Okay, so we're all familiar with NaBloPoMo right? I'm putting a twist on that for the month of February; instead of daily blogging, I'm aiming for daily commenting...
Ryan snuck on the ol' blog the other day and wrote his own post here. Which I loved because I'm always trying to get him to write stuff and hear his take on things of the Everyday Life variety (and who here remembers his long lost weekly Sunday guest appearance??) and I love how he always makes me laugh.
After his surprise appearance the other day, I urged him to go ahead and do that more often.
he: "Nobody likes me writing on there, look I only got two comments on my post!"
me: "Um, well then that means nobody likes me writing on here either because that's a good comment day for me these days!!"
Which is true.
Not that I'm blogging for comments... we've already been through that. But we all know it's nice to have a little conversation or a little feedback or at least know someone's keeping up on your rambling once in awhile via a little comment love.
Whether it's the residual affect of Facebook or Twitter or quick Google-reading or Life busyness or just blogging not being on the top of our to-do list anymore, we've all noticed that our regular old faithful bloggers are just not writing as often. And maybe it's just me, but something else I've noticed is that readers aren't commenting as often. I hardly ever comment on friends' blogging anymore either. It's just so much easier to glance through my reader and keep it all one sided sometimes.
But I want to make an effort to change that.
I've been thinking, in my resolution to reorganize my internet/computer time priorities, that something that should be more important to me is not just reading what my friends write and keeping up on their goings-on in life, but to let them know that I am. To encourage them, to relate with them, to laugh with them, to commiserate with them or just to let them know I'm there. Not that my presence makes a pivotal difference in their blogging experience, but just because sometimes it's nice to know someone is paying attention. Sometimes it's nice to know someone cares. Sometimes a random comment makes us smile. Sometimes leaving a random comment makes me smile.
I glance at dozens of blog posts a day. I can take five minutes and comment on a few to let them know I appreciate them!
So for this next month, I've decided I'm committing to leaving comments on at least three blog posts every day. Spreading a little Comment Love during this "Month of Love" that is February.
Anyone care to join me??
(I'm putting this image in my blogger profile for the month as a reminder of the comment love we should be passing around. Feel free to copy and paste if you want to jump aboard the crusade!)
We've been slacking on our Sunday family movie nights around here lately. Luckily we've been making up for it in other ways... Last weekend we went to one of our local firestations for a super fun kids movie night. Everyone brought lawn chairs and blankets and beanbags and they set up a big projector with a movie and there was popcorn and Kool-aid and the kids just thought it was so stinkin' cool to be hanging out in the firehouse with lots of friends and neighbors!
Can you name the movie?
This week, tonight, Savannah's school is having a family movie night in their gym. Ryan took the kids over and he called to report they're having a fun (albeit really crowded) time eating their skittles and popcorn and watching Alvin and the Chipmunks. He's a trooper taking them both over himself since I'm laid-up here (wait- what's the opposite of laid-up since I can't really sit or lay comfortably??) and can't really sit through a movie.
Instead I have to hang out in by myself in this peace and quiet for once! Darn it!!
(hmm... Ryan sent me a pic from his phone but I have no idea how to get pictures from this teeeeeny tiny card in my phone onto my computer, so that'll have to wait...)
And I'm not feeling too hot today. I was getting Caleb up from a nap yesterday morning and coming down the stairs with him in my arms. You know that blind spot you have when you're holding a baby in front of you?
Probably not a good idea to leave a stack of books where they'll be directly in that blind spot... on a flight of stairs.
I stepped right on top of a stack of half a dozen books, which of course flew right off the step with my foot -and entire body- directly after it. Books went sprawling, baby and I went sliding. I've never hit my backside so hard. And of course I didn't put the books on the bottom step or even two. I put them halfway up. So I hit six or seven steps on the way down. Directly on my tailbone and then my back.
