Doctor Seuss Was Right

"Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened." ~ Dr. Seuss

This spring I am experiencing God's grace for the season I am in. Up until this year, when I thought about Hannah graduating high school, I just knew I would cry so much as all the Senior rites of passage occurred. I could even tear up a little anticipating all the feelings. 

But I haven't cried at all. (Yet. I still have Senior Sunday at church and her Gradation Celebration to go.) And I wondered why I would tear up thinking about Hannah's graduation when she was a sophomore or junior but not now that it's actually happening. After all, so many things are now over.

I think the answer is that when I would anticipate her graduation in advance, high school wasn't over. We still had so much left to do and experience.  The last couple of years have given us chances for her to develop more freedom and independence, which she has used wisely and well. And we have begun that beautiful transition from just mother-daughter to true friends. God has allowed our family to grow into being ready to close the high school chapter of Hannah's life and open the college chapter. 

So, even though so many familiar things are over, I can be happy that my daughter is graduating as a smart, caring, Jesus-loving, responsible, amazing young woman. That is truly something to smile about!

2010: Some Retrospective Lists

The beginning of a new year is often a time of reflection of the past year and thoughts of changes in the new year.  The beginning of our year was just survival mode.  Paul went to Passion on New Year's Day.  The girls and I tried to recover from staying up WAY too late on New Year's Eve!  Then we started the routines of school, dance practice, and piano lessons.  And I washed dishes by hand because our dishwasher is still broken!  All that to say that it's already January 7th and I'm just now thinking about 2010.

2010 had a lot of lasts for us:

*Last Daddy/Daughter Valentine banquet.  (It would have been the last even had we remained at that church; they'll be too old this year.) 

*Last time to watch my younger 3 girls sing at the children's musical at our old church.

*Last AWANA award ceremony.  

*Last time to go to camp with our old church.

*Last Sunday at our old church.

*Last time for me to teach high school girls there.

*Maybe our last swim lessons.

*Last time to have to make overseas calls to talk to my sister.  (I hope!)


It also had some firsts:


*First time to plant a church!


*First year of middle school for Hope!


*First time to see the Riverwalk in San Antonio at Christmas time!


*First time to host all of my family for Christmas!


*First time to go to Disney World!!! (Which will get a whole post of its own very soon.  Even though it happened way back in May and June.)


And, of course, many things remained the same:


*Dance practices


*Piano lessons


*Recitals


*Our crazy dog


*Our sweet cat


*Homeschooling


I'm kind of hoping that 2011 is a little more predictable than 2010.  Well, except for the awesome vacation part!  That was not something that was on my radar in January of 2010.  But I know I can trust God when things change or when they remain the same.

A Lot of Words and a Few Pictures about the Last Couple of Months

The last few weeks, I've been so busy living life that I haven't had time to blog about it!  So, for posterity's sake, here's a brief chronicle of the end of November and December.

* I attended a terrific women's conference at our old church.  The speaker was wonderful, and I really enjoyed seeing friends I haven't seen in a while. 

* I celebrated my 40th birthday.  I can't believe I'm that old!  Paul and the girls took me out for Tex-Mex and made me a cake.  Some of the sweet ladies from church made a video for me, too.

* We had a small Thanksgiving celebration with just our family.  We watched the Macy's parade, ate a fabulous meal, and then one of Paul's brothers and his family came over for a while.  We also put up our tree and our indoor decorations!

* One of my birthday presents was a trip to San Antonio!  I've never seen the Riverwalk all decked out for Christmas, and was so happy to finally get the chance!  We ate great Tex-Mex, took in some history, visited with some new and some old friends, and saw the zoo.  I didn't realize how much I needed a break until I got one!

* I had a fun evening at a cookie exchange with some of my friends.

* I helped Faith and Hope with their presentations for 4-H Demonstration Day.  They won first place on the demonstration they did as a team and Faith won second and Hope won third on their individual demonstrations.

*  The girls and I went to see Tangled and absolutely loved it!  Paul joined us when we saw The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  It was another great movie.

*  Hope did an excellent job at her piano recital!  She played some the teacher version of the duets in her piano book and did such a good job!  I'm so proud!

*  We had fun with our Christmas traditions:  making gingerbread houses, looking at Christmas lights, lighting our Advent candles.

