Category Archives: family

The Two Newest

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 One of the things I enjoy doing is making baby blankets for my family and friends.  This pretty little blue number was made for my nephew that was born in October. 

 It is one of my favorite blankets so far.

 

 

After I finished the blue blanket I started on another one, it is a zig zag style in a light yellow.  At first, when I started it, I had no one that I was making it for specifically, it kind of made me sad.  However, within days of starting it, a good friend of my shared a special secret, and now this little yellow blanket has an owner! 

Congratulations, my special friend.
 (Who shall remain nameless at this time!)

 

Service Tree

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As the years have gone by I have become increasingly disillusioned with Christmas.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of Christmas, a day set aside to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.  I also love the idea of commemorating his birth by giving gifts to those we love, because Christ gave us many gifts, the greatest being eternal life.  It seems to me (and I am talking in general here, not about a specific person) that increasingly we are giving lip service to the idea of gift giving and caring for the poor on Christmas and we are focusing more and more on GETTING.  My family is no exception.  I find that my children talk more of gifts and Santa and what they want from Santa than Christ and His birth and His gifts.  I blame myself, I have created this, I love having an excuse to be extravagant in my gift giving (via Santa) with my children.  I over the years have focused on the gifts more than true service and Christ centered worship.

Last Christmas, instead of the kids giving gifts to each other we had service ornaments.  Each child drew a name and for the month of December they were to do service for the person they drew and add a special ornament to the tree every time a service was preformed.  It went ok, especially for the first few days, they it kind of petered out and was forgotten.

So this year I thought I would mix it up a little. 

We now have a service tree. 

 

(this is a terrible picture, the lighting in my living room is not good)

 

On slips of paper I wrote down the name of a person, or a type of person (example: teacher, neighbor, friend) and put them all in an envelope.  Every morning at devotional we draw a slip and for that day we all do a service for that particular person.  I am thinking this will help us stay focused and do more service.  Once that service had been done, and approved by a parent, an ornament is added to the tree.

I hope this helps my children become more service oriented.

As for how we celebrate Christmas, I think things are going to change around here in the next few years.  I would like Christmas to become a Holy day of worship.  First to go just might be Santa, I wonder why I need some stand in mythical man to give my children gifts?  I know a lot of people say he (Santa) represents Christ, to that I ask: why do we need some stand in mythical man for Christ when we have the real thing?

 

How to you center your family on Christ during the Christmas season?

Family Logistics, When Life is Crazy

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The month of November was c.r.a.z.y.  Between Dadzoo being gone for 10 days, to sick kids, Thanksgiving and a family vacation there was not one week that was even close to normal.  So how do you keep to a schedule when the weeks doesn’t go as planned?  (For my weekly schedule, go HERE).  Here is what I found, having a weekly schedule made handling the difference easier.  Yes, easier!  For example, the week of Thanksgiving I knew what household chores needed to be done that week, I knew I had to get it all done by Wednesday, so I could plan to double up.  On Monday I baked and worked on laundry, Tuesday I finished the laundry and did my office day, Wednesday we cleaned the house, which freed up Thursday so I could pack and have Thanksgiving dinner with Dadzoo’s parents, we left for vacation early Friday morning.  I was amazed at how easily I was able to move things around and still get everything done.

 

The "Zoo" at Mt. Rushmore

December, strangely enough, looks to be a bit calmer.  Now if I can get my Christmas lists organised and finished…..

Babies, Babies, Babies

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The month of October was a big baby month for my family, both my sisters gave birth to bouncing baby boys!  With their births it made 15 grandchildren for my parents. 

 We are so blessed.

The three newest little ones, all born within three months, wearing winter hats made by Grandma.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we, along with most of my family (missing one brother and his wife) took a trip to South Dakota to see my sister, her family and the newest little one.  We had such a good time, there were 25 people at my sisters house, it was loud and messy (there were 15 kids there!) and so much fun.  We enjoyed being able to spend time with family that lives so far away.

The youngest of the bunch, in his blessing outfit, we were so happy that we were able to be there for his blessing.

The Land Down Under

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On November 6th Dadzoo went to Sydney Australia for 10 days on a business trip.

Two words…

Miss. Him.

That would be why I haven’t posted in a while.  My evening were spent chatting with him on the computer, and my days were spent catching up on everything I neglected the night before.  I was able to follow my schedule, although very loosely, I tried to keep my days full and busy so the time would pass quickly. 

 It was a fun little adventure for the both of us.  I realized how much Dadzoo does around here.  He is a great help with the work, but I missed having HIM here.  I missed our late night chats, evenings when we would walk through the door and fighting the kids for a hug and kiss.  I missed morning devotional, where he reads scripture and prays as the leader in our home.  I missed the special way he holds our baby to settle her down and comfort her.  I missed snuggling up to him at night, knowing we were all safe with him there.  I appreciate him so very much.  I also got very good and converting the time, knowing exactly what time it was in Australia!

Dadzoo, got 10 whole days to himself (besides the hours he was working) and I think he might have missed us just as much as we missed him.  He was able to walk about Sydney (they say “walk about” instead of “talking a walk”) and see all the sights.  He visited the Sydney Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, Royal Botanical Gardens and Sydney Tower.  He said that Sydney is a beautiful city, and if it didn’t take 18 hours to get there, he would want to go back soon.

Now I am off to do a little catch-up and double-up to be ready for this weeks holiday (one of my favorites!).