Apparently I'm good at protecting kids I'm holding when I fall. I don't think this habit bodes well for me though. It makes the fall more injurious for me. As was the case yesterday. I was so worried about Caleb getting hurt that all my attention was on holding on to him and keeping him up off the floor so I was in no way able to stop or catch myself let alone get in a better falling position. Ugh.
I sat at the bottom of the stairs for probably a full five minutes wondering if I could get up. I knew right away I must have broken/cracked/really really injured my tailbone. And I momentarily wondered about my right elbow/upper arm and then two of my left hand fingers. Not to mention bruised calves and back.
I did call Ryan and he came home to take Sawyer to speech class (no way I could drive) and pick up some of the slack with Caleb (try feeding a baby without being able to sit down) and to try and get me to get to the ER. As soon as I knew for sure that my fingers were really okay, I didn't want to worry about going to the doc... I know there's really not much to do for a tailbone. I can tell it's not my back... just the bum.
And I was okay yesterday. I just really couldn't sit down. Or really lay down very comfortably. So from ten in the morning, when I fell, I was on my feet for the rest of the day. I actually got quite a bit done because of it... not much else to do when you have to stay on your feet. Definitely still sore and slow moving, but much better than trying to sit or get comfortable resting. Any pressure or much movement at all to the tail region was excruciating. Walking and standing and even bending over were getting better throughout the day... until about dinnertime when my body was just exhausted and swollen. Then I went downhill fast. I have a nice baseball sized swelling in my lower back above my tailbone and actually (sorry, tmi) my butt cheeks are just swollen enough that they're pressed together. Eww.
We had our small group over for dinner last night so by the time they left at 8:30 I doped myself up on ibuprofen and unisom and headed to (try to get comfortable in) bed. I actually slept quite decently all night, other than having to fully wake up any time I needed to move around at all.
It's feeling better today... still can't sit, but laying is much more comfortable and the swelling seems to be down a bit. Probably because I was finally off my feet all night. I'm sore everywhere else though... and I'm wondering how much is from the fall (quite a bit) and how much is from just not being able to fully relax. Apparently it takes a lot of other muscles to keep any and all pressure off your seat when you sit or lean or lay. My right side is extremely sore and I think that's from the fall as that's the side Caleb was on and so I had no arm protecting me there... my ribs actually feel a little bruised. Or just the muscles. Who knows.
Anyway. Caleb is not here today and I have no where and nothing to have to do, so it's a day of recovery around here. I've had a couple of friends with tailbone injuries and have heard horror stories of the months of pain and such a long healing time... I'm really hoping that's not me!
I am big believer in teaching our kids the fundamentals. This way they have a good basis for learning the more advanced techniques. If they can master the basics then they will be set for whatever comes their way. I feel that so many things these days are trying to make my kids grow up too fast. Kids don't play with Lincoln logs anymore they skip right to Legos with a Star Wars theme or something. They don't watch Sesame Street, they skip right on to High School Musical. Well, I am taking steps to combat that! I am having them start with the 8-bit Nintendo system!
And no better place to start than with our pals Mario and Luigi.And check it out! Sawyer might be a natural! Just look at his face!
Man, it seems there's not been much cheery upbeat news around here lately. Looking at the last couple of weeks, this blog has turned into quite the downer.
I should mention -Car's good. (for now) -Nobody's been sick minus that one throw-up. (except I had a killer headache all day yesterday)
But I also want to mention I'm tired. I feel like I honestly haven't slept in over a week. Like since before our trip. On our trip, the first night, I really didn't sleep. We didn't get to the hotel until midnight and after getting in and settled, obviously bedtime was in the AM hours. But combine that with my brain staying half awake trying to check the clock every half hour because Ryan had to be up at 6 for his interviews/meetings, and having two-foot-thick-so-fluffy-they're-uncomfortable pillows, and really that was nothing close to a night's sleep. The next night; still uncomfortable and lots on my mind from the day. Probably slept a total of 5 hours. The next night; ditto only moreso. Next night; slept at the Robertsons, very comfortable, but still shared a room with Savannah -who kept smacking her lips in her sleep for some reason- and slept with half an ear open for Sawyer at the other end of the house. Monday night; finally home! Looking forward to a good comfortable night's sleep... but spent it ready to spring into action because of vomiting child right before bed. Next night; anticipating an undisturbed night of sleep, even taking a Unisom to make sure it's good and solid. Still woke up at 5am with a brain that won't turn off. Next night; ditto only moreso. Last night; didn't take Unisom as it obviously isn't helping my early morning rising and feel like I'm definitely more than tired enough to sleep a good 8 hrs on my own. WRONG. Didn't fall asleep till well after midnight (and by then it's too late to take anything) and was wide awake at 4am. Like finally-stomp-out-of-bed-I'm-so-sick-of-tossing-and-turning wide awake. I just have entirely too. much. on. my. mind. Arghhh... make it stop!
