Living life...

Saturday marked a huge accomplishment for Jut.  He graduated with his Master's Degree in Religious Education with an emphasis in Missional leadership.  I am so proud of him.  Until three years ago, he never desired a higher degree...and based on his undergraduate work, never thought he'd really ever be able to do it.  His parents did not have 4-year college degrees and his sister does not either.  A B.A. was fine for him.

But, God has a way of making us change our opinions about things.  Jut felt called to leave youth ministry and take the lead minister role of our church.  The elders felt that he needed more education. He didn't want to take the traditional M.Div. route...he was thinking more of leadership training.  I thought he needed some biblical studies and we found Rochester had a bit of both.  So, he decided to give it a shot.

It has been a long 20+ months for us.  We have experienced more 'life' in the past two years than we have in all our previous 8 years of marriage.  It started with the death of my grandmother less than two months prior to the beginning of classes.  Then, C was born two months into the semester.  Jut assumed the role of 'lead minister' that January right before we received word that the doctors were ready to discontinue chemo for Mike.  We lost an influential friend to heart issues that month and an elder of the church shortly following.  Then his dad died...then my grandpa died.  I think auto-pilot took over that spring and we just functioned as well as we could.

Summer began.  We took a relaxing vacation and then kept busy for the rest of the summer.  Jut started school back up in the fall.  I took over the Sunday night children's ministry program.  We started homeschooling E.  We watched my extended family's relationship disintegrate.  We made a decision to buy and remodel my grandparents' home.  Jut's grandfather passed away.  There have been church issues to handle throughout the year.  The kids seemed to have an inordinate amount of sickness this winter. The list of things doesn't seem as huge for things that happened in this year of grad school but I don't think we could have handled much more on our plates.  The events seemed very mentally/emotionally taxing...and I think the first year of grad school used up our 'bank' of mental/emotional reserves.  It has been a long semester.

However, it is finished.  Jut graduated.  He even got a great compliment from his hardest professor on his last paper.  He did great!  Life is good.  Now, it is time to sit back and relax a bit.  Maybe build up some of those reserves again. Jut is even playing video games as I write this...taking time to relax.  It is good.  It is hard to remember what 'normal' was prior to graduate school.  Before grad school began, we were a preschool family a four. So, now we get the fun task of finding out what 'normal' is for a homeschooling family of five...

We know new challenges will face us.  Other things will try to make us busy again, but we have our priorities.  We know there are things that will fill the hole that school left in his life.  However, we will be careful to guard that hole that 'things' do not take too much of that space.  We need time.  The kids need time.  He needs time. These are all things we must remember.

Well done, Jut!  You did awesome.  You did your best to balance school, church and family.  I couldn't have asked for anymore.  Thank you for all your hard work!  Congratulations on your accomplishment!!

Easter weekend rambling...

I tend to find our house seeped in drudgery right now. Food needs prepared and dishes washed three times per day.  Laundry is in a constant state of needing attention...if it doesn't need washed, it needs folded and taken care of.  Diapers must be washed every other night.  Meals need planned.  Lessons need to be studied and prepped.  Children need corralled so that lessons can occur.  Diapers need changed.  Bills need paid.  Budgets need analyzed.  Each day is a bit like groundhogs day with the same tasks facing me every morning.  The end is in sight.  Jut will be done with school in 28 days...but for now, it is 4 more weeks without a break for this weary mom.

However, I got a surprising break this weekend.  I wasn't anticipating the break...it almost felt like a vacation.  It was so nice...so relaxing.  My soul was able to relax and recharge a bit.  I can push ahead and manage these last four weeks.

Our weekend started with breakfast out with my family.  We had fun relaxing and chatting.  Some friends and relatives dropped by to say 'hello'.  It was a great start to the morning.  Then, a friend of E's invited us over for an egg hunt.  It ended up being just us and the host family.  It was fun.  We don't get to socialize with non-church friends very often.  It was really fun to get to know this family. We had a great time.  We shared lunch with them and watched the kids play outside.  It was just a nice, relaxing time.

We took the kiddos home for rest/nap time.  I ran out and did some last-minute Easter shopping without any tag-a-longs.  Shopping without kids is sheer bliss. Restores the soul.

Afterwards, we headed out to Mom and Dad's for supper and egg painting.  Pizza is always good.  Egg decorating is always a crazy event...but goes better when Mom and Aunt Stacey help.  The kids played outside with the dogs.  They worked on their 'nature center' making it even better than last year by adding shelves.  Exciting times.

This morning started with an Easter basket search.  Then, we headed to church.  Afterwards, it was lunch at Mom's and an egg hunt.  E was an expert egg finder...X did pretty well.  C didn't understand what all the fuss was about with those silly plastic eggs.  He just wanted to run outside.  However, he was envious of the jelly beans when the eggs were opened and then kept trying to open the eggs.

