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01/04/2004 Entry: "Where am I?"
good question...well, I am HERE obviously. Whew...we have had one CRAZY holiday season. First we all ended up sick. I got the flu first, thanks to Mamaw P finding out some info for us about what to take it never hit the "oh my goodness just put me out of my misery" stage lol but the icky stuff did hang around for longer than I would have hoped and STILL I do not feel like I have 100% of my energy back yet.
I had more "good intentions" for this holiday season than you could shake a stick at which were completely derailed thanks to all of us becoming horribly sick from a week before Christmas through the New Years--we had sinus infections, strep throat, ear infections, brochitis, you name it we had it--we were all equal opportunity virus/bacterial infection carriers lol--the countertop that should have been holding my freshly baked cookies looked more like the back room of a pharmacy. We had more bottles of antibiotics, cough syrups, and tylenol/motrin medications than Walgreens. ~sigh~ In fact, dh joked one morning that the pharmacy had called, I was concerned thinking something was wrong with one of our meddies, and he says "they wanted to know if they could borrow some tylenol because they were running a little short. Haha VERY funny.
So then you take all the meds that were littering the countertop and match that with the 8 DOZEN homemade strawberry cupcakes, and six batches of peanut butter, chocolate, and maple walnut fudge, and homemade banana/pineapple bread (in Christmas shapes no less) which were sitting on the OTHER counter which we had made for some eldery folks we NORMALLY deliver gifts to Christmas Eve but didn't get to this year (too scared to make them all sick ya know), and a "sweet swap" with our homeschool group that we did not get to attend because we were so sick...and well...we could have opened up our own bakery, but none of us had any energy lol So...we ended up sending heaps of the cupcaked back to dh's boat for the crew, which earned us tons of "thank you SO much"es...and then we took the leftovers and took them to R's brownie meeting and shared them with the girls for R's b-day (a day late)...they all LOVED them. So that was a neat way to share them. The banana bread ended up going bad, which didn't surprise me it is very moist and won't last more than a week--and I didn't think to freeze it so we could deliver it. We ENJOYED the fudge so much and I made HUGE containers of it to give away. We could NEVER eat that much fudge lol. I sent some with my Mom and Dad as they went to New Orleans this past week...speaking of which they actually got to visit our house for the first time. Total they visited for 6 days but I gotta tell you, that it just didn't seem like that long...I could literally live with my parents. I enjoy them so much and we have SO much fun together that I think I could just live with them all the time. We played card games (rook & our house rules UNO--you get to TAKE someone elses hand if you lay down a 7--so if you have 8 cards and someone has one and you play the 7 you get to take their one card and they are stuck with your eight!), we talked, watched movies (Rat Race!!) and had just such a wonderful time. Thanks Mom and Dad for being so awesome!!!
Anyway...hmmm...what else? Well, we had Christmas--the actual "surprise" Christmas part of Christmas on Christmas Eve DAY...if that makes sense because dh had duty on Christmas Day and since we were all sick we knew we wouldn't be able to go to the boat to spend the day with him. It ended up being really cool as the kids had NO idea we were doing that...so when they woke up that morning all of the toys were there and they were just in awe and so EXCITED! They don't "do" Santa anymore...but they are JUST as excited as they have ever been which was good for me and my guilt factor over not breaking my promise that would never intentionally lie to my children and anyone who knows my little R knows how totally inquisitive she can be so NATURALLY this year she asked ALL and ANY questions she could think of to figure out this whole "Santa" thing and I answered her as round about and HONESTLY as I could in all areas. The result was that she "got it"...and yet...nothing at all seemed to change about the whole holiday lol SO...I have spent the better part of the last 10 years worring about telling my children the "facts" about Santa and the truth is--it really didn't seem too big of a deal to them...and R told me that she "knew" that but just wanted to know if she was right...B had figured it all out a LONG time ago and just hadn't told the girls--he and I had talked many times about it and this year he even got to help me do some of my "santa" stuff, and was SO excited about being a "Secret Santa" this year! It WAS nice though that they just seemed to totally enjoy and be so excited even though that "fairy tale" part was not there. Sure didn't make any difference as far as I could see and dh and I got all of the hugs and praise and thanks that would have normally been reserved for Mr. Clause. lol We were rewarded with a FULL week of dh being off work while they worked on their mess deck floor--which was SUCH a treat! He went to work yesterday and today and lemme tell you I MISS him. I am soooo spoiled when he is home!
So now, we are all starting to feel human again...and I am SO thankful that we weren't MORE sick!!!!! I have been so happy that we STILL celebrated the birth of Christ even though things didn't work out the way *I* imagined...instead of the crazy hustle and bustle, running to this event and that, and the normal hectic pace, the week leading up to our Christmas found us all taking long naps together in the afternoons, cuddled up for hours reading or watching movies together (the favorite had been The Santa Clause 2) and spending TIME together. So, I pretty much decided that perhaps the Lord knew better than US what would be a fitting prelude to Christmas and worked it out for us at whatever cost necessary. =o) I hate to admit this, but being sick is probably the only thing that would have slowed us down...it's so easy to get caught up in all of the "gottados" here and there ya know?
