Snow Days

Last Friday it snowed in Atlanta. I mean, it really snowed. About a month ago it "fake" snowed, it was a light dusting that was more ice than snow, and the "snow" was not good for anything, useless for making a snowball or snowman, etc. We did not even go outside and play in it, we just drove around in the ice and did donuts. =)

In any case, it really snowed on Friday, which was so much fun! I love the snow. After naptime we bundled up the girls in all their crazy mismatched snow gear (thank gooness for a recent bag of hand-me-downs that contained a snow-bib outfit for Annelise) and went outside. The girls had a great time helping Dave make an 8 foot tall snowman, swinging on the swings and going down the slide, eating the snow, and throwing snowballs at one another.

Saturday was super fun too because the snow stuck around in the morning, and we made another snowman, snow angels, and just enjoyed walking around in it.

It is always a fun change of pace around here to get some snow. It does make me miss our days in Germany, though our last winter we got enough snow to last me a long time. But then again, it is winter, I figure it should snow! It makes spring more enjoyable when we have had a good winter. And now that we have had our god snow, I'm hopnig that spring is right around the corner!

A Look at the Week

This is not terribly fascinating, but thought I would jot down a look at my week, this week. Now that I am starting to feel better I am able to get out of the house more, yay, and think about things other than how terrible I feel and how happy I'll be when it is all over.

Today. We are sticking around the house. First because we usually stick around the house on Mondays, but also because Dave accidentally ran off to work with HC's carseat...so not going anywhere fast. We changed all the sheets, are in the process of doing all the laundry, made cookie dough for a V-day party at HC's school, cooked my 2nd to last pumpkin that I have left from the fall, mixed up dough bread that I will bake for dinner tomorrow, and played outside (oh and I did manage to squeeze in a shower. phew. I think I'm mostly done for the day, but still need to cook dinner, Indonesian PB chicken...yum...

Later this week.
Going on a field trip with HC's class to the post office. Wowee. Register my girls for preschool, even though I probably will not send them in the fall (this is a just in case this baby is INSANE and my life is INSANE move that I'm hoping we will not have to use). Having a friend over for dinner. Going through prego clothes and figuring out which of the borrowed ones I will actually wear, and putting all my normal person clothes away until July. Finish my reading for Exodus, the fun Bible study I am in this semester. Grocery store. Have Dave sign and send back our business taxes. Waiting for our last form so I can send in our taxes...the sooner we do it, the sooner we get our money back. Stare at the rug in the entryway that we might be keeping, and wait for the 2nd rug to arrive so we can compare/contrast, and plan what color we will paint the entryway...yay (our project for March). Meet with the master gardener one last time (our Feb project) to plot out the new beds for our front yard which we will be planting next weekend (anyone want to help us?). She is also going to give Dave a lesson in pruning and caring for our exisiting plants/trees, etc. Finish opening all our Christmas cards, since I was too sick to think about it in December. Go to playgroup. Bake regular bread, bake pumpkin bread, bake cookies, and I'm sure some other things. Wait anxiously to find out if our friends will be able to move into the house across the street from us.

Yea, guess I'm feeling better.

My Annelise

Hadleigh has gotten a lot of press recently, so I'm going to write about Annelise, my little munchkin. "Munch" is one of her nicknames, along with "Anna" and "Lieska" and occasionally I'll call her "Elf" (after the angry elf from the movie).

I swear she is 2 but should be 3. When you ask her about her age she claims to be 7, maybe in elf years. I think she is a genius, but I suppose every mother thinks that about her children, but no really, Annelise is one smart chick. It's not everyday that you meet an 18 month who wants to give up diapers entirely. Everywhere we take her caretakers remark about her. She is fairly articulate, so we don't have the communication troubles that we sometimes had with Hadleigh. And she just seems to carry herself like a little person and not like a toddler.

She LOVES her friends, loves going to school and playgroup. She plays with all Hadleigh's buddies at playgroup and most of them seem to accept her as one of their own. She talks about each friend and what she likes about them. She has a little shy streak in her, but she is much more outgoing and daredevil like. She loves talking on the phone and singing to folks on the phone, and she has a wide range of songs she likes, from "Away in a Manger" to "Doh a Deer". Annelise and Hadleigh are very close and A misses H terribly when they are apart. It is super sweet and makes me doubly happy to think about how well they get along together when I think about the possibility of keeping both of them out of preschool next year (still trying to decide about that).

She loves doing things by herself and helping out around the house, which both girls are good at. She is great at entertaining herself and both girls can play for a long while together without needing me. Annelise is growing to enjoy books, which is really nice, and I love having the time to just sit with her.

Annelise is starting to memorize some scripture and repeats it back with such fervor and enthusiasm, and she always asks to pray.

Annelise has always had a will, and it does pop out from time to time. She seems to be pretty sly about it, but we are onto her. Several things have gone by the wayside since I have been prego and sick, including cooking, cleaning and discipline. Now that I am feeling better we are having to do some serious reminding about the rules of the house. The whining is the worst, it just seems to come on hard and then go away for a while. But at this point Annelise seems to just go along with the rules of the house. She pitches a fit every now and then, but most of all is a very amiable little girl.

She LOVES the baby in my tummy and always asks if she can say hello. I love that. My other favorite recent saying of hers is "thanks SOOO much" which she always exclaims after I give her a drink or something to eat, or something else that she has asked for. I love it.

So that is the update on my little munch. She will only be the littlest for 5 more months, and I intend to treasure every moment.

