Productivity - My Favorite Christmas Gift of 2011

 I thought I would share some of my favorite pix I took during the Christmas festivities with the family.   They are nothing special.  They just make me smile.


But first, let's play a game.  Who can find the Christmas decoration Baby Yahoo put in the tree?

Very good.  Now, moving on.  One of our first celebrations was on Christmas Eve with The Cousins.  We decided to dress 'fancy' (as The Yahoos would say) and eat 'fancy.'

Here, they are toasting Jesus.  I hope this isn't sacrilegious.  I believe they are just drinking Sprite.

Jesus' birthday cake decorated by the ladies.

For some reason I love these goofballs.

And this one too.

Now, I wouldn't call myself a task oriented person.  But I was having a real itch to get lots of things accomplished while The Honey was taking a much needed vacation from his day job so that he could constantly watch the kids help out so that I could cross some things off my to-do list.  

I am happy to report that I broke a child from his passy.  This is no small feat.  But we were victorious.  Way to go Baby Yahoo!

On top of that Ninja Yahoo celebrated his growing up with the rite of passage of having his own room.  He loves it.  We could have forgone all other gifts and simply given him his own space and he would have been more than satisfed.  Now Little Middle is the king of his castle while he and Baby Yahoo are sharing a room.  They both are loving having a bunk bed.  Me, not so much.  I see more broken bones in our future.  But for now, they are happy and in one piece.

Finally, with the little down time I had I was able to 'fancy' up some of the kiddos rooms with some new wreaths.  Have a looksy.

For Ninja Yahoo's new baseball themed room

For  Sweet Yahoo, a girly girly wreath.

 

 

And, for my favorite teacher, a little school spirit for her classroom door.

Oh, by the way, I am an entrepreneur now.  I have started my own shop on etsy.  If you're feeling 'fancy' feel free to check it out here

Finally.....I think I might be feeling another giveaway coming on!  

Hope the last day of this year is a memorable one for all of you!  Make sure you are kissing the one you love at midnight.  Or, if you are like us, set your clocks early and celebrate New Years at 8:30 pm.  Then you can kiss the one you love and still get in bed at a reasonable hour;) 

If I Had a Rememberance Blog

 

 

If I had a rememberance blog

 

I would write that today was a very fine day.

 Full bellies, full hearts.

 Full of hugs and full of thanks.

Blessed and able to bless.

All because of Word made flesh.

I'm Haunted By The Ghosts of Christmases Past

In previous years I have given a lot of  lip service to teaching and appreciating the true meaning of Christmas.  But if I was really honest with myself and you I'd have to say it was all an act.  I allowed myself to be distracted by gifts, playing hostess, getting from here to there, costumes for the play, yada yada yada.  I have felt for years that Satan's prominent tactic for Christians is to keep us distracted from truly listening to God's leading and direction for our lives.  We rationalize and say that we do 'good' things and say 'good' things to people and lead 'good' lives but (as the BFF says)  good is the enemy of the best. I know Voltaire said it the other way, but I don't believe good enough is good enough for God.  I really believe he wants nothing less than the best for his children.

After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."

Gen 15:1

He rewards us with the best.  He rewards us with Himself.

Everything I was doing as part of our Christmas traditions was meaningless. Though we read the Christmas story I think we might have just been going through the motions.  I would pray that the Yahoos would get it.  That they would not be so worried about the gifts and stop fighting over the new toys.   But I was enabling their belief system that this day was all about them by stressing out over the line at Walmart and yelling at them if they interrupted my online shopping trip.


I'm thankful that this year the Lord, in his graciousness, brought some new traditions in our home that have helped me to make this Christmas full of meaning and truth and less about stuff and busyness and me.

I mentioned a few posts ago that we were doing the Jesse Tree Advent devotional.  This alone has helped get my heart prepared.  To learn of God's story of grace and love that was being prepared for us has been a beautiful thing.  Just like a parent who works and plans and makes preparations for a wonderful gift for their child, our Heavenly Father patiently prepared for the coming of the Greatest Gift.

The other night we were fortunate enough to go spend some time with some of our greatest friends to watch The Nativity.  I think they do a great job capturing the hearts of the people involved.  But something else struck me as I watched it.

God completely humiliated Mary and Joseph.

They were certainly the talk of Nazareth.  How she must have been a slut.  He must have been a fool. 

But they made themselves of no reputation...

