"Reenie" turns 13!

No, you don't need to adjust your eyes, that IS Serena....at four years old...with a mustache!! On December 27, little Serena ("Reenie" as I call her) turned 13! Yes, a teenager! Yikes... Anyway, we decided to have a mustache bash for her, so I took an old pic of her and added a mustache to it. She even looks cute with "lip spinach", a "cookie brusher", "a misplaced eyebrow", oh yes, we learned lots of names for the common "stache" at her party. I'm sure the grandparents just love these crazy themes these girls come up with!

And here she is today, looking beautiful and sweet. I have a feeling the teen years are going to be quite a challenge...maybe a whole new blog will have to begin for this! Serena is full of energy, spirit, enthusiasm, and did I say energy?? She was born running and hasn't stopped since! We love her and can't believe she's getting so grown up! happy birthday, Reenie. We love you!

Christmas Thoughts

December was a busy time for us as usual, so I don't have much time to post. That means I skip a lot of important stuff! On December 4th, I attended the Christmas Tea at my old/new church (complicated) and sat at my mom's beautiful table. It was nice to see many friends there and others too. I met the new pastor's wife and found her to be very friendly and warm. That following weekend was our annual Christmas parade, which meant lots of people at my parents' house. I always help out with the afterglow, so I found the week to be quite busy and by Saturday, I was pooped! Again, it was nice to catch up with friends and we always love the atmosphere at the parade with all the lights at night. We then celebrated my dad's birthday by attending the Christmas Program at church. I loved it...of course the kids were wonderful as usual, but the adult program was done Hee Haw style, complete with Rednecks. How fitting for our small little farming town! Many old friends welcomed us back and made us feel like family. And then there are others. :) Anyway, we met the new pastor and found him to be quite nice and welcoming. He found us after the service and made contact with us again. His wife remembered me from the tea, so again I found her to be kind and gracious. We have been contemplating coming back for awhile. We just have to make some new decisions about how we will react to certain situations and people. God is growing us, that's for sure. With His grace, we can overcome. So, after that nice program, we met up with my parents for a nice lunch and birthday celebration. The following Tuesday was our special Christmas concert the girls are in over at Warriner Hall. This was Nat's first time playing bass for the jazz band and Serena's first time playing tenor in the junior jazz band! I am always so happy to attend this concert, I can't even tell you! It's like going to Frankenmuth and doing our light tour all rolled into one! It's just a festive beautiful time of watching our young people entertain us with all their talents. I was so proud of our girls too. Nat just owned that bass! :) Steve and I presented the girls with bundles of roses after the performance. And then where do you go after? Pixie, of course with Grandma and Grandpa! So much fun. Christmas shopping and baking and candy making, wrapping, running, and spending took up many of the days after that! Finally we made it to Christmas Eve. Many of our family members couldn't make it this year, so our crowd was quite small. Just my sister and I, with her husband and my family at my parent's house. We managed to do a fun auction exchange anyway, played a lively game of Catchphrase, and enjoyed the chocolate fountain. It has been a nice shift since the emphasis is not on gifts so much as just having time to visit. Christmas day was wonderful with our girls, as it always has been. As they get older, I realize time is shorter and shorter, having our girls here at home with us under the tree. I appreciate and savor every second. Believe me. My most precious gift besides my family was the print the girls did of Angel for me. Since Steve's family was delaying Christmas for one day, we had the whole day to just do whatever we wanted! It was nice, just hanging out in our jammies for the day. On the day after Christmas, we went to the facility where Steve's 93 year old grandma is now living. The goal was to get family pictures with Grandma. All 32 of us! Steve's aunt agreed to photograph, but she asked us to help a bit, which we did. I got to know her a bit better and really enjoyed spending time with her. We also met our new nephew who is 10 months old, and he was a complete joy! Seeing him sit in Grandma's lap was nothing short of amazing. It was beyond poetic. Grandma is not who she used to be, but I saw her spark when that little baby was placed on her lap. She smiled. She waved to him, and responded in a way she hadn't for months. Years even. Steve's mom was amazed at how her mother perked up in the presence of her family. She even exclaimed, "I didn't know what a big family I had!" It was a gift, I'm sure, to all of us. The pictures took a couple hours and then we headed back to Steve's parent's home. Having so many nieces and nephews all doing such interesting things makes for a fun day! And having the new baby and new parents was a special addition to my day as well. What can I say about the Christmas season? It's all about LOVE. It's about miracles. It's about Family, and it's giving. Of yourself, your time, your gifts inside. Happy New Year...

Michigan Poem

I saw this on a friend's blog a few years ago and I came across it again today. I love all things Michigan, of course, including our "mitten" shape! I actually "published" a book about our cold Michigan life and sent it to a friend in Missouri. She loved it so much that she had it bound for me. I still treasure it today. It has nothing to do with this poem, of course, but maybe I'll share my book at some point too. Here goes...sorry I can't indent and make this all cool. It's winter here in Michigan and the gentle breezes blow Seventy miles an hour At twenty-five below Oh, how I love ole Michigan When the snow's up to your butt You take a breath of winter And your nose freezes shut Yes, the weather here is wonderful So I guess I'll hang around I could never leave my Michigan 'Cause I'm frozen to the ground. By the way, no snow as of yet, but I hear it's coming. Maybe in time for Santa??

Room at the Inn? I hope not.

