Memoria Arts~ Life in the Making

The Christmas Re-Cap...

I have to confess that Christmas felt a little weird for me this year. I have always been drive-my-husband-bonkers-crazy-in-love-with-Christmas. Especially the Christmas music- I'd play it in July if my family would let me. 

This year, not so much.

On one hand, I enjoyed the extra time of bible study and prayer that always accompanies Advent. I always feel so much quieter and peaceful during the Advent season. But Christmas? The music, the smells, the look and feel of the season? So not working this year. It stressed me out big time. It feels so weird to say that, me-who-loves-all-things-Christmas...

Anywhoo.

The kids, on the other hand, had quite the blast.

They always get spoiled rotten by their grandparents. It's delightful to watch their out and out glee as they get something they've been wishing and hoping and praying for all year round; there is something about bringing that kind of delight to a child. Ben and Isaiah really like their just-like-daddy farm/work boots.(John Deere brand, of course!) Lorelei loved the new doll baby and stroller she recieved. (It is absolutely hilarious to see her have three babies in her sling on her front, back, and hip, and then another four piled into the two seater stroller! Two are usually upside down and at least one is totally devoid of clothes. I get to giggling every time I see her do it!) And David, as usual, enjoyed everything he got, but he really enjoyed the big box that came with a present. He has literally played with it non-stop since Christmas day. So next year, we figure we'll just get him some different sizes of cardboard boxes. *grin*

Here's a smattering of pictures from the fun:

(I love the one of David, even though it's horribly blurry.)

 


 
  Yup. Our Christmas was about all things barn-related. The boys really want to know just when we will be moving to a farm...it may be sooner than we all thought! 

So, about that snow...

 
You know, that snow that the boys were so excited about? 

As most of the East coast knows...it started, and then it didn't STOP. Snow and snow and snow, as Lorelei said! Now I know you Northerners are laughing away at us, you who see snow on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, probably ad nauseam, but down here, this is a *big* deal! 

For an area that doesn't see much snow, getting a big snow has one unfortunate side affect- lack of electricity. Our power went out late Friday night, and thankfully returned a few hours later, but a lot of people in our area were without power and water for three days in freezing temperatures. Not good! We had another family of seven whom we know through our homeschooling co-op stay with us Sunday night so that they could get warm and have some "real" food after being in the cold for two days. Brrrrrrr! Their youngest little girl was so happy about the warm bath she'd get- it was all she could talk about until she got one. It made me laugh. There are a few greater pleasures than a warm bath on a cold night, for sure. 

Our weekend plans were totally upended by the storm, but the 'new plans' were infinitely better. We've had so much fun! It was nice to just play and laugh and eat and sleep- somewhat in that order- without lots of other things pressing in. We still haven't built our gingerbread barn, but that is No.1 on our list of things we want to do today. 

My "other" list- the one I've pretty much chucked out the window at this point- is probably going to stay that way. Our Christmas card has yet to be dealt with, among other things. And I wouldn't brave the post office if you paid me good money to do it! I will happily wait until next Monday, when things will be a lot more sane. 

In other news, Life in the Making is moving, very soon. Probably around the first of year. It was/is an early Christmas present from my talented tech-y husband. Don't worry, I'll give you plenty of time to re-point your RSS feeds and all that jazz. I am really excited about what is coming next for the blog- I hope you all enjoy it too. We've been working on it and planning the change for a few months now- some goodies and fun things planned!

 
 

Everything bright and beautiful...

 

Oh who am I kidding? 

It's joyful chaos around here. Love it! 

Right now the kids are playing "Ace of Cakes" and making dinosaur and  princess cakes. Heeeee. Our whole family has a little bit of an obsession for Duff and his whole cake crew. If a "Ace" marathon happens on Food Network, we all pile up on the futon down stairs and watch and giggle. The things you can do with gum paste!

In true fashion, we're going to attempt to make a gingerbread barn tomorrow. I feel sorry for my kitchen counter already. The last gingerbread thing we made was a train at Grandma's house last year. She was wiping blue and green piping frosting from underneath the tables and counters for a few days. Beware the unwitting soul with light colored pants that slid underneath the table at dinner! I still laugh thinking about it!

