Perfectly Ordinary

My friend often compares the everyday routine to the movie Groundhog Day and sometimes I feel the same. Breakfast, carpools, homework, dinner, dishes, laundry, bedtime routines. Sometimes it's hard to see the beauty in the everyday tasks and often even dread.

Take a minute (or 7) and watch this video.....May I never complain again about tangles in curly-unruly hair, or the Barbies scattered all over the floors. I hope I can cherish the dirty handprints on my walls and muddy shoes brought through my house instead of getting angry. More importantly, I hope I can see the beauty and the memories in the "perfectly ordinary" days.

Next time I will cut my celery smaller

Isn't it funny how God will use one circumstance in your life to prepare you for another. I never in a million years thought that the time I stuck the blue bead up my nose would somehow prepare me for an experience 31 years later.

As Sophia would begin,....Picture it. Small town, yellow house, 1978, a young girl and her big sister....There I was in my sister's room, about 5 years old, going through her sewing basket. She had the neatest sewing basket with all kinds of little scraps of fabric, colored thread and tiny beads. She was very creative. She made most of our Barbie clothes and furniture just by using household items. I'll never forget that. I'll also never forget this particular day. So, I was going through her sewing basket and I found a tee-tiny blue bead. I decided to be funny. I stuck the bead right at my nostril and called for my sister to look. She did. She laughed. I laughed. I sucked the bead (accidentally) up my nose. Far. I panicked. My sister's eyes were as big as saucers looking at me. She was quick thinking though and told me to put one finger on the other nostril to close it and blow really hard. I did. Hard. That blue bead shot right out of my nose and hit the opposite wall of her bedroom. I'm not sure what we did after that..laugh or cry. Can't remember that part, but I'll never forget shooting that blue bead out of my nose that day.

How did this prepare me for later?...Picture it. Small town, white house, mom and her 2 year old son eating lunch. I gave J some chicken salad, tomatoes, and grapes for lunch yesterday. (Isn't this weird that he likes food like this?) I stuck him in his chair to eat and I went back to work on the computer to finish my last file for the day. All of a sudden, I hear a cry from J. An "I'm hurt" cry. I run into the room and his little eyes are watering. I see chicken salad coming from his nose. "Oh no he didn't," I thought. I got a paper towel, held the opposite nostril and said, "Blow J". He did. I retrieved a little chicken. "Blow again J. Hard." He did, and when he did a big piece of celery descended down his passage to his nostril. "Oh no he didn't," I thought again. In fear that he would get upset, cry and suck it back up again, I quickly told him to "Blow" again. This time I was able to get my fingernails and grasp the piece of celery and wedge it out of his nostril.
Whew! No trips to the ER to retrieve celery from the nose!

Not exactly the same story because the celery didn't shoot across the room like my blue bead did, but it did help me to remain calm and know what to do. (I'm sure any moron could have figured out what to do as well, but it makes for a story)

There are so many stories I could tell about J. Every single day, many times a day, this little curious boy does something crazy. I am not prepared for most of them that's for sure, but I can say that life is always exciting (sometimes frustrating) with this little guy around! It's an adventure every day.

Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas here at our house. It might be my favorite Christmas so far. The 3 kids seem to be at great ages (9,6, and 2) and it just made for a very fun Christmas morning. I wish I could capture the magic and the joy and have that every Christmas.

Both girls got American Girls and some other requests. J got his few items and more on his wish list as well. The weeks leading up to Christmas if you asked J if Santa was going to come see him, he would say, "Yes," and then just start repeating over and over the same few things,"Choo-choo, twuck, boat." It was the most precious thing!

A few Christmas memories:

SNOW !

I have a lot to catch up on here including our Christmas. Pictures and posts will follow, but I couldn't help but share in our joy today. Here in Northwest Ga we are experiencing the rare snow flurries and we actually have had a little (teeny tiny) bit of accumulation. My kids are thrilled and we are enjoying it so much. I couldn't help but snap a few pictures of my kids as well as neighbors that were enjoying the scenery this afternoon. Poor K attempted a snow angel on the little bit of snow that had collected in our driveway. It actually looked like an angel. I have no idea what they would do if they had the opportunity to play in actual INCHES of snow!

My Dad and step-mother are feeling sorry for us I am sure, as they have over 2 feet of snow currently in Vermont. I think it's time I take my kids for some frolic in VT snow soon!

Pointy

So apparently our Elf, "Pointy", is a blog reader. He got this idea from "Otto" over at Lotts of Scotts.




I was slightly disappointed that our elf was influenced by his peers. For you see our elf was not a mischievous elf, the kind that makes messes and plays tricks. We didn't read that in our Elf On The Shelf book. However, all the other kids, or elves rather, are doing it, so ours felt led to fit in. Peer pressure is a real thing I tell you.

I think that might be the one and only "trick" he will play this Christmas season. I can at least allow one ever season I guess, but I would much rather see him just find a cute spot to land after he returns home from the night before and my kids try to find him.

Let's Play A Little Catch Up

This year has been challenging on so many different levels.

First, my oldest daughter, M was diagnosed in February with a type of epilepsy. We are thankful that it is nothing more serious, but we still wish we could take it away.

