Favorite Traditions

Don't you feel sometimes like it's just incredibly hard to feel grateful?  I mean, I KNOW that I live a charmed life.  My husband is kind and works hard at a good job.  My kids are healthy and I love them dearly.  I have a body that works well, a house that helps us stay warm, fantastic friends, and only first-world problems.  However, sometimes it seems like it's what I'm dissatisfied with that stares me in the face until I want to soak in a hot tub (see what I mean about first-world problems?) and shut my face to the world for an hour or two.  

This is my particular solution to that particular problem.  And yes, we just keep it up through the month of November.  But at least I'm counting my blessings every day during the month of November, so that's something, right?   For several years, we had a Thankful Jar on our dining table, which we each put a blessing into every night.  

However, last year, the girls and I stained this leftover piece of 2x6 with some poly-stain mix (which was also leftover from restaining the kitchen table).  We cut out the "give thanks" on my Cricut (but you could easily paint or stencil or even Sharpie the words you wanted), and put one nail up for each  member of the family.  The board is hung with two screw-eyes and a length of ribbon.  Then we cut out a bunch of tags and strung them with fall-colored embroidery floss.  (You can see the blank ones in the bowl sitting there on the piano.)

 Every night at dinner, we each get a tag and write one blessing we are thankful for.  Then we hang it on the board.  And we can't repeat any blessing of our own throughout the month.  Last night, Bella was thankful for her pet dinosaur.  You can see that she "writes" first and then I put the translation on top afterward, and I'm not entirely sure which dinosaur she's talking about.  In this house of girls, I don't think we even have a toy dinosaur.

At the end of the month, we write down all of our blessings in our "Thankful Notebook", which we keep with the Thanksgiving decorations.  (We did this with the Thankful Jar as well, so we've got a few years on record.)  It's so fun to review the blessings from years past when we add the new ones.
I really do have so much to be thankful for.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was absolutely wonderful this year. Maybe my best Mother's Day yet. (And I've had 6, can you believe it? I simply cannot.)
I woke up to two beautiful girls (no husband--John sweetly did not wish me many happy returns of the day before he left for the hospital at 6:00 a.m.) and a pile--no, a HEAP--of handmade Mother's Day cards. (There is a picture of those somewhere, but I can't find it.) Olivia's were full of handwritten greetings, like "Happy Muthers Da" and "I love you very much Mommy". Naomi's were mostly beautifully colored drawings left WAY open to the interpretation of the viewer. ("Mimi, I think this looks very much like, um, a bell. Is that what you thought?" "Oh, yes, Mom. I drew you a bell for Mother's Day.")

When I came downstairs, I found a perfectly ripe mango (so difficult to find) on the table with two letters. The mango was immediately devoured by myself and my minions.

And the letters were read. This one from Annabel reads,
"To Mommy for Mother's Day
From Bella
1. I am happy that I am your host and you are my parasite.
2. I love being tickled.
3. I love that you are willing, in exchange for some of my food, to feed me, even if you are slow at it.
4. Reading is good, but I'd like to take a more active role. . . say bookholder?
5. Milk. . . mmm. . . yum.

Love,
Annabel
(We joke that in Bella's world, everything revolves around her and her needs; that she is my parasite, but she views me as an appendage of her--my food is hers, my lap is hers, my body is hers--not the other way round.)
And there was a letter from John, which I shall keep to myself.
Then the older girls helped me make a delicious breakfast of monkey bread. It's probably not the healthiest, but it was a lovely treat before we headed off to church. Yum! (It's easy enough that maybe by next year, they can make it by themselves. And then I can get breakfast in bed-Yay!)
Olivia and Naomi thought this whole Mother's Day thing was the perfect excuse for a tea party, so they set up shop in the middle of the kitchen floor. I agreed with them.

It was wonderful.

Happy Birthday to ME!

In celebration of my recent 30th birthday (30! And I feel just the same as when I was a 20-something, can you believe it?), I would like to say a few things.

1. I am married to the most amazing guy. John secretly planned for my mom--MY MOM!!!--to fly in the night before my birthday. As a surprise! I love my mom, I love surprises, and I love birthdays. It was the best combination of events ever. (John and Mom, you've set the bar awfully high for future birthdays. I don't know that this can ever be topped.)

2. I have not yet, and probably will never, outgrown my love of dressing up and feeling "fancy" and going to an event. We went to a play at the Round Barn Theatre of Amish Acres in Nappanee, and I was the only one there in a dress. With a matching spring-y handbag. I looked completely out of place, and I felt fabulous. (That may be due, in large part, back to item #1. John kept telling me I looked stunning. Thank you, love.)

3. I have no intention of letting this birthday slip silently into the past. I want to keep celebrating. So, in that spirit, I am hosting a giveaway. I have a fun little handmade present that I want to send to the winner of my newest contest. These are the rules.
a. Post your favorite (clean) joke in the comments.
b. I (being the birthday diva I am) will pick the joke I like the best on Saturday, April 25, and mail a prize to the submitter of said joke.

Can it get any simpler than that? I submit that it can not. So joke away.

To kick this off, I want to share my favorite joke from high school (and it's still one I like quite a bit).

Q: What's the difference between elephants and plums?
A: Their color.
(wait for it)
Q: What did Tarzan say when he saw the elephants coming?
A: "Here come the elephants!"
(wait for it)
Q: What did Jane say?
A: "Here come the plums." She was colorblind.

Hardy-har-har, I know. But it got me nearly kicked out of my 11th grade Sports Medicine class for laughing so hard.

Go ahead, my friends. Make me laugh.

The pukes

I do have a picture of myself, lounging (well, really less lounging and more collapsed) in bed next to the Puke Bowl, (Doesn't every family have a Puke Bowl, necessary to capitalize?) but I decided in one of my saner moments, NOT to publish it on the web. "The pukes," as we call them around here (choosing our favorite of all the synonyms of vomit--what's your favorite?), have whirlwinded through our family, leaving only John unscathed. Yuck!
However, this being November, and me needing to get my "attitude of gratitude" into gear, I would like to share the things I am grateful for, even about the pukes:
1. It was John's day off when I first succombed to kneeling before the porcelain throne, and he cheerfully spent the time bonding with Baby Bella.
2. Both of my older girls know to try to make it to the toilet or the Puke Bowl, thus minimizing the mess.
3. Annabel never got really dehydrated, so we pulled through without a trip to the doctor (I HATE going to the doctor--ironic, isn't it?).
4. It only takes one (fairly intense) morning work session to clean the mess my children can create when unsupervised for an entire day.
5. We were all stocked up on yogurt and Gatorade (Meijer is having a great sale on Yoplait this week), so I used the Gatorade and the girls ate nothing but yogurt all day yesterday. Neither of us could have been happier.