For his birthday activity, Isaiah really wanted to go to the local light show near us. Two something miles of christmas light displays in all sorts of fantastic shapes- dinosaurs, snow men makers, even a volcano with fire at the top! The kids were in wide eyed wonder the whole time. I personally think it was more fun to watch their faces than the lights. David's eyes where about to pop out of his head- it was like he was trying to look everywhere at once. The hot funnel cake at the end wasn't too shabby either. 

Ever the good mama, I have to go digging for hats and gloves and boots for all the snow that is being predicted for this weekend. I've only been reminded of this wonderful storm warning fourteen bajillion times in the last hour by certain boys who are beyond excited at this possibility. 

It's beginning to look (and sound, and taste) a lot like Christmas!

Emerg-en-C(e)...

Glub.

We're emerging from the goo, the ick, the whatever you want to call it.

I hate, hate, hate upper respiratory bugs with a passion.

---

At least the house is (Clorox-ed within an inch of its' life) clean. And the laundry (previously beset with germy goo) is done. Like empty baskets, done. This should be worthy of trumpets and public service announcements, parades, and...of course...chocolate. 

---

Did I mention I have a love/hate relationship with the Children's Emergency room? I mean, I love that they are there. But I really would like to go a season without seeing those lovely people. Josiah had what I thought was the croup. He sounded awful, but it was all good. And then all of the sudden, Thursday night, he turned. Just like a certain daddy of his. The most unholy sounds coming out of a four and a half month old. Needless to say, I got myself to the ER right away. They met me at the double doors and took him into trauma (he sounded that bad!)- usually you have to sign in, fill out paper work, you know, the red tape parade. Not this time. Straight back. The nurses and doctors were reacting quickly. We were beyond suprised when his SpO2 levels came back at 96%.  We all sort of sat back and went "oh!" and me, I was thanking the Lord that everything was "fine", for the moment, because when Daddy sounds like that, his oxygen saturation levels are usually bottoming out in the low 20s! A couple of x-rays, monitors, and the whole kit and caboodle later, they really think that he did not, in fact, have croup, but did, it appears, have the same sort of nasty (rare) asthma that his daddy does. I confirm that diagnosis- the symptoms are too eerily similar (and scary). I am thankful that he is okay, but yet bummed that he is going to have to deal with this for the rest of his life. The diagnosis, thankfully, isn't going to be a huge change for us, since we already deal with Daddy's asthma on a daily basis- the line for the nebulizer is just going to get a bit longer. 

Father Tim (of Mitford fame) says that he is quite convinced that Paul's thorn was diabetes. I beg to differ. At least for our family, it is plain to see that our thorn is definitely upper respiratory viruses coupled with constrictive asthma. ~grins~ I was able to finish the series (again) while holding and rocking and nursing and administering treatments...

David had another(!) double ear infection in the goo of last week. It seems like every time we all get the crud, his goes straight to his ears. We're definitely going to have to look deeper into that after the new year- his pediatrician has mentioned putting tubes in- and I am praying we can find a more natural solution.

---

Me? I'm popping Emergen-C and praying that the Lord keeps me hale and hearty. I always seem to crash after everyone gets better- I'd like to avoid the whole process all together this time! 

I figure, a good nap and some hot chocolate (made with goat's milk, of course) and I'll be alright. 

I won't even think about all the Christmas stuff left undone- Isaiah's birthday is Thursday- and just smile and admire our (partially-denuded) tree. 

Be back soon! (I hope.)

Patience and burnout...

 

I edged ever so close to the precipice of burnout. Or maybe I did slide off the edge and the many prayers caught me...I am just thankful for friends that gathered close and held on tight.

It's hard to quantify what I've been struggling with lately. Trying to find the balance for our family. It's been pretty difficult, and physical rest has been elusive. It's the reality of newborn-hood, as we all know, but when there are other kids in the mix, and homeschooling, and, and, and...we've been doing a lot of subtracting around here.

But this is the thing...

Part of the reason I end up in this feet over head, wind-knocked-out position is I am so rarely patient with myself.

