Blog Vacation

As much as it pains me, and it really does, I'm taking a short break from my blog world. I have come to realize that I am addicted to my laptop once on it. I need to concentrate on home right now to keep the Holiday stresses at bay by getting my housework/family chores done. I am the great procrastinator, and happily shove everything to a later day without pause.
There are now curtains to be hung in Jedd's room, bookshelves to be filled in the stairway and a dog who desires to be walked daily. I have put these things off with glee to be popping from blog to blog. But I'll be back in the new year. I love checking in on all of you and seeing what's new in your lives. Don't forget me okay? It's simply two short weeks:)!
So... Merry Christmas All!......may Jesus fill your heart this season....

Winterthur anyone?

Good Day!
Well, it's going to be in the 60's today...60's! What a silly weather for December. I'm going to throw open the shop door and glory in it. Annie's working today for Anne, so Jedd is coming to work with me. It'll be hard to live up to the day his sister gave him yesterday, schooling on the shed roof with hot cocoa, but I think I'm going to come up with chores so he can earn Christmas cash.
Tomorrow is my day off and I plan on keeping Emma home from school and having a play day with the kids. Gift shopping, movie, lunch out. You get the idea. I thought about a field trip to Baltimore or Washington, but I don't want to deal with the crowds... I thought about taking them to Winterthur, but I don't know how enjoyable that would be for any of us with Jedd along. He is all boy and hates things like that. Gardens and pretty houses? No, not so much.
If you've any day trip ideas, please send them along...What do you think? Should I force the boy to Winterthur? Does anyone else want to join us in that trip if we do it?

Burnt Fingers and Aching Backs or The Joys of Christmas Preparations

I have spent the last half hour wrapping gifts. It must be done craftily (by that I mean sneakily,not martha stewart style) obviously, with an 11 year old bursting with curiosity lurking in the corners. He is the most unusual kid in that he will sleep like a teenager...till 10 if I let him go. When I was his age I was up early looking for peep frogs outdoors or whatever. So, this is my time to wrap. I bring it all down to the kitchen table and spread out, after Emma leaves for school and before the other two awake.
I was at a get-together last night for the women merchants of downtown Cambridge and the hostess was surprised when I told her I used to have it all wrapped by Thanksgiving night. There were a few years there when the kids were little when Thom and Damien would take the kids to the movies on Thanksgiving night and I would stay home and wrap to my heart's content and my back's despair. My hostess said she always waited till Christmas Eve to wrap all the gifts and decorate the tree. HUH! Talk about putting some pressure on one's self! I would be the ghastliest human on earth that night if I did that!
Right now I think the pressure is too great on Jedd as it is. He's wondering where the gifts are hidden this year. I did change the location. How does he know? Has he been peeking when Emma is at school and Thom, Annie and I are all at work? There aren't many times he's totally alone, but there are enough to cause great temptation at this time of year!:)
Tonight I need to bake 13 dozen cookies for a cookie exchange tomorrow night. I always enjoy it while I'm there, but I'm always dreading it this night before. If anyone has a really easy recipe to roll out 100 balls per tray and bake for three minutes or less, I'll pay big bucks if you'll share it by 5 p.m. tonight!
Dear Father in Heaven, please give me wisdom and guidance throughout this day and an extra measure of calm about this baking business tonight I plead....

Seventeen!!!!

The twins have turned seventeen! Seventeen! Normally I'd go into their birth story here, but they've asked me not to this year. I think they're tired of it. I tell it several times a year:)

December 7th. What a lovely event to redeem the date for those who love us( think grandparents), and were part of the Greatest Generation and heretofore would think of Pearl Harbor.

They can never decide what to do on their day, jointly. This year options were tossed around. Finally, the other day I said,'Stop! We're doing pizza and cupcakes here, invite friends."

It was amazing. They stopped and invited friends. It was as if the decision was too large for them to make and they wanted it taken out of their hands. I had fully expected resistance and instead I got what I took as relief. It was very nice, indeed! (that word is there as an inside joke for Kate Howard:) )

Here are some shots from charades:

And the cupcake queen delivers the goods...... Linnea was thought of here and greatly missed, with her wonderful cupcake wedding cake.....

There were so many memories of past birthday parties with all these girls present. We've missed a few years of parties due to swim team...but some of these Salisbury girls have been to birthday parties here since they were tiny....I love watching these girls grow up and become such interesting people in their own right....not just so and so's daughter. Do you all know what I mean?

