Tis the Season

When we say "tis the season"...What do we really mean?
Lets make a list:
Is this the season for family fighting?
The season for bringing out the worst in people?
STRESS! Need I say more?
Scrooges??
Tis the season for heavy traffic..heavy shopping and heavy eating? Glutenty?
Selfishness?

I have engaged in all of these things they don't miss me despite the fact that I think the real reason for the season is JESUS! His birth ..what his birth meant and what it meant for all of man kind. But I question myself at least..DO I do enough ? am I passing the true message to my children?
IS engagaing in all of this worldly stuff wiping out anything good that I do because the wordly temptations are just that... temptations?
I read the story of JEsus' birth to my children....we have even thrown a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas....Last night we went to the tree of sharing to donate gifts to two children...is that really enough? Couldn't I do more...will they understand everything I want them to know?

What do I really want them to learn.....
The LOVE of jesus..his destiny to give his life for us....GIVING! When we give there are no expectations...The giving is supposed to be from the heart without strings..not because you feel like you have to give to someone...my family struggles with that. GOd Gave us his only son...as a parent we know that was the biggest sacrifice that we could ever know..we will give our own lives for our children..just to spare our kids...WHy because the death of a child is the worst thing that could happen to us parents...God did that! GIVING! That should be the theme. Celebrating the REAL reason for the Season...JESUS!
This needs to be a joyous occasion filled with love, happiness, healed hearts, and Hope for what is to come later when you beleive. We need to believe in the right things...or that is out the window. Which is what has happened to many of us.

We need to feel love in our hearts despite the fact that our flesh wants to fight love. LOVE...what does it mean? many things to many people...but today I want it to mean thinking of others before ourselves..unselfish love. Love means to feel....not just feel hurt..that gets in the way but to feel compassion,empathy, and sympathy. If we can walk a mile in someone elses' shoes I belive we can feel all of those elements of love and we would get a whole new perspective of what we should be doing with love. Jesus was a fine expample of that.....healing, laughing, and teaching. We all have gifts..strengths..and we need to use them for which he intended..let's start fighting to use them.

Happy Holidays all!

Well I am finally to the point of enjoying some peace....I passed all of my classes which seems possible...except..I really struggled in one class. I got a C in A&P which isn't all that great but at least I didn't fail.
I spent the weekend with my grandma ...we were supposed to go Christmas shopping but she wasn't feeling up to it so I went with my Aunt..we had a great time..we used to shop when I lived there...our "power" shopping...we are perfect shoppers together!
I finsihed all of the shopping for my kids and now it is nothing but wrapping...I used to enjoy wrapping...now I don't care as long as it gets done...lol.
I have started reading our traditional Christmas books for the season...."The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and we also read the story of Jesus Birth from the bible...the kids love it.
I loved that book when I was little so I love to read it to the kids.
I am tring to make new stockings for my family this year..not sure I will have them done in time for Christmas because the most perfect fabric just came in last week for them and I have not technically started them yet...if not I am sure I will get them done before next year. hehe.
Rob and the boys finally got the tree up this year..I have given up on decorating...I would not have even put it up this year ..so they did it. I am not sure why..other than I am tired and by the time break came...it seemed that the holiday was half over...and I felt like I have not been able to breathe until now...so there it is.
It has been snowing all night and day here..school was delayed for 2 hours this morning..the kids were oh so happy about that..Bryce is home sick and I am thankful I don't have to drive an hour to and from school in this stuff....
Well I hope you all haev a great day..and since I am home form school..I willtry to update this more often...we shall see.

Like Mother, Like Daughter...in this case!

IT was so cute last week...I want to document this becuase in my hectic life I may not remember and I want to scrap this one day....

Last week Clarissa was reading her book to Rob for her nightly reading and I was cooking dinner in the kitchen...I heard her say..."and I want to buy Mom a bunch of flowers"....I knew she was reading from her book but I said "Oh, CLarissa ...you do..You want to buy me a bunch of flowers?" She replies " Mom, I am reading my book." I said " oh, ok." hehe.
Well about 30 minutes later while I was still working in kitchen Clarissa comes up to me and said " here mom" and she had a little note that said " I love my mom so much I want to get her a bunch of flowers" and then there were little flowers and hearts drawn all over ..is that not the cutest thing you have ever heard? That will be the best bunch of flowers I have ever recieved. I hugged her and told her how much I loved her. She smiled.

The following day I called my grandma and we were chatting and she said she had been going through a video book and this peice of paper fell out that made her teary eyed and I asked what it was...she said it was a picture I had drawn for her and the note I had written on it was "TO: Grandma , this is a picture I drew of us we don't have faces but I thought the gesture was enough...please don't hang this up. Love Charisma"

it was a pencil drawing of us hugging with my grandma's hand on my cheek. ISn't that the sweetest?? She said she was going to frame it and hang it up..I told her that was fine....all I can think is....at the time that I drew it I must of thought it was not good enough..because I have always been that way..but I did want to share with my grandma how I felt about her without exposing myself to much...but now that I am an adult I realize how important that kind of a drawing is to a grandma\parent and I am glad she kept it as I will always keep the drawing and note from Clarissa. Isn't timing a funny thing? I don't believe in coincidences..but I do believe that in the times and struggles we experience in our everyday lives sometimes there is that little glimspe of the things we are truly greatful for and God places those things in our path so we don't take things for granted...but we realize it because it is not in our ordinary day....Blessings!

