Precious Moments: Christmas Day

I previously posted about my feelings and attitudes toward Christmas this year in a posted titled, Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree. In short, I was not into the commercial side of Christmas at all this year. I had the kids for Christmas Eve through Christmas morning and then they went with Dad for the rest of the day. I was determined to enjoy Christmas with my kids despite my feelings. I had experienced numerous blessings leading up until the holiday and my heart was overjoyed with the true meaning of the season. I resolved that our Christmas morning was going to reflect that and I would do my best to stay in the moment and find joy right where I was, while ignoring all of the other stinkin thinkin and feelings that had surfaced for me.

So here goes................. I woke up on Christmas morning feeling tired after Christmas Eve celebrations with family and then waiting for the kiddos to be completely sound asleep before playing Santa. I prayed hard, knew I only had to hold it together for a few hours, and waited. Finally around 7:30 am (which is a sleep in for my crew), I heard little feet coming to my room.

Feeling the excitement radiating from the kids was fun and definitely boosted me! I decided that I wanted to be truly present while they were opening gifts. I was and it was an amazing blessing! Here is what I observed and experienced.

I proudly watched as my children were grateful for and excited about everything from the big gifts to the smallest detail. This reminds me of a very memorable moment from the Christmas of 2011. Ella opened an automatic Hello Kitty toothbrush and shouted, "Just what I wanted!" This was the most heartfelt reaction by far to any of the gifts all of the kids had received. I just love the simplicity of kids!

Anyways, done with my tangent :) This Christmas while I got quiet and intently watched my kids, I saw three distinct "gift unwrapping personalities" and I watched with wonder and saw similarities between how each child opened their gifts and their temperaments. It was a lot of fun!

Ella savored unwrapping by saving most of her gifts until after Mya and Cal had finished. She wanted to help and watch her siblings and experience all of the excitement with them before the climax of seeing what she received. She didn't want it to end! Ella was the Savoring Opener.

Mya was the fiery opener. She tore through her presents like the Tazmanian Devil. She couldn't get through them fast enough! She was done with all of hers and ready to get the toys out of the packages before Ella and Cal had gotten through two gifts. There was no savoring here, just pure unleashed excitement and focus! Mya was the Assembly Line Opener.

Cal was a slow opener who played with everything after he unwrapped it. He was so taken with everything that he saw and got completely absorbed in it that he didn't care about anything else. He was excited with the toys and boxes equally. He had an elaborate train garage and track set up pretty quickly! Cal was the Reluctant Opener.

What a blessing it is to truly be present for the precious moments of our lives! Please comment and share your precious moments, I would love to read them!

Below are some of our fun Christmas pictures from this year :)

My Heart

                                    

Happy Easter and Resurrection Sunday! My heart has overflowed with love, thanksgiving, adornment, and awe this week. Thinking about the true meaning of Easter and why we celebrate is overwhelming at times. To think that Jesus voluntarily died on the cross for our sins and then overcame death by rising up to heaven to be with his father. That is something that is very difficult for my human mind to truly wrap itself around. Jesus who was fully man and fully God chose to offer himself as a sacrifice for my sins so I could be acceptable to God and live with Him in eternity. Really? Jesus, I haven't even met you, are you sure? I ask these questions in my humanness and I hear the small but sure whisper in my heart........ "YES!" So I must have to do something to earn this, to make myself somewhat worthy of this, to repay him. Now here is the kicker, all I have to do is believe in Jesus and follow him. Simple..... yes. Easy...... not always. Worth it? TOTALLY! 

In order to follow Jesus I have to get to know him. I do this in many ways. Through prayer, reading the Bible, worshiping, spending time and sharing with others, serving, recovering from unhealthiness, healing pain, and surrendering to and obeying him. The more I open my heart to him, the more he changes me and transforms my life in amazing ways.

I have been spending a lot of time this week reflecting on where I was a year ago and thanking God for the incredible ways He has worked in my life. I am speechless when I think about where I am now compared to where I have been in the past. Only God. I'm so thankful that I am not looking to other people and things to do what only He can do! My heart has been captured by Jesus, he is my first love!

Today while worshiping at church and thinking about all this, God gave me the best image to represent this change that has happened in my heart. He first gave me the image of a heart of stone being transformed into a living, beating heart. Then I saw the Grinch at the end of the movie when his heart grew three sizes when he discovered the true meaning of Christmas. That is a great depiction of how God has worked in my heart....... he took my heart of stone, replaced it with a living one, and He grows it all the time. Just when I think it will burst from love and gratitude, He increases its capacity to receive and give these gifts and I am amazed every time! God has turned me from a Grinch into a follower of Jesus, my heart and life are forever changed.


