Life In Five Minutes

Anyone with a blogging hobby knows you start to hear your life in blogs. You are doing something, feel a deep revelation about something, hear a funny, whatever...and you think about blogging it. Or.....am I the only crazy person who hears my life in my head this way? Oh, no.

Anyway...

Lately I just have not had the time for some of the blogging I've wanted to do. So, I'm going to give the the drive thru version , okay?!



Yearly Tradition

Rick and I have a tradition of a treasure hunting day each year before Christmas. We spend the day hopping thrift stores together looking for a steal that the kids or someone we know would love. Sometimes we do amazingly well, and sometimes it's just okay. This year we went on his day off Monday while the kids were in school. We found a few very fun things: some Christian hip music for the girls (and mommy usually likes most of it too:), some books and movies cheap, and a great deal on new (well, new to them) coats for the girls. This was actually my favorite find since Goodwill had a B1G1 free deal going on. I got two great winter coats that were actually quite fashionable for just 7 bucks!



Victoria's Basketball

I was so tickled for my little growing girl. She got in the van after practice the other night and exclaimed "Mommy! I don't huff and puff anymore!". Darlin', I know what you mean and I know how great a feeling that is! I was so happy for her. The gal who was teasing her found out that basketball was a little tough for her too and has backed off making fun of others. She is enjoying it and growing stronger. I'm excited to see her making the goal of her dream. Rick and I really look forward to going to some games in January! She will be decked out in a yellow and green uniform too! It will be a blast to cheer her on. I can't wait.



Caedmon's Tooth

Last night we were watching the season finale of The Biggest Looser (way to go Danny! you da man!) and we were cheering for the gal who won the 100,000 prize when Caedmon exclaims "My tooth just fell on the floor!". So, we transition from clapping and cheering for the contestant to clapping and cheering for him! It took FOREVER! He would hardly wiggle that thing at all. The other other top tooth is pretty loose too and we told him he may get to be two front teeth toothless for Christmas but he does not want to wiggle it. So, we'll see!



Emma's A Business Woman...I'm tellin' Ya!

Emma is a shrewd business woman. She takes her money, buys this big smelly rainbow rope eraser at the school book fair and comes home to cut it into sections. She then sells those sections to her classmates for a profit. She tried to sell her brother some of her stuff this morning to weasel him out of his new $3 from loosing his tooth! I told him not to let her do that. She is very shrewd though, you have to watch out!



Rick Wore Pants!

Yes, this is big Ozfam news. Rick wore his mailman pants the past two days. That means...yes, ladies and gentlemen, he is finally cold. I told him he looks way hot in them (cause he does) and should wear them more. He probably does this 3-5 days a year and that's it. Sigh.



Mommy's Magazine of the Mind Issues

I was going to do a whole blog on this but it won't happen. I looked at a trendy magazine recently and realized it had been years since I had opened one. All the perfect outfits, cosmetics, everything reminded me of how much pressure young women are in to conform. It actually felt like an assault to my senses. It caused me to reflect on how when I was a young mom I really looked to other women who I wanted to pattern myself after. I had to go on a real journey to realize that God had his own nitch for me and I needed to stop striving to attain what I saw as mommy superhero status as I had defined it. The past few years I've been doing the same thing, only with families. It's one thing to look up to people, but it's another to try to look LIKE other people. There are many great aspects of other families that I would love to reflect both in personality, status and accomplishment but the Lord has been showing me that this can be like a magazine in my mind that I let breed discontentment in my situation or restlessness in what He has called ME to. It's funny to me to think that when I was a teen, there was a Christian t-shirt that my parents got me which read: "Be yourself! It's better than a copy!" We really push that when we want teens to not conform to worldliness or patterns of behavior of their peers. Yet, I fight the urge to do the same thing now! It may be within the Christian circles with whom I mingle, but it's still not healthy at all. I've realized that I don't have some of the same resources personality wise and tangible wise, to what some great families do but that does not mean God cannot do great things through who WE are as a family. That is my hearts desire and to be thankful for the resources he HAS given us. My husband is not everyone else's husband, my children are not so and so's children, they are my gifts from God unique to the sphere of this home and upbringing. I want to stop flipping through the magazine I create in my mind.

Emma's Birthday!
Tonight (I started this blog two days ago and am just now finishing it on the 11th! So much for "five minutes!" ha!) Emma is having three friends over for a birthday sleepover. They are going to have pizza, and make sugar cookies to decorate. The sprinkles are NOT Christmas! We have to try so hard to keep the girls birthdays a little oasis from Christmas. She is very excited. I'm bracing myself for being very tired. Somehow I threw my neck out four days ago and it has not been the same since. I'm on tylenol constantly right now. So, hopefully the girls rest well. We just found out only one is actually staying the night so it should not be too bad.

The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe!
We took Victoria for an early birthday present to see this live at the PCPA theaterfest! It was her first live experience. This story is a challenge to put on live and for what they had to accomplish I felt they did pretty well. Of course, it was my dream to go into live theater both in acting and directing, so I had a few pointers for them that they never heard, but my husband did. :) Still, it was such a fun afternoon with our growing girl! One thing that struck me like it never had in the story was that the Professor says to Susan and Peter the fact that either their sister was insane, a liar, or was telling the truth. Now, who reading here knows why that is significant? Comment. ;)

The New Year!
For the fist time EVER in my life I am SO excited about the new year to come! Why should I not be?! My position in Christ is secure! Heaven awaits, death holds no fear, everything good comes from his hand! Trials will come and he will strengthen! I will fail, and he will use it! I will grow and He will use it! I have all the riches I need in Christ! I REALLY FELT the verse in Proverbs 31 about laughing at the days to come. That is really how I feel right now! I may not look all so spiritual, I may struggle, and I may not look like a gentle and quiet spirit if you know me, but the truth of that statement is something deeper than the surface. I am still and quiet in Him and I delight at anything to come! I'm not sure I could say that years ago. Even this year I had been so enveloped with fears as to how some things will turn out, what was around the corner. My dad's death did not scare me, but it did teach me that YOU NEVER KNOW what lies ahead. That produced a type of somber spirit in me. Now I feel the joy of the morning, the dawning of the day approaching and I know that nothing can snuff that out in my life because the hope, the dawn, the joy are not my circumstances, but my Savior!