Finding the jewel

I found it...the frame I'd been searching for this past year! I saved this picture (taken by our very talented friend, Melanie) since last fall, planning to frame it. Mel caught the boys during a silly time...I'm sure they were laughing about some bodily function. Nevertheless, I love when they share a laugh together and this picture captured it forever for us. Now, if it only captured the sound of their contagious laughs too!

Both boys have inherited their Dad's funny laughs & giggles. Each of them can get you laughing just hearing them crack up. On our first date, Brent and I watched a Jim Carrey movie. I found more humor in listening to Brent than watching Jim Carrey!

Laughter is such a blessing, isn't it? Regardless of what we're going through, laughter does lift the spirit. One of the boys' favorite songs was taken from Prov. 15:13....A joyful heart is good medicine...
Now to find the perfect place for this great remedy!

Mommy University

On our way to my parents yesterday, Braden was snuggling with his new Webkin, Hoppy. He's a frog, in case you'd never figure it out. He asked, "Mommy, when I go to college, will I pack everything up?" (He wanted to secure a spot for Hoppy in his belongings.)

"Well, when are you going to college?"

"Maybe when I'm 7 or 8 or 9."

"How about when you're 17 or 18 or 19? Mommy went to college after I graduated from high school. I was 18 and Gpa and Gma Bailey and I packed up all my stuff in a minivan and drove a long way so I could go to college."

"Oh, so you could learn to be a mommy?" :-) :-) :-)

It's fun to try and help them to understand life before them. Life has essentially revolved around those cute, little boogers for about 6 years of my life, whether we want that or not. Thankfully, I was afforded a chance to study something other than mommy-hood before then. I do have a degree in accounting...will I ever put it to use again? I have no idea. I don't think I'll ever create the college-level courses on Mommy-hood though, b/c I have not won my "Mommy of the Year" award yet. When I do, I'll start writing the curriculum.

Merry Christmas!!!

We have a White Christmas in Iowa and it's so beautiful!!! We had a long trip getting here...stayed over 1/2 way on Saturday night, so we didn't have to battle the ice & snow in the night. It was so nice to sleep in a bed, rather than the in the car. Of course, only 1 out of the 4 of us really slept...that would be the one with the tonsil issues...Brooks. He snored so stinking loud, the rest of us didn't stand a chance to reaching snore-level sleep!!
We were so glad that we stopped when we did. The next day, we drove about an hour and ran into the terrible wind and roads partially covered by ice and many cars/trucks in the ditch. All in all, it was a good trip and God granted us safety!
We were greeted by Gpa and Gma Bower and lots of snow!!! Yeah!!! They have a some GREAT sledding hills in their yard, so we couldn't wait for cousins to arrive to sled with us. When they arrived after their trip from Dayton, we had ourselves a great turkey dinner complete with homemade fixin's. Brent's mom worked hard and his dad did the turkey in the fryer. That's a first for me. It was pretty yummy!!
All we heard that day and night was...."When do we get to open the presents...Where's my present...why does so and so have more presents than I do?" We know what's important. Glad we covered that topic.
More sledding on Christmas Eve, a little shopping (which is much easier in a small Iowa town to fight their "crowds"), some George's pizza, the family photo shoot and then...the presents! The kids had a great time and received some fun stuff...so did we!
More sledding today...it's perfect, almost too warm to be bundled up and sledding. Lunch and playing together, and now we're ready to head to my parents. Wish we could stay longer here and I'm sure we'll feel the same once we get to my parents. Glad we're making great memories while we're here. Gotta run and help pack the van!
Merry Christmas to all! More pictures to post later!

Up on the rooftop...

Tonight the boys just could not settle in to sleep...they were anticipating a visit from Santa tonight. Or maybe it was the effects of 4 sugar cookies smothered in red-food coloring & sprinkles that was the issue. Could have been the "footsteps on the roof" or the faint jingle bells that Braden kept hearing. (A friend shared that her dad threw a basketball on the roof to simulate Santa's arrival...guess what we used at our house tonight?) Whatever the cause for the hype, we WILL be opening our presents as a family in the a.m.

"I'm not going to sleep, b/c I want to wait up for Santa!" - Braden (He couldn't hold up and is sawing logs now...I should be too!)

Brooks doesn't remember much about the whole process from last year. But he did have fun throwing "reindeer food" on the patio before bed. That was quite comical. Braden came up with all sorts of ideas of what might happen if the reindeer are too busy snacking when Santa is ready to move on. He really looked scared, as though we might cause a delay in the travel plans.

