Thinking of lately...

This little one inside of me.  Within the next three weeks we will get to meet him.  Who will he look like?  How will it be having a newborn again in our home?  How will the others adjust?  Thinking of all the moments I get to see each one of them hold their new brother.  Such a precious time bringing a baby home is.

Thinking of how I spread my time and energy between my husband, each child, friends, family, school, and for my own self.  How can I possibly give the time and attention to a newborn as well?  How can I think less of myself and more about TJ, Thomas, Annie, George, Evelyn and the baby.  They need to come first, to get the best of me and what I have to give them. 



Thinking of what my husband talked to the kids about last night.  How they need to pick up one thing before going to the next.  How much less time we would spend picking up, if everyone just picked up a little.  How my tendency is to clean everything myself.  How I could help myself out if I just cleaned up as I went along....especially in the kitchen.  I blow it up...then have a disaster to clean up later.



Thinking how much I love to have the kids in the kitchen with me.  Even though it can be disastrous, it is worth it to me, seeing them learn in the kitchen.  Especially Evelyn right now.  Every time I enter the kitchen she knows it and I hear the dragging of the bar stool to wherever I am.



Thinking of a good friend post that I read yesterday.  Spending meaningful minutes with each child.  How I feel those minutes are far and few for me these days.  I'm sad that George asks me every day to come down and build a train track with him, and I find a way out of it every day. 

Thinking of my body and how I am in awe of what it is capable of.  37 weeks pregnant, housing a child that is developing and growing, and I can still get up early and do a Spinning class at the gym.  And even though I may look like a blueberry in the only winter coat I have to wear that is big enough, I'm feeling wonderful and grateful to be pregnant again.



Thinking of our children having free will.  That they will grow up and ultimately make their own decisions....good and bad.  Praying for confidence in that we raised them as children of God, taught them how to love their faith, each other, others, and showed them unconditional love in our home.  And then praying to be able to let go and watch them as adults.  I know it may seem far off, Thomas is only nine years old....but in a blink of an eye we will be there.



Thinking of while listening to the Christmas song It's the most wonderful time of the year..  how many people really feel that way?  Are more people stressed with buying, wrapping, baking, and cleaning, than savoring the beauty and joy of this Advent season?  What am I making important...getting tasks done, or really, really looking deep within and preparing for Christ's birth?

Thinking of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  After watching the Nativity this past weekend, I'm reminded of her complete and utter selflessness.  Would I hop on a donkey, now at 37 weeks pregnant, and travel one hundred miles?  No comfort, bathrooms, sweets, or computer.  After my phone interview yesterday with the hospital and my requesting an immediate epidural....like RIGHT when I get there, I thought of Mary so humbly giving birth to the Son of God in a dirty, cold cave.  No comfort.  No epidural, no bed, no blankets. 

Saint Nicholas Morning

The past few years, we have begun a fun tradition in our home.  St. Nicholas Day is celebrated on December 6th and so we lay out our stockings the night before, waiting for St. Nicholas to come the next morning!  Many people lay their shoes out, but we do our stockings and lo and behold, when we wake up, they are filled with all kinds of goodies from dear St. Nicholas!

The kids wander downstairs whenever they wake, Thomas was the first one up at 5:15, so I wasn't able to get any pictures of him opening his stocking...geesh, what an early bird!  They have always found a pomegranate, and gold chocolate coins inside their stockings, and this year electric toothbrushes, tights for the girls, cars, a game for the wii, lip gloss, and even a chocolate orange were inside as well!

We also celebrate by having a big brunch.  The table is set and we feast on a candy cane cherry roll, and our favorite egg bake and hot chocolate.  I could eat this way every morning for breakfast.

George kept asking me all day if it was still St. Nicholas Day.  He said it was his best day.  He spent the majority of it on the floor playing with his new cars and trains. 

Staying up late the night before getting everything ready, is always worth it the next morning when I get to see their surprise and excitement.  St. Nicholas, pray for us! 

Little Snow Angels

Their smiles.... make me smile!

Advent

Here we are at Advent.  The beautiful season where we prepare for Christ's birth.  We're also preparing to have a new little one in the next month or so....I can't believe we will get to meet him here soon!

There are so many traditional advent practices that we do in our home to really try and prepare ourselves for Jesus to be born.  We light our Advent wreath and read a daily meditation at dinner time.



We hang an ornament every morning on our Jesse tree while singing O Come O Come Emmanuel....

And to help us prepare ourselves even more, I made a December countdown.  On the back of each day is an act of kindness that we try and do throughout the day.

