Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well, almost...

I am terrifically happy about finding my ALL-TIME FAVORITE EVER Mom planner. I have used the same kind of planner for several years now, and I love it!

Notice the fabulous pens!

But, I had a BIG PROBLEM this year, because I was having trouble finding the new one. There were only 4 on Amazon, and they were rather pricey and not available for free super saver shipping. Wal-mart always carries this particular wonderful planner for cheaper than anyone else (as Wal-Mart is prone to do, giving it its only redeeming value), but Wal-Mart was ALL OUT!

We made the big trip INTO THE CITY last night to do some gift card shopping in Wichita, and Barnes and Noble was ALL OUT of my wonderful planner. The problem with all of this is that my life was going to have to cease today, because I had nowhere to write down what would happen beyond it. To further my crisis, I also had not found my new wall calendar. I have to be emotionally attached to a wall calendar before I can purchase one; it is usually a rather gruelling process.

It is really disturbing for me to go into New Year's Day with no record of opportunity for existence beyond New Year's Eve. So HERE'S THE GOOD NEWS: Border's Bookstore came to the rescue. At our last stop last night, I found my wonderful Mom Planner!! O, and I found a calendar I emotionally connected with at Barnes and Noble, so they get credit for that.

Look out 2008, here I come!

In memory of Grady

I often find myself thoughtful the day after Christmas. Happy and content, pleased at a good time being had in our family and the families of our friends, and thankful for the quiet down-time. My house is a wreck, which I know is allowed the day after Christmas, so I'm not even worried about it. There are no Christmas parties or checklists yet to be tackled.


I'm looking forward to sitting in the comfy chair curled up in our new corduroy throw with a good book, my Bible, coffee, my journal, and my new package of beautifully colored ink pens. (I have a thing for good pens with colorful ink.)


My head is always a little clearer the day after Christmas. The fluff is done.



I've been thinking quite a bit about Grady Paul Larson, our very special little friend who left our world to go home and be with Jesus on April 23, 2002. Tomorrow is Grady's birthday, he would be turning 11 if he were still bound by the constraints of time.


I'm thinking about my dear friend Kim, Grady and Logan and Alyssa's mom, who always hurts at this time of year even while she hopes.


At the oddest moments, tears leap into my eyes and right down my cheeks when I think about Grady. I had the profound honor of being the DATE NIGHT BABYSITTER for Greg and Kim Larson before and during Grady's diagnosis and treatment and homegoing. We spent many Christmas Eve celebrations together with the Larsons, and although we've moved away from Iowa, the Body of Christ lets us be family. We've travelled back and forth for visits since the move, and still I am sometimes overwhelmed by the lack of Grady's presence with us on this earth.


Grady was just about famous for his intense personality and hilarious and poignant quotes.


The thing Grady was very sure of even at the end of his short and deeply meaningful life was probably his most famous quote:


"God loves me."

That's it, that's what he wanted to share at his preschool program. That's what he knew, without question, in the midst of suffering.


Wherever you are and whatever pain and questions overwhelm you at this time of year, may you know:

"how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge..." (Eph. 3:18-19)


I am reminded when the tears come that this really isn't my home. Pain is to be expected here; it makes me long for the place where...

Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. (Rev. 7:16-17)

Because sometimes, I am tempted to expect that here.

The Exhalation Place

Seeing as how pictures are worth a thousand words, here are a few good ones from our Exploration Place trip with Erika and Darin (my sister and brother-in-law):

And on the way home, this sums up how we all felt...

Merry!

I've been a bit "blog post negligent" due to um well, doing other things. We are having a grand old time with my sister and her hubby, Erika and Darin. We're heading to our science museum, the Exploration Place (or in Grace's words, the Exhalation Place- quite scientific, I think) with them today. Hopefully I'll come back with good pictures.

Just so you know, I AM NOT MAD AT GREG. Not one bit. I went to watch Emma dance at the only "parent observation" classes of the year in each of her three dance classes. I took the camera and got some amazing pictures right up close and video of her routines. I was planning on posting some, but due to a mishap, misunderstanding, bit of confusion... the pictures and videos have been deleted. Nope, not blaming ANYBODY, could've happened to anyone. Let's just say, I think I deserve a treadmill.

We have tried on two occasions to have lengthyish picture-taking sessions for our CHRISTMAS PICTURE, and I have to say that photogenicness doesn't seem to be hitting each of us at the same time. So, not only do we have no CHRISTMAS PICTURE, we also have sent out no CHRISTMAS CARDS. Maybe for Valentine's Day is what we're currently thinking. We love you all very much and wish you a...

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

And can it be that I should gain

An interest in the Savior's blood?

Died He for me, who caused His pain?

For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love! How can it be

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Amazing love! how can it be

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me!

What I would like for Christmas

I ate queso for lunch the other day. I don't know why I did it, except that the San Antonio in me occasionally calls my name in a very loud tex-mex craving sort of way. After eating my FILL I, of course, felt rather badly about myself. Once again I thought about something I would really like for Christmas - A TREADMILL.

I am appealing to you because Greg does not think I should have a treadmill for Christmas. He says:

1. Good treadmills cost too much money.
2. Our house is not big enough for a treadmill.
3. He doesn't think I would actually use a treadmill.
4. Many other reasons were you to ask him.

