It’s been almost a year since I blogged here. Life just took over last summer, and some things had to drop off the radar, and this blog was one of them. I’m hoping to get back to it somewhat more regularly.
Of course it’s going to take me about three weeks to delete the 4000 spam comments that have accumulated in that time. Wow… maybe I’ll be able to blog by June.
More soon!
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Allan and the kids and I arrived home late last night, after an all day trip from my folks’ house in California. When Allan drove it alone last week, he made it home in just over 9 hours. With the kids? It took almost 12 hours.
Yep, a 6 year old, a 3 year old, and a 15 month old… all sitting in the back seat of our Jetta. And we made them sit there for TWELVE hours.
No DVD players, no CD players, no movies. Just them, a few Happy Meal toys, their blankets, and one semi-video game for Samuel. (Oh, and one happy meal each from McDonalds for lunch, a kids meal each from burger king for dinner, and some snacks and drinks along the way).
And they did awesome. They totally ROCK as passengers on long car trips. I think Martha fussed a total of 20 minutes the entire day, and it was mostly because it took that long for me to figure out that she was HUNGRY and wanted a snack already.
We are so very blessed! I love turning around and and seeing their happy faces in the back seat of the car. I love how easy going and laid back they are, even 6 and 8 and 10 hours into a long trip. I love that they are able to self-entertain for hours on end, and that they enjoy each others company. I love how Martha, at only 15 months old, can sit in a car seat and cross her sweet little ankles, and do nothing but look pensive for over an hour, watching the road and the cars go by. I even love the non-stop questions from Samuel, and the silly “announcements” from lil Allan. (The boy likes to ANNOUNCE things repeatedly, to each and every person in the car - oh, and loudly!) MOM, WE ARE GOING TO LAS VEGAS! DAD, WE ARE GOING TO LAS VEGAS! MARTHA, WE ARE GOING TO LAS VEGAS! SAMUEL, WE ARE GOING TO LAS VEGAS….
Oh, and what do I love the most? My handsome, happy husband who does ALL the driving and never (ok, rarely) gets ruffled by the kids and their noise (ANNOUNCEMENTS and questions, oh my!).
So, today.. I’m thankful for long car trips with my family, and I am most thankful that yesterday’s trip is OVER and we arrived home safely!
What are YOU thankful for? Write a post and the post the link on Laura’s blog at Heavenly Homemakers.
My sister Sarah was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and my kids and I are staying with my folks in California - going back and forth to Sarah’s house, hanging out, helping some, and being a part of the battle.
This week, I’m tired, but feeling thankful today for a variety of things that have come up since the breast cancer diagnosis. Here’s a list of some of those things…
Oh, there is SO much more… God is indeed working through this, and I’m thankful for his blessings.
What are YOU thankful for today? Join in with Laura at Heavenly Homemakers for Gratituesday, and tell us all about it!
It’s been a bittersweet few days. If you read my previous post, you know that life as my family knows it has changed, quite dramatically. My sister is facing a battle with cancer, and we are all in “gear-up” mode right now. Allan and I are heading to CA tomorrow to be with the rest of the family, so we can all gear up together.
I spoke to my sister on Monday morning. She was getting ready to head out the door with her bestest friend from childhood. They were heading to Trader Joes to do some “healthy, nutritional, tofu” kind of grocery shopping, since the doctors have recommended she make some changes to her diet. We laughed as we talked about how she was being thrust a little unwillingly back into a diet like that of our childhood, because everything she eats from now on is going to be HEALTHY. (Our mom was a health-food nut back before it was COOL to be a health-food nut). No more sugar. No fatty foods. Lots of fruits and veggies. Yeah, she’s in for a bit of a change, and that’s putting it mildly. (If you don’t know my sister, you wouldn’t know that she is the QUEEN of chocolate covered strawberries, yummy deserts, and delish casseroles… and she loves her candy!) But thanks to friends like Stacie, she is facing the new dietary changes with strength, a little laughter, and lots of support.
Sarah and I talked for a minute about the new hairstyles we’ll be getting on Friday. It was recommended that she get her hair cut so it’s less traumatic later if and when chemo starts to take effect. Just as she had someone to go shopping with, she won’t be going alone to that hair appointment either. Other friends have offered to go along, and get their hair trimmed too, and I jumped at the chance to go along. More support. Sarah signed up for a website where you can upload your picture and see your face with hundreds of hairstyles. She asked me to upload my picture too, so we could decide on my new hairstyle. More laughter.