*  We opened our gifts the Tuesday before Christmas since my Mom was coming the next day.  The girls loved their presents, and I love my new Pandora bracelet!!

*  My Mom and my sister and her family came to our house for Christmas.  We had a full house, but we really did have a good time!  (And it motivated me to get my house cleaner than it's been in a while!) 

*  I spent lots of time bringing the Faith, Joy, and Grace to ballet practice for their performance in the Nutcracker!  To their great disappointment, we even had practices over Christmas break.  But those practices paid off!  All the girls did such a good job, and my three were fantastic!!  My Mom, my sister, and my niece got to come to the performance.  It was so much fun watching my ballerinas perform and do so well!!


* We hosted a fun Christmas party at our house for our church family.  (It would have been even more fun if my dishwasher weren't broken!)

I Think I Need Another Break!

Thanksgiving Break wasn’t much of a break in our house. We spent several days getting ready for and then performing in the Great Russian Nutcracker. And by we I mean Faith, Joy, and Grace. I just ferried them to the studio and the theater and made buns and bought tights and such. The girls all did such a great job! And afterward Faith and I went to the cast party at our dance instructor’s home. Joy and Grace went home with Hope, Daddy, and Nana. Because for them mingling with Russians doesn’t begin to compare with Nana time! Faith, however, appreciated the unique experience and was able to get many autographs.

I cooked a pretty good Thanksgiving dinner. But without turkey. We had ham and a rotisserie chicken along with homemade bread, cornbread dressing, and that sweet potato casserole with all the butter, pecans, and sugar. And pie, of course!

I was able to get some shopping done. Not the 4 am variety, but some realistic 8ish shopping. I really didn’t need much, but I was able to get my niece’s present and the little girls got some new jeans and leggings. Paul did get us a new TV! We now have a wonderful new flat screen!

We put up our tree on Thanksgiving day, much to the delight of the girls. They put on all of the ornaments themselves, and I must say they did a fine job! I love our tree. It won’t make Southern Living, but each ornament has a history and means something.

We went to a nearby Christmas tree farm as well. We have an artificial tree, but we all enjoy looking at the beautiful “real” trees, eating the biscuits and sausage, and riding on the hay ride.

The girls really liked the Snowman Tree!

Joy and Grace watching some syrup making!

Walking through the trees.

I want to write more, but there’s a piece of chocolate chip pecan pie calling my name! And I don’t think I can ignore it any longer!

Over the River and Through the Woods

Christmas came early in our house this year. My sister and her family were in from overseas during the week of Christmas, so we opened our gifts before we left to go see them. (Since the girls and I are rather fond of presents, this was really quite fun!) The girls each got an American Girl doll outfit. Faith got a bike and a CD. Hope got a certificate so her American Girl Josefina doll can get a new head and a purse. Joy and Grace got scooters, princess "piggy" banks, and wallets. They all got some Legos the share. I gave Paul a cool shirt and a photo book I had had printed. I got lots of Godiva chocolate covered pretzels (which are fabulous!), the A & E DVD set of Pride and Prejudice, and a really nice and beautiful ring! (I was expecting some costume jewelry and got a cool ring from a jeweler!)

(In the picture the stone looks blue, but it's really a white topaz.)

The next day we packed up to go to my mom's house. Food was a major theme of our visit. Whenever we go home there are certain restaurants my sister and I want to eat at. So we went out to eat 3 times in less than 5 days. And we were not disappointed. (Except when we stepped on the scale!) And my sister made a terrific chocolate chip pecan pie which I think I'll have to try very soon.

The cousins all had a great time playing! Her daughter and my girls hit it right off even though they hadn't seen each other in a year. And her son is a little over a year old and such a sweet, happy, and busy baby. The weather was nice for playing outside most days, and the girls had a lot of fun in the yard I grew up playing in.

Of course, there were LOTS of presents to be opened! The girls really enjoyed their gifts, and the baby enjoyed the paper! The dads made sure we opened the big tub of Lincoln Logs when the baby was asleep! And, of course, we gave the can of possum to my sister and her husband. We added a package of Larvets (The Original Worm Snax)to make it even more fun!
(I'm sure we'll get something even weirder next year! Living in another culture has its advantages!)

