New Header

The new header on my blog is a white rose...to symbolize the wonderful hope and optimism that is the new year!

Traditions

Strangely enough, in spite of the fact that we have very few Christmas traditions set in stone, we have very specific New Year's traditions that we follow every single year. Several years ago, we developed new friendships here in the town in which we live...parents of our kids' friends mostly. We all wanted to celebrate the New Year, but we all had our own traditional New Year's eve plans that none of us wanted to give up. We decided to get together on New Year's eve eve (December 30) and a new tradition was born! We hosted last night, and even our friends who moved away last summer were home again for the holiday! Tonight we get to spend New Year's eve with our dear, dear friends. We hosted last year, and this year our youngest son's Godfather volunteered to host. We are so looking forward to seeing everyone! And tomorrow, etched in stone, is the fact that I sit on the couch and do nothing at all while watching football ALL DAY. I am so looking forward to all of this. Happy New Year!

Chrismas break

It's hard to believe that Christmas break is winding up here. We still have today and tomorrow and then of course the weekend. I guess I'm ready to get back at it, but it's been a nice break. Sunday we had the extended family Christmas at my parents, and as always, I loved getting to see my cousins and the little ones. Monday we had breakfast with my in-laws before they drove home and then we did some shopping of our own. I was surprised how many people had the same thought, both about eating and shopping! That afternoon JC spent with a friend, then that same friend spent the night here that night. Tuesday was spent getting the house ready for guys' poker night. I had originally planned to take the kids up to the lake, but felt lousy so we stayed home. Yesterday was a totally unscheduled day and today we are getting ready to host friends over this evening so cleaning/picking up is happening again. Tomorrow we'll be venturing out for New Year's eve at a friend's house, then Saturday is one of my favorite days of the year...college football ALL DAY! Sunday will find us getting ready to get back to school and all of the responsibilities that come with life. In the meantime, we are enjoying some quiet time!

The day after

Yesterday was an absolutely wonderful Christmas. I had hoped to get on and write last evening, but the one downside to hosting a meal for 13 people is the exhaustion that hits in the evening. We had the five of us, my in-laws, my parents and sister, my grandmother, aunt & cousin. I think the kids would tell you that Santa brought nearly everything they wanted, and the few things that he didn't bring were filled in among the other gifts they received, in addition to magical things they didn't even know they wanted. It was really a wonderful, wonderful day, and I hope that everyone out there had as special a day as we did!

Excitement is building!

The kids are really, really getting excited about tomorrow! It's fun to watch them and listen to them talk about what they hope Santa will bring them. I'm not sure our oldest still really believes, but I think he's wanting to believe to hold onto the magic for another year. Normally today would be spent at my parents, but it's a quiet day at home just the five of us. Tomorrow will be our big meal with twelve of us all together. My wonderful husband and I are finishing up some cleaning and he's doing some cooking prep to make tomorrow easier, but all in all we are having a relaxing day. Merry Christmas!

The OTHER twelve days of Christmas

I've written before about my youngest son's obsession with farm equipment. We've never entirely understood where this came from since we couldn't possibly have a smaller lot more in town if we tried. Granted, we live in a farming community, but we don't have any connections ourselves. However, going back to my great-grandparents, I come from a long line of farmers on both sides of my family, so I'm happy to reinforce my little guy's obsession. The other evening we were sitting down talking about Christmas and humming a few songs. My little guy (with help from Dad and I) decided to rewrite the 12 Days of Christmas.

On the first day of Christmas, Moline* gave to me, a John Deere plow in a tree.

And on it goes, until we had a complete list:
12 family farms
11 earthmovers
10 green golf carts
9 John Deere gators
8 farm wagons
7 green hat farmers
6 corn threshers
5 GREEN TRACTORS
4 hay bailers
3 riding mowers
2 green combines
and a John Deere plow in a tree.

It's been very entertaining!

*FYI - Moline, IL is the home to John Deere headquarters

The definition of classic

We were sitting at the dinner table Tuesday evening. The kids were very, very excited as it was the last day of school before the break. They had mostly watched movies and had a pretty laid back day at school. They were discussing some of the things they wanted to do while they had all these unscheduled days at home. My husband asked if they had ever seen the movie "Miracle on 34th Street." I said I didn't think they had. My husband stated, "They need to see that movie. It's a classic." HT was sitting beside his dad at dinner, slowly turned to him, and said (in a somewhat irritated tone), "DAD, classic means OLD!" I had to laugh pretty hard at that...I love the perspective of children!

