The kids were treated to a few inches of snow at Grandma and Grandpa's last week. It was just enough for some sledding!
It's easy to see that a good time was had by all. Doesn't my baby look like an oompa loompa? I gotta confess I had quite a few laughs at her expense watching her try to walk around in her big sisters boots and snow suit.
At our house, the rule is No Christmas anything until after Thanksgiving. My hubby is pretty strict about this...He even scolded my grandma on Thanksgiving for wearing a Christmas sweater.
But, come the day after Thanksgiving you better believe we are cranking those yuletide carols as loud as we can as we head out for some good ol' fashioned Black Friday Shopping!
I LOVE CHRISTMAS!! It is by far my most favorite holiday of all.
To kick off the holiday season, I thought I'd post my answers to a "Getting To Know You Christmas Edition" e-mail I received from two different friends last week. So, for those of you interested in learning a little more about Christmas Circus style, grab some hot cocoa and read below.
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags or boxes? I am a horrible gift wrapper. In general I try to opt for a recycled gift bag, but when wrapping paper is all I have left, and the job falls to me, it quite honestly looks like my child did the wrapping!
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real
3. When do you put up the tree? the first weekend in December (a week from Thanksgiving)
4. When do you take the tree down? New Years weekend
5. Do you like eggnog? NO
6. Favorite gift received as a child? the doll house my Daddy made me. I remember loving that for YEARS and I still look back on it with fond memories
7. Favorite gift as an adult? The complete set of the O'Malley series by Dee Henderson (my husband gave it to me after we were married. It was the first time I started reading for pleasure after college... I devoured the books and it renewed my love of reading)
8. Hardest person to buy for? my brother
8. Easiest person to buy for? My kids
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, several
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail them!
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hmmm, I see no benefit in answering that question
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Charlie Brown Christmas (we watch it every year as a family on Christmas day, we started this tradition before the kids were born) and It's a Wonderful Life (Scott and I always watch it on Christmas Eve while we wrap presents)
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Black Friday
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't recall a specific time, but I wouldn't put it past me
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? my mom's nut roll
16. Lights on the tree? Yes....white
17. Favorite Christmas song? I love all the Christmas carols.... so hard to pick. Joy to the World and O Holy Night are two of my favorites though!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? stay home, travel after
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Of course, I even recall the most famous reindeer of all
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning (this year we are going to open Christmas pj's on Christmas Eve though and I am SO excited about this)
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? finding parking
23. What theme or color are you using? cranberry and popcorn garland (we make it every year) with candy canes and an assortment of sentimental ornaments
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Last year we had both sets of parents come here to open presents and then did brunch with fruit, cinnamon rolls, coffee cake... then everyone left and that evening after naps, our family had frozen pizza and a birthday cake for Jesus.... it was great!
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? nothing specific comes to mind, but my hubby never disappoints me... He knows what I want before I do!
Merry Christmas Everyone!!
My son came home from school the other day with a craft he had made listing the things he was thankful for. They were
This list was quite insightful to me. Who know that toast got such high billing? I'll be sure to have toast around more often now that I know how much he values it. Of all the things he's thankful for, toast is in his top 4 list.
How about me? What am I thankful for?
It is so easy to overlook the reason for Thanksgiving. In the hustle and bustle of preparing to travel or preparing to host the feast, it's easy to find yourself going to bed with a belly full of pie and visions of Black Friday savings dancing in your head, having never stopped to reflect on all we have to be thankful for. And more than just to reflect, but to take a few minutes to actually give thanks to the Lord for the blessings He has given us.
I feel like Thanksgiving is the forgotten holiday. With stores selling Halloween candy in July, and Christmas trees up in September, the idea of pausing to give thanks is passed over. Stores don't push a holiday that doesn't help to bolster the economic stimulus.
So, today before my day starts I want to stop and give thanks to the Lord for He has been so good to me.
I am thankful for...
There are numerous other things for which I have to give thanks. I truly live a charmed life. I am grateful for the many blessings God has bestowed upon me and I pray that I can use what He has given me to serve Him and bring Him glory.
What about you? What are you thankful for today? Don't forget to tell Him!
This weekend our family tackled the leaves in our yard. And really when I say our family, I mean, my husband. The rest of us came out to hold rakes, snap pictures, and jump in huge piles. Daddy was the one still raking in the cold all by himself when everyone else when inside to warm up and take naps. Yea, I know my husband rocks.