Our trip was completed by a trip to the American Girl Store, which was so cool it will be getting its own post.

A Full Fall

This year we seem to go from one season of activity to another! Our church does a Trunk or Treat on October 31, so I spent several days that month sewing Hope's costume. She wanted to dress up as Susan from the second Narnia movie, which is not a costume you're likely to find at your local Stuffmart. Fortunately, I have used this pattern twice before - for American Girls Felicity and Elizabeth, so I knew how to make it. Unfortunately I forgot that the amount of fabric that the pattern states you will need is not enough to actually make the dress! The fabric store took back the insufficient fabric, so we weren't out any extra money. The dress looks great, and Hope enjoyed wearing it. Joy and Grace dressed as fairies using some wings we bought and old ballet costumes. Faith and her friends had their own "Pajama Party" trunk, and dressed in their PJs. Paul and I were the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. We used some 90% off inflatables from the dollar store, a dollar eyepatch, and were able to put together pretty decent costumes from our closet!

October also saw the beginning of Nutcracker practices for Faith, Joy, and Grace. All three were cast in children's parts for the Moscow Ballet tour. The little ones had practice on a weekday, and we were able to carpool with a friend. Faith had Sunday practices, so we were hurrying to get home from church, eat lunch, and get to practice on time. But this is an amazing opportunity and so worth it!

So November has been full of ballet! (And piano for Hope, who chose piano over dance this year.)

More Excitement!

Like many others, we kept a very obsessive close eye on Ike as it entered the Gulf. The track varied widely before finally seeming to be headed for Galveston. That was only somewhat of a relief for us. Since Ike was such a big storm, our area was still forecast to have strong winds and flooding from the storm.

We knew the evacuees from the Galveston/Houston area would make an evacuation to my mom's house a very long journey. And since we would have to bring our pets anywhere we went, we decided to ride out the moderately bad weather we were likely to experience. And if the power was out for too long, we could always go later.

We spent Thursday and Friday making our preparations. Paul boarded up our businesses and our home (a task made far easier because we saved the wood he had cut in preparation for Gustav). We purchased food, water, flashlights, and batteries. I filled the tubs with water and gathered our candles. Then we waited. The wind blew. It rained some. Just as I was thinking that we would probably not lose electricity, the power went out. We had no power from about 12:30 am on Saturday morning until about 2:30 pm on Saturday afternoon. It wasn't the heat that was so bad, it was the humidity. Everything felt sticky! We were so thankful when the power came back on!

Other than the relatively brief loss of power and a few small limbs down, we had no damage. I feel extremely blessed, and I am praying for those in Galveston, Houston, and the other areas that had severe damage from Ike.

Excitement!

We've definitely had some exciting times as of late. I got to go to Living Proof Live in San Antonio in August. I had had my ticket for months, but the friends I had planned to go with were both unable to go. God provided another sweet group of ladies to ride to San Antonio with, and He totally blessed me! I loved hearing God speak through Beth that I am His heiress!!

I came home to a really painful throat infection. As I tried to recuperate, I had to get our family ready for Family Camp the following weekend. And in case that wasn't enough, it appeared that Gustav might be coming our way, so I had to prepare for a potential hurricane! Thankfully, the Z pack worked quickly, and I was able to pack for our trip and pack up for the hurricane without too much trouble. As we left for Family Camp on Friday, we still didn't know if the hurricane would come to our town, so we really looked like the Beverly Hillbillies - a Suburban packed FULL of stuff including 12 American Girl dolls, a box of pictures, a few momentos, a dog, a cat, and a gerbil! (The folks who ran the camp were nice enough to make an exception to the no pets rule!!)

We kept abreast of the hurricane via our laptop at camp, and shared the news with others who worried about being in Gustav's path. On Monday, we went to stay with friends who live about an hour away from the camp before heading home on Tuesday. The storm had not struck us, so we had no damage. However, as we settled back into our normal routines, it appeared that Ike might cause us some trouble. More about that next time!

What Time Is It...

It's summer time! We're on vacation! Life around here has been a great balance of activity and rest this summer.

