Christmas Tradition

When Emily was a baby (her first Christmas) I was at the dollar store with my sister and her children. We saw some little Christmas ornaments for a dollar I suppose and thought we would buy each of our babies an ornament. I thought since it was my first baby's first Christmas that it would be a fun tradition to get her an ornament each Christmas. That first ornament was just a cheap little thing. A little bear on a horse trimmed in pink. On the bottom of it I wrote "Emily's first Christmas 1993". That year we were in and out of the house a lot with the holidays and my husband's grandfather died that December. My mother had found us a tree (it was actually 2 or 3 trees' pieces together to make 1) at the dump or along the road and it was quite wobbly. It tumped over as we were leaving one evening and my star, which was the star from my mother's tree when I was a child and Emily's little ornament broke. The star could not be repaired but Emily's little ornament was glued back together carefully and has survived now for 17 more Christmases.

Since that first Christmas with my new baby, I have added to Emily's collection and created collections for her younger sisters and brother. Earlier ornaments show how poor we were. Including one year when I hand sewed little animals for ornaments. In more recent years I have tried to get ornaments that represent the child's year a bit more. Emily's have been her playing the flute or artsy. Elizabeth's have been books or movies she loved. Kimberly's have been girl scouts or baton twirling. Joshua's have been cowboys or crab eating. Caroline are cute baby ones. I wonder what ornaments will come our way next year.

An Interesting Mix

I was up late last night worrying. I was lying in bed with the weight of the world rolling relentlessly through my mind. Health insurance, job, children watching too much t.v., teenagers, church calling... and on and on and on... I finally decided to get up and do something about it. I got up and completed an application packet (fyi: this takes quite some time) for a teaching position that was one of the many topics robbing me of my precious sleep. When I finished I decided to begin on another packet until my weary body begged me to return to bed. It was fast approaching 2:30 am at that point. Fortunately, when I got to bed I was exhausted enough that my mind gave me a break and I quickly fell asleep.

Fast forward to 7:30 am. My eyes pop open after 5 hours of sleep only to begin wondering if my eldest daughter got to her babysitting job on time. She was scheduled to work for a friend of mine from church so that said friend could go to work herself at 7am. My oldest is by far my most responsible child and so I would not have been overly concerned except that the night before she and her sister had agreed to have a sleepover at a friend's house. I was worried. I lay there as long as I could.

I texted her : did you get to cristina's ok and on time

I waited.

Nothing.

I could not stand it. I called my daughter. She answered and didn't sound like I woke her up. THANK GOODNESS.

"Did you get to Christina's ok?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Were you on time?"

"Um... no..."

Oh my... I am falling through a long dark tunnell.....

"What???" I am horrified... my daughter, bless her, has shown up late, which ordinarily would have caused her employer to be late... fortunately, Cristina's husband was still home.

I go on to explain to my oldest the importance of being on time to work and how that is important and having sleepovers the night before work or staying up late at all..........

You get the idea.

Now, just to be clear, I haven't always been this way.

Now, on to my other point.

Rewind to last night. I told my daughter that it wasn't a good idea to spend the night over at a friend's house before work the next day. She would need her sleep. Then I let her take my keys and my car and go because she really wanted to go. When I went into the bedroom I tucked in my sleepy son. "Mommy, will you tell me a story?" And I did. Three stories. He finally fell asleep and gave him a kiss. I brushed his hair from his forehead and thought what a treasure he is. Then after my baby girl fell asleep in my bed I gently moved her to her own crib so there would be more room in our bed. I kissed her gently and whispered I loved her.

Now, you may wonder what these two stories have to do with one another. These two stories are to illustrate how I have changed, not just randomly, but changed into my two parents. And if you know them, you know what a strange yet interesting mix this is. It's ok though, I love the middle aged me. I am a responsible and good citizen, I love my family, and I stick up for what is wrong with my world. I couldn't pick two people I would want to be more like.

Happy Father's Day!!!

I have such a wonderful Daddy. Not only that but he is a FABULOUS Papaw. I saw a poem similar to this one and had to make it for my Father. He really liked it. (He has a soft spot for my boy so it made it extra sweet.)

Tell me a story

At night I tell my son scripture stories. It's worked out really well because he is learning them and loving them. One night I started telling him about Adam and Eve and during the storytelling I got distracted and paused in the middle before finishing. He got frustrated with me and exclaimed, "Momma, tell me the story about the bad guy and the fruit!"

Come what may, and love it

It's been a while since I posted. I graduated college with my degree in early childhood education.
Well, there are no teaching jobs available (well, very few, and I haven't been offered one) so I started expanding my search and I got a part time job with the corrections department as a librarian (I will have to find my glasses so I look the part). I am thinking it might be a good idea to get my master's degree but maybe not in education. Not being able to find a job in my chosen field has put quite the damper on my love for teaching. I have looked at some different majors and I really would like to make a choice soon so that I can get started. I decided I was really interested in getting my master's in psychology but it is pretty hard to find a program here. Going to have to figure all this out. In the meantime, life is good, Heavenly Father knows me.

Ever had a bad hair day?

Caroline does.