Instead of accepting the fact that this is an intense season (that will be over all too quickly) and acting accordingly, I try to act as if everything is normal. Which it's not. 

I realized this, oddly enough, while poking around on a homeschooling web site. They had a tab which said something to the affect of "emergency homeschooling". The description read something along the lines of "use these recommendations when the situation is unusual- a medical illness, a new baby, transferring a child from public school to homeschooling..."

Now some of you are probably thinking, "DUH!"

Did I mention I have a thick head?

And, hello? What got me into this totally spazzed out, look-at-me-funny-and-I'm-gonna-cry, overwhelmed place was clearly not working. There has been some subtraction going on, removing obligations and other things in an attempt to make the equation balance, but we were already pretty bare bones as it is.

Can I just say? If you find yourself in this position, please be vulnerable and honest enough to seek out some council. I've hit burnout probably about three times now in the last year and a half. Not good odds. (And in my defense, this has been an incredibly rough 18 months!) But this time was the first time I went "timmmmmmmme ooooooooooouttttt!" for one, and it is also the first time I have been brutally honest with some close friends about where I am at. I've also spent extended time in prayer. (Again, DUH, but, well...I haven't been so good about this over the years.)

I've resisted seeking council before. It's difficult- to open yourself up, to admit that things aren't going as well as you've hoped. It's a pretty vulnerable place to be. And still, I wouldn't open myself up like that to just anybody. But the reason council is important is because they are outside the situation. Sometimes you get just too far in to be able to see straight. You're looking at the intricate detail of a bark pattern on one tree in the clearing, and close friends are seeing the whole forest. It amazed me how quickly my vision cleared as my friends began to set things 'to rights'. They could put things in proper perspective, give things the right weight and measure. To whit, part of the burden lifted just by being able to sort of talk it all out, lay out the pieces of the puzzle.

I don't know where we are headed quite yet. I'm not quite sure what our "emergency procedures" need to be until we can achieve some balance. But I am so thankful that I am not alone in this journey!

If you're struggling with some of this, I can't reccommend this post by Jennifer Fulwiler (Conversion Diary) enough: The Ultimate Burnout Survival Guide.

Bits and bobs...

Definitely in the process of getting back into the groove here. It seems it has taken the whole week coming back from vacation to find my marbles again. I realize it's just a natural part of being a large family and having so many logistical things to attend to- finding myself more patient with the whole process. Could I really be losing some of my type A tendencies? I sure hope so!

Loved sitting down with a hot cup of coffee (another miracle around here- my coffee never gets consumed hot!) and reading through a back log of two weeks worth of blog posts in Reader. I don't miss blogs while I am "away", but I definitely enjoy them when I get "back". It's like having a magazine written just for me and my tastes. I do think I'll have to re-evaluate my subscriptions though- having 650 posts staring at me after less than two weeks really surprised me. It helped me realize which blogs I really like and which I sorta just read for reading's sake, because those I tended to skip right over and marked them as read. 

Here's a smattering of what I enjoyed (and don't forget that you can Follow my Shared items feed if you like my collection), a few bits and bobs:

Oh! to be patient by Elizabeth Foss.

Beth of Bethgem and Anna of Pleasant View Schoolhouse are donating all of their Etsy shop proceeds to help Kimmie of Over the Moon with Joy bring home their adopted Ethiopian daughter. More details here.

Heidi (Stonefox) of Moms, Ministry, and More is hosting the Candle in the Corner giveaway. Very cool idea...go hope on over there and participate! (HT: Ann Voskamp@Holy Experience)

The Homeschool Blog Awards are here again.

I loved Aimee's Home as a B&B series , particularly after just having returned from vacation. So many ideas to try!

Well, hello again...

Thank you for the birthday well wishes!

Well, a couple of days turned into a week, and then that week turned into two and I never did get a chance to slip into my little place here.

It felt good to be apart from here and it feels good to be back. 