Thanks to all of them for coming and making MY daughters' birthday so lovely.... Big hugs to all of them and all of you...

A Happy Heart

I left with a light heart to go off to work yesterday, because of the prospect of snow.
A customer was standing by the windows and said to the others in the store, "You know they call me weather woman because of my accuracy...it's going to start snowing in the next few minutes." We all kind of said, "that would be nice"..."hope so"....etc. But I'd heard just a few minutes before it would be later in the afternoon before the snow fell...
About 5 minutes later it was coming down like mad!!! Oh happiness in the store with a bunch of grown women jumping and screeching like children.
The three customers were infused with Christmas spirit and their spending expanded! Happy shopkeeper!
...and then holiday happiness continued throughout the day. It just never stopped. At 10 p.m. Jedd and I were walking the dog in amazement as the snow still fell. We went down by the boats and across the park and delighted in it all. Every once in a while a giant snowball smashed my back and a happy boy snorted with glee...The dog was bouncing through it all, licking it , oblivious to the snowballs smashing into his back.
The return trip home was frigid, walking into the wind, but an 11 year old was willing to walk snuggled under his mom's arm for warmth. Joy!
Right now I am sitting in front of my fireplace with a dog at my feet. Some kids are sleeping, one is awake. I have a giant cup of coffee at my fingertips...
Thank you! Thank you, Father, for the happiness in my heart. Please help me to appreciate these moments in the coming weeks. Please help me to not get caught up in the stress of Christmas and miss the joy of your son's birth....

a december haiku

Where does the snow fall?
blanketing over the earth
why here, is it rain?

power-less

It was an interesting day yesterday. It started with one of my customers coming in at 10:30 and spending a nice fat sum, and mentioning that she was out shopping because her power was out. It had gone out around 10. After a while she moves on with her day and I move on with mine.

At 4 p.m. Emma calls the shop to see if I have power there. The house has lost it. I said yes and didn't think much more about it. The kids said they were fine.

At 5 I locked the shop door, and started clearing the register when some ladies knocked on the door and asked to come in. They looked around and left after 10 minutes or so. I re-locked the door and the phone rang. Another customer from thewestern shore wanting 7 pair of pajamas sent out. That took a while to sort through. At about 10 of 6 I finally got out the back door. As I turned the corner to my street I was surprised to see that although every other street had power, ours was still out.

It was very dark.

I went in the front door and Jedd was sitting in candle light with another cache of coins that he'd unearthed set before him and Adventures in Odyssey playing on an old fashioned battery powered tape player.

The boy was beaming with joy! He loves it when the lights go out. Emma was in a bit of despair. She had a rough draft of a descriptive essay due online early the next morning. Obviously there was no way to work on the computer.

I was hungry as a bear (and grumpy), and asked them to get in the car...we were going out to dinner. Emma was faster than a speeding bullet, Jedd was moaning "please...don't make us go out to where there's power! It might be back on when we get home and we'll have missed the time without it!" Two very different children's views. (Annie was on a mission to get toe shoes with chalice, on the western shore.)

As I was herding the boy out the door, Thom pulled up. We gently shoved him in the car and set off.

Jedd's happiness when we arrived back home lit up the house. The power was still out. We built a fire in the living room and put on the gas fire in teh kitchen and put candles and lanterns all around. I admit it is lovely, but I miss coffee at the snap of my fingers and t.v. as background noise. I miss liight strong enough to read by and my laptop...

At around 7:10 the power "popped" back on.

At around 7:30 the phone rang. It was the Howards asking if we had power. Theirs had been out since just before ours came on. We asked them to come over and it turned into an improptu party. It was so much fun!:)

It all goes back to the post 2 previous. We're all so busy we don't have time to just hang out with friends in the middle of the week. God arranged it, and I enjoyed it IMMENSELY! Thanks Howards, for sharing your time with us:)

Now here are some shots from the store. Especially for Marianna.....

Wish you could come hang out with me here Marianna:)....... have a great day everyone who has stopped by!

Christmas Cash

Whenever Thom and I are at a checkout line in a store we have two very different methods of paying for things. He just hands over bills and pockets the change. I often finger through the coin compartment of my wallet and hand over, say, $18.47 in exact change or find the change amount so that the cashier gives me back bills in change.

Each and every night Thom dumps his change out of his pockets and starts fresh ; changeless each morning...

