Merry Christmas!

The madness of the season is largely over, and I can't say that I am disappointed! It's been crazy, as always, with trying to juggle work, shopping, parties, etc., all while trying to focus on the true meaning of Christmas, [the birth of Christ] and avoiding the greed & commercialism that seemingly gets worse each year.

But this Christmas has been very strange for me, with unforseen problems that arose in the last month, some family getting ready to move out of state and this quite possibly being our last Christmas with them here in Colorado, and just, well, lots of things being different from years past..it just didn't feel like a normal [and I use the term loosely] Christmas. It's been bittersweet...

Overall it was still enjoyable, and the kids of course had a blast.

Oh, and, Hailey, thanks for letting Ashlyn borrow Berlin's dress!!! It was a huge hit! xoxo

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Christmas Morning

Santa was good to them!

And so was Grandpa Z...
Christmas Eve

Cousins ~ Isabella, Ashlyn, & Megan...

aka The Three Stooges

Michael and Allison

Jackson, Ashlyn, & Me

Aren't they adorable?

All the kids...9 to be exact...

Room for one more?!?!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Ah, peace...

It's 10:03 on Wednesday morning and I'm sitting here blogging. It's not that I don't have 248428947 things to do..it's that I have so much to do that I totally feel like I'm shutting down..physically, mentally...

I love this time of year.but for some reason this year seems harder than in the past. I have something going on EVERY DAY. I love it, yet it's taxing. Writing, getting my thoughts out of my head and into print, believe it or not, actually helps me unwind...hence the blog.

So in a minute I am going to go and get myself and my baby girl ready to go to a gingerbread decorating party for Mikayla's kindergarten class...I fear this will be the last time I will get to sit down and do nothing for more than 10 minutes for at least a couple of days.

In the end, it all seems worth it...that is why I do it every year. The fun, the excitement, the memories, and smiles on my kids' faces..

So for now, au rivoire..wish me luck in constructing the best milk-carton gingerbread house ever known to man.

Singing and dancing? Must run in the family....:]]

These past couple of weeks have been busy! Josh had a choir concert last Thursday and Mikayla had a ballet recital last Saturday. They both did a great job, and I am so proud. See for yourself! [P.S., that feather thing I blogged about in a previous blog, yeah, that's the white thing you see on Mik's costume...not a bad job at all if I do say so... :)].

My kid's a comedian

He made this at school....

Gosh, I'm lame.

Will someone please tell me where in the Complete Guide to Being a Mom does it say, "A mother must exhibit sufficient mending skills"? Mikayla has a ballet recital on Saturday, and at dress rehearsal the other day the teacher (who is excellent and who I really like, so don't go telling her otherwise, please) tells us that she wants us to sew a feather boa-ish-type doo-dad on our girls' costumes for the recital. Well, here is the problem. I suck at sewing. I hate it. Seriously, there is a reason I did not become a seamstress. I am not sure why such passionate hatred for the act, but I do know that as I type this, the costume and the fluffy feather boa, not 3 feet away, taunt me like a bully on the playground. So i better go freakin sew it on before it kicks my ass. Or something.

:)

It's snowing and I really have nothing better to do..

You know those cheesy Christmas movies where it's a perfect snowy day, the kids come in from playing outside and drink their hot cocoa, and everyone huddles around the fire, content, cozy, relaxed, and perfectly happy with their lives...

Yeah, not so much. After working for the first half of the day, I thought it would be a nice gesture to let my kids go outside and play in the snow. Seeing their bright red rosy cheeks and teeny icicles forming on their jackets, I thought it would be great if they could come inside and warm up with a cup of hot chocolate. So I put the water on to boil. When it was ready, I called them in. This is where the chaos begins.

They came in, soaking wet, and proceeded to peel off layers of wet clothing and throw them on the wood floor (damn this floor is causing me grief lately!) Then Josh came into the kitchen and picked up the plastic mug that I had chosen especially for Ashlyn (see blog about the snow globe below...ahahha). I corrected him and asked him to give it to her. Being the great kid and loving big brother that he is, he immediately tried to give it to her..he slid it across the table to her, and I saw it coming...he had pushed just slightly too hard. It teetered on the edge of the table, and, after a split second of thinking that perhaps we were safe, the entire mug toppled off the table, and hot, brown, liquid chocolate with mini marshmallows splashed all over the chair, the wall, and the floor (again with the floor! Maybe it's a sign?!?!)

This incident set off an afternoon of chaos, and my hopes of living out the cheesy, jolly Christmas movie for the day quickly evaporated. I endeavored to have my kids help me wrap some gifts for their cousins, and it took approximately 1 hour to wrap 3 gifts due to my constant screaming, "No Ashlyn, you can't wrap the kitty!!!", and, "No Mikayla, the tape goes on the gift wrap, not up your nose!!!" It wasn't until I finally decided enough was enough and put on How the Grinch Stole Christmas and plopped them in front of the TV set that they settled down so I could attempt to cook a decent dinner (I don't care what the supermoms say, the television IS a great babysitter!).

So that was my day. Let's hope tomorrow brings better things. Oh, I already know it will because my mom and I are making latkes...provided my kiddies can control themselves and not somehow sabatoge the potatoes...believe me, I wouldn't put it past them. : )

My Little Man

It's funny how a little kid can change your thinking so much....

My 8-year-old, Josh, and I were talking today, and he said, "Mommy, the mean neighbor was outside and I said hi to him, and he said hi back to me."