Can someone please just make decisions for us and tell us what to do and where to go and how to do it all?
I'm just ready for some happy things to happen and happy things to think about and not things that are stressing me out or that come with so much anxiety. Oh, and some sunshine would be nice around here too! Happy Friday.
I thought my apparel was fitting for today. That or I'm too lazy to get out of my pajamas... you make the call.
Yes, I'm vehicle-less once again. No word on the car yet... we took it back in yesterday afternoon. Keeping our fingers crossed!
So it's just me and the boys hanging out on this foggy, rainy day. I should make some cookies or muffins or something to warm up the house. And to cheer me up. It just seems especially cold and gray today. Maybe it's just the mood I'm in. It did thankfully stop raining just long enough for Caleb and I to walk Sawyer to and from school. It was chilly but at least we weren't getting soaked.
And now we're parked here for the afternoon. I'm going to start up some Italian Meatball Soup for dinner and get around to the laundry I've been putting off all morning. Mmm, and maybe pop in some beer bread.
So we're back from our little trip and I'll write all about it after we process things a bit... and after I'm sure my son is done puking.
Yes -Amie, after JUST saying we've not had to deal with throw-ups in a long time and not with him specifically in a long, long time- we got home this afternoon and after dinner when I ran to the store, Ryan called me to tell me to hurry home as I was missing all the excitement. Sawyer lost it all over himself and the kitchen (luckily) floor. He'd been extra whiny all day, super sleepy in the car, he ate a great lunch but no dinner saying his tummy was stuffed and it felt funny. So while I was gone he finally tossed it. Ryan cleaned him up and when I got right home (Sawyer was super excited to tell me "Guess what happened Mom?!!?!!) the kiddo pretty much went right to bed.
I'm hoping it's a fluke thing and not a flu thing... cuz I don't really know what to do about tomorrow; we have a packed full agenda for the day. I have MOPS in the morning, which it is a craft day so I'm in charge, then speech class and then a program I'm supposed to attend at Savannah's school while shipping the boy off to a friends' house. All with Caleb here too. So I'm really hoping Sawyer stays nice and quietly tucked in asleep until morning and that he wakes up fine and that we can ignore this little bout here this evening like it never happened.
Although, my stomach's been feeling funny all evening now too and I'm really hoping that's all in my head!!
I wanted to briefly fill all y'all in on a couple of things... (okay so it may not be so brief...)
Firstly, the car! Is home! And tucked safely in the garage after successfully traversing home from the car hospital this evening. It was not only done earlier than expected, but it's made a miraculous recovery and feels good as new. Okay, maybe not new, but as good as thirteen years old! The auto guy said (not once, but twice) "you really dodged a bullet here"... Sounded like he expected this one to be a goner. But no, not yet! She's not ready to call it quits yet!!
Let's just hope nothing else comes up until we have a job and know where we're living and we're ready to take on a new vehicle in maybe six months or so?
