Communication

I love my family!

I am so blessed to have the four of us. Then we are triply blessed since we have 3 of the kids grandparents living close by. Wow! The kids have never even had to have a baby-sitter. And the legacy of watching and learning from them first-hand is even better than just what we tell the kids.

However, we do have quite a bit of extended family, too. Most live in this same state, but we don't see them often enough.

How do I attempt to keep in touch? Well, unfortunately, I am not very good at it. I try to send email birthday cards (since I don't think about it the week before).

But, some of the family only seems to be on Facebook (which I only go look at and don't spend time there), one has a blog, some only do email but don't have 'real' Internet access. I even have one person that doesn't even have a computer at her house! (Can you imagine that?)

In the past few months, I have been making an attempt to actually sit down and write a real letter to my non-electronic family member.

When my boy was little, and even for the first couple of years of my girl, I regularly sent out an email to family that I called "Boonie News". I always got comments when I saw family, but I didn't hear much from them. Mostly, I did it as a journal for myself, I thought.

Recently, I have been asked to do a similar thing at least once a month for some of my email family.

Now, letter writing, blogging, journaling and emailing..... Are folks really that interested in us? I suppose it doesn't even really matter what I say, just that I thought of them when I sent it.

Hmmmm....that's worth writing for.

Bindings

Happy New Year! I do hope to be better at blogging. Maybe once a week?

Bindings... We all seem to have them. Things that we do that we blame on our childhood, or how we were traumatized, or something else that happened TO us as some point in time.

I have begun to wonder more and more why it is that I have to be bound to things from 20+ years ago.

Really? I mean, I have been married for 28 1/2 years. Why am I still categorized, labeled, and think of myself as that foolish, floundering teen? And I do it to myself.

II Corinthians 5:17 says, "...all things have become new." New? One of the definitions for new is "not known or experienced before".

One teacher said, God doesn't just refurbish us. He doesn't just take our old junk and turn it into something that might be reusable. He actually makes us new.

I am slowly learning that when a brother hurts me, I have a choice. When my husband disappoints me (only about once every 10 years, ya know), I have a choice. When my children frustrate me, I have a choice.

I can choose to be new or I can choose to be bound. I can choose what God is doing in me or I can choose to take up the mantra of the enemy that has been whispering since my teens, or before.

I am trying to make those choices that will allow me to choose to be new.

Mom's Special Day

On this day 14 years ago, I officially became a mama at home. By that I mean, I actually got to bring my 3 1/2 month old son home from the hospital.


He was a whopping 4 lbs. 4 oz on the day he came home. He had been in the NICU 103 days. It is amazing to think that he doesn't hold the record. He did come close, though.

We had real concerns. He was on oxygen for over 6 weeks. How would that effect development? Was his vision okay? Was his hearing okay? Would he be functional or have special needs?

At that point, I didn't really care either way. I was just so thrilled to be a mama!


It took him quite a while to start catching up in development. He was so tiny. In this picture, at about 7 months old, he was weighing in at 8 pounds. But he still liked to explore and check out his toys.


In this picture with Dad, he was about 8-9 months old. That means he was weighing about 9-10 pounds. He was getting stronger and stronger.

I have tons and tons of pictures (Dad found my CD!!!) The kids and I could spend all day pouring over them.

After 14 years of marriage and 2 miscarriages. We were just so amazed to have baby at all.

Four years later, that boy began praying for a sister. So when she arrived, he was thrilled to pieces. And I got double blessed.


I do get tired. I do get frustrated. I do stay confused. I do try to stay on my knees knowing how to the next stage.

However, this has been an amazing, thrilling, precious, precious adventure.

Here he is at 14 laying on the crib mattress before it was sent away. Boy, has he grown!


I am so thankful that there is still more of this journey to be had!

Photos - My Age is Showing!

I LOVE photographs!

My husband and I have at least 3 photo albums (the old kind) full of photos from our high school years together.

Of course, we have an album of wedding pictures.

Then we have double albums of some of those vacations we took since we didn't have children to spend our money on.

My son has one big, full photo album of just him during his first 6 months or so of life (including the 3 months of NICU). Very humbling, but now it is delightful.

However, about the time he was born, the world was slowly making the shift from film to digital. We compromised during that time and had our film developed AND they put the pictures on disc for us. That was wonderful!


By the time Little Girl came along, 4 years later, most of the world had gone digital and I had not had time (or money) to figure out how to do anything with all of those digital images. Honey burned some CDs for me, but I am not sure if we know where those are.

Now I know how to transfer them from my digital camera onto my computer. I even know how to Photoshop them enough to make them a decent size for sending in email. (But I don't know how to make me look better in photos.)

