It's Sunday and that means chores and organization

I have found myself working hard at organizing my life.  This does not come naturally for me, but does for several of my friends, it is wired within their D.N.A.  It is not wired in mine.  I do however, subscribe to "like things together" which is taught in kindergarten.  I continue to put all the same toys together in the same basket and encourge the kids to do so as well.  Working full time at a job outside of the house and often being a single parent on the weekends does not lend itself to quiet relaxation.  Sundays are the day to pull everything together.  Laundry needs to be done, meals need to be planned and shopping needs to be done.  Although I am working on a strategy that will aleviate some stress so that weekends can be more relaxing.  Implementation thereof would be Phase II. 

This time of year we are doing things like getting ready for holidays, celebrating Advent in anticipation of Christmas.  We are also getting ready for Hanukkah which starts on December 11th.  M's school will be talking about it this week and as far as I know she is the only Jewish child in the class.  Being she is from an interfaith family and that she is only 6 she doesn't have a full grasp of the true meaning of any holiday.  When asked if she knows about Hanukkah she said, "Yes!"  But when probed further she couldn't say. 

Raising and guiding an interfaith family is not an easy task.  It takes committment and faith.  J prefers the heritage of Judiaism to the religion.  I have always been more observant in my Christianity.  We had the children baptized, on the same day, three years ago today.  It was on the heals of my father's diagnosis of cancer.  The fellowship of that weekend still warms my heart.  We stayed with that church for sometime, but then it just didn't feel right, so we moved on.  We tried another church and that lasted only a little while.  I often feel guilty that we don't go to church every Sunday as it is just too much for me to pull it all together and get out the door.  It was recently suggested to me that I can have Sunday School here at home. "Not a bad suggestion," I thought.  After all we are doing Advent at home.

So today I remember that special day three years ago:

And will continue to parent, guide and love these children.  On Friday we will celebrate Hanukkah as we have since we have been a family:

Christmas Tired

Christmas if by far my favorite time of  year.  I usually decorate the house on Thanksgiving eve, although this year, we weren't home.  Then the day after Thanksgiving we weren't home either.  So I began decorating on Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I started slow.  I am tired after working all week!

Then we worked on the Advent wreath:

and since we had gathered so many greens we did this:

I took this plain candle:

And turned it into this:

M had made a bazillion snowflakes the week previous so we did this:

We hung them with silver glitter covered clothes pins.

And this weekend, we did this:

I  have yet to put the candles in the windows or do this to my chandelier:

I am also rethinking this:

I feel it looks a little like a space shuttle.

Luckily for me, I celebrate until early January so my decorations can be enjoyed for a few more weeks.

In the meantime, maybe I will get the candles in the windows this week.

We had a town wide celebration today and we got to visit with:

M said to me in the car on the way home, "That is not the real Santa.  He had boot covers!  He was wearing sneakers with boot covers."

Hmmm, how am I going to deal with that. 

A little of this and a little of that

I spent some time today reading my previous posts.  It was a delightful spin down memory lane.  I realized that I have not done a good job at a few things.  Number 1:  Honing my craft of writing.  Number 2:  Not comprehensively documenting my children's lives.  Number 3:  Letting unpleasant things take me away from something I enjoy.

I am back.  I am here and I will once again take joy in writing all about the silliness, the awkwardness, the honesty of motherhood.

Until then, I leave you with this: 

A Saturday morning jaunt, in our jammies, to find a fine specimen of winterberry to assist in the Christmas-ifcation of our home.  However, when we pulled off the road I could not traverse the steep incline to steal the berries right out of the birds who were enjoying a most delicious breakfast.  Instead I captured children clad in their jammies, with frosting from Christmas colored sprinkle donuts caked on their cheeks. 

But most importantly?  Do you see M?  She is buckling O into his seat.  It is how we roll.  Teamwork, support and assistance for eachother.*

And this one?  He has his chapter book.  He has taken one of his books and divided the pages into chapters, complete with a book mark.  We have read three chapters thus far.  He wants to read sooooo bad.

* This is a snippet of behavior and yes, we teach all of those things but it depends on the mood of the child who is the giver of assistance.  On this day M was more than happy to assist. 

A new twist on a newly followed tradition in our home.

Being part of an interfaith family has its challenges.  I am more faithful and J is more observant of the heritage of Judaism.  Many Christians feel that Judaism is the foundation of the Chrisitian faith. I am not schooled enough to enumerate the reasons why, however, this is not the case.   

