he got the sickness right before bedtime. Bummer)...

 But even with all the yuck, I was thinking about all I could be thankful for yesterday...

1.  I got to tell Lieren about 30 times in the night that I loved her and wasn't going anywhere.
2.  Blaise slept in.
3.  Time to be home and together with absolutely no schedule.
4.  Everyone has clean sheets!
5.  And all the blankets in the house are clean too.
6.  Shane and I stayed well.
7.  One-on-one time with Blaise while the big kids slept.  He was on a roll!
8.  Hearing Shane teach Sim and Lieren that being sick on Christmas is a great reminder of why we so desperately needed Jesus to come; only He can heal our sin and our sickness.

And tonight I am thankful that smiles are returning...

Ummmmm...no.

I just told Silas I was going upstairs to get ready for our Christmas Eve service at church. He said, "Ok, mom. Can I just wear this?"

 

A Boy and His Snowsuit

I could not get enough of this boy in his snowsuit this morning!

Watching patiently as all the other children went on outside...

Sill patient while Mommy got her coat and boots on...

And finally begging to join the others...

This was the first deep snow Blaise had been in, and the first time he had worn his snowsuit.  I got it earlier this week, just in time for this winter weather!  Blaise was so proud to wear his new outfit, but he wasn't so sure about the deep snow at first.  I could tell he felt pretty unsteady walking.  He always wanted my hand when he was down and trudging about in it.

But he quickly started to have fun...

Blaise tried to help with the snow fort, threw a couple snowballs, and helped pack some snow onto the snowman.  But then he decided he mainly wanted me to hold him.  So we watched the others play and looked at the snow-covered trees...

Little man finally got tired.  It was noon when the two of us came indoors...

Then he watched Daddy and Silas finish the snowman (this is what children learn to do when they have older siblings; climb to places they should not be. Lieren and Simeon had come in by this time and when Blaise turned to me for help to get down, Lieren said, "It's ok, Blaise, you can do it, just jump!")...

We are warm and toasty inside now.  We're making gingerbreads this evening.  And my parents leave tomorrow.  Lots of fun, lots of activity, lots of memories and lots of love.  The lots of good will mean some sad tomorrow.  But this is our last big goodbye so there is also lots of joy.