Now, I don't even really know this "mean" neighbor, so I can't say that he is really mean. I do know, however, that he and his wife have not exactly been the most gracious to us or to my other neighbors. I seriously have not spoken more than 5 words to them, and we moved into our houses on the same day almost 4 years ago! And I can honestly say that I have tried to break the ice, but for some reason they just won't cave.

Anyway, a few months back, the guy yelled at Josh to get off of his lawn. Josh came and told me, almost in tears, and of course, my maternal instincts kick in and all I want to do is give this guy a piece of my mind. Well, those of you who know me know that it has to be reallly bad for it to come down to that. I told Josh that the next time he did that to come talk to me instead of picking on an innocent kid. Needless to say, Josh has been really careful not to step foot in his lawn again since.

But today, when he told me about saying hi to this neighbor who almost brought him to tears, an enormous sense of guilt rushed over me...It does say in the bible to love your enemies...pray for those who persecute you...etc.. And I realized this is the best way to put this into practice. But instead, I said some not so nice things and wrote them off on my "who cares" list. And this right in front of my impressionable child.

But God gave him a good heart, and apparently I did something right. It's amazing to see him growing so much, and all the hard work to teach him to do what's right is paying off.

The Snowglobe Incident

Last night I was going through some of our boxes of Christmas stuff and I took out this enormous snow globe that we had gotten as a gift a few years back from some friends. It was actually really cute, the kids loved it...it had a Santa's workshop theme to it, and you could spin the base to wind it up and it played some Christmas song. Okay, so it was cute for like the first 2 seconds...

Anyway, I took it out and put it on one of the end tables in my living room as I went through the rest of the stuff. About 5 minutes later, I hear a huge CRASH. I jumped up with reflexes belonging only to a mother and, lo and behold, Ashlyn had dropped the darn thing on the wood floor in the dining room..and there she stood, in the middle of it all, surrounded by shards of glass and who knows what kind of poisonous liquid that was in that thing.

She was screaming bloody murder, so my first reaction was to check her for any blood.. Luckily, there was none (lucky for her because she was not hurt and lucky for me because I freeze at the sight of blood) and she escaped the entire experience unscathed. I quickly whisked her away from the scene and proceeded to survey the damage. The floor was covered in the aforementioned unidentified liquid laden with glitter and the glass had shattered into 34097332975 pieces; I think I found at least 4 shards even today. The floor now has an extra gash in it and the glitter is literally adhered to the wood. It's going to be a fun time trying to restore it back to its normal state!

Of course, I am so thankful that Ashes wasn't hurt. The floor (though costly) is replaceable. Ashlyn is not, and God forbid anything ever happened to her, or the other two, for that matter. I mean, if she would have tried to walk or run away out of fear when she dropped it, she could have stepped or fell on the sharp glass and really hurt herself.

It's just another reminder of how valuable they are, no matter how frustrated we as parents can get sometimes with them, and that we instinctually would do anything at any time to ensure that they are safe and protected. And, sadly, sooner rather than later, I dare say that I may really miss all the innocent mischievousness of the terrible twos.

Hehehe...or not. :D

Current dilemma

So, I decided to start this blog because blogging on myspace just seemed..well, for lack of a better description, not as cool as this. Whoever feels it necessary to actually read my blogs will see that I can sometimes be slightly bipolar..ahahah ;) Tonight I'm in a venting/sorting-out-feelings type of mood.

Really, I live a pretty boring life. Nothing seriously out of the ordinary ever happens to me (knock on wood), and I like it that way. I like being there, aknowledged, but not totally alone in the spotlight. The segment at church today was entitled "Get in the Picture", with the pastor encouraging everyone to get involved in some aspect of the church (missions, worship, childen's ministry, whatever), and that being involved produces a sense of adequacy and worthiness, as well as the satisfaction of helping and giving and being effective in whatever area you are called to. Well, I couldn't help but think to myself that I have been involved, very much so, ever since I returned to Vinelife in 2002. I started by working in the nurseries once a month, and that evolved into attending a small group. I then joined the worship team in 2004 while continuing to work in the nursery once a month, and sometimes even more depending on the need. I quit the nursery after little Ashes came along and after a summer of volunteering every other week but continued with the worship ministry. In 2006, I began working with the high-schoolers while still singing every other Sunday, and this is where I have remained since. Clearly, I have kept myself quite involved, not really for myself, but because I feel this is where I am best utilized and most effective for now.

So, back to "getting in the picture." I have been in the picture. But I feel like (and my friend and I were laughing about this during service but it does honestly strike a chord in me) I have been the unidentified person on the very edge of the picture that gets cut off, like the only thing you can see of me in the picture is one side of my face, and you would only know it was me if you really knew me and what I looked like but a stranger would be totally oblivious.

Now, I can't decide if I like that feeling or not. Because on one hand, I am perfectly happy with staying under the radar. That way I don't have to worry about making a mistake or looking like an idiot. On the other hand, though, it is nice to feel that sense of being appreciated every once in a while. And recent events have actually led to confirmation that, yes, I am where I need to be. But still...

One lesson I have definitely learned, though, in the past few months, is that when you are stirred up, when you have that tug that won't go away, when you are uneasy and discontent inside about a certain issue, you must act, lest that sensation turn into bitterness and resentment. And staying under the radar just doesn't cut it anymore. So I guess I need to do something more, to make sure that I am really in the picture and not the cut-off, unidentified person on the edge of it.

But what?!?!