Santa was not a part of Christmas in our homes, as we grew up. And we were okay with that...although we grew to think he was pure evil and it was our mission to spoil many kids' ideas of something fun. We've grown to understand that anything can become "evil" at the holidays, when it steals our focus. We, the ones that buy & give the presents, can lose our focus and make it more about ourselves than the celebration of Christ's birth. Our overindulgence and commercialism seems more evil than the jolly 'ol man in the red velvet suit...some with scraggly, cotton beards too! :-)

So Brent and I have decided that in our household, as long as it lasts, Santa surprises with stocking stuffers, while the presents come from Mom & Dad. Good thing we established that early, b/c Braden saw us wrapping the presents last year and called us out on it this year!

The focus of Christmas does remain on the miracle of Jesus' birth. We experience more excitement in setting up the Nativity scene than the stockings. Jesus is the reason for all that we do and celebrate this time of year. Braden decided to "send a message" and keep Jesus at the forefront of Santa's mind too...he left him a cross cut-out cookie in the CENTER of the cookie plate tonight. Thank goodness He helps us keep our focus!

Faith of a child

Yesterday I was cleaning the boys' fish tank and noticed a sickly fish. He was really struggling to keep swimming. To top if off, while I was cleaning, I accidentally sucked his head up in the junk-sucker. (true accident) I squeezed him out of that, only to see him struggle harder to even stay upright. After a few seconds, he turned upside down and began to "rest." You could still see him move, but I was convinced he was a goner.

I felt so horrible and told the boys that one of their fish might have died. I apologized to them, because I helped him along in the process. They were full of curiosity and wanted to watch him. Braden still had faith though. "Mommy, he's still moving!!"

"Yes, honey, but he's floating upside down."

It challenged me to teach the boys to pray for this seemingly small (and stinky) issue. "Dear Jesus, please heal our fish and save him. We don't want to flush him." (I think the boys secretly DID want to experience flushing a fish. They thought he might get flushed to the ocean, thanks to Nemo)

Don't you know that Jesus answered!!!!!

When Daddy came home last night, we reported our fatality to him and he went up to look. He said that fish is STILL alive! He looks healthier than when I started sucking his brains out yesterday!
Amazing that Jesus cares about our stinky, small fish that was ready to be flushed down the toilet. I LOVE that my boys can witness Jesus caring so much for our needs...not to mention teach me a thing or 2 while He's doing it! Thank you Jesus!

oops

I don't know what I've done...well, yes, I do. I've messed up my blog alignment. I decided to try and change some of the template margins by doing some HTML editing. (Yes, I really have too much time on my hands. Can I offer some of mine to any of you?!?) Hopefully I'll figure it out soon and everything won't be crammed over to the left!! Maybe I should leave it there...after all I usually am partial to the left side of things!

Calling me out on it

Tonight we were frantically trying to get out the door to a Christmas musical at our friends' church, Vista Community Church - Dublin. My friend had mentioned what a great service it was going to be, so we did not want to miss it.

However, Brent was trying to get our dryer fixed and our wonderful handy-man neighbor came down 30 minutes before we needed to leave to help Brent with the task. And I was trying to catch up with a friend on the phone for a few minutes, but received about 10 calls in the meantime (NOT an exaggeration...usually no one calls us!). I was questioning whether we'd even end up going to the musical and if that was what we were supposed to do for the night. Maybe we were supposed to stay home as a family and get the dryer fixed.

So can you imagine what a freak I was being, deciding that we were still going to make it to the service. I wasn't very nice to the boys while I was getting them moving, as I knew that we were going to be late, and they wanted to lolly-gag getting ready.

Finally, we're all in the van. That's usually where everything erupts if it hasn't gone well in the house. Of course, I took advantage of the situation and fell in my "venting role." Soon, Braden piped up, "Mommy, are you going to act like that at church?"

Oh...my...word...!!!! My 5 year did NOT just call me out on my sin! Yep. He did...and he made us all laugh so hard, but also see the reality of my sin. (Brent laughed hardest) I told Braden that God gave him to me just for that moment. Had Brent said that, it would not have gone well at that point, as much as I needed to hear it.

I have certainly been trying to work on peeling away that junk...
#1 not acting like that to my family b/c I think I can.
#2 Not going to church and acting like it's all good.

God is so good to give me that challenge....through my son. When my kids can see right through me, why would I think anyone else couldn't? The Christmas service was so awesome & moving. I could post on that alone and may just do that! I needed to surrender that anger/frustration....SIN...during the service. I pray that see me handle things appropriately next time I'm overwhelmed.