Also affecting M, was the loss of her assistant principal, and best friend's mother, Jill, in the summer. That brought along a lot of changes for the school year. Her best friend no longer attends the same school and quite frankly within the past 2 years she has lost several really good friends because they moved away. This was a big blow, though, and it's been a hard first half of the school year because of it.

Earlier in the year I learned that I have some kidney problems. Actually, not really problems, but a type of kidney disease. Once again, we are thankful that it isn't anything more serious. The doctor said that usually people aren't ever even diagnosed with this because they never know they have it. She also said that usually nobody with it ever loses kidney function and they live a normal life. The doctor will monitor me every year making sure everything is still working properly.

Recently, we learned that my mother in law had breast cancer. Thankfully it was self detected very early. She has had a lumpectomy about a week ago and will begin radiation very soon. The doctors are very optimistic that she won't even need chemotherapy for treatment. We are all relieved with the good news, but still trying to settle down from the dreaded "C" word.

Again, we are so very thankful that all of these things have turned out to be ok and that we are all (relatively) healthy. It just seems as if worry has been a big part of my life this year waiting for news for all of these things. I know that God is in control and that I shouldn't worry, but that is very hard for me. God is good, and He has helped carry us through all of these things this year. I am being optimistic that 2010 will be a better year, with less worry and more good news.

The holidays are upon us, my shopping is just about done and my Christmas decorations are hung. I am sitting tonight feeling very overwhelmed with thankfulness and looking forward to this Christmas season with my family.

Halloween

I guess I need to try to better about staying caught up with my blog especially with the holidays approaching. It's sort of like the scrapbook I need to finish and the scrapbook that I haven't even started yet for my son and he's two! It's also like the closet I need to clean and the junk drawer that needs to be dumped. I often find myself wishing I had just one more day a week that I could devote only to these things. I guess I'll catch up....eventually.

Halloween has come and gone and we had a lot of fun. This year M wanted to be something scary instead of something cute. I remember getting to that age myself so I obliged, although I much rather see a clown or princess over a goth girl ANY day.




K was my Supergirl. I thought she looked adorable. I also wish I had her legs!



and J, he was my Superman. I couldn't get him to stand still long enough to get his face in the picture. He was too busy trying to get to the next house because this year he figured out what Halloween was all about...CANDY! He has been thrilled ever since and wanting candy for breakfast every morning.

Here is this picture, though, of J's face a day or so before Halloween. I think he was thinking about a costume change at the last minute. I love this picture:



We had over our friends for dinner on Halloween and their kids went Trick Or Treating with us, which has become an annual tradition for our families. It is really nice to share fun times with good friends.


I made the dinner for the kids. We had monster toes:


Witches Fingers:

And monster mouths:

The kids had fun eating it and I had fun making it all for them.

Now...on to the next holiday. I'm going to slow down and enjoy it!

Fall Break

I am a little behind posting this and I have no excuse except that it's really chilly here and I would prefer to stay on the sofa curled up in my Snuggie rather than doing my work or chores around the house. But the world keeps turning and apparently 4 people that live with me need my assistance with keeping their world turning as well so I oblige.

It was nice to have a Fall Break a couple of weeks ago with the kids out of school and my hubby off work. We took a little trip to the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee aka PCB of the high country. Literally, there was something on every corner and in every crevice of that place. Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are filled with places to spend plenty of money on all sorts of things from Daniel Boone caps to Indian headdresses, a magnet for just about anything you can think of to a Dolly sucker. I am not even teasing about the later. There was actually a sucker made out of white chocolate of Dolly Parton from the chest up. I'll leave that to your imagination, rather than explaining further.

Our friend M and her daughter HR went along on our adventure to the mountains. It was so nice to have a playmate for my girls and it was even nicer to have 2 Moms on vacation. I've always needed another Mom around to help. I lived my dream for 3 days.

There is so much there to do in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg that it's hard to decide what to actually do. Do we go to the comedy barn, which looks like Hee-Haw made over, do we go see part monkey/part fish at Ripley's Believe It Or Not, or do we choose to eat giant turkey legs while watching a lot of horses run around at the Dixie Stampede? Decisions, decisions. We chose Dollywood for a day which proved to be very nice. We rode a lot of rides, some of them riding more than once. It wasn't crowded and the weather was nice. Some of the roller coasters were the best that I have ever ridden!












On our second day there we just strolled downtown Gatlinburg taking our time going in and out of stores and finally making our way to Ripley's Believe It Or Not. That place had me hook line and sinker when I saw the mannequin boy with the horn coming out of the back of his head going up and down on a rope. I just had to see more. And I could have spent all day looking in the funny mirror in that place. That was hysterical and in some angles very nice. By the way, I look pretty good at 6 foot and 90 pounds.





We also just had some good times at our cabin. The scenery was nice, the hot tub was relaxing and the game room was fun. Oh, and the beds there were so very comfortable and cozy.




It was a nice trip and a great opportunity to get away from it all.

Oh, and apparently my kids are much smaller in the mountains than they are here....BELIEVE IT.....OR NOT!