May your Christmas day be that...and sweet...as mine has been...

Many blessings as you celebrate!

For so many reasons.  One of which is the fact that I don't have time to blog.  I know, ridiculous that I'm blogging this, right?  I've spent the last week baking, crafting, sewing, playing, helping the girls quilt, watching the kids in snow piles, taking their Christmas pictures, sorting through said pictures to choose one for the annual card, designing the "perfect" card (which isn't quite what I thought it would be this year...funny how that works), giggling with the kids over gifts as they arrive, running to the gym, running to the stables, running to the store, etc, etc, etc.  :)  Who has time to blog in the midst of all of that?  School each day has included an advent activity--some craft or art project with focused verses and stories...we have prepared for Christmas in a completely different way this year...and though we are not where I would love to be for Christmas...our hearts are in the right place.

Today, I'm baking Chocolate Cappuccino Cheesecake and Apple Pie, shopping for grab bag gifts, and attending a Christmas party with our new Life Group from our new church.  Tonight we'll enjoy fellowship with a group of people we're already growing to love.  Tomorrow, we'll worship at a church that's already becoming home, and then we'll go to my huge Mattison family Christmas party back home...with too much food, way too many people, and flying wrapping paper.  The rest of the week...complete insanity.  Projects to finish, shopping to finish, Seth back in West Virginia for two days.  Another snow storm tomorrow (we got 11 inches yesterday!), and a potential storm Christmas Eve.  :) 

I pray that your Christmas plans are keeping you comfortably, peacefully busy.  I hope that your stress level feels like mine right now...perfect.  Maybe for the first Christmas ever.  Quiet.  Calm.  Happily crazy.  I know...calm and crazy at the same time.  No, really.  It is. 

I love Christmas.

We traveled this weekend.  A lot.  Now, this is something Seth does.  Often.  He drives to Clearfield, PA, Bradford County, PA, Pittsburgh, PA, Wheeling, WV...and he travels to each of these places often in the same week.  Sometimes more than once.  He has become accustomed to this driving.  In the past, I have driven a lot...and recently we have gotten very used to the trip from Corning to Williamsport and back.  That hour and ten minute drive has now stretched to an hour and 40 or so with our move to The Middle of Nowhere...somewhere around the hour, hour and ten minute mark, I still hear, "Are we almost there, Mom?" and I'm sure we'll work through that eventually (right in time to move a little closer!!).  Thursday night, the kids and I headed to Corning, where the kids would stay while Seth and I attended his work Christmas party in Pittsburgh.  On Thursday morning, the weather forecast called for ice here...and then a wintry mix later in the day...of course.  We got off the hill with no problems, and Lainie went to practice...and then my brother called and told me it had started to snow in Corning and that I needed to get going...it was coming down fast...and it was already getting dicey.  Nice.  We left, and about 20 minutes into our trip...my arms already hurt from gripping the steering wheel so hard.  I used to drive to Watertown, NY (can you say blinding snow and ice, all winter long??) from Houghton without really batting an eye...but there's something about having your kids in the car with you...you just drive differently.  It took us 2 hours and 10 minutes to drive what would normally take an hour and 10.  So glad to get to my parents'.  Friday morning, I left for Pittsburgh, after shoveling 6 inches of snow off my parents' 6-car-length driveway...and their sidewalks...left at about 10:30 (after forgetting something I had to go back to get, losing another hour) and thought the roads should be fine...they were wet and a little snow blew across them...but they were fine...until I got 67 miles outside of Erie.  Know what happens in Erie??  It Snows.  Always.  Every time I drive through it.  And lots of other times too.  My lacking-snow-tires-and-windshield-wiper-fluid Focus had no business driving through that town on Friday.  Sigh.  Too late.  The 4.5 hour trip took 5.5...but I made it.  And only watched one accident happen behind me.  Interestingly, 20 miles south of Erie, no snow.  Nothing.  Dry roads.  Sunshine.  Not kidding. 

Seth treated me to a french manicure when I finally got there.  (I don't remember the last time I had my nails done)  My frazzled nerves appreciated it.  Sincerely.  Took a bit longer than expected, so we rushed a bit to get to dinner, but my nails looked good.  :)  Dinner...oh my gosh, dinner.  If you get the opportunity to eat at the Stone Mansion, eat there.  Appetizers to die for, and dinner:  Italian Wedding Soup, Fresh bread with amazing spreads, Caesar salad, Sea Bass with fresh green beans and garlic mashed potatoes (Seth had Filet Mignon), then Tiramisu (Seth had cheesecake with strawberry sauce) and coffee.  We ate for 3 hours.  And the glasses were always full.  No matter what you were drinking.  His coworkers were friendly and kind...very welcoming.  He loves his work. He enjoys his coworkers.  :)  It was obvious why.