Flashback

In 1993 I spent the summer in Mozambique, Africa. It was an insane trip. Getting there took us about a week. We flew from the states to Ireland, to Russia, to India, to Zimbabwe. Then we got on a train tot he border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Then we got held up at the border for 12 hours, which is not a place you want to hang out. THen we jumped into a covered truck and drove 2 hours in the night to a missionary compound. We had fire bombs thrown at us...did I mention Moz was in a state of civil war? And when we arrived at the compound they told us 2 months ago they had been kidnapped by rebels and held hostage. NICE! The next day we got into another truck and drove the rest of the way to Beira, Mozambique (with a UN escort).

We stayed in a YWAM facility that had a school and clinic for street children. Our job for the summer was to help refurbish the building to house missionaries and street children. It was kind of insane. I think I washed my clothes twice during the 6 weeks we were in the country, and we took bucket baths (with 1 gallon of water per person) about every 8 days. It's fun to be 16 and not care.

Anyway, I made tons of great friends on that trip, and on Saturday I was able to reconnect with one of my good friend, Chris and his wife Carrie and their newly adopted children, Mykah and Jackson. The last time I saw Chris and Carrie was in 2001, which is insane. It was actually before they even hooked up and married which all happened in 2002. Since then they have been busy, he finished med school, went back into the Army and is doing his residency in HI, and they now have 5 children. Their other 3 stayed out in HI, but Chris came out to Atl to meet Carrie who was flying in from Swaziland with their other 2 children, after a 2 month, intense, adoption trip.

Now they are all united back in HI and I am sure the fun is just beginning. In any case, it was super fun to see my old buddy, Chris. One of these days our two fams are going to hook up for a mission trip, with Dave as a dentist, Chris as a doc, and Carrie as a nurse, we should be unstoppable. I am not sure what I will do, though I said I was NOT going to take care of the kids.

I Used to Care...

Sometimes I still do care what other people think about the different things I am doing, but a lot of times I am just happy to do my own thing and let everyone else do theirs. I think I have the responsibility to make decisions that are best for my family and my children, and I would think that everyone else is doing the same thing. If I don't want to do something, I'll probably just tell you. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, or that I think you are wrong for doing it, it just means that I'm not doing it. (I must mention here that while there are some things that I really don't care what others think, there are some things that I really DO care what others think...I'm not totally ice-man.)

It's no surprise that these days I'm a little more emotional than normal. I get a little more worked up about things than I normally might, and I care a little more about things than on an average day. I'm fragile. But last week I got some news that pushed me over the edge...wait for it...it is earth-shattering news...I have to find a new preschool for my girls. Ugh! This fall, our current preschool is only offering one option for children who are 4. The option is to go to school for 4 days. And for my family that is too much.

Everyone has their own reasons for sending their kiddos to preschool, but mine go something like this...I just want one morning a week where I have the opportunity to go to the grocery store alone, or get a pedicure alone, or sit in my house and read a book alone, or clean the house and cook alone (which I used to do before I got prego). And I want my girls to go to a place where they can play outside, do some fun art projects, sing some fun songs, and enjoy being kids. I do not care about curriculum, I honestly do not expect them to learn one thing (it always seems to surprise me when I realize that they learned something), not because I do not want them to learn anything, but because that is not why I am sending them to preschool. I am confident that Dave and I can teach them everything they need to know at this point. So learning is not important to me (right now). So, if that is my motivation, why in the world would I want my girls to go to school 4 days every week?

I totally freaked out when I realized that was the only option, because I knew for us that would not be an option. And then because we do not know what we want to do for future schooling for the girls, the whole situation was blown out of proportion. You know the drill, Dave and I are sitting on the couch after the girls are in bed. I'm retelling the situation...crying...asking him if I'm a good mother...and it deteriorates from there. We have since found a decent option with another preschool where I will have sign up both girls for 3 days, but (since Dave has Fridays off) I will only be sending them 2 days. Because we have to register in a couple weeks we will go ahead and try to get the girls in the classes (though it is a pretty popular preschool, so I am not fully confidant that we will be able to get into the classes). If we cannot get in, we will try to get on the waiting list, and see what happens. And in the mean time I'm going to start thinking about what life might look like if both girls are home with me and the baby in the fall. Who knows, maybe that is the best scenario for our family?

News, News, News

Before I write any more, I must finally write about my most pressing news. We are having a baby. Thank goodness that is finally out there because I have had to wait a LONG time, so it feels, to write that news. We are very excited to be welcoming another McShnazzy into the world sometime during the month of July, the earlier, the better in my mind...whoever made up having to wait 42 weeks for a baby was a very sick person, and I hope that I will never have to do that again. The funny thing is we have been met with some pretty funny (in my mind) remarks/questions. Of course everyone is excited, and then maybe feels like they need to ask additional questions about the matter, such as, "was this planned?" OK, that is just a little weird to me. I mean, maybe if it is obvious that there is a reason why someone might not have wanted to get prego, like they are finishing their PhD and are due the week they are defending their disseration, or something like that. The other thing it seems to imply is that I can plan these things...and while I realize there are things I can do to prevent such things and also to try to make such things happen, I do not think I can make a baby appear inside me, no matter how hard I plan or do not plan. I am sure there are some women who can do this, but I am not one of them.

