family

The Lego Christmas Market

Instead of braving the crowds and shopping today, we spent the day at home, working on our Lego Christmas Market. It was a far superior way to spend our day…all the fun of putting together a puzzle, but far easier to display and much more enjoyable to play with, and not a manic shopper in sight!

There were enough stalls that each child got to build one…if Chickadee had been big enough, there would have even been one for her! Since she’s not ready for Lego bricks, I helped her out. (Ryan and I also got to build the carousel.)

We also had the two holiday exclusive with purchase sets…they go perfectly with the Market!

This is going to make a nice Christmas decoration in our schoolroom!P1330530

Thankful Thursday

It’s amazing how much our tree has filled in, after only one week! But when you have at least four, and as many as six people adding leaves every day, it takes shape rather quickly.

This week, I’m thankful for my family, especially my husband of 11 1/2 years and my five beautiful children. God has blessed me more richly than I could have imagined, and I am grateful every day for these people He has added to my life!

Earning Money

I have discovered that providing my older children with opportunities to earn an allowance is more difficult than I had anticipated.

Finding jobs that are worth being paid for, some on a regular basis, and some special jobs, is tricky. I want to find things that they know if they do, and do well, they’ll earn a little something, but I also don’t want to pay them for every chore they do around here, because family doesn’t work that way. They need to also learn that family members work together to take care of a household, regardless of their own financial gain, so I don’t want to overdo the daily chores for money thing.

Finding special jobs is also tricky. What is worth being paid for? Cleaning up a mess of toys made by their younger brother and sister (especially if it’s a job I don’t want to do)? Helping me make a special dinner? Helping Daddy wash the car? Oh, and I should probably try to be consistent in what kinds of special jobs earn monetary compensation, too.

And then there’s the whole issue of how much to pay them. It needs to be enough that it won’t take them *forever* to save for something special they’d like to buy, lest they get discouraged, but not so much that they just go out an blow it all at once. Oh yeah, it also has to be an amount *we* can afford–the bank of Dad and Mom doesn’t have an endless supply!

Right now, the two main jobs Turkey and Bunny get paid for are A.) making the two beds in their rooms each day for $.25 a day, and B.) helping Daddy wash the car (when he desires their help) for $2 each per time. They get paid for other jobs as they come up, at our discretion, of course.

I hope I’m doing an OK job of teaching them a little something about money, work, and family. I guess we’ll find out as time goes on.

Beautiful Fall

I love Fall. Don’t get me wrong, I find joy in all the seasons, and I especially like the change of the seasons–the newness of different temperatures, the different amounts of daylight, the different things growing all really appeal to me. But there’s just something special about Fall–it’s by far my favorite season of the year. The beautiful changing leaves, the crisp air, the return of sweaters and boots, the anticipation of the upcoming holiday season, making all of my favorite “comfort food” recipes, especially soups, are all things I love about this time of year.

I find that as Fall approaches, I want to be home more. Maybe it’s the chill in the air, maybe it’s because the hours of daylight are constantly and obviously decreasing, but Fall makes me want to be cozy at home. The lights on in the house against the darkness outside, the homey flicker of a candle flame as it scents the house with all the best things of Fall, the need to throw on a sweatshirt or curl up under a blanket with a good book, or a pile of children and a movie.

Fall, even though it means the death of growing things outside, brings the hope of the coming Christmas season, relief from hot summer days, and a greater appreciation for home and family.

I Don’t Deserve This

Ryan is far nicer to me than he ought to be.  When he got home from a long day at work on Friday, I hit him with a big (and possibly unreasonable) request.  I wanted to go visit my mom in suburban Chicago Saturday.  A day trip. But I didn’t want to go alone–I didn’t want to be alone, and I really didn’t want to drive for five hours, with the upsetting news that my mom’s memory had come completely unglued on Friday fresh on my mind.

So, I wanted him to go with me.  Which meant that all four children would also have to come.  We would have to get up at five in the morning, to drive five hours, so I could spend a few hours with my mom, while Ryan basically remained trapped in the car with all four children (except for his own brief visit to see her while I ate lunch in the car).  And then we would have to drive another five hours home, with increasingly impatient children.

He didn’t blink; didn’t even stop to consider.  He just said we’d go, and helped me get stuff ready so we could leave early the next morning.  Heck, he even (with the help of a friend) hung a new light fixture in our den for me that night.  I really don’t deserve to be treated this well.

I know the Bible instructs husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church, so this shouldn’t surprise me. Ryan was doing his job.  But I don’t know many husbands, even Christian ones, who would be willing to give up their whole Saturday for such a thing, at least not without thinking it over first.