For the past two days Jedd has been rolling Thom's change for him. He has been a kid on a mission. When he ran out of the first round of wrappers we did a special run to the bank for more. But they were the old fashioned flat ones, and he couldn't get them to fold at the end. He was used to the type you buy at Walmart with pre-rolled edges; so Thom picked him up after work, took him to buy more specialty ones (at which time Jedd also finagled him into extras like Captain Crunch and other kid Walmart necessities) and the rolling continued into the night.

When all was said and done, the boy ended up with over $300.00! I think I'm changing my ways at the check out lane from now on...that's some nice Christmas cash!

sickness and solitude

I've just been visiting Northwinds Blog,

http://www.hayleytaylor.blogspot.com/

and would like to touch on some of her subjects as they've been on my mind lately as well. (plus it's an absolutely lovely blog to visit and to help one appreciate the beauty of a college girl's literary mind.)

1. Enjoying rude health. I was saying to my husband several weeks ago that it's been ages since I've been down for a few days with a minor illness that would allow me to lay around and read. A small sickness which would make it inconsiderate for me to go out in public and infect friends and neighbors.



2. People (read Americans) do "busy" themselves. Why? Are we afraid that others will find us less important? That we won't be "needed"? That we won't be popular? Loveable?

As a nation, we make sure everyday has an after school activity. We are teaching kids how to be workaholics. My husband grew up in a family like that. None of his family just "sits". They're all incredibly busy all the time. It tires me listening to their days. Even their vacations are exhausting! Thom says God put us together so I could teach him how to sit and relax (He kindly never points out that I could be learning from him how to do more).
When our kids were little Kate Howard and I used to spend a lot of time a Great Marsh Park. Often we'd see school buses unload kids and herd them in groups, or we'd watch them with the ymca summer camp program walking the hot tarmac, and sagging in the summer sun, and we'd say to each other, "when do those poor children get to sit under a tree and read a book!?"
There's so much that must be done daily. Shouldn't we learn to enjoy solitude and peace when we can so that we can be content and calm? I can hear the edge in my voice when I have too much on my plate and it isn't pretty. Filling each moment is just plain unhealthy in my book...
But slip over to Northwinds Blog, she puts it all so much nicer....

Christmas Conundrum

Today is the first of 5 Mondays before Christmas where I'll be adding an extra day to the work schedule and be open for Christmas shopping. Today is also the day I feel burdened by the fact that I've been way too lenient with Jedd's schooling, or unschooling as it may be, and feel as though it's time to step it up several notches before Christmas vacation. For the first time in weeks I'm not angry at the dog for waking me up at 6 a.m. to let him out. I've got blueberry-cream cheese muffins in the oven and have put the table extensions from Thanksgiving away. (Let it be understood that the muffins are from a package, I simply added milk, and shoved them in the oven. I'd not want anyone to have a twinge of mother guilt for putting cold cereal in front of their child this morning. That is what happens most mornings here.)
Now I'll have some necessary mommy-time before the kids rise-up for the day and I can tumble Jedd out of his chair-bed by 8a.m. I've been known to let him sleep till 9:30 or 10:00 just so I can have some quiet time. Some people don't believe it, but once that boy is awake it is non-stop chatter the entire day. And it is good chatter. He is very inquisitive and so learning constantly from his questioning, but frankly sometimes it makes my ears hurt and I just need silence. All the more so as I age. I really don't want to become one of those grouchy, old, bitter ladies who snap at all children and tell them to be seen and not heard, but am I the only one who thinks there is a grain of true wisdom in that saying?
Back to the origin of this train of thought. I'm going to tighten up his work schedule. I've been preaching all year that " what is a grade level, but some arbitrary decision of some higher ups? That all kids learn at their own pace and by homeschooling I can tailor that to the kids' needs." Today I woke thinking, " the school year is almost half over and the boy is going to fall behind if I don't make him do some serious work!" (Annie, if you're reading this, this does NOT apply to you! You are fine!)
Does anyone else homeschooling panic about now every year? I remember doing this in the past with the kids. But it's been 3 years since I've taught them at home. It's mainly the math and English... We have been extremely lax in that. I suppose it's because we were talking to some homeschoolers yesterday and one of the boys was saying he was reviewing all his work to really understand it so he wasn't doing grade level work. He seemed rather embarrassed by it (at least that was the impression I got from his words. He is actually a very well spoken, intelligent kid.) Jedd is at grade level now, and I don't want him to be embarrassed next year if he's not doing work labeled "7th grade". And I know him, he would be! The conundrum of teaching them at home, huh?!
Lord, please give me a peaceful heart and your daily dose of wisdom to press on with the job ahead with a sense of calm and diligence....