We stayed Friday night, and slept in (ha! Until 8...not possible to sleep in any more...getting old, I think)...got some breakfast and headed back home by 10:30...kind of stunk to have to drive separately (Seth had to be in WV on Friday morning early, so he drove out on Thursday), but at least the trip actually only took 4.5 hours this time.  So exhausting...amazing how tiring driving is (especially when your back and arms are KILLING you from your death grip on the steering wheel and the 1.5 hours of shoveling) when you do that much of it over two days.  We got home and enjoyed the kids for a little while (after they came in from sledding with Ompy), and then enjoyed dinner with Seth's family at his aunt's house--our annual Sykes/Frazer family get-together.  Today, church at Victory, vegging in front of Prince Caspian, hair cuts for Dad and Kevin, then dirt cake and ice cream to celebrate Kevin's 30th birthday.  Unbelievable that my "baby brother" is 30.  :)  Eventually, I'll post pictures again...I know it's been a while. 

So, our whirlwind (and snow) weekend comes to a close...I'm so looking forward to our routine tomorrow.  We missed being here.  How strange is that?  Definitely missed "our church" this morning.  Though it was good to be "home," it's nice to be home tonight. 

Sadly, when we got home, we found Bryson's frog, Sticky, not very alive in his water dish...Bryson was devastated for about 5 minutes...until we talked about replacing him.  He's looking forward to getting a mouse now (as mommy feels somewhat responsible for the death of the frog...it gets cold here when we're gone, despite leaving the space heater on in his room...and he hadn't eaten any of the crickets we had fed him in about two weeks...ugh.  Pets.  They're so particular!).  We'll have news later in the week about Bryson's new addition, I'm sure.

Today during our science lesson, we read some more about the Brazilian rain forest...we talked about the brightly colored animals who live there and why they are brightly colored...I asked the girls to write the three reasons they wear bright colors (come on, now...you can figure this out...to attract a mate, to blend in with their environment, and to warn animals of the fact that they may taste yucky--or not...some of them wear those colors and pretend) to add to their science notebook.  Bryson suggested, since he doesn't write anything yet other than his name, that he draw a picture of the green lizard he saw on the page sitting on the bright green leaves in the background.  Excellent idea, buddy.  So, he drew.  I started folding a load of laundry, relatively oblivious to what was happening in the other room, other than the fact that Lainie took this opportunity to complain that she doesn't know how to start writing an answer to a question like the one I had posed (which could have been a wonderful teaching moment...but was instead an I-want-to-scream-because-of-the-whining moment...).  Sigh.  I kept folding until she decided to come and ask me an actual question.

It's funny how quickly Bryson gets lost in the shuffle of these kinds of situations with his sisters.

Suddenly, amidst the whining and before Lainie came to me, I noticed Bryson standing in front of me holding a piece of paper and smiling.  I glanced down and said, "Nice work, Bryce.  That looks just like the lizard in the book."  It did.  Exactly like the darn thing.  Right down to the number of spots on the back of the lizard.  Amazing little kid.  I continued to fold.  "No, Mommy, Look!" he said.  "I did," I replied.  "Great job on the lizard!"  Matched a pair of socks.  He was insistent.  "No, look at the words!" he said.  And it was that moment that I noticed next to his name (written in black marker), he had written in pencil:  "MR Kmis."  Can you guess what that says?    No, not Mr. Kmis.  "It says 'Merry Christmas,' Mom." 

Yes.  It does.  When you're six, and you suddenly realize you really do know what letters make which sounds...THAT says Merry Christmas. 

I'LL TAKE IT. 

Oh, the happy dance I did when he turned around.  Because, you see, if I had flipped out in front of him, he would have gotten embarrassed, and it would have been all over for another few weeks.  I'm sure the time would have come, but I want this to continue now...so I waited until he wasn't watching me.

Don't get me wrong...I made several comments then and later (bedtime, especially, when no one else was listening :) ) about how awesome it was that he wrote actual words.  The comment that stands out the most to me?  When I asked him why he had suddenly decided to write words.  His reply:  "Because my mind just wants to now." 

How about that for an answer? 

Oh, homeschooling moms whose children refuse to read and are at an age where you really thought they would have figured this out by now--don't give up hope!!  I am confident that Bryson and I still have battles ahead...but if his mind just wants to write words...maybe he won't be able to stop it from reading them pretty soon here, either.  :) 

I'll just wait.  And watch.  And wonder.