The other comment I continue to receive is about this baby coming in July, which might not be that big of a deal in other parts of the country, but for anyone who has lived through a Georgia summer, it is hot and humid and well, hard to be prego during these months. I really do not care when I have a baby, and my general response has been, if I had not wanted to be prego during the summer I should just not have sex from September-December. I mean...it's fairly simple to figure out.

The final thing we generally hear is, are you hoping for a boy? Well, that is a loaded question for me. I love my girls, and I certainly do not wish they were boys. I highly doubt that I will burst into tears at my ultrasound if they tell me I'm having another girl. I will be thrilled with another healthy baby, no matter what kind. However, if I never have the opportunity in my life to be Mama to a boy, I will be sad. I would like to have that experience, I would like to have my girls have a brother, and I would like Dave to be a Dada to a son. But, we are not "trying" for a boy, we were trying for a baby. If we were certain we wanted a boy, we would have fostered to adopt, or found some other situation where we could be fairly certain we would receive a boy.

Anyway, enough ramblings about that. The girls are thrilled to death about the baby, which is a fun experience I did not have when I was prego with Annelise. I was just happy when Hadleigh showed up to the hospital, pointed to Annelise and said, "baby!" Thank goodness she knew what that was! So this is a new experience for us as a family and a super fun one too.

I myself am usually sick and feeling foul around this time of pregnancy, and this one is no different. I have opted for medication this time around which is helping, while it is helping me keep everything down, I am still really tired, and have little energy for anything other than sitting on the couch. I have found that as long as I sit on the couch all day I feel great, but the more I get up and move around and do things, the more I feel puny. So, we are doing a lot of sitting, reading and watching movies these days. The girls have been great and understanding, and Dave, as always is incredible. He is holding down the housework/laundry, etc. And Dave's mom brought 25+ frozen homecooked meals with her when they came to visit, so we have been enjoying some wonderful food (including cheesecake cookies and cherry pie and banana bread). She is incredible and it has been a wonderful blessing to have a freezer full of food during this time.

And now I must spend some time with Hadleigh before Annelise wakes up from her nap.

Books for 2009 and 2010

I must admit that I am probably not going to be able to list all the books I read this year, because I simply cannot remember some of the things I have read. For example I know I read "Cocktails for Three" by Sophie Kinsella, and I know I read a couple other boks of hers, but cannot remember the titles. Ah well. In any case, here are some of the books I read this past year in no particular order. I'll only comment on a few of them.

2009

Prince Caspian
CS Lewis

The Prodigal God
Tim Keller
I enjoy Keller so much and can read anything he has written and will listen to any sermon he has preached. I love his Bible studies and have done most of them. Of all current theologians, he is my absolute fav.

Total Money Makeover
Dave Ramsey
I LOVE Dave Ramsey. I wish I knew about him when we lived in Germany and were getting out of debt. We have been debt free (besides the house) for 2 years which has been awesome. I used his method of envelopes before I knew about him and even on a tiny budget we were able to pay off thousands of dollars. I love not being bound to financing every little thing, and the freedom that comes from not having a bunch of bills. I look forward to the day when we pay off our home, which we hope to do in the next 15 years.

Don't Make Me Count to Three
Ginger Plowman
Best parenting book I have read to date.

Remember Me? and Cocktails for Three
Sophie Kinsella

Cost of Discipleship
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Hard stuff...good stuff.

My Hands Came Away Red
Lisa McKay

The Well Trained Mind
Susan Wise Bauer
Love her, love this book, and plan to read more of her this year.

Heaven
Randy Alcorn

Wild Swans
Jung Chang

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Soctiey
Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Prob my fav fiction of the year. Very fun read.

Making Small Groups Work
Cloud and Townsend

Family Worship: In the Bible, in History, and in Your Home
Donald Whitney
Eh...not so much...if you want to read it borrow it from me.

Nurture By Nature: How to Raise Happy, Healthy, Responsible Children throught the Insights of Personality
Paul Tieger

Motherstyles: Using Personality Type to Discover Your Parenting Strengths
Janet Penley and Diane Eble

The Unlikely Spy
Daniel Silva

Read with the Girls

Little House on the Prairie
Laura Ingalls Wilder

Milly Molly Mandy
Joyce Lankester Brisley

Winnie the Pooh and The House on Pooh Corner
AA Milne

Mary Poppins
PL Travers


2010

Animal, Vegtable, Miracle
Kingsolver

Hidden Art of Homemaking (need to finish)
Edith Schaffer

The Well Educated Mind
Susan Wise Bauer

The Unfolding Mystery of Christ (need to finish)
Ed Clowney

Case for Civility
Os Guiness

What is a Family
Edith Schaffer

Unfashionable
Tullian Tchividjian

Counterfeit Gods
Tim Keller

Something by Charlotte Mason

The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading
Jessie Wise

Praying the Scriptures for Your Children
Jodie Berndt

A Year with Your Children in the Bible
Jim Cromarty

With the Children on Sundays
Sylvanus Stall

Julie and Julia
Julie Powell

My Life in France
Julia Child


Read with the Girls

Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little and Trumpet of the Swan
EB White

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum

Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame

The Story of Dr. Doolittle
Hugh Lofting

Just So Stories
Rudyard Kipling

Miss Hadleigh Claire

It's been a while since I have done my girlie updates. It seems like the first couple of years there are so many new things to document, and then after 2 it just slows down a bit, so I suppose now that I have two children over two years old (who the heck made that up?) I'll just let these updates be slower in coming.

