Okay, so first of all I am not pregnant. I am the guilty party that always assumes that someone is pregnant when they make a statement like “big announcement”. And I’ll admit, I am always a little disappointed when the announcement is anything other than having a baby. Now that I have gotten that out of the way let me explain what the less-cute, but still life-altering announcement is.

In the past 2 years that we’ve been mostly unemployed it’s felt like the 40 years that the Israelites wandered in the desert (I almost said dessert. 40 years of dessert wouldn’t be so bad). In this season of uncertainty so many people have told J who he needs to become or what he needs to do. They are encouraging words, but it only makes it more confusing when there is so much conflicting advice. He is a talented musician, minister, carpenter, designer and more. The problem is he hasn’t been able to find a way to make a steady income with any of it, despite everyone agreeing that he is amazing and should be able to rake in the dough just by looking at a job opportunity. Unfortunately that is not the case. As you all know we came to Ohio with our basic necessities and no plan other than to get SJ into a good school with a good audiologist.

Ohio has some wonderful programs for job placement. You can’t get government assistance here without being a part of the workforce coalition, which is the way it should always be (but I’ll try not to get too political here). When a professional advisor sat down to talk with J about our situation, he presented the opportunity for J to go back to school. He could get a grant to cover the cost of tuition, and they would look at his skill sets, entry level pay scale, and projected growth in each field to see what the best career choice would be.

It’s been almost 15 years since J has been in school. Returning to school has always been something he has kept in the back of his mind, but you know how the back of the mind works. Stuff stays back there forever, unless something happens that is jarring enough to jostle everything inside of you. Which is our story. Everything came down to a mathematical statistic of what would be pretty close to guaranteeing us some stability in the next couple years. I know it’s not as simple as it sounds, but after so many doors seemingly shut in his face, this is the open door that we’ve been praying for. I am sure you’ve already figured out what the big announcement is, but this semester J has started going to school full time. He’s going to Cincinnati State majoring in Computer Science and Database Management.

This is a picture of the Library although most of those books are for school. 

 It will definitely be a challenge, but IT work is something that J is good at and enjoys doing.  I love seeing him inspired and motivated again. You can see life in his eyes knowing that there is a light at the end of this tunnel. I am so proud of him. It takes a lot of courage to go back to school at 37 years old. The “it’s never too late” mentality shows the commitment and dedication that he has to succeed. It won’t be easy and we will all have to make sacrifices, especially J, but it will be worth it. If you know Dave Ramsey’s teaching, then you know what I mean when I say it will be a season of gazelle intensity.

Most of his classes are online and since our apartment is way to chaotic to concentrate J goes to school at Starbuck’s.

We are still unsure about how it is all going to work, but I know that it will. Jeremiah 29:11 says God has plans for us to prosper and not be harmed, to have a future filled with hope.

This was his first day going to the actual campus since enrollment. Yay! 

So a big thank you to all have been praying for us, and please keep them coming as we embark upon yet another chapter in our journey.

Z’s school has several different dress up days celebrating how long they have been in school. I love costumes and vintage clothes so I took the opportunity and ran with it. Or, at least as much as I could without spending any money. Actually, I did spend about $5 total because I bought a couple items from the thrift store. Seriously though, the bell bottoms were in a 50 cents bin. You can’t beat that!

SJ had her first Christmas pageant this year. I bought her a special dress and a bow that jingled. She loved it and wanted to wear it around the house.

I tried to tell her, and sign to her, that she could wear it later, but she didn’t understand. She cried. She grabbed the dress and screamed MINE! Then she signed Beautiful, beautiful. I felt so bad that I had to take it away and that we are no where near the place in our communication where she could understand “you have to save this dress for your winter program at school”. I know that even a hearing three year old would more than likely still not comply,  but at least they would know why you were taking it away.

When the time came for her to wear the dress I curled her hair and my mom bought her new shoes. She was quite the Christmas princess as she stood on the stage that night.