They are going to drive me insane

I am happy, happy beyond words, to report that there was indeed school yesterday. Nothing major happened here as far as the weather. And it's a good thing too, because today, their very first day of winter break, I am absolutely ready to come unglued on them. I have informed them that we are not spending the next 12 days with the TV on, so they need to go find something to do. In spite of the closet full of games and puzzles and shelves upon shelves of books, all they can manage to find to entertain themselves is CHAOS. They are running around upstairs like a herd of elephants and making more noise than I thought a small number of children could possibly make. My, oh my! I don't know what else to say...I'm just going to try to hide out here at my computer for awhile.

One more day?

There is supposed to be one more day until the kids are officially on their Christmas break. Given the weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow, we'll see how this works out. To be on the safe side, my wonderful husband and I ventured out today to finish up our shopping for the kids. Stunningly, we were not the only people out and about at the stores (sense the sarcasm). We really didn't have much to finish though, and I'm so glad it's done! Now I can start wrapping after the kids go to bed each evening. The best part of my day was after the shopping, when we ate lunch at my favorite steakhouse. What a great Christmas present to me!

Grandma is home

My grandmother (who had her hip replaced two weeks ago) has been able to return to her home. She is doing amazingly well...I just can't believe that she is going to turn 80 in about two weeks. She's an amazing woman and I'm so blessed to have her in my life. She's got good genes...strong German farmers... and I know exactly which side of the family my Dad gets his traits from. Those are the same traits that have been passed on to me. I just hope that someday I can be half the person my Grandma and Dad have shown me how to be.

Getting excited

I am really starting to look forward to the Christmas holiday! Not that I wasn't already, but it looks as though we will be hosting our first big holiday this year. Because of the fact that we have family and traveling is involved, we've never had a set tradition about when we celebrate with whom. And because there is still so much of my extended family, Christmas celebrating often ends up lasting at least a week. This year, my in-laws are planning to be here again on Christmas Day. In years past, my parents have hosted a meal for various family and friends who would otherwise be alone that day. However, some circumstances with my parents made that a more difficult situation this year. Yesterday, I mentioned to my mom that I would really enjoy it if she and Dad, and whomever in the family wishes, would join us at our house on Christmas Day for a big meal. She is very excited about this! So it appears as though we will have my in-laws, my parents, and my aunt definitely here, along with possibly my grandmother, sister, and a cousin. I'm really looking forward to being able to use my Christmas dishes! I'm so looking forward to such a special day!

Another snow day

Everyone was home today. I was amazed how much the kids slept in, so I'm very grateful they were able to do so. My husband hadn't been feeling well at all, so it was also nice for him to be able to sleep in as well. We really haven't done anything exciting. The kids played outside for a couple of hours and came in to enjoy some hot chocolate. I've been working on finishing my Christmas cards and wrapping gifts. I think everyone will be back in tomorrow, even if it's a delayed start. Tomorrow is the last day for my husband before he's off for two weeks for Christmas. Can't believe it's the middle of December...where has the year gone?

More snow on the way

We are under another winter weather advisory here...the county in which my husband teaches is actually under a winter storm warning. I had to work in the fourth grade today, and the teachers at the kids' school were all functioning under the assumption that tomorrow would, at best, be a short a day, and possibly not a school day at all. In some regards it would work out best if my husband didn't have school tomorrow, as he is currently feeling pretty lousy. I wouldn't mind having everyone in school, as long as I can run around and get errands done. If it's icky out though and I don't want to be out and about, I would just as soon have everyone at home with me. It's supposed to start in about six hours...guess we'll see what the morning brings!

Br-r-r-r-r-r

I love living with seasons. I even love the extremes of seasons. And yes, I still prefer bitterly cold to August heat. But don't get me wrong. It's way beyond freezing here. Tonight the low is supposed to be 6 degrees, with wind chills below zero. Everyone was in school today, but got to stay home for an extra two hours before getting there. Last night was actually warmer than tonight, so I'm not going to be surprised if there is another two hour delay in the morning. I'm not going to mind either...sleeping in is always a nice treat!

Snow day!

As it turns out, we did have a snow day today! It's fine here in town now, but I can only imagine what the township roads are like. I'm cautiously optimistic that everyone will be back in school tomorrow.