I love Christmas music.  I have such good memories of when I was little, eating breakfast along with the Carpenters singing I'm dreaming of a white Christmas....from the boombox sitting on the kitchen counter.  The Carpenters, Mannheim Steam Roller and Bing Crosby are some of my favorites from my childhood.  I love to have it playing throughout the day while we read our Christmas books.

The other evening as we were waiting for TJ to come home from work, I took a good look around at everyone and soaked in the momentary peace.  Evelyn was reading Christmas books, Thomas and Annie were at the counter drawing the nativity scene, and George was driving his trains around on the floor.  Bing was belting out Silent Night.... it was warm and cozy in our house at that moment.

Making gingerbread play dough...

It's this season that our home is the most warm and cozy.  Candles burning, Christmas music playing, goodies baking in the oven....

Speaking of goodies, we are huge Biggest Loser fans in this house.  It's the one show that we watch religiously and even let the kids stay up on Tuesday nights to watch it with us.  I got a recipe from the show the other night for cupcakes that are only 100 calories.  Bonus! I thought.  I made them for an after school snack the other day and when Thomas came home he was so excited to try one.  The look on his face a mere moment later said it all.  They were terrible.  Worse then terrible.  Oh, they looked beautiful and healthy, but there is just something about sugar...lots of sugar, during this baking season that can't be replaced by a measly 100 calorie cupcake.

Tradition

Thanksgiving week is full of traditions.  After eleven Thanksgivings with TJ, we have meshed together a lovely week of traditions both old and new.  From some of the foods we ate at our Thanksgivings as children, from ideas that other families have done, and new ones that we have begun as a family.  I think tradition is the glue that holds a family together.  It's what you look forward to with every season change and every holiday. The memories that flow from doing the same things year after year are what I hold onto and cherish so.

Something we have begun as our own family is to make pies and deliver them to people we are thankful for, the day before Thanksgiving.  The Sunday before, we get up early and make all the pie crusts to stick in the freezer.  This year it was fourteen pies!

During the week, we'll make a pie here and there until all are done.  We made pecan, TJ's pumpkin dessert that I turned into a pie, and cherry.  Not the cherry pie from a can, oh no.  I can't stand that thick, gloppy cherry pie filling.  Tart frozen cherries made the most wonderful pie ever!  I saved that one for our own Thanksgiving dinner and ate about half the pie myself.



We delivered pies to our beloved Pink Sisters who are cloistered nuns that live right here.  They pray all day, and we are so blessed to have them so close.  Our Bishop, George's godfather who also was celebrating his birthday, the kids teachers, our two wonderful priests, Matt Talbot Kitchen, and friends. 

Thanksgiving morning. 

Something my good friend Sarah's family always did when I was little and would be at her house was to set up a card table and have a puzzle going.  I bought a new one for the kids to try and work on in the morning.  Star Wars.  And although we didn't get too far on it, I like to leave it set out from now until through Christmas. 

The only stuffing I have ever had on Thanksgiving is my grandma Becky's.  It is fabulous.  Her stuffing is Thanksgiving to me.  I would never dream of making a different one.  The familiar smell of the green pepper, onion and celery sauteed  in butter on the stove affirm that it is indeed Thanksgiving!   We lay the bread out on the counter the night before so it can get all good and hard.  I love that the kids want to help with this so that they hopefully will make grandma's stuffing for their own Thanksgivings.

Another dish that we always had growing up was noodles.  This is from my grandma Gladys.  Kelsi noodles boiled in chicken stock.  Simple, and a must have.

My mom never made cranberry sauce when I was little.  TJ's dad has always made a delicious one and this year I was set on making my own.  I got the recipe from Laura and, oh my was it fabulous.  It could possibly have been my favorite dish at the table.  I think that Tom and I were the only one's who ate it, I can't remember if anyone else did...doesn't matter, more left over for me!!!

I see a new tradition for George beginning....he'll probably wear a Green Bay Packer shirt EVERY Thanksgiving day of his life, since they play every year on this day.  Of course we watch the game as a family traditon! 

And although many things don't go the way I've conjured them up in my mind to....the family prayer, sitting for hours at the table in conversation, the perfect Thanksgiving table, playing family games all day....I'm learning that especially with young children, to not expect perfection, but embrace the moment.  I'm not going to lie, that is hard for me.  I paint pictures in my mind of what I want a day to look like and when it doesn't happen that way I get disappointed. Oh, but I'm learning!

So much to be thankful for, so many gifts and blessings....thank you Lord.