Jesus Box

We made a stable for a children's creche today. It turned out great and I think we are going to make a wooden spoon Nativity to complete the scene. There are instructions for some intricate pipe cleaner, cotton and yarn people, but the wooden spoons will probably work better for my young crew.

Tonight when Lee came home he was mobbed like a rock star (as usual!) and Laine got her face right up close to him so they were nose to nose and said excitedly, "We made a Jesus box Daddy!"

Lee looked at me and I just raised my eyebrows and nodded. In the ensuing mob/bedtime scene he forgot about the mysterious 'Jesus box".

I just showed the stable to him and he agreed, it certainly is a good Jesus box!

Gettin' Ginkgified

This is our first field day! For our freshman entry we decided to watch the ginkgo tree in the yard across the street. It is a wonderfuly interesting tree and my kids loved learning about ginkgos in general. Even the twins got involved and would remind me to take the pictures. The boys were facinated to learn these trees have been around since the time of dinosaurs. A big thank you to Dawn for hosting this Field Day! Please click on the Field Day button on Friday, December 1st. to see many more autumn nature blogs.

In the south, the leaves don't begin to turn until late autumn, perfect for this Late Autumn Field Day! We decided to photograph the tree throughout the month, hoping to catch the Big Drop. This ginkgo seems to lose it's most of it's leaves very rapidly, within a couple of days. I hope you enjoy our nature photo journal.

Thankful tree

We got the idea for this easy peasy tree from Karen. We made it last week, before we left on our trip. I am taking it down to make room for some Advent stuff but I needed a picture for posterity!

Happy Thanksgiving (better late than never!)

I confess I have never been much of a Thanksgiving fan. I love the fall, it's one of my four favorite seasons after all. Turkey is ok too, but it is not one of my top meat picks. Eating a big meal with family and friends is always a fun pastime, of course.

But still, even with so many good and happy things associated with the traditional American Thanksgiving holiday, I just don't get too worked up about it.

I have a Christmas heart. I have looked at Thanksgiving as stopping point on the way to Christmas. I mark it in the calendar of my mind as the beginning of the countdown. It has simply been one more landmark to begin the journey to Christmas .

This year, however, I sensed a change in the atmosphere of my soul. I attribute the new awareness to several things that all hinge on one big thing, our homeschool. Spending so much time together as a family has allowed me to get more into the rhythm of the year, both seasonal and liturgical.

Also, I am growing in my desire to reflect not only on the things I am thankful for, but acknowledging to whom my thanks should be given. So, I give my thanks to the Lord for all of our material and spiritual blessings and I also give my thanks to so many in my life who have blessed me with their love and sometimes just simply by their mere presence or their generosity in sharing themselves in a blog.

And honestly, can you think of a better way to begin the journey to Bethlehem than giving thanks? This is like a big "well, d'uh" moment for me.

Ah well, better late than never.

My Bestest Friend!

My dear friend , Becky, and her family are coming to stay with us for two nights. She has been my friend since we moved down the street from her family when I was 11. The first time she saw me walking down the street, she though I was a boy! I had a very short 80's haircut, plus I was like a foot taller than she was.

Well, I didn't grow much more and she had a growth spurt so now we are about even. I am still a bit taller though and I can't say that about too many people. In middle school we were close friends, but like many girls that age, we had our share of fights and days of 'you are not my friend anymore'. Ironically, after my parents divorced and my family moved to Atlanta, our friendship not only held but grew stronger. We have not lived in the same city since then and we are as tight as sisters.

Our kids are close in age and our husbands get along too, so we lucked out. We often joke that after they die we will move in together and take care of each other and rock on the front porch
swing bragging together about our many, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren!

We have weathered much together, but the toughest was undoubtedly my reversion to the Catholic faith, leaving a big non-denomination church very similar to hers in her city. She is pretty religious, but not of the Catholic flavor and we had some interesting, emotionally charged talks.

Her youngest son is less than a week older than Mary Clare. She was pregnant with him when we began the process to adopt and she was one of my biggest sources of support and sanity during the whole waiting process. When I told her of our plan to adopt, she confided that although she was pregnant she and her husband were already discussing the possibility of adopting from China in the future. Amazing!

Also, they are HS for the first time this year too and we are planning some fall crafts with the kids tomorrow. I can't wait to see her and Matt and the kids . I know we will stay up into the wee hours, talking and laughing and probably crying too.

Yay!

