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!

Over the Hedge Nadvornik Style

Before I head to Georgia and forget to post these. Here are our Harvest Party Pictures from this year. We went with Over the Hedge, not really because we have a huge love for the movie, but because we could make it work. (Okay the kids love it.)
I wasn't real excited to work on costumes this year, or to spend the money, but I couldn't just let it go either. I was really pleased to find a Cat in the Hat costume and a weird brown costume at Good Will for $1.99 each. Those, with some alterations, became the skunk and possum outfits. We made Charis' vest out of some leftover fabric from Zayin's bumper pads (I still need to post the after pictures from earlier this summer) and she made her own "patches" out of some other material we had laying around. Greg's outfit was supposed to be orange, but I had a green one and I just made a couple "patches" for it at well. He also had a bald cap with a comb over in his pocket that we never had the time to put together and put on his head. I made Zayin's outfit out of some felt and batting, and put some pajamas on underneath his shell. Mine was thrown together about an hour before we left. I'm still not fitting into my clothes, so the outfit that I planned on wearing got nixed. The pajamas were far more comfortable anyway. So it ended up being a really easy and cheap year for costumes, yeah!
Greg and I, minus the bear.


Here is Micaiah as Stella. He has no idea that, in the movie, the skunk was a girl. He is just in love with skunks and the idea of spraying people, something he does on a regular basis.



















Anya decided from the beginning that the possum was her character, because she was a rock star. I didn't know what she was talking about until she informed me that "a rock star girl" (Avril Lavigne)did her voice. We tried to talk her into being Hammie, for reasons that should be obvious, but she would have none of it. Charis wanted her costume because she would get to pull the wagon with Zayin in it. She also like the girl scout because she had brown hair and freckles. Two things she is strangely obsessed with.








Zayin as "Vern" the turtle. And my mom, who amidst much protesting from me, did not dress up.

And of course I'm already scheming for next year. Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, or Star Wars...hmmm the possibilities.

Semi-Domesticated and Hopelessly Flawed

A blog is such a curious beast. It is a window into our lives, but through this little window you are only allowed see what I want you to see. From the very beginning I purposed to write both the good and the bad, the interesting with the mundane, but sometimes this is so much easier said than done. The problem arises when I want people to perceive me as someone that has it all together and, that through Christ, I simply and elegantly glide through life, without a hint of difficulty. HA! Like I said, this is how I want you to perceive me, not necessarily how you do. So this being said I really had to battle my pride before posting this more accurate version of my Monday.

So without further explanation, my life without pretense...

As the weather turns cooler, and the days grow shorter, my desire to be domestic intensifies. I have visions of myself flitting about my home in a cute little apron, oven mitts on hand, and a smile across my lips. I dream of preparing cost effective, eco-friendly and healthy items my whole family can enjoy. So yesterday, that is exactly what I did...well almost.

I started with homemade granola bars. I had Charis help with this. We substituted whole wheat flour, for the white flour, and added pecans, almonds and flax seeds. We also used golden raisins, instead of regular ones and added a little black strap molasses to the mix. I tried to talk the Charis into dried cranberries, but she wasn't having it. Now had I stopped here, things may have turned out a little differently, but I'm a compulsive multi-tasker, and don't know when to say when.

So, while the granola bars where in the oven and Charis went to finish school, I decided to try my hand at both homemade laundry detergent and dish-washing detergent. What could go wrong? I started the process in classic blog form by taking a picture of all my ingredients.

Please note the clean counter tops and back splash (it's all part of the illusion).
I then began grinding up the soap and heating my water, making sure to take pictures along the way.

And this is where things started to spiral out of control. The ingredients wouldn't come out of the box, and then once they did wouldn't dissolve in the water, the timer for the granola bars started going off and they had to be cut into bars within 5 minutes or they would harden, Zayin woke up and wanted to be fed, and my helper had fallen asleep instead of working on school.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

Now is the part of this post that I would love to say that I stopped, took a deep breath and moment to pray, and finished my tasks with the joy of the Lord in my heart. I, however, just gritted my teeth, put my baby on my boob, plowed forward and finished in a very angry and frustrated fashion.

I was determined not to let the circumstances beat me. How could I create the perfect post, when things weren't going perfectly? Yes, I did finish...
...but I didn't win. I was so intent on impressing all of you, that I forgot that my significance comes from the Lord and not from being the greenest, healthiest, and most put together mom on the planet (Yes I am extremely diluted). Once I am His, my search for significance is over.

Colossians 1:21-23 - (21) And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled (22) in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— (23) if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

I am His, enough said.

That Elusive Smile

The beginning of a baby's life is always the hardest for me. The lack of sleep, the crying, 10,001 dirty diapers a day and the complete loss of personal space and time. I know they are cute, generally smell good, and are very cuddly. But until around 6 weeks of age they are little more than a very demanding house plant, all take and no give. Yes, I do love my babies and would fight to the death like a mother bear for them. And, yes, that is how I feel about house plants. But I get a little frustrated, as I'm sure many mothers do.