Speaking of... Secondly, I just wanted to record/share a few thoughts on where we stand with the whole job/moving possibility thing/timeline we're looking at. Ryan did find out his "Wave Date" this week, which is when he technically stops working. Well I guess he actually he found out on Friday, but today found out it might actually be two weeks earlier. He was told February 26th, but now they're thinking he might not have enough to do and they might want to move it up to the 12th. So we'll see. From the Wave Date he's still "employed" and gets paid as normal for two more months. Employees are not expected to work those last two months and can actually take on an outside job, part time. If they take a full time job, they must notify izer-Pfay and their severance would begin. Otherwise, at the end of the Wave period, the severance package goes into effect... which corresponds to how long the employee has worked for izer-Pfay. So this Wave thing essentially tacks two months' pay onto the severance... but you can't take a new full time job in those two months if you want the pay.
Anyway. So that's coming up.
What's coming up more immediately, as most of you have heard me mention, is our trip this extended weekend for Ryan to meet and interview with the people and the program for which he is being recruited. We will also spend a few days looking around the area, exploring the city and the suburbs and getting a feel for it all. We've spoken more in depth with some of you than others about this situation, but the gist of it is that as much as we still don't want to move, I think both Ryan and I really feel like this might be it. We've actually tried to somewhat put off going down there because I think we're afraid that we will like it. (insert Dun-dun-dun sound effect here)
When we first knew for sure in November that this job here was done, we were very very much in the mindset of We Don't Want To Move. There have got to be other opportunities here and we shouldn't have to move. Well, that's not panning out, or at least as quickly, as we'd hoped. So far all the job offers, the recruiting and the seeking him out, are from out of state and meanwhile all the local places have just been silent without call backs.
This prospect is probably an extremely smart move for Ryan career-wise and an opportunity he'd be very excited to take... IF it didn't mean moving the family once again. I think it's really only the moving that's prevented him from jumping on this head first from the moment it was first brought up to him. And actually he's shared with me that all along these last couple of months of exploring this opportunity, he's been looking for reasons to drop it, to tell them he's not interested. First of all, it's research connected to Academia with a well-known medical University, so he thought pshaw... it's a university... I can get a better paying job elsewhere. Until he found out the numbers they were actually thinking were actually very attractive. And then he thought pshaw... they wouldn't relocate us, so I don't think it's going to work for us. And then they offered relocation. And so on and so forth. It's like every time Ryan tries to close a window, Someone Else is throwing the door open. So yes, that's part of why we're second guessing our digging-our-heels-in-not-wanting-to-move.
At this point I've moved on to the state of mind where I can wrap my head around The Starting Over... I can research schools and neighborhoods and communities and feel like it'll be okay. Maybe even good. I actually get excited about some aspects of The Starting Over again.
But then I think about the things we're LEAVING again... and I actually feel a little quite panicky. Our schools, the things we're involved in in church, our neighbors, our friends, our community, our free zoo, our pool, our three car garage (joking) (kind of), our comfortability here... I'm just not ready to give that all up for the Unknown. I actually have little mini panic attacks thinking about giving notice about things like not re-registering Sawyer for preschool next year or not signing the kids up for swim team this summer. It's going to be hard for me to have to let go of this community we've so grown to love. I don't know why, but it feels significantly harder to think about leaving here than it did to leave Oregon in the first place, where we'd lived (basically) our whole lives. Maybe it has to do with just feeling like we haven't had enough time here. That we want more time to enjoy this unexpectedly perfect-for-us spot we've found ourselves in for the last two-and-a-half years.
I know it's strange, but I'm very much in this in between place of being okay with The Going if that's where we're supposed to live, but definitely NOT okay with the Leaving St Louis part of it yet. It's a really odd place to be; this being excited about the prospect of new things, but at the same time panicking about what we have to leave behind.
IF we do this that is. It's all still a big IF. But all that to say that we could use some prayer. Especially this weekend as we're down in that area trying to make a decision on whether the Lord is making our home down there or not. I'm really just trying to have faith that our path will be made clear to us. That things will either fall into place or they won't. And that that is crystal clear from the beginning. Also for peace and rest and assurance in whichever path is ours...