Here's why he is wrong. We had a short membership to a fitness center here (given to us as a gift). I LOVED running on the treadmill while I watched HGTV. Actually, what I really want is a treadmill and HGTV. That's all. I would really and truly use it every day (or almost anyway). It's too cold, icy, and potentially snowy to run outside.

Greg offered his perfect solution to my dilemma:

"Here's what you can do, Kelly! I figured it out. You can run in place while Abby or Emma reads to you from your Home Companion Magazine!"

So anyway, I want a treadmill.

Next List

This would be one of our "trying to get the lighting for our family Christmas picture just right" pictures, a little too blue.

I am trying to get my blog post in before the pending ice storm takes out our power for two weeks - just have to be prepared. We do currently have pretty serious rain falling with threatening temperatures. Candles and down throws are ready...

Our Christmas tree is now officially up - see Greg's blog for details. My favorite quote from the experience...

Emma: "Mom, I'm putting the tree skirt on."

Mom: "No, Emma. We don't even have the ornaments on yet, and more needles will fall that I'll need to vacuum before we can put the skirt on -"

Emma: "Mom, I mean I'm REALLY putting the tree skirt on!"

So, here's our beautiful tree and the girls, including Emma wearing the tree skirt. Grace was so inspired, she put on one of Emma's old ballet skirts to fully be "in the moment."

The Smells of Christmas that I Love (A Holmes Family kitchen table list):

• peppermint


• baking sugar cookies


• coffee


• pine needles


• chimney smoke


• cinnamon


• scented candles


• cold and frosty

Feel free to add your favorites in my comments!

Christmas List

Greg and the gel are home!

We've begun a series of "Christmas Lists" that I'm setting on the kitchen table with a pen or two for people to add their thoughts throughout the day. I'd love to hear your additions in the comments. Here's where we are so far:

My Favorite Christmas Flavors Are:

• apple cider
• hot chocolate
• Celestial Seasonings Candy Cane Lane hot tea
• fudge
• queso
• a peppermint mocha
• hot wings in ranch dressing
• molasses sugar cookies
• coffee
• egg rolls
• candy canes
• tamales
• dark melt-in-your-mouth chocolate

Yesterday, the girls and I delivered Christmas goody bags to two widows in our church. The soup supper on Sunday night was to meet as small groups and put these bags together for all of the widows and widowers in our church. It was so much fun to see all the treasures that went inside (we all brought something to contribute). Then families took some bags to deliver.

Abby and Emma and Grace decided it would be fun to put together a little travelling concert to accompany our deliveries. We had so much fun loading up and carrying around goody bags, a guitar, a violin, a music stand, a set of bongo drums, music books, a recorder, and Grace's maraca. We drew some attention as we marched into Schowalter Villa up the stairs and down the hall to the first lady's apartment. Grace walked right in, looked up at the very sweet lady and said, "Where's the gessert?!" For some reason that is how she pronounces "dessert."

Thankfully this very gracious woman was a school teacher for many years and delighted in Grace's uninhibited inappropriateness. She also loved our concert and had other residents listening outside her open door. Abby and Emma played Drummer Boy on bongos and recorder with Grace on maraca, As the Deer on violin, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen with notes on violin and chords on guitar, and All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name on guitar. They did a great job and truly had a wonderful time. We then traveled to the next lady's house to do it again. I couldn't believe I forgot the camera.

We ended up completely blessed by these sweet ladies, a few of their stories, their delighted smiles, their homes lovingly decorated, and yes, their cookies and their fudge. Grace only plays the maraca for food after all.

Edification

Greg is in Texas right now. He had his official eye check this morning in San Antonio now that the results of his surgery have stabilized. His eyes looked perfect from what I hear; we are so thankful!

This means that I am currently "holding down the fort" (sort of, in theory). These times are always great opportunities for deep Greg appreciation.

I am trying very hard to make the most of my time by working on the storage room. What I am actually doing is dancing in the storage room. I run from one pile to the next, doing lovely ballet jumps over the piles in my way, spinning to get the full panoramic view and then repeating while my brain gets mushier. I figure after dancing for awhile, some form of organizational genius is bound to hit me and I'll be ready!

I've been commenting about my "purging" operation to the girls today in between school subjects. Emma, being Emma, decided she doesn't like that word and doesn't think it's real, so she's been calling it my "plurging."

Then, at dinner tonight, (which was my homemade broccoli cheese soup; a personal favorite) I was informed that one of my children hates this soup. The same child also informed me that none of the kids at church like it either. I brought it to a soup supper we had last night, so we have a WHOLE LOT left.

"Well thank you, unnamed child, do you think that is actually a nice thing to be saying to your mom who made it??!!"

Then the other child, who loves the soup, was in the middle of telling a story (still at the dinner table) and abruptly interrupted herself to look closely at me and say, "Mom, what is wrong with your hair?!"

"Well, Daddy took the gel."

"Oh, wow, it looks kinda different."

"Yes, well thank you," and on that note of encouragement to cap off a thoroughly self-confidence building sort of day, I'm off to do some more plurging!"

You'll never believe this!

Check out our elves: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1129197420

And if you want to see Greg like you've never seen him before, check out: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1129512248

Thanks to our inspiration Katie and her family and Ross and Christy!!