And then, when you least expect it, it happens, their first big "I know who you are, and I love you with every fiber of my being" smile!

I know that it's goofy and toothless, but for the first time it's for me, instead of just a reflex to tiny gas bubbles in his tummy. And that makes my mother's heart sing!

"Anyone...anyone...?"

After a very simple, or so we thought, family devotion on the first commandment. Here is the conversation that transpired.





Okay, so may be it's time to cut back on the amount of time they spend on the computer?

Oh How Things Have Changed

It's been almost a year since I first wrote about "My Little Clean Freak". I was so excited to finally have a child interested in keeping things clean and orderly. I could always count on Micaiah to put his clothes away, after he wore them, and tidy up his toys. Give the kid a dish cloth and he would dust for days.

And then one day he turned into...well...a boy. I'm not sure when it happened exactly, but at some point he morphed from a mommy pleasing little toddler into a "real" boy. This is not to say that boys can't keep things clean. In fact he still retains his need for order. He still lines up all of his cars and likes to help with laundry, we just do things a little differently these days.


Making sure the washing machine is empty.


Yes, he is naked. I would excuse myself by saying that we were potty training, but I don't think we were when this was taken.



And then last, but not least, Micaiah's new favorite - Bumper Vacuums.

So though things are not quite as simple as they used to be, they are a whole lot more fun.

One Month Down

I can hardly believe that it has been almost a month (tomorrow) already since Zayin entered this world. Everything has been a complete blur. He is, for the most part, a very sweet and easy-going kid.



But, of course, he is still a baby and babies are lots of work. People keep asking if 1 to 2, 2 to 3, or 3 to 4 is harder and I'm not really sure. I still think 1 to 2 was the hardest transition for me to make. By the time you have others you are already used to dividing your time between kids, but I am curious what everyone else thinks. What was the hardest transition for you? How are some ways that you have dealt with adding subsequent children? Ok, not only am I curious, I'm looking for tips. I know only a couple people read this blog, so if you know people with several children that have some good ideas, feel free to send this on to them. Thanks. I'm looking forward to what everyone comes up with.

First Bath

I've been meaning to post this for about a week now, along with some other things, but I am just too tired for words. So here are some pictures instead.

It's a Boy!

We're home! This is our second day home with our new bundle of boy, and Jeni asked me to post an update. So...in case you haven't heard, this is how it went down...

Tuesday night we returned home from college group. Jeni had been having contractions about 10 minutes apart - but this was nothing new. We went to bed despite the activity. Jeni had gone to bed with contractions many times, only to wake up in the morning disappointed that nothing materialized. At 12:10AM she was still working on sleep and attempted to roll over to find a less uncomfortable position when she heard AND FELT a loud pop! She cried out in pain and soon discovered her water had broken. Somehow the combination of the rolling over and the baby stretching was enough to break her water...AND break her tailbone. We just didn't know it at the time.

During the brief (depending on who you ask - don't ask her) ride to the hospital, it was clear she was in the throes of deep labor. We got to the hospital at about 12:35AM. When the nurse checked her, the baby was all but out the door. They desperately tried to get her to breathe easy and not push so the doctor could get there - yeah right! Fortunately the doctor arrived "soon" and after a couple of pushes, Zayin Jude came into the world! He was born at 1:00AM - she was in labor for less than an hour!


I know you're gonna ask, so Zayin is pronounced just like it looks - "ZAY - in". Think "sayin". You can wiki or google Zayin for the meanings and significance, but in summary it means sword and sustenance and represents completion and rest as the 7th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. See Ps 119:49-56 for the "Zayin" section. Jude means "praise".

We're home and still struggling to reverse Zayin's days and nights. Our first night home was terrible! Jeni is also on crutches - not from the broken tailbone, but because her pelvis separated during labor. Not fun for her - not that a normal recovery would be fun.

Micaiah was the most excited one to see Zayin in the hospital (his face lit up and he exclaimed "I LIKE IT!").



Charis already has it planned out - she thinks she is gonna have to raise the other kids herself! Thankfully (for their sake) she will not have to. Since we've been home all she wants to do is play old Super Mario Bros. games with me.



Anya thinks he's just so cute and loves to hold him until her 3 second attention span runs out.




They are all still a little amped from all that parent-less time, but we are SO thankful for my parents, Jeni's mom, Noah and Sarah, and David and Monica, who all took shifts with the kids.

That's our past week in a nutshell. Once we get Jeni a donut pillow to sit on, she'll no doubt do some blogging of her own - which will probably involve correcting a lot of what I just typed. Thanks for all your prayers and support!