Isn't it funny how we see so many things in our children that are in ourselves..I never realized until recently how much Clarissa is so much like me...the last few months have been so eye opening ..the older she gets the more teary eyed I get for so many reasons but most of all I just want her to be a strong confident woman and I just may get her there with all of these older brothers...But I see so many strong,good and idealistic qualities in her ..yet I know she could be crushed so easily because she sees and feels everything... life will lead her to where she needs to be regardless of how I see her...and I can't worry about all the things I am not and what I want her to be..I have to raise her to be who God wants her to be....just as I am trying to raise myself to be who He wants me to be...

I hope you all recognize those blessings in your everyday life and that you will document them because I now realize that this blog will be a blessing to my kids regardless if I get every memory scrapbooked because they will have them anyway..in this form and hopefully they will see how much I dearly love them in my everyday life..because they have been my biggest and best blessings.

homecoming

JEri had homecoming on Saturday night. It was her first date/first dance. She was so beautiful. I found a dark chocolate brown dress a few weeks back and bought that it fit her perfectly. We found a very cute headband on Etsy that complimented the dress perfectly and it took me 5 shops to find some footless nylons to go with her dress so she could wear some bronze beaded sandals with her dress....and while getting her ready all I could think of was meeting her the first time, she was 7 and how much she has grown and how fast the time has gone and how hard it is to let her go on her first date. I cried off and on until she left ...my heart wanted to leap after her but I let her date's mom take her away from me. She went to Michael's in Moses Lake for dinner and then on to the dance. When she came home at midnight she was floating and told me all about her dancing, what she ordered for dinner, and how everyone complimented her on how pretty she was...and tears swelled up again because it was true..she was absolutely beautiful.
Jeri's date was a nice boy that she met last summer during the church program and you know how freshman boys are right? The boy came to the door to pick up Jeri and she looked about 25 with her "sisters" and the make-up I had adorned her with and here comes this poor boy he looked about 12. But the sweetest guy around and very polite and thoughtful. He had brought chocolates for me and 2 different corsages for Jeri to choose from. Rob embarassed all of us...telling the boy not to piss him off?? what the heck? This boy is a dream come true for parents he was literally shaking from nerves and scared to death of Gracie the dog? Gracie is scared of everyone and runs with her tail between her legs if a strangers bends down to pet her? seriously. So anyway it was a success and I hope all future parents of her dates are this easy to work with and up to this type of standard.

SO another step towards my children growing up to fast and me trying to accept it.
but what a great night for Jeri ( and me).

Some things to remember.....

ON Saturday night Rob and I went on a date...wooowooo that in itself is a miracle and we had a great time had dinner and saw "Couples Retreat" it was funny. Anyway we had 2 extra boys here and also Jeri's best friend Sammy was here for the night as well. When I got home the kids were all watching a movie and poor Clarissa is wondering because she is not interested in what they are watching and she seems to be left out of those things because she is younger.
I went downstairs and she brought her new card making kit (thanks to Donna who gave it to us!..complete with glitter glue and everything..just what she loves!) I put on the tunes and I started sewing Clarissa was making cards and it felt very comfortable, like we just were in sync. I asked her if she liked the music ..she looked at me nodded yes and we went about our business. Last week we were working on her own sewing machine but she wanted to make cards this night.
Clarissa was making cards to give to people because she can't seem to make something that has no purpose...she is so much like me:) So she made a few for me and Rob and then she made a book for us. One of the pages says I love mommys cooking and then she wrote I love daddy , daddy is funny. Bryce came down at that time and said " The jury is still out on that one" poor Rob..lol.
As soon as Bryce came down and saw what Clarissa was doing he sat down right beside her and started making a card. Here the 7th grader and the 1st grader working side by side, it warmed my heart. Clarissa was showing him what she was doing and he was interested. Then as if a memo went out... one by one every boy came down and started working on cards....taking over Clarissa's station. She was willing to share because above everyone else in our house Clarissa....worships " The brothers" as she calls them.