Dear Friends,

Down at my post of my homekeeping book, Tracee wrote:

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Share...please share.We both work full-time and our little family is OUT OF CONTROL. I'm too exhausted to complete tasks and IF we had a schedule...perhaps it would help.Tell me/us what and when to do it...hey, maybe you could actually make INCOME by doing this...Please help those of us who have no choice but to BOTH work full-time AND raise a family.

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I snorted out my coffee at the thought of me making income helping other people get organized. People who know me in real life who read this blog (Hi, mom!) had similar reactions I am sure.

Tracee, your comment really pierced my heart though because your frustration is so clear. First and foremost please know you are not alone! I have felt many times that I must be a failure as a mom and wife because I simply could not get it together balancing kids, husband and my personal outside stuff too. (I help out with religious apostolates) And I don't even work outside of the home!

Truly, just laying things out on paper like I did for this homekeeping book was a tremendous help. Over the past two years I have definitely gotten better at this motherly balancing act, but I have also gotten to a point where I am not so hard on myself either. I have really worked on not comparing my mothering/wifely style to others and that is soooo hard because I know many women who have more kids and more responsibilities who seem to just effortlessly overachieve!

A good friend recently suggested that I write a personal mission/life statement. At first, I shrugged it off and thought it was a cheesy idea, but the more I think about it the more appealing it is to me. I think I am realising that what really was getting to me is not the cobwebs in my home, it is the cobwebs in my mind. It sounds refreshing to take a step back evaluate my life, who I am and how I am living and what my goals are. Of course, keeping a home that is elegantly simple and a life schedule that is the same actually clears many of those mind cobwebs too.

Not coincidentally, many of those mind cobwebs grew like mad during the Big Wait to Mary Clare's referral. Regretfully, for many months I was just punching the time clock around here. I wish I had more concrete things to share. I do recommend following the links down at that other post plus there is the whole flylady thing and hundreds of different organization or routine building websites and companies.

I will work on somehow posting some of the simple routines and checklists I worked up for us. They are not comprehensive, they are just guidelines.

Thankful Thursday: part two

I was supposed to do this last night, but I am still learning the ropes of the blog carnival thing. However, since it is still Thursday I decided to go ahead with this list. Honestly, being thankful is a discipline I could stand to practice more so this whole Thankful Thursday thing is good for my soul, y'all!

1. bedtime chats and tuck ins
-This would not have made a thankful list a few years ago. I have had my share of bedtime woes, believe me. More recently, probably with in the past year, I have begun to view this time in a new light. I cherish the hugs and kisses, especially from my big guys because they have grown more infrequent during the day. Also we have developed a very special and personal family night time routine that we follow almost every night. This is the time when the kids tell me things that just don't come out during the day. Sure, they are usually just stalling, but I'll take it!

2. our wonderful cul-de-sac
-At times I miss my old house that was bigger and newer. There are several things about our 'new' home that I love so much and I cannot imagine living back at that one. The cul-de-sac is high on the list. The kids play out there all the time.

3. great free podcasts such as this and this.

4. my minivan
-runs great and gets us all where we need to be

5. bunk beds

6. that we live 5 min. from church

7. the entire blog thing

8. squeaky baby shoes

9. my best friend, Becky
-everyone else calls her Rebecca, but I still have the childhood privilege of calling her
Becky, or more commonly, Beck. We have been friends for 20 years. My kids call her
Aunt Birdy.

10. kisses


See Journey of a Mother's Heart for many more great lists. Really, they are very inspiring.

Homekeeping Book

I don't think this will ever be complete. Maybe some homekeeping gurus will weigh in and let me know if my suspicion is correct: organization is an ongoing thing, there is alwasys more to do. I also suspect it gets easier once you have a good system, but maybe that is wishful thinking!

Here is the cover and also some of the dividers.:

I would like to add a recipe section too.

Another thing I have been doing for the past 3 weeks or so is designating a day for certain chores. For example, Monday is Laundry Day, Tuesday is Kitchen Day, Wednesday is Office Day, Thursday is Town Day and Friday is Big Clean Day. For each day I have a plan or checklist (that is in the Book) on what needs to be accomplished. The Town Day thing is tough, I still don't have the hang of making and planning good enough lists so that I am not having to run out to get things at other times. Laundry Day has been especially helpful. I may not complete every single load, but I am getting enought so that we all have clean underwear for a whole week. Be assured, this is a monumental milestone!


