I can't even lie and say I was super super busy. Ok so maybe I was a little busy, but not like oh my gosh busy. I just wasn't in the mood to blog. I again, didn't have anything I felt was worth saying. Which, for me is so odd. I always have SOMETHING to say whether anyone wants to hear it or not.
November was actually a pretty stressful month for us. My Mother in law pulled some rotten no good low blow stunts on our family. So my husband has basically disowned her, and if you know my husband at all, you know it's hard for him to disown people, even when they REALLY tick him off.
It was just a bad couple of months for us. 2014 is not ending on such an awesome note for our family. It's a struggle to be honest. I big, big terrifyingly SUCKY struggle. We've had tough times before and some how, (By the grace of God!) we survive, and we make it through. Not without lots of tears, stress, and heart ache. It's just like life knock your feet out from under you and then decides to trample all over you while you are down. Right into the mud, just smear your face down into the dirt. If I do a mud facial, that's not the way I want to do it, ok?
It's hard to be too down and out, because I know others who are doing far worse off than my family, or has a lot more awful things going on in their lives than we do. So I am thankful we are not facing the struggles these families are, however that doesn't really diminish the struggles we face right now. They are still quite real and stressful for us.
However, I refuse to ONLY focus on the negative. Some positives we have right now?
Well, we have a GORGEOUS 7.5 foot tall Christmas tree up in our living room. My house is all decorated for Christmas. Our Elf on the Shelf is in full Elf mode (he will be in a post all of his own).
Recently my children (and my husband) were able to experience a long standing tradition that I LOVED doing when I was a child/teen. We went Christmas caroling around town! I had not been able to go caroling in about 10 years, so when we got the opportunity to do so this year, I was super excited! The kids loved it, and they had so much fun. It was a beautiful not for caroling and we came back to our starting point for hot cocoa and yummy Christmas cookies. I hope they do this again next year, because it really was a fun experience to share with my children.
We did our yearly traditions of seeing Santa at the 'Santa House' out at our really nice park. Circus Son numero uno was less than thrilled when Santa mentioned how much the dear child had been struggling to be 'good' this year. I laughed, until I saw that my son looked like he was going to cry. Then I felt guilty for giving Santa a heads up. (FYI we don't hold Santa above the children's heads of "oh you better be good or I'm telling Santa". We had just sat down and had written letters to Santa before we went to see him. My daughter wrote "Dear Santa I have been pretty good all year, can I please have an American Girl Doll, Barbie's, and some play makeup" (Which Santa joked around with her about wanting makeup, saying she was just far too young for makeup, but since she wanted play makeup he'd see what he could do, and commented how those dolls were very popular dolls this year and he wasn't sure if he'd have enough to give to all the little girls that wanted one). She took that well, but he said he could easily handle a Barbie. Son number two stepped up to Santa with his little letter that read "Dear Santa, I've been fairly good all year, may I please get a Hot Wheel Track, a Nerf Gun, and a board game?" Santa, commented on how 'fairly' good my son had been and said he'd see what he could do about the items on the list. Then it was son number ones turn. Uh oh. His letter read "Dear Santa, I've had trouble being good this year" (Not a lie, and the boy knew what his letter said BEFORE we went to see Santa, and he was cool with it and didn't care in the slightest). Until Santa read it. Out loud. Then it sunk in. Then, he looked a little guilty...(that's when I felt like an ass). However, that's what happens when you get kicked off the bus ONCE (technically should have been TWICE but he got saved by a technicality and a super nice principal, I wouldn't have been so nice). He gets think sheets from his teacher at least weekly, for pushing, poking, pinching, etc....so no...he hasn't been very nice this year that's for sure! Always starting fights with his brother and sister, doing little things to tick them off on purpose, and being a little sassy when he can. Santa said "UH OH You've had TROUBLE being good this year? That doesn't sound good! Hopefully next year will be a better year" (Then he noticed my sons SUPER sad/pouty face) and said "But I think there is juuust enough time for you to still get a few of the items you asked for, juuust maybe" he had asked for Police Lego's, a Nerf gun and a board game.
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| My daughter, always eager to see Santa and tell him how good she was this year. |
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| Son #2 happy and oh so eager to talk with Santa! |
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| The look of a child (Son #1) who was just busted by Santa for having "trouble being good this year" Kid was not happy with being found out, and being reminded he needed to TRY and always be at his best. |
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| At least he cheered back up pretty quick though! This Santa is a pretty good guy. |
It didn't take him long to forget what Santa had said though. *sigh* By the time we walked out of the 'Santa House' the THREE of them were already back to fighting with each other and not getting along. Getting back to the vehicle was a night mare. Getting them to buckle up...even WORSE! Thankfully they calmed down for the drive through the Christmas lights at the park.
To wrap our evening up with fancy paper and bow, we stopped in at the local Catholic school and went through their Walk Through Bethlehem. It was a new experience, I had never gone and I thought it would be a lovely experience for my kids. It was very interactive and fun. Members of the Catholic church were portraying characters for this experience and the guys playing the Roman Soldiers were gooood at being bad. They were kind of jerks, and didn't mind being slightly intimidating...even towards kids. At one point, a 'soldier' confronted the group of kids that were in our group, and it seriously scared the pants out of my sons, I was several steps behind my kids as we were walking through this, and so I couldn't get up there quick enough to tell them that it was ok it was just people acting. However, my daughter grabbed her little brothers and put her arms around them and stepped towards that soldier all bold and big for her britches and goes "WHAT is your problem?" She hugged her brothers and helped them stomp on passed the soldier. I about died laughing because all of the other children had just scattered to go hide with their parents, but not my daughter. She protected and stood up for her brothers and then they went on past.