Sleepover

Here's what I love:

Two sisters who decide to have a Friday night sleepover in one of their rooms including making Christmas paper chains, listening to Adventures in Odyssey, reading, and listening to music. -Especially when they also happen to be my daughters.

Date Night

Abby finished knitting her hat - Congratulations, Abby!!

In the mornings I am going through a great product by Family Life called What God Wants for Christmas (www.whatgodwantsforchristmas.com) with Grace. Mom and Dad bought this for us last year to stash away for this Christmas.

Each morning there is a new little gift box for Grace to open that adds a new character to our nativity set and a new part to a poem for me to read to her that introduces that character and their part to play in the Christmas story. We are enjoying it very much, and Grace loves to play with the characters in the little stable scene included.

Today Grace opened Baby Jesus to join Joseph, Mary, and the angel Gabriel. Right away, after I read the poem to Grace, I heard her begin to role-play with the characters. I saw her put Gabriel right next to Baby Jesus' manger bed. "I'll stay here and watch you," Gabriel (in a very Grace-like voice) said.

"Where are Joseph and Mary, Grace?" I asked her.

"Well, they're here." I noticed Grace had the two of them over on the yellow chair. "They're on a date."

Kelly's Deep Thought

I love the passage in Matthew 23:37 that is also repeated elsewhere in Scripture where Christ talks about God's love for Israel. He shows God as a loving Father longing to tenderly care for His children. As children of the New Covenant because of faith in Jesus, we can also be children of our Father and cared for in this way...

"How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings..."

Greg talked about this passage (the Luke version) on Sunday and actually said, "God protects His chicks." (Referring to His care for His children)

My deep thought in response...

That would be an awesome Women's Ministry t-shirt (albeit slightly out of context)-

God protects His chicks!

Winter Wonderland

SNOW! We woke up this morning to a glorious, beautiful blanket of snow. The girls all bundled up to get out and play in it before it melts away...

We have some serious Christmas spirit going on with snow on the ground the weekend after Thanksgiving and my Christmas cactus about to bloom. I love this thing! I just received it as a gift last year, and I am absolutely amazed at how it knows when Christmas is coming. Last year at Christmas time it was blooming beautifully, and now after a whole year of waiting with nothing but green cactus to look at (although it's a nice green cactus), now, it is filled with red buds again. It's quite symbolic, really, like a year-long advent calendar. Anyway, it makes me happy!

And now for the rest of my exciting news... Greg finished our beautiful bed!! Yesterday, a good friend from church came to spend the day with the girls, so Greg and I could have a day together. We took the truck down to Wichita to go...

MATTRESS SHOPPING.

I truly really hate mattress shopping, but when you need a mattress, well, you have to go mattress shopping. The mattress salespeople know this, so they don't care that they are actually more obnoxious than used car salesmen, because if you do indeed need a mattress, you'll be coming.

Our mattress salesman was an incredibly friendly fellow named Troy. Troy was so friendly that he followed us all around the furniture store, really. I think Troy wanted to play tag or something, because Greg and I kept trying to run away from Troy, and Troy kept chasing us so that he could be really friendly. We had things to discuss that we didn't necessarily want Troy to overhear, because Troy had exceptional hearing and had lots of strong opinions and not much concern for whether anyone was actually talking to him.

Greg and I ran away to the living room section and sat down on a couch and chair to try to have a secret meeting. In a few minutes, there was Troy to see if we were okay, he didn't want us to feel neglected. "O, neglected is NOT what we feel," Greg told him. Then Toy sat down in our little living room with us. He leaned back in the chair and made himself comfortable, I think he really thought he was invited.

"This is a nice set, isn't it. We can..." Both of us started to snap.

"We're just sitting here, actually; trying to discuss our mattress decision. You see, Troy, we have stuff, too much stuff. I'm trying to clear out our storage room, and right now we don't just want more stuff. We need a mattress, and as for this deal you're offering of $100 in furniture when we make a $499 purchase, we've looked all around, and there's nothing here we want. Could you just take that $100 off our mattress purchase?" I knew the answer; I already heard Troy tell someone else that was not possible.

The idea, see is to make you spend much more than 100 extra dollars in other furniture purchases, because VERY little in that place cost $100 or less. We almost fell for it; we looked all around thinking about how maybe we should have a cushier chair in the living room, and with $100 off, that chair would only be $299. The problem is we weren't feeling the need for a chair before we got in there, and we certainly hadn't budgeted for one. They were forcing an impulse buy, and it made me mad.

I looked right at Troy when I said those things. Then Troy looked down and was quiet for a long moment, obviously greatly struggling deep within. It was quite dramatic. "Well, what I can do is give you 10% off your mattress purchase, if you'd rather have that."

"Thanks, Troy, we'll take it."

We're quite happy with the set, and I love the new bed my talented hubby built, and the rest of our day was delightful. We went out to lunch and saw an amazing movie callled Bella. After the movie, I was so touched I had to go sit in a bathroom stall at the theater for a bit to have a good cry. For more on the movie, you'll have to visit Greg's blog - coming soon.

So far we're all living happily ever after.

Thank you

Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done, In whom His world rejoices;
Who, from our mothers' arms, Hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today.