We started our summer at the end of May with a family vacation to a nearby big city. We visited museums and the zoo and had a great time. My girls really enjoyed the space exhibit since we have studied space this year. Another favorite was the jewels and gems exhibit. All but Joy enjoyed the interactive butterfly exhibit. She was scared of the butterflies landing on her. The butterflies liked Paul best.

This one stayed on him for ten or fifteen minutes!

One landed in my hair, too.

We brought home some yummy snacks, too!

We really did buy a pack of Larvettes. The cheddar cheese variety. We've offered them to several friends, but so far, no one has eaten any! Go figure! We think they will complement the possum quite well. (What goes better with a can of "road kilt possum" than a pack of cheddar cheese Larvetts?!)

We recuperated from our vacation, worked on organizing our home (still a work in progress!), and then it was time for VBS. VBS week actually went smoothly, and no one got sick! Since then we've hosted and attended birthday parties and 4th of July parties. We've had a visit from Nana. We figured out Skype and talked to and SAW my sister who lives overseas! Way cool! Faith had a week of dance workshop at her ballet school, which was both challenging and rewarding.

And, of course, the girls have enjoyed swimming in our above ground pool and spending lots of time with friends. And we still have over a month of summer left!

I am so thankful for times of refreshing, like summer. These times help me rejuvenate and relax so I am ready for the busier seasons ahead. God is good!

Time Flies

April flew by, just like I knew it would. We actually had a great month. The ladies' conference at our church was uplifting and challenging. God is continuing to heal me from past hurts, but it's a long and on-going process. We were challenged to spend time with God first thing in the morning for two weeks, and I did it! My time with God has been rather hit and miss lately, so seeing how I could get up and have time with Him was a good thing. I wish I could say those two weeks set the pace for the rest of my month, but I have found myself waking up late far too often, so I need to get to bed earlier, so my mornings can start earlier!

My friends and I had a fun-filled whirlwind shopping day in the nearest big city. We hit an outlet mall, a regular mall, a great stand-alone department store, and a Tex-Mex restaurant. All in one day! I bought a few things and got some really good deals. But the best part was the fun we all had!

We capped off the month with the girls' dance recital. All four of them looked beautiful and were so graceful! This will probably be the last recital that all four girls dance in. Hope wants to take piano instead of dance next year. She really has not been fond of dance lessons the last couple of years, but she does like dancing at home. She is very graceful and would do pretty well if she continued, but her heart is not in it. Faith is a beautiful dancer! She has a natural grace and poise that shows in her performance. And she is a natural-born performer. Joy and Grace also enjoy being on stage, and they seemed to be having a lot of fun performing. My mom was able to visit for the weekend and the girls especially enjoyed having Nana watch them dance.

I can't believe May is already over one-third of the way through! Time is certainly flying!

Time Marches On

Wow, I can't believe it's already April. March flew by!

March was a BUSY month for us. Paul's dad was released from the hospital and went home. Because of his dementia, we have to have someone stay with him 24/7. Paul's brother has graciously taken the night shifts, so Paul justs spends some time with him during the day. Paul's mom is still in the hospital, but she is improving. We are now faced with the decision of where she should go after she is released.

We celebrated a Special Occasion this month. Some of our friends had all four of our girls over for a sleepover, and Jack and I ate at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. It was a FANTASTIC meal!! Paul gave me a fabulous gift - a convection oven! I've been wanting one for a while, but I was TOTALLY SURPRISED! Because our old oven was a drop-in oven, we had to wait a couple of weeks for Paul to get the right tools to install the new oven. It is now in, and we are definitely enjoying it.

I got a really bad sinus infection in March. It not only made my face hurt, but it made me really tired and weak. It took several days of antibiotics to begin to feel like myself again.

Paul got to speak at a breakout session for a conference our church was having. He did a great job, and he actually got paid. Real money, not just a gift card!

We had company twice. Some of our best friends came for a visit during part of their spring break. Because they have four kids and we have four kids, they decided to stay in a hotel. We didn't get quite as much visiting time this way, but it was definitely easier! The kids had a great time playing. Their second daughter is still Faith's best friend, even though they moved away over six years ago. I was still feeling bad from my sinus infection, so I don't know that I was very good company.

My mom came for part of her spring break. The girls love seeing their Nana, and we had a good visit. She was here for Easter, so she got to do some fun Easter activities with us - going to the Easter Festival at our church, dying eggs, and making Easter cupcakes.

