You put WHAT on your tree?

Our Christmas tree is eclectic.  We like it that way.

No two ornaments are alike, and most of them represent something... a memory, a friend, a symbol of Christmas.  A Mickey ornament from our family trip to Disneyland, a Japanese ball given by my Japanese "sister", stars, angels, and a Bethlehem scene.

But there's one ornament that really is unlike all the others.

Can you spot it?

Look...

And even if you can pick it out, do you have any idea what it is?

Look closer...

It would probably help if you have some kind of medical background.

You're looking at Kerry's Port-a-Cath.

When we met, Kerry was going through chemo and radiation, to treat Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and the port was a "convenient" way to receive therapy without puncturing his veins, repeatedly.

He was really, really sick.

After we married, and he'd been well for a few years, his oncologist suggested removing the port.

Though the surgery was minor, the message was major.

You don't need this anymore.

In celebration, Kerry twisted an ornament hanger around the top of the port and every year we give it a prominent place on our tree.

And we give thanks.

Ba-BOOM!

I think I've mentioned that I don't like clutter.  I've certainly mentioned it to my boys frequently.  I don't mind as much about the playroom, or even their bedroom, but I want the living room to stay tidy.

They're pretty good about keeping the common areas picked up, so I was somewhat mystified to find the same CD left out on the floor, day after day, when I hadn't heard it playing.

Guys, why is this Tchaikovsky CD sitting on the floor again?

Sheepish looks.

They've been taking it into their little CD player in the playroom and using the 1812 Overture as a soundtrack for their Lego pirate battles.

Love it.

Simple Woman #39

Simple Woman

FOR TODAY    December 7, 2009

Outside my window...  cold, clear sunny day.  The bare branches are tossing in the wind.

I am thinking...   17 days before Christmas.  So, of all the things I'd like to get done, which are most important?

I am thankful for...   we had a fun but BUSY weekend.  (PTO day - project day, church, Tuba Christmas, and two Messiah performances.)  As much as I liked all the parts of it, I'm glad it's past.

I am praying for...  right Christmas priorities.

I am wearing... jeans, dark green sweatshirt, a turtle neck that is printed with swirly strings of Christmas lights, wool socks.

I am creating...  a baby gift for little Jack Steven, born on Tuesday :0)

I am going...  staying HOME tonight - no more rehearsals :0)

I am reading... almost done with the Little House series I'm reading aloud to the boys.  We're into These Happy Golden Years, which is the last one I'm going to read to them (of the series.)  I'm still amazed (and happy) at how much they're enjoying these.  I confess that I do skim over some of the lengthy descriptions of their dresses that she includes in these latter books, but other than that, the boys are a rapt audience.  But I haven't been reading for myself much lately.  *sigh*

I am hoping...  not to cram too much into our Advent season, to fully enjoy it with my family in a relaxed way... as relaxed as three boys ever get ;-)

I am hearing...  the wind.  I love how it makes different noises going through the different trees.

I am remembering...  wishing and praying, as a child, that it would snow on Christmas.

From the learning rooms...  line plots and bar graphs, writing a narrative paragraph, starting through Janice vanCleave's chemistry experiments, memory verses for the Christmas program, the Turkish siege of Vienna, and Turkish Delight.

From the kitchen...  pork roast in the crock pot.

Around the house...  candles, Christmas lights, decorations, the advent wreath, Christmas stockings,

On my mind... thinking that after we finish the Little House books I should read the boys my great-grandmother's book.  She was born shortly after their - Laura and Mary's - time (later in the 1800's) and grew up in Kansas and Oklahoma before moving to the PNW as a young wife.

Pondering these words...  
"Mom, clear is a color you can see through."  - Gunnar


One of my favorite things...  Christmas carols

A few plans for the rest of the week...  making/buying Christmas presents (which I wanted to have done by Thanksgiving... *sigh*)

Here is a picture thought I am sharing... 

My brother - a fan of all things Disney - is giving us a 'tour' of a scale model he's making of Disneyland.

This is just the beginning...

Merry Tuba-Christmas

It's a festive weekend for us.  Full of music.

For Kerry, that means Tuba Christmas.

Apparently, Tuba (and euphonium, aka baritone horn) players gather all around the world, to play Christmas carols, arranged for low brass.  For once, they get to play something that doesn't just "oom-pah", and *gasp!* even get to play the melody!

 Well, they have to, because this is low brass, and all low brass.

Loads of fun, people, loads of fun.

Seriously!