Here's a picture of what it looked like before he got to work.
Then the work crew came out.
Check out this pile of leaves. You know it is just begging to be jumped in!
The kids truly enjoyed this part the best. (check back tomorrow for some great aerial shots of them being tossed into the piles)
By the time it came to the backyard, it was just poor old Dad all by his lonesome. He tried out using the lawn mower on the back yard.
Doesn't the yard look so much better? Now we are ready for snow to fall and to put up Christmas lights next week.
Scott bagged up 38 bags of leaves this weekend!!
For more great tackles, check out 5 Minutes for Mom.
My son was playing in the backyard swinging his stick like an ax into the mound of dirt when he announced in an overly dramatic voice, "I am working like a slave!" I am sure it's not hard for you to guess what we've been studying this year in Bible Study Fellowship.
That's right...the life of Moses.
I was recently reading in Exodus 16 about the Israelites wandering in the desert. After the Lord had freed them from captivity and led them through the Red Sea, and provided them with drinkable water, they found themselves again without food and water. And even though God had provided for them every step of the journey, they again found themselves grumbling and complaining. For 400 years they had been held captives as slaves in Egypt. Yet here they are "on the 15th day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt," (Exodus 16:1) and they are already saying that they wish they had died in Egypt as slaves because there they sat around pots of meat and ate all they wanted unlike here in the desert where they wander for days without food.
Really?
Had they forgotten so quickly what it was like to be bound as a slave? Did they really forget all the horrors of it that quickly and think back to it as a time where they all just laid around and ate food?
I found myself asking, What is wrong with these people? How can they forget that quickly? Why would they chose slavery of the unknown? How can they forget that God is leading them? He has given them a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day visibly leading them through the desert. He parted the Red Sea for them for crying out loud, what is their problem?
As I sat there in my self-righteous state judging those Israelites the Lord placed a thought on my heart.
When do I prefer slavery to sin to trusting in God?
Yea, it is really easy for me to sit in my comfortable home reading my Bible (which has the big picture all spelled out for me) and judge the Israelites for their lack of faith. But what about me?
God has set me free from my bondage to sin. It no longer rules my life. Christ's death on the cross and the Holy Spirit living in my heart means that through Christ's power, I now have victory over sin.
But, how often do I cling to my sin because it is comfortable and something I know, rather then step out in faith, trusting the Lord to lead me?
See, really, I am no better than the Israelites. Thankfully God was patient with them, showing them again and again His love and His faithfulness by calming their doubts and fears and providing for their needs. Thankfully He does the same with me.
Weekend Thoughts:
My posts typically relate funny anecdotes about the happenings here at the circus but, I use my last post of the week to highlight something a little more “thoughtful” and significant. If you had a thoughtful post from this last week, or choose to make a new one, please feel free to add a link in the comments section below. I’d love to hear what you are thinking.
My daughter loves to play school. She asks me to play All.The.Time.
But, my daughter has never been to school.
And everything she knows about school, she learned from watching her big brother.
So when we "play school" it goes something like this...
My daughter takes her booster seat down from the table and sets it up in the hall to be her "car seat". She then has me strap her in and drive her to school. I then unstrap her and she sits beside me while we wait for her teacher to come to the car and get her. She grabs her folder and bag, kisses me goodbye and smiles widely as she waves goodbye. A few minutes later she announces it is time for me to come and pick her up. I pretend to drive, I wait for her pretend teacher to bring her to the car, she gives me a huge hug, sits back in her seat and tells me about her day. She shows me her "school papers" in her folder. She tells me about running around on the playground and what she ate for snack. And then the routine begins again. I've played school lots of times over the years, but never quite like this.
OK...I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I proceeded to snap 28 pictures of them sitting in this pose. They were pretty agreeable and not bouncing all over the place, which is rare for a photo opp, so I went a little over board. (check out the shell shocked look on my baby girl's face)!
I have to tell myself this quite often at the circus. "It's just milk, no use crying over it or making anyone else cry over it." This time, the spill was my fault as I dropped the full gallon of milk over myself and my floor...
No use crying over it, so I snapped a picture. Check out 5 Minutes for Mom for more Wordess Wednesdays!
Crafty, I am not. But, I was an elementary education major, so I do know how to use scissors and glue. And, I have found that I really enjoy doing simple arts and crafts projects with my children.