In eight weeks, my little miss will turn four years old. Somehow four seems very old to me, like you are a real kid when you are four, dude you are almost ready to start kindergarten. Crap! I remember when HC was little it was so hard to figure out what she needed sometimes, was she tired, or hungry, or sick, or cutting a tooth? I thought it would be so nice to get to an age when I can actually know what is wrong and why.

Well, we should be at that age, but I am now convinced it just takes a LOT of work, time and effort to know your children. Last night, Dave and I spent all evening talking about Hadleigh, why do you think she does this, when she does that how should we handle it, how do we help her grow and develop, etc. The nice thing is that between the two of us we were able to answer a lot of questions, but it made me think how important it is for me to really know my girls and to treat them according to how I know them. Tiredness. So for better or worse, here are some things I know about my little girl.

She is really shy. Once she is comfortable in a situation, her shyness goes out the window, but it takes a while for her to feel comfortable. She never walks into a room and exclaims her presence. She doesn't walk up to kids on the playground and ask them to play with her. She will only timidly walk into her Sunday school class, though she loves it. But if one of big friends or little friends comes over to play, give her 2 minutes and she will be telling them all about something important, or will be showing off her ballet move. So, while she is shy, she is very extroverted in nature.

She has a hard time ordering things. I am wondering if part of this is just developmental, but I also think part of it is her personality. For example, if this afternoon I asked her what we did this morning, she would not be able to tell you. After some prompting she could would come up with the answer, but on her own forget it. After lunch I have been reading LIttle House on the Praire to her, and she LOVES it. She always says, "we have to read Laura and Mary and baby Carrie, what's going to happen?" After I read the chapter I will ask her about what we just read, and she will not be able to tell me what happened in the chapter. Yesterday this was really frustrating me, and then I started thinking that her mind works randomly, like her mind makes random associations and those are stored in her memory. The other day before we started reading she asked what was going to happen and then said, "maybe Santa Clause will come again" (which we had read about a few days prior) "or maybe there will be a scream in the night" (which had been the chapter before. So, she is obviously remembering what we have read in some way, but cannot seem to recall the information in the order that I want her to. I have noticed more and more how random she is, especially when I sit down and talk to her during potty time. The things she talks about are wild, jumping from one thing to another...oh the child is just like me. So it is nice to have a little bit of understanding about her brain when I get super frustrated about her not being able to recall something. I told Dave last night, the child can memorize whole passages of scripture in a couple of days, remember all the words to every song she has ever heard, but she cannot remember what she did this morning...how does this work? It's nice to have some thoughts about it now.

We talked about many more things about Hadleigh, and while at first it was tiring, it also became fun to think more about who she is as a person and how we can help her grow up and develop her loves, and talents. I love my sweet Hadleigh.

I Love Being a Mama

These past six months have been really fun (some of the time). The community group that we had led and hosted for 2 years ended in May, and so did our responsibilities as leaders in our Sunday fellowship. So, we have been floating.

I generally hate floating. Floating is LAME. And as much as I do crave a new sense of belonging at my church (since we are not currently in a community group and have been loosley attending a new fellowship), I have been enjoying a part of this floating thing. I like the part where I get to be a Mama. I think that I was so caught up in doing things, planning things, meeting with people, cleaning my house for CG or for a leadership meeting, that I started not liking being a Mama. Or, I was just craving for the day when I could do all these things that I really care about, like hanging out with refugees and stuff.

I think over the past few months I have sunk my roots deep in my house, and deep in my girls. And overall, right now, I really just want to be a Mama. I mean, please, I want a minute to get my hair cut and a pedicure. I'll keep my weekends away with girlfriends, my night out with the my crazy Bunco playing neighbors, and a fun birthday dinner out with my mommy friends. Oh yea, and time with Dave too! But, I am not craving time for planning the next church retreat, or time to see the refugees like I used to.

There is a part of me that has realised I will not have my girls forever, and that I need not wish this time away. There is also a part of me that realised that staying home with my girls is a valuable thing that should not be wished away. It is just as honoring and pleasing to God as anything else that anyone else does. I don't get minus points for not visiting refugees! And it sure is a lot more peaceful when I am content serving my family. Soon enough my girls will be older and I will have more time to do more of the things that I want to do, but right now I am taking great pleasure in being with them. I LOVE reading to them. I could sit all morning and read book after book. I love listening to them play together (and fight) while I do something else around the house. I love figuring out how to teach them new things, and helping them discover about life and God.

Right now I am really thankful for the time I have with them. One day it will not be like this, which is probably good, but I am trying to enjoy everyday that I have with them. Yea for Mamas!

Christmas Time

Christmas time at our home is usually nice and quiet. There are probably lots of reasons for that this year, but mostly it is just how I like to roll with the Christmas thing. We go to the mall, not because we have to, but because it is funny to watch all the people. I order as much as humanly possible online, which is the best invention ever.

Every year it surprises me how frantic some folks get, and it makes me a little sad. I love just sitting down, listening to Christmas music (Red Mountain's Christmas cd...the fav this year), smelling my Christmas tree, thinking about Jesus. Sweetness!

The girls have really gotten into Christmas music this year. I love hearing Annelise say, "Mama, it's a Christmas song!" And then when the girls hear anything in the song about Jesus, angels, shepherds, stars, Mary, etc. they make a point of letting us know what they hear. Funny aside. The other day we went to Publix. The girls LOVE to grocery shop because they give all the kiddos a free cookie. Dave told them we were going, and said, "we are going to get a cookie from Miss Mary" (who usually works at the bakery on this particular day), and Hadleigh exclaims, "Mary and Jesus?" We then explained that this was a different Mary, so in the end HC said, "Oh, OK, there is Mary, and Miss Mary who gives us cookies at the grocery store." Right.