We've been spending our day trying to get a little ahead in homework and also wrapping some Christmas presents for the grandparents and other relatives. We are also on the search for some Christmas cookie cutters so we can make some Christmas cookies. We are basically just enjoying the gift of time!

Delayed!

School is already on a two hour delay for tomorrow. The weather advisory doesn't end until late tomorrow morning, so I'm not even a little bit optimistic that there will be school tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it though. I wasn't scheduled to work anyway, so no big loss there, and I've got things out to make sugar cookies with the kids. It was a tradition that we did every year with my grandmother when I was a kid, but I've never done it with my kids. Part of it is that our schedules have always been insane, and part of it is because I'm not really into baking. I'm ready to give it a go though, and I'm looking forward to (maybe) starting a new tradition with the kids!

Blog change

I've gone with a new color for the blog...the color is supposed to represent the temperature here. It's been unseasonably cold this past week, and in a couple of days our high temp is supposed to be 16 degrees. And for those of you who are wondering, yes, I still like it better than the hot days of August.

We are also expecting 2 - 4" of snow here overnight with wind gusts of over 40 mph. I believe that makes the term "blowing snow" an understatement. Given the extremely poor condition of the back roads around here, I'm less than optimistic about school tomorrow. I guess we shall see how it all pans out!

Home today

I'm so grateful to not be working today. I'm sitting here right now enjoying the peace and quiet that is the silence of my house. I even have 2-1/2 hours until the kids come home from school! I've been running around this morning trying to get some shopping finished up. I got a good amount done, but still have some things to finish. As is the case every year, JC proves to be the biggest challenge. She's getting a lot of clothes this year, and I know she'll like that. In fact, our entire Christmas is going to be mostly toy-free. Even our youngest this year, with the exception of a few John Deere's, isn't getting many toys. I guess we are transitioning to the next phase in life!

Not sure where to begin

I am still here, and certainly never intended to go this long between posts. But, many of my intentions in the last two weeks have not panned out, and that is just life. First of all, I've been working A LOT. Again, I'm grateful for this opportunity, and it turns out that I LOVE being a substitute teacher. Sometimes though, I wish I could allow myself to say no. I want this to be a part-time job, but I'm not allowing myself the freedom to keep it part-time hours. Anyway, that has occupied most of the days since I've last written. Friday morning I awoke to JC and vomiting. I was supposed to spend the day at the hospital with family because my grandmother was having her hip replaced. Instead, I was home with a sick kid. I knew my grandma was in good hands and my sister was with the family to help my dad get around, so I allowed myself to see the "upside" that having a sick kid also meant that I was home and able to get some cleaning and Christmas chores accomplished. It also worked out well that I was able to be home when the call came from my in-laws that my brother-in-law was in the hospital and they were planning surgery that evening. I was able to contact my husband, and after much discussion it was decided that he did not need to make the long drive, but they would be in touch in case things changed. THANK GOODNESS he didn't go, because Saturday morning JC took a definite turn for the worse. While she had not vomited a great deal on Friday, she hadn't eaten anything since Thursday evening, and by Saturday morning was complaining of severe abdominal pain. My husband took her to Children's urgent care and after some anti-nausea medicine she began to feel better. She had a popsicle and they sent her home. The popsicle came back up as soon as she was home, and she was crying about the pain. My girl has a really high pain tolerance so we took no chances and off to Children's e/r we went. After some blood work and a urinalysis they determined it was still just the stomach virus, and she felt so much better by the time she got home that evening. The next morning she woke up feeling great and called several relatives so that they could hear her voice and hear for themselves how much better she felt. Unfortunately, after making those calls the pain began to return, and after an hour I was calling my husband home from church so we could go back to the e/r. This time many more tests were run, and more iv's were given. After everything, it still seemed to be nothing more than a stomach virus, and that does indeed seem to have been the case. They even mentioned that several additional cases had come into the e/r with similar symptoms. She got back home late Sunday evening, and we were all pretty exhausted. We kept her home from school Monday, and I've worked every day since then. As far as the rest of the family, my grandmother has been moved to rehab and will be there another nine days. She is really doing great! My brother-in-law has also been released from the hospital and is back at his house. We are very grateful that about two months ago he moved to within blocks of my in-laws, instead of being two hours away from them. And, with the exception of being exhausted after her long ordeal over the weekend, JC has felt normal again. I'm still trying to get caught up on the things that didn't get done while JC was so sick, but although it was dramatic for awhile, we are very blessed!