I try to keep in my mind that this Book is supposed to work for me, not against me and that I can adjust as needed. Also, if something should happen to me this Book should be able to help whoever needs it to take care of my family and my kiddos.
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I have switched to Beta Blogger and I am not sure if I like it. It seems the upload of pictures is very slow and I have a hard time with layout. Can any readers tell a difference?

The Simple Life

Have you read this book? I read it about two years ago and I was inspired but also very intimidated. I loved the idea of creating a Rule for my life, but I was skeptical about implementing it. Part of the reason my for reticence was laziness to be sure, but another part was the feeling that to do this, to make my Rule, it had to be perrrrfect. It had to be just like Holly's and just the thought of that exhausted me. So I put the book away and thought,"well isn't that nice....for them."

Over the next few months we experienced so much change in our family it was like we were living on fast forward. Holly's ideas kept creeping into my mind. This summer as I was preparing to begin homeschooling I pulled it our again and began to read through it one more time. This time I was looking at it differently. I had a new reason for needing more order in my life and also a renewed sense of purpose to give my children a firm foundation in a living faith. I read slowly and shared parts with Lee. I began to look at how this could work for us. I was able to discard the notion of being just like Holly and to listen to what the Holy Spirit was asking of me.

I have sketched out a Rule for myself and I have not been entirely sucessful in following it. That is ok though, it is a work in progress, just like me! The best thing I have gleaned from the book is the concept of the 5 p's. It is slowly transforming my way of living and prioritizing.

Another recent nudge of encouragement in my quest for simplicity and order have been a series of posts, beginning with Dawn and culminating in Kim's wonderful posts, beginning here.

I will post some pictures of my own efforts soon, I promise. Thank you ladies for inspiring me and Kim, thank you for the generous downloads.

Thankful Thursday

Lisa, at Joyful Chaos, is hosting Thankful Thursdays every week in November. It is such a breath of fresh air to read everyone's lists and composing my own was a wonderful way to start my Thursday.


10 Things I am Thankful For: in no significant order

1. coffee

2. family dinner when Lee is in town

3. living close to my parents and Lee's parents-particularly it is the kids who benefit. having grandparents close by while growing up is priceless

4. wine

5. our children-I debated on listing this because it seems so obvious, but honestly this one could be listed 5 times for each one of the precious little stinkers so really I am cheating a bit lumping them together in one.

6. homeschooling-I am surprised over and over at what a wonderful thing this has been for our family. I know others are even more surprised at how much I really, really love it!

7. our washing machine and dryer

8. my wonderful husband-he not only puts up and does it with a smile, he actually claims to love me! That crazy nut!

9. my faith

10. the cool internet browser and ordering feature my library uses-I can search for books, request them, even from other branches and then just pick them up at our branch when they are ready, for free! Ok, I know it is is really not free, my tax dollars at work and all, but it is great to be getting something for my tax dollars.

Farmer Boy

We have been listening to Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, in the car. This really is my first intro to LIW too, other than the television show. Although I have always been an avid reader, for some reason I was never into these books as a young girl. Farmer Boy is great for us, because, well, it is about a boy. This is a great introduction for them and perhaps it will whet their interest in the 'Little House' stuff, but I am not going to push it.

So far we are totally enamored with the Farmer Boy audio. Cherry Jones is a great reader and totally draws us in. One thing we all noticed is how much is written about the food! Almanzo is always hungry like a good, hard-working boy should be. The descriptions of food are heavenly,or pure evil if you happen to be dieting! At one point, after a lengthy, detailed description of a ham dinner, Ryan leaned forward and said, "Mom I can smell it!"

Listening to the books in the car is great, even Mary Clare, Luke and Laine are quiet for a bit. we are not in the car as much as we used to be, but still it is a great way to use every single bit of time we are given.

My Ry Guy

Ryan turned 7 not too long ago (10-27). He loves math, sports and playing with his brothers and sisters. When the twins turned 4 and the Mary Clare turned 1, I posted something special for them and I want to keep up the tradition.

Ryan is just 14 mo. younger than big brother, Jake. It is such a blessing that even being different in temperaments they are so close. Ryan really loves sports and has a competitive streak, but he also has a great time playing imaginary games with his siblings.
He loves cuddling and stuffed animals still too. He has a strong sense of justice and a temper to match.

Currently, he is missing his upper two front teeth as well as his lower two front teeth. The upper ones were actually knocked loose about two years ago. The lower two are coming in now and the upper ones should be too far behind. The dentist noted in his x-rays he has a 'very young bone age'. Strange, no? Teeth or no teeth he is one charming kid.