After the excitement died down, C crawled up in Mom's arms and promptly cuddled in and went to sleep.  Jut, my parents, and my grandpa decided to take C's example and snooze.  The older two got some coveted IPad time and everyone recharged.

We had a bit of supper and headed home.  The kids went to bed and here I sit with my feet up...very relaxed...no dishes...no laundry...no menial household tasks (minus the diapers in the wash) for two days.  Lots of fellowship and fun.  This weary mom is feeling relaxed, recharged and ready to face the next hectic week.  God is good.

The First Visit(s) from the Tooth Fairy

On January 29th, E informed me that she had 2 loose teeth.  She had been waiting for that day for at  least a year...and it was finally here.  Well, Jut and I, as super parents, said, "Don't touch it or wiggle it.  Let nature do its thing.  Your adult teeth will push it out."  Our very first-born traitish daughter followed our words to a T.  She didn't touch them...waiting for 'nature to do its thing'.  Well, fast forward to two weeks ago (March 7th).  We went to the dentist.  The hygienist and dentist looked at the teeth and claimed it was time she started wiggling those babies and get them out of there.  Her adult tooth was in on the bottom left but it came through completely behind the baby tooth.  They thought that she'd have them out by night if she started wiggling and playing with them.

On March 12th, the kids were getting ready for bed.  I asked E if she'd like me to pull out her tooth.  I had been playing with it for her a couple times in the previous days and had been getting it to bleed a bit but it was still hanging in there strong.  She said, "yes".  So I gave it a twist and a tug and out it popped.  She said that it didn't even hurt.

So, we cleaned it off a bit.  Put it in her 'kiss-kiss' box and put it by her bed on a little shelf.  In the morning, the tooth fairy had left her a piece of gum, a golden dollar coin, a quarter, dime, nickel and penny.  The tooth fairy also sprinkled 'fairy dust' all over her shelf and pillow.

She had more fun carrying her box with all her 'goodies'.  It was her first piece of gum and she thought that was pretty cool.

Then, she decided to see if the 'fairy dust' could make her fly.  She put on some fairy wings, and she kept sprinkling her 'fairy dust' on herself and jumping off the furniture.  She claimed it made her jump higher and farther and that she was really flying.  It was hilarious.  She was adorable.  I'm glad that there weren't any ladders leading up to the roof of the house!  She was so excited about it all.

So, now that she knew what to expect from the whole losing a tooth thing, she started really working on that second tooth.  We were at Mom and Dad's on Saturday night (the 16th) and she sat the whole time working on that tooth.  By the time we left, she had it just hanging on.  She told me that she didn't want me to touch it because she was going to pull that tooth out.  Well, when Jut was brushing her teeth, he asked her if she wanted him to pull it.  She said 'yes'.  He grabbed her tooth.  She jumped and the tooth came right out.  Bye-bye tooth number two!  It was easier than the first.

So, the tooth fairy came again with the same trade for the little baby tooth...and now E has quite the gap in her little mouth.  So cute...getting so grown up.  .

An interesting tidbit:  Her first bottom tooth came in 11-12-07 and her second was on 11-14-07.  I guess since they came in within 2 days...it makes sense that they both came out within 4 days.  :)

Ramblings...

The last time I took a month break I could blame it on impending motherhood, but that's not the case this time.  Life is just busy and exhausting and Jut needs the computer for school stuff when I have in the inclination to post.  .

However, he should be finished with his degree in eight weeks, I think...maybe seven since it is Friday.  That will be nice...however, life won't slow down at that point in time.  It will probably just get crazier...as we are going to buy a house, remodel (fairly extensively, if the bank agrees) the house, and move.  I get hives just thinking about it all.  It would be so much easier just to stay here and rent forever.  But, I know the pros will definitely outweigh all the cons once we are living there, if only we could just skip to that part.  

Some fun news...E is about ready to lose her first two teeth.  We visited the dentist yesterday and they told us the teeth should come out any day.  She just has to start wiggling them more.  (We told her to leave them alone and not rush them...but it is time for them to be out...so now she needs to be wiggling!)  Her first adult tooth has broken through.  We can see it on the bottom left side.  Exciting times...but sad too.  Her smile will never be the same again with her cute little baby teeth.  I want her to grow up but it is bittersweet as it happens so fast.

To go to the dentist yesterday, E dressed up all in white.  When I questioned her about her outfit choice, she replied, "I'm going to the dentist, so I'm going to dress up like a tooth!"  When I told her hygentist and the dentist, they exclaimed that they'd never had anyone do that before.  E grinned like the Cheshire cat.  She thought that she was so cool.  Sometimes, she still is my adorable little girl.

