Enter Christmas

Well, Christmas is up.

Putting Christmas lights up on the house is synonymous with cleaning out the gutters.  It works out perfectly as the trees have lost most their leaves.  We added our first inflatable this year thanks to last years after Christmas bargains--a carousel. We also added candy canes and spiral trees to line the walk.  Also new--music!  Bells chime out over 30 Christmas tunes when motion is detected near our entryway.

Christmas is up inside as well. After church this afternoon, Rhys was playing with the nativity I painted for the kids a couple years back and he was telling me all about it!  Rhys: "This is when he came out of her tummy. And they were all trying to find a name and they found one! And do you know what it is?...Jesus! (whispered). And then she (the angel) asked, 'Is it a girl?' But no, he's a boy."

Love this time of year.

Keeping It Real

I've had friends who follow my blog or my posts on Facebook ask me if my life is really so wonderful and my relationships so perfect.  This is because they have fallen into the trap of comparing themselves to my strengths or really up moments.  I have bad days.  My kids are not perfect either.  So just because I typically focus on the positive doesn't mean that I don't have my own flaws and problems to deal with.  Following in a true story to help everyone feel better.

About two weeks ago it was really cold out.  Our first real cold snap with temperatures in the 30s at night.  Well, on one of those days, when my mom was in town and Neal was home sick, sleeping, I asked Rhys to do his chore and put some cards out in the mail and told him Grandma and I were going to take Sophie to gymnastics.  He went out the front door and Mom, Sophie, and I out the back.  We returned home and hour and 15 minutes later or so to find Neal on the couch with a big quilt wrapped around a teary Rhys.  What happened?

Yep, the door sticks and he went to put the mail out and could not get back in.  He was wearing a short sleeve shirt, jeans, and no shoes with temperatures in the 40s.  All his knocking and door bell ringing could not wake his Dad so he sat and cried at the door step for 40 minutes!  He did not know what to do.  Finally an angel of a girl rode by on her bike, recognized Rhys from school, and stopped to see what was going on.  She helped him knock on the door until Neal awoke and took Rhys in to get him warmed up.

I felt so entirely bad.  I was so disgusted with myself even though I knew it was a mistake. Mother of the Year Award!  Uhg!  Later I held him and we talked about it, I apologized, and talked about what to do in similar circumstances.

That door has now been fixed.

See real life happens here.  Our family is mortal.  We just tend to share our good stuff while we privately work on the garbage of life.  And please know that God does not want us to compare ourselves to others. That is a real trap that Satan sets for us. And yes, I beleive Satan really exsists, though he would love if we'd all just gloss over that detail.

We are of the greatest worth to God just as we are today.  He loves us as the wonderful, broken creatures we are.  He takes us wherever we are and works with us from that point.  We are not earning His love, we already have it.  He just smooths out our rough edges, making us more fit for His kingdom.  My rough spots may not be the same as your rough spots but I feel the sanding and polishing on my spots just like you do on yours.  The awesome thing is He is creating beautiful, distinctively different masterpieces, but only if we let Him.  Let's let Him, and not compare.

Thanksgiving

Rhys perpetuating the myth that Pilgrims and the Native Americans were besties, in his paper Indian costume. In the kindergarten Thanksgiving play, however, he was dressed as a turkey--prolonging yet another myth--that turkey was served as the first Thanksgiving. Yay public education!

This week we took it easy with sleeping in, crafts, watching TV, and cooking and baking in preparation of Thanksgiving.

We made a fall green salad that people feel obliged to put on their plates in an effort to look or feel "healthy" mid the piles of marshmallow topped potatoes and creamy green bean dishes topped with fried onions.  We also made my mom's fruit and nut loaded stuffing (don't worry, there is plenty of sausage and butter there too) which Keri had not had in over a decade.  So yummy.  And we brought rolls and dark chocolate pistachio and cranberry bark as we made our way to my cousin, Barbara's house. We joined with another family and had a great meal together.

Ready to go in the oven!

After dinner the ladies helped the kids get artsy with painting.  Rhys painted a turkey all on his own and Sophie made snowmen with a hand print and added details.  The menfolk were entertained by a viewing of Star Wars.  It was so much fun to watching the kids play with their cousins. They had been anticipating this reunion for days.  After the crafts we stretched our tummies further with a choice of pecan, apple, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream and the chocolate candy.

So glad to have family close by and enjoy the holiday that much more.  Thank you, Barbara and Chad for hosting. You did a great job!

Things I felt grateful for this week: hugs from my kids, cuddles too, a husband that will talk things through with me, my mom, and other family, sleep, school breaks, and employment.

Grandma Visits

Yay! We stole Grandma away from WA and the rest of the family for two whole weeks. [insert evil laugh here]  No sooner than she arrived, we put her right to work.  It took us 3 days and 8 samples to find the right match but my 69-year-old mom and I, with minimal help from my sick husband, painted the master bedroom and bath from Hershey bar brown to green and beige.  It took two coats of their best covering paint to have the green cover that dark brown. That took an additional 2 days. Mom and I would also like to add how much prep work really stinks!