For Your amazing love that seems always to me, when I think about it, too good to be true;
That it is true, in spite of me, even because of me.

That You are faithful, always faithful, in pain, faithful, in hope and joy, faithful, in loneliness, nonetheless faithful, in confusion, faithful, in bitter disappointment, faithful, in doubt, faithful, in great provision, faithful, in need, faithful...
For You know pain and joy. You know me, and still, You love me.

For Your grace that loves me in the midst of my sinfulness and selfishness and reaches down to me, through Jesus - because of Jesus, to offer to me a relationship with the God of the universe, with You. It shouldn't be, but it is, and that is grace.

Thank You; I am amazed.

A little Grace

Grace's latest quips, starting in bed way too early on Sunday morning:

"Mommy, Mooooommyyyyyyyy! I can't see!! Mommy, I can't see!!!!"

Enter very tired, slightly irritable, and a touch worried Mommy, "Grace, what do you mean you can't see? Look at me; you can see me."

Grace, with fingers pressed over closed eyes, "Mommy, I can't see when my eyes are closed."

Later that morning in the middle of church and in the middle of a beautiful song being sung by our choir, Grace got up as tall as she could on her knees next to me in our pew. A good friend of ours had just sung a solo in the song, and Grace wanted to see. Stretching as high as she could at a quiet, rather poignant moment in the song, she let out a huge belch from her soul. Her head was perfectly positioned right between the older couple sitting in front of us, so that each of them got one perfect earful. Abby and Emma got the giggles something fierce, so I looked straight ahead as if nothing unusual had happened to keep my composure. After church, I looked right at the lady in front of us and said, "It wasn't me."

Today at lunch, "That is the goodest lunch I ever seen! Thank you, Mommy!"

Later this afternoon she described something as "Gimungus!"

And finally, always one to cover all her bases, she called me to her room after she had been put to bed tonight, "Mommy, I need milk and brefek in the morning, with cereal. Remember that, O.K.?"

Carpe Diem

I haven't made any progress on the storage room since my last post; I am sorry...

But we did have a fabulous fall day yesterday. It is quite nice when God condescends to give a hint of insight to the weathermen who actually get it right, thus allowing me to make plans accordingly. I noticed that we had one good day coming. One. On this day it was supposed to be perfect: sunny, cool but not a bit cold, a calm breeze, and gorgeous colors still hanging on to most of the trees. The days before were gray and windy; the days after looked cold and windy.

We did it... The whole Carpe Diem thing. We took that day, and we lived fully within it. We doubled up on school on Monday so we could spend all day yesterday in Hutchinson. We spent the morning at a fun free zoo, ate lunch at a big park, and spent the afternoon at the Dillon Nature Center. It couldn't have been more beautiful. My thinking led me to believe that this could be one of the last full days that we could comfortably enjoy being completely outdoors 'til spring.

Highlights of our day included:

• visiting the llama (in the petting zoo) that spit right in Abby's hair over a year ago


• watching the otter dance for us while he tried to dry and fluff his soggy tail


• getting to know an attention hungry goat that reminded us a bit of Rosie


• Grace crouching down in front of an aquarium that held a turtle who pressed his little face up against the glass as if he wanted to tell us something. Without missing a beat, Grace said, "What, turtle?" and pressed her ear right up next to the glass. "O, thank you." "Mommy, the turtle said he loves me." I think he probably did.


• seeing the most majestic looking bald eagles I've ever seen up close
  
• picking out little treasures from the gift shop (which, of course nullifies this actually being the totally "free" trip I proudly told Greg we would be taking. O yeah, and gas too)


• feeling as if we had stumbled upon a magical fairy-land at the nature center. We followed a "hidden stream" surrounded by a carpet of golden leaves with perfect fairy dwellings in niches everywhere we looked.

After our day, we capped off the evening by watching Chariots of Fire with Greg. We've been reading about Eric Liddell in one of our readers for school; I love that movie. The girls enjoyed it too, believe it or not. They followed it pretty well (except for Grace; she was in bed).

As for pictures of hip hair in response to my comments, I'm feeling a little insecure about that, seeing as how I think ALL of you have hipper hair than me. This one is hard to see, but once I get my batteries recharged in my camera after yesterday, we'll see.

Insecurity

YES, I've started on the storage room, O.K.?! But, that's all the information you're getting on that right now.

Insecurity.

It is an interesting thing. I am so ridiculously affected by it. In fact, I spend a large amount of mental, emotional, and physical energy trying to appease this monster in my life.

*

You see, I'm growing gray hairs. I have these long, wiry, doingy white hairs growing right out of the middle of my part. I keep pulling them out, but I notice at least one every day. I am not emotionally ready for lots of gray hairs. I was also feeling slightly dumpy in the hair department in general, so I decided it was time to make a hair appointment.

*

I called this cool hair place recommended to me by a friend. You know, some place a little edgy that can make hip hair. I was not prepared, however for my encounter with the phone answering woman at the hair place who was indeed edgy (in the extremely irritable sense of the word). After the conversation, I mustered up enough courage to actually go in there. Greg couldn't believe I still went after my encounter, but cool, edgy hair places are a little hard to come by in these parts.

