Fun Christmas Activities

No deep musings today. Here are some of the fun things we've been up to in December:

Getting a tree from the tree farm. I got to pick it out!

We observed much snow at our house.

I made these crafts through the tutelage of my friends Kara and Lindsay:

The chocolate cupcake rolled in coconut snowman and the folded magazine tree. I enjoyed both of these.

We've been baking/cooking with my mom a lot this week: Muddy Buddies, White Chocolate Trail Mix, Gingerbread Cookies, Pot-O-Chili, Sugar Cookies, and Chocolate-Dipped Pretzels so far. I had to wrap up the rest of the M&Ms in a bowl in plastic wrap to help us control our snacking! Yum yum.

I'm pretty sure this was a Hershey's kiss on Joel. Noelle sorted the chocolates by color of wrapper, but she ate several in the process, unwrapping them even as she said, "I'm not eating them." How I understand. Joel wanted to bake too. It worked pretty well as long as we had one person as spotter and Noelle didn't try to shove Joel off. It left one hand for stirring, ha. So baking proceeded at a less-than-efficient process. With these sugar cookies, Noelle insisted on helping with the Piglet and Tree cookie cutter, placing it directly in the middle of the entire piece of rolled-out dough rather than on the edge, then taking up all the other dough as scrap. I got a little exasperated, but my mom kept laughing and saying, "It's the experience." I let her oversee the sprinkle dumping and eating because I just couldn't do it. While they worked on that, Joel reminded me of how yummy the sugar cookie dough is!

After the kids go to bed, I've been working on meal planning and grocery-listing for January and following--as far as I get. Trying to strike a nice balance each week among super-healthy/regular healthy; meat/veggie entrees; super-cheap/regular cheap (haha); new/tried; super-easy/regular easy. Ope! Now I have revealed my entire meal planning strategy to you--healthy, cheap, and mostly easy.

I hope to employ a similar strategy with planning a little something intentional to do with the kids each day--not necessarily a lesson, but something. Craft, song, particular story book. This is part of testing the homeschool waters, but also wanting to make sure I'm intentionally present with these precious wee ones at some point every day and not just running around being self-absorbed or constantly distracted. We'll see how this "pilot program" goes, or if I can even come up with any ideas.

Hope you are having fun, too!

Yay for My Husband

Mark is off on a research trip this week, so I'm holding down the fort and re-remembering how much I am glad that I DON'T have to hold it down most of the time. I can't believe it took me five years of marriage to really start to appreciate Mark on his own terms. Five years to not just selflessly care about him and what he has to offer rather than brood about what I think he should offer or the way he offers it. I guess I'm just glad that it didn't take longer--it would have been a long rest of my life.

I'm thankful for his persistent assistance, his desire to do what is right, his tirelessness, his integrity, his protection and husbanding of me against the world, his tender care with the kids, his service, his passionate eccentricity (I maintain all profs are either obsessed or insane or both--he's becoming nicely balanced in this :D ), and his doing of the dishes!

Our wedding anniversary is in August, but I just remembered that this week marks another (sort of silly) anniversary that I don't commemorate but just noted. I'm thankful I didn't dump him this week back in 2001 even though I completely meant to. Talk about how this decade would have been different for me....wow. So glad God has a plan.

So thanks, Mark. I know you don't read this blog, but I say: I'm glad you left a message on the answering machine for me eight years ago. You're a good guy and a fine husband. I appreciate and respect you. And I'm thankful for you.

Too little, too late

I was picking up the kids from the gym just now and there was a little old lady sittimg there. She watched me kneel om the carpet as I tried to get each one out of the wagon, get their coats on, keep each one from entirely sprinting away on feet or knees while I fussed with the other, get my own coat on...

"Please don't go now," she says. Is she talking to me? Or just to Joel, who is about to bolt again?

"You're lucky to have a girl," she told me. I nodded and she began to say something about her daughter-in-law. I think she might have said she wanted to put her in a nursing home, but she told her son she didn't want to go. I didn't really hear her, but I didn't ask.

"You want to come to me?" She asked Joel and held out her arms to him. I saw she wanted to hold him and lifted him up to her.

As she holds him, she says, "He is so beautiful," and starts ...tearing up? Is she crying, or are her eyes just watering? I don't know, but I feel bad as I take Joel back. Whoa! Noelle, come back here away from the automatic door!

"You're lucky to have one of each," she says. I nod and say, "Yes, they're pretty special." Well, we're ready to go now...

"I haven't held (or had?) a baby in eighteen years. They're all grown up...You going home now?" She takes out a tissue for her eyes.

"Yes," I say. "Well, we're here most days so hopefully we'll see you again." Okay, gathering the bags. "Well, you have a merry Christmas," I say with a smile.

"I hope so," she responds.

I head out the door feeling bad, wondering what else there is to say. I'm not five feet out the door before I hear in my head, Go back and talk to her. She is sad. I keep walking.

'Yes, yes. She is sad. That is sad. Maybe I will see her again and talk to her longer."

No, go now and let her hold the kids and ask her what's going on...
Oh! It's You, Lord, isn't it. Of course it is. But we're going out to the car. Still walking.

"That would be nice, huh. Too bad we're already outside walking in this direction."

What else do you have to do? Nothing. Go love on that lady. She is sad!

"Oh....oh...snap! Am I going to obey? Am I? Am I?" We just reached the car. It's only been a minute or two. "Aah! Yes! Just do it!" I look down at Noelle. "Sweetie, that lady is sad. Jesus wants us to go and talk to her and try to make her happy, okay? You want to do that with me?"

"Make her happy? Yeah!"

We turn around and go back in. "Okay, God. I'll just do it. Go in there and hand her Joel. I hope she's still there. It's only been a minute. Sorry, I should have done this faster. I knew it was You."

