Happy New Year!

We have had such a happy New Year's Eve today! We had a somewhat lazy Saturday morning. I did Big Daddy's laundry and packed his bags for next week (he'll be gone again). I cooked mini burgers for lunch, we did some fun shopping and then ate Japanese food and went to red mango for frozen yogurt. We ended our day of family fun by watching Toy Story 3.

Maggie and Ellie had a hard time this week after having Big Daddy home for six whole days. They have soaked up every bit of time with him today. We had a very happy day and I can only hope that 2012 holds many more days like this.

Tomorrow will start another attempt at a better lifestyle for me. Eating better, moving more, trying to be more patient and present with the kids, being a better wife and trying to make a little more time for me. I'm going to try to take everything day by day and just try to make it through the day at hand knowing that it will make all of the tomorrows that are coming, a little bit sweeter.

For the past couple of years there has been lots of talk about choosing "one word" for the coming year. I couldn't even come up with one word last year, but it was so easy for me this year.
Patience.
I want to be more patient with Maggie, Ellie, Big Daddy and myself. Doing this will help a lot of other things fall into place.

Monday we will start a few new things in our home school and I'm really excited about that. We took a little Christmas break last week and I feel like I haven't had school in months! Of course, teachable moments are found each and every day.

Happy 2012!

Christmas Recap

The past few weeks have felt like a bit of a roller coaster with all sorts of "exciting" things going on, but I'm going to skip right over to our Christmas.

For the past several years we have visited Big Daddy's family on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day with my mom, dad and my sister and her family. My extended family (mom's side) gets together on Christmas Eve, so we miss that. I don't mind too much because we see them all on Thanksgiving and throughout the year as well. It's fair to say that I do not enjoy spending Christmas Eve at the in-laws house for a variety of reasons, but this works best for us. (It would no doubt blow your mind if I told you just a few of the things that she "attacked" us with this year, from homeschooling to church all the way to what I do and do not eat.)

Every single year, my mother-in-law waits until a day or two before Christmas and asks what the girls would like. She always waits until my mom, my sister and I have done all of our shopping and most of the Christmas lists have been checked off. This year, I ordered a present for each girl (Disney Princess baby dolls) and gave it to her so that she could give it to them. Therefore, our "Santa" gifts were scaled back by quite a bit.

My mom and dad bought both of the girls "horses on a stick". I had ordered boots for both girls and my mom needed one more gift to give them, so she took the boots. Maggie & Ellie both have new horses, new boots and a new cowgirl hat, as well as a few other things from Nana & Poppy.

After we had opened Christmas gifts on Christmas morning and were getting ready for church, Maggie asked if she had received everything on her (very long) list. I reminded her that we never get everything on our list and as if she wanted to prove my point, she said, "You're right. I really wanted a horse on a stick and I didn't get that." She was very happy to open that gift from my parents.

I wrapped the Santa gifts a day or two before Christmas Eve and realized how little we had purchased for the girls. Big Daddy and I both had the same reaction: go buy more gifts. We didn't and everyone was still happy. While we know and celebrate the true meaning of the Christmas holiday, it's hard not to go all out for the kids. On Christmas morning, Maggie & Ellie each had four gifts and a stocking full of fun things. They also received a (giant) easel to share. They have enjoyed the easel SO much already and we are looking forward to using it when school resumes on January 2!

Our church was only offering one worship service on Christmas morning and there are normally three. They were offering childcare for preschoolers, but the older children were not having children's church or Sunday school. We made it to church plenty early, but it was a full house! We chose to take Ellie into the service with us. She did okay and managed to make it an hour. We missed the last fifteen minutes, so we were pleased.

Now, the pictures!

Maggie & Ellie's stockings and gifts.

Maggie with her new Barbie and her Barbie "styling head", as she calls it.

Ellie loved her new "buggy" and was excited to push around the Snow White that Grandma & Grandpa gave her.

This is the extra large easel. I was reminded that objects inToysRUs appear smaller in that big store. When Ellie starts more homeschooling, we will be turning the bonus room (currently Big Daddy's man cave) into a school room and the easel will live there. Until then, it's happily residing between the living and dining area. Ellie is quite obsessed with Toy Story, so she likes to pretend to be Cowboy Woody or Cowgirl Jessie. The girls love that movie and received several (7) Toy Story books and a couple of Woody and Buzz Lightyear figures too.

Merry Christmas!

We are having a busy and fun-filled week so Merry Christmas! (Just in case I don't make it back for a while!)

Sort of like a dream come true

Monday mornings are usually pretty nice around here. I try not to have anywhere to go and just concentrate on doing housework and then homeschooling and then more housework. By the afternoon, we are finished with school and housework and ready for dinner and dance class. Yesterday was a different Monday. It sort of felt like my Christmas morning.

Big Daddy left to go out of town again, but he didn't leave for work until sometime after lunch. I loaded up lots of Christmas gifts and the girls and left around 10:00 to go to Sanford to visit our friends.

We started with a great lunch at Cracker Barrel with my friends A, her little girl and K. We had a nice, two hour lunch ans the kids were very well-behaved. We missed having the little boys (they are in school)there, but girls only lunches are fun too. We exchanged gifts and all walked out with big bags of fun goodies. A gave us monogrammed cups and Bath & Body Works goodies. K gave us Bath & Body Works soap and candles and my birthday gift- you guessed it, Bath & Body Works stuff. I gave scarves, candies and my new favorite lip balm.

