Quote of the day

4/16/12 - GOS:




"You must be getting old! You are getting a lot of bug bites and some gray hair." 
- G, age 6




Last weekend was Easter.  Had a nice weekend.  Saturday = Easter Egg Hunt at Mom's church. 
Sunday = 
Easter Bunny surprises 
church (Mom's)

home to make the soup

out to deliver the soup

Home for some basketball (Easter Bunny gift) and to have a ham dinner - with Cousin Cheryl and Paupi and Mem.

FYI, the 3 little kids came straight home from church and changed into their unders and ate candy.  It was a little unique.  I laughed.  They just stared at me like I was nuts - Hello!  It's candy time!

What do you have...

...that can show others the love of Christ.  On Easter.

Here is what I found in our house at 1130 today.

Frozen chicken, carrots, green beans, broth, potatoes...and some unused rubbermaid containers I'd meant to donate to the refugee program.

The kids, my Mom and I drove around until we found 7 people to whom we provided 6 containers of soup.  First was David - who has the dirtiest hand I've had the honor of shaking in a long while.  We found him behind a dumpster writing a sign in hopes of finding some lunch.  His response when asked if he'd like some lunch:  "How did you know?"

Then, 2 guys with signs.  One sat down and ate RIGHT away.

Then, there was the couple eating Jax outside of a convenient store - with their grocery cart full of personal belongings (blankets, etc...).  When asked "Would you like some chicken soup for lunch?" I got a wide smile with Jax covering the space where her top 4 front teeth would be located.  She thanked me and then said "We'll eat this later."  to which her man friend said "We'll eat this now!  Thanks!"

Then, we turned around and found the man G had seen - the man with the bump on his head.  We learned his name was Bob.  As he walked toward us from in front of a store window, I recognized this man - the one I've often thought "he's going to get by a car!" due to his disabled gait.  He was so thankful.  He sat along the edge of an unplanted planter and ate.

Then, we found a man in Monument Square that I'd seen a number of times as we rode around.  My Mom jumped out of the car and asked if he'd like some chicken soup.  He jumped up and exclaimed "Yes!"  He got a bonus package of pears.  (Do you know how sad it was to think of the pears as being "bonus"?)

We drove toward home watching the Monument Square guy eat through our rear view mirror/rear window.  We passed Bob - eating.

The kids were engaged even though one had begged not to go and the other had not had a cheerful and giving heart as he filled the baggies with oyster crackers and spoons.

We'll probably be talking about Bob for a while.

So...what can you do?  What do you have in your home.  How can you teach your kids to be generous?  M commented on the way home - "We helped hungry people...like Jesus."

I think these 6 men and 1 women touched us more than we did them.

Times like this - singlehood?

So, it is nights like tonight that I miss being married.

I need to go out to the car and retrieve the Easter items and prepare them for the Easter morning/secular festivities.

I wish "we" could do this together.

On a positive note, we had a great time at the church's Easter Egg Hunt this morning.  The kids wore their Easter clothes and one of G's friends from school attended with her entire family! (yeah, good example of inviting friends to church events!)

Mom watched the kids this afternoon so I could run out and get Easter goodies.  They are to replace the items I already purchased that the kids found - Hoola hoops, etc.

We watched a movie tonight (Paupi came over too) - The Littlest Angel.  I cooked some veggies to make egg dyes for tomorrow.  We already did some eggs yesterday but more to come!

Tonight - bedtime didn't really happen until 901 pm.  I was ticked.  I wish that the Easter Bunny had a "coal" item like Santa cause these kids deserve the coal based on their behaviors around bedtime lately.

Life is good. Just sometimes...I wish there was a Mr.

Greed

Christmas 2011.  Family.  Love. But...

I really dislike what Christmas highlights in my children's hearts.  Especially G.  So much so that she was disciplined right in the middle of opening gifts, she cried and I spent much of the day either crying or super sad.  I couldn't shake it.

How did we get here?  Why did I ever follow the traditions of a big Christmas?  How do we get "out" of this?

So, the details...

In the middle of open gifts when all is "going well", she comes to sit by me (looking for another gift).  I hand her one from under the tree.  I tell her that this is a special gift.  A really special gift that I made just for her.  I scoop her up, put her in my lap while she opens the package.  She removes the paper.  I say wow!  "Mama made you a box."  She giggles.  "No, Mama!"  She removes the snapfish book from the box.  Somewhat disappointed.  I say, "I really want to show you what is in this book, OK?"  Yup.

We start.  It is a book containing images of most of HER preschool art (year 1 - the day before kindergarten started in Sept 2011.

We look through a few pages.  She's not treating the pages with respect but hurrying to get through them.  I try to slow her down.  I tell her stories of each photo.  She doesn't care.  I whisper in here ear.  I'm calm, gentle, loving.  She rips a page.

