New Year's Eve

The countdown is on. Our New Year's Eve has it all... games, songs, sauna, snow banks, and celebratory gunfire.

Blessed New Year, and Blessed Holy Day to you all!

Resolved

I love ringing in the New Year. I love the clean look of a new calendar with only birthdays and holidays carefully and neatly written in with my best pen. I also like to write down my hopes and plans for the upcoming year.

Do you make resolutions for New Year's? I thought everybody did, but Chuck said he never has. His reasoning is why make promises to yourself that you know you probably will not keep? I just read on a Catholic blog that one third of the people who make New Year's resolutions have broken them by February. I can't vouch for how accurate that statistic is, but based on my personal record, it wouldn't surprise me.

I posted resolutions for 2007, and of the three resolutions I made, I kept only one and that one I didn't keep very well. I never did write down resolutions for 2008, possibly because I was sick around New Year's and Mary Mae was still so young that just maintaining normalcy day after day was an accomplishment. (Sometimes I didn't do that so well either, Ha!) But this has not been a stellar year for me. In many ways, I feel like I've backtracked in many ways, and I've developed some personal "habits" that I really do not like. In short, I don't think I am a better person at the end of this year than I was at the beginning. Failure to more forward is essentially the same as going backward.

So, I'm going to make my resolutions, but I'm going to try putting more prayer and thought into them than I usually do. I'm also going to follow advice from a friend about making my goals more specific and measurable, and also making sure they are realistic.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. I think we will be busy most of the day with some housework most of the early part of the day. Since Christmas we've only done the bare necessities, and now it is time to catch up on some laundry and non-essential housework. We will probably spend our afternoon and evening with cooking, eating, games, and shooting each other with NERF or airsoft pellet guns. Okay, that last bit is how the guys will probably spend their evening... I think the girls and I might choose an activity that is a little more subdued. *wink*

God bless!

Bloggers, take note...

This afternoon I picked up Chuck's book, New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton. This is what I opened up to...

If you write for God, you will reach many men and bring them joy.
If you write for men- you may make some money and you may give someone a
little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while.
If you write only for yourself you can read what you yourself have written
and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted you will wish that you were
dead.

Merry Christmas!

Short Update

I have a minute to post a short update while the older kids are playing a game with Chuck and Mary Mae is dozing on my lap.

There's been a lot going on this last week! First, I owe an apology for not getting pictures yet. Bad, bad blogger. :-(

Chuck made it home (after a minor delay) on Thursday afternoon. We've been dealing with all-out winter weather the last two weeks or so, with very cold (often below-zero) temperatures and lots of snow. The word is that our area has already gotten 121" for the season, but I know how these Yoopers exaggerate the snow. Still, we have a good three feet in the yard, and it snows at least a few more inches just about every day. The piles at the end of the driveway, by the garage, are already as tall as me, and we have like four months of snow season left!

The children are all doing well, although we've had a couple small "bugs" to fight off so far this year. Still, nobody has been seriously sick in a long time and I am so thankful for that! I sprained my ankle pretty good about a week ago (which is why Chuck came home a few days earlier than planned, and that's fine by me) but it is well on it's way back to normal. With only 2 days until Christmas, we have a lot to do! We plan to do some baking and decorating; we haven't even cut our tree yet!

This isn't much of an update, I know, but sorry... it is the best I can do right now. The kids are giggling uncontrollably and it sounds like I'm missing out on all the fun.

God bless!

Taking a break

I still intend to get some pictures up here and there, but I'm going to take a break from blogging for a while.

I hope all of you are enjoying a beautiful early winter and a blessed Advent season!

Dear Santa

How are you doing there in the North Pole? Are you getting as much snow there as we are here so far?

I have tried to be a good Mommy this year. Sure, there were times I made mistakes, but I always tried to apologize and improve. So, assuming I am on your "Nice" list, these are my requests.


For Christmas this year, my children would like:

*Toys that are quiet, safe, easy to maintain, do not require batteries, and encourage sharing as well as imagination and active play.
*Books. Good books. The type of books we can snuggle down with as a family and share during read-aloud time.
*Games appropriate for various ages and several players, so long as said games do not have more than approximately one dozen pieces and/or one hundred cards.
*Movies are okay, but remember that we have to be picky. Please check the ratings.
*Clothes, particularly socks and underwear. There is no such thing as too many socks.
*Would a child-size vacuum be too much to ask for? Probably.

Thank you so much, Santa. I look forward to eating "your" cookies and drinking "your" milk again this year.

Love,
Jennifer

Back from break..

I've been meaning to update for a few days now, but always "something" happens and blogging gets put aside for more important events.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. For the first time in 10 years I didn't have to do all the cooking myself- we spent the evening having dinner with some friends. But, since I already had a turkey, I cooked another dinner on Friday. (Usually I try to remember to avoid serving meat on Fridays, but spending all day keeping my cool in a hot kitchen was penance enough!)

Chuck and the neighbor went in together on a cow and it was slaughtered on Monday. They also did the sheep. So on Saturday Chuck and I spent about all day in the neighbor's garage cutting up meat and trimming fat. Wow, what a job! But we have a freezer full of meat to show for it, all good-quality beef for less than a dollar and a half a pound. I also got about 10 pounds of meaty bones to use for soup and other scraps for our (very) happy doggie and kitties. It wasn't a bad job at all, really, but I'm glad we won't do it again until next year. Yeah, it is strange not to have the sheep anymore. That means we are down to just chickens and the pets, as far as animals go. But the sheep just were not paying for themselves in any way.

Chuck headed back to Texas early this morning, and he's on his last plane right now. It should only be about three weeks or so before he will be back home for a long vacation through Christmas and New Year's. Over the next few weeks I'm hoping that the children and I can clean house and do some decluttering. Whever it starts to feel like I can't keep the place clean, I know it is time to go through and get rid of stuff. Just when I think we are making progress in simplicity, I look around and see all the things that we are surrounded by! It is harder, I think, to keep a tidy house when everywhere you turn there are mittens and hats and scarfs and gloves and boots and snowsuits hanging to dry! I gotta say, though, I love these short, cozy days of winter!

I promise to get some pictures up over the next few days! God bless!