But, the circus life can get rather busy. And as with most things, if I am not intentional, the opportunities and the moments pass me by.
So, this year I have designated Tuesday as "Crafty Tuesday."
I have found that having one day a week set aside for crafts allows me a week to plan ahead and get everything together. I picked Tuesday because it is the one day a week we don't have a morning commitment. We typically have a leisurely start to the day, take care of errands mid day and after nap time we work on our "special projects."
I try to make dinner something easy on this night, either a crock pot meal, something I prepped earlier in the day, or something which requires minimal effort. This way we can work on our projects without worrying about stopping early for dinner.
So far the kids and I have enjoyed several, fun, fall projects such as leaf rubbings, window art, painted pumpkins, and our most recent a thanksgiving collage. This last one was a two parter as we took a nature walk last week to gather our materials and this week we glued them down to make letters spelling "Give Thanks," which we then hung on the wall behind our dinner table.
Crafty Tuesday works for me, as it provides me with a way to enjoy some quality time with my children each week. Check out Rocks in My Dryer for more great Works for me Wednesday advice.
Sunday my husband and I had plans during the Steelers games. Thankfully we have a DVR, so we just recorded the game to watch when we got home. This has happened before, and we have devised a sort of routine for situations like this, because it would be AWFUL to accidentally find out the results of the game before we watched it. So, we typically race into the house (because what if we see a neighbor and they casually mention the game) we then unplug the phone (because what if a friend or family member calls to talk about it) and we don't turn on the computer (because what if someone e-mailed about it or we saw something on our "igoogle headline" (since we have Steelers websites in our favorites on our home page. Yes, we live in a sort of state of paranoia.
We've settled into this crazy routine only after learning from the past. Yes, we have actually sat in our living room with our hands over our ears much like Jimmy Fallon in Fever Pitch while someone left a message on our machine congratulating us on a win. My husband has even hung up on his mom before for this reason. As I unplug the phone line and ignore the blinking messages on my answering machine I often fear, "what if something horrible happened to a family member and they are trying to get a hold of us...we always check those messages AFTER the game, in case that is the case."
Sadly when my husband and I got home on Sunday and sat down to watch the game, I had a horrible migraine and felt sick. I managed to barely watch the first half of the game before finally realizing I had to just go to bed early. My dear husband said he would not tell me what happened and was even willing to watch it with me again on Monday night. This meant that all day Monday I walked around with my hands in my ears. I literally held my breath as I entered social situations and was so relieved when I got in my car and knew I wasn't going to see or talk to anyone the rest of the day.
Yes, I am crazy like that...but this paranoia proved well worth it this time as it was a down to the last second, win by only one point, kind of finish, and I was literally on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened. It would not have been nearly as fun to watch if I had known the score already.
Last week the kids were having a jam session in the living room with their play guitar and drums. As we looked at my son's pose, with his tongue out, and his fingers holding the "chords" on the guitar, I couldn't help but think he had a startling resemblance to KISS (minus the face paint)!
The Safeway near us closed down for the past year so they could tear it down and build a bigger, more modern grocery store. I must say I am pretty excited about this because now I don't have to drive as far to get my groceries.
Perhaps, I got a little too excited.
When I got the flier in the mail about their "grand opening preview party" on Thursday night, I started making plans.
And, I kinds got the kids excited brainwashed about it too. They actually started looking forward to it...."Thursday we go to the grand opening of Safeway, right Mom?"
(Now part of the reason we were all so excited is that last week we accidentally went to Giant for their grand reopening after they had rearranged the store. It was incredible. There were 5 clowns with balloon art, every where you went there were people giving samples, stickers, candy, there were line greeters, cashiers, and baggers....it was insane... and we had the balloon art to prove it).
When my husband said he'd be home by 6 on Thursday, my response was "Great, you can come with us to the Grand Opening."
Yea...my husband who "loves" to shop was just thrilled to go to the the grocery store with us and a thousand of our closest friends, "just to see the new store."
He never complained once.
Not when we had to circle the lot and wait for the traffic directors to direct us to a spot in the parking garage...not when we went into the elevator and it didn't work and after standing in there for 3 minutes we got out and walked up the stairs...not when we got into the store and found it completely bazurk with lines going out the wazoo...and when he asked what I needed I responded, "Nothing, just wanted to see the new store."
Seriously, not even then.