I know, you might not want to buy a CD of nothing but tubas,

but you'd probably like Tuba Christmas :0)

The conductor is from the local university.  She plays tuba herself.

In fact, she has a music group of all tubas.

They're called Heavy Metal.

I've never actually heard them, but they've been described as being "as eloquent as singing whales."

That's meant to be good.  Interesting good.

Like Tuba Christmas.

Trust me, you'd like it :0)

It's a sunny day, so she's wearing her shades to conduct.

They had a great turnout this year!

 

And there's my baritone player, tooting away.

 

And all the little grasshoppers, with Gramma and Grampa Grasshopper.

 

Oh, and PS... my brilliant son brought his camera, as instructed, and then left it in the car.

A fact which I realized only as the performance was about to start.

There was no way I was fighting my way through the shopping maul, to the parking lot, and back again, so these photos were graciously provided by my sister and her cel phone.

Thanks Tami!

Preparation and Frustration

I've been preparing the boys to attend Messiah tonight, especially Tate.

Knowing that it will be hard for all of them to catch all the words that are sung, I've printed them all out.  I've also given them things to listen for in most of the songs/pieces.  Like, "Listen to the strings. Thousands of angels have just appeared to the shepherds.  Can you hear the beating of their wings?"  And I've been explaining different musical techniques, like the way the voices make interwoven harmonies and then emphasize other words by singing them in unison.

As I was going through one of the songs with Tate, playing it on a CD and mouthing the words so he could read my lips, Gunnar walked in and started talking.  (We're working on his frequent interrupting...)

I ignored him and kept mouthing and singing the words for Tate.

Gunnar got more frustrated.

"Mom!  Quit interrupting me!"

I gave him the raised eyebrow.  "I'm not interrupting you, I'm singing."

Pouting.  Stink eye.

"Well... then quit sing-errupting me!"

Friday Blitz

I've mentioned my bloggy soul-sister.  You can find her at the link just below.

Her "thing" is organizing.  Right there you know I like her.

And she lives in the real world.

You know, the I-want-my-house-clean-but-we-live-here-too.

Because it just irritates me to see photos, usually in magazines, of houses that look too perfect.

Like nobody actually lives there.

They wouldn't dare.  They'd mess it up.

Makes me want to stomp in wearing muddy shoes and drop some bags of groceries in the middle of the floor, just to see what would happen.

Anyway.

My Organizing Mommy friend suggests a one hour blitz.  You can read about it on her blog.  Basically, you work like a maniac for an hour and see how much you get done.  Not the sit-down jobs, the running around the house, tidying and cleaning jobs.  But I needed to so some sit-down jobs, too, so I compromised, and did some of each, and took two hours.

FIRST, I...

folded and put away two loads of laundry

threw another load in the washer

stripped our bed

put on clean sheets

cleaned off the chair in my office

patched two shirts

sorted out a laundry basket of stuff to go to Goodwill and the consignment store

and

emailed Gramma Grasshopper some pics to print

And rewarded myself with a break :0)

SECOND, I...

downloaded a bunch of pics I'd taken on Tate's camera

threw in another load of laundry

prepared a folder for the boys to bring to Messiah

organized several unwrapped gifts

framed four pictures

sent two thank-you cards

ordered Christmas stamps

emailed some pics I'd promised my cousin

and attacked my office and desk

This was what I saw as I walked into my office.

Depressing.

Now it looks like this.

Oh!  It's the floor!

Too much stuff everywhere, and no room to work.

I still have a project on my desk, but just one, and my supplies are tidier.

My desk was like the leaning tower of Pisa.  Ugh.

And it's mostly bills.  Double ugh.

Now I have room to deal with all those papers.

Tomorrow.

I need the ironing board in here when I'm sewing, but the rest of the time it's in the way.

And it accumulates more clutter.

(Where does that stuff breed, anyway?)

Now I can get to the closet.

For me, a cluttered environment equals a cluttered mind.

I can't function very well in the midst of disorder.

So I may not have accomplished many of the tasks I need to do, but having a tidy environment energizes me to get onto them.

Like the bills.

Tomorrow.

Real Grasshoppers get Real Trees

Hallelujah.

Our wet, windy, and wild November has let up and given us a few cold, clear December days.
Perfect for a visit to the tree farm.

Of course, we have to tromp all over the tree farm to find

the very best one.

All the boys help cut it down.

Tate is doing his part.

 

The boys help carry it.

Guess who gets the heavy end?

 

With their hoods up (it was cold!) they look like a string of elves.

