Skillz

I have acquired a new skill over the last few weeks. I can now tell the outside temperature based on the slushiness of my Diet Coke being stored in the garage. I can get within a degree or two every time.

(Having nice, cold Diet Coke without using up all my fridge space is the one and only good thing about winter.)

Florida, Anyone?

Or Arizona? Or Aruba? Or Hawaii? Yeah, Hawaii sounds good.

I Believe

We've never really done the Santa thing with our kids. They just see him as a character from books and movies. I asked them about it this year. If they wished we had Santa come to our house. They said no. They were fine with things the way they've been. "Besides," said Adam, "There's no way he could get to all the houses in the world in one night." So we believe in the spirit of Santa, but not so much the guy in red himself.

But after this year, I'm seriously considering rethinking Santa. You see, he has been visiting us for weeks. Our family has been affected by the economic downturn and somebody told Santa. He has sent envelopes with money and gift certificates. He has delivered boxes of food and gifts. And on Christmas Eve he outdid himself by leaving on our front porch boxes and bags of gifts for our family. I was completely overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of our own personal Santa (or Santas). This Santa knows us well because the sizes were right on the clothes and the gifts for the kids were perfect. There were games and puzzles and toys and even a few very thoughtful things for Arrty and I. We have played lots of hands of Uno Spin and Adam is working on his puzzle as I type. And Julianna is completely in love with the blue elephant and butterfly doll that she received. (I saw the same doll while shopping and almost bought it for her because it is so cute and perfect for her since her room is decorated with butterflies.) For a brief moment I started to wrack my brain to try to figure out who could have done such a wonderful thing for our family, then I decided that the gift tags said Santa, so I would just go with that. I hope, though, that somehow all those who have been so very kind to us know that we are truly grateful.

And I hope that next year, we'll be able to do the same for someone else.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I enjoyed seeing Marmitetoasty's Christmas tree ornaments so much that I decided to share a few of ours. Our tree is covered with all kinds of ornaments. Some are handmade by the kids. Some were given to us as gifts. And some were bought during our traditional ornament shopping trip.

Adam made this one when he was 4.

And he made this one in kindergarten.

Josh made this one in 1st grade.

And he made this one when he was 5.

This is our 2008 family ornament.

Adam's 2008 Bumble ornament.

Josh's 2008 Santa fisherman ornament.

Julianna's 2008 skating Care Bear ornament.

My angel in an egg ornament. It must be at least 25 years old.

We all love to open the ornament box and remember Christmases past. And look forward to all the Christmases to come.

Merry Christmas

I really should be frantically wrapping presents. But I'm instead here blogging. I just had to say Merry Christmas to those of you who may happen to stop by. I hope you have the best Christmas ever!

A rose by any other name...

I have encountered a problem that I wasn't expecting when we named Julianna. Some people pronounce it Juli-aw-na. But it's Juli-anna. Just like it looks. Don't get me wrong. Juliawna is a fine name, but it's not my daughter's name. So what do I do? So far I have let it go if it's someone we rarely see, like the doctor. If it's someone who we see often I just make sure to say her name correctly a few times hoping they'll catch on. I honestly never thought there would be a problem with the pronunciation or spelling of her name. (Apparently you can spell it Juliana, too.) I hope that she doesn't spend her life correcting people about her name. I can just see her in 15 years rolling her eyes and saying, "It's Juli-ANNA."

Snow Day

I make the rules and I say that if schools get a snow day, homeschoolers do, too. At least these homeschoolers do. Besides, it's going to take my students and co-teacher all day to dig us out.

This is Arrty standing next to his Explorer. I'm glad he's the one with the shovel and I'm the one with the camera.



The boys are trying to make a path out to the dog's house. The snow is up to their waists. We also use the swing set to measure our snow. It's well past the seats already.

They're making progress slowly but surely. By the way, the dog was in the house last night so he isn't snowed in his dog house. You can't see him but he was trying to "help" with the path. He's a huge chocolate lab and as he ran through the snow, all I could see was the top of his head.

Ramblings

*We went to a Christmas party at Santa's house this week. Really. He and Mrs. Claus are in our Bible study group. Check out the link. It was great fun and even better fellowship. There was dinner and a gift exchange and "Frosty the Snowman" read by Santa himself.

*I have discovered that there is a magical moment each night when, if I put Julianna to bed after prayers and songs, she will go happily to sleep all on her own. If, however, I miss that moment she isn't nearly so happy about the whole thing.

