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.

I have been way behind on blogging for a lot of different reasons, including tons of Holiday festivities. One of the things I have really been wanting to share is about the advent project I’ve been doing with the kids. I started writing this post 2 weeks ago before we started advent! This is like my 4th attempt, we’ll see if I actually get it posted this time. Here goes,

This is our first year to try Truth In The Tinsel.

 If you haven’t heard of it, it is an awesome devotion/advent/Christmas-craft-activity that teaches kids the story of Jesus birth. Not just a little snapshot for the Sunday before Christmas, but a daily devotion that really digs into the Biblical account of Christ’s birth in a way that little ones can grasp.

I was a bit apprehensive at first. I had the same feeling I did when I started the 31 day series because it’s something that I committed to at the last minute with little or no preparation. But we are about half way through now and so far it has been GREAT!

Each day Z will find “a clue” in his Bible. I just taped a CD envelope on the inside cover of his Bible. It’s perfect because the envelope has a clear window on the front so he can see the clue right away.

Then we look up a passage in scripture and pick out where the clue is found in the Bible. Z loves this part, and since he is now learning to read it’s the perfect opportunity for him to learn how to find references in the Bible.

Then we talk about it and make an ornament to go along with the lesson for the day.

Here are some the first 10  days as seen through my iPhone.

Many of these are modified from the books version for time sake or lack of materials  (I made notations in red for those participating), but that’s all part of the fun. I’ve enjoyed seeing all the Facebook posts showing variations and personalization of the same craft.

If you haven’t checked out Truth in the Tinsel or seen it floating around on Pinterest you should take a peak. It’s not too late to implement one of the modified schedules or pick and choose for yourself what and how you want to do it, and of course there is always next year, and the year after that.  Not to name drop, but I happen to know Amanda White (author, creator, blogger extraordinaire) personally from when I lived in Atlanta, and she is the real deal. With that said, this is not a promotional post, I did not get paid, no freebies. She doesn’t even know I am writing this, so it’s all totally unbiased and true.

I can’t wait to work on the rest of Truth in the Tinsel and I am already taking notes on what I can do next year. Not only have I loved teaching my kids about the story of Christ’s arrival, but I am learning a lot too. Hooray for Advent!

I wanted to update all of my readers on how the Keith family is doing. In case you haven’t seen my last post our dear pastor lost his granddaughter on Thanksgiving day. We are close with their whole family and our children play in the nursery together at least once a week. Although we are still mourning the loss of this precious 18 month old baby we will be celebrating her life tomorrow at her funeral.

The family is doing as well as could be expected. The other two girls have been tested and are completely healthy. As far as I know the cause of death is unknown. The autopsy showed nothing wrong with PK. She went down for a nap and despite her mother knowing CPR and a pulse being detected she still did not make it. God had a plan in mind for her and she is now walking on streets of gold.

On Sunday pastor spoke about crisis at Christmas (the message was already planned). During communion the elders came up behind the pastor and lifted up his arms and prayed for him.

It was a beautiful moment. Pastor also thanked everyone for the outpouring of love and sympathy and then he read this letter from my dad.

“When we lost Zeb, there was such outpouring from the body of Christ. We will never forget it. One letter in particular touched me more than any other. Not because of the eloquent words, but because of the sincerity and the fact that such wisdom could come from a 16 year old young man. I hear the heart of a pastor in it. It has endeared me to not only him, but your whole family.

It was written in his own hand writing on a simple piece of paper ripped from a spiral bound notebook, but we have cherished it and kept it all these years. Hopefully the words will bring as much comfort to you as they did to me in this time. Our hearts ache.”

Here is an excerpt from that letter written by PK’s dad 22 years ago, before he was a husband, before he was a dad, before he lost a child. 

“I just want you to know that you have a church family that’s backing you up all the way and what you go through we all go through also. WE feel your pain, and we sympathize with you. I know that you all are strong enough to make it through this tough time, for you do not go through it alone. I love every one of you as if a family member, and when you need help call me.” 

There was a lot more to it than that, but this is the part that I could now say right back to his family in the midst of this valley without changing a single word. 

I know the funeral is going to be tough. It brings back a lot of memories for me since Zeb’s funeral was at the same church with many of the same people. A couple nights ago as I was putting Zion to bed I held his hand and laid there in the dark with tears rolling down my cheeks. Zeb was just a little older than Zion when he passed away. This isn’t something I think about a lot, but like the letter said what one goes through we all go through. Our brother and sister in Christ lost their child, and I am hurting for them. 

PK’s mom is the nursery coordinator (among so many other things that she does around the church). She has been spending the past several months figuring out a way to do a complete overhaul to the sorely outdated facility. She was the one that decided that in lieu of flowers, donation could be made in PK’s honor to renovate the nursery. PK loved the nursery and to have it dedicated to her and have her memory cherished and appreciated by all her friends and the future of the church body sounds like the best idea ever! 

I know I am going on and on, but as you can tell this has touched me deeply. Pastor said that when PK’s older sister (who is 6) asked about if PK was coming home from the hospital he told her “You know how sometimes you fall asleep downstairs and then you wake up the next day in your bed and you didn’t even realize that anything had happened? Well that is what happened with your sister.” She fell asleep at home and woke up in her heavenly home for all eternity and one day we will all be reunited singing praises to our God who is still on His throne.