But I really miss photo albums! At this point, I can't just take these thousands of images in and have them printed. My honey doesn't make enough in one year to let me do that. *sigh*

I do flip through my photo files sometimes. The kids and I giggle and retell stories. But it isn't the same as being cuddled up on the couch to do that.

My kids roll their eyes at my moments of longing for the "old" ways. And please tell why the old ways are so bad. Thank you very much!

I Love Games!

I just might have to find a Games Anonymous group.

I have always liked games and puzzles, but I haven't always had people around who would play with me.

My girl loves to play games with me! We have enjoyed "Buzz Words", "Clue", "Monopoly", "Pictionary Junior", "Chinese Checkers", and many more. We also love to have a jigsaw puzzle out on a table.

Now I live in an age that allows me to play against an impartial opponent. Computers. But I think they cheat sometimes.

My favorite types of games are thinking games.

I have done Sudoku puzzles a plenty. Solitaire is on my computer, but I have a version that has MANY different types of solitaire games. I don't have to get bored with one type.

Now, Kindle has put out several free games. I have enjoyed "Every Word", "ThreadWords", "Pirate Stash", and "Grid Detective". There are several others, but those are my favorite.

My niece just showed us a cool website - www.coolmath.com - Oh my! Now we are really in trouble!! There are hundreds of fun thinking games. Yes, they are in cartoon format, but they are not just for kids. I promise!

My kids have beat me on "Gluey" so far. I better see if I can catch up with them.

My Blogging Partners

At our house, we are wanting to start using a different venue for our
journal writing. My children love to write short (sometimes strange)
journal entries, and have done so for several years.

We are going to begin having them do their 3-4 weekly journal entries on
their individual blogs.

My girl can be found at: http://icepooka-akidslife.blogspot.com/

My boy can be found at: http://thecreator-son.blogspot.com/

I will be closely monitoring these blogs (before each post), but that will
not guarantee that they are not strange! :-D We will not allow them to use
their own names, names of family members, or names of friends. If we do
post any pictures, we will be sure to get permission before posting a
friend.

We would love to invite you and your children to read and comment on their
blogs. It would be a great encouragement to them as they reach out on their
blogs to be more descriptive, more informative and possibly more creative.

If you have any helps, tips, or encouragements on how to make this easier or
better, please let us know. We are excited to learn.

Does this mean I should be blogging more, too??? Oh my!

Amazing Grace

I am a thinker. I am not much of a conversationalist. Okay, I don't think I am. My kids probably don't agree since they get the most of my daily words.

I also a very aware that I am living out my life in front of my kids and in front of my Father. All three of them (I guess Trinity makes it 5) call me out if I do not live what I say. Actually, that makes for precious accountability.

Then occasionally, my Father gives words that make me so humbled.

A few days ago, we were going through a math lesson with my boy. He can do the math, but sometimes it takes him a couple of tries to get it right. Sometimes. This was one of those days. So I began trying to emphasize how important accuracy is. (Because I am so right so often??)

I gave an example of Dad having to send out a bill for one of his computer repairs. If he overcharged the guy, the guy might notice. Dad would be gracious to correct the bill and the guy would pay the corrected price.

HOWEVER, depending on that customer and what all he had had to deal with that day, that customer had the potential to go out a say nasty things about how Dad had tried to "rip him off". I even explained that Dad had had no intention of "ripping him off", it was just an honest mistake.

So here is one of those times that I was using too many words, trying to make the point about how badly this situation could get out of hand. Trying to make the point about being accurate the first time is easier that apologizing and/or fixing it later.

My sweet son said, "But why do people have to be so mean?" He knows the real reason. Man is sinful and very, very selfish. Even Mom. Even Dad. Even those who love us most. We try to start every day as being "a brand new day with no mistakes in it." (Anne of Green Gables) Unfortunately, our sins and their consequences tend to follow us into each new day.

I was getting so good at this explanation of how badly our mistakes can make other people treat us. I was even getting pictures of those people who have whispered about me, those people who still carry some type of grudge, those times that I just blew it. I was in that gravel pit of "here I am again and why do I keep doing that".

All of a sudden the heavens opened up. Light radiated out. Warm love beams engulfed me.

The one who should condemn me first and most of all; He loves me. He has given everything He has (including His cattle on a thousand hills and His most beloved Son) to draw me to Him. HE lets me start each day new with no mistakes in it. He did not make me to live in a gravel pit. He has made me a city set on a hill. He has called me His own! His promises even fit today that has mistakes in it.

I was so humbled. This is all something that I have "known" but I suppose I hadn't really OWNED.

I hope my son heard a tiny portion of that golden voice that rang down from heaven. It has been singing in my heart since that time.

God's grace is truly amazing!