College friends

I graduated from Covenant College in 1998. That is 13 years and a lifetime ago. For 2 1/2 out of the 4 years I was at Covenant I shared a 4 person room with these 2 girls. They could tell you some stories! I didn't have sisters growing up so this college rooming experience was in a sense my introduction to sisterhood. I learned so much! As you can imagine our room was the scene of many crazy, fun, exciting moments as well as many dramatic, hurtful, growing moments. 

On Saturday night the 3 of us sat on a porch and chatted. The time was too short to fully catch up on each others lives but we made a valiant attempt. The last time we saw each other was 9 years ago at the wedding of another college roommate. Since then we have all had many life changes. And yet, we are in some ways unchanged. We spoke with the same mannerisms and shared the same laughter. As we talked it seemed unreal that 13 years had passed since we shared our daily lives. No matter how much time passes between our meetings there are things that these girls know about me that no one else can never fully know or understand.

I am really bad at maintaining long distance relationships. Life as a missionary kid with people constantly coming and going from my life has made me focus on the relationships that are right in front of me and present. Even though many years have passed since our last meeting the experiences I had with these ladies forms a constant bond because we played such a major role in each others lives during a very formative time of life. These are relationships worth maintaining. Let's not wait 9 years to meet again!

A New Year

After a quiet Christmas week we hit the ground running. Late nights. Lots of sugar. No structure. A recipe for disaster in this family. We spent yesterday in Athens, Georgia. A college roommate of mine was getting married and what a joy it was to celebrate with her! We stayed with friends (another roommate of mine from post-college years) and talked away the hours while our two boys played with their three girls. We caught up with another college roommate of mine. We laughed and reminisced and passed along news of college buddies and traded parenting war stories. We actually rang in the new year at a pub in downtown Athens with these old friends from two very different era's of my life, joined together by this mutual friend's wedding. A small world indeed.

Today my blog reader and Facebook feed are full of people setting goals or picking an inspirational word for the year or looking ahead to big things they have in store. Which is all great. But honestly, I am tired. I have no word for 2012. No inspiration. No new goals even. Right now just looking at my calendar for the week ahead and seeing it full of obligations is a tad overwhelming. I am hoping a good 10 hour night of sleep will help my perspective a bit.

I feel like 2011 was full of introspection and self-evaluation. I feel like God was pulling back layers of my heart and life and revealing what was beneath. I slowly but consistently worked on some areas in my life that needed improvement and discipline. So I don't feel the need to use January 1st as a day to start something new. Rather, I hope to quietly continue and build on the progress that I made in the year passed:

- To continue to wake before the kids to have communion with God.

- To continue to take care of my body through regular exercise and healthy, nutritious food.

- To continue to serve and love others selflessly. (How is that for a vague goal that can never be completely achieved or measured?!)

I am trusting the words of Philippians 1:6 & 9-11 to be true:

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus...And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

I haven't thought much about what this year will hold for us. We don't have any big plans. We know that God is in control and we can rest in His faithfulness and goodness for whatever 2012 may bring.

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

Thanksgiving 2011 (lots of pictures!)

I just downloaded 48 pictures from our Thanksgiving trip! So browse through, if you dare.

While we were gone I kept wanting to blog, to capture memories in writing, but I didn't have easy access to a computer, and it was a week full of people and fun and not much down time. I am blessed beyond belief with this family of mine! My Aunt Carol and Uncle Daryl and their kids made us feel so welcome in their home for a few days. It was so nourishing to be in their house. They provided good conversations over meals, special treats for the boys (Star Wars pancakes!), and hosting family gatherings. Our friends, the Haymes, lent us their house while they were visiting family in Chattanooga, so we had a wonderful place to relax and enjoy our first Thanksgiving with my siblings and parents in longer than we can remember. We celebrated my Grandpa Viss' 80th birthday! What a joy to be part of that special time. He is an amazing man. 

We had warm, gorgeous weather so we were able to spend a lot of time outside. The boys were great travelers and did terrific despite changes in sleeping and eating patterns. It really is a whole different world to travel with kids out of the baby/toddler stage.

And of course the big news is that my parents are back in the States for good! They said goodbye to their life in Holland of almost 23 years. Saying goodbye to them was not quite so painful because we know they are just a car trip away.

So we are back home. Reveling in the memories of a joyful week past. Ready to start getting out Christmas decorations and beginning our Advent practices.