funny

from the other day...

love - "mommy, did you know that guinea pigs hatch from eggs?"

me - "actually, guinea pigs don't hatch from eggs. they come out of their mommies tummies."

love - "mommy? i wish you could have a guinea pig in your tummy and it could pop out."

lo, how a rose e'er blooming

i am wrapping teacher gifts,
christmas music in the background.
little boy is at my feet, climbing, grabbing, into everything.
my patience is wearing thin.

and then a song - "lo, how a rose e'er blooming".
grief washes over me.
my dad loved that song.

a lump in my throat, and then tears,
as the boy climbs and grabs things off the table.
the boy he never got to meet.

three years later and it still hurts.
the ache grows and deepens as more days pass without him.
my dad, safe with Jesus.
us here, missing him.

december so far

i've been really feeling like i can't keep up with life lately. it's been frustrating. and then today it hit me...in the past month i have taken jobot to six doctor appointments (the sixth one was this morning), spent a good part of two days in the ER with him, stayed at the hospital for two days, gone on a six day cross country road trip, and tried to keep up with laundry, housekeeping, parenting, and general tasks of caring for our family in the midst of all of it.

that realization made me feel a little better at least. there's been a lot going on.

but, i have managed to put up some christmas decorations, and even make some new ones, so at least there's that.

the little houses are made of paper. last year, i got a little kit to make them on clearance after christmas. i stashed it with our christmas decorations and forgot all about it. what a fun surprise to find! putting them together and decorating them has been an enjoyable little project. also, i really like having a mantle.

 our tree has been toppled over three times and counting. we started with several unbreakable ornaments on the tree. well...several of the "unbreakable" ornaments have been broken (including charlie brown, who was unfortunately beheaded by our little one year old), and ornaments were being removed by little hands faster than they could be put back on, scattered all over the house, and stepped on...so we are going with a mostly ornamentless tree this year. there are a few (tacky) plastic ornaments up at the top of the tree. the christmas tree is not a battle i am willing to have with the kids...so we make due with our little three-foot artificial one for now and they touch it and play with it all they want.

 we even already had a christmas themed family movie night with pizza in the living room.

and we have been enjoying our christmas present to ourselves - a portable fire pit! we have wanted one for years and found a great black friday sale on one (although we bought it on monday, and i think it's the only thing i have ever bought on a black friday sale...i am not a fan of that shopping day). we tried it out the other night and it was so much fun! a little chaotic with the kiddos, but they enjoyed it, the weather was perfect, and our neighbor even came over and sat around the fire with us for a bit. looking forward to more fun times with the fire!

 oh, and we also put a few christmas lights on our house...how could we not with such a cute little house to decorate?

love had her first french braid. brought me back to the days of braiding my american girl doll's hair...except the doll sat still, love did not.

 there were about ten fun minutes when love and i crafted together post rest time the other day. it didn't last long, but it gave me a glimpse of future times of creating together.

 

 

there has been lots of dress up these days (two little princesses around here)!

and then there was yesterday when we were playing dress up. a few minutes after the fedex delivery guy left i realized that i had answered the door with this antenna hat on my head. ha!