We had our spring break in March. We actually had a couple of field trips to a local museum that was offering some educational classes. We had a party with friends, and the girls had some of their friend sleep over. I had planned on getting a lot done, but we mainly rested and had fun. But after seeing how busy this month has been, I think rest and fun are just what we needed!

April will be busy, too. We have a dance recital, a ladies' conference at our church, 4-H awards night, a deacons' retreat for Jack, and a shopping-with-the-girls day for me. But once April is finished, we have a break from most of our activities. Summer is on the horizon!

It's January, So It's Still the New Year!

Wow, I can't believe January is almost over and I haven't updated the blog! I had great intentions of sitting quietly and praying about what goals God would like me to achieve this year and then blogging about all my good intentions. But in our house, sitting quietly doesn't happen all that often. And when it does I usually would rather read a book. Or take a quick nap. Which I read yesterday in my issue of Southern Living is good for you.

I have spent a little bit of time thinking about what I want to change this year. Mainly this time was when I was getting ready in the mornings, so my thought processes were interrupted by thoughts about whether I had moisturized or not and which leg I had just shaved.

The good thing about waiting until January is that I can give an update of my progress in my goal areas. (And maybe not mention any areas of complete failure!) This year I knew I needed to be more consistent in teaching Faith and Hope science and history. The fall was more hit-and-miss than I would have liked. And we have really done good this month! I even learned how to use the interlibrary loan system so we can have an expanded pool of books to use for history!

I also NEED to become more organized. I have several areas of my home that REALLY need work, so I came up with a mental schedule of which area to work on which month (with a month or two of catch-up or rest built in). January I wanted to organize the linen closet by the girls' bathroom. I just have the top shelf left! I also organized my MANY e-mails, either deleting or archiving the old ones.

I wanted to cook more and eat out less, and we have done pretty well here as well. The times we have eaten out have been planned times and not just because I didn't have a plan for supper. I have also been getting back in the habit of using coupons. If I were organized I would know how much I have saved so far, but I know I have saved close to ten dollars in addition to using a fifteen dollars in gift cards that came as bonuses from prior purchases. And everything I used coupons for was stuff I regularly use. So not too bad.

The thing I've struggled most on is actually the most important thing! My Bible study and prayer time has been sporadic lately, and I NEED to be consistent in spending time with my Father. Sadly, I haven't seen much change here. But I know God is faithful and He will enable to do this. Since I'm not a part of a group Bible study at church, this requires more self-motivation on my part than I needed in the fall. But my relationship with God should be motivation enough!

Now I'm off to read God's Word before reading a story (which I got through an interlibrary loan) to my girls!

Christmas Memories

Here are some things I'll remember about this Christmas:

Best tradition: Our Advent wreath. We would light it each night at supper and I would read a prophecy from the Old Testament and its fulfillment in the New Testament. Then one of the girls would blow out the candle.

Best performance: The children's Christmas musical. Hope had a role in the drama portion, Faith read a small piece during one of the songs, and Joy & Grace were angels in the Nativity portion. All four did a great job and were really cute! Joy & Grace were particularly entertaining as they moved to the music when they sang!

Best gift that I gave: American Girl dolls to each of my girls and the Creative Memories storybook I made for Paul.

Best gift that I received: Prints of the family pictures we took. We won a sitting at the best photographer in town, and the pictures look great. (Unfortunately, although the sitting was free, the prints were not!) This is the first time we've had pictures made someplace other than the portrait studio of a department store, so these are special. I also received a very sweet story my girls wrote.

Funniest gift: A can of possum (at least that's what it says on the label). Paul and I bought this at a gift shop years ago. Then a few Christmases ago we gave it as a gag gift to my sister & her husband. We've been passing it back & forth ever since. This year was our turn to get it.

Best meal: Stopping at my favorite Mexican restaurant on the way home from visiting family. Mexican food may not be traditional Christmas fare, but I think it should be!

Best reunion: My sister and her family (including her new baby) came to the states from their station overseas. I got to meet my nephew for the first time!

Worst reunion: Between 2 sisters who hadn't seen each other in over two years. One invaded the other's personal space and a cat fight broke out. Literally. The feud was between our cat and her sister, who is owned by our friends. Our friends picked our cat up from boarding and kept her for a couple of hours until we got home. All our children's dreams of a sweet reunion were dashed very quickly!