 Her part was to say “I love you mommy, daddy, Z, baby Ezie”. She didn’t quite get all that out, but she signed daddy and said “ma ma daddy. Deemah. I love you mama” and the reason she said Deemah is because that is her classmates name and she saw Deemah’s mom in the crowd.

The next day at the school’s Christmas party Santa gave her a present.

 SJ unwrapped it to find a simple paper back book called “The Littlest Christmas Star”.

I smiled and was happy for her, but when I read it aloud I realized it was so much more than just a story. It was about a boy that wanted to have a big part in his Christmas play at school, but all of the major roles were taken. His part was to dress up like the Bethlehem star and he only had one little line which was “follow me”. At the end of book it talks about the bright light shining down on him. The crowd cheered, and he knew then, that even though he may have had a small part, he was a BIG star. I would say that book was more than just a gift from Santa to SJ, I think it was also a gift from my heavenly Father to me. Seeing SJ in the winter program could have been a reminder for me of how far behind she is compared to the other kids in her class. She can’t speak as well as her friends and she couldn’t quite muster out the words they had practiced for weeks, but still, that night as she stood up there and spoke into the microphone she was my shining star.

In SJ’s fundraiser letter last year I said “please join us as we help SJ reach her fullest potential and shine on” and so many people came together to help make that happen. In fact, I have a dear friend that wanted to donate, but wasn’t able to at the time. When I saw her over the holiday break she gave us a Christmas card with a generous amount inside to go toward SJ’s school. What she didn’t realize was that it was the EXACT amount that we owe on her tuition from last year. Isn’t God good?  I am so glad SJ gets to go to this school and I’m thrilled to see and hear the progress she is making. I can’t even imagine what she will be saying next Christmas. Shine on my little star. Shine on!

It was a very craft-full Christmas this year.

Now that Z and SJ are in school (including Sunday School) I had Christmas art projects coming home nearly everyday of December and we did Truth In The Tinsel ornaments on top of all that. It worked out well since I didn’t decorate this year. The kids were always taping their art to the wall or putting things in our mini Christmas tree. It made our home feel a lot more festive having their contributions.

Z insisted we hang this wreath on the door. The assignment was to cut and glue 70 dots.

Some of the most memorable/laughable Christmas Craft moments were when…

SJ got a hold of the white feathers that were used for the angel ornament and she stuck them all in her head band.

On top of all the fun crafts Z’s school does Santa shop, which is were the kids can bring money to school and buy gifts for their family. This is my first time experiencing anything like this, but it was really neat. Z had money from his chores so he cleared out his entire “Dave Ramsey Junior SPEND envelope” to buy presents for his family. Even though they were humble little gifts, the thought and consideration he put into it literally brought me to tears.

J got a mini tape measurer, which as you can imagine was perfect for him, especially since the kids broke his old one. Ezie got a little xylophone and he loves music and has had a blast banging on that thing. SJ got a princess pony with fairy wings. That was home run too.

Lastly, Z handed me my present. I already had a clue what it was, because he told me. But even though I knew it was a ring I constantly forbid him to give me anymore details. As I untaped the little package and pulled out the treasure inside Z announced “it’s green, because that’s your favorite color and then he slid the itty bitty ring onto my pinky finger. It was one of my favorite Christmas moments ever.

 This was his first school photo.

New Year’s day is one of my favorite days of year. I love looking back, I love looking ahead. I love to feel like I have a fresh clean slate to work with. For 2013 I had 13 goals and I accomplished most of them even if they were only partial success.

1. I did get the kids on a schedule (I kind of have to with school and all).
2. I did learn more signs and become more comfortable with signing in general.
3. I have been very active with the kids
4. I donated my hair to locks of love

*

5. We did move to Ohio
6. I visited Texas, but unfortunately not Michigan.
7. I did three video shoots with my brother
8. I worked on expanding my geographic knowledge and Z learned the 50 states!
9. We didn’t manage to have a date night once a month, but we came pretty close.
10. We never had our family portrait updated, but we have a decent one of the 5 of us from Easter.
11. I organized and pulled off some awesome birthday parties

As far as the ones that never made the cut this year

1. We DID NOT eat vitamins and veggies everyday. I regret it, and I still want to work on this.
2.  I never managed to have alone time once a month (surprise surprise)

This year I had in my mind that instead of a lengthy list of specific tasks to accomplish I would pick out  few things to focus on. This list is not exhaustive and my core values are still my priority, but these are things I feel like could use a lot more attention.

