Best article I've read in awhile.

This was so helpful to me in a lot of ways, hope it blesses you as well.

Clogging.

Ok, I wanted to get the girls into gymnastics. Innocent right? Do you know how much gymnastics cost? Alot! So I made a couple phone calls and they're signed up for clogging, the poor man's gymnastics. Here's a taste of what they'll be learning.

O Holy Night!

Just got my kids out of bed to sing Christmas songs. This has to be my all time favorite verse of any Christmas song. Merry Christmas!

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise His Holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
His pow'r and glory ever more proclaim!

I'm praying that people know me by peace and love and asking forgiveness in areas I know I need it. Chains are broken, we are free, no better news to live under. Peace.

Feisty.

The word of the day is feisty. Sometimes I can get feisty. I am a justice seeker, freedom fighter, zealot, kind of girl. I see things, I call them like I see them and then I want to make things right. Thankfully in these moments God has sent me Andy. I'll be on a roll, talking about how things 'should' be and he'll pull me into a quiet place. He'll say, 'sit down.' Then he proceeds to pray for me... things like, 'Thank you God for your grace, and mercy and peace, help us to love others how you love them.' Usually, I don't get it until I wake up the next morning and realize that His mercies are new every morning. In these moments I thank God for Andy and the balance He brings.

Occasionally I'll pray for Andy to be a little more 'feisty.' That's just between you and me.

A new favorite sweater and dating your dad.

Today was a great thrifting day. Andy would call it a 'bad' thrifting day. A day where I found everything I never knew I needed. Like the BBC 'Pride and Predjudice' on VHS. How could I pass that up.

This lovely new sweater-I have a thing for sweaters.

Thrifting wasn't the only fun thing. River has discovered that books are cool, and funny and will hold his 15 month-old attention. It was a beautiful 3 minutes let me tell you.

Tonight Andy took the girls on a fancy date out to dinner, complete with kitty cocktails and dessert. They were in Heaven and I can't wait to hear all about it.

It just doesn't make sense.

Everyday I do the same thing. I take a big dollop of moisturizer and spread it carelessly all over my face. The next 20 minutes I'm making this face because my eyes burn so bad. Why?

Do you have something you do on a regular basis that makes no sense? I'd like to hear it to know I'm not the only fool out there.

Recovery

Andy has lots of companionship through this recovery. It drives me crazy that our room is a hospital room/ office, but no one else seems to mind.

Could you live with just 100 things?

This article has peaked my interest. I lean on the minimalist side and appreciate the thoughts behind this. Who knows what the New Year will bring for our family?

Today is one of those days.

One of those days that makes winter worth it. The girls are playing happily, pumkin bread is warm and waiting to be cut into, and the snow is falling.

Tea Parties, Turkey and T-Advent.

I really wanted the title to be T's. Can't blame a girl for trying. We are freshly back from visiting family in VA for Thanksgiving. It was a blast! We always pack in alot ie... Christmas, Claire's B-day, family pics, visiting out-of -state friends and games, lots of games and lots of laughing.

On the way out we stopped and saw our good friends Matt and Abby in Indy, and Brent and Mary in Ohio. We stayed up too late, laughed a ton, and just hung out. Next stop was Virginia where we visited Kurt and Cindi at their apt. along with the rest of the fam. It was just a really good, special, family time. Are you wondering what the tea party was about? I finally had an official, girly, b-day party for Claire. As opposed to singing Happy Birthday over the pumpkin pie and turkey. We had 8 little girls over and played musical chairs, ate tiny finger foods and drank tea. I think it eased the trauma of turning 4 a bit.
Now we are in one of our favorite seasons, Advent. Today's activity was to make ornaments. Our sweet helper Katie, had fun with it too. They turned out nice considering the little thought and work that they required.