Shopping for Treasures

The after Christmas sales have never been a big deal to me. I'm not much of a shopper, because I don't like to fight the crowds, but the kids must have a stray shopping gene. They can't wait to get to the stores to spend the Christmas money that's burning a hole in their pockets. My oldest particularly likes to peruse the DVD isles.

Amidst the flurry of Christmas activities this year, my youngest asked me out of the blue, "now why do we give each other gifts at Christmas?", "it's not our birthday, it's Jesus' birthday, right?". I thought to myself, this is another one of those trick questions kids ask grownups. Not wanting to flunk the grownup test and unsure of how to answer him, I ponder the idea of Christmas with no presents! Yikes! That would be awful. I think to myself, what was that story about St. Nicholas and how does that play into all of this gift giving ritual? Now, I'm feeling like the most uneducated mom, and make a mental note to research the St. Nick thing soon (surely there's a "Christmas Histories for dummies" book at the Christian book store that will tell me everything I need to know). Finally, I explained to him that we give gifts to the people we love, like the Wise Men(Maji) brought gifts to Jesus, to celebrate Christ's birth. He was happy with that answer and ran off do to what ever 9 year olds do, and I was happy that I had saved the Christmas gift giving tradition in our family. Whew, close call.

This incident prompted me to remind the kids that all this stuff we give and get is just stuff to use and enjoy, but that our real treasures are in heaven.

But store up for yourselves, treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6:20

I have to admit, the shopping and the wrapping and the giving and the getting can be a distraction to my kids if I don't continually point them to Christ and remind them that... his birth is the reason we have joy and his death is the reason we have life.

A New Year

Happy New Year blogging friends. I hope that you and your family had a wonderful Christmas with all of the blessings of family and fun. Our family had a great Christmas break and now we're back to our regular routines. I am thankful for that. Having so much fun can be tiring. We traveled north to visit family and got to actually see a little snow. Those of you who see it all the time are probably rolling your eyes right now, but where we live, snow is a rarity so it is really special when we get to actually see some of the cold fluffy stuff. I couldn't keep the kids out of it so they were soaking wet after a few minutes.

Since pictures are worth 1000 words, I'm going to share several thousand words worth of pictures...and a glimpse into our holiday festivities.

Merry Christmas to all

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but I have been celebrating this season of Christ's birth. It's amazing what I can get done when I don't blog!

Our family has enjoyed several Christmas Parties and Christmas Musical Celebrations. My daughter is now playing the Clarinet in the band (she gave up the viola for the clarinet) and she is suprisingly good at playing the clarinet (much better than the viola, ouch, I can testify to that, if your reading this honey, I'm just kidding you were ok at the viola, you're just better at the clarinet). So far, she has managed to stay in the first chair spot and I don't have to remind her to practice (which is a big improvement over last years episodes of "Nagging Mother knows Best")

While I lectured her on signing up for two many activities, she managed to wrangle a speaking part in our church's yearly Christmas Pageant. The show was great and she did a good job.

I am now ready to sit around with family, sip hot cocoa, play silly board games, look at christmas lights, and share the season with friends and family. I pray that you are having a Merry Christmas as well!

Master of One

The last game of the Volleyball season is over, and basketball starts next week (swim team goes on year round mind you). I love that the kids enjoy sports, and music, and scouts, but I'm ready to have them settle down and specialize in something. As a parent we want to give them every opportunity to explore their talents, and discover their strengths, whether it is in sports, music, academics, or other service type activities. I believe that is why we as parents have trouble saying "no more", but that is exactly why we should say "no more", because if we continually open doors, the opportunities available are more numerous than the time we have to try them all. All those choices seem to muddle the decision making process when it comes down to figuring out what activities my child needs to be involved in, and which need to go by the wayside.

I once had someone tell me they were the Jack-of-all-trades, but Master of none. And now I know what that means. A person can be stretched to thin, you can be involved in a lot of things, but not really good at any of them. If you want to be really good at something you have to figure out what your gift is and concentrate in that area. Only then can you master what you set out to accomplish and be the very best at it.

Thankful for Family

It's nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of our everyday life. We headed out to the old home place, my grandparents farm, 60+ acres of woods and meadow, 5 miles from nowhere, and an hour from any major after Thanksgiving shopping sales. My grandparents are not with us anymore, but we still have the farm. Being there reminds me of all the fun I had with them as a child; exploring the woods, running through the fields, gathering hen eggs, picking tomatoes, getting chased by Brahma Bulls, and fishing in the pond. I hope your Thanksgiving was like ours, filled with family fun.

Smells Like Christmas

Every year about this time, typically the day after Thanksgiving, I clear out a spot in our front room to set up the Christmas Tree, we use and artificial tree, the others make me sneeze. I try to do an extra good job of dusting and rearranging so that we have plenty of room for the tree, presents and Christmas decorations that find their way from the attic into the house. I also take this time to toss the old scented plug-ins and replace with my favorite Apple Cinnamon or similar Christmasy smells. When I did this last year, "the inventor" walked into the house after I had transformed the front room, saw the Christmas tree up, took a deep breath and said "Ah, Christmas air". I didn't tell him that it wasn't the artificial tree that he was smelling, but the wall plug-ins that I had just replaced. Why burst his bubble.

By far the most fun I have about this time of year is baking cookies. One of our favorite family traditions is baking and eating cookies while we put the ornaments on the tree. I do like Thanksgiving, but for me it is just the first celebration of the Christmas season. It's the warm up band for the main concert. When the last dish of the Thanksgiving meal has been washed and dried, I'm ready to break out the Christmas CD's, warm up the oven, and mix up a batch of cookies. Here's a great place to find those recipes that you can't seem to locate in your recipe box.

Mrs. Claus' Cookbook

The Fall Garden

Every time I work in the yard or the garden, I can't help but have scripture pop into my head. I realize that when Jesus spoke to his disciples in parables he used stories that related to their lives so that it would help them remember the lesson he was teaching them. So it is with me, I go to pull up weeds and Matthew 13:30 comes to mind. I gather tomatoes or squash from the garden and John 15:7-9 echos in my head.

I promise, I do not have a green thumb, but this year I have had the best garden and I have no explanation other than God saw fit to send the rain. I am terrible about watering regularly, and I haven't put in a drip system because I don't really have enough square footage for the garden to merit that kind of attention. This year we did have a lot of rain and I am still reaping the fruit of the harvest. My tomato plants are so loaded with tomatoes that the tomato cages that I set up to support the plants are groaning under the weight.

This summer the hubs, the kids and I enjoyed, corn, canelope, squash, bell peppers, jalepeno peppers, tomatoes and peanuts (they're still drying). It really has been an unbelieveably good gardening year, and I can't take credit for the bounty that we have harvested. What is most surprising is that I'll probably pick three dozen tomatoes off these vines within the week, thanks to 80 degree temps for the past few days which will continue on until Wednesday. It was so warm yesterday that my oldest put on his swim suit and hopped into the pool. I admit, its a little too chilly for my liking, but the kids aren't as particular when it comes to water temperature as I tend to be.

Even the rose bushes are still working overtime, which reminds me that I need to prune them back. I usually forget and they get all gangly and ugly looking by spring, and by then I hate to cut them back because they've already started flowering.

Thank you God for a wonderful summer garden and the extra fall fruit!

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5