Sickmas 2012

(Believe it or not, there is an 8 year old in that chair.)

 

Quite unfortunately our household has been hit with the flu. Right now the four girls are laid out like rugs. I've been trying to keep the baby away from the sick people and that has been a challenge because he does not like to be away from momma!

 

Last night I was facing some serious disappointment regarding the timing of our sickness. Six days before Christmas? Very, very inconvenient. And we rarely get sick. I was tempted to become depressed and negative due to the circumstances--and I did have a few moments of that. I mean, with all of the horror of Newtown as well as what has seemed to be bad news over and over for so many we know, we could really use some Christmas cheer, right?

 

When the advancement of the plague became apparent late last night, I made a dash to the store to re-stock our supplies. Our dishwasher was also experiencing a sick day so I wanted to get disposable plates/cups. And some cough syrup for goodness sake. Ok, and some chocolate to soothe my nerves.

 

On the 7 minute ride to the store I heard a song I had never heard before. The lyrics that snapped me out of my funk were this:

 

Even if the healing doesn't come

And life falls apart

And dreams are still undone

You are God You are good

Forever faithful One

Even if the healing

Even if the healing doesn't come

 

I was reminded of God's sovereignty. That He knew we would be sick right now, before and possibly on Christmas. And He does work all things together for the good of those who love Him.

 He is good and this is good.

 

My dreams of a fun, festive, memory-making Christmas are looking pretty unlikely. Our Advent activities have been suspended indefinitely, our little gingerbread sleighs are untouched and still wrapped in plastic, we will miss Jason's office Christmas party, we will not be seeing my family for a big old bonfire, we probably won't be able to do the Christmas light tour, it's unlikely we will be able to attend our wonderful church's Christmas service, and I'm giving it a 50/50 chance that we'll have Jason's family over on Christmas Day.  

 

But perhaps having all these wonderful traditions stripped away will bring us to spend even more time reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas, which is our Lord and Savior's birth +2000 years ago.

 

So, even if the healing doesn't come before December 25, even if we are eating jello and chicken soup instead of a delightful Christmas brunch, we will strive for joyous hearts. Because if we only have Jesus and what He has done for us, that ought to be more than sufficient, shouldn't it?

Santa

Goodness, it has taken me all week to do this blog post. I started it a few days ago and then got up from my computer and forgot about it until today.

 

For the past few years we have had Santa send the girls a personalized video. There are pictures of the girls and a report on whether they are on the naughty or nice list as well as a few other details.

 

Of course the girls love it, even though the older three know the truth about Santa. They still like to believe in him :)

 

These are some pictures I took as we watched the Santa video messages to each girl. I thought they came out pretty cute!

 

Reese was like "Where did he get that picture of me?"

 

 

Little P's mind was blown. How does this strange man know so much about me?

She hid her face for about half of the message. She can be a little shy.

She was pretty frowny and suspicous.

Then she warmed up to Santa.

Thankfully by the time the video was over she had concluded that Santa is an ok dude.

 

Big sister tried to play it cool.

Still a bit of a Santa believer though :)

Big P was pretty goofy about it. She knows the truth about Santa but wasn't prepared...

How does he know?

And since he knows...did I make the "nice" list?

 

Hooray! She made it!

 

Relief and delight :)

 

 

Helping Hands

We very much encourage our kids to help out as much as possible. If Jason and I are doing chores, they usually are too. It has definitely paid off in many ways. It would be easier to list the things they don't help with than the other way around. Of course there are the times where I am tempted to just do everything myself b/c I don't like shells in my eggs or the floor isn't exactly uncrunchy. But they do have to learn and they might as well learn that stuff here. I do expect some grateful children in-laws

The other day was one of those times where I never wanted to ask anyone to do anything ever again.

We got home from running errands and I asked the girls to unload the groceries from the car while I put Penny down for her nap. Jacob was asleep in his carseat and I just left the van door open and told the girls to get me if he woke up. It wasn't hot and I was planning on letting him nap with the van door open and checking on him every few minutes while I got the groceries put away, etc.

I came downstairs from getting Penny settled and asked Reese to let the dog out of his crate and put him out to potty. At this moment Paige suddenly remembered that she had left one more item out by the van. She leaves the front door wide open and Auggie, the dog, runs straight out the door.

Reese and Paige take off after him and I grab his leash and follow. We find him allllll the way at the end of the block where he has enthusiastically introduced himself to our neighbor. Our neighbor, Cory, is holding Auggie for me but is having a bit of a time as Auggie has no collar on (we don't leave his collar on him in his crate--strangulation risk...).

Auggie has been cooped up for hours and is positively radiating 10 month old, 65 pound golden retriever energy. I try to put his leash on, noose like, but it just isn't working so I have to walk him home by his scruff. After about three houses of walking like this my hand is aching from holding on him and my back feels like it will never recover. Auggie is just thrilled to see us. He doesn't care that I'm holding him by a fistful of neck skin, he is just glad that to be in physical contact with me.

We've almost made it to the house when I lose my shoe. Which causes me to lose the dog. Auggie bounds towards the house and I'm hoping he will just run to the door. Nope. He leaps into the van and sprawls out on his spot. Reese and Paige beat me to him and start to loudly wrestle him out of the car.
He is not going anywhere. He wants to go for a car ride. I have to absolutely drag him out of the car and he becomes a 65 pound dead weight (this is his passive aggressive move--it's not effective but he always hopes). I huff and puff and get him into the door and he romps off happily, panting and drooling with glee. I'm panting but I'm not very happy.

I know full well that I have left the biggest baby-waker in our family out in the van with sleeping Jacob. Sure enough, I dash back to the van and find her tickling his feet and him screaming bloody murder. I rescue him, resist the urge to cry, and we head into the house.