Anyway, we try to keep things simple around here. We went to one party, which was nice. And we took HC to see the Nutcracker, which was fun, except I really do not like ATL's version. I suppose that is what you get for growing up with a Grandmother who takes you to see the Nutcracker in NYC. For Christmas dinner, Dave cooked our traditional duck, which was AMAZING, and we had some friends over for dinner, which was fun. And now we are enjoying some quiet time at the house. Dave's office is closed until after New Years, so it is nice to have him around. And Grandma and Grandpa are coming to visit tomorrow! That means the girls will have a real swingset in the backyard this weekend.

Here are some pics from our December. We went to our fav farm to cut down our Christmas tree, but then Dave opted for the NC grown cut tree in the end. Unfortunately, GA trees do not seem to smell as nice as NC trees. Ah well. The farm also lets you feed goats, so the girls had a blast doing that. I am also posting some pics from Christmas morning, and of the girls all dressed up for church on Sunday. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

Lions, and Tigers and Schools, Oh My!

Let me first just say, I have no idea what we are going to do when little miss HC hits kindergarten (which is a mere 20 months from now). We have some good options, which is great. The local elementary school is decent, at least according to GA standards, we have an amazing private classical school run by our church which I have always dreamed of my children attending, and then last, but not least there is always the option to home-school if the need arises.

Homeschool, I know, can you believe the words just slipped through my typing fingers? Believe it, or not, I was homeschooled. I know you find that weird since I am not a freakish-social outcast (at least most of the time I am what some would call normal). I think I am more shocked than all of you, because although I think my parents did a wonderful job, I always said I could never do that...and that is still mostly my thought.

As our family meandered through Wal-mart on Christmas Eve (not shopping, just browsing and watching everyone else scurry), I found a box of 10 Christmas puzzles. One of the F family traditions was putting together Christmas puzzles, so I immediately had to grab up the box. The box contained 2 puzzles with 100 pieces, 4 puzzles with 300 pieces and 4 puzzles with 500 pieces. As soon as we got home HC and I went to work on the 100 piece puzzle. She is amazing at puzzles, so I thought it would be super fun to put it together, together. So...5 minutes into the process, as I am trying to encourage her to not only turn all the pieces right-side-up, but also to separate the edge pieces from the middle pieces, I found myself growing frustrated.
Me: HC, please put all the pieces with an edge in THIS pile.
HC: With an edge?
Me: Yes, you see this? (as I run my finger along the straight side of the piece), all the pieces like THIS go over here. Can you find a piece with an edge?
HC: This one? (as she picks up a middle piece)
Me: Does that have a straight line, HC? (now a little more irritated)
HC: A straight line?
Me: Do you know what a straight line is?

Dave walks over and assesses the situation. He gives me a look, and I know what he is thinking...and you want to do this ALL the time? And I am thinking the same thing. How the hell do those crazy homeschool moms do it? But then we have such sweet moments while we sit reading "Charlotte's Web", and have made it through 100 pages in 1 sitting, and I think, I could do this all day!

Ah, another day in the M house, but I digress. So, we have lots of decisions before us regarding school, and one of my friends recommended that I read Susan Wise Bauer's book "The Well Trained Mind" which I promptly put on my book wish list and received for Christmas, thank you, Chris and Rubie! She is pretty much the super-star of the classical model for education, which I have always loved, and I pretty much devoured the book from cover to cover. There is so much good, amazing information in it, wow, I cannot say enough about it.

There is a chapter in the book entitled, "The Confident Child: Socialization", and it begins with this quote from H. McCurdy, "The Smithsonian Institution's recipe for genius and leadership: (1)children should spend a great deal of time with loving, educationally minded parents; (2)children should be allowed a lot of free exploration; and (3)children should have little to no association with peers outside of family and relatives." I found this mildly amusing, but as I read the chapter, I was intrigued by some of her thoughts. One of her observations is that in large groups of same-age-peers, children learn to value the opinion of their peers, which can create a dependency on their classmates for approval, direction, and affection...HELLO please don't take me back to those awful teenage years. But upon reading this, I had a memory from when I was growing up. Now, I am not sure why this happened, I don't think it is necessarily because I was home-schooled, but I now think that certainly played a role.

I went to public school for kindergarten and then was home-schooled for 1st and 2nd grade, and then went back to the same public school for 3rd and 4th grade before my parents pulled me out again until high school. I remember in 3rd grade there were 2 children in my class that no one liked (who knows why, I remember that the girl was a little weird, and the boy had a weird name, well it wasn't weird, his name was Israel). After recess everyday, our class had to line-up in two lines before our teacher walked us back to class. For whatever reason no one wanted to be in line with either Andrea or Israel, and as soon as they would get in line, all my classmates would jump into the other line. All of my classmates except me. I always stood in line with them. I think I was mildly mocked for this choice, but for the most part no one bothered me about my decision.

When HC was born, and then Annelise, our prayers for them have been that they would never know a day without the Lord, and that she would grow to love all kinds of people. Part of that prayer, for me, was with that story in the back of my mind.

Now, I don't think homeschooling made me a nice person, actually, I don't often think of myself as a nice person. Dave is nice, I am a little too fiery to be nice. But after reading this book, I wondered if being at home for those 2 years gave me the confidence to do the right thing, at age 8, and to treat those children as image-bearers of God.