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Luke 1:38

I mean this chic knew who she was.  She didn't pretend for a minute that her convenience was more important than God's deliverance.  I don't believe I would be so obedient.  That my heart would be so submissive to God's dealings with me that whatever He chose to do in and through me would be not only accepted but welcomed!  I'm truly in awe of Mary's belief and her understanding that the story God has written and continues to write is more than about her.  More than about me.

And it made me start thinking....

How willing am I to make myself of no reputation for Christ?  How obedient will I be?  How far will I go?

In our culture we are so comfortable with our smartphones and flat screens that breaking out of that shell into the realm of being uncomfortable and humbled is a bit repulsive to us.  I tend to hide my eyes from the ugly circumstances God asks me to enter into and the ugly people He asks me to build relationships with.  But this Christmas I can feel Him...I can hear Him saying 'Will you make yourself of no reputation for me.....like I did for you?'

He became nothing for me and entered into nothingness to ransom me.  And while my heart was cold and hard and before I even recognized my need for Him He chose to wrap himself in helpless flesh and live the life I could never live on my own to save me for a world I was made for.

How far will I go to show my gratefulness?  Will I befriend the town drunk?  Give up my family vacation to pay for another struggling family's rent?  What if He asked me to get up at 5:00 am everyday just to spend time with Him.  Or what if He wanted me to move?  Adopt?  Homeschool?

Will I become a peculiar people for His namesake?


I don't have any answers to these questions.  I don't have full confidence that I would answer yes to them.  I'm pretty fond of my comfy life.  But I have this desire way down deep that really wants to say to whatever God places on me:

Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.

And the Winner Is....

Mrs. Angela Horton!!!

Merry Christmas to you, my friend.  I will be dropping off the best dang bag of chocolate to your house in the next week.  And you are not allowed to share with that mess of boys you live with;)

Thanks to everyone who commented.  They were really great and made me feel better about the state of my purse. 

What's in Your Wallet?

Sometimes I find the strangest things in my purse.  That comes with being a mom.


When I was childless I used to find lots of make up, a mirror, breath mints, and money.

These days I find 1/2 eaten chicken nuggets, snot rags, Yoda, chewed gum, sucker sticks, hair bows, and hot wheels cars.


Very rarely do I find pens or money.


But occasionally I find a real treasure.  You see the Yahoos love to doodle and write notes.  And every once in a while some of their masterpieces will find their way into the bottom of my purse.  I love these things.  It gives me such insight into how they see the world. They draw pictures of the whole family or our house or the family on top of the house.  I always hate throwing them away because I know that I'm going to want to look back on them when the Yahoos up and leave me in a few years and I'm sitting in the dark corner of the room rocking back and forth being driven to madness by the deafening silence having hours of free time on my hand and no one to cook for and no one to teach and no shoes to find and no one to take to football practice and piano lessons.  And did I mention the silence?

Oh my, I am so sorry about that.  Sometimes I go off the deep end.

Now, back to me.  Oh, wait.  We never left me.  Anyway.....

So I love finding treasure in my purse.  It's like putting your winter coat on for the first time of the season and finding money or unused gum in the pocket. 

So, I'm interested.  What are some of the strangest things we could find in your purse?  Or, for my more masculine readers - your wallet?

And as a reward for those much coveted comments I am giving away to a random winner my newest favorite guilty pleasure:

These things are manufactured right in Heaven.  They have this flavor out called Pumpkin Spice with Caramel Filling.  Good golly you will have to pull over if you are trying to eat these while you drive.  This is what I look like after I've eaten seven some.

only cuter.  And I usually don't wear my bib when I eat chocolate.

I know women often  have an unhealthy attachment to chocolate, but there is a good reason for it.

So, there you have it.  Give me your best story on unusual finds in your purse and you are registered to win a bag of Ghiradelli Squares (flavor subject to availability).  You have 24 hours.  GO!!

Nothingness

I think I'm a glass half empty kind of girl.

That's why at the end of the day when I look back I don't often say it was a 'good' day.  I think about some of the good stuff, but I usually balance it out with all the things that went wrong.

I don't like that about myself.  But I'm working on it.

But I can say with full assurance that Saturday was a good day.

It started with the hallmark of any good day:  sleeping in.

Let me tell you how lucky I have it.  The Honey gets up with Baby Yahoo just about every morning and lets me doze a little while.  This is why I married him.  He appreciates my unhealthy obsession with sleep.