*

So, I went in and said, "Um, I want not real short hip hair." And she delivered, I think. I like it, but at my age who am I to define "hip"? I'm hoping Amanda with the hot pink stripe down the middle of her head of black, curly hair knew. I did not color it, if you're wondering. I supposedly have "great hair for hiding gray" at least so far.

*

The sad thing is that hip hair has not conquered insecurity or "image management" as John Ortberg puts it in his book The Life You've Always Wanted. I still worry far too much about my "image." I still struggle to be one who is comfortable receiving God's grace through Christ because I actually NEED it. I really hate it when those faults and weaknesses actually show up, especially when someone else is around. So, I just keep hoping nobody notices the gray just yet.

Drive-thru

I've decided to share with the world (or at least those in it who read my blog) what I SHOULD be doing over the next week or so. I'm sharing this because nothing in me actually wants to do it, but everything in me does want it done. My purpose in sharing this is to expose it, to turn on the pressure, to MAKE ME DO IT!

I am supposed to organize the storage room.

*

You've already heard about my organizing woes. The desk has got nothing on the storage room. Does anything about that phrase sound nice "STORAGE ROOM" - who wants to organize something called that?

*

Anyway, I hope to share my progress over the next several days, weeks, months... No pictures, I'm not ready for extreme exposure.

*

On a lighter note, I took Rosie, my bad dog whom I love to the drive-thru at Lincoln Perk today. She was very hyper in the truck, because 1) she rarely rides in the truck and 2) it's usually only to go to the vet. She began to whimper and kind of hop and dance next to me, a bundle of excited nerves all wrapped up inside a bad dog who's a little too big. The fun thing about bringing your dog through the drive-thru at Lincoln Perk is that we always keep milk-bones in a little jar to give out to any dogs who happen to come through.

*

Well, since Rosie thought she was going to the vet, the first thing she did when my nice fellow employee friend opened the window was to fiercely bark at her. Thankfully my friend loves dogs and understood about the whole vet confusion. She reached across and gave Rosie (who was now standing across my lap) a milk-bone.

*

Rosie thought this was the best thing she had ever experienced so far in her life, so she kept doing a hopping dance on my lap reaching her neck as far through the window as she could hoping for more. My friend gave her two more which means Rosie was so excited I couldn't even have my window down anymore to get my coffee without holding on to her collar or she would have jumped right into that place. When I finally grabbed two coffees (one for me and one for Greg who was at home with the girls) one at a time so as to keep my dog from launching through the window, I had to shove Rosie off of my lap, so I could see out of my windshield.

*

All in all, I felt pretty cool driving around in a red, stick-shift pick-up truck with my big dog Rosie hop-dancing next to me. Rosie, well this was the best day of her life so far.

Memory Maker

Some days homeschooling just cracks me up, some days I love it, and some days it's just plain hard and I feel ready to quit. Today happened to be a great day that put a big deposit in the "I love it" category.

Emma started out by going to an American Girl's Class held through a home school co-op in Newton. She had a Victorian tea party today based on the Samantha books. She and I made Victorian Tea Cake (sponge layer cake with strawberry jam filling) for her to take along. She brought an antique floral tea cup, and came back with a big, satin hair bow that they made.

Well, after lunch with the beautiful hair bow donned, she and Abby proceeded to head out back to dissect two cow eyeballs. Really. We're studying anatomy and physiology this year in science and had recently studied the eye. Our book suggested getting cow eyeballs from a meat packer and we happen to have a great meat packer just a few blocks away. Although Greg enthusiastically secured the eyeballs from the meat packer and brought them home to our fridge (where I picked up the bag, mistaking them for bacon - just a bit of a shocker), he wanted nothing to do with the dissection. Maybe his own eye surgery is a little too recent.

As I was getting Gracie down for some rest time, I heard delighted exclamations: "WOW, Mom you have to get out here and see this lens I got out, it's hard! Here's where the optic nerve connected, COOL! Ew, the aqueous humor is really sticky! HEY, here's the retina with the capillaries, LOOK!"

After this bit of excitement, a wonderful woman from our church, Naomi, took us all out to a nature trail in Newton that we had never visited. She had told us at the beginning of the week that she would like to do this with us for Pastor Appreciation month. Today was absolutely beautiful here!

Naomi came over with little booklets she had made for each of the girls with their names written in them and a little poem that had been written about the Sand Creek Nature Trail attached on the front page. She is a nature lover and made sure the girls had backpacks to gather their treasures in along the way. She collected different leaves for them to have a variety of leaf rubbings to do in their books. She brought along a book to read to the girls that is also one of our favorites called God's Quiet Things.

We came home and filled my glass pumpkin with their treasures. Definitely a memory-making day!

Creative Us

CONGRATULATIONS, Emma on finishing your sweater! TA-DA!



Here is Abby's progress on the hat she's knitting for herself...






And our wonderfully talented friend Jenny started a sewing class with us today. She came over to our house where we set up four sewing machines on our kitchen table (we only have two, but Jenny brought one, and our friend Ellen is joining us for the class with her sewing machine). We had already picked out fabric according to Jenny's recipe for our very own personalized pillow cases. I made one for Grace.







I LOVED IT!! We had coffee, chai, hot cocoa, white chocolate chunk macadamia nut cookies, fabric everywhere, the ironing station, the pinning station, the cutting station, and the sewing station. We had Italian Cafe' music on in the background. And by the end...