A few weeks ago when school started for me things got crazy because I had started working 2 weeks before, and Rob got a promotion at work so he has been having to work crazy hours and he also had to leave for training in Portland for a week, so I had my girlfriends helping me take kids to soccer and football and other kid activities.. During this time Clarissa was insufferable, would not listen to the kids and when Rob was home late at night she was throwing fits and talking back to him so much so that one night he spanked her..which is the first time he has ever done that to her...not to mention we agreed not to practice corporal punishment on our kids..anyway, I decided that night I would talk to her....I know exactly what she needs because she is so much like me it is scary...I pulled her into my lap and told her that this is just a crazy time right now and that she needs to listen to her brothers and sister and that all the craziness would end soon...it wont stay like this and I explained why things were happening..as soon as she knew the chaos was not going to stick around and that there would be an end..she was back to her old self. Until recently I knew Clarissa and I were somewhat alike but until lately I didn't realize how much she and I really are alike and it is good on one hand because I can help her when need be but also scary because you never want your children to suffer from your same insecurities or weakness'...I keep trying to tell myself that maybe I can just make everything better for her....but as I already know alot of times the things we suffer from our kids pick up on that...I have already recognized some of that in my other children.

Some other things to remember:

School is temporary...family is not....

taking time to bake a cake helps keep my kids happy....

Date night is important for me and Rob..it has set up our whole week...and we are both smiling more.

Don't forget the simple things in life..

We have a little boy that has been hanging at our house and I kept wondering why he was staying so late and he is here all the time. Finally the kids told me he is here because he likes being here his mom leaves out of town most days of the week and leaves him and his brother with a drunk babysitter..that doesn't seem to care where he is and so he stays with us until my kids bedtime. I told this little guy that he could stay with us any night because we have 2 extra beds.( I really want to call his mom but I don't know the "Real" story and I am not judging I just want the kids to be safe...so I am going to pray about it before I call and just offer to let them stay here if she needs them to..rather than with someone who is not caring what they do ) ON Sunday night we were getting ready to have Sunday dinner ...he was here and I called the kids up to dinner. Suddenly Rob says we need another place setting and chair..this boy was eating with us. After he left home Rob told me that the boy was standing in the doorway and Rob had asked him if he wanted to eat with us..the boy looked up at Rob and said "really?...nobody else has ever asked me to stay for dinner they always tell me to go home." That makes me cry for so many reasons..that guy ate like he had never had such a great meal before ...I am thankful for so many reasons....
1. that my husband didn't think twice about inviting him
2. that we can always provide a meal for our family and we always have room for one more..thank you to God!
3. That my home is a safe place for him and anyone else
4. That I have such great kids to allow this to happen in my home
5. So many things to be thankful for....I am so blessed. I love being used as a vessel for God!

Everyday life happenings

Well life just keeps passing by with each breath. The kids are involved in all their activities.....I got a new car....My friend Carla got a new car and just gave me her old car free and clear isn't that a God send? Rob wrecked the mustang a few months back and we got ripped off by the insurance company because apparently the car had been wrecked previosly and it didn't tell us that on the title...so anyway we still got what we paid into it, but I took the money to pay off most of his medical bills from his back surgery. Rob is tired of driving " Old Faithful" That is what I have named the honda..lol. No matter what happens with our car situation...The honda always seems to be the back-up car ..it is white with a brown door...no radio because it has been robbed so many times...and it still keeps running along. I refuse to have a car payment because you never know what will happen in this economy. Plus, we basically only have one income, 6 kids, and people with health issues....so you never know...so we basically have to save for a car and lately things keep coming up...so ROb has been upset about the car issue..and now it is all cleared up. As far as I am concerned.
I love my new job.....it is a happy place to be...It is like being in a world of color and texture...and people walk in there want to be there and love all the same things I love.
So many things seem to be falling into place..and school starts for me next week.
Rob got a promotion at work....not sure how much or what is actually happening until Friday....When he has a meeting with the upper management. So things seem to be happening for the better. All that nagging I did to make him get his certification paid off..lol.
Well, I hope everyone has a good day!

Fall Beginings

Well football for our family has officially started and Clarissa had her first soccer practice. She was excited and nervous all at the same time. All I could think the whole time is ...She is so much like her mother..she does not have natural grace or athletic abilities. She kept placing the ball perfectly with her hands before she would kick it....lol. SO obviously we need to work with her...and she runs like a girl...oh well good thing she is one.
We went camping at RimRock last weekend we were rained on but it was fun. They had a live band and also two days of sword fighting, medieval style with foam swords and Shields..That is just what the doctor ordered for the kids! So the boys spent most of their time fighting or in the pool.
Clarissa was in tears because a little boy ( JOsh our friends little guy) had a crush on her and told her she was " one gorgeous wady and he just wanted to kiss her" well obviously like most women she cried and got totally disgusted by it..so much so that you can't even mention it now without the tears spilling freely. How tragic..I know.
I am starting a new job today. I got a job at the local fabric store...very part-time ..I think anyway and she is willing to work around my school schedule..so it seems to be a perfect fit for me.
Fall is representing so many new beginnings for me that it almost seems like it should be spring...but things are settling down in some areas and the weather is getting colder..Fall is my favorite time of year...I love apples and pie, cider and the warm colors of fall. All those warm colors make me happy and I love to bundle up in nice comfy sweaters...
I hope fall brings everyone the same happiness and comfort it brings me.