Thank You to Aunt Sarah - From Charis

Aunt Sarah is my Aunt. She is creative. This year for Christmas, she made me an American Girl. An American Girl is a fake girl that has a big adventure. My adventure was that I found an old Egyptian Bag. I found earrings, a necklace, and a dress inside. My book was about a girl that liked archeology, that was named Charis. I LOVE Archeology and Aunt Sarah knew that!


My sister's was about a girl that loved to get muddy and lose her shoes outside in the sun. She was home schooled so she had to finish school before she could go outside to play. One day it was raining before she finished school, when she finished school it was still raining. Her mother tried to cheer her up with a fort and tea party with me.


Thank you Aunt Sarah for the American Girl outfits and stories. I love them!

Give Thanks

I Thessalonians 5:18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

I must confess. I could win the griper of the year award. I am a self professed half glass empty kind of girl. I have a tendency to think that my dry wit and self deprecating sense of humor are just "charming" parts of my personality, but now I'm starting to see how much of it is just whiny and ungrateful. Every time I complain, or "joke" about some "flaw" of mine, or my circumstances (a.k.a house and children), I'm not so subtly, saying "Lord - no thank you!" "I know that you made me, but I'm thinking I could have done better." Now, of course, I would never be so bold as to do this consciously, but isn't that what being ungrateful is? Saying "I don't like what you have given me, and given the chance I would have done it differently."

So as I started thinking about how I could change. How to begin a continual practice of thanksgiving and how to pass pass this a long to our kids (who are also amazingly gripey and ungrateful...hmmm...strange). Greg came up with Thankful Nights. It was something his mom had done with them when they were little and with a little tweaking we made it our own. First each child has an evening set aside just for them. They get their favorite meal and are exempt from dinner chores. After the meal we pulled out some poster board and wrote words to describe them following the letters of their names. We then went around the table several times saying why we were thankful for that person. And last we asked, the person of honor, a few questions about their favorite things.

I will try not to bore you with all the details, but here are a few highlights of the kids evenings.

ANYA (she won the coin toss)


Favorite Meal: Mac'n'cheese with mixed vegetables and hot chocolate.


Reasons we are thankful for her: Her compassionate heart (Dad), Her sweet kisses (Mom), She helps when I get hurt (Charis).

A couple of her favorites right now: Favorite place in the world - Georgia (because of Auntie Jo and her kitty), Favorite Book - Get Lost Becka (She wanted Charis to pick the Bible, but she picks that one!?)Favorite color - Black.

CHARIS



Favorite Meal: Homemade Pizza with Pepperoni and Mushrooms, brussel sprouts (which I forgot to make) and yogurt smoothies.


Reasons we are thankful for her: She plays servant with me. (Anya) Her quirky interests. (Mom) "I like she's not green." (Micaiah), Her ingenuity (Dad)

Some of her favorites: Favorite place in the world - Egypt (she wants to be an archeologist), Favorite Bible Story - Esther, Favorite Books - Meg Mackintosh.

MICAIAH


Favorite Meal: Chicken with sundried tomato pesto pasta, maple glazed baby carrots, and milk for dessert. (I added cookies for the rest of us)


Reasons we are thankful for him: His chivalry (Mom - he always holds the door open for me), His hugs and kisses (Ani), His many expressions (Dad), His snuggles (Charis).

A couple of his favorites: He wants to be a "piggy" when he grows up, Favorite book - The Great Thumbprint Drawing Book, Favorite color - GREEN!!

Thank you Lord for my funny, passionate children. Though we will probably never have a quiet or clean house as long as they live here, I thank you for the life that they bring to me, and the lessons that they teach me. You always know just what I need, even when I don't realize it. - Jeni

A Simple Signature

WARNING: If you've read my previous post about the granola bars, then you've pretty much already read this post. I am a very slow learner.


I've been busy...really, really busy. I've taken on a lot of new and different things. Well, different for me. I've been trying to get back to basics in order to live a little more frugally. I started cloth diapering and making my own diapers. As you read previously I started making my own detergents (hated the laundry detergent, loved the dish washing detergent) and next year I want to have chickens, a garden and a bee hive. I'm also trying to make as many Christmas presents as I have time for. Okay, that I don't have time for.