But Saturday The Honey just let me keep sleeping.  My eyes did not open until 8:30am.

Awesomeness.

The rest of the day was spent doing a lot of nothing.  Like sleeping in, nothing is a key ingredient to a good day.  It is a catalyst to good memory making.  Nothing on the calendar promotes things like board games, reading books together, making cookies and other things we don't do nearly enough.  Our nothingness this particular day produced things like lunch with the FIL, making some wreaths, and The Honey taking the kids riding on the tractor.  All 1/2 dozen of us bundled up and drove the caravan of Mahindras and Dodge trucks out to the field to pick up corn.  Even Baby Yahoo helped.  I really regret not taking my camera out there with us because there were lots of good shots to be had.  But just imagine 4 adorable kids and their equally adorable parents traversing the fields in search of kerneled gold.


Then Little Middle started getting sick.  Though this is seldom thought of as part of a good day, we were able to salvage it and have some fun together.  He tried to distract himself from feeling miserable by asking me to play Trouble with him.

Beautiful even when he's sick.  

This is me getting skunked

He amazingly perks up when he wins

Baby Yahoo getting in the mix

I love that this game is the Star Wars game of Trouble.  It beautifully represents what is going on in our home these days.  Lots of Star Wars.  Lots of Trouble ;)

So of course after a healthy dose of hard work and hard play, we're all wiped out.  Which  means an early bedtime for all of us.  And for a woman that is slightly over attached to her bed, this is like icing on the cake.

Here's wishing you and your family lots of nothingness on your calendars during the upcoming year!

The Day I Finally Told The Honey About My Blog

To say that The Honey is anti-social networking would be an understatement.  That is why I never wanted to tell him about the blog.  It might disturb his inner peace and  his upper GI.

But then the guilt kicked in.

Seriously, I can't think of one successful marriage where the couple keeps things from each other (unless of course you are talking about the minor details like where the last six Oreos went.   This I don't consider a secret.  More misplaced blame on the children as I accidentally tell him they ate them as opposed to the truth where I caved during my typical 2:00pm pantry hide.).

So I decided after a lot of thinking and 1/2 bottle of Tums to tell The Honey that I do, infact, write a blog.  I imagined his reaction to resemble this:

Only with more hair and a blue shirt. 

But boy was I shocked when he told me He Already Knew!!!

What???

I didn't know whether to be relieved or mad.  I mean heck yeah I was glad that his head didn't fly off and hit the microwave, but dang it I thought I was being all incognito about my bloggin'. 

Apparently The Honey googles every member of our family every single day.  He's a conspiracy theorist  precautious guy like that.

So then I started grilling him on when he found out and how he found out and what he thought about my blog and the new name and if he reads it and why he doesn't read it.  And in the middle of all that he just tell me that he figured I would tell him when I was ready.

 Ain't he the greatest?  And I love him.  And he loves me.  And now I feel like a big ol' loser.  Because he was the grown up and acted all cool and I was the wienie that was hiding a blog for absolutely no good reason. 

But I'm over it now.  And now I blog in freedom knowing that The Honey couldn't care less about it.

That's a good thing.

Right?

Motivations

OK, I confess.  I save memory making projects that have the potential to be messy for when Baby Yahoo is not here.  That's the kind of memories I want to make.  Clean ones ;)

Today's scope of learning during school included Home Ec.  Namely candy making.  Because no decent human being needs to graduate without knowing how to make a mean chocolate pretzel. 

 

And now you know how much I love you guys.  I just showed you the inside of my filthy oven.

In an attempt to be traditional in our candy making day I tend to break from tradition and allow the kids to eat candy for lunch.  Because I'm cool and can only focus on one thing at a time laid back that way.

In other news...

This year I felt a strong burden to be more intentional about teaching The Yahoos about Christmas.  So, thanks to my good friend Ann Voscamp, I was inspired to use the Jesse Tree devotionals to help get all our hearts prepared for The Word made flesh.  The Jesse Tree devotionals you say? Here's the link..  They are so great.  You'll be glad you clicked.

Just a brief FYI....I have never met Ann.  But she sends me an email just about everyday.  And that's the most adult interaction I usually have. In my Stay-At-Home-Mom Handbook they give you the liberty to define that as friendship.

Moving on...