                                      

Thrifty Thursday: Valentine's Birthday Party

This year I decided to do something different to celebrate the kids' birthdays with my family. Three separate family parties just seemed too overwhelming this year. So I decided to shake things up and see how it went. The kids' birthdays are in August, October, and April. I chose to wait until after the holidays and do a valentines themed party. It was a blast!! The kids loved it, my family had a good time, and it gave us a special opportunity to get together after we all recovered from the holidays. We were festive and all wore red for the occasion (and so if you dripped spaghetti sauce on your shirt no one would notice :). It helped me to keep things simple and celebrate on a budget while enjoying the preparations and the party.

So let's get down to dollars and cents! There were 16 people at the party including 4 kiddos. The menu was spaghetti, meatballs, bread, salad, and cupcakes. I accepted help from guests who brought the salad, bread, and some drinks. In addition to the food that I bought, I also picked up some decorations, plates, cups, and silverware from the Dollar Store. Including the cute cupcake display below. The kids and I had fun making and decorating the cupcakes!

          

So for under $45, we had three birthday parties in one great celebration! We sang to each one of the kids separately so they could each enjoy their own birthday song. This will definitely go down in our memory books and may become a new family tradition.

                          

Happy Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day. Visions of love, candy, and flowers are coursing through our female brains. Our romantic illustrations picture perfectly orchestrated days and dates. If you are single today, don't be caught in the bondage of despair, wishing your life were different. Be grateful for the wonderful life God has given you today! Celebrate with your loved ones, enjoy the sunshine, do something nice for yourself, and smile because you are alive! The love of this world will fade, but heavenly love will burn for eternity. Where will you find your love today?

Comment and share how you celebrated Valentine's Day with your kiddos?

We enjoyed breakfast in heart-shaped bowls and sweet balloons. We also had a Valentine's party for our family last weekend, more on that in another post. :)

Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

This year our Christmas tree was a bit neglected. Usually I can't wait to decorate the tree and enjoy taking the time to reminisce about old ornaments and hang them in just the right places. I used to LOVE Christmas decorations and putting them everywhere. This year was different. It was the first year of the divorce and I just didn't feel like doing any of the preparations for the holiday. It all just seemed too hard and too emotional. Thanks to a good friend who came over with her son and guided the tree decorating a week before Christmas. She and my girls did the vast majority of ornament hanging and I gladly took charge of making sure the kids had an ample supply of snacks. When they were all done, I stepped back and knew it was the best tree I had seen in a long time. It was just perfect! The kids had hung most of the ornaments and tinsel so there were very few things higher up on the tree, they were mostly all gathered at the bottom with chunks of tinsel throughout. I asked for help, rather than forcing myself to struggle through it on my own, and received some amazing, precious gifts - humility, a deepening friendship, a beautiful tree, companionship, and two proud little girls beaming with accomplishment.

Fast forward to January................. now I don't want to take the tree down. I just plain don't feel like it. The tree has been up so long that I hardly notice it anymore. Maybe if I leave it alone long enough the tree fairy will come and take it away! Unfortunately, that didn't happen. I'm happy to say that it was without ornaments  by February 1st, but truth be told it is still out and has to be put away. Thankfully I have a deadline of Saturday to get it all put away because I am having people over and need the space, so I know it will get done by then. My point in sharing this is that everything will happen when it is supposed to. I don't need to stress and struggle, nor try to keep up with everyone else. I just need to take care of myself and be content in running my race. There is no one "right" way to do things, let's face it there are many ways to skin a cat. How important is it that my tree get up and down by certain dates? Had you asked me that question a few years ago, I probably would have told you it was very important. Thankfully, today I feel differently. Instead of driving myself to emotional distress and insanity over a Christmas tree, I chose to relax and go with the flow knowing that everything would get taken care of when it was supposed to. I chose to step out of the "rules" and rigid ways of thinking that I have often been trapped in.

I will miss this tree that I didn't want to put up. But mostly I am grateful for the lessons it has taught me this holiday season. It is amazing how God uses simple things in my daily life to speak and develop profound truths in me. Thank you Lord for speaking to me and the ability to hear your voice.