As I try to calm Jacob, down a glass of water, and look for the kid who was supposed to start putting hte groceries away but has drifted off to who knows where, it occurs to me that this was a whole lot of effort just to have these girls help bring in the groceries. I could have had this done in about ten minutes myself. And the baby would probably still be sleeping. And I sure wouldn't be drenched in sweat and struggling through a cramped hand from dragging the dog home.

 But then it occurs to me that this is the trade off for training kids: broken dishes, smudgy mirrors, sloppily folded towels, the toilet brush that vanished into thin air, broken dishwasher rack from someone yanking on it too hard, finish scrubbed off of kitchen table, shrunken sweaters, and floors that just don't quite sparkle.

And again this thought comes to mind: I hope my future children in-laws appreciate me :)

Great Read

 

If you want a very exciting, easy to read book for study of early American history, this is a good one. I had no idea that John Smith had led such an adventurous life. The man was a mercenary, slave, author, hero, prisoner, murderer. And it's possible that the Jamestown colony would have completely failed without him. Anyway, it's an exciting read. It was one of our read-a-louds and the girls begged for "one more chapter" every time we finished one.

Colonial Fun Times

 Here are a few of our "colonial times" activities:



 Marbles

Super fun. The girls had such a good time. They all did well--I wasn't too bad myself!

 

 

 

Quill and ink.

They copied calligraphy and concluded that writing back in the old days was pretty tedious. Admittedly I was a bit uptight with the open bottle of ink in the same room as a certain 6 year old. She did mange to spill the ink but there were about 5 layers of newspaper on the table so no big deal.

 

Corn husk dolls and poppets

The girls adored this project. I did as well. I even learned to sew a stitch (thank you E-HOW!). They carried their babies around for a few weeks. Now the babies have a place on each girl's bed. The corn husk dolls weren't quite as adored--they aren't squishy enough to love on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Botanists

 



We are well into our study of plants this year (using Apologia's Young Explorers series--botany). I must say that we have learned some amazing things. For instance, you know how when you fail to mow the grass and the lawn starts to resemble a wheat field? Well, those are little wheat thingies are actually flowers. Who knew?

 

I won't spoil the rest of the book but let me just say that it's a fantastic study on plants. Initially I was sorta like "Eh." but it's proving to be just fascinating. There are so many outdoor activities that go along with this lesson and I know I will never look at all the greenery in my yard the same.

 

We picked up a little Venus Flytrap today at the store. Of course we spent waaaay too much time this afternoon trying to feed the plant tiny insects we collected from the yard. So far, no luck on getting the flytrap to close but I'm thinking the little plant might need some time to get used to us.

 

The M&Q Spirit

We did all end up getting sick. Even Jason joined us and then he went one step further and developed pink eye. Yesterday was the first day in over a week that there was no fever in this place and I am thankful for a healthy household again. I'm hoping the demon red eyeball germs do not spread or else we'll be looking at being on lockdown again.

This week we escaped to the carwash--thrilling really, after being in the house for days--and since it was evening and Jason was with us I ran into the bookstore. I came home with a few jewels and one is "Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit" by Teri Maxwell. I am a fan of the Mawell's "Managers of Their Homes" and have wanted to get my hands on a copy of "Meek/Quiet Spirit" for awhile now.

I thought I was pretty successful at having a gentle spirit with my kids. Not perfect but a far cry from the impatient, snappy, often overwhelmed, prone to yelling mom I was even 6 years ago. However, after reading this example that Terri provided from her days as a mom to 3 school aged children and 3 children who were aged baby to preschooler, I was convicted not about my actions or words but my spirit:

"I walked into the bathroom, in the middle of a busy school morning, to discover the toilet paper had been unrolled all over the floor. Do you know what I did? I sat down on the floor and cried! In frustration, I raised my heart to the Lord, "Lord, there are just too many of them and too few of me!" Of course, unrolled toilet paper was not the only thing that had happened in our home that morning, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back...

I wish this had been my reaction instead: 'Lord, those little guys are at it again. Thank you for giving them to me to love, teach, and train. Please, Lord, give me the energy I need to deal sweetly with them. Also, grant me the courage and wisdom to discipline them. I love them so much, Lord!' It would have characterized a meek and quiet spirit despite discouraging circumstances."

That right there really convicted me. Now, I am not one to sit down and cry but I have definitely seen some little (or big...) mess on a day that has not been going smoothly. Frequently in this situation, I am slammed with feelings of "I can not do this anymore." I usually don't say anything nasty to anyone but my happy feelings tend to shrivel up and die at this point.

I don't want to live that way. I don't want to be satisfied with simply not screaming at people when I feel like it or gritting my teeth so hard that I've develop a tension headache b/c my kid is going thru a "testing phase". Sure, I'm human and I'm not going to be pleased when I find a 50 pound bag of dog food dumped on the floor (true story) or discover my toddler no longer has curls thanks to her scissor-wielding 5 yr old sister (another true story). But I don't want to be sitting there conjuring up an ulcer.

What I want is this:

 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:4-7

What I want is true joy and peace. I'm going to steal this definition of "joy" from our "Who Is God?" textbook b/c it is so simple and yet profound:

Joy: A delight that comes not from our circumstances, but from living in fellowship with God as His child.

I am grateful that true joy does not come from our circumstances.

I highly recommend this book. Of course, no book is going to "fix" a problem. Only God can do that. But I do believe that this book is a good one to encourage those of us who are desiring a "meek and quiet" spirit and who are looking to the Lord to complete the good work He started in us. I know already He has used it to bring up areas of my life that I need to further submit to Him.