I’ve been getting email from the most unexpected places. Phone calls from friends who have heard and wanted me to let Sarah know they are praying. More support. More encouragement. More love.
It’s hard NOT to be thankful today. God is GOOD, and by his grace, Sarah will be victorious.
May God Bless You And Yours…
And if you have something you are thankful for today, please think about leaving a comment here or at Laura’s blog… or write a blog post and link up so we can read and comment right back.
There are moments in life when everything comes to a stop in a second, and from that second on, nothing is ever the same. On Wednesday, our family had one of those moments. All day long I spent frantically running around getting ready to leave for my trip to Nebraska. Our last stop of the day was Bible Class, and my plan was to come home, put the kids to bed and go straight to bed myself, since our 4 a.m. wake-up time to leave for the airport was going to come too quickly.
But, as we walked in the door from Bible Class, the phone was ringing. My mother-in-law, who had stayed home to watch Martha, said, “Your brother has been trying to call you”. It was late enough in Nebraska that I paused for a second, wondering what THAT was about. Something told me it wasn’t good. And then I answered the phone.
I was right. On the other end of the line, my brother handed the phone to my dad, who proceeded to tell me that my sister was in the hopsital and that I needed to call her because she wanted to talk to me. What? Huh? That moment - it was THE moment for our family, where life stopped for a second and began with a new reality.
The reality we are now living with? My sister Sarah, at age 34, has stage 4 breast cancer, with spots on her lungs, liver, and lymph nodes. We are still waiting on official diagnoses, and results from bone scans, and prognoses and all kinds of not so fun things. The tenative plan (she will see an oncologist next week for the confirmed plan) is to move forward with aggressive chemo as soon as possible.
I didn’t get to bed on Wednesday night as early as I expected, and my trip to Nebraska has gone quite differently than I expected. We’ve had fun yes, and it’s been WONDERFUL to visit with my brother and his wife and to hold my nieces and my new nephew. I’ve been SO blessed to be staying with Laura and her family and to watch Samuel’s pure joy while he plays with Elias and the other boys. But mixed in with all the good has been absolute devastation and fear as we learned just a little more with each phone call to and from my sister.
My parents, who were here visiting too, have cut their trip short and are heading home to CA. My brother and his wife are taking the baby and flying to CA tomorrow. Samuel and I will fly home to Vegas tomorrow, and then Allan and I will figure out how and when to get to CA ourselves. Our family needs to be together. We need to gather our strength together and give as much of it to Sarah as we can. We need to hug each other, be teary-eyed together, and laugh together. (Because, yes, there has been laughter amidst the fear and pain of this news).
So, if you are reading this, if you know me or don’t know me, can you please say a prayer (or a thousand?) for my sister Sarah, for her husband Ron, for her two children Austin age 8 and Hailey age 7. Can you say another one (or two) for my parents who are traveling today (saturday), and my brother and sister in law who will be traveling tomorrow (sunday). And just another one or two for all of us as we find our new way with this new reality into which we’ve been thrust so quickly.
May God Bless You and Yours…
You know you’ve waited one day too many to shave your legs when your 3 year old son brushes against you with his bare legs, falls over in COMPLETE and UTTER agony, screeching, “OUCHIE Mommy! Your legs cut my leg!!!!”
Yep, the first day of summer vacation has been a BLAST! Even with mommy’s capri pants and unshaved legs added to the mix!
(Wait, was this TMI?? So sorry!)
It really has been an awesome day all around.
I printed out a daily schedule WITH PICTURES (for the non-reading mini folk. . .aka lil Allan), and we got right to work with stickin’ to it. Or rather, Mommy got right to work. The boys had to be convinced of the merits of doing CHORE time BEFORE play time. They eventually managed to carry two loads of laundry to the garage for me. (That’s a reasonable chore for a 3 and 6 year old, right?) I had to chuckle at all the stray laundry that fell from their arms between the bathroom/hallway and the garage. And then I had to chuckle when BOTH boys said, “WHAT? We dropped some? WHERE??”
After CHORE time, we had School/Specials time. (Specials are what Samuel’s school calls the fun extra classes they go to each day. They rotate between things like Music, Computers, PE, Art, and Library). Today was MUSIC day here in “Mama’s Fun Summer School of Joy, Happiness, and PLEASE Stop Asking to Play the Wii”, so we ate some cookies (cause, OOPS, Mommy forgot to schedule SNACK TIME) and we sang some songs together.