Don't know, but I continue to pray that no matter where my children go to school, they will have the confidence and the foundation to do the right thing. And now I am off to read my other Chistmas book, which is a bit lighter, "My Life in France" (Julia Child's memoir).

Best Neighborhood Ever

I know I have mentioned this before, but we truly live in the best neighborhood ever, and I am so thankful. I will often think over the process of buying a home and how we struggled over where we should settle down. I still will occasionally drive down to East Lake or the Old Fourth Ward and think, man it would be SO cool to live here...but then I drive back to my neighborhood and remember that I truly live in the best place.

This is a picture from our kids Christmas oarty a couple weeks ago. The kids gather to make ornaments that are animal friendly (for birds and squirrels) and then we go and decorate the Christmas tree in our square. It was so fun (and chaotic) to have all the kids around, but it is nice to think about the girls growing up with other neighborhood children, what a blessing. In fact, our next door neighbor will have her first baby in March and I look forward to a few years down the road when we will need to cut a hole in the fence for everyone to run back and forth. We also hope to import another few friends with kiddos onto our end of the square, but we are still praying that one into reality.

This past Friday the women gathered for our monthly Bunco party. Instead of Bunco we had a Christmas feast and played "Dirty Santa". I had such a wonderful time gathering with women who really and truly care about one another. We come from all different backgrounds, young, old, single, married, etc, and though we do not know each other as much as we might like, there is a general atmosphere of caring for those who are struggling and celebrating with those who are rejoicing. What a blessing. I am so thankful to the Lord for directing our paths, even though it is not as cool a place as I thought I might like to live...it is just where we need to be.

Fav Christmas Mem Thus Far

I love Christmas! Someone asked me the other day if I loved Christmas, and although I do, I had to pause and say, well now, it depends on what you mean by that? If you mean going out with the crowds, standing in massive lines, searching for that one gift that will make life worth living...NO. Not only do I not like that version of Christmas, but I refuse to participate in it! I like to point a click when I am shopping for Christmas.

However if you mean, making cookies, sending and receiving Christmas cards, sitting in my living room and smelling my REAL Christmas tree while listening to Harry Connick Jr and putting ornaments on our Jesse Tree, well, by all means, I LOVE Christmas.

This is our second year following the Jesse Tree readings. We tried it last year and it didn't last, the girls were just a little too young, but this year it has been awesome. Beginning the first night of advent and continuing through Christmas, we put a special ornament on a special tree called the Jesse Tree. Each ornament has a symbol that corresponds to a passage of scripture, and this basically takes you from Creation through the birth of Jesus. I love it for many reasons...one being that sometimes we American Christians think that Christianity started with the first Billy Graham crusade. We tend to throw out any tradition or song that wasn't written in the last year. And we also tend to forget that Jesus was ALWAYS God's plan, from the beginning. There are not two different stories, old testament and then new. It is all one story and the Jesse Tree helps us see Jesus through all of scripture. Love it!

So, onto my fav Christmas memory to date. Every year Intown has "Lessons and Carols". There are nine readings and nine Christmas carols sung. It is such a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas, I think. The music is always amazing and hearing the passages of scripture in between as we lead up to Christ's birth is awesome. Every year we have brought Hadleigh to worship with us when they have the Lessons and Carols. She loves music and always enjoys coming with us, yesterday was no exception. But a really fun thing happened yesterday, she was really listening. She listened to the words of the songs and to words of scripture. Her eyes would get really big and she would say, "Naked Mama! Adam and Eve were naked!" OK, that was more comical than anything, but was listening and knew all the stories, not just from our readings in the Jesse Tree, but just from reading scripture to her at other times. It was really cool to see, she is beginning to get it. It all made my heart glad. Not only to hear the truth of Jesus' birth sung and read, but to know that Hadleigh is beginning to see and understand the truth herself. What a great Christmas gift!

In the Middle

I am not a girly girl. Maybe compared to some, but not to others. I don't care about shoes (though from time to time considered buying a pair of red ones). I actually think I might care about shoes if I had different feet. My feet are ridiculously narrow, and long. I wear size 9. Ever heard of a 9 narrow? That is because they don't exist. When I wear sneakers I have to pull the laces so tight that the sides of the shoe come together in the middle. I cannot wear sandals unless they are backless because the strap will never stay on my heel. So, I don't buy shoes.

I actually do not like to shop, it makes me tired and I have to know what I want when I walk in, otherwise it puts me in a bad mood. The only store I don't have to have an agenda in is Ann Taylor...I love it! Growing up I think I had a good mix of getting dirty and getting dressed up. I spent a summer in Africa with a suitcase that weighed 32 pounds (you cannot bring a lot with that weight limit, trust me). I think I washed my hair once a week. I also went my whole senior year of high school without shaving my legs. These days I do tend to shave more than once a year and I take a shower everyday (in case you are worried).

All this to say, I find it hard to expect my girls will by girly. It will be fine if they are, but it will not be because I have encouraged it to them. I never bought them anything smocked, we don't have anything with their name or initials emboidered on it...it's just not my thing. So far we have steered WAY clear of the whole princess thing. I am not at all sad about that one. Again, if they want it, it will be fine, but happy to avoid.

