I am...

Little house on the prairie and Amy Butler Fabric
A wood cookstove and a dishwasher
1000 square feet and two washing machines
Cold water on hot hands
A soiled bride in a sparkling gown
Randy Travis and Sarah Groves
Just like my Mother, but not at all
All alone and totally surrounded
Fresh ground flour and a Big Mac
Obeying but so afraid
Sarena not Sirena

Who are you?

Thank you.

After my "Christmas Post" I received some pretty amazing encouragement! I just want to take a minute to say Thank You! to all of you. We need each other and we need to be able to share our struggles, not to say that we should moan and groan everytime something hard comes up, but there are just times that we need the body of Christ to lift us up!

Thank you for being that in my life :)

My Sunday

Sunday mornings are usually pretty good around here.. sometimes a little hectic.. but pretty good. So far this is what my morning has looked like.

Woke up at 9:00, my children really love me lately. Searched for my long john's to wear under my dress. They had gotten pushed out the back of my drawer into the bottom drawer where I keep future presents. Got dressed, decided that the long john's weren't going to work and opted for a slip instead... it's not that cold out and I won't be outside much. Dalen got up and ate breakfast with the kids while I straightened my hair and did my makeup. If it wasn't for the static causing dryness it would be a great hair day. Joe woke up and Dalen gave him a bottle while I finished up.

The kids are all dressed accept for Joe because he can't dress himself. I grabbed bowl of cereal (hopefully I won't pay for it later) and the last orange. Tried to log onto facebook while I watch Adon shovel the deck, he's doing great but he hasnt' hit the part where the snow has fallen off of the roof.

Dalen came down and said "Time to go now" after shaving with Ephrim (he got a play shaving kit for Christmas and just announced that he has a beard now)

I quickly finished my cereal got Joe's clothes and a diaper, Dalen took him and changed him and I packed my bag and we were off.

My husband is a huge help to me. If I wasn't for him Sunday's wouldn't go so good. Now Dalen is going to take Adon and Ephrim to skate on the backyard rink that he made for them while I nurse a sinus headache with a Skor bar and some little house on the prairie until Emma and Joe wake up from their naps... then I'll feed Joe and sew something with Emma... hopefully. That's the plan...

What do your Sunday's look like?

Musings on Christmas

Well now that the fog has cleared, I have some thoughts in my head about this season. Not much really, just some things floating around in my head and mostly confessions about myself.

Every year I have tried to tame the whole gift thing down. For friends and new aquainances I do a little basket of goodies that the kids and I put together.. not baking because then people have to eat it. Not that I'm bad at baking. I'm not. I'm also not proud ;)

This year I was very excited because I had so many things planned to do with the kids and up until leaving for Vancouver I was on the right track. But once home we were sick and I am still on the mend so everything went out the door. There are a few things that dissapoint me about Christmas.

#1. The focus is always on the gifts. I can't knock this too hard because I do the same thing. In fact this year when I didn't get the one thing that I really wanted I had to fight back tears and it ruined my whole night (we open gifts Christmas Eve night) I've bought less and less every year to try to get our minds off of the presents and focus more on Christ... but apparently this is not the solution.

#2. We are really boring, self centered parents. Pair that with being very sick and tired it's quite boring for my kids. I'm not the fun mom who plays with the kids toys with them. I sit there tired and doing nothing.

#3. Everyone else seems to have a lot more fun than us... probably because of the first two reasons.

Anyway it seems that my intentions always fly out the door every year and I become a beastly mother who is just no fun at all... the guilt comes in and by the end of the day I am a sobbing mess crumpled up in my bed being comforted by my husband.

Actually this is a fairly normal cycle in my life and doesn't just hold to Christmas alone.

Whew.. that was a vent and a half. Am I the only person who goes through this... I know why I do... it's just having the will power to do anything about it that's hard.... you?

31 weeks and counting

Well this is where we're at so far. I am 31 weeks along and it's going fast. I am always late so I'm expecting to have 11 weeks left instead of 9, although I wouldn't mind being suprised ;) We had an ultrasound while in Vancouver and everything looks good. There's still no way to tell if the baby will have a cleft palate but the face is good and sure does look like one of my babies. This one will have Dalen's lips!