It was the turning of a season. In the last few weeks we went from newborn to baby groove, started our second year of homeschooling, and cheered my husband on as he finished up his thesis and other requirements for graduation. A little girl started (and has almost finished) potty training. I look back on all the work put in these last few weeks and feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment at what has been done. I am so proud of James- I can't wait to see him cross that stage and receive his degree with accolades. It has been a long, hard-fought journey over the last two years. He will graduate with honors. I think there should be another stole around his neck that stands for 'going through the fire while being a wonderful, thoughtful father and husband'. I wish I had a picture of the many times he has been up late studying with a textbook on one side and one of our little ones in his arms, rocking them back to sleep. I am sure it will feel strange to us both to no longer have the college a part of our family life- one or both of us has been in school for the last ten years, juggling home and work and family- a chapter of our lives has drawn to a close.

What next?

Go slowly into that good purpose, whatever it may be (apologies to Dylan Thomas). There is a weight of decisions before us- some job related, some financial, some things to consider for our family. In short- it's time to grow up. *laughter* Seriously, though, we opened the previous chapter of our lives with very little forethought or prayer, and we'd like these next ten years to be God-lead at the first instead of at the last. 

All things considered, I feel excitement and joy at what is around the bend. It's that "tingling in your tummy", as Pooh says, although mine is about what God has in store instead of the prospect of a yummy pot of honey...

Arrivals and departures, nesting instincts, and the weather...

I realized that I have not taken many pictures lately...very strange feeling for this 'you can never take too many pictures of anything especially life events' person. Gracious, I was so unprepared for my brother's graduation that I was stuck taking pictures on my cell phone. That's gotta change!

Life has been happening though, even if I don't have the pictures to 'prove' it. I really wish I did though, because then you can understand what a huge accomplishment this last week has been. I can't believe it's over, really. I can't believe "THE LIST" doesn't exist anymore. It had sort of become this running joke and a burden around the neck at the same time...

There is this sort of random 'to-do' list that has been hanging out in some form for at least two years or so. Some would call it a 'honey do' list. It was like this "all this stuff that needs to be done but never gets done because we never have the time or the right weather" list that kept getting longer and longer and longer. House maintenance stuff. Sanity stuff (you know, being able to find what you're looking for type of things). Kid stuff long since sorted to be donated but never taken to the donation center. The black hole otherwise known as the garage. You know, that kind of stuff.

Four pick up truck loads later....

It was like everything finally came together. A stretch of sunny, temperate days in the low seventies. No obligations or appointments (probably half the battle right there). The chance to borrow a truck from a friend, and a gift card from Father's Day for the materials needed.

I swear I have a new house.

In no particular order-
- the front garden got weeded and new perennials put in. (Hasn't been done in a year- the last time it had been done, my mother and the boys did it as a treat while I was recovering from the miscarriage last year.)
- the vegetable garden finally became a garden and not a collection of above ground boxes- mulched, with paths! No more stubborn prickly weeds to poke at me when I go to harvest veggies. Really wondering what's up with my tomatoes though. The squash and zucchini, on the other hand, are doing just fine. More than fine. More like monsters taking over every available inch of soil fine. But I'm down with that- that's why I made sure they had their very own boxes!
- the deck got stained and sealed. *ahem* We've been trying to get this done since the first spring we moved in the house. Four years ago. It never happened- either it rained, the deck was too wet, the weather was too cold or too hot (stain is notoriously finicky) or we didn't have a long enough stretch of days for the crazy thing to dry. Or if we did, neither James nor I could do it because of work or school or some other such thing. It's hard not to laugh about it now.
- in similar vein, the deck got repaired. All the pickets the boys had kicked out or broken, the nails that had worked their way out (seriously, who builds a deck with nails? The top deck was built by the contractor that built the house- which sort of makes me nervous. The bottom two were built by a family friend who used the proper supplies and actually anchored it to the house, like you should.) I am so glad this is done...it was getting to the point that I was downright nervous about letting the boys go out back because of all the broken parts and random sharp edges.
- which leads me to the 'junk wood' pile under the deck, left over from building the deck. Finally gone, and haven to spiders no more. No more chicken wire (from our first attempt at raised-box gardening), no more broken equipment.
- The trim on our house got painted. A bad hail storm, what maybe two years ago now, really did a number on all the painted trim on our house. The siding was fine (it's some sort of composite) but all the wood took quite a beating. Our front door still looks awful, but we're going to have to wait a while longer to replace it. But the paint was starting to chip off of everything in chunks. It was again, one of those things. Never quite having the right weather or when we did, not having enough time! I was so nervous about the babies finding the chips and putting them in their mouth.
(What's awful about all this is that this house is 'brand new'- only four years old. A lot of this 'to-do' list, with the exception of staining the deck, was repairing damage from that hail storm that just hadn't happened because of time or financial constraints.)

