Life

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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This is a holiday that I appreciate, the world slows down a little, we can spend time with the ones we love, there is thought and care and old time traditions passed around tables that may frequently not be full of laughter and chatter.  It gives us a moment to breathe before the blur of real life picks back up no more than 24 hours post pie ala mode or whipped cream depending on your preference.

As much as aI love slowing down I have to say there is not a day that I take what we have for granted.  I am so thankful to be a mom to 4 wonderful healthy children, as well as being given the opportunity to stay home and enjoy them every day.  I am thankful for my husband who saves other peoples family members everyday to provide for our family and that he empowers me to stay home and nurture our children.  Our little drop in this big pond connects to so many ripples that are friends and family who we are so fortunate to be connected with.   Thank you! And enjoy the slow down today.

Repurposed Puzzle Snail Mail Letters

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It seems to me like all we ever get in the mail are bills, magazines, political propaganda (which I think is over now, thank goodness), and an occasional party invite.

In my sometimes old fashioned nostalgia I encourage our kids to send letters to friends or family.  Santanna is especially fond of making letters and pictures for her little friends.  Who does not like to receive a fun piece of mail personally addressed to them in ink??

Our friends daughter,  who I wrote about previously  who is battling brain cancer, is getting an overwhelming amount of mail, letters and packages, guess who feels a little left out/angry about not getting any mail?  Little sister Elsa.  So, her mom grudgingly asked if we could help a girl out and send some snail mail Elsa’s way.  I think we all know how hard it can be to actually ask for help when you need it right?!

This got me thinking, we needed to blow up this girls snail mail box, how many pictures was Tanna willing to color?

Then it came to me, a puzzle letter:

Here is what we did:

  1.  Went to savers (you might have one of these not being used at home as well, we recycled this one, you might be able to repurpose your own),  bought this puzzle.

2.  We put the puzzle together upside down. This is harder then you think wihtout picture clues.

3. I helped Santanna write a letter and she drew whatever and decotared whatever she wanted in Sharpie and Crayola markers.

       4.     I included instructions with the first envelope.

       5. Then we took the puzzle about, mixed it all up and I got out my postal scale for mailing packages and we weighed each one equal to/less than an ounce.  For this puzzle it was about 5 pieces per envelope.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 I am so excited for her friend to get this, she is going to be thrilled, plus it gives her something to look forward too.

I think I am also going to do this when the big kids are at camp for the summer.

VOTING NO C’mon Minnesota Join me!

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I can say with most certainty that I will probably never have a wife, as much as I could use another wife around the house, and I am also certain Jon will never have a husband. However, in our house we value and teach acceptance and differences.  Our children are taught not to judge and to do what makes them happy in life, regardless of mainstream propaganda and insinuations on what will make you happy.

This being said, both Jon and I will Vote NO on the marriage amendment, because we know that this vote will support any future choices in happiness that a friend, daughter, neighbor, brother, coworker, sister, cousin, classmate, son etc. will want to make.

When you get  your ballot and step into a booth you have a choice, and isn’t that an awesome feeling??!!  Don’t use your power of vote to negate someone else’s choices in life.

Perspective

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Santanna has a dear friend, Elsa; Elsa has a big sister Ana.  Tomorrow I am running the Mankato Marathon and I am wearing a shirt for Team Ana; she is 7 years old and is starting her second round of Chemo for brain Cancer on Friday.

People always say to me “I don’t know how you do it…whatever “it” is, sometimes I think it is the training or the racing, sometimes I think just being a momma to 4 kids is beyond peoples realm of capability.  I always humbly laugh this off, for real, because I choose what spoons I put into the kettle of life, if you will, and that I have goals that I set and achieve.  These are for me and I hold no one else to my goals.  So I appreciate when people are in awe, but I do not do it to impress, I do it to better my life, or my family’s life.

Just like parents of ill children’s do, there sense or normal takes on such a drastically different perspective, yet their lives become directed by appointments, meds, turns, coughs, etc.  So the truth is that whatever “it” is is so much smaller than the battle Ana, her family are fighting, and so many other families have to fight.  I can do 26.2 because I can’t imagine how Ana’s parents do “it”.

Ana will be the wind at my back tomorrow.

Oozing into the Season.

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Truth:  I really intended to blog more than I do.

Reality: Days go by so fast that it seems like just last week I was on here writing about back to school, now it is conference time.

Shamless Truth:  I do love to share:)

Today a photo, because it seems to have worked out well, which is not always the case, a friend of mine says this oozes all of their personilities and that seems to be the perfect term for the season.

Happy Winter Holidays!!

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We got our first round of snow here in MN and I immediately got everyone ready for a photo shoot, this was taken on one of our relatives farm and I just love how it turned especially since it was my first time using the camera on manual with a tripod. There are others from this shoot that are great but this is the one I am sharing, do not want to spoil what is coming snail mail to some of you;)

I have to admit I thought ths posted at the appropriate time but alas….not so much!

One day…not including normal household chores…

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breakfast, coffee, school, flowers, doughnuts, Dr. appointment, sports store, grocery store, home, lunch, stories, shower, school, ice cream, home, snack, baseball game, baseball game, dinner, baths, stories, download pictures, back to bed, ……glass of wine!!

It was the last day of school and really quite a perfect day cool and perfect weather to watch the kids play ball in a hoodie and jeans.  No pictures, just a sampling of a day in the life….