We've joined a homeschooling/play group in the past month.  It is an insane group of children.  The oldest is seven.  The youngest is about seven months...and there are about 10 kids between those two ages.  It is wild and crazy but the kids LOVE it.  It is fun to see other moms and chat.  So, that has been quite the adventure.

Homeschooling is going well.  We compared some work samples from Sept to now today.  It was fun to see how much she's progressed.  She'll be finished with her reading curriculum by the end of April.  Her math will be finished by the end of March.  I'm going to have to get creative and find some fun extension activities for her this spring.  She reads all the time.  I'm still getting use to her mentioning what different signs around town say.  It is fun to watch the world of words for her.

C has been ill.  He ended up at the dr last Friday and was diagnosed with a double ear infection, an eye infection and respiratory junk.  Today, X ended up at the dr and was diagnosed with a bit of bronchitis, a double ear infection and dehydration.  So, there are 2 bottles of antibiotics hanging out in the fridge.  Fun times.  We've had a miserable winter as far as sickness goes.  There was a month in Dec/Jan where someone was throwing up every week (or more) and February brought all this respiratory junk.  I'm ready for spring.

The fun news of the house is that my children are officially obsessed with Star*Wars.  They started playing Angry*Birds Star*Wars.  They drove Jut crazy with their inaccurate knowledge of Star*Wars based soley on the game.  Finally, he couldn't take it anymore.  So, they have now watched bits and pieces of Episodes 4-6 and a bit of 1.  X loves Chewy.  We had to make the "No wookie noises at the table" rule this week.  E loves Princess Leia.  They refer to C as R2D2.  I get to be Queen Amadalla.  Jut is Vadar.  Fun times.  E's creative writing for school is themed 'Star*Wars', the story was 'Frozen Yoda', actually.  I hear that everyone wants Star*Wars b'day parties and Star*Wars Halloween costumes...everything revolves around it right now.  They have even started playing the Wii because Jut has a Star*Wars video game.  However, that is hilarious to watch.  Jut tries really hard to not get frustrated as the kids do their crazy things with their characters, as he is actually trying to do something in the game.  Makes me laugh every time.

So, that's a snippet of life around here...Star*Wars, snot and school...that pretty much sums life up.

On our Walk Through the Woods on a Snowy Evening

15 month old C

What a fun three months that it has been!  So full of changes for my little guy.  He is so much fun.  I love this age of constant exploration...(although, I must confess that it does wear me out!)

I joke and say that he's going to think his name is "O'Caleb!"  I say it constantly.  He's always getting into something or doing something that he shouldn't.  I always reply with 'Oh Caleb!'...probably with much exasperation in my voice at times but with amusement too.  He is a busy, busy little boy.  (Although, they probably all are!)

C is a climber.  He scales everything.  He loves climbing on the couch.  For a while, he was constantly attempting to climb the clothes racks.  He loves the stairs (although he took a header down them today and is steering clear of them for now).  He climbs on chairs so that he can crawl up onto the table to find any remaining goodies.  Jut knows when C has had an adventurous day when he comes home and finds all the kitchen chairs sitting on their sides.  He climbs on the portable heater in the bathroom so that he can terrorize poor Pumpkin while she's trying to eat.  He climbs up into the benches on the breakfast nook so that he can create havoc with all our school supplies.   He tries climbing up to E's bunk...thankfully he can't manage to get higher than the first step yet. But if he can climb it and find something on it, he does.  I thought the other kids liked climbing but they had nothing on C!  He truly loves climbing.  Thankfully he hasn't thought about climbing out of the crib, yet.

He has sprouted 5 teeth in the past 3 months, I think.  He has in 3 of his molars and 2 of his incisors have broke through in the past week or so.  So, he is up to 13 teeth.  Yippee.

Crawling is a forgotten skill.  Walking (and attempted running) is all the rage.  We visited the Whitakers after Christmas and their little guy (who is 6 weeks younger than C) was a 'seasoned' walker.  C watched him for a while and by the end of the day, C was a walker too.  It took another week for him to really hone his skill and not take off crawling in the middle of his treks but he left crawling behind at the Whitakers.  Now, I really can't keep up with all his mischief.  He just disappears and mischief finds him.

Talking isn't his forte, but he's learning to get his points across.  I sign to him and he just grins and says, "aegh" and keeps pointing.  He clicks his tongue when he wants something to eat.  He jabbers and jabbers and jabbers.  He's always talking.  Someday we will know what he's saying.

He LOVES reading.  He loves climbing up in the chair by the bookshelves and pulling out books and reading.  I get tired of cleaning all the books up, but it entertains him for probably at least 30 minutes a day...so I can't really complain because it does keep him occupied and out of trouble.

