December 2010

December 31, 2010

The last day of the year….. So much has happened this year, it started with bringing Samuel home, next came a tornado tearing the yard up and it’s ending with a peaceful night shared with friends.  Sometimes life is a struggle, sometimes it can be so taxing and it can be very peaceful.

Memory for the day: Spending the evening with good friends.

December 25, 2010

Ahh there’s never enough sleep on Christmas morning.  The boys woke to new scooters, slippers, wood- craft projects and candy (yes mom bought candy and fruit for the stockings.  We had a nice day just being together eating munchies and enjoying the new toys.

Memory for the day: Watching the boys ride scooters all over the house.

December 24, 2010

The excitement of the evening, celebrating Christ’s birth with a candlelight service and then home to play games and wait in anticipation of Christmas morning.

Memory for the day: Being with my family and singing Silent Night by candlelight.

December 22, 2010

Craft Day! I’m reading two very neat books (The Creative Family and Handmade Homemade), they great ideas for making crafts that you use every day. Today we painted little peg people.  My thoughts were to create a nativity scene but that quickly changed once the boys started painting.  We ended up with football players, storm troopers, people with overalls, a formally dressed lady, some way overly painted people and a hobo.  It was way fun and neat to see the ideas that they created.  We also cut material for Christmas crowns, pencil holders for gifts for the boy’s friends and for a rag rug that we will be trying to make.  Tomorrow we will sew the crowns and pencil rolls – breath deep I’m teaching boys how to use a sewing machine…… 

Memory for the day: Seeing our peg people come to fruition through the boy’s eyes.

December 20, 2010

More SNOW……sigh…  Mom will keep the boys another night as the roads are pretty slippery.  Benjamin and Samuel are keeping busy and much to themselves.  We went to the library, Sam checked out a Dora the explorer video and he is watching it and I her him laughing out loud – too sweet.

Memory for the day: hearing Sam laugh at Dora video.

December 19, 2010

Went to my mom’s for dinner, Pizza Hut!  It was nice that my sister and her kids could make it.  Back at moms the boys opened their Christmas presents from grandma, big wheel for Sam, artist set for Daniel, Camera for Matthew and 2010 almanac and a football rule book for Benjamin – they all loved what they got – way to go grandma Mary!!  Matthew and Daniel will spend the night.

Memory for the day: Seeing Donna.

December 6, 2010

Today was a long day.  The boys were up easy today and started on school right after breakfast.  Ben had a counseling session at 11 and it went well.  Each time we go we learn a new way to help us work through our issues.  Last week we implemented quiet time for 45-60 minutes as Joel goes off to work.  This time of day has been quite a struggle for us, with many episodes with Ben. So at 4:00 we discuss what each boy will be doing for the next hour and at 4:15 off they go, so far reading, computer time and puzzles have been a favorite.  Each child is assigned a day to spend the time with me, Matthew learned how to do a yarn project, Daniel did reading, Ben played games and made cookies and Sam wanted to play the memory game.  This has been good for all, each boy gets some one on one time with me and everyone has some quiet time to themselves.  I thank God for taking us to this point and for getting help for Ben and for our family.

Memory for the day: Listening to Daniel read.

December 4, 2010

I finally got my sewing machine out and started working on curtains for the boys rooms.  Almost done, just need curtain rods and a hem.  They will look nice when done.  I cut out material for sleep pants for each of the boys – got a great deal on material the day after Thanksgiving.

Memory for the day: Sewing curtains with the aroma of fresh baked cookies listening to Samuel wander around proudly singing his newly learned alphabet song.

December 2, 2010

Cleaning day:  I’ve been working many hours on getting the basement cleaned, uncluttered and arranged. Joel worked on rearranging the gym we’ve made to make it more workable.  The boys cleaned their rooms, even used the vacuum! The house looks really nice. We spent the evening with Christmas music, cookies and decorated the tree.

Memory for the day: watching the boys work together to put up the tree lights and the diligent manner in putting the decorations on.

December 1, 2010

I love the days when Joel is off.  We made waffles, got milk, and headed out shopping with the boys.  We took the boys out for Chinese food, bought a Christmas tree and wandered around Fleet Farm for an hour just looking at everything. I’ve been having extreme pain in my back since having pneumonia, I just can’t seem to get rid of the pain and I ended up at urgent care late in the evening. My blood pressure was way off the charts, my blood work showed everything to be ok, no infections, so they gave me a shot of tordol for the pain  and some muscle relaxers – don’t know what’s going on.

Memory for the day: walking with Joel and watching the boys be boys.

November 2010

November 29, 2010

Had to take Ben to the counselor this morning and I felt guilty for not being at home doing school work. My thoughts and attitude were different afterwards, we really need to do this not only for Ben but for our whole family. 

November 27, 2010

Memory for the day: Watching Oklahoma Sooners beat Texas Longhorns in college football with Matthew.

November 26, 2010

Ok I know this is crazy but I was up at 3:45am and shopping by 5a.m. in Red Wing. So crazy, then I met up with Jess at 6:30 and we headed off to see what other deals we could find.  It was crazy and fun, we laughed a lot and enjoyed a nice meal together.  We made it home about 7:30, I don’t know if I’ll ever do that again but it made for some fun memories.

Memory for the day: Eating at Red Lobster and laughing so hard when Jess told the cashier to “just stick it anywhere you like” (referring to putting a purchase in the shopping cart)

November 25, 2010 Thanksgiving Day

We spent the day with friends ( a tradition  we’ve done for 4 years now).  My mom wasn’t too happy that we weren’t getting together.  She and my sister were invited but they weren’t too comfortable with the number of kids there- 4+6+2+3=15 not so many. There actually could have been 8 more but two families didn’t make it this year.  Good food, great fellowship couldn’t ask for much more. My friend cooked one of the turkeys we raised this summer – what a difference in taste, we are so going to raise more turkeys not only were they easy and fun to raise they are darn good eatin!

Memory for the day: Watching the boys and men play football in 10 degree weather and eating a homegrown turkey.

October 29, 2010

Well today was like no other of late, I woke up early got ready before the boys woke, we had a quick breakfast because we were having an early lunch with Grandma Marie.  I haven’t felt this really good in many months.  No pneumonia coughing, my back was feeling better than it has, the sun was shining through recently cleaned windows, I read the bible, the kids were getting along, and I felt good, sigh.  I made phones calls to friends that I hadn’t had the energy to do.  Our first insurance installment came so we can move forward with having our roof and siding done!! That’s exciting, our house is going to look so good…..but I’m not picking the colors Joel will do that in the morning.  We had a great lunch date with grandma, although I found out she drove to get her hair done this morning-stubborn lady, at 89 she’s still driving but really shouldn’t be. I spent time with Joel and the boys reading James ch5 before he went off to work, patience in suffering, stand firm because the Lord’s coming is near, if you are in trouble pray and sing songs of praise – pieces the boys remembered this evening of their reading.