We had been working hard on a project called the "Jesse Tree". It is awesome!!! It turned out to be the CENTER of our daily events before Christmas and still is! I could go into the details but I will just point to a site that gives some info. We ARE running a little behind--normally you start this on the last day of November and it ends on Christmas Day--but thanks to us being sick we didn't get to finish it so we are STILL working on it now. It is no less wonderful without the idea we will be finishing "on" Christmas. Here is the url to learn more. This site has all of the patterns and pre-written lessons to go with it--which worked well for me since this was our first year doing it. I hope to expand on this as the years go by and eventually would like to have more elaborate ornaments that we could use each year over and over. We just printed the images out on cardstock and then have colored them and hotglued them to felt and then embellished them a bit with glitter glue and sequins and such. I'll post a pic later so you can see what I am talking about!
http://www.rca.org/worship/material/advent/jessedevotions.php
It really IS a powerful way to teach the kids about the meaning of Christmas and is a visual outline of the lineage of Jesus. Here are a few pictures from a few weeks ago of the beginning of the tree:
This is a pic of the whole tree, I made it out of felt (should have ironed it huh?)--and just hot glued it all together.
This one is about God's promise to us...Genesis 6:11-14 etc
This one represents the journey that God asked Abram to go on and the fullfillment of the promises that God made and kept.
This one represents that God made everything--and as such even though there is some icky stuff in the world--God STILL loves us enough to give us the gift of the world.
This is the first one you make--it is based on Isaiah 11:1-2 "A shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots" Of course that is David, and eventually the Messiah. The basis of the whole "Jesse Tree"
This one was the entrance of sin into a perfect world. The emphasis is that in spite of our sinful nature, God still loves us totally.
Probably more than anyone wanted to know but I can't tell you how blessed we have been from this project! It is so much fun to do too, and my wee ones (well, okay so I can't say wee in reguard to my 10 year old B really lol) have been VERY involved and do most of the work on the ornaments. I admit--there is that perfectionist in me who wants to do it all myself so that it's "just right" but my years of teaching my children at home have finally given me the ability to see how absolutely PERFECT "their" way is in most all things!! The ornaments they have made are beyond belief and the information they have absorbed is just awesome!
And let's see...oh yes, can't forget that my "little" R turned SEVEN years old!!!!!!!! Can you believe it!?!?!?! I can't!! I am just in shock! She was SO sick on the day of her b-day that we canceled her party and rescheduled it for this past friday. She wasn't TOO upset about it but the sweetest thing was that on her b-day she didn't want to get any of her presents she wanted to wait the 5 days to get them at her party!! Isn't that just so sweet. That's how she is. SO on her b-day we gave her a few small gifts and we went to the movies to see Brother Bear. We had her party on Friday and it was just wonderful. We had a total of 9 children there and it was just so much fun!!! She got some of the nicest gifts and she was just so happy. I love that! B had a friend spend the night on Friday night and then last night we just hung out and watched movies. I am supposed to go to Girl Scout training for the next three days and I have to tell ya'll...I am having second thoughts. It occured to me what a HUGE committment this is...not just for one year but basically for many years to come. I *know* that I *could* do this...I even know that I would LOVE to do it and that it would make me SO very happy to do this!!! But I also recognize that I have a pretty full plate and have to acknowledge that I am a human...I could do this but it would cost...of course not for my children, as I have them as top priority always, so I know that their education and such would not suffer...no...but I know that I would have to take the time, effort and energy from SOMEWHERE in my life--and the truth is God revealed to me that the only "spare" time, effort, or energy that I have that would not steal from my children is "MINE". ?? I'm not sure it would be worth giving up the quiet afternoons we spend cuddled together on the couch reading, or the hour long bubble baths, or the few hours a week I devote to my business, or shoot, the time I spend updating this journal....or the time I spend helping people with their websites, or the warm sunny days we jet off to the park for hours, or the weekends we shut ourselves in and hide from the world so we can just ENJOY each other....well, you know that's ALOT to give up...and if I thought that my girls would suffer I would be a little more convinced to commit to this, but the truth is they are in a WONDERFUL troop right now, and I LOVE the leader, and I DO volunteer heavily...I attend every meeting, and have gone through the process to become an "official" volunteer--I work at EVERY meeting, I am this years COOKIE MOM (anyone want some GS Cookies??) and I help out ALOT--I am totally involved, and I think I might be doing "enough" without taking on the additional responsibilities that being a Troop Leader would require of me. Whew. That was hard to say. You have no idea how hard it was to say. It takes alot for me to sometimes admit I don't have a red cape that lets me fly lol Ah well, I know that I will do the right thing and right now the right thing that I feel God has led me to is to just continue to be a full time volunteer for the Troop we are with and not worry about becoming a leader until we are somewhere that I *need* to do that.
And then you have today which has been a really lazy lazy day so far even though I have a million things calling for my attention you have found me HERE...typing out this enormous message because while the dishes and laundry and the other demands on my time are certainly worthy of my attention and have their place in my schedule--today I wanted all of YOU to know that YOU are so very important to me and that I wanted to share the last few weeks with YOU more than anything. I know, I know...OF course I wanted to do this more than the dishes lol but you know what I mean haha It is a real challenge getting on here and writing all of this stuff lol
I love you all very much and really do hope that you had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and know how often you are all in our thoughts, prayers and hearts!!!
~A
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