 

My littlest elf gets to carry the saw.

 

Of course, we have to go inside for cookies and cider :0)

Then the tree goes into the machine.

We love the machine.

It wraps the tree like a folded up umbrella.

Easy-squeasy.

 

 So much easier to get it home and set it up.

Then, just cut it loose!

 

The first day we just got the lights and the star on it.

Ornaments yet to come...

 

The Boys' Tree

We have two Christmas trees this year.

This one is just for the boys.  

It holds all of their own, personal ornaments.  Some they've been given by Aunty Tami as part of our Thanksgiving tradition.  Some they've been given by other family or friends.  Some are hand-made :0)

 

They decorated this tree completely themselves, and wanted all their stars at the top.

The Thanksgiving Ornament

 I love how excited the boys are.  (Okay, after awhile it can drive me nuts, but it's a good thing, really!)  Their anticipation is contagious.  And it starts at Thanksgiving, with a couple of family traditions.

I don't want to slight Thanksgiving.  As Christians, we should be living lives overflowing with Thanksgiving, in response to God.  And in our house we hope that Thanksgiving is just a more overt expression of what we're doing every day.  But after Thanksgiving... well, after Thanksgiving dinner, anyway, we're thinking Christmas!

And the boys each receive a gift.  This is why...

When my mom's (older) sister was newly married and preparing for Christmas, she realized that she didn't have any special ornaments of her own.  A Christmas tree with lights and plain balls just doesn't 'sing' to our family, and she didn't want anyone else to find themselves in this sad situation, so Aunt Judy hatched a plan.  Every Christmas, from when we were born until we were 21 (and sometimes later, too) we received an ornament from Aunt Judy at Thanksgiving... so we could have it on our tree for Christmas.  Every one is different and special.  When we grew up and moved out, we had our own unique collection to take with us.  Though a couple have broken, I still hang most of mine on my Christmas tree, with happy memories :0)


When Wyatt - my first, was born - Aunty Tami picked up the reins, and now my boys are receiving ornaments on Thanksgiving too.  I'll try to go back and attach a photo later, because I don't have one handy, just now.  The boys already have many special ornaments and they love it.  Of course, they've received ornaments from others, too.  For several years we've displayed their ornaments on little decorative trees  that I keep out all year.

But we've had to face the reality that their collections just can't fit anymore.  So this year we are having TWO Christmas trees.  Their ornaments fill the 6' artificial tree we inherited from my Nana, which we've put in the dining room.

Beautiful, meaningful, and FUN!

Don't Count Your Chickens...

...until they hatch, right?

Well, this "chicken" hasn't quite hatched, but it's peeping in the shell :0)

Last year I was thinking about a book I'd read, 10 P's in a Pod, about the Arnold Pent family.  If I remember right,  the family remembers each read the Bible individually for an hour before breakfast, and then they read aloud as a family for a half hour after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

Do the math.  That's 2 1/2 hours of Bible reading.  Every day.  They were saturated in God's Word.

As a result, they could quote not just verses, but chapters, even entire books of the Bible.  They would go to churches and challenge people to begin any verse in the Bible, and one of the Pents would be able to finish it.

I was challenged and convicted.  Not to try to impress people by finishing their verses, but to move my family toward spending more time in God's Word. 

I didn't think that jumping in with the Pent's reading schedule would go over too well, but I thought of a more 'doable' goal:

This plan breaks the Bible into smaller chunks.  Each day has an OT reading, a NT reading, a Psalm, and 2 or 3 Proverbs.  In one calendar year, you'll read through the entire Bible, doing the Psalms and Proverbs twice.

And we're almost there.  

We've broken it up by mealtime, doing the OT at breakfast, the NT at lunch, and the Psalm and Proverb at dinner.  The breakfast reading is the longest, maybe 10 - 15 minutes at the most.  But we're managing.  We're going to make it.

Sure, sometimes we've gotten behind.  We went on vacation.  Tate was in the hospital for nine days.  We just forgot.  And I told myself that it's okay if we don't finish exactly in one calendar year, because what really matters is the goal - spending more time in God's Word.  But we've caught up.  Sometimes we did our mealtime readings, and then read an extra day's worth before bed.  (Because I really would like to finish by New Year's!  But if we don't, we'll finish in January.)

Anyway... I post this in part to keep myself accountable to keep going and finish amidst all our Christmas activities, in part to cheer for the boys for being (mostly) willing participants and readers, and also to throw it out there, for anyone else who might be looking for this kind of challenge.

You can do it.