Even though we were not in our own beds, we slept much later this morning than yesterday morning. When I finally rolled out of bed at 7:30 a.m., I slipped my shoes and jacket on and tiptoed downstairs to get a cup of coffee. I was amazed but grateful that everyone, including Judah, stayed asleep until after I got back with my coffee and had a few minutes to sip my hot drink in peace. Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning! Considering the fact that I wasn’t in my own bed, and considering that I was sharing my bed with one very wiggly baby and one very quiet big boy, I had a good night. The bed and pillow was comfortable, and I enjoyed having a good night’s sleep. Still, since it wasn’t home, Michael and I were both awake fairly early this morning. That’s ok. We aren’t complaining. It’s just how it is when you’re out of your regular routines. We have stayed at this Hampton Inn many times before, and it’s one of our favorites. Read the rest of this entry »

Our alarms went off at 4 a.m., and we popped out of bed. We were surprisingly well rested, since we had gotten to bed at a good time. Mike and Laura woke up very quickly surprising Michael and me. Luke only needed one wake-up call and he was up and getting ready. Amelia was one of the last ones to be woken up, but she was wide awake and talking loudly in short order. Read the rest of this entry »

Today I am optimistic about what we’ll be able to get done. Most of the suitcases are already packed. The kids are excited, so I hope I can channel some of that energy into productive help. Michael has to work all day, and he was up very late last night, so I’m a little worried that he’s overextending himself. Hopefully he can catch a nap somewhere along the way. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I was laughing at the children for having their suitcases out and packing all sorts of odd things. Amelia had more clothes than would fit. Isaac had five pairs of swimming trunks. Mike was worried about not being packed. So I kept saying to the kids, “Relax! We have plenty of time! We don’t leave for ten more days!”

Each day that went by, I had to remind them about how much time they had to prepare. But suddenly, on Saturday, I started to realize how short the time was for us to have everything in order to be away from home for almost two weeks. No more laughing for me! Today I had everyone pack their suitcases, which leaves us all of tomorrow to fill in the gaps, remember the stuff we’re forgetting, clean the house, and be ready bright and early Wednesday morning to hit the road.

I asked the children what time they want to wake up on Wednesday morning. I heard various numbers, “Five. Four. Midnight.” Then Mike said, “I want to get up at google!” He was only saying that because in our house, that’s what you say when you want to irritate people who are using numbers. Can you tell we’re a “geek family”?

Now that my younger children are settled into bed for the night, I can work my last shift before my bedtime. There is laundry to be done, the kitchen box to pack, my suitcase to dig out of the closet, our bedsheets to change, and numerous other small items to cross off the list.

Michael and the boys did a little shopping at Walmart for “essentials”. They picked up ingredients for me to make cookies (at my request), diapers for the baby, and a couple of GameBoy games and a computer game…you know, the ESSENTIALS!

I’ll be glad once we’re on the road. I’m hoping to keep my trip journal here on my blog, not only to keep friends and family posted on our adventures, but also to keep a record for our family scrapbook. Talk to ya’ soon!

Happy Friday! For some reason, I love Fridays, even though they are often very similar to the other days of the week for me. Maybe one reason I love them is because it means Michael will be home for the weekend, and that’s always an exciting thought around our house.

Tonight I had a Creative Memories workshop, so Laura and I were excited to get out and get working on our scrapbooks. Before we got to the workshop we made a few other stops, including a little shopping trip to Meijer. They were having a big clothing clearance sale, and we were able to get some things for some great prices. Probably my favorite item is a pair of overalls decorated with rhinestones. They are size 6, for Amelia, and they match exactly a pair we got for Laura there a few weeks ago. It will be fun to see the girls in matching overalls. Hopefully I can get a photo and post it here for you to see.

We had such a nice time at the workshop, and we would probably still be there now (after midnight) if we hadn’t gotten a warning message from my sister’s husband to be aware that ice was starting to form. We are on the edge of a major ice storm that is just to the south of us. We don’t know exactly what the weekend will bring. We may get iced in, or we might just get to read about the bad weather that missed us. For some reason our town often gets skipped when there’s exciting weather happening in Illinois. It often veers to the north or the south and we just get to hear about all the adventures everyone else is having.  (I just read this on our local newspaper’s website:  The worst could be south and north of the state’s center. Chris Geelhart, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lincoln, said the St. Louis area could get more than an inch of ice from the storm that extended all the way to Texas.  Chicago could get 6 to 8 inches of snow.  See…it’s not just my imagination!  It really happens!  All the exciting stuff skips us. 

Tonight my niece, Naomi, arrived for a visit. She is working in Chicago for a few months, so she took the train down for the weekend. She’s a favorite here, and all the kids were excited to hear that Naomi was coming. For that matter, I was excited too! Naomi is a breath of fresh air and brings a spirit of pleasantness everywhere she goes.

Tomorrow morning, weather permitting, Laura and I will head back to the second half of the scrapbooking workshop. Hopefully I can slip away even earlier and go for my traditional Saturday-morning coffee and cinnamon roll at Kelly’s Bakery. Yum!

Tomorrow afternoon we’ll tour a house that Naomi’s parents are considering buying if they move to this area. We’re eager to see if it’s something they’ll like, and they are so glad that Naomi can be here to give her opinion.

Tomorrow evening we’re having supper at some friends’ house. It will be a perfect way to wrap up the day.