A, me and K (photography by Maggie)

We drove across town to tell A that yes, she should get that pair of shoes that she's had her eye on and then we tried on hats and scarves. A's hair has started to shed and she is worried that she'll lose all of it when she starts the next kind of chemo.

We said our goodbyes and I took the girls back across town to visit our friends from my old office. We visited, the girls received more treats and then we drove back across town to visit Gammy Gladys. Maggie & Ellie left with a bag full of goodies and new mini Pillow Pets. Gladys gave me something really pretty that I may share a little later. Since we were just a mile or so from my old real estate partner's house, we dropped by there too. We had a nice visit with him and his wife and then hit the road for home around 5:00.

We arrived home at 6:00, the girls had mini-breakdowns and we left at 7:00 for Maggie's parent observation and Christmas party at dance. Ellie went to the potty three times in 20 minutes, but we saw most of the displays of mad dance skills.

We pulled in the driveway a little after 8:30 and were happily in bed by 9:00. I went to bed a little after 10:00 because a day full of fun, wears The Mommy out!

Last week was lots of fun too! Big Daddy arrived home on Tuesday evening just in time to get into the car with us for Maggie's sign language Christmas concert. She did a great job and we really enjoyed all of the performances.

Maggie is the fourth little person from the right.

On Friday night, I took Ellie to the Preschool Birthday Party for Jesus at a local children's museum. She had a blast and they were having a special Curious George exhibit. (Maggie has a bounce birthday party for Jesus this weekend)

Just a bunch of words

Big Daddy and I send each other multiple texts during the day. I usually end mine with a heart or some sort of smiley.

Cousin Callie writes Taylor Swift-ish love songs. Maggie writes Taylor Swift-ish love songs, but they are to or about God. It's quiet sweet. I made the decision a year or more ago to really censor what music was playing in the car. While we listened to mostly country music, (which I thought was pretty tame) I realized that a lot of the lyrics were suggestive and almost made me throw up in my mouth when they were being sung from my daughter's lips. (I tried to let her watch a country music awards show one time, but you quickly realize that can't happen when the first song was "Kiss My Country A$$".) So, we we started listening to only Contemporary Christian music in the car and the occasional children's cd. We also have a Taylor Swift cd (which I censor what songs we listen too) and a couple of Big Daddy's cd's in the car. Maggie is a big fan of Casting Crown and David Crowder Band. She loves that the songs we sing at church are also on our radio.

Lots of people don't agree with the way that we parent and think that we are too strict, but I think it has become painfully obvious that too many parents and families aren't strict enough these days. Of course, I also let my children dress like clowns more often than not. I like to think that I'm keeping the balance right.

I write love notes to my best mommy friends. Nine times out of ten, we end our messages to each other with "I Love You" or "xoxoxo". Sometimes I blush. Since Ms. A is dealing with all of the cancer-stuff, I realize how much it means to tell even your friends that you love them. I have spent more time than I can count praying for her, worrying about her and trying to explain all of this to Maggie. Maggie knows so many people that have died from cancer, so it's hard to explain that Ms. A will have treatments that will not be fun (she's going to have a stronger chemo than we thought), she will feel bad, she may look different and yes, she may be bald.

The thought of A losing her hair has been hard for us. I finally talked with her about it on Tuesday night. It's very possoble that she may lose her hair and she's taking that news very well. She's not doing well with all of the other stuff. I told her I would do anything that I could and I told her that I'd totally let her shave my head. She is a beautician, after all. She laughed and then said, "really" in the sweetest tone. And yes, I would. In a heartbeat. Maggie overheard all of this and doesn't want anyone to lose their hair. I think that may be one of her most sincere prayers now! Many times when I have heard that someone was facing a potentially life threatening illness, I would think about how it would impact their, spouse, family or me. With A being sick and especially after talking with her last night, I worry about how she feels and what she fears.

There was a mass shooting just a few miles from our church on the Sunday before last. It happened while we were in church and we only found out about it later that evening. I'll keep the details short, but a lady shot the married man that she had been having a multi-year affair with, two of her children, her son's girlfriend, and two children that had been left in her custody after their mother had passed away and then shot herself. The shootings happened at three different locations, so there was some confusion. There was only one survivor, the married man and five children between 8 and 17 were lost.

Our church is quiet large and literally center of this community and it has been the location of a candlelight vigil and counseling provided by the local school that most of the older children attended. Our pastor shared lots of details about what had been going on at church behind the scenes. None of the families involved had a church family. Some of the youth in our church coordinated the vigil and even picked out and lead the songs for the vigil. The pastor has spent time with all of the families and I can only imagine how hard that has been for him. The visitation for all of the victims will be at our church on Thursday starting in the afternoon. On Friday morning, our pastor will conducting the funeral for the six people that lost their lives and the church will be feeding their families on both days. In all of this, the saddest part for me was that none of these people were affiliated with a church. I have had lots of people say critical things because we don't go to the church that I grew up in and because we go to such a large church, but there is a big reason.