Then, it began.  I was ticked.  Hundreds of hours into this project and she could care less.  It's about her.  It's HER artwork.  It's part of HER story.  You would think that she'd be interested but nope.

She just wanted to get through this thing. In her mom's loving arms. A gift that wasn't what she WANTED.  She wanted to get it over so she could get on to another package to get more stuff.  GREED.

     "Greed is an excessive desire to possess wealth, goods, or abstract things of value with the intention to keep it for one's self."  An inappropriate desire...


My heart breaks.  I don't even know how to fix this. 

Then, her favorite gift:  $1 worth of repositional erasers Santa placed in her stocking.  Seriously?  Erasers.    Great.  


Sorry to be Debby Downer over here but...
-We did Christmas Eve service.
-She sang - on a huge stage in from of 900+ people. 
-We hung stockings.
-We read the Christmas story from the Bible (which was also a negative experience this year as we had a MUCH more interesting dog visiting to entertain the kids)...I stopped reading the story.  Later, G came with her little Gideon Bible and asked me to finish the story.  So, I finished reading it to her. Sweetly, just the two of us.

-We finished this very nice nativity activity we'd worked on all week (on Christmas Day).  
-The kids cleaned out their rooms and donated toys to other kids.
-We "did" Christmas gifts for an entire family, a refugee and a single mom just barely holding onto her child.
-We are so blessed and we try to help many others...this is a part of our daily lives and yet...ugh.

Church on Christmas Day...They all went, I couldn't stop crying and I took a nap instead (who would do that?)


AHHHHH.  


Broken. 

She ended up being rocked like a baby in my arms as her heart broke.  Right by the tree.  With snow falling out the window behind us...What others would say is a "perfect white Christmas" which was SOOO not what Christmas is about.

How do I "fix" this for next year?


And I'm still asking:  Did this happen because I was overtired?  She was overwhelmed?  How inappropriately did I handle this?  How can she be a part of a family that is so generous and yet she is often very greedy?!?!?!  I mean seriously, we are a very generous family.  And she sees it/experiences it.

How do we refocus Christmas to be about Jesus?  

PS - At dinner, I learned later from my sister, that G announced to the kids "I get more presents because I have a Daddy who sends me presents."  Oh honey, if you only knew.  Z's birth mom sent him 3 gifts including a red motorized (very cool) car that he rides in.  Value = greater than what your Daddy contributes - $$-wise and sacrificially.  It's not about what you get.  It's about what you give and how you love others.

A Different Kind of Giving Thanks

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our extended family last Sunday. Johnna's fiance was here from the middle east. relatives. cousins. kids. Filled the house with 16. Crazy. Zoo-ish. Like my childhood.

G got a call and she looked at me and said:

"I don't want to talk now. I'm having so much fun! I have to go"---and then she slid on her belly down the stairs to rejoin cousin Rylee.

So...Today (11/25) Mom, the kids and I were home. I've been fighting an illness and I can see it in a couple of kids eyes and in the snot running down from their noses. We laid low.

However, this morning we talked about giving. We took our change jar along with other change and bills we found around the house and set out to be generous.

We took the change $39 (change sitting around the house doing nothing) along with $1 to D-n-D and bought $5 gift cards. We went to Denny's and bought some more there. We handed them out. We got hugs. Smiles. Thanks. and one silent one who didn't make eye contact.

We bought more D-n-D cards and headed to the Teen Center. More smiles.

My kids learned so much.

The best part:

When we paid with change at D-n-D, G just couldn't let go of her last penny. I didn't make a big deal of it. Told her she could keep it. Later driving in the car, she handed me a wad of napkins. She told me it was a gift. When I didn't open it, she insisted. I opened it and found the single penny in the center of the ball of napkins. She was so proud to give it away - to me.

She demonstrated that she in fact was generous and GOT the point.

Thank you, Lord. For all that we have.

A nice bonus - Denny's had a deal that if you spent $25 on gift certificates, they gave you one extra $5 one - another gift for someone today.

Also, we learned that people really liked choices. We approached people with:

Would you like a Denny's or a D-n-D gift card (vs. would you like a gift card). They liked choices. Nobody turned us down. BTW, they liked D-n-D the best.

We signed the gift cards "From Jesus".

What a tangible way to show love to others and teach the kiddos along the way.

We returned home for a quick lunch, naps and the got up for Turkey Pot Pies (prepared yesterday) and left over pies from Sunday. We rented a movie but never got to it - tomorrow!

Paupi came for dinner.

We did a couple of thanksgiving crafts.

Can I tell you: This was one of the BEST Thanksgivings EVER!

We are so blessed.