Sunday will hopefully bring a day of worship and rest as we gear up to leave on our trip to Virginia and then Orlando starting very early Wednesday morning. The children started packing their suitcases earlier in the week, and every day we must calculate exactly how many days before we leave. Every day Miguel asks, “NOW can we go to Disney?” He doesn’t seem to understand what I mean when I give him a number of days. Fortunately, he does seem to understand the progression of our trip. He knows we’re going to go see Grammy and Grandma Jo first before we end up at Disney.

I hope you have a good weekend. Ours is certainly a busy one!

The gift to our family this year from Michael’s mother was a night at the movies. She specifically thought the children would enjoy seeing the movie Charlotte’s Web. It took us a while to get our act together, but finally the date was set, guests invited (Todd & Ben), and the excitement mounted. We rarely take the children to movies, so they were excited about this gift.

We couldn’t decide what to do with Judah, and I really didn’t want to wrestle him in the movie theater, so I offered to stay home with him. Michael suggested that perhaps he could stay home with Judah so I could go to the movie, but I fiercely guarded MY Christmas gift from my mother-in-law… a quiet evening at home to work on my scrapbook project.

The noisy group finally tumbled out the door leaving me with only one little companion. Quick as a wink I hurried Judah off to bed and I sat downstairs in complete silence. Aaaaaaahhhhhhh. No words. Nothing. Judah was even quiet (after his initial protest at being put to bed). I sat for a long time on the couch, looking up a few things on the computer. Finally I decided to start on my project. What a joy to be able to work in peace and quiet, with no one asking questions, no one grabbing my things. Best of all, I knew they were all having a marvelous time.

The hours flew by, and soon the gang was back, tumbling back through the door carrying big bowls of leftover popcorn (it was “bring-your-own-bucket” night!) and a cup of leftover soda. Since it was late, we didn’t have a long discussion about the movie. But the kids did share some of the highlights.

In the two days since they went to see the movie, I’ve heard lots of bits and pieces from the kids about the movie. Luke didn’t like the spider, but I think it’s because he doesn’t like spiders anyway. (The big spider scene from Lord of the Rings rather ruined him on spiders in general.) Amelia keeps reminding me that the spider died at the end. Isaac asked if it’s really true that every spider egg sack has exactly 516 eggs in it. Mike told me that all the baby spiders went away, but a few stayed. I’ve had fun asking questions and hearing their stories. I’m looking forward to seeing it when it comes out on video. But most of all, I keep remembering my very quiet evening, and that I enjoyed it very much.

It’s all my sister’s fault!!!  She mentioned that she was thinking about buying some of those new “Heelys” shoes for Nathan to take on our trip to Disney, and then I mentioned to Michael that it was an interesting idea… and next thing you know, we were in the mall, trying on shoes, and spending WAY too much money!

Thing is, Joyce only has one son to buy Heelys for.  We have FOUR children to buy for!  And buy we did.  Then we staggered out of the mall, partly because we were carrying four large shoe boxes, partly because some of us had wheels on our shoes, and partly because our credit card had taken such a blow!

But somehow it all seems worthwhile.  The kids are really enjoying their shoes, despite several fairly hard falls they’ve taken.  They have said thank you more than once, and they know that it was a major gift from us to them.

I am reminded of the Scripture that says this:

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!  (Matthew 7:11)

We love to give gifts to our children.  We delight in seeing them enjoying the things we give to them.  We get tickled inside when they express genuine gratitude for the gifts we give to them.  How much more does our Father in heaven want to give gifts to us?  All we need to do is ask, like a child, trusting and waiting.  Best of all, we need to thank Him sincerely for the gifts He gives us daily.

Several years ago I started the tradition of giving photo-album pages to my mother-in-law for various occasions. It’s an arrangement that pleases both of us, so it has continued quite happily.

As the holiday season passed me by, I realized that I wanted to make a few pages for Mom that we could take to her when we see her in a few weeks. Shouldn’t be hard to pick a few photos from the past year…

So tonight I sat down and started through the photos to pick enough for a few pages. Ah, the dilemma! One photo after another caught my eye. And I know that I won’t keep ALL the photos I initially select, but I do want to narrow it down just a bit.

I just finished my “first cut” and then looked back at the file of photos. Can you believe, I have 577 photos in my “first cut”??? Whew. I think I might need to narrow it down just a little more…

Friday, January 5

I did it!  I got my number down to just over 150 photos.  That’s still way  more than I thought I’d want to use, but I am finding that I just can’t tell the story of our year with any fewer photos than that.   Now I’m eager to get them printed and start on the pages.  Now that Laura is becoming an accomplished scrapbooker, perhaps we can work together on the pages and finish them in good time.

In the spring of 2000, before Laura was even five years old, I gave her a small scrapbook and let her start going with me sometimes when I would work on my scrapbooks.  Her style was interesting, and she had a lot of fun.  But it was often stressful for me to see how she colored on the pages or cut the photos oddly.  As the past five years have flown by, Laura’s scrapbooking style has gotten more refined and her album has grown slowly.

This past weekend Laura asked if she could go with me to scrapbook, I reluctantly said yes.  I didn’t have any new photos for her to work with, and I was afraid she’d be more of a liability than anything.  Much to my surprise, Laura has begun a new chapter in her scrapbooking ability!  Not only did she get all of her paper and stickers organized, but she made some beautiful pages with some photos she already had in her bag.  I was so inspired that I got some more photos printed off for her before we went back the next evening to work on our albums some more.  Again, Laura did a beautiful job and we really enjoyed each other’s company.  We worked well together, we admired each other’s work, and we returned home to show off our completed pages to our dutiful audience (Michael).

Last night Laura finished the pages in her small album I gave her five years ago, so she has graduated to a new 12×12 album.  I can’t wait to see what she’s able to do with it!