We walked around, got samples, the kids had a blast in the cool new cart (good thing we didn't need any food b/c seriously, I don't know where I'd have put the food).
I was the only one complaining..."But Giant had clowns... I wanted you to see the clowns...and Giant had free Starbucks samples...and Giant had way more samples..."
And then my sweet hubby bought flowers for me at the Starbucks stand, and frappuchinos too b/c "he didn't want me to leave my grand opening empty handed." Seriously, is he sweet or what?
As we drove home in the foggy rain after the kids bedtime, they were sipping the end of our frappuchinos (come on, YOU try eating dessert right in front of your kids...it's not easy) and saying, "MMM tastes like coffee!" I didn't care that it was after their bed time and we were letting them have caffeine and sugar. I didn't care that we spent an hour and a half walking around the grocery store to come home without any groceries. I was giddy because we turned something like a trip to the grocery store into a family event to be looked forward to and enjoyed by all. (and I even got flowers)!!
Click here for more pics which need no explanation!
Trekking out and about about with a toddler can be tricky enough, but running errands with a potty training toddler, her into everything ever curious, little sister and her energetic older brother is down right difficult. Those bathroom stalls were not meant for four people! But what do you do when your potty training toddler has to go and hasn't learned how to hold it?
This genius idea is courtesy of my dear friend Rebecca. When I saw a porta potty in her minivan I instantly said, "I need one of those!"
And let me tell me it's worth every penny.
I have a little potty seat in my minivan. In the bag behind it I have the tube of mini M&Ms (her potty reward) hand sanitizer, Lysol (for disinfecting the seat) and extra clothes (for times when we don't make it to the seat fast enough. I recently added plastic shopping bags (for when she goes number 2). Now, instead of dragging my 3 crew circus into the bathroom stall at every store on our errand run, I have her go before we go in. (while her siblings are safely strapped into their seats (germ free). At the soccer field with no bathrooms? No worries... she can go in the privacy of our van.
Changing my minivan into an RV courtesy of a $10.00 potty seat, definitely works for me. For more great tips, check out Rocks in My Dryer.
There's a show on Disney which my kids really liked for awhile, but it just didn't sit right with my husband and I. There's nothing morally objectionable in it. It's just a silly little cartoon. My concern lies with the fact that it seems to trivialize the word hero. Ever seen Higglytown Heroes? In each story the main characters find themselves in a situation which needs help from a higglytown hero (a local community person doing their job) It might be the locksmith, the veterinarian, or the barbershop owner. While I agree that anyone can be a hero, I do not believe that just doing your job makes you a hero. I think you need to do something brave or honorable to be considered a hero. Getting my door unlocked when I lock my keys inside, is really helpful. It's a job I am truly thankful for. But I don't feel like you can use the word heroic to describe that action. I feel doing so takes away from the truly heroic acts of policeman, fireman, and military servicemen.
My husband and I both have grandfathers who served in WW II. We are proud of their role in defending our nation. We are proud of the sacrifices they made for our freedoms. They are true heroes.
We want our children to recognize what a true hero is. So, we don't encourage our kids watch that show anymore. I just didn't want to take away from their definition of a hero.
One thing that has always struck me about my husband is the honor he gives to veterans. Ever since we were dating, when we are out and about and he comes across a veteran, he always walks over to them and thanks them for their service to our country. We've taught our children to do the same, and to also thank the fire and police men and women we see.
My son has an uncle (my brother in law) who currently serves in our army. 
My son knows that his uncle fought bad guys in Iraq. He adores his uncle and loves to be his "army buddy" and help him fight bad guys. Anytime he'd ask questions about pirates (to which I often didn't have an answer) he'd respond, "I'll ask my uncle... he'll know".... because if it had to do with anything bad, clearly the good soldiers would know about it (since their job is to fight bad guys). Hence his misconception that his uncle was in Iraq fighting pirates. While he might need a lesson in geography and while at his age, I keep most particulars rather vague...we are instilling in him an appreciation for the fact that our soldiers are taking care of us by fighting bad guys. And this makes them heroes. And when we see men and women in uniform, we give them respect, and awe. While you could make the argument that they too are good citizens, helping others by doing their jobs well, they are making many sacrifices to do so and they put their life on the line in the process.
