Saturday, November 28, 2009

Christmas and pretending

We put the Christmas tree up yesterday. I don't dare put any presents under it. They would all be opened. Right now the kids are taking their old toys and putting them in gift bags and pretending it is Christmas morning.

It is so much fun to listen to them play and imagine together.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Times of Change

It has been awhile since I have posted. Every time I sat down to post in the past months something has happened. Today the phone rang, but I am determined to give an update.

A cold has been making its way through out family for the past 2 weeks. I have been very fortunate not to have picked up the illnesses the kids have had, but my body gave up on this one. We did not attend church on Sunday in order to spare the others in the congregation the sharing of my sneezing fits.

We have started a bean burrito tradition for Sunday afternoons. The kids don't eat bean burritos so they get cheesey tacos. I had made a full plate of tacos for the kids. They all sat down at the table to eat. As I was preparing the burritos for Darrin and myself I turned to see all of my children, including Connor in his highchair, sitting and contently eating at the table. That started the tears for the day. I was overwhelmed with emotion and such thankfulness to our Lord. My family was sitting around the dinner table together. It has taken much patience and work to get to this point and we are rejoicing this Thanksgiving season.

So many times in the past few years I have had to look very hard for a few small things to be thankful for....the moment of what we call zen, the eye contact from a child, the acknowledgement from a child that they were somewhat connecting to our world.
This year it seems as if our moments of zen are turning into mornings of zen or afternoons of zen. I am confident that some time soon we will have whole days.

I am able to turn the computers, video games and TV off for periods of time. The children are finding things to do that are "appropriate" play. It is peaceful in our home.

Many times this peace is interrupted, but for the most part it is peaceful and the chaos is becoming a thing of the past.

This year I am looking forward to the holidays. I have children who can understand the wonder and magic of this season. It is my favorite time of year. So many wonderful things have happened in my life during this time of year and so many wonderful and amazing things continue to happen.

My cup is overflowing. I am excited about the changes that are to come this year. The road that we are following on this journey has smoothed out (God sent his pothole crew) and we are excited about where it will take us next.