After School/Specials time, we headed outside for RECESS! The schedule also calls for the possibility of Wii time during recess time, but the weather was GORGEOUS today, so we skipped the wii and played outside.
Lunch followed, and then a tiny bit of wii time (cause Mom is a pushover, and they were all doing SO well!)
Naptime/Restime did not go as well as the rest of the day, but it was successful in that the boys managed to NOT wake up Martha for over two hours! And that’s all I’m going to say about Naptime/Restime.
We are currently in our FREE PLAY time, which includes the option for TV, so guess what kind of PLAY is happening? The sitting on the behind, watching Cyberchase kind of play.
And Mama is gonna make dinner soon.
Right after she bandages up the 3 year old’s bleeding, ouchie legs.
Or not.
Happy First Day of Summer Vacation, ya’ll!
Filed under: Kid Talk by bella
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My oldest, Samuel, entered Kindergarten yesterday last month last August. It was a tremendously, tremendously difficult time for this Mama. He’s my first, so naturally I was anxious, but Samuel is also extra special in a few particular areas, and I was nervous how that was going to play out in a classroom where I wasn’t able to help reign him in or help him adapt.
I found out two weeks before school started, literally as I stood in the office to register him for school, that he would be going to ALL DAY Kindergarten. ALL DAY. Over SIX hours a day, gone from us. SIX HOURS, every day, where I was NOT in charge of what he did, what was done to him, and what he was learning.
(Ok, why am I not homeschooling??)
(Sorry… small breakdown averted there… back to Gratituesday.)
After I had a mini (haha) meltdown in the school office, (lucky school secretaries!) I spent the next two weeks praying continuously for Samuel, for his teacher, for the students in his class…. and uh.. yeah.. for myself.
God is SO good, because he heard my prayers (well, He was probably WAY ahead of me), and he gave Samuel a really, really good teacher. Miss Franklin has worked with him and with us from Day One, and I know she truly cares about him and the rest of his class. She has spent a LOT of extra time talking with me after school about situations, about Samuel’s progress, about nothing at all. She has been a friend to me and I can’t tell you how comforting it’s been through this first year of school.
Today, we are all going to watch Samuel’s class (along with about 80 other Kindergartners) perform their “we’re moving on up to 1st grade” program. I only know it’s about “moving on up” because I’ve heard him practicing the songs they are going to sing. Oh, it’s going to be PRICELESS, believe me. I’m already crying, and we’re not even there yet.
Last week, Miss Franklin helped Samuel sing one of the songs for me after school. She patiently guided him through the words and reminded him as he went. She didn’t rush him, and was proud of him when he was done. That was two minutes out of a school year, but it’s exactly the kind of teacher she has been all year long.
So, today… on the day before my son’s LAST day of Kindergarten… I’m thankful for Miss Franklin. She helped us get through a really crucial year. She helped Samuel grow and learn and mature. She gave him confidence in himself and she made school fun. I’m pretty sure Miss Franklin is Samuel’s fourth or fifth favorite person in the whole world.
Thank you, Miss Franklin!
Are you thankful for something today? Head on over to Laura’s blog at Heavenly Homemakers, and leave a comment or leave a link to your own Gratituesday post!
I know this is going to sound super cheesy, but today… today, I’m thankful for Gratituesday.
I need this Gratituesday discipline in my life (AND I need a Gratiwednesday and Gratithursday and well, you know…). There are some weeks, and this is one of them, where if I didn’t have my Gratituesday post to think about, I might just skip being grateful. Sometimes it seems so much easier to just wallow in frustration, anger, depression, annoyance, sadness, and all the rest. Satan wants me to think that anyway, and he’s REALLY good at throwing up roadblocks to gratitude.
I woke up angry this morning, and it’s taken several hours to shake it off. I’ve felt a definite battle going on in my home, in my head, in my heart.
I turned on a HAPPY movie for my son, and I sat down to read an encouraging book, in my attempt to straighten myself out. And I did some praying too. I sat still right after putting the kids down for naps, and let the battle play itself out. My mind was at war for a short time - knowing the RIGHT thing to do (write a gratituesday post, put on a smile, thank God for all our blessings, and quit acting like life owed me something), but fighting that - wanting to just be selfish and WALLOW in it a little longer.
Obviously, I’m done wallowing, for now. And I’m thankful that I have a place to share, a God to thank, a family to hold and love, and friends who care.
So, thanks Laura… for Gratituesday. (Can we do a Gratiwednesday tomorrow if I need to?)
