Today is my first day of a creating a family blog. I’m honestly a bit scared along with being excited. Kind of like being on a rollercoaster. There’s a movie called The Parenthood with Steve Martin, one of my favorite actors/comedians of all time. There’s a scene where his life is way out of control, he’s having a panic attack and the grandmother starts explaing how life is like a rollercoaster.
{note: I’m paraphrasing} She says there are days when life is up & other days when they’re down. Without the ups & downs, you miss the fun/joy of life. It just really got under my skin…in a good way & has stuck with me since the movie came out YEARS ago.
Today was almost a perfect day in my book (except the morning when we were trying to get everyone out the door to church & ’someone’ just wanted to disobey, wander off in the house & stand there looking at me when I snapped “get yourself dressed in the clothing I laid-out for you last night, NOW!” Definitely not a proud parenting moment, but I wanted to pinch his little head off. Somedays he’ll stand there w/ a defiant look on his face that says “It doesn’t matter what you do or say, I’ll do it when “I” am ready.” Grrrr that just gets my goat!
So, on to the better day…Church went great (literally, thank you God!). We left a little early to eat & go get shoes for our ever-growing kids. Oh what fun it is to corral three kids, 8, 4, & 3 into an “area” just to get everyone to try on shoes & see if they fit the criteria:
- style/color/looks
- price
- fit
- did I mention price?
- parental over-ride on all shoes “’cause we’re paying for them.” -special thanks to my parents who reminded me of that fact until I could pay for my own. (wink!)
We ate lunch at the delicious Fudrucker’s because I had a craving for meat with a side of no cooking. 
We again were reminded how we can’t lose our minds & allow our kids to sit next to eachother in a rounded booth. Awwwweeee, we were looking into eachother’s eyes for a moment & then the crying & whining began because someone decided she had to have mac & cheese that her brothers were consuming at an alarming rate. Luckily a game of Go Fish & the lesson of taking turns came in handy; Miss Priss & her not-so-baby-brother were soon sharing a plate of mac & cheese. (another Thank You God!)
So we have shoes & full tummies. Nap or “Quiet time” was rapidly approaching. My sweet husband (I’m sure I’ll change out the pronoun from time to time) got the two youngest into their own beds, kisses & hugs were lovingly given out before I bee-lined my tail into jammies and then bed. I had to have a nap; I had a major sinus headache. As a fleeting thought of knitting popped into my head, I fell asleep.
Later, a friend of mine stopped by with her Mary Kay basket of new goodies. She stops by time to time because I’m considered a “personal use consultant”. I.E. I buy what I need for myself & buy enough to earn a discount (amen!). After she left, I got ready to go back into church to work (I’ll write more later about that subject). Everything went well, the kids were great, I got to knit & went home in just under two hours.
We ate dinner & packed up once again to go see Christmas lights. That is one of the “main staples” in our family’s Christmas traditions…go see The Lights Of Life at Life University. It’s truly magical. I feel like a kid again or even a teenager dating my husband. (add sighs here because that’s how to keep a marriage alive…do things that give you the warm fuzzies towards eachother…even when you don’t feel like it). I was blessed to hear the joy of my children’s excited voices. They chattered so loudly that I’m convinced that their they added to my major headache today.
Life University now charges $5 per car/van to help off-set lighting expenses and it’s worth every penny! I loved it. We even had our photo made with Santa: our ENTIRE family! Santa asked each child (thank you!) what they’d like for Christmas: Lego Bionicles, a Princess Castle and Little Einsteins chimed out of their mouths. Santa turned to me & said “what would YOU like for Christmas?” I thought for a moment, gift ideas were flying through my head, but my heart said…”Santa, I’m blessed with my family. Thank you.” Another moment of being blessed & having what our family calls a “Happy Heart” attitude/way of life.
What a nice way to end our day…time together viewing Christmas lights. And giving thanks to our Lord God Almighty for His blessings.
Filed under: Christmas 2007