Returns & exchanges: We only have to exchange a Barbie that's supposed to sing but doesn't and an American Girl doll necklace that doesn't work.

Carpe Diem

This week a hint of fall came to our neck of the woods. It wasn't full-blown fall, and I know it's only temporary, but it was a welcome change nonetheless. The girls noticed and wanted to spend much of their days playing in the lovely weather. And I let them. Which means I let some of their chores be postponed. So our house needs a little work.

I had planned for Friday and Saturday to be our catch-up days. We had no other obligations those days so I knew we would have time to both get caught up on our housework and enjoy the beautiful days. Until the stomach virus hit.

Joy had actually had a touch of it on Tuesday. Friday Grace came down with it. Saturday began with me feeling awful. Then Hope got sick. And then Faith. We were a rather pathetic bunch! And so the house remains cluttered. But I am so glad that the girls played outside earlier in the week. We can clean house any time. Such great weather isn't likely to be around for long.

I opted for the girls to have fun memories of playing stick horses in the back yard, eating a picnic lunch in the playhouse, and picking beautiful bouquets of flowers for me. One day I hope to figure out how to structure our time so we can have the memories and the tidy house. But for now I'll choose the memories.

The Busy-ness of Summer

Although the summer weather is going to continue for at least a month here in my neck of the woods, our summer schedule (or lack of a schedule) is now over. I wanted to accomplish big things this summer: read several books, get my home organized, get our last year's school things filed away, relax. I didn't complete any of these things!

Not that I did nothing. I taught VBS. I ferried children to cheerleading camp, swim lessons, and dance workshop. We traveled twice to visit family and once to visit friends. We also were visited by family and friends a couple of times. I facilitated a ladies' Bible study at church. I planned and put on three birthday parties (two of which were rather elaborate). And the weeks in-between I was either preparing for one of these things or recovering from one of them (or both!).

About midway through the summer, I realized that the plans I had were a bit lofty, considering all the other obligations I had. And I realized that for our family, the pace of summer, rather than being one long, relaxing season, was a series of much activity followed by a week or two of planning for the next thing or recuperating from the last thing. The pace of our school year is rather relaxed. We don't have to be somewhere every day. So getting everyone ready to go somewhere every day of a week (particularly those things that begin in the morning) was a challenge. By about the third day of whatever activity we were doing, at least one of the girls was tired of getting ready and going out. (And to be honest, sometimes I agreed with them!)

As much as I had wanted to begin this school year with an organized home and having learned much from the great books I had read, I will have to start where I am. And as we settle into the routine of schooling and church activities and dance, maybe I'll be able to fit in some of my summer goals into the school year.

Summer Nights

Memories of a wonderful summer evening:

*Viewing three planets through a powerful telescope. Venus and Saturn were close in the western sky. And Jupiter was visible in the east. Jack's telescope is so powerful we could see the rings of Saturn, some of Jupiter's moons, and the bands of color on Jupiter.

*Weeding my roses in the dark. It was much cooler than in the daylight hours. And I could fool myself that I had made more progress than I really had.

*Watching the neighbors shoot off fireworks. They must have been having a pre-Independence Day celebration. We saw everything from small ones that stayed on the ground to big, beautiful starbursts high in the air. (These are my favorite.) And when they were finished, the smell of the fireworks lingered in the air, continuing to remind us of the summer celebration.

*Watching my girls play flashlight tag in the front yard. They ran and played with joyful and youthful abandon. And only one minor fall occurred.

*Seeing the beautiful full moon looking bigger than usual. Because of the angle of the moon, it looks large. We've been watching it the past few nights.

*Taking a walk down the street in the dark. The girls found our late-night walk fun and exciting.

*Taking a relaxing shower after we came inside. Faith and Hope also discovered how good a shower feels after you've been sweating in the humidity. (I had to tell Hope to get out so she could go to bed.)

And today I am doubly thankful we seized the evening. Not only do we have some terrific memories, but it has rained steadily throughout the day today and more is predicted for this week, so another such night may not happen again soon. God blessed us with so much! And we took some time last night to enjoy it!