Christmas Through the Years

So, I thought it would be fun to share some Christmas memories from 1995 to present.

1995 - Our first Christmas together

1996 - I'm pregnant with Jacob

1997 - Jacob is 6 months old

1998 - Jacob is 18 months old

1999 - Jacob is 2 1/2, the twins are about 6 weeks old 2000 - The kids are wearing shirts with reindeer made from their hand and footprints. This was at Little Wonders preschool where I taught the 3-year-old class.

2001

2002 - We went to Illinois for Christmas.

The kids got to play in snow for the first time ever!

2003 - Mom, Dave, Nanny, Aaron & Sera spent Christmas with us in Texas. We also had a surprise visit from Robin & Craig.

2004 - Our first Christmas in Georgia 2005 - Mom and Dave came to celebrate Christmas with us. 20062007

Co-op

Last month, my friend Jan taught a Science class at our homeschool co-op. The class was about surface tension and she had the kids do several different experiments to help them learn about this scientific principle.

First, the kids had to see if they could make a paper clip float on water. It's not as easy as you'd think. Then they sprinkled pepper in their bowls of water, dipped toothpicks in oil and put the toothpick in the pepper. They were all amazed as the surface tension broke and the pepper spread to the edge of their bowls. After that, they experimented by dropping food coloring into a bowl of milk and watching the designs it made. This was pretty neat. Their last experiment was putting drops of water onto a penny...can you guess how many drops of water you can get on a penny before it splashes off? This penny has 46 drops of water on it...no joke! This was one of those great classes that everyone got into... Even the moms!
Thanks, Jan, for a GREAT science class!

Burt's Farm

One day the week before Halloween, we took the kids to Burt's Farm up in Dawsonville.

This was our first visit to Burt's.

Although it was a VERY cold day, we made the best of it.

We were thankful for the sunshine.

Above - the kids with a yummy pumpkin bread treat!

We took the kids on the 2-mile hayride - a few minutes into it, we came to a stop here (below) to hear Burt’s talking pumpkins, Autumn and Gourdy.
We had another gorgeous Fall this year. I wish the pictures did it justice.

These photos are of our backyard on election day.

The colors this year were so vibrant. Sometimes driving down the road it looked like there was fire on either side of us. It was so beautiful!

The Great Northwest - Part 3

Finally! I'm just a tad behind in blogging, but before I do our Fall activities, I have to finish telling about our trip to the Northwest back in August. Our 3rd and final stop was to Mom & Dave's house on Whidbey Island. We took this funky little ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey.

We had a wonderfully relaxing time visiting with Mom & Dave.Quite a few rounds of crouquet were played...
And the kids LOVED playing and cuddling with Pennie.
Here's one of the gorgeous views Mom and Dave have from their home. You can see the outline of Mt. Rainier and if you look hard enough, you can barely see the skyscrapers of Seattle to the lower right of the mountain. Mt. Rainier is an awesome sight!
We spent one of our afternoons at Fort Casey. Above, the kids are standing by one of the 'disappearing guns.' They were pretty neat. Below, the boys in one of the 'lookout' towers. They weren't quite tall enough to be able to see out. Caleb is actually standing on a pole in there and Jacob is on his tippy-toes.
After touring the fort and a yummy picnic lunch, we headed down to the beach. The kids found several forts that someone had made out of driftwood. They were very cool!
And after spending time with Dad on his beach, Jon was on the hunt for heart-shaped rocks. Check out these beauties!

One of the main reasons we planned our trip when we did was so that we could attend the 90th birthday party of my grandma (Nanny.)
About 20 of her friends came to Whidbey Island to help her celebrate.
Above - 4 generations of women!
Me with my handsome husband!

On our last day and night, we helped take care of a dog for some friends of Mom & Dave. Maggie is the cutest Cocker Spaniel ever and the kids had alot of fun with her. Here she is sleeping amongst the kids' sleeping bags and blankets. She made herself right at home!

Thanks for a super vist! We love you!

To an Invisible Mother

To an Invisible Mother...

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store.

Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?'Obviously, not.No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all.I'm invisible. The invisible Mom.

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this? Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.'

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated sum a cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going; she's going; she is gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England.Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in.I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: 'To My Dear Friend, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work.

1. No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names.

2. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished.

3. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.

4. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.' And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place.It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.'

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, 'you're going to love it there.'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Great Job, MOM!

Share this with all the Invisible Moms you know...I just did.

I hope this encourages you when the going gets tough as it sometimes does. We never know what our finished products will turn out to be because of our perseverance.