This Veteran's Day I want to say thanks to the men and women and their families who have served to protect my freedoms. And I think with pride of our grandfathers, cousins, and uncles who bravely fought for our nation. I am truly filled with pride to be a part of their family line. And I am thankful for my brother in law serving right now in our army for providing my son with a real, tangible portrait of a hero.
Who would ever thought soccer cleats could be so cute? When I took my son to get his cleats at the beginning of the season, I thought those cleats were far cuter than any baby bootie I've ever seen. I've never been into bronzing the baby shoes, but I will be tucking these cleats away in a box to look at years from now when I complain of the big stinky cleats I find sitting in my doorway.
Last week we watched my son's last game of the season. In some ways he's come a long way since that first game. He knows to stop when the whistle is blown. And while he never scored a goal, he did dribble the ball down the field a few times. My husband and I couldn't have been more proud at the rainy game a few weeks ago when he ran after the ball and kicked it down the field. More than once! I remember Scott and I looking over at each other with such enthusiasm and shouting, "He touched the ball!"
His antics at his last game were truly memorable though. For a good 20 minutes of the game my dear son was running up and down the field with arms held out wide at this side.
Much like an airplane. 
(See number 7 there on the left? That's my boy)!
And being his mother and in tune with the workings of his mind, I knew in fact that was what he was doing. So while the other kids were racing for the ball up and down the field, he ran along side them soared along them. I asked him about it when he came to the side for a drink. "Were you being an airplane out there bud?" His reply, "Yea Mom, I was pulling a sign behind me!"
One of things I love most about my dear son is his active imagination.
Fly away, dear boy, fly away!!
A recent dinner conversation resulted in one of those, "wow" moments for my husband and I as we listened to our four year old speak truths that truly made us rejoice.
We had been talking about voting and my husband asked if my four year old son new what voting was...
Son: Yea I do I learned it at school...it's the government who makes all the rules
Dad: Right... and we get to vote on who will make those rules
Pause Dad: Who makes the rules in our house?
Here's where I was expecting him to answer with "Mom and Dad"
Son: God
And I instantly stopped eating and looked up my husband. My son answered that question better than I would have.
How comforting to know that our son gets it. He understands that when Mommy and Daddy make rules, it isn't just for the sake of making rules, it's because we are obeying God and we want our children to do the same. How exciting that he knows that Mommy and Daddy submit to the same God he does!
I couldn't help but think of the verse in Joshua 24:15 which states, "But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
It is my prayer that as my kids grow older they will continue to see that it is God who makes the rules and sets the standard. May they also see that God is much more than a dictator of rules. May they see that we are incapable of meeting his perfect standard, and that only through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, with his blood covering our sin, can we meet His standard. On our own, we can not obey or follow the rules perfectly enough. Because of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf, God does not see our sin when he looks at us. And as new creations in Christ, we as Christians strive to live our life in such a way that brings Him glory through our obedience, not to earn our salvation, but in gratitude for our salvation.
This is my prayer.
"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[d] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption,[e] the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:9-14
Weekend Thoughts:
My posts typically relate funny anecdotes about the happenings here at the circus but, I use my last post of the week to highlight something a little more “thoughtful” and significant. If you had a thoughtful post from this last week, or choose to make a new one, please feel free to add a link in the comments section below. I’d love to hear what you are thinking.
And now for the lucky winner of this fun contest! Thanks to Random.Org for generating this number for me because there is no way I could have picked it myself!
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
8
Timestamp: 2008-11-07 19:27:49 UTC
8JPg It’s so great to hear women singing their husband’s praises!
My husband, Jake, (my crush since middle school! :)) is absolutely incredible. He is a model of patience and love and thoughtfulness in our family. Something I realized this weekend more than ever is that my husband has found the perfect balance between respecting and protecting his rather independent do-it-yourselfer-style wife. We do a lot of projects together, and I love working with him because he is just as much my friend as he is my husband. He loves me AND he LIKES me!
So, let me know if you want the "my husband rocks" tee in either hot pink or brown or the "daisy tee" and I will have From me Tees ship it out to you right away!
For those that didn't win, you can purchase one for yourself. Check out the link. She has lots of cute styles to chose from. One thing I noticed from my friends and I trying and retrying the shirts on again and again (yes we really were that annoying customer and she really was that patient with us) was that the fitted tees seemed to run a bit small and the non fitted tees seemed to fit big. Keep that in mind when choosing your size.
We're just a normal family living life together in Maryland.
