5 Minute Friday - Open

So many thoughts and emotions have been swirling around in my head. So much so that I can't write. So the blog was quiet over Christmas even though my thoughts were not always as quiet. Five Minute Friday at The Gypsy Mama provides the perfect opportunity to just get something out without worrying about perfection (or even sense?).

Today's Prompt: Open

GO

I have struggled to be open. It does not come easy for me to open my heart, open my emotions, open my fingers that are clenched tight around the illusion of control.

But as I think on this year past I realize that I am slowly being cracked open. Lovingly and gently in some ways. Quickly and painfully in others. I think of friendships that are deep and nourished with the food of real struggles and real prayers in the midst of the real messy and glory of life. I think of ways I have opened my heart to redemption and healing. I think of ways that God has quietly opened my heart to His Spirit. And I see ever so slowly my fingers loosening their grip and my hands slowly opening to what is and what will be.

STOP

Quiet Christmas

It has been a quiet Christmas. Relaxing days at home enjoying our Christmas decorations and some of our own holiday traditions. What a treat it was to have my mom and dad here! It was so special to have them in our home for this holiday. Unfortunately we all got some form of a stomach virus, so that made our Christmas week even more relaxed and quiet. We are ending this week with a trip out of town for a wedding so we are spending this week taking down the Christmas decorations and getting ourselves organized before the crazy, full, routine of real life begins again. We are ready for our normal schedule to resume, it seems like we have been on the go, sick, or out of sync since before Thanksgiving.

Shark Teeth

We interupt Christmas and Advent traditions to bring you this developmental update:

Jeremiah finally has a lose tooth! 

To fully understand the excitement of this you need to understand that Jeremiah will be 7 in February and is the last of his friends to lose a tooth. All of his friends, many who are younger than him, have already been losing teeth and Jeremiah has been waiting and waiting. Last night I noticed that his teeth were looking a little plaque-y and so I asked Aaron to give them a good brushing. Aaron discovered a permanent tooth poking up behind Jeremiah's baby teeth! But none of his baby teeth were the least bit loose. A quick Google search (after a slight freak-out by me) revealed that this is a fairly common condition called "shark teeth" and that as long as his baby teeth fall out within the next 3 months there is no real problem and no need for pulling teeth.

Today at lunch I asked Jeremiah to start wiggling his teeth to see if he could get them loosened up. That's when he discovered that one of his teeth is now in fact loose! He is so excited and wants to call all of his friends to inform them of this event. This Christmas all Jeremiah wants is to lose a tooth. :-)

Making Ornaments

 Both boys hard at work.

 Little fingers...

Nathaniel with his finished ornaments. 

He said, "Look mama! Now I am a REAL artist!"

 Jeremiah with his finished ornaments.

 All the ornaments.

Jeremiah's hand print. Proudly displayed front and center on the tree.

 

Nathaniel's hand print. Also front and center, but near the top. 

I've said it before, I dislike doing crafts with my kids. Patience is not one of my virtues, and it takes a lot of patience to do crafts with kids. But, I really wanted them to make ornaments this year. And I am trying to do better about doing things that they enjoy even though it isn't enjoyable for me (example: hours and hours of playing Uno). I ran across a salt dough recipe that was easy and decided to just go for it. Really, this was a simple craft and the boys LOVED it. This seemed like a good week to get creative since we have severely limited screen time in an attempt to get control of a beast that we have allowed to get out of control. We made the salt dough ornaments on one day, then painted them the next day. Some of these are gifts and some are for our tree. I am glad that I took the time to do this with the boys. It was a fun and easy way to get some creative juices flowing.

A simple task

 Yesterday my only goal was to go from this:

to this!

 

I am not a perfectionist when it comes to house keeping. But there are certain areas that once they get cluttered cause me stress, which causes me to feel over whelmed, which causes me to be grouchy and irritable. This little counter space in my kitchen is one of those areas. It is in a high traffic zone and stuff just collects there. When it gets cluttered it causes me a lot of stress because I see it all the time; when I walk in the back door, when I am walking through the kitchen, when I am sitting in the dining room trying to enjoy a meal. 

I love it when one simple, de-cluttered area can change my mood so drastically!

Our Christmas Card

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Our Christmas cards are ordered and will hopefully be in the mail soon!
I think it accurately reflects life in our house, no? 
I love getting real mail and Christmas cards are some of my favorite mail to send and receive. Our refrigerator gets covered with photo cards in December and I leave them up all year long to remind myself to pray for those we love. This year I went with Shutterfly because I had a few other projects I was working on and they had some great deals.

Christmas Traditions

 We have a couple of things that have become tradition for our little family. Because I was so sick last week and completely lacking in any kind of energy we really have taken a step back and simplified this Advent season. Our number one priority is to do our Jesse Tree readings in the evening. Any thing besides that is nice, and fun, but not necessary to us having a "good" Christmas (whatever that means). However, there are 2 things that have become tradition for us that we were able to quietly and calmly do last week.

 The Christmas Parade

We live one block off of  Main Street, so attending the Christmas parade has become a fun tradition. This year the boys and Aaron went without me because I was just too worn out to go. But they had a good time.

Decorating Our Christmas Tree

We have evolved to the tradition of doing this on an evening with hot chocolate and Christmas music on. This year I was able to totally let go and let the boys do all the decorating while I enjoyed the scene from the couch.

Aaron explains to Nathaniel what one of his ornaments is.

Every year the boys get an ornament from their Rapier grandparents. This is tradition in the Rapier family. It is so fun to look through the ornaments and explain to the boys why they are significant and what memories are attached to them.

 Jeremiah gets some helping reaching a top branch.

 Nathaniel gets to help put on the star.

The finished product!

 Look at these handsome boys!

Jeremiah with his favorite ornament:

Baby's 1st Christmas (which for him was December 2005)

 

Nathaniel with his favorite ornament: a monkey!

5 Minute Friday: Tired

Joining The Gypsy Mama again for 5 Minute Friday.  Five minutes of flat out writing. No editing.
Today's prompt: Tired

GO

It hits me on Wednesday morning. Exhaustion. Sick. I spend the day in bed while boys watch tv and play video games and generally make mayhem around me. 

Husband stays home from work on Thursday so that I can visit the doctor and try to rest some more. I take my second round of antibiotics in less than a month. I stay cocooned in bed while husband tends to house and boys. I cancel upcoming weekend plans that were made. I ignore the unrestrained wrestling that is happening in the living room. I watch a chick flick. I drink copious amounts of tea. I sleep long and deep as afternoon sun streams through the windows.

I am too tired even to battle against the piles of laundry. Too tired to worry about grimy bathrooms. Too tired to worry about my ideals and plans for the holiday season that is here and me still unprepared. I blissfully ignore blogs with titles proclaiming how I can be prepared and stress-free and creative and frugal this holiday season. We can still have a lovely, meaningful Advent and Christmas if I just ignore all of that and do what I can do in the weeks ahead. Let go of expectation and just live in each moment.

I realize suddenly that it took tired to bring me to surrender.

STOP