Catch up

I made peace with  Christmas this year. Or more accurately God restored peace to my heart. While most things about the how our culture celebrates this precious birthday sadden me,  I've found genuiune worship in my heart and on my mind this year. And that's the point right?

What changed? I don't really know. Maybe years of seeking a way to keep my heart pure and praying for my kids to avoid deadly materialism led me to a place of the peace Jesus promises us.  I've found comfort in the traditions I've established with my girls. For the most part our ornaments on the tree are all part of the nativity story. Many starts, hearts and angels (it's VERY difficult to find  nativity ornaments). Each year the girls and I make new star ornaments. And this year I made an advent calendar.  Each day the girls opened a festive carton and pulled out two small chocolates and a riddle. The riddles revealed the day's lessons. We used Lisa Whelchel's ADVENTure of Christmas book for our lessons. We learned the origins of some  Christmas  tradition and if the tradition didn't have especially spiritual roots, Lisa found a way to remind us of the true meaning of the holiday. It was sweet time together. Precious memories.

Prior to the holiday
Let's see the girls had their holiday walkabout at school on the 22nd (yes we were still in school). It was typical. Two or three songs for each grade, parents and grandparents everywhere and not a word about Jesus. Both girls dressed up in their favorite fancy outfit and sang well. We walked around the school and looked at all the art projects and felt glad to have extended family, Cody, with us.

The day before I was driving on the Interstate after scoring $8 PJs with feet at the Carter outlet. I was under an overpass when I saw a movement in the shadows. Before I could avoid it I hit a dog! A lovely old (or so I think) yellow lab. It got up and ran away. Due to traffic I couldn't stop  and all I could do was shed tears. My car suffered less than the dog but I do need to replace my left headlight  now.

Where we are now
We were in Chicago. At Tom's grandma house. We left our home a day early due to impending weather. Eventually there were be 12 of us in thiat tiny home. I practiced letting go of my selfish comforts. Grandma's house was probably once the envy of many with beautiful marbled brown carpet and heavy orange drapery. Once the furniture, all hard wood trimmed, was once comfy and trendy. The heat in this place is a sweltering 78. And with age comes an inability to clean the bathroom well, but I keep reminding myself of what is important. Family, Christ. Meanwhile, my human comforts haunted me. But I rolled up sleeves and cleaned the bathroms. And then I enjoyed Tom's kind family, mediated between the cousins and tried not to dwell on the departure of my husband.

On the 27th (our 12th anniversary) the girls and I headed to Rockford to see my family (stopping first to have breakfast with a dear college friend). And Tom? We dropped him off at the airport, bound for Tokoyo and eventually Changsha, China. For a wedding. I think he might win a prize for greatest distance traveled. Our friend Matt, who lives and works in China found the love of his life. They will marry on the 2nd of Janaury. We wanted to send the whole family, but it just isn't in the budget. A big thanks goes out to Matt's many friends who helped us send Tom as representative of them all. I hope Tom is able to be a blessing to Matt. Matt was our first roommate. He lived with us for a year as he worked to pay off student loans and prepare to teach in China. He shares a birthday with Hadley and I have have fond memories of scrabble games and long conversations with Matt at the kitchen table that saved my sanity during those exhausting early months of motherhood while Tom was working. I know China won't let allow access to blogs, but congratulations Matt. I am so happy for you.

My grandpa from Texas was here for the first two days of our visit with my parents. The girls with their energy, dress up clothes (they got new costumes for Christmas), and general craziness left great grandpa shaking his head more than once. It's nice to be here while Tom is gone, since the routine is different it is easier not to miss him so much.

And if you've read this far, here's a final tidbit, a sort silly triumph, a revenge.  Not a revenge equal to the damage those little pests caused but still, there is some sense of turning lemons into lemonade. My editor sent me a new article to write: "Show Termites the Door” – These little pests can make an all-you-can-eat buffet out of your home’s wood frame. A local extermination specialist gives advice for putting out the unwelcome mat for termites. I tell my girls not to seek revenge, but it can be  sweet.

An Update(finally!)

So silent. Some of you became accustomed to my regular ramblings. You are probably getting tired of checking to see if I updated my blog. Sorry.

For a long while, I prayed that God would help me be more efficient with time, to not be lazy. He answered my prayers. I exercise most weekdays, regularly volunteer at the girl's school and my house is in better order than before. My days disappear quickly before I have time to write. Not having a camera and having a computer that is on the fritz (it took five minutes to load the page where you write new posts!) also make blogging long and tedious.

Sadly, I have no pictures from Thanksgiving. We drove down to Southern Illinois and spent time with Tom's extended family. We celebrated Thanksgiving with two of Tom's uncles and their families (who I have only met once or twice). It was fascinating observing similarities in these family members I've really never spent time with. Tom and his Uncle Matt are definitely cut from the same cloth. And we laughed over how none of Tom's uncles will drink water (juice or milk or pop). They grew up in a very poor home with six kids and because it provided calories they had a milk machine and drank a lot of milk. Whenever my father-in-law comes in town I buy twice the amount of milk as usual.

Instead of shopping on Friday, we drove further down the long state of Illinois to Mt. Vernon. Tom's Grandma, who I am have met exactly twice in fifteen years of knowing him, lives there. She is a character. She likes to take in strays—dogs and people, not cats. The girls delighted in her very tame dogs (including a pit bull named Bill). Hadley enjoyed meeting Tom's cousin's daughter (is that a second cousin?) who is just 20 days older than her and oddly is named Kassidy (yes that's the correct spelling). The girls spent most of the time and writing and playing school. Grandma, who is 83, has a lively and active mind and a pretty nimble body too. She talks endlessly about God and miracles and winning the lottery (which she expects to do soon).

It was odd spending time with people I didn't really know for Thanksgiving, but I am glad we went. I love the understanding it gave me about my husband and his family and the sense of being part of something bigger that it gave my girls.

Kassy did have too much gluten on the trip and came home with painful gas and a runny nose. I want to get her tested for Celiac disease because I need to be much more diligent in limiting her gluten intake and in issues of cross contamination if she does have Celiac. Trouble is, the easy blood tests for Celiac require a person to be eating gluten (for how long I don't know). I need to do some research.

On a separate note, Hadley was doing a school assignment where she had to write two paragraphs. She needed to explain why one comic strip was realistic and why another was fantasy(yes, this is second grade). The fantasy comic was a Calvin and Hobbes where Hobbes is beating up Calvin, but in the opening frame the mother is scowling as she picks up the trail of belongings Calvin dropped when he came home from school. Hadley's first idea about why this strip was a fantasy was that no one mom would just pick up after their kid like that! Lesson learned well!

I have Kassy's school pictures from JCPenny and will post about her soon.