I do have to say we've been blessed to have wonderful friends surrounding us and as I've shared some of my thoughts about all this with some of them they have been so incredibly gracious with listening ears, faithful advice and amazing encouragement... especially some older, wiser women of the "been there, done that" variety. Love that.
Emphasis on the STAY. Here's our week without a car (so far) in plus and minus...
- have to spend $500 to fix the car just enough to find out if it's okay or if it needs to be fixed more... or if it's even fixable
+ being stuck at home keeps me from spending other money
- forgot something at the grocery store last night? too bad, you're stuck
+ got lots of laundry done
- got lots of snacking done too
+ Caleb and Sawyer both took two-and-a-half-hour naps yesterday... at almost the same time!
- Sawyer, being the active boy his is, is pretty wound up all the time, being stuck at home like this after three weeks of temperatures and wind chill in the single digits. (he's finally being kicked outside to play today in the balmy 35° temperatures!)
+ Sawyer's speech class is canceled tomorrow for teacher inservice... at least I don't have to mess with getting him there
- being stuck at home still sucks
It really wouldn't be all that bad... it wasn't long ago that I was thinking I wanted to go down to a one car family. It's just hard when it's unexpected. Thankfully it's warmed up just enough just in time that we walked Sawyer to school today. And luckily I don't have to worry about or have him miss out on more speech tomorrow. It's just that I had plans for this week and wasn't counting on having to do any and all running around in the evenings when Ryan's home and Caleb has left. Normally it wouldn't even be such a big deal swinging the one car thing with Ryan's work as he has spent the last two years carpooling with some coworkers... but no one's really working regular hours around there much anymore so they haven't been carpooling basically since the announcements in November. It's nice in that Ryan's only been spending 5-6 hours at work each day, going in later and usually being home by 2 or 3. He's more flexible to come and go as he pleases, as long as he's there for meetings and getting the work done he needs to be, etc... problem is, that 5-6 hours of the day he's there is the time of day I need a car.
Oh well. We should find out tomorrow whether this five hundred dollar fix is a fix or if we should start figuring out how we're going to afford to buy a car right now. We'll be gone for the next five days, so at least there are no worries about logistics until then...
That's okay. I'll have a few other things to think about while we're gone; these little things called major life decisions.
Monday was kind of a bummer day all around. I'm afraid our beloved 4Runner might really be on it's way out. At thirteen years old, it's sure put in it's fair share of time and travel... and been awfully nice to us all the while. We've really had no problems with it whatsoever, with the exception of a broken hose a couple of summers ago. This time I'm afraid we're not going to be so lucky. It could be something simple again like a busted hose or tube or something (which would explain the gallons of transmission fluid all over our garage floor right now), but I just have a feeling it's not that cheap easy this time around. Transmission problems -fluid or not- make me nervous. Feeling your transmission doing all sorts of wacky things... like, say, pushing on the gas pedal and not going anywhere, while you're driving isn't very cool.
So. It's parked at the car doc right now and we're saying a little prayer for our family car. Especially since we're going to be out of town this week. And Ryan found out his last day of work is February 26th. And who knows what we're going to do after that. Not really the best time to need a new vehicle.
So we're homebound today... we were supposed to be at a playdate/surprise baby shower this morning and Sawyer has speech class today, but no can go. Luckily it's supposed to actually get above freezing tomorrow so we can probably at least walk Sawyer to preschool. I guess I have no excuse but to get plenty done around the house today.
In better news, my No Spend January is going well... I've only spent $3.29. That was yesterday morning at Michaels. Just before the car gave out. Hmmm... punishment?
The kids both had sleepovers last night... Sawyer had his friend A over while Savannah went and spent the night with his sister E at their house. This was Sawyer's first buddy sleepover! And they did awesome... the whole fam was over for dinner last night and then the parents, the baby and the girls headed home and the boys got ready for bed here. Compared to the girl sleepovers we've had, these boys were a piece of cake! Not that Savannah and her friends have ever been trouble, but these boys were asleep by 9:30, on their own, and they slept until 7! Are boys just different than girls?? In our experience so far, the girls would giggle all night if we let them!