Did I mention my daughter is pretty dang fearless? She's an awesome kid. Bold. Feisty. Protective. I was afraid though that she wouldn't like the event after that. However, she thought it was a truly interesting experience! She knew it was people dressed up and acting (this girl is all about shows like Face Off, and she understands that people 'act' and 'perform' and wear costumes and all kinds of makeup and stuff to do these things). All three of my kids absorbed the story and their surroundings. The Catholic church did a very good job with their Walk Through Bethlehem. Next year though, I suggest they keep strategically placed fire extinguishers.
Son Circus #2....almost burned down Bethlehem. Yep. We were in front of the 'inn', on our journey to find the born Messiah. Well, the little kids were up front so they could see/hear better. This particular child of mine, got tired...and decided to hop up on a hay bale that was stacked there....it didn't go so well. Thankfully I saw what he was going to do RIGHT before he did so I got there JUST in time to shove my hip into the hale bale so it wouldn't tumble over. With one hand I grabbed my son and swung him around the hay bale to keep him from getting injured, and the other hand snatched the lantern with the lit candle inside of it. *WHEW*
What's worse? The inn was next to the manger. He almost burned down the manger, the inn, and baby Jesus. Thank goodness I got there in the knick of time, or they may have asked us to never come back after burning down Bethlehem! Leave it to one of my children to almost pull off an event like the great Chicago fire of whenever that was back in what, the 1800's? (Where a horse kicked over a lantern and caused a big fire??) He didn't intend on causing a raucous. It was an accident, but he and I had to talk about NOT climbing on the scenery! It scared the poor kid half to death (not to mention adding new gray hairs to my head)!
Thankfully it was time to go home, and relax after all that, ha!
This weekend we also marked 9 years since my niece was born. This little girl made me an aunt for the very first time 9 years ago. Unfortunately she was born far too early and did not make it, but she forever left a mark on my heart. Every year in remembrance we do a cake for her and light candles and sing happy birthday and my kids blow the candles out for her.
My daughter had her school Christmas program last Monday, unfortunately I was super super sick with the flu and there was no way in heck I was going to be attending her program, so my husband took her and I stayed home with my sons (and I wish I could have crawled back in bed and just slept). The flu was no joke at my house. My daughter was sad I missed her program, but she knew I couldn't help it and at least Dad was there and he recorded her performing and singing and took pics too. Now we look forward to our Church's Christmas program coming up very soon and seeing the kids perform in that!
My daughter, who also enjoys being in Girl Scouts, has discovered a talent, and it's something she is super into right now, and that is painting. For scouts they were able to go to a lovely business down town that teaches painting classes, and the scouts had an amazing evening painting. Her and I both were able to paint a canvass. I was busy doing some co troop leader duties so I missed out on the instructions so everything I painted on mine, my daughter told me what I needed to do next. She's a good teacher. A couple of days later we found some mini canvass and she painted the same painting for her G-ma (my Mother).
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| My daughters painting that she did all by herself just following the instructions from the paint instructor. |
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| My painting (my daughter told me what steps I needed to do, because I was busy and missed a majority of the instructions. |
Besides having to deal with Fifth's Disease with two out of three kids so far (I know the other one is working on it, so might as well say 3 out of 3 kids), it's a viral infection, produces red welting rashes all over your body, and your cheeks get SUPER SUPER red and awful looking. Once you get the rash, you aren't contagious anymore. However...before that...you don't know you have it because you think you just have a regular cold. There isn't a treatment or vaccine for it, it's just 'one of those things'. It's going around our school right now, and of course my kids brought it home. They seem to bring EVERYTHING home. On top of the three of them being in various stages of getting over, going through, and coming down with the Fifths Disease virus, my daughter also has a bad cause of the icky FLU. She's been fighting a 103 fever all day, which explains why I am still awake, because I'm listening to her every move in her bedroom where she is sleeping (has a nasty cough and I keep running in to check her fever and see if it's time to give her anymore medicine yet to keep it down, she's like me when she gets a fever, she GETS A FEVER and it wants to stick around). Usually my kids are all sick starting in September, this year they waited until the end of November to start getting sick, not bad kids, not bad. I just wish they wouldn't share the flu's and what not when they bring them home.
We also had to take my daughter to see a pediatric cardiologist last week. She had been complaining of her heart 'beeping' fast, and it was concerning. Her pediatrician checked her out and discovered she has a heart murmur so we saw a specialist. She has what is called an 'innocent' heart murmur that is common in school age kids and chances are she will out grow it. Her EKG and Echocardiogram looked good, however if she starts complaining again about her heart beeping fast we are to call the clinic back and get a heart recorder for her to wear for a month. They said that her getting sick can make her have more issues, and unfortunately the kid is sick right now. She has complained of dizziness, but no fast heart rate yet.
We had a lovely Thanksgiving, until all of our company left, and then my husband's mom dropped a bomb shell, but we won't dwell on that one. Our thanksgiving involved family, neighbors and friends and was a lovely day. My younger sister and her fiancé and my nephew were here, and I was able to snap a few new maternity pics of my sister for my NEW nephew that is due in April. My stepfather and my Mother made it too and it was just a lovely day full of great food and fun times! Our Christmas will be kept low key with just my husband, the kids and myself, and that's ok we love quiet holidays too!
So for as rotten as things have been since November, we've also had a lot of very GOOD and MEMORABLE times as well, those are the times I choose to think about and move forward with as 2014 comes to a close.
MOM CIRCUS (Mae)