Abby had a fun bandanna pillowcase

Emma had a fabulous horse pillowcase

Gracie had a sparkly ballerina princess pillowcase

and Ellen had an elegant grown-up pillowcase

And I don't even know what I'm doing; I really hope this becomes a bit of a habit. Thanks, Jenny!

Monday Blessing

Tonight was a blessing. It was just one of those spontaneous, beautiful day decisions to enjoy it that made us pack a picnic dinner and head out to a large park and campground nearby. John and Ellen (our youth pastor and his wife) came along. We ate and talked and laughed and kerplunked rocks in the water (my version of skipping rocks) and threw the football and got the football stuck in the tree and threw sticks to get the football out of the tree and slid and see-sawed and swung.

When darkness signaled the end of outside fun we came back to our house for real caramel-dipped apples. This is truly a bonding time and essentially levels the playing field for all involved in the activity of trying to eat a REAL CARAMEL-DIPPED APPLE. Strings of caramel swung gracefully from the tips of our noses down to the middle of our chins. Otherwise intelligent conversations were hilarious through stuck together jaws; it was great! Grace licked every last drop of caramel off of the outside of her apple and then placed her apple in unsuspecting Ellen's empty bowl, so she could go after the caramel stuck in the bottom of her own bowl. We played Yahtzee.

Now, I am tired and heading to bed reflecting on the blessing of this day.

Uninspired

This is my "I should be posting on my blog, but I'd actually rather read my new Cottage Living magazine that came in the mail today while drinking hot tea" post. Which means I'm feeling more loungey than inspired...

I realized that I have been tagged by my sweet cousin Katie from her great blog http://katie-memorablemoments.blogspot.com/. This means I'm supposed to come up with as many people to tag as I have letters in my middle name (I think). There was also something about rules and posting them so we all do it right, but I'm not very good at remembering those things so I'll sum up:

My middle name is ANNE, so I'm supposed to list a fact about me for each letter of my middle name, you know, a fun acrostic...

A llergic to mold and cats. Yep, cats even bring up the old A sthma (that, if you're counting, gets me two points for 1 "A")

N uts. I like them, all kinds, and I'm sometimes called this.

N ear-sighted, but not as bad as Greg used to be. Soft contacts work fine for me.

E Not sure what to say here, except that I really like that I do, in fact, have an "e" at the end of my middle name. Kind of sets me apart a little, I think.

Well, now that I have enriched your life with these facts, you have a handy way to remember each thing, because all you have to know is the simple acrostic "A-N-N-E" (all except for the "E" might throw you).

I am now tagging my sweet cousin Annalisa, sweet fellow-employee-for-a-day Tara, sweet Kristen who I don't think has been tagged before, and um, our new youth pastor John. The rules are: do what I did, but be more eloquent.

Autumn in Iowa

I just returned from a FABULOUS weekend in Iowa! I was absolutely blessed by my time in that beautiful state with dear friends and my sweet sister. I had the opportunity to be "the speaker" at Faith Bible Church's women's retreat. This is where we were before moving to Kansas. Greg was the youth pastor at Faith for about 7 years.

God is so good for bringing me to Iowa in the fall; it was breathtaking. As I drove through the rolling hills covered in gorgeous, inflamed tree tops within a soft green carpet on Sunday morning and listened to my favorite worship music, I thought there was no better worship service I could have attended that morning. Several times I was moved to tears at the creativity of my God. I was moved to tears that this Creator is in fact my God, my Heavenly Father. Then I drove by a series of small green hills with occasional creeks cutting into the landscape leaving beautiful crevices, perfectly etched.

To be honest, I was tempted to temporarily accept these scenes as truly heavenly until I rounded the highway curve to see a mangled deer on the shoulder where the still-present highway patrolman had just moved it. The scene was terribly out of place within my frame of mind. It was shockingly unfair as a matter of fact. I had never seen (I'm obviously not a butchering of my own meat, hunter-type) such a gory sight. I tried to reconcile my emotions...

I came to the conclusion that I am not in heaven yet; life can be painfully shocking. I also couldn't help feeling blessed by the scenery I drove through even after the deer. God's amazing creativity as revealed in His creation here on earth sustains me, strengthens me. I realized once again that here on earth the two co-exist, pain and sin with beauty and salvation. They don't go together very seamlessly - they allude to a home to come, my hope.

AAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

We've heard the dreaded news all parents hope they won't hear...

Your daughter needs B R A C E S.

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Yup, I innocently took Abby and Emma to the dentist on Monday for cleanings. The good news is that neither of them has any cavities.

BUT

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Abby is a CLASS 2. That, I found out, means she's a slightly more complicated braces fix than a class 1. Her molars don't line up; apparently that's a problem. I was in a daze as we were whisked from the cavity-free good news dentist chair into the ORTHODONTICS CONFERENCE ROOM.

*

All I was thinking was, "Do you know how much those things cost!!??" Yes, actually they do and they presented me with payment plan options.

*

Now we have a wonderful dentist, and he is offering us a very gracious discount; the problem is they still cost more than our first family vehicle.

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All of you seasoned parents are chuckling right now thinking to yourselves, "Just wait, Kelly. This is only the beginning. College... it's right around the corner. Maybe, just maybe the braces will be paid off by then."