Here's a bed-head, vegging out with cartoons, munching on breakfast cereal, cheesy smiling, early morning pic of Sawyer and A today...
So after doing the kid switch back this morning, Savannah had her first basketball game to cheer at! She was awesome!! Here's our little cheerleader:
the girls are having a lot of fun doing this together!
It really was so fun to watch Savannah today... her team was great with their volume and their spirit, knowing their routines... Savannah had a smile on her face the whole time, really enjoying herself! We were really proud of her!!
Lots on the agenda today... grocery shopping, playdate, birthday party, piano lessons, friends over for dinner (what to make??) and then Savannah is going home with them for a sleepover while Sawyer's buddy stays the night here. Busy, fun Friday!
Ah, Friday. I love Fridays. Although lately everyday is basically a Saturday around here. No school again today... That makes one single day back to school this week after two weeks off and now we're looking at a four day weekend!
We've got the same amount of snow, it's been off and on all day and night, but really the killer is the temperature. It's 7° right now but the wind chill is -15. Apparently they don't want kids standing out at the bus stop in this weather :)
Since it's too cold to send the kids out in the snow we have to play today, Sawyer and Savannah spent some time this morning scrolling thru some of the old playing in snow shots on the iPod. Here are some of the oldies... when we lived with real snow!
Jackson, Michigan, three years ago, Savannah was three-and-a-half and Sawyer was 14/15 months old
Thursday and a Snow Day! The kids have no school, Ryan's "working from home" and the babysittee is staying home with his mommy. We have hot chocolate on the stove and cinnamon rolls in the oven and a stack of movies from the library... all the ingredients for a nice cozy day!
The kids are already out playing in the three or four inches we have out there this morning before 8am. We had a little mini heat wave yesterday and last night (at 25-30 degrees compared to arctic wave and the highs of like 15 we've been having) but the temp is supposed to plummet again today combined with high winds putting the wind chill well below zero -below ten below zero actually-, so I told the kids if they wanted to play in the snow they had to do it now. It's already dropped from 17 to 12° in the hour since I've been up, so yeah, I think it's gonna be too cold to play soon. Here are a few snaps I took from the front porch this morning...
Resolutions for the New Year. New resolve, New habits, a New way of doing things. I have ten goals for this New Year -some big, some small- all hoping to make a happier, healthier me. 1- no spend January possibly no spend until my husband finds a new job :/ It's a goal of going the whole month without spending money except on minimal groceries and necessities. I've done it before and I can (have to) do it again.
2- picking up the camera again. I miss taking pictures just for fun. I miss actually learning to do it better. And I so miss my photo-a-day blog and how just those simple images remind me so quickly of that whole day or specific time in life. I'm committing to doing that again, but adding them to the photo page on this blog here. Resolution 2.2 is to take more pictures of Ryan and I and Ryan and I together. We have minimal. And I definitely want to be more intentional about picking up the camera for more special events... remembering to snap shots of who's around for what celebration and the fun time we're having together. I did manage to do a little better at that already on New Year's Day, so hopefully that means I'm off to a decent start.
3- walking My goal is to walk (outdoors or in) at least four times a week. My real goal is to lose the same 15lbs I've been saying I'm going to lose every year...
4- get back to my regular housekeeping "schedule" Any sense of routine and regular upkeep around here was abandoned, oh about JULY, and hasn't resurfaced since. What with our crazy summer and fall and a new baby here during the week and a couple of trips, my poor house has really suffered. Number one priority is getting back on the regular laundry wagon... getting clothes put away in between washings and washing regularly instead of only when we're out of clean underwear.
5- more face time with my kids It's been talked about before and never really played out; I want my husband and I each to have regular "date nights" individually with each kid one-on-one. I had a dream the other night-one of those eerily realistic dreams in which I actually woke up crying- where I was hanging out with a friend and suddenly I ignored her for a few minutes and just sat and watched my son playing something and noticed like three things about him that I didn't know before. Hard to explain, but it was like this sudden revelation -in the dream- that I don't spend enough time engaged with my kids and I ended up crying with my friend about it and we vowed to both make a change. Kind of a strange dream, but convicting nonetheless.