I love my kids.

Oh, and Reasa was given the reigns today for her horse...and she loved it.  Glowed.  Giggled.  At the end of the lesson, her teacher said, "Umm, yeah.  She did really well today."  What she really wanted to say and restrained herself was: "You are in so much trouble."  I get it.

So proud of my girl today...

Lainie would spend most of her life, we have found, lying on our couch, watching TV.  She loves Hannah Montana, Drake and Josh, iCarly, any movie on abcfamily, disney or any other channel we might let her watch.  She can memorize lines and scenes and poses and songs and dances from a movie or show more quickly than any child should (current favorite:  "You people have no imagination!"  Reepicheep, Prince Caspian.).  This can be a wonderful trait--a great memory is a wonderful thing.  The couch potato part...not so endearing.  Not terribly great for her.  Interestingly, God also blessed her with an incredible metabolism.  So, instead of weighing 150 pounds because of her tendency to live happily from the couch...she's a beanpole.  This does not make me worry less about her willingness to vegitate if given the opportunity.

Her interest in gymnastics, however, does. 

Lainie found her sweet spot.  She walks into her gym, and all of a sudden, she turns into a different kid.  When she knows she's expected to jump that rope 300 times before warmups, she starts counting.  When they tell her to do 20 split jumps while she waits for her turn on bars, she does.  When they say, "20 v-ups" while she waits for her next turn on beam, she does 20 v-ups.  She's the first one with her hand in the air when it's time to do floor routines.  She sits in a split when she's waiting for her next vault, she hurries to her place at the end of the line when she finishes her bar routine, she knows her routines...where last year, when she came home saying, "Mommy, I just can't remember it!  I don't get to do it enough!" and that was truth.  Such is not the case this year.  You can not go to a 3-hour practice where you spend all 3 hours on two events and not learn your routines.  You can't have two coaches completely at 10 children's beck and call and think they're not going to get one-on-one attention.  I do not blame the Y for this difference--they focus on providing a fun, easy-going, kid-friendly program, not excellence in gymnastics.  That's fine for the Y.  Obviously, my kid needed something else.

The first meet in the Blueridge League's December-through-June season took place at our home gym today.  On Tuesday, the owner of the gym approached me to ask if we would like to have Lainie compete.  Umm...seriously??  They had an extra leo, an extra warm-up, and she knows all of her routines except for her bar routine (which she knows, but does not have all the skills to complete without a heavy spot--which means she's going to score poorly, and potentially become discouraged).  He explained that their goal at Lainie's level (she's competing at Level 4, USAG (there are several judging/scoring/whatever associations in the US, as I understand it)) is to have them compete, but to have them feel successful--they don't want them to compete and score horribly, and thereby never want to compete again.  He said she could compete just vault this weekend.  No pressure.  Just a fun meet.  Lainie flipped out.  Absolute shock.  She tried on the leo with the biggest grin I might have ever seen on her face (and if you know Lainie, that kid can GRIN).  By Thursday, after signing up for all of the appropriate things I, now as an official "Dynaparent" (and that's a blog post in its own right), was required to do/bring for this weekend, her coach, Miss Stephanie, started talking about Beam (this after Lainie totally bit the beam at practice, falling after her straight jump/tuck jump combo...massive brush burn with a beauty of a bruise underneath on her thigh)...Lainie's favorite event.  "There's no reason she shouldn't compete it...it's a home meet...let's just give her the experience (that is if she'll compete it after falling so hard tonight)."  She'll compete it, I thought.  The giggling all the way home on Thursday after the hour-long parent meeting and the meeting with the gym owner and the level 4 girls about what they should bring/do/remember on Saturday...oh, the giggling.  On Friday, Lainie got so nervous, I wasn't sure she was going to actually do it.  I made the required pasta salad and cut and snack-baggied the veggies to be sold at the concession stand at the meet yesterday and really wondered...we left the house this morning at 9:45...warm-ups at 10:30, but they had to be there by 10:15 just in case they forgot anything.  Before we knew it, Lainie started warming up floor exercise.  WHAT??  I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled for her...but as of three weeks ago, when she started at this gym, the kid didn't have her back handspring.  Yeah.  Lainie has her back handspring.  It's not connected and she needs a light spot, but last year, she couldn't even attempt a back handspring on the floor.  She competed floor today.  First.