This fall was the first season that I was able to pick out all of HC's clothes. Since she was born we have been the grateful recipients of hand-me-downs. Love it, it's been great, but they have slowed down and I actually enjoyed getting to choose the clothes myself (at a consignment sale, no less, and I was in and out in 30 minutes). The thing is I did not buy her any play dresses. She has some pretty dresses for church, but I have never considered sending her to school in a dress. Don't you sit on the floor and play on the playground? Why would you want to wear a dress? OK, so recently HC has asked to wear a dress to school. I am still shocked at this, but I am trying to be a supportive mama.

Today I ran out to a couple stores to try to find a couple cheap play dresses that she can wear with leggings underneath and we don't have to worry about ruining it with paint or glue or whatever they might do at school. I seriously went to 3 stores and only found 1 dress. This was partly because of my price range, but partly because they store did not have anything that I thought was suitable. HC is really no longer in the toddler section of clothing anymore. I can still occassionaly find a size 5 in a toddler dress, but she is in the regular girl section now. And those clothes were NOT suitable for a 3 year old. My 3 year old is not a rocker, she does not have an attitude (well she does, but we try to correct that), and she doesn't watch High School Musical. I just want something that is cute and blue, or green, or pink, and maybe has a flower on it or polka dots. Just something that a little girl would wear. Or maybe I should say, something that I will allow my little girl to wear.

I know, I am weird, freak. I just thought that I would have to start worrying about this in middle school when we are swim-suit shopping and I have to explain, "sorry honey, you cannot wear a bikini." Blah! Maybe for now I can use this as an excuse to shop at more expensive stores...we'll see what Dave thinks.

Psalm 86:10-12

You are Great

and do marvelous deeds

You alone are God

Teach me your ways O Lord

And I will walk in your truth

Give me an undivided heart

That I may fear your name

I will praise you O Lord, my God

I will glorify your name forever

One Sunday this past summer this was our call to worship. After we read it in worship I decided to memorize it with the girls. I just love this passage of scripture. This summer I was also really struggling with teaching Hadleigh to pray. That is not really something you want to ram down your children's throat, but I also thought I should encourage her. She is sometimes timid about things, and especially when it involves talking in front of people, so then I had a great idea...to use sscripture to teach her to pray. That gives her words that she already knows to use as a prayer. And wow, what better teacher than God's word itself. So at bedtime and then at random meal times or during the day I would pray the above passage. And finally I convinced her to begin saying the passage with me as a prayer. This evening as I was tucking the girls into bed Hadleigh exclaimed that it was her turn to pray and she prayed Psalm 86.10-12. Annelise repeated along with Hadleigh, because Annelise cannot be left out of anything! It was so sweet.

I think I am going to start looking for more passages like this one that we can all learn together and pray as a family, but for now, it is Psalm 86.10-12 and I cannot think of a better prayer to have at this point.

Thankful for the Good Samaritans

A few weeks ago in our Sunday fellowship we talked about the parable of the Good Samaritan, and it has provoked MANY discussions ever since. The first thing that was interesting to me was when the teacher pushed us to think about the hero of the parable. The hero was the Samaritan, of course. Well, of course I know that, but to the original listeners of the parable it was offensive to have a Samaritan as a hero. So, the teacher encouraged us to think about who might be an offensive hero these days. I came up with jack squat while I was sitting there, but since, I have decided that if Jesus was telling a story and instead of making the pastor or the deacon the hero he made Richard Dawkins (author of "The God Delusion") the hero, I would be REALLY offended. This new thought has given me more fuel for thinking about this parable.

Looking at this parable for the last couple weeks has been difficult for me. I have become really good at rationalizing things. Recently I read Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "Cost of Discipleship". Wowee, that was a great reread, but as he goes through Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and even the Parable of the Good Samaritan, he beats down how often we rationalize our motives and the needs of our world. I don't have time...I don't have the resources...I don't know what to say...I am scared...Someone else would be better at that... Dude, no one would ever help anyone if we all stayed there. Bottom line is being a Good Samaritan costs me something. Sometimes it costs me things I do not think I have. Sometimes it costs me my safety. Sometimes it costs me my comfort. Actually I am going to change that to ALL THE TIME. If it doesn't cost me, then I am probably not a Good Samaritan. Dave and I have spent a lot of time talking about what this means for us and our family, but the minute we stop taking risks is the minute that we have failed to live in light of the gospel.

With all of these discussions I keep coming back to two main thoughts...well, I suppose one is a thought and one is a story. I have a college buddy who spent some time in Calcutta, India, working in Mother Theresa's House of the Dying. I remember him talking about walking down the street and literally having to step over dying or dead bodies. Wow, that does not generally happen in my little area of Atlanta. One of the things he told me was how overwhelmed he felt because he could not help everyone, literally he could not. But he reminded me that neither did Jesus. Jesus did not heal every blind, deaf and lame man that he met, but he did heal some. My friend concluded that one of the things he could do was to give every person the dignity of being human. That means he would look every beggar in the eye and give a nod or a smile. He might not give everyone money, but he was going to acknowledge their humanity. How stirring to remember that! That is the very thing that I often do not do. I want to ignore people, I would rather NOT see them, but in doing that I am taking away their humanity.