The Honey made us a Jesse Tree to hang our ornaments on

So I've learned a lot from revisiting these stories.  How everything God has been doing since he crafted us was to prepare the world for His coming.   And that they weren't ready for Him.  We weren't ready.  Our calloused hard hearts couldn't conceive or receive that Love.  So He gave us new hearts:

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26

The Lord...always providing.  Always Jehovah Jireh.  

And of course the stories are to lead us to the moment we have all been waiting for:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

John 1:14

I recently listened to a sermon by Tim Keller that helped shed light on the magnitude of this verse for me.  John used 'logos' for the word 'Word' in this verse.  Apparently 'logos' is a rich word, that can take on different forms.  But here it is used in regards to 'motive, cause, intent.'


The Word.  The Motive. Our Motive.


Do we get that?  Our whole purpose, what we were created for, what creation was created for came to us.  


I lose sight.  Most days I lose sight.  I forget my motive for doing things.  If I'm finding purpose in  being supermom...I will always fail.  In a clean home...it will get dirty again.  Always disappointment.  But He came to be my purpose.  And He never disappoints.


That is the message I want to share with my kids (and myself) this Christmas.    That from the beginning the purpose for all that has and all that will be is Jesus.  No lower thing will satisfy.  

I Make Things

Over the course of a day I make a lot of stuff:

  lunches

          the bed

   paper airplanes

mistakes

                      doctors appointments

         BIG PLANS

But over the last few weeks I've made these:

These are fun....unlike making the bed.

Viewer Discretion is Advised

It's a Tuesday night.  We're entering my favorite time of day:  the after bath slow down.  The dirty boy smell has been washed down the drain.  Pajamas are on and little feet are barreling down the stairs to make their way around the table for the promised hot chocolate that awaits them. 

My recipe for hot chocolate involves 2 times the amount of sugar called for in the recipe and 1/2 bag of marshmallows.  It tastes like this:

And it usually results in the children looking like this:

Now, since the children are occupied for close to 45 seconds The Honey and I take the opportunity to have 'a moment.'  If you have children I will try to reacquaint you to what 'a moment' is.  It's that impromptu opportunity when Your Honey hugs you tight and you make eye contact.  There MIGHT even be a kiss involved.  (OK, I promise that is as dirty as this post gets).

So we're having our 'moment.'  Little Middle begins to announce:

"Oh no, Mom and Dad are putting on a show!"  

A SHOW!  That cracks me up.

Well, of course his proclamation draws the attention of the other Yahoos.  They begin their loud groans and covering of the eyes. 

This brings delight to me and The Honey.  We purposely make 'the moment' last longer just to irritate them (even though we both know that we've had about enough of each other). 

I take note of each of the Yahoos' faces, praying God will seer these images of delight into my brain for when the Alzheimer's kicks in.

When it is Baby Yahoo's turn to be gazed upon I see him, no lie, sticking his finger down his throat.  Now I know this was just coincidental, but still.  It made for a pretty hilarious coincidence. 

Ninja Yahoo, always needing to be the center of attention, decides to yell out that they are watching an R rated movie.

Again, I am tickled.

Then Ninja Yahoo asked the question that is sure to come back to haunt me

'Are there movies worse than R movies?' 

And without hesitation, because I am an idiot, I tell him

'Sure.  There are X-rated movies.' 

To which he begins to sing loudly

'Mom and Dad are making an X-rated movie!'

Gulp.

I see that my joking around has gone too far.  Now I am going to either:  A.  Explain to Ninja Yahoo and all my other innocent Yahoos what X-rated means so that they won't be blurting that out in public or B.  suffer the horrific looks and gasps from people when all the Yahoos proclaim in public

'Mom and Dad put on an X-rated show in the kitchen!'

So on this one I think I will swallow my pride and take one for the team.  Plan B it is.
 
And isn't that the case for most of us as parents?  To truly love our kids (and anyone for that matter)  we have to make ourselves of no reputation.  All of those best laid pre-baby plans of how we are going to raise our kids and look like rock star parents must be thrown out the window.  Instead, when we walk out of the delivery room we have to wrap that towel around our waist and take on the new name of Servant Leader.  Choosing to love without regard to what our friends, or the preacher, or the neighbor, or the dog will think.

That is so hard at times.