Floor: 5.85.  Vault: 8.15.  Beam: 6.5 (and she fell off twice, but nailed her dismount for the first time in her life without a spot).  The kid rocked her first meet.  Her goal, she told me on Thursday, by the end of the season, is to compete all four events.  She's pretty close to that goal already.  Time to set some new goals.  :) 

But honestly, I couldn't care less how she scores.  I loved watching her face as the girls on her team cheered her on--realizing that even the level 9 girls knew her name and were cheering for her.  I loved watching her smile when she saluted the judges.  I loved that she remembered to salute the judges!  I loved that when she got called to the podium during all-around awards, she didn't know what to do because she didn't expect to get a ribbon for anything--she got four (they all got ribbons...but still).  It wasn't about the score or the awards or the recognition at all.  She just loved being there.  Doing what she loves to do.  With a group of girls who have sucked her in as if she started with them in May.  So proud of my girl today.  So glad we have found what she loves. 

...mail that isn't junk.  Because it means somebody out there knows I'm here.
...waking up and feeling rested.  I must have actually slept.
...when my sick kids perk up for the afternoon.  Even if they fall apart after dinnertime.
...making a meal everybody likes, and nobody complains about finishing.  Ahhhh, an evening of peace at the dinner table...
...clean dishes and countertops.  Whether I had to wash them or not.
...when the TV is still off after school is finished and I hear things like, "let's pretend..." and "what if you were..."  Because it means my kids are using their amazing imaginations.
...finding 23 tacks in Bryson's (rented) walls holding up his 23 most recent drawings.  His artwork is worth patching and repainting the walls to have displayed.
...finishing my online Christmas shopping.  Because "in my jammies" is the best way to shop.  And Dec. 3...ain't too bad.
...completing an incredible book with my kids...and listening as they talk about how they wish there was a second book in the series because the first one was so good (have you read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH?).
...discovering excellent lesson plans online for the book I start reading to my kids tomorrow.  And knowing it's one of the best kid's books...and I get to read it again.  :)
...thinking about how much I look forward to finishing my Masters in Children's Lit...someday.  Because someday...I will.
...anticipating Lainie's first gymnastics meet.  It's Saturday.  So proud of her.
...talking to people I love.  Even via instant message.
...clean bedrooms at bedtime.  Because it means they did what I asked them to do at least once today.
...no laundry in the hamper.  :)  Productive days are my favorites. 

Making me smile... my son waking me up with his giggles (and arm farts.  because he's six.  and a boy)

On the window sill... last week's science experiment--which birdseed grows faster?  The one beneath the plastic wrap or the one without?

I am sipping... :) espresso

Looking up... gift ideas for my 2- and 3-year-old nieces.

I am creating... a plan for December.

Thanking God for... health.

I am striving for... motivation.

I am praying for... my sweet friend and her family...

Praising God for... finding something Reasa loves...at a time when she loves...not much.

I wonder... what Seth got me for Christmas during his marathon Black Friday shopping trip...

On my notepad... the grocery list we will conquer tonight, the name of the espresso maker I'm drooling over, sketched directions to the horse barn.

There is very little that's worse than being so sick you're stuck on the couch for 24 hours (OK, there are lots of things worse than that...but when you're in the middle of it, and you want to die, you really think there is very little that's worse).  This evening, after nearly recovering, Seth asked me if I realized that I didn't sit up or get off the couch once between 8:00 yesterday morning and about 6 last night.  Well, I thought about it, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference.  One way or the other, some ridiculous stomach bug slammed the heck into me yesterday morning, and hasn't fully released it's grasp...There's this dull ache in my head, which seems somehow connected to the serious ache in my neck, and the very sore shoulders...all of which could be related to the fact that I basically slept for 24 hours on my parents' couch.  And for the record, if you eat six saltine crackers and two glasses of ginger ale over a 36 hour time period...expect to lose about 6 pounds in water weight.  And if you start getting a stomach ache again...you should eat something.  Bland.  Very, very bland.  Not chips and salsa.  Just for the record.

Now.  Please pray with me that my kids don't catch this.  And my parents.  Because my parents took care of my kids while I slept and my husband worried.  I'm not good at cleaning up after sick kids.  Not one of my gifts.  I do it, but I'm not good at it. 

No more sickness.  Period.  Ever.  UGH.

On a brighter note...Reasa had her first Horse riding lesson today.  Her teacher assured us that she is a "natural," that she sits well in the saddle, and that she remembers very well.  You would have thought the kid had visited heaven for a little while...she left the stables walking about a foot off the ground.  :)  Hooray for finding your kid's niche.  So glad.