Author name: amy

Good Monday morning!  I hope you are all up and well rested from your weekend.  I’d love to say that I have woken up all well rested and feeling on “fire” for my Monday, but in reality I am tired.  We have had a busy weekend.  It has been an enjoyable weekend, but a busy one.  Of course, I could lament how tired I am and how much I have had to do, but then it would just feed into negativity.  Negativity is not something I want a part of my life.  It brings you down.  It makes you feel worn, exhausted, and not very motivated to do good things in this life.  So I stop. I focus on the positives and ignore the tiredness:)

Some foods we made for this weekend for the first time were sausage balls.  I had never had them before and two people had told me about them.  I decided to try them.  Tasted like a sausage biscuit with cheese.

We also made some blueberry scones.  They were both good treats to keep and reheat and serve as needed.  Thanks Alice for the ideas!

This weekend we went to the Shadrachs Christmas Lights Show.  It is a drive through light display that we attend every year.  You tune your radio to the music and then enjoy the many wonderful light displays that blink according to the music.  It takes about 45 minutes to drive through it.  We love it!

Saturday we did our local parade. Another tradition we do and it is a good memory for the children.  This year was cold.  My toes and fingers were numb!  Normally we start by wearing our coats and then can take them off, but not this year.  The local groups always provide plenty of Santa hats and candy for the children.

Then we went home to decorate our trees.  My daughter bought two trees this year for us to decorate.  One for upstairs and one for downstairs.  We let each child take a turn putting the star up.

This year was Madelyn and  since we had two trees, Stephen got to do one as well. 

I tell my children after they put the star up that it is going to be another 10 years before you put the star up again:)  Unless someone forfeits their turn:)  Now that we have two we can get through the line much quicker. 

It took about 15 minutes to put on the ornaments.  Big group………goes fast!

Then at night time, we went down to our local Tuxedo park for the annual tree lighting ceremony.  The temperatures warmed up and some of my children took their coats off. We sang Christmas songs around the tree and enjoyed our friends.  We then walked over to the church and saw a live nativity.  We ended it with hot cocoa and popcorn.  They also did mule drawn wagon rides for the children.  Like Little House on the Prairie.  It was fun.

Sunday we had church and home for just a few hours and then back at night for the children’s Christmas drama.  I am going to put a little compilation together of them, but I don’t have the time right now:)  They did so great. Love hearing all my girls sing.  Such beautiful voices.  Afterwards we had a fellowship meal that we got to share in with our friends and church family.

I made ranch veggie pizza and took some salted caramel cheesecake.

I came home and climbed into bed.  I was exhausted.  Slept all night and here I am.

Today will be a day of  chocolates and candy, Monday chores, laundry, and school.  I pray you have a blessed day today.  Remember when that tiredness  or frustration kicks in, keep focusing on the positives of your day.  Ask God what is the most important things you are to do and do it!    Love you ladies, see you tomorrow!

 

Good morning ladies, hope your finding yourself well rested after some sleep and maybe some coffee:)  I myself went to bed later and then got woken up by a four year old whose legs were hurting.  Awww, so hard when they go through that growing phase and their legs hurt.  So I was awake at 3, stayed in bed for a bit and then just decided to get up.  But coffee is good this morning.

Yesterday, we had a busy, long day. I called Tammy and we went shopping.  We got out the door by 9 am and headed to our library to pick up our weekly book orders.  I then dropped off some eggs to our old neighbors and we then stopped at our favorite Salvation Army store.  I found a big package of miscellaneous scrapbooking paper for the girls, some floral decoration picks for my house, a print for a wall that is empty and a recliner chair.  Love going and finding good deals.  Then off to Walmart to pick up things for our cookie exchange party and Aldis for some food.  We had all the seats in the van and a van full of children but we still managed to put a large sized garbage can—the black kind and fit the recliner chair and all the things we bought.  It was a good day.  We got home and put things all away and I then had each of the children that could, help with chores to prepare before Grandma came.

We cleaned the van, steam cleaned the chair, folded 4 baskets full of laundry, and windex the windows that had children’s finger prints on.   Tammy brought Christmas decorations for my mantle and decorated that—-Thank you! We threw in the oven chicken nuggets, BBQ chip fries, and some bagel pizzas—go me!!  My mom arrived around 6 and it was a joyous reunion.

Children don’t hold grudges, they don’t know bitterness, they just have love.  If all of us could lay aside all of our differences and become like little children, the world would be a better place.  It was nice seeing my children be so happy and say “I love you grandma, and your the bestest grandma ever!”  That right there will melt even the coldest of hearts.

They had a long drive here, 12 hours and so at 9, I said, “Okay your going to bed!”  Otherwise we would have stayed up and talked all night.  We gave them the downstairs part of the house for personal space and to have some quiet.  Living in a house full of 9 children can be a little overwhelming at times, I want to make sure that they get a chance to rest and enjoy their time here.

I noticed my older brother, out already walking my yard this morning.  He likes the mountains and the woods, it is good to see him explore a bit.  It is a little chilly this morning, I am debating on walking.  I know, I know, excuses—but I might jump start on making some food for today.  A friend recommended some sausage balls and blueberry scones, so I am thinking of making that for like a brunch. I’ll do a food post later.  I also had the materials for gwumpkies—–my husband’s families food.  It is cabbage rolls with sauerkraut and sausage. Really yummy, again I will do a post for that too.  He is working so hard right now to get stools made for customers, I know he will enjoy coming home and eating however much he wants of that.

Today will be an at home day.  We will just enjoying visiting and playing around here.  This weekend we have much going on—-the city parade, christmas tree decorating at our home, our community tree lighting service, a live nativity at a local church, and the children’s Christmas drama.  It will be busy, but a good busy.  Good, fun family making memories.  It is what makes life good.  Having those traditions that everyone looks forward to you doing.  I like change and I like to do things different but I have realized that my family likes traditions and the same.  So it is good to keep those and make memories year after year with them.  They will always get to look back on them as adults.

Okay I am keeping this a little shorter, going to get the gas fire place lit, just to warm up the house a bit and do some things in the kitchen.  I love you ladies, and pray you have a peaceful day today.  When things start to look rough—-like your child accidentally dumps out the craft box full of beads, they make a mess of toothpaste in the sink, they spill their milk for the tenth time, or they track mud in across the floor—-all real situations in my life the past couple of days—just smile, take a breath and help clean it up.  We all make mistakes and they are so much smaller than you or I.  We need to teach patience with them and that is a HUGE way to do it in our response.  Have a blessed day!