*Speaking of Julianna, she had her 6 month check-up this week. She is 25 inches long and weighs just under 15 pounds. She is in the 25th percentile for height and 20th for weight. Lots of people tell me that she's tiny, but I guess I didn't realize it since I've known her since she really was tiny. But she is perfectly healthy and right on track with her development.

*I went Christmas shopping this week and was once again surprised at all the grumpy people. Even those who were also Christmas shopping. I was so not grumpy. How could I be when I have people to buy presents for and a little bit of money to buy presents with?

*After the boys helped Arrty's grandma move yesterday, his aunt Cathy took us all out to dinner at Tomato Street. We don't eat there often and I always forget how yummy it is. I had tomato basil soup with garlic bread and chicken parmigiana with fettuccine Alfredo. Mmm. I ate the leftovers for breakfast, but I wish I had more for right now.

*I am feeling a little overwhelmed this week because even though our family has gone from 2 1/2 jobs this time last year to half a job now, we are still being provided for by our heavenly Father. We have a roof over our heads and clothes on our backs and a pantry and fridge full of food to feed our children. And we are so very blessed by the people in our lives who love us.

Overheard...

...while the boys were watching a movie.

Adam: "She's a bad singer."
Josh: "It's opera. It's supposed to be bad."

Bloggers

I was just explaining to Adam why Julianna can't have stuffed animals to sleep with. That it's not safe for her yet. To the boy who has no less than 20 stuffed animals in his bed, that made no sense. He said, "Where did you hear that? You don't always have to believe what bloggers say!"

Really? Bloggers? I thought I could always believe bloggers.

6 Months

Julianna turned 6 months old yesterday. 6 months. Half a year. I can't believe it. She does something new everyday it seems. I think because I'm an older mom this time I am appreciating this whole baby thing more. And because she's our last. Really this time.

When I was pregnant I knew that I was going to breastfeed even though it certainly isn't my favorite part of mommyhood. I was hoping to make it to 5 or 6 months with her like I had with the boys. Then she was born. The first day was easy. She was a good nurser from the beginning and I was more confident and less anxious about the whole thing. The second day was not easy. She wanted to eat all the time. And when I say all the time, I mean ALL THE TIME. I remember praying that second night, when she was attached to me yet again, for my milk to come in so that she would be full for a few minutes. And of course, it did and she was. But at that point I was a little worried. I told myself to stick it out for a week. Then when I made it that week, I thought I'd try one more week. Then I thought I would shoot for a month. By the time she was a month old, we were both old hat at the whole thing.

So here we are at 6 months and I'm trying to decide what to do. I have reached my original goal. But now it's so easy. And convenient. And free. And Jules doesn't have any teeth yet.

So I'm thinking maybe just a little longer. A couple more weeks. Or at least until that first tooth appears.

Ughh!

Julianna has another cold. She was better for a whole 4 days. Now there is more coughing and stuffiness. Where did she get it? None of the rest of us are sick. I'm usually not overly paranoid, but I'm wanting to keep her home and away from the world just to keep her well. Poor little thing.

Finished

Well, today is November 30th. That means that with this post I have succeeded in blogging everyday this month for Nablopomo. It has been a stretch to think of something each day to write about. But it has been good, too. It also means that tomorrow is December. Time to get ready for more holidays and winter weather and fun. It also means that it is officially my sister's birthday month. (Yes, she celebrates all month. Happy birthday month, Ada!)

So, Nablopomo is done for another year. I made it. Phew.

Frosty #1

Here is the first snowman of the year. He was completed last night at about 8:15. He only stands about 2 feet tall which is good because the only carrots I had for a nose were baby carrots. The boys were very proud of him. But, sadly, today he is more of a snow blob than a snowman and only has one eye and no mouth. Oh, well. I'm sure they'll have lots more opportunities to build snow creations in the months to come.

Thanksgiving Again

We had a great day yesterday celebrating Thanksgiving with family. Good food and great fellowship. And as is our tradition, today I cooked for our family. For as long as we've been married, we've not spent Thanksgiving at home. But every year I buy a turkey and all the fixings and cook all the traditional dishes a day or two after the actual day. So we have Thanksgiving twice. I mostly do it for the leftovers and so that we can have thick turkey sandwiches and hot turkey sandwiches for the next week.

Julianna tried sweet potatoes for the first time yesterday. I thought that was appropriate. She didn't much care for them though and ended up smacking the spoon out of my hand and flinging mushed sweet potatoes everywhere. So she ended up with more sweet potatoes on her sock than in her tummy.

We also played Pictionary. The boys versus the girls and Josh. The boys won thanks to Adam. Who knew he was a master Pictionary player? (He guessed lots of the answers right, but his first guess pretty much every time was, "stick person.")