Now I know that that just sounded like a huge blast on my own horn, but bear with me, that is not what I am writing about here. In order to do most of the things I've been doing I've had to research online. I don't know anyone doing many of the things I'm interested in. (Though if you are out there, I'd love to pick your brain. I have no idea what I'm doing.) So I've had to turn to the internet for my information. Mostly I've been hopping from blog to blog trying to gather usable ideas, and trying to find what works and what doesn't.

On most of these blogs, or forums, people have a personalized signature. They have a cute little picture of them and their dogs, babies, ducks, or whatever, and then their name and something underneath it. Their signatures usually define who they are. They say things like "Janet - baby wearing, cloth diapering, homeschooling environmentalist and Christian mother of 5.", or Jessica - Jesus loving, breastfeeding, home birthing, mother of 2 and wife to one. So I started thinking, who, or what, do I want to be known as? What would I put behind my name that defines me. Do I want to be defined as a cloth diapering, detergent making, chicken ranching, garden planting, bee keeping mother of 4? That ridiculous! I'm ridiculous!

I tried on lots of different signatures in my mind, but soon realized (once again - I told you I'm a slow learner) that the only thing that mattered was that I'm am Christ's, because apart from Him I am nothing.

"In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand" - Newsboys.

So here I am signing off -

Jeni - Christ's Alone

Sexy!?, and a Girly Fish

The other day as Anya was getting ready to go with me to bible study I asked her to change her pants. She was wearing white pants. Anya and white pants don't generally mix. I handed her a pair of jeans and she squealed "Ooh I love these jeans, they make me look SEXY!"
WHAT!? (Now for the record these were just your average pair of wide leg jeans, nothing "sexy" about them). My immediate reaction, was probably not the best, instead of calmly explaining why they weren't sexy "No they don't!!" was all that jumped out of my mouth. My poor daughter's face instantly fell, in her mind I had just told her she was ugly. So after some consoling & back-pedaling her face returned to normal. She then looked up at me asked "What does sexy mean then?" ...Uhhhhh...? I'm generally not one to beat around the bush with my kids, but really, how do you explain "sexy" to a 5 year old, without opening an even bigger can of worms. Thankfully she "saw something shiny" and ran off. The question didn't leave me, of course, and after having some time to think about it, and after running it past a couple of other moms I asked Anya to come talk with me.

Me: Anya, do you remember asking me about the meaning of the word sexy this morning?

Anya: Oh yeah...what does that mean again?

Me: Well..you know how we talk about modesty?

Anya" Oh modesty, yeah! I get it!

Me: So you know what modesty means?

Anya: Don't have a clue.

Me: Okay, so when we have modesty in the way we dress, we try to make sure that our skirts aren't too short, or that your boobs don't show...things like that. There are certain parts of our bodies that we just don't show to other people.

Anya: Hmm...so like BRATS dolls.

Me: Yes, that's why we don't have BRATS dolls.

Anya: So...sexy...is just inappropriate?

Me: Well, yeah, that's a good way to put it.

Anya: Why didn't you just say so in the first place?

Me: I have no idea.

So the next time I try to explain something to my 5 year old, I will remember to use big words like inappropriate and all will be well.



A GIRLY FISH?

Another Anya story. I think I could probably dedicate an entire blog just to the random things she says. Life with Ani around is never dull.

My mom picked the girls up for a girls night out and a sleepover. She decided to surprise the girls by taking them to get their nails done. She wanted it to be a surprise, but was letting them try to guess where they were going by giving them clues. The very first clue was that it was "something girly". Anya exclaimed "We're getting a fish!?" Charis then corrected her (with pleasure I'm sure) by telling her that fish are NOT girly. Sulking Anya replies "They are to me. And it would have been my very first pet...Oh well I shouldn't have a pet anyway. I'm not very responsible."

Oh Anya, you absolutely light up my world!