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The comic relief of the experience was Grace responding every time the word "braces" was said. She genuinely thought everyone was saying her name. "How come I have to be with Abby's teeth?" The best quote (this was all going on during what should have been her nap, so she was a little tired), was said at some point during the description of what the braces do. "What is me is, Mommy?"

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I'm still trying to come to grips with the fact that ALL of Abby's baby teeth are gone. Every one, I mean EVERY LAST ONE of her teeth are adult teeth. When did this happen? How did we get here?

updates

Grace started riding her new big girl bike today. She loved it; it's definitely more efficient travel than her trike. Here is the song she sang today while she rode her bike (make up your own tune that sounds catchy; Grace is always creating unique tunes of her own design for her songs):

I have a new bike;

Daddy put on training wheels.

I ride in the street with somebody else.

I ride all by myself in the street.

I hurt my knee...

Right here.

She actually did NOT ride all by herself in the street, but it certainly makes for a more dramatic line in the song.

Emma has started crocheting a sweater for herself. We bought all the yarn last night, and this is how far she has gotten today. It will be BEAUTIFUL!

Abby has found a new sport - volleyball. She is really enjoying it and doing quite well for having just begun to learn. Although she is left-handed, she has realized (thanks to Miss Brandey, the former volleyball coach who is also left-handed) that she can really launch her overhand serve right-handed. I didn't get a picture of that today, so I'll have to post one later. For anyone who may be wondering, No - Abby did not apparently get her volleyball skills from me!

Conquering the world in Corduroys

Do you ever wake up in the morning and put on a pair of pants that makes you feel powerful? That's what happened this morning. It's finally feeling like apple-pie-craving autumn around here, so I put on a favorite pair of corduroys this morning.

I love these pants.

They fit just exactly right. They're not too short (which can be a challenge for me), they're not too tight anywhere, they're not too baggy either. The color is just right - kind of a stone shade. They are EXTREMELY COMFORTABLE. They make me feel like it is more than okay to be me.

I bought these pants at a re-sale shop (which makes them all the more precious), they are Banana Republic (which means I'm somebody), and they have a tiny hole right in the rump where Rosie, the bad dog whom I love, sunk her teeth into them as a puppy last winter. So far the hole hasn't posed a problem, but it can only grow. The days of appropriateness for these pants are numbered.

The thing about these great pants is that they make me feel like I can conquer the world. All day I've pondered my dreams, wondered what great things I should pursue. Now at the end of this day, I feel like I'm in kindergarten. The reason for this is because my list of what I should consider pursuing includes: going to school part-time to work toward my master's in speech pathology, working on my sign language skills to work toward becoming a certified ASL interpreter, writing, making little wire and ribbon angels through this work-at-home company that pays $2.50 for every finished angel (okay, that's not a dream, just money), teaching beginning knitting classes (once I've improved my own skills), becoming an ebay seller extraordinaire, learning guitar and becoming an acoustic rock star...

There's this problem with trying to figure out who I am, who I think I am, who I want to be, who I actually could be. I know I love being a wife, a mom, a child of my Heavenly Father, and beyond that I'm stumped. What if I pursue something that I'm not actually cut out for?

These dumb pants have me all confused.

Friday

Fridays make me happy.

Last night I was babysitting for another couple who we swap babysitting with for date nights. I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies and gave one to each kiddo before getting them off to bed. Coleson is in kindergarten, and halfway through his cookie he stopped, looked at me with a deeply thoughtful expression, and said,

"This cookie is making me eat it too fast... (deep sigh)."

I thought that statement was excellently put; I can't believe I hadn't thought of it before. It's NOT ME who is to blame; it's THE COOKIE.

These are pictures from our perrennial garden (which we are enjoying immensely) and a quote from my Smith & Hawken calendar which I also enjoy. I'm about to speak at a women's retreat in Iowa in a couple of weeks. This quote is quite in line with where my thoughts have been lately...

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Pictures and a Story

Thought I'd share a few favorite vacation and conference pictures. I won't share much else seeing as how it is 12:16 a.m. after closing at Lincoln Perk tonight, and my normally fairly fuzzy brain is feeling exceptionally fuzzier.

And, I do have to share one of the short stories that Sheila Walsh shared at the conference in her beautiful Scottish accent. She talked about how her son is always bringing home wounded animals to take care of until they are healthy enough to make it on their own. He has a very tender heart. One such animal was a tiny sparrow that Sheila ended up having to feed every hour around the clock (even setting her alarm every hour of the night) just to keep it alive. Once it was a little stronger, she and her son drove about an hour to a bird sanctuary where this sparrow could be safe and grow stronger.

Sheila said she walked in to the most amazing and hilarious sight. There standing on the floor behind the desk was a duck with one foot, an owl with a broken beak, and another bird (can't exactly remember the details) with a broken wing. They were stumbling and hopping about together as great friends from long ago might. Sheila commented to the woman at the desk, "Well, I didn't know that owls and ducks got along so well."

"O, they don't," replied the woman, "only broken ones do."

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete be being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. -Philippians 2:1-4

I've got a bit to learn from a broken duck.

Naptime Wars

Naptime is going very badly at our house lately. My sweet Grace who just turned 4 on Sept. 16 has decided to stop sleeping ever, at all, during the day. It doesn't matter what has gone on that day, how worn out she is, or how late she stayed up the night before. She refuses to give in.