But no worries.  Because thankfully all we have Jesus, the ultimate example in Servant-Leader.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

 Who, being in very nature God,
   did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
 rather, he made himself nothing
   by taking the very nature of a servant,
   being made in human likeness.
 And being found in appearance as a man,
   he humbled himself
   by becoming obedient to death—
      even death on a cross!

 Philippians 2:5-8

So go on now.  Get off the computer, go find your Honey and have a moment....right in front of the Yahoos!

I've Made Some Changes

Just a note that the title of this blog might have changes, but it is of the same poor  heartfelt quality that you are accustomed to!

Of course, there is a story behind the title change.  The short and painless version is that initially I never really believed I would blog longer than a week or two.  I'm not very good and finishing tasks I start.  So I just picked the first thing that sounded like I knew what I was talking about.  But this 'putting my thoughts on virtual paper' thing is kind of working for me.  So I thought if I was going to do it I needed to have a title that accurately depicts my life.  And though the previous title is technically true, I believe my new title will help paint a more realistic picture of who I am and what I do on a day to day basis.

In fact, I had to tell Baby Yahoo just today to Stop Squeezing the Cat.

5 Things I'd Rather Do Than To Dig Splinters Out Of My Yahoos' Fingers

In no particular order....

1.  Go shopping with Kate Gosselin
2.  Work for the IRS
3.  Get Punk'd  (is that show even still on?)
4.  Clean out the fridge
5.  Potty train 


OK, I might have pushed it a little on that last one.  But you get the point.  Finding that splinter and motivating it to come out of those grubby fingers (or toes) is agony for both parties involved.  If you have never had the privilege of doing that let me just say there is lots of screaming and kicking involved....and the kids can get a little rowdy too!

Recently Little Middle Yahoo was stricken by the splinter bug.  He had asked me a couple of times to get it out, but if you will remember I am losing my mind.  So it took me a couple of days to get to it.   And fortunately for me, when I did have a moment of time, The Honey was home.  So he manned up and did it.  (Might I add that I was busy doing the Sunday morning Tazmanian Devil Dance to get everyone ready for church.  This is my spiritual act of worship).  ;)

As the surgical procedure commenced I watched as Little Middle did the fidgety dance.  I couldn't stand it.  I made my way over to take over help The Honey.  Within a matter of moments that infinitesimally small piece of wood popped right out of his tender flesh.  I am always amazed that something so small can cause such discomfort.

And then I had a thought.

You see, no matter how much I hate removing that splinter from Little Middle's finger I have to do it.  If I don't, it will fester and get infected.  Or, over time, the skin will become calloused and hard.  A constant reminder of something buried deep inside.

Like splinters, my sin seems so small, unimportant, inconsequential.  But that sin can cause a lot of discomfort.  To us and to others. And if it stays buried long enough it will begin to fester making my speech, thoughts, attitudes and relationships toxic. Without prompt removal sin will bury itself deep within my heart, making it hard and calloused.


Just like I plead with my Yahoos to take precautions NOT to get splinters (i.e. wear shoes outside, don't run your hand down a board of wood, stop trying to scale the side of the barn, etc.) God pleads with us in His Word, warning of us of the dangers of sin. He loves us and knows the pain that will follow to root that sin out of our lives. Worse yet, He is jealous for us.  And anything that causes us to be calloused towards Him breaks His heart.

for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God—

Exodus 34:14

So I am making it my goal to examine my heart for splinters. Is there any sin that I am neglecting to address...a little white lie, a judgmental thought, not forgiving that hurtful word?   

As we begin celebrating this Advent....His coming...we can't escape what he was coming  for.  For you and for me.  To take on all our splinters and weave them together into a crown of thorns.

But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
         He was crushed for our iniquities;
         The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
         And by His scourging we are healed. 

Isaiah 53:5

And The Winner Is

Here's the moment we've all been waiting for.....

And the winner is Mrs. Ashley Jacobs!

Congrats, Ashley.  You can expect 2 jars of Natural Jif and the best gosh-darn peanut butter pie recipe you can land your hands on in the mail shortly!

Thanks to all who participated.  This was fun, right?  I already have my next giveaway planned, so keep reading.  You never know how generous I might become.  I have been known to give away unwanted advise and used chewing gum. ;)

And for those who actually care, the winner was Jif by a nose.  Generic brands were a close second.  Sadly to say no one shares my love of Peter Pan Honey Roasted Creamy.  Pure awesomeness in a jar.