For a long time I took the children to church.  It is really hard to do so when you do it by yourself, especially after a long week of working fulltime getting dressed up just seems like one more chore.  Then I wasn't happy with the church we were going to and decided to look for other churches.  We tried a few but it was difficult to get out of the door on a regular basis.  As a result we have not attended church regularly for some time.

We do say prayers every night and speak of our faith often.  This year I have been inspired to celebrate Advent in our home.  I have always known about the Advent Wreath and that the colors of the candles are purple and pink.  I have always known that Advent begins 4 weeks before Christmas.  There are many things that I was not aware of, for example, that the

First Candle First Sunday in Advent
November 29th

Color: Purple

Second Candle Second Sunday in Advent
December 6th

Color: Purple

Third Candle Third Sunday in Advent
December 13th
Color: Purple or pink

Fourth Candle Fourth Sunday in Advent
December 20th

Color: Purple

I went to church throughout my childhood and sporadically in my young adulthood.  I was oblivious to the meanings of the traditions.  This year we will put together a wreath to celebrate the impending Chirstmas holiday.  We will also light the menorah, a tradition that I have come to love.  J says all the prayers in Hebrew and the kids and I look on with wonder.

Here are some wreaths that I have found for examples:

This screams traditional, yes?

Traditional and frilly.

Lovely!

And here is ours!  We ran out to the craft store to find pink and purple pillar candles.  No luck on the pink, but we scored on the purple.

This is my cherry wood salad bowl.  I placed a circle of wood (thanks W!) that I  covered with purple tissue paper, then covered that with dry white beans.  M and I took our kitchen shears and headed out to the back yard to collect the greens.

Of course we had to add some glitter:

I am pleased!  We are ready for tomorrow!

Black Friday NOT

I planned and strategized.  I researched where and what had the best deals.  In the end, after discussing with J, I decided to not attempt to fight the crowds. The items I am looing for are most certainly not the hottest trendiest toys.  As J pointed out the stores provide a false sense of scarcity, the sales go on for two or three days.  So I am shopping on line from the comfort of my living room.  Although, there are 6 eyes peering over my shoulder as a result only so much can be done. 

My only other Black Friday experience was easy.  O was still a baby and his sleeping schedule prompted me to get up.  The thought of setting an alarm was just too much for me.  That and the sight of people lining up last night at Best Buy. 

If you are partaking today, I hope you get every deal you set out to get.

Giving thanks

Obsession

I don't know about your house but at our house, many obsessions exist.  The tape obsession has been ongoing for some time.  Over the summer, W put tape all over our swing set.  He then put tape all over the outdoor dinning table.  The three of them are constantly asking for the tape.

This morning, while in the shower, they did this:

Calm Seas

I am much clamer today than yesterday.  I went grocery shopping, which always soothes my soul. It is how I "hunt and gather" for my family.    After I put all the groceries away and I set about collecting fire wood for our fire pit.  O had decided we must have marshmallows so we lit the fire and roasted marshmallows. 

Once J was finished with his work for the day, he made a far more respectable fire.  It was a lovely day that started out not so good.

High Anxiety

So much of what I feel is straight up anxiety.  I am overwhelmed and under staffed.  I am paralyzed with my anxiety.  I don't have the luxury of just checking out.  I have told KD that I need support right now and he is doing his best. 

The mountain of clean clothes is suffocating me.  The mountains of papers is crushing.  The constant stream of activity has me frazzled.  The illness, the surgery, the daily mainentance of running a household and working fulltime has got the better of me.  I am overwhelmed.

I know this will pass but for now, in this moment, I want to run screaming away from my life.

I also know that I am loved.  I am loved by God.  I am loved by my husband.  I am loved by my family and so many people in the world.    Today I will be gentle with myself.  I will be kind.  I will take one thing at a time.  Today I ask for Grace, for that is what will get me through.

Wait did I ever tell you I used that fabric?

I bought some pretty cool fabric at the beginning of 2009.  I blogged about it here as I got a huge deal!  But I do not recall ever posting about what it is that I created.


Ta dah!

KD built this shelf/bench last March.  It is a perfect solution for an area that was unusable space.  It provides much needed storage space, extra seating and/or serving space.  The kids shoes are tucked underneath in the baskets.  I love it.