1. Blogging
So maybe this won’t be the year that I launch a completely new word press site, but I really want to challenge myself more when it comes to writing, coding, and photography.

2. Reading
This may sound contradictory to the last focus, but I want to be on the computer less and reading an actual published book more. I feel like I have been overloaded with articles from Facebook and Pinterest. Some are great and some are just a big fat argument waiting to happen, even if it’s just me venting to my husband. I am kicking off this new year with a Facebook fast and a long list of books I want to read or reread.

3. Cleaning
When I started working in October I kind of fell off the Fly Lady wagon. To be honest it was more like the entire wagon rolled into a ditch and isn’t even recognizable anymore. I’ve said before, but I’ll say it again mostly to remind myself. My tiny home doesn’t leave much wiggle room for clutter or uncleanliness. If a really tall man gains 10 pounds you would never even notice it, but if a short woman does she needs to go shopping because her clothes don’t fit anymore. My apartment is a very petite woman. This year I want to finish some of the decor projects that were left incomplete from 2013 and I want to try and get back into my flylady routine. A clean apartment changes the way my family feels and interacts with each other. I’m on it.

So that’s it. Clean, Read, Blog, Repeat. Happy 2014 everybody!

* That first photo is my “before” picture and I was doing my best to look disheveled (pretty good right?) And the after picture was immediately after I had my hair cut and I hated how limp it was. I printed out several pictures for the stylist and aparantley chunky layers doesn’t mean anything to her. I reluctantly went after my hair with some scissors and chopped it up on my own later. Why did I spend $50? 

 Now we just need J and Ezie.

 Now we just need J to get off his phone! LOL.

Let’s see… I shared about Thanksgiving, and the snow, and today I wanted to talk about the rest of the Christmas festivities that took place before we left for Texas because there were plenty, and I don’t want to let the memories slip away.

First off we went to the Holiday Junction at Union Terminal twice for free (thanks to Duke Energy discounts). The train displays were amazing and the kids got to ride on a mini train through a scenic “snowy mountain”.

 The kids had all kinds of fun things going on at their schools. SJ was in a Christmas program which I will have to share more about that later because it was such a special milestone in her hearing loss journey. I didn’t take many photos because it was more of a video camera night, but I love this shot of her turned around because she rarely lets me keep her hair down. She’s in the red dress.

All the kiddie stuff was definitely memorable. Christmas wouldn’t be even half as fun without the littles. However we did get to enjoy some grown up time too for the annual church Christmas banquet. It felt like prom all over again and I mean that in a good way. The inspiration for my ensemble was glitz, glitter and GOLD. Even my fingernails and eye shadow was sparkly.

I wish I had better pictures, but sometimes it’s just about being there in the moment and that’s what I did for the holidays this year. And there is still more to come! I LOVE the holidays.

It’s been a snowy December here in Ohio and I love it! We are about to be in the homeland of Texas where we will more than likely NOT be experiencing a white Christmas, but I don’t mind because I am beyond excited to get to visit for the next couple weeks. Before we go I would like to leave you with some of my favorite pics of the winter wonderland we’ve experienced so far this season.

And here’s one of Z walking to the bus stop.

 They have called two days off of school for snow so far this year. The rest of the time you suck it up. He’ll have stories for his grandchildren right?

Good thing Ezie is walking full time now. It’s no fun crawling in the snow!

I have blogged twice this month. That must be a record breaking low. I definitely have plans to get back into the swing of things, but in the mean time the least I can do is post a few photos from Thanksgiving (which was also our Christmas) with my side of the family.