That project sucked away the entire first week of her visit.  Luckily we had another week to fill with fun together.

We still had paint on our fingernails as we attended church.  After the sacrament was passed, the children put on their annual program to share what they've learned throughout the year through speaking parts and singing.  Opa and Oma attended as well.  Both Rhys and Sophie nailed their speaking parts--Rhys: "I can gain a testimony of Jesus by being reverent during sacrament.", Sophie: "Someday, when I am a mom, I will strengthen my family by living right, doing my calling, and reading the scriptures."

Additionally, Sophie had a one-line solo singing about family history work--"And we as the children can seek out our loved ones, preserving their name and their memory."  She did great in front of all those people and visitors. Both kids did well and it was fun to watch Rhys swaying back and forth to every song and Sophie giving the "I'm watching you" sign back to Neal in front of everyone.

The next week was crammed with lots of shopping!  Christmas shopping and just my mom being generous.  I have several new items in my wardrobe including tall boots!  Yay!  Been wanting those for years.  Neal has a brand new Hallmark Star Wars ornament to adorn his Star Wars tree this year.  It was fun to find some great finds and without the holiday crowds or the children.

We also got to see Rhys perform in the kindergarten's Thanksgiving play.  Rhys came out dressed as a turkey and proudly spoke his part, "Gobble, gobble, gobble" on cue.  They sang several songs and he did good.  It was great to see him beaming back at his dad, grandma, and I.

We went for walks, ate out, wrapped gifts, took family photos, baked, and ran errands.  We just had a load of fun together talking. Here is one that I love that won't make it to the Christmas card this year.

Grandma even taught the kids how to make popcorn balls, a treat we enjoyed around the holidays as kids.  Yep, all done in the microwave--one of my mom's most favorite appliances.  While here she cooked up potatoes, veggies, and marshmallow goo using the microwave.  They all did great in the microwave.  However, I still reserve that chicken should NOT be microwaved, as Mom also did during my growing up years.  It becomes gray, rubbery, and tastes unappetizing. And here is a side story about that:

As newlyweds, Neal: "Keri, why don't you like chicken?" Keri: "I just don't."  Neal: "Well how did your mom cook it?"  Keri: "In the microwave."  Neal: "Well, no wonder!  Here, let me cook chicken for you.  I promise you will like it and I won't cook it in a microwave."  Keri: "Yum.  I like chicken."  End of story.

My mom also used to take the giblets out of the turkey at Thanksgiving and let me handle and explore them like a biologist, which I thought was so cool and yet today, I really don't care to handle raw meats.  What happened?!  I don't know.  A story for another time.

But marshmallow goo for popcorn balls totally microwavable and acceptable.  Certainly grandkid approved. However, as my wise sister-in-law taught me, marshmallow goodness is always better with M&Ms added in.  I will do it that way next time.  You cannot blame my mom for omitting.  She's been a diabetic for 55 of her 69 years.  Just happy she's still around and has her feet and vision.

But sadly, we had to let her go at some point so we sent her off on an airplane just before Thanksgiving.  Thanks Grandma for all the fun.  We love you and I really, really love you.

No Trick, Only Treats

 

This Halloween, we decided as a family, that the switch witch would probably survive without all our candy given all the trick-or-treaters we saw out and about.  Instead, we decided to do a service project for our local Meals on Wheels (MOW) recipients. We put posts on Facebook to our local friends and family to donate their leftover Halloween candy to our project and we got a great response!  We were able to fill 83 autumn themed treat bags with goodies which is equal to the number of our neighbors that participate in the MOW program! 

Although we feel like rock stars, we certainly could not have been successful without all the caring people that stopped by our place to share their treats.  THANK YOU!  We hope to do it again next year.

Half way there!

We met our goal of 83 bags thanks to your help!

Another Reason We Love Being Mormon...

Home teachers! According to mormonnewsroom.org, "home teachers are two men who are assigned to watch over and help a person or family in the congregation. These two priesthood holders visit their assigned individuals and families each month to help and support them in their efforts to live the principles taught by Jesus Christ. Included in this regular visit is a message of spiritual instruction that is adapted to meet the needs and concerns of the individuals or families. Home teachers also make sure the temporal needs of the members are taken care of."  That pretty much sums it up.

We had a temporal need and our home teachers and members of the elders quorum (the men's priesthood group whose purpose is to unify and uplift the men in the church) came through for us.  Our fence has been in bad shape for a while but we did not think it would make it through the season with a few rotted out posts.  The men showed up Saturday morning, early, after their own Halloween family festivities the night before, and helped my husband remove old posts and set new ones out of the kindness of their hearts.  Neal had limited experience with fence repair and the team of them got the two posts we had the most concern about set in about 30 minutes!

Thank you for taking time out to help our family and showing your love for us.  And thanks to the wives who may have had to parent their sugared up kids solo while their husbands helped.  You certainly helped lift some burdens.