Don't get me wrong. We still have naptime every afternoon. It is simply peppered with a squeaky door opening and a loud 4 year-old voice calling, "Is naptime over now?" every 5 minutes. This puts a real damper on my history and literature reading to Abby and Emma (which I save for during Gracie's nap, so we can focus). It puts an even bigger damper on my occasional nap (I never gave them up), and leaves me emotionally challenged.


The child can't actually function very well without her naps. She's grouchy and emotional and loopy - all at once. Her eyelids are heavy, even while she's asking if naptime is over. Last night was the dinner we hosted for our elders and their wives; Grace went to bed very late. The night before was small group; Grace went to be very late. She refused to sleep during naptime yesterday, and this is how I found her at the end of naptime today...


Yes, that's a chair in her bed.

She also rises plenty early saying, "Mommy, I can get up now. See, it's morning now. Look at the sun."

"But Grace, we don't get up with the sun in this family." She doesn't care.

I'm losing ground. This war is not going in my favor.

Blah

I'm tired. I've been in a blah mood mostly all day, and I hate it when that happens. I kept telling myself to snap out of it, kept reminding myself of all the reasons I have for joyfulness, even just plain happiness, for gratitude... didn't help, just made me feel a little more like a failure for failing to snap out of it! Today would have been a good day for a happy pill, just one little dose of smile, maybe even laugh, happiness.

We hosted a new church small group at our house last night. I really like having people in our home. I love to provide a comfortable place for people to relax and be real, a safe haven. The problem with this week was that on Monday we changed from Abby and Emma sharing a room to Abby and Emma each having their own room. This is a good and wonderful thing all except that it means a large amount of stuff is now homeless, and the basement and upstairs hallway were serving as temporary homeless shelters. Yesterday, we HAD TO DEAL WITH THE STUFF. There were about to be people in our home. I stood there looking at the basement as tears began to form, paralyzed and confused.

The decision to make the laundry room/storage room the new homeless shelter happened. Now I have to stay out of that room, or I will cry.

Tonight we hosted an elders and wives dinner. A miracle happened between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. We had Tex-Mex night out on the back patio. I made chicken enchiladas with poblano cream sauce, homemade refried beans, and salsa rice. It was a busy day, and at 5:30 I dashed to the bathroom to get a shower. Greg and I ran this morning, so I've been mostly gross all day. I thought it would be really silly to take a shower before I rolled 4 pans of enchiladas (with all that softening of tortillas in oil). The problem was that I didn't get that done until 5:30, people were supposed to arrive at 6:00. There was still much to be done, I was in a slight panic, so I prayed. "Lord, I need a miracle. I don't know how it will be possible, but could You allow us to be ready to receive these guests graciously when they arrive? Help us somehow get it all done."

Not one of the deeper prayers, I know. But here's the real truth. I stood in my kitchen, make-up on, hair dried, enchiladas hot, beans mashed, tables set, beverages made, rice ready, trying to frantically think of something to do at 5:55. When our guests arrived, I had nothing else to do but visit with them. It was a miracle, and I don't know how it happened (I owe a lot to a need-sensing hubby).

I'm thankful that He blessed the prayer of a grumpy Martha really wanting to transform into a Mary. We had a great time tonight. I'm thinking I'll sleep well.

The Little Things

O.K., so I was at this fabulous Women of Faith Conference this past weekend with amazing speakers who have been through some terribly painful life experiences. They are testimonies to God's grace and faithfulness, and I'm sure I'll have more to write about regarding their impact upon me later, BUT...

Yesterday, I was thinking about Nicole C. Mullen and how muscular her arms are. She was one of the singers there, and she choreographed these incredible dances along with her daughters to her song Freedom. That girl can jam, and Brandey and I were dancing in our spots, because we just couldn't help it! Both of us noticed her little, defined biceps on her thin arms, and I thought about how I've always wanted to have at least one identifiable muscle that was visible (complete vanity, I know, but there it is). My tennis coach made me run extra laps in high school, because he said I had chicken legs and wouldn't ever intimidate anyone with them; well it didn't work. No matter how much I run, I just don't have outgoing muscles. They're rather shy.

All that to say, yesterday I decided to try to work on my arms. I grabbed my little 10 pound weights and headed to the living room. I thought it might be a good idea to stretch first, so I reached up very high and then reached down... and then it happened...

Without bending my knees, I reached all the way to my toes!! No problem, I didn't even realize it until it happened. This is huge! I'm really out of proportion with a short little torso and legs the same length as my 6'2" husband, so I've never done this before.

"Girls, look at this! LOOK AT THIS!"

"So," says my splits-every direction, dancing daughter.

"I'm calling your Dad right now, I can't believe this!"
The conversation went something like this...

"Hello"

"Hi, Honey, are you still out to lunch with Gerhard (one of our deacons)?"

(Bad Signal) "What?"

I repeated the question.

"Yeah, I'm still at the restaurant."

"O, well, um I just wanted to call and let you know that I just touched my toes without even bending my knees at all."

"What?" (Bad Signal)

I repeated the news.

"O, good, talk to you later."

Sometimes, I just have to celebrate the little things.