C loves wrestling.  If the olders are on the floor, he's going to pounce on them.  It drives them nuts when they are trying to watch TV.  If I'm holding the olders reading, he'll plow his way through to sit in the middle of my lap.  He can be a bit of a tank.  But, he wants to be involved and be in the middle of what is going on.

He is such a happy little guy.  I love this (exhausting) age.  He makes me laugh every day!

A Little Christmas

My household is a *touch* on the active side.  Okay...so things are pretty busy around here.  The 1-year old is especially busy and doesn't adhere to many rules.  Consequently, I decided that I was not going to put up any of my 'real' decorations this year.  I had visions of our tree crashing to the floor and the mess that would follow.  Besides, I didn't want to be after C all the time about leaving the tree alone...and I didn't want to have to gate it.  So, handmade ornaments were in our future for the month of December.

On Black Friday, one of the blogs I subscribe to discussed the ebook The Truth in Tinsel.  The premise is to do a short devo with your kids each day of December leading up to Christmas and make a corresponding Christmas ornament.  Perfect!  It followed right along with my desire for homemade ornaments...and the desire of my kids to do 'crafty' things.

I was worried that we wouldn't have enough ornaments to decorate the tree at the beginning...but as we didn't decorate the tree until the 20th (or something similarly ridiculous), it wasn't a problem.  The 'problem' became storing the ornaments waiting for the tree to be ready...oh well.  

It was fun.  We made lots of different types of ornaments ranging from old CDs with glass beads glued on to symbolize Mary's Song to salt-dough mangers to paper dolls of Mary and Elizabeth.  It was fun.  We did get rather behind by the end...some days are hard to fit a 5 minute devo and 10 minute craft but we managed to do one after almost every meal the last couple of days and finished with a cross on Christmas Eve.  

To decorate our tree, we also made a string of popcorn and cranberries.  In the beginning, the boys kept eating it, but now that it is good and stale, they leave it alone.  We made another batch of salt dough ornaments left over from our Sunday night program, too.  The kids made a few things in Sunday school that we put on the tree.

It was a beautiful tree and we've enjoyed it very much...and I've enjoyed letting the kids decorate it (and consequently undecorate it) as much as they've wanted.  It has been the perfect tree for this time of our lives.  :)

Reflections on the Year

Last year we started a doing a 'Time Capsule' with the kids on New Years Eve.  We had fun looking back at 2011 when we opened last year's capsule...and it was also interesting seeing 2012 from their eyes.

When I think back on 2012, I think about how difficult this year was for us.  We lost Jut's dad on March 1st.  The kids didn't mention that significant event...I doubt X even remembers it.  My grandfather passed away at the end of April.  The kids didn't think about that either...however, that didn't hold much significance for them except for the excitement of seeing their other cousins.

However, for Jut and I, both those events were life altering.  Life will never be the same as it was when 2012 started.  Jut still had his dad...a very sick dad...but still his dad.  I still had my grandfather...and an intact family.  So much has changed.  With the passing of my grandfather, their estate had to be settled.  Never in my wildest imagination did I ever envision the fallout of settling the estate.  Family dinners and gatherings with the extended family are no more.  It has been a hard road to travel...and I am just a bystander of a grandchild.  The struggle of the generation above me has been awful as this has all unraveled.

Those are the two events that stick out in my mind when I think about 2012.  However, the year wasn't all struggle and turmoil.  We got the joy of watching C blossom from infancy to toddlerhood.  Today he finally gave up crawling.  Walking is now his preferred mode of transportation.  He's vocal and can signal what he wants.  My baby is gone...a little baby that started the year without teeth now has 10.  A little baby that survived on milk now eats and eats and eats whatever you feed him.  There is so much joy in watching life bloom and grow.

Also, we had a phenomenal vacation this summer...it even made it on the 'best things of 2012' for E.  We rented a house on a bay near TC with another family and just escaped life for a week.  It was great.  No church issues...no school (for Jut)...just family and friends.  It was perfect.

There were other things that made the year interesting, too...Jut assumed the role of 'lead minister'.  We had our first ER visit with X and his bout of pneumonia.  We experienced our first ambulance ride with C when he drank my bottle of essential oils.  E started kindergarten this fall at home.  That has been an exciting journey.

We look forward to the new joys, adventures and challenges that wait for us in 2013.  We will be so excited for Jut to finish his coursework and graduate with his Masters in Missional Leadership this spring.  We look forward (with much anticipation and some anxiety) to buying my grandparents' house and the extensive remodeling project that will follow.  E will be in her first dance recital this spring...X and C will continue to grow and blossom and be too cute for their own good.  A new member will be joining the extended family in June and the kids will have their first 'real' first cousin.  Exciting times.   We are looking forward to 2013!