It was a good day. And I was reminded once again what I have to be thankful for.

Thanks

Today I am thankful that I have everything I need to take care of my children and that I am able to get up every morning to do so.

Zzzzz?

Last night I was up with Julianna 4 times. Since she's had a cold, she's been waking up more because of the stuffy nose and coughing. And I didn't want to let her cry because she would just cough more. But now that the cold's pretty much gone, I have to make a choice. Do I do the "cry it out" method or the "non cry method" to get her to sleep through the night and get herself back to sleep? The "cry it out" method is just how it sounds. When she wakes up in the night and cries I would just let her cry herself back to sleep. The idea is that she will eventually cry less and less and be able to sleep on her own. The "non cry method" is when she cries I would go in and pick her up and comfort her but put her back down before she is back to sleep. I would have to do this every time she cries even if I have just put her back to bed. This method is supposed to teach her that it's bedtime and I'm there for her but it's time to sleep. I used the "cry it out" method with the boys and they have both always been pretty good sleepers. And they don't seem to be scarred for life because I let them cry. So what do I do? She'll be six months old next week and it's time for a good night's sleep for the both of us.

By the way, I totally jinxed her sleeping through the night between the ages of 1 month to 3 months. I was bragging to anyone who asked and now I'm paying for it. So I'm not going to mention that she is finally starting to take a pacifier instead of using me as her human pacifier. Wait. Did I just jinx that, too?

2

Well, I missed it. Again. My two year blogiversary was November 4th. I always think it's later in the month. For two years I've written about my life. Two of the hardest years of my life. Here's hoping the next two are easier. And that I don't miss my 3rd blogiversary.

Learning

Have I mentioned that homeschooling is hard? Well, it is. It's a real challenge trying to teach ancient Rome surrounded by all the distractions like toys and bikes and a baby sister and 24 hour cartoon channels. And then there's the mom thing. "But mom, do I really have to write my spelling words?" "Aww, mom, can't I just write 4 sentences instead of 6?" Then there's the fact that we have a 5 month old baby in the house who has absolutely no concern for who Julius Caesar is or what 4 times 9 equals. She kind of sets our schedule for us. (Although I can nurse her and give a spelling test at the same time.) And I fully admit to being overly flexible. "The sun's shining? Sure you can play outside." "You've never seen this Scooby Doo? Sure, you can watch it." Don't get me wrong, we still do school everyday and are pretty much on schedule. But that's mostly because I was a teacher before I was a mom and am pretty good at combining lessons and integrating different subjects.

So, yes, homeschooling is hard. But I realized something a few nights ago. The boys wanted me to lay with them at bedtime and I really didn't want to. I am with them all day every day after all. I really just wanted to watch Grey's Anatomy without interruption. But lay with them I did. And they started some conversation. I don't even remember what it was. But I do remember thinking that I know my children better now than I ever have before. Spending half the day talking with them about books and history and art and science and the world has allowed me to know them in a way I never could have without this experience. I know that it will be good for all of us in the long run. I know that down the road I will be glad that we made this decision. And tomorrow I'll try to remember that when I'm explaining again why they do, in fact, have to write all 6 sentences.

Twilight

Yes, yesterday vampires made me happy. Here's why. I went to see "Twilight" with my "Twilight" friends. It's a movie that's been made from the first in the crazy popular book series by Stephanie Meyer. The main characters are Bella, a teenage girl living in Forks, Washington, and her vampire boyfriend, Edward, and his vampire family. Katrina shared the books with me a few months ago and I devoured them. (No pun intended.) I know that they will never be considered classic great American novels, but I loved reading them. I was entertained and absolutely fascinated that the author could come up with such detailed explanations of everything from the landscape to the thoughts of a teenage girl to all the hows and whys of vampires. My imagination is limited which is why I mostly write non-fiction so to read a story with such creativity was a real treat for me. And I was really looking forward to seeing the movie even knowing that I might be among the oldest members of the audience. So here's what I thought about the movie. I liked it a lot. The casting was well done for the most part. The same feeling of teenage angst and brooding from the book was there along with the excitement of young love. They did a fine job of portraying the vampires from the way they looked to the way they moved. Obviously they couldn't do justice to a 500 page novel in a two hour movie, but I still really enjoyed it. And it was fun to go with my girls and giggle about our glow-in-the-dark plastic fangs.

And, by the way, the lady three seats down was much older than me.

5 Things...

...that made me happy today.

1. Tea parties
2. Friends
3. Vampires*
4. Toothless grins (babies, not old men)
5. Girl's night

*More on this tomorrow