"It's the moooost wonderful tiiime of the year..." Is it really? Well, it depends on how you look at it. Okay, right after Thanksgiving, people go nuts shopping. That to me just sets a tone of "crazy" right off the bat. For some reason, we think December means making more cookies than you normally make, making candy that you never make, attending too many parties-some of which you would ordinarily pass on, buying more than you normally buy, and filling up your calendar with all things "Christmas". Then we all sit back and wonder "why am I so cranky?" "Why don't these pants fit anymore?" "Where did all our money go?" "Who are all these people?" Yes, we all say that, and probably much more! Don't you think that's kind of opposite of what Christmas really was meant to mean? Am I the first to bring this up? Of course not, but why do we talk about the same thing year after year? Why don't we ever just "get it"? Why don't we say, forget all the cards, 86 the cookies, no more office parties, no more gift exchanges, I'm going to the manger for Christmas!! If you want to send me a card, send it to the manger address! I'm not wearing Spanx to the party! I'm wearing my barn clothes! Leave me and Jesus alone!" That's how I feel each December, as I participate (sometimes robotically) in all things "Christmas". But when I can create some peace, some room, some time, it's all about CHRISTmas, It's all about Jesus, and it's all about Him. Not the gifts, not the cookies, not the decorating, not the carols, not the shopping. And that's when I get it. Now, keeping it? That's up to me. And you. Merry Christmas to all.....and to all, a good time at that manger this year.

Expectations

"Cease expecting and you shall gain all things." This is a quote by an unknown author and has stuck with me for years. It is so true. Our expectations get us into trouble. Expecting someone to do what they say. Expecting it not to rain when you planned a vacation. Expecting to lose that 10 pounds before your class reunion. Expecting someone to be kind because you have been kind. No. I've learned in life that if I'm angry, if I'm frustrated, if I'm anxious, it's because my expectations are clouding reality. The only One you can always expect anything from is God. People are wonderful, in general, but I can promise you they will let you down. I can promise you without even knowing me that I will unknowingly let you down. I can't meet your expectations. Since you can control that part of you, I hope that you don't depend on me to meet your every expectation. To do so would be setting us both up for failure. And yet, I find myself expecting people to say or do or behave in a way that makes sense to me! I know this going in, and yet I still allow myself to hope that maybe just maybe they'll get it. They usually don't. Sometimes I don't get it either. Certain people have expected things from me that I'm not even capable of giving. If they knew me well enough, they'd know that already. And I know not to expect my carefree friend to know when I'm hurting. She just isn't wired that way. And so I don't wait for her to react the way I want her to, I just seek out the one I need, because I know what to expect from her. And I can always seek God, who already knows what I need and always gives me what I expect. I have to watch my own expectations and understand that while a healthy amount of expectation keeps some people in line,(my kids, for one) it confuses others. Some people walk around as if they owe no one anything. No apology, no reason, not even an excuse. Sometimes not even a glance. I think we just need to give each other a break. Like the cars who always seem to think I have my brights on...ugh! I can't tell you how many people flash me at night. It drives me nuts and is so distracting. I never drive with my brights and yet these dillweeds keep punishing me anyway. I would expect them to be courteous and gracious, but doing that would just make me even more frustrated when they can't do that for me. Cease expecting. Stop waiting for someone to get in line to make you happy. It won't happen. Get yourself some perspective and realize your comfort doesn't come from people doing what you expect, or the hope of losing that 10 pounds. It comes from the only One who can always meet your expectations, and from now on, I will be expecting more of myself in remembering that.

Hanging Tough?

"life isn't fair." It's something we've drilled into our kids since they were toddlers, and yet I still expect life to be fair sometimes as an adult! What is wrong with me that I actually think things will work out..and to my advantage...in my timing....and exactly the way I want them... Yeah, I'm laughing too. Must be drinking too much eggnog. We found out this morning that the dog (Angel's puppy) we were offered back in October (long story) was basically adopted right out from under us. Nothing happened the way we were promised. We were all excited about him coming here. Epic fail, as the kids would say. I lamented a bit more about that on her personal blog so I won't go into detail here. And while that seems like not such a big deal, it's just another drop in the bucket of disappointments this year. We keep wondering what is going on, and yet part of me already knows. See, I began praying fervently about some very specific things...friendships, money, parenting,church, and some other big ones too. I knew God would answer, as He always does, it's just that His answers have really rocked my boat. Most of his answers are difficult to take. I know this because I've been listening. I've noticed some friendships fizzling for my own good. I've noticed some heavy discipline in the financial department. I've received some direction that I can't believe I have to take. I wanted this dog for my family so bad that I was blinded by it. God said "no." He tells me "no" quite often, and I'm glad He is guiding, but I'd be lying if I said it was easy to take. After Friday night's news of no dog, I put my head down on my computer and I cried. I could tell the girls were feeling worse for me than for themselves, as they just said, "Mom, it's okay. It's just not meant to be and at least he has a home". I felt like a child as I simply muttered back, "i'm so tired of being let down." But in fact, I'm not let down that often. I just feel that way. God never lets me down, but He does discipline me in a way I need to be disciplined. Like a child, I don't like to hear it, but I need it. I am blessed to have this family to go through all of these things with, good, bad, ugly, and dogless too. Serena has been dealing with some friendship troubles at school that have just had me seething! I am just tired of all the peaty mean people in her life. I was having an emotional reaction on a "decompress" drive, and suddenly I felt God giving me this, "stop giving this so much weight. It's not as important as you think." What? I went back home and had a nice long talk with Serena in efforts to make her feel better and learn how to deal with this in a mature, Christian way. It turns out she was already doing that. I'm the one who went all postal. She said to me, "sure, it hurts. I thought she was my best friend, but you know what? Best friends don't do that to each other, so I guess it was time to let her go." Wow. If only I could be that mature under pressure! Again, though, I was compiling my feelings about all the things going wrong and i was reacting to them. Weak moments just get us into trouble. With God's grace, I can do all of these new challenging things. I can handle all of God's answers. And once in awhile, I'll be as mature as my 12 year old when I do it!