It sort of snowballed.

All this outside work made us realize that the bullet had to be bitten and we had to finally face the black hole otherwise known as the garage. Now, I've talked about this before...we had this sort of clutter pile collected from the last move that really hadn't been dealt with that was finally slain in January. But the remains of the day, all the bags of things to donate, somehow never got out of the garage. And the stuff we still needed to store hadn't quite been organized or stored properly. It was sort of piled in the corner. No more! I now know exactly what is stored now and where. Made life so much easier as I was accessing what I needed to 'find' for Bean's arrival.  James can't get over the fact that there really is a Mustang under there somewhere and that there really is that much space in the garage. His 'toys' are now accessible. *laughter*

Which leads me to my mudroom/laundry room/small corner of the garage. Which I finally arranged to suit my needs. After four years. *ahem* Do you sense a theme here?

I'm telling you, a whole new house.

Some of you are laughing hysterically by now, I'm sure, especially if you know me offline and have actually seen said house and know what I am talking about...and some of you are laughing because you know it's all just nesting....and maybe I am making some of you feel better for not getting through your own honey-do lists for years and years...

So I have my OB appointment yesterday, and the running joke between my husband, my mother, and I was now that all the nesting stuff had been accomplished, I certainly was going to have something going on in the baby department. NOT. A. THING. Bean is just baking away and not the least bit interested in saying hello. That was yesterday.

Today? We began to wonder. Lots of contractions (that did absolutely nothing but make me miserable). So now the bets are on...when do you think Bean will arrive? My due date is the 31st, but I've never made it past 37 weeks...

Don't let me forget to tell you all about Lorelei's adventures with Bendadryl cream....that's a whole 'nother story. And a whole 'nother cleaning adventure.

Thawing out...

    I've decided I am not cut out for country living. If it hadn't been for our good friends, the P.'s, we would not have made it through the day, with no water, no way to wash dishes, flush toilets, run laundry, or (my personal favorite) no hot showers. We should have thought about the fact that the pipes could freeze last night, especially with NOAA warning of extreme cold temperatures- but for some reason, it didn't register. What is sort of interesting, as well, is that every night but Sundays, the dishwasher and washer often run well into the night. But Sundays are my day off, so neither of them were used. That might have helped to stave off the freezing, but with it being a Sunday... Stranger still, the pipe froze between the main (city water) and our house at the main valve leading in. None of the pipes were frozen inside the house. It took all day for it to thaw out- we finally got water back around 5:30 pm tonight. Mr. P and James think that our main water pipe was not buried below the frost line when the house was built. Sounds like another project that will have to be looked at this summer! Thank heavens, though, that nothing burst or cracked, which is common with PVC pipe...that would have been a huge mess we could not have afforded.
    I find it funny- you wouldn't really think about all the things you use water for, particularly on a cold day, but good gracious! You really do use it for everything. Not having a shower, bearable. But you know, in the early morning fog of realizing the pipes are frozen, you don't think about the need to flush toilets...or even to wash your hands. I got something sticky all over my hands mid-morningish, and like a total dork, went to wash them off, totally forgetting about the water. And then, I sort of stood there and stared at the faucet blankly. OH, that's why it was such a morning. No water=no coffee, which means mommy was flying blind and foggy. *laughter* All's well that ends well, thank goodness.

Baby, it's cold outside.

Be careful what you wish for. The rain is gone, the sun is out, and it's fifteen degrees (F). Which is what, -10 Celsius? I should be able to remember, but my neurons are frozen. So are our pipes: on Monday, laundry day. This is gonna be interesting! I'll let you know how it goes, but it's not looking too good right now.