And, really, I shouldn’t be surprised, because after knowing him for so long, I pretty much knew what his response would be before I even asked.  But for some reason, I’m still always surprised when people, even my own husband, go above and beyond the call of duty for me.  I don’t know why that is, but there you have it.  A part of me just doesn’t assume people will do the nice, or even the right, thing.

The children were even extraordinarily patient on the trip.  There was some complaining, but given their ages and the amount of time we had to spend in the car, not nearly as much as there could have been.

And right there is the beauty of family, as God designed it to be.  People coming together when the going gets tough, even the little ones. Much more than I deserve.

Now tohim who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

Christmas 2008

I don’t normally post pictures of the children, but here are a few photos of our Christmas celebrations for those who are interested:

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Trying to get a nice picture of all four children, which is almost impossible, anyway…notice that it’s the baby on the attack, while Bunny looks like she’s trying to pretend she’s not related to any of them!

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Moose is a little blurry, and Ladybug had to be distracted with a candy cane, but not a bad photo of the four of them, considering.

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Turkey and Bunny (aka Joseph and an angel) dressed and ready for the big dress rehearsal for the Christmas program to be held on Christmas Eve.

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Ladybug ready for church…who wants to tell her she can’t take the bag of blocks with her?

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Moose all dressed up, and inspecting the Christmas tree, as was his job all Christmas season.

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Turkey and Bunny in a rare peaceful and sweet moment together…even with the excitement of the program being only an hour away. Too bad their costumes had to cover up their Christmas clothes, although, the costumes were cute, too!

A Fun Day

Today our church had a church picnic.  Now, I have to admit, I’m not really one for having church outdoors–not my thing.  I do my worshipping best in a church.  Also, trying to get four small children to behave for church outside, especially when we would not have had actual chairs to use for containment, is no small task. So I was not too excited about this event.

Thanks to what was apparently still Tropical Depression Ike when it got to us (never before have I experienced wind like that!  I know for certain that I never want to experience an actual hurricane, and I’m certainly never going to live by the Gulf Coast!), we did end up having church indoors, which was far more comfortable for me, although I do feel bad for all of the people at our church who were looking forward to the annual outdoor service.  The drive to church was certainly interesting, what with some hydroplaning and seeing a car stranded in a ditch submerged in quite a bit of water, and had the winds not calmed some before we left, we might not have braved it, but I’m glad we did!

The “picnic” (if you can still call it that when it was inside) afterwards was so much fun!  I’m so glad we stayed for it.  We really shouldn’t have–because we weren’t sure if we were going to go at all and/or stay after the service, I had no side dish to pass.  I’m still feeling bad about that, especially since our family of six can eat a lot (and especially since Ladybug’s teeth have finally arrived, and she has discovered the joy of eating real food!).  But, here’s the thing–also thanks to Tropical Depression Ike, we had no power when we left for church, and as best as we can figure, it didn’t come back on until after lunch time, so we really didn’t have a way to eat at home.  So, we threw guilt aside, and stayed for lunch. 

The children got to play fun games, and won entirely too many prizes.  Seriously, it’s like Christmas around here with all the stuff they got.  Even Moose got to participate in the sucker pull, and between that and some trading with Turkey and Bunny, he got a small soccer ball, and echo microphone and some M&Ms, all of which he is ecstatic about, and does not want to part with (except for the M&Ms, which he of course promptly ate!).  Turkey and Bunny have no end to new stuff–both a football and a soccer ball, beach balls, pens, bubbles, puzzles, candy, other stuff I’m sure I’m missing.  And Turkey won a prize at the cake walk (actually, Bunny won once, too, but it was one treat per family, and she won second), and much to my delight, picked a beautiful tray of cupcakes, which I’m not too proud to admit I was hoping he’d choose (yum!).  

Oh, and did I mention the food?  There’s nothing like a bunch of Lutheran ladies for providing you with a great meal!  Not to mention their faithful husbands, manning the grills, even in questionable weather.  We discovered that Turkey likes brats, which he had never been interested in before, Bunny likes grilled chicken, deviled eggs are enough like egg salad that children find them delicious, and, of course, desserts are awesome.  It was such a fun afternoon (I only wish we could have stayed for the Bible bingo, but the younger two were very tired and really ready to go), and I can’t think of any group of people I’d rather spend time with than our church family.  Every one of us, from my Mister, right on down to little Ladybug, has people to talk to and spend time with–does it get any better than that?