My story centers around my most recent encounter with a Good Samaritan. I recently traveled to Cali with the girls and I flew alone. For anyone who has ever done this...I commend you. It is not easy to do, and I honestly cannot think about doing it again for a while. One thing Dave always mentions as he sends me on my way through security is, "if you need help, find a soldier". Of course in the Atl there is no shortage of soldiers. Delta's main hub is Atlanta and is also a main carrier for soldiers, so there are always many of them in the airport. So here I am slowly winding my way through the airport. I have the double stroller with both car seats piled on top of the stroller. The girls are walking behind me, holding hands and we make it to the gate. The last part of the journey onto the plane is usually intense because I now have to get everything down the jetway and onto the plane. As soon as I pulled up to the gate I spotted my Good Samaritan a major in the Army, and I knew he was going to help me. What do you know, but as soon as they announce boarding he is by my side asking if he can help me. He pushed my stroller with all my junk, while I was able to handle the girls, and he told me all about his 6 year old twins. He helped me to my seat, looked me in the eye and was on his way. About 30 minutes into the flight there was a medical emergency and a call for a doctor or a nurse. I did not know what was happening, but I turned to the woman next time me and said, there is a major on board, I bet you money he is back there to help. I was right. At some point during the flight I headed back to the bathroom with both girls and we all squeezed into the tiny space (for tips on how to do that talk to me later...it is a science). As I squeezed out, there sat the major with the woman who was sick. She seemed to be better, but he was sitting beside her telling her stories and keeping her company. When he caught my eye and he saw me with my girls he said, "You are my hero". I am assuming that he was talking about going into that bathroom with 2 small children, which while I will not minimize the difficulty, is not difficult in the scheme of life. I laughed and said, "Well, you are mine." He serves me, my girls and our country everyday, and even when he is on an airplane to go visit his family he is still serving all those around him, giving them dignity, and seeing them as the people they are. I aspire to be this kind of Samaritan.

Fun in the Leaves

I love the fall. Here are some good family fun we had in the leaves a couple weekends ago.

Annelise's Big Girl Bed

About a month ago Annelise moved into her big girl bed! Isn't it beautiful? Dave worked on it while we were out in California and Annelise was so excited to see it upon arriving home. She has done a great job staying in it. Of course I know it is only a matter of time before she begins to get out. I do feel like the time change is on my side, because it is completely dark when the girls go to bed. I think that is going in my favor.

Happy Birthday Sweet Annelise

Today is my sweet Annelise's 2nd birthday. I remember she was born at 10.18am on November 2, 2007, after 16 ridiculous long hours of labor. I remember the 10.18 part because when they said 10.18 I thought they were refering to her weight (nevermind that there are only 16 oz in a pound). My nurse kept telling me she was going to be big, so it was an honest mistake.

Her name, Annelise Louise, means full of grace and favor and warrior. That seems to suit her very well. She is full of grace, is favored be many that she meets and is a little warrior (just try convincing her she doesn't want something!).
Everyone loves Annelise. She is a very loving, cuddly little girl, and is always giving hugs and kisses to teachers, nursey workers, friends, and of course us. Last week as we were leaving the nursery she ran back (on her own accord) to give kisses to the two workers. She loves giving kisses on both cheeks and if you do not know this she will take your face in her hands so she can deliver the two kisses.

For the most part she is a very easy going child, but she is also very determined when she decides something. I think that has some advantages and we are enjoying this stage of her life. Socially she seems to thrive. She is speaking in full sentences and is fairly easy to understand, and is singing along to songs and repeating her verses with Hadleigh.
This month we transitioned her to a big bed (I need to post pictures of the bed Dave made for her) which has been a huge success. She has not climbed out yet, but then again the getting out of bed seemed to come later for Hadleigh too. I have no doubt she will crawl out of bed at some point. She has only fallen out of bed once, even though Dave did buy a rail for her bed. She was sleeping down by the foot of her bed and so was unprotected. Since that fall I have been going in to check on the girls before I go to sleep, this is a new habit for me, Dave and I usually never go in there unless we hear loud sobs. But I figure it is a preventative measure to make sure everyone is positioned in their beds correctly. Dave thinks it is funny, but I would rather check them at 8.30 while I am awake than at 1.30 in the morning.

Annelise LOVES baby dolls. She also loves many of the things that her big sister likes, like cars and trucks, but her very own love is baby dolls. This is a new one for me, but it is sweet and very fun. She also LOVES apples. This has been great because we get a lot of apples every week in our CSA basket, and she has been devouring them.
She is becoming more and more independent. When she goes to the bathroom she wants to turn on and off the lights and flush the toilet. She still has some issues with getting her pants down, but she is moving in the right direction. She loves to put her shoes on by herself, and to pick out her outfit (although I am still a bit controlling about that issue).

Annelise is also obsessed with drinking. She loves juice, and would go through a gallon a day if I allowed it. She refuses to drink water and I have not pushed it thus far. But I am thinking about seriously rationing her consumption. She is so willful that I'd rather not have that fight, and she does seem to need a good amount of liquids to keep her regular, so for now I look for the juice on sale!
I'll post more about Annelise's sweet birthday festivities later, but for now, Happy Birthday My Sweet Lieska!

Fun with Tink and Giraffe

This year we had a super fun time with fall and Halloween activities. We had our annual Halloween costume party at playgroup this past week. It was a mad house as always, but fun to see all the kids all dressed up. We also took the obligatory annual photo to remember the madness. It is always chaos trying to get the shot and as I was scrolling through them I was wondering why we torture ourselves trying to get everyone to smile. Ah well. You can follow the chaos below.

And then for extra fun, we had some friends over tonight for some chili and cornbread and fixings and then a stroll around the neighborhood. The kids had a fab time, and I actually enjoyed myself too!