6- more face time with my husband Not that we really need more, I think we spend more time together than most average couples, but I want more time with just us. No kids. We do lots of date night's in, where we have a special dinner after the kids go to bed or play a game or whatever. But I want us to get out- date nights, fun outings, maybe a night away once in awhile. Just get out of the routine and just be us together. I want to do one thing like that a month.
7- less face time with the computer For this first week or so in January I'm going to "be normal" but keep track of how much time I'm on the computer. I know it's a lot, but rather than just say it's a lot, I want to know how much. I think it will disgust me. Then I'm going to slash that. I will probably give myself windows during the day where I can be on the computer and say it's off limits other than that. I just really need to be doing other things rather than just the easy access of wasting time online whenever. And I haven't decided if this will be once a week or once a month, but I'm also going to be Unplugged For A Day. The whole house, the whole day... no tv, no movies, no computer, no Ipod, nada. Just intentionally setting aside a day of time to be in the moment and entertain ourselves. :)
8- blog more I'm going to have to be up on my time management to fit this in with #7, but I really really miss blogging regularly and having that journal here to look back on. This is definitely a priority for me so I have to just rearrange what I spend my time on the internet doing...
9- start a Virtues Project in our family with weekly "meeting" Not sure yet what we're calling this (I'm kind of weird about "family meetings"), but I got this book -two of them actually, so watch for a possible giveaway- for Christmas that I'd been wanting and I've been reading it and am really excited to introduce my family to the idea of going through it together. From the book;
"The Family Virtues Guide is not about family values. Values are very family and culture specific. It is about virtues, which are universally valued by all faiths and cultures in the world. Virtues are described as the qualities of the soul and the attributes of God. They are the means by which we can reflect the image and likeness of the Creator. The Family Virtues Guide is grounded in sacred traditions of the world's faiths. The key principle of The Family Virtues Guide is that parents are the first educators, the ones needed to impart values and virtues to their children. This book is a response to parents who want to bring simple spirituality and character education into their children's lives. It offers simple methods for paying attention to the spiritual and moral development and to bring out the best in every child, in every member of the family, day-to-day."
The book contains fifty-two virtues, one for each week of the year. Each virtue begins with a small inspriational quotation from the holy books of different world's religions. Each virtue contains four pages: What is it? Why practice it? How do you practice it with exercises and then Signs of Success... all to go over and practice together as a family. Like I said, not sure how exactly we're going to go about this, when we should have our family time (I'm thinking maybe before our movie night each Sunday) or if we should even always have it be a formal time every time, but it's definitely something I want to incorporate into our year this year.
10- no procrastinationallowed I'm serious about this one. This is probably the worst habit I have to break. And I'm going to change it this year. Luckily I can practice it with all the above resolutions! This year's the year!!
Time to recount one of my favorite traditions of the year... our New Years Day Dinner with friends!
This year's make-up was almost completely different as we had two regular families out of town and some newbies to make up for it. And I just realized, no one at dinner was local... everyone came long distance to join us this year!! The Laughlins were in attendance as well as the Robertsons all the way from Indiana and the Massenas who live in Lincoln, IL. The Indy Laughlins were also supposed to come as they were headed home from holidays in Columbia, but ended up with a sickie so they bailed. We were expecting 10 adults and 10 kids, we ended up with 8 and 8, but if everyone who usually comes had been around it would have been more like 14 adults and 15 kids!! Crazy!
The whole gang for 2010... (minus Savannah who went upstairs to read before lunch/dinner and fell asleep and missed the entire party. Ryan finally woke her up almost five hours later and yes, she had a fever that night. :( )
Teach us to number our days right Lord, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. -Psalm 90:12
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"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so." ~Mary Jean Iron
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