She was gone.

Obedience. Too little, too late.

Every day, I tell Noelle how I expect her to obey me the first time, every time. Now I have to explain to her why we're turning around again, because Mommy heard Jesus tell her to go be nice to the lady, but Mommy didn't obey fast enough. Mommy's head is full of scriptures right now about what she should have done, and why. And Mommy is sorry.

I really am.

Celebrating Christmas

Here are a few things we've been up to lately as we celebrate Christmas:

We made a couple shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. Noelle really got into this and kept saying she wanted to go to the other country to give the kids her present.

We did a little cookie exchange at church...yum!

It snowed here on Saturday, so Mark and I went out and played for a little while! He helped Noelle make a big snow fort. Family time--yes.
I made these little ornaments out of cinnamon sticks, a couple of cloves, and some fabric! I was proud.

Lindsay had this idea first, but I made a little Christmas Countdown for the playroom window. We've enjoyed taking the numbers off each day and writing down in a little notebook what we've done to celebrate together.

We made these cookie lollipops together. Noelle ate this "factory seconds" one.

While visiting Mark's family in Akron, we went to their tree festival. Lots of creatively decorated trees!

I've also enjoyed hearing Mark tell Noelle the Christmas story and telling it to the kids myself. It really is an amazing story, and it's so good to be reminded. Praise God for His ultimate Gift!

I'm Thankful

I'm thankful for:

• God's grace to me, and His faithfulness. Why He's shown such favor to me I don't know. But I'm thankful for it.
• My kids. They exasperate me and challenge me to be less selfish. They mirror me and humble me. They hold me immediately accountable for my private, inner life. If they were any cuter, my head would pop.
• My husband. He's always wanting to be doing the right thing as well as it can be done. He's more and more often acting in love toward me at cost to himself, which is also very humbling. And he does the dishes. :)
• My church family. They continually encourage and challenge me with their examples and friendship and allow me to serve in ways that are meaningful to me. My Virginia experience would be 100% different without them.
• My extended family. I'm thankful that we can go make a tour of both of our families with joy instead of grumpiness. I'm thankful for our parents' generosity and care especially. I'm thankful they all try to encourage us in parenting rather than insinuate that they know precisely how we're messing up. Even if they do.
• Deepening relationships with siblings.
• My car that takes me away to a grocery store loaded with edible food that I can largely afford.
• My house that keeps me appropriately warm and dry at all times, gives me a place to host others, gives my kids a safe place to play, and does it all while looking nice and being comfortable. Wow.
• The internet. My sister lives in Hong Kong; Mark's sister lives in Russia--and I get to see them and speak to them both whenever I want. For free! Skype is amazing. And I love email.

I'm sure there is more, but it's getting late. I'm thankful also for sleep. What are you thankful for?

Isaiah 40:11

I just posted on diligence. In that context, I'll say that I've been skimming a book called A Mom Just Like You: The Homeschooling Mother by Vickie and Jayme Farris, which I picked up for free at a moms' group swap last month. Vickie Farris has 10 kids and has/is homeschooling them all. In chapter 7, "Mary V. Martha," she descrribes her struggle to find a consistent alone time with the Lord. Imagine that! I thought I'd just share a little excerpt because I found it encouraging and interesting:

After all, how can you tell a screaming baby to wait while you
finish your devotions? (And even if you could, how could you continue to pray and meditate on Scripture with all that commotion in the background?) One day, I was talking with my friend Linda, who is the mother of eleven children, about this problem. When I expressed my frustration...she nodded sympathetically...[and said,] "Think about that promise in Isaiah 40:11, 'He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young' (KJV)...It's just comforting to know that he 'gently leads' those of us who have little ones.'" (160)

To think of the Lord gently leading me ...and you, my friends with kids; makes me smile.

Thoughts on Diligence

I had my 3-month reassessment at the gym yesterday. 6 pounds, 2% body fat; and improvements all around. Biggest gains in pushups and crunches--went from "well below average" (12) to "average" (30) in push-ups, and from barely average (30 in 60 sec.) to "above average" (49) in crunches. Yay for newfound muscular endurance. But the biggest changes have been in my attitude--I'm now able to think of exercise as a healthy and occasionally fun activity rather than as a threat. I also have found it transferring to my non-exercise times. I'm more likely to "just do" something instead of sitting there feeling lazy. Score one for diligence.

Diligence is so important. It's tied for me to consistency in disciplining, training, and follow-through with the kids instead of just letting things slide and not making the most of many opportunities; appropriate and competent preparation for teaching Bible study instead of mediocre and half-hearted preparation; reasonable housekeeping given my lack of other employment; useful and thoughtful personal Bible study times; and fidelity in prayer and also in intercession for others. Without diligence, I find myself being a procrastinating guilt-ridden slacker masquerading as competent servant (of my family, of others, of the Lord). Don't want to be that. I know, I know, I shouldn't be too hard on myself...I do lots of things sorta competently. I'm not having a pity party here. I'm just talking about what it's really like in my heart...where it counts.

I had been moaning to myself lately about what seemed to me to be a lack of my own secret personal spiritual life with God--that during the kids' waking hours I struggled to find time to be alone with God...just to think straight and try to form a coherent prayer in my mind! But I got a Proverbs 31 Woman devotional in my inbox the other day that really challenged and encouraged me. The author basically said she had been having the same trouble until the Lord challenged her just to be with Him in the crowd and noise rather than worry about being alone too much right now. To learn how to pray or otherwise enjoy Jesus on a personal level in the company of the tots because...I'm always in their company! So I think that's good and worth pursuing, though I did manage to get up with the alarm early this morning before everyone else to catch a brief quiet time. It was nice.