Candy Cane's Adventures - Coloring

It's hard to stay in the lines when you don't have any thumbs and the crayon is as long as your arm.

 

He's Back

Candy Cane's return this year was questionable, but when disappointment was expressed that the tradition may not continue, he decided to return.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for, most of all each other. Happy Thanksgiving!

Sitting Pretty

The groomer gave her bows because she was such a good girl.

On to Basketball Season

I guess I never followed up about Danielle's club volleyball tryouts. She had a great tryout and was offered a place on the team. She's had one practice so far, but the season doesn't actually start until March. Practices don't get super serious until February, which is right around the time basketball is winding down.

Danielle made the travel basketball team again. Today they participated in a league preview, where the teams played each other in 20 minute mini-games. We were supposed to play 4 games but ended up playing 5 because another team's opponent didn't show up. We won all 5 games, and 4 of them were nearly shut outs. It looks like we will have a good team again this year. The girls played well together and had a good time. We have next weekend off and then our regular season games start.

This Chapter

When Tyler and Danielle were little, there were times when I would look at families with older children and feel sad for them. The thought of Tyler and Danielle being older, more independent, and not with me all day, every day seemed sad to me. There were moments when I desperately wanted a little peace and quiet...or an uninterrupted shower...but the thought of our lives being so different made me feel sad. Now we are at that point in our family's life, and it is much more of a joy than I expected.

There are times when I'm listening to Tyler and I just want to shake my head and laugh. He is changing so much. His conversation is changing, his outlook on life is changing, HE is changing. Our relationship is changing, too. He is a blessing to us in so many different ways. He is becoming an independent adult with his own thoughts, ideas, and interests, and he is such a neat person.

I don't feel the changes quite as much with Danielle yet, but they are there. There really is something special about having a daughter. There are times when we can share a glance across the basketball court and know what the other is thinking. There are times when I know she doesn't want to run to the store with me, but she knows I'd like the company so she goes anyway. The things we talk about over milk and cookies after school are sometimes not very childish at all anymore. She is a blessing to us, too, and her tender heart humbles me.

It is also nice to be able to run a couple errands while the kids stay home or to have dinner out with just my husband. That is actually very nice.

I do occasionally miss the days when the only schedule we had was the one I made, or when our biggest issues were naptimes and sharing toys, or when we would spend our evenings together building Duplo towers to the ceiling and knocking them over. Although those days were physically exhausting and I worried I wasn't doing "it" right, in hindsight, those days were simpler. I'm also very aware that there are less years ahead of us than behind us when it comes to having the kids under our roof. But right now, I am enjoying the blessings of this chapter.

Ron is in Germany and Russia this week. Today after school the kids and I went shopping to get goodies for their Operation Christmas Child boxes, to get Tyler dress pants and a tie for his band concert, and to get Danielle a new coat. After our shopping trip we enjoyed a very pleasant dinner together at Chipotle. It struck me later that that was the same place we ate dinner when Ron was in Russia the last time. That was eight years ago, and we were enjoying a much different chapter in our lives at the time.

Tonight's Dinner

Scrambled eggs, leftover spaghetti, & ramen noodles. And everyone was happy. (Can you tell Ron is gone?!)

Early Snow Day

We had a decent snowfall at just the right time this morning, which gave us our first snow day of the season. It's awfully early in the season to have a snow day, but I'll save the complaining for February. Today we enjoyed it.

The snow was beautiful. We admired it from inside while we played games in our pjs all day. It was exactly what a snow day should be.

Sadly, my late bloomer didn't beat the snow fall.

Suspend was one of our snow day games today.

Guess the late migrating hummingbirds have bigger issues than no food available.

Everything looked so beautiful with a coating of snow on it this morning.

I love this kid.
He's intelligent and witty, and growing up into such a nice young man.
Plus, he shoveled the drive for his mom.

Today's Pic

Tyler thinks this is hilarious. Our pears at school aren't tasty or exceptional or splendid. They are majestic!

Late Bloomer

It's supposed to snow this coming weekend. Ron mowed once more today and I pulled up the rest of the flowers from the beds around the patio. Except for this guy. He's almost ready to bloom. I just couldn't bring myself to cut him down. I planted some new cardinal flowers this summer and it took them all summer to do anything. This is the only one that got anywhere close to blooming, so I have to give him a chance. Come on little guy, you can do it! (Just do it quicker!)

Private Performance

Danielle talked Tyler into bringing his trumpet home this weekend so they could play together. She is a little awestruck at how good Tyler is, and I think he rather enjoys her admiration. She has only been playing for a couple months now, and the band doesn't meet every day, so she is progressing slowly. She is making progress, though! Although he does look a tad bored, Tyler was very patient with her and complimented her several times. I think this will be the first of many private performances we get over the next few years.

Rain, rain go away.

 

 

Haulin'

Ron finally got to haul something with his truck. It was just as wonderful as he imagined it would be. Saving money on the delivery fee was icing on the cake.

God's Timing

I was blessed to be able to watch God's hand at work in our lives yesterday.

The details probably wouldn't really mean anything to anyone other than the 4 of us, but it was neat to watch the day's events unfold in a way that was obviously directed by God.

In a nutshell:
One of my coworkers was gone and I had a substitute work with us.
Ron made it home from his business trip safely & on time.
I had car trouble.
Because I had car trouble, we were at school late.
Because we were at school late, we saw that the substitute that worked with me earlier in the day needed help carrying things in for an after school young life activity.
Tyler helped her carry things in.
Tyler decided he wanted to stay for the activity.
I had the exact amount of cash on hand that Tyler needed to attend the activity because someone had given me money earlier in the day. (I NEVER have cash.)
Because Ron made it home on time, he was able to help me out with my van.
The van's problem was resolved and didn't cost us anything more than a couple hours of our time.
Tyler had an amazing time hanging out with friends and can't wait until the next activity.


Turns out there wasn't anything wrong with the battery. It didn't need charged after all.

Everything seemed to revolve around Tyler finding out about and attending this activity. Once they left for the off-site part of the activity, the van's "problem" was suddenly resolved. Even Tyler agreed this was somehow all part of God's plan for our family yesterday. I'm thankful for God's work in our lives...and that we didn't have to spend any money on the van!

Filling In

Ron is out of town this week, but Clara is happy to keep his spot warm.

See the suitcase handles in the background? There was a little scrambling before Ron left this afternoon. Someone (me!) made him throw away all the good suitcases that we took on vacation with us because someone (me!) was afraid we brought bedbugs back with us. Someone (him!) forgot the good suitcases were gone and had to find something that would suffice (= zips & rolls) in the back of the closet about 40 minutes before leaving. Oops.