He is a chatterbox and is always making noise. He is busy and active and loud, sometimes he can be like a bull in a china shop. Other times he melts me with his sweet tenderness to his siblings. He still like to climb into my lap, but he barely fits anymore.

His enthusiasm is contagious once it is kindled. It is a beautiful thing to see his wonder and awe for nature. The nature studies we began and particularly the bird unit have really caught his interest. He likes to draw and yesterday finished his own book, "My Favorite Birds" with detailed illustrations.

Ryan is also silly and has a laugh that infects everyone around him. I apologise to all the other moms out there , but he is the kid that gets everyone around him all wound up and rowdy. Good at times, but we are working on appropriateness ;)

Ryan is a child that really challenges me. Parenting him is a gift. He has helped me to know myself better and I have grown in patience and in my ability to experience joy in simple, everyday ways. He helps me to see the absurd and to get physical. He attacks life! I have learned to relate in things that matter to him and he has helped me see the world from a new perspective. That's my Ry guy.

Jake is the cowboy, Luke is Spiderman, Ryan is the

Army Special Forces guy.

For some reason I don't have a good picture

of Laine, but she was a ballerina. I know my

MIL has some cute ones of her though.

Here's Mary Clare walking with Dad to the

pizza party in the cul-de-sac. After the party,

she stayed home with Lee to hand out candy

and I supervised the Trick or Treat Brigade.

Reconciliation

My oldest will be receiveing his first sacrament of reconciliation soon. Today he went to a 2hr. retreat with Lee to learn and prepare. It went well, Lee reports, and Jake has a mature (for an 8yr old) intellectual grasp of God and his relationship with Him.

Knowing Jake is preparing for this has set me to thinking on this sacrament as well. It is not well understood, even by faithful Catholics.

The whole nature of sacraments is so mystical and it was only recently that I could even entertain the thought of a physical sign really being a conduit of such an immeasurable substance, grace. I am not sure how or when the thought that God would not interact with humans in such a concrete, tangible way ingrained itself in my heart. Now it seems very logical, I mean He became matter Himself, being born of the flesh, therefore giving it inherant value. Why would it be so inconcievable that he would not continue to interact with humanity in such a physical presence? At some point I simply rejected that possibility without even realising it.

Confession is good for the soul. Even those who are not Catholic can agree with that. Ongoing self-examination, seeking self-knowledge, is a humbling, but satisfying work. How can we know ourselves if we don't stop and reflect, honestly and truthfully, not only on our acheivements, but also on our failings? How can we rely on God, grow in intimacy with Him, when we don't pause to see where we are falling short on our own efforts? When I am preparing to make a Confession, I reflect on all of this. Sin is real and it seperates us degree by degree from the One who loves us more than we can imagine.

The whole negative Catholic guilt thing has become cliched. In a proper balance guilt is good! Darn right my kids should feel guilty for lying, disobeying, being manipulative or using others, no matter what the "reason". Why shouldn't I feel the same?

Catholics believe that the institution of the sacraments is scriptual as well as traditional. When I go to confession, the priest is there as a servant of God and when he hears and absolves me, it is not him absolving me, it is Christ acting through the priest. In the Gospels, when He heals the paralytic he makes it clear that to absolve from sin is God's ability alone. I can also ask God for forgiveness on my own and I do that as well. The Church teaches, and I believe, that during the sacrament there is a specific transference of grace, that wonderful immeasurable stuff that you can never have too much of.

The result is not only a clean heart, but a clean mind, renewed and full of purpose and hope, because while it is true that sin is real, thorough and complete forgiveness is real too. That is what I want my son to know.

Magic Moment!

My Atlanta blogger friends Lisa and Eammon just recieved the referral of their daughter today. They have been such encouraging members to the Atlanta area adopters and everyone is just so overjoyed that now, finally they will be meeting their daughter, Maisie, soon.

Every time the new rounds of referrals are announced I get so excited and teary. It is like reliving our special moment. The anticipation of actually seeing your baby's face, learning her birthdate!, her hometown!, her likes and dislikes is a moment that cannot compare to any other place and time on this earth. Most of us prayed and waited and worried for years to recieve this confirmation of our newest familiy member and dear loved one.

Even compared to becoming bio-parents, this moment of referral is more emotional and completely exhilirating.

Congratulations Lisa and Eammon!