Christmas Photos

This first photo was taken on Christmas Eve. We always have a Christmas Eve service with our church, and then all of us (everyone in the church) eat a meal together at a local hotel. Our pastor reminded us of the incredible revelation of God that night. I'll have to do a separate post about his sermon.I love these next two pictures of the boys! In the first one, they are wearing their tiger hats that were in their stockings. In the second one, Jadon is enthusiastically thanking his brother for his new light saber. Adam was so excited to give this to Jadon. Adam spent every cent that he had earned (that didn't go to his tithe or savings) on buying Christmas gifts this year. He loves to give! Our sweet gang.

Our first Christmas with this amazing and incredible little girl!!! She is quite a gift!!

Thank you, Aunt Angela!!!

I am going to take a two-post hiatus from "keeping it sane" so that I can put up some Christmas pictures, and also post this "thank you" to my very thoughtful sister. She sent a monetary gift to us this Christmas and we decided to use it for a fun night out for the whole family. So, here is our night, in pictures.

Our first stop was "Pump it up!" The kids had a great time jumping on all of the inflatible jumping thingies. Grace has been saying "jumpy, jumpy, jumpy" ever since that night.

Our next stop was a local middle eastern restaurant. The food is great! It has absolutely the best hummus that you'll ever taste. The kids enjoyed sitting on the floor for the meal and ate everything that we ordered. They all had their favorites (including flafels for Grace, baba ganouch for Yana and tabouli for Lily).

We ended the night by driving around and looking at Christmas lights.

Everyone enjoyed this house which had it's lights set to music.

Thank you so much, Angela!!! We had a great time!!!

"Keeping Sane" Part 2 (Keeping a Sense of Humor)

So, Trish (who will soon be traveling to China to adopt precious little Taylor!) got the author of The Love that Keeps us Sane correct. I thought that I was going to be able to trick someone since the book is about St. Therese of Liseaux, but is written by Marc Foley. But Trish was definitely too smart for any trickery! She knew the author and is now on her way to fame and fortune!!!



So, back to the main topic of this post...Yesterday, I spent a serious amount of time in the morning making sure that my children's clothes matched, their teeth were brushed and their hair was combed. I even curled Grace's two inches of hair (can you believe that?!), because she asked me to do it after seeing me curl Lily's hair. They were all looking oh, so sweet when we headed out the door to church.



We were running a little late, and slipped into the church a few minutes after the service started. We were visting a different church because our church has "vacation Sundays" where everyone tries to take vacation time on the same weekend (more about that in a different post).



The lady that I sat next to was very sweet and offered to move down a seat, so that Grace could have her own seat. I noticed, however, when she looked at us, that she couldn't help but staring at Grace's feet. Well, I looked down, and realized that my perfectly dressed daughter was still wearing her slippers! So much for keeping everyone matched and well-groomed!! LOL!



I admit, that keeping a sense of humor is not a strong point for me. I just happen to be a very serious person. I studied philosophy, for goodness sake, and grew up in a very orderly Scandinavian (think stoic here) home. But, I am learning that a sense of humor and "not sweating the small stuff" is essential to "keeping things sane."



This is an area where I definitely know there is a great amount of room for growth! A couple of days ago, Lily told me (after a long afternoon of errands and my telling her that I was really tired) that she preferred when I was "perky" (her word). I can always count on Lily to tell it like it is. And really, if the truth be told, wouldn't we all prefer "perky" to ultra-serious and tired?



So, here's to a little humor in the home! Anyone know any good jokes?!

The Love that Keeps Us Sane

Okay, so I am stealing this title : ) Whoever can tell me the author of this book, will win a really big prize (fame and fortune and your name mentioned on this blog!).

I am writing this post as an answer to a question from a fellow-blogger. My blogger friend asked what were some of the things that "keep our days sane" with 5 kids and a cute dog (okay, she didn't really ask about the dog). I thought that I might do a series of posts on this topic, and I'd love to hear from all of you. What are your tips for keeping things sane in your home?

Please know that I am going to share some specifics about the things that work for our family. I hope that they are a help and encouragement to some, but please take only the things that are of help. Love is the goal, and my goal in writing this is to give some food for thought to those of you who would enjoy it. I pray that some of these things will be an encouragement to have love reign even more in your homes.

So, absolutely the most important thing in our family that keeps our days sane is making sure that we all have time with the Lord. A friend once told me that if God is our source, we need to be sure to spend a lot of time with Him. She definitely did not mean this in a "have to" sort of way, but in a relational way. We cannot receive all that God has for us, if we do not know Him and do not spend significant time with him.

So, what this all means for our family is that no matter what is going on in our home, we make prayer our top priority. For David, Adam, Yana and myself that means time (on our own) studying our Bibles and other spiritual books in the morning, family prayer/praise with everyone right before school, David leading Bible study first thing for school, individual praise/prayer time for me and all of the kids (and David if he is home) in the afternoon, and time for prayer/study in the evening for David.

The time that I want to focus on in this post, is our afternoon prayer/praise time. This time serves three purposes. First of all, it is a time to connect with Jesus, who is our dearest friend and first love. Secondly, it is a time for each of the children to have a break from one another and recharge, so to speak. And finally, it is a break for me from the responsibilities of our home and children. I do not ever do work during this time (that was a temptation for me in the past).

So, how does that work if you have young children? Well, when my children were still napping, we would have our time of prayer/praise at that point in the day. As soon as they stop taking naps, I begin to teach them how to spend time alone with the Lord. At first, they simply spend the time looking at books with beautiful pictures of Jesus and His life, and listening to praise music. When they begin to read, they may spend the time reading their children's Bible and listening to music. As they get older, we teach them more about how to praise God when they are on their own (not in a group) and how to thank and worship Him for all that He has done. Of course, this is a process that they are still in (and so am I!).

So, practically speaking, Adam and Yana generally spend the time reading their Bibles (we encourage them to pray the psalms aloud) for some of the time, singing praise songs (sometimes Adam also plays the drums along with praise songs), and also spending some quiet time talking to and listening to God. Lily loves to listen to praise/worship music and write psalms of praise for most of the time, and Jadon reads his Bible and listens to praise music.

At this point, Grace stays with me. She loves to follow along with whatever I am doing, so she will raise her hands and play the tambourine and dance around the room while praise music is playing.



Then, she will sit in her rocking chair and look at a book if I am reading my Bible or quietly praying (God Calling is her current favorite! She will actually get a bit irritated with me if I want to read this book! LOL)

I haven't actually "taught" her these things. She has simply learned by watching. She does, often, have a snack during that time, as well, so that I can have more focused time while she is occupied. I expect that in a month or two, she will be able to have timem with the Lord while sitting on her own little bed.

So, this is without a doubt, the foremost thing that "keeps us sane". What are some things that keep your life with children and other responsibilities sane?

Grace and Rosie

So, I have many, many thoughts running through my mind that I'd like to post about. But, the problem is that my thoughts are not very well-developed. I've been reading another book by Bill Johnson, and am constantly being challenged to think outside of my current frame of reference. The one thing that I can say, is that if you have any last-minute Christmas shopping that you need to do, consider giving one of Bill Johnson's books. I'd definitely recommend Strengthen Yourself in the Lord to almost anyone. In fact, there are a few people that I am giving it to, or have already given it to this year.


So, in lieu of anything really substantial to say, I'll post this picture of Grace and Rosemary instead. It is hard for me to believe that just a month ago, Grace threw up upon her first meeting with Rosie. Now, as you can see, they are the best of friends!! Here are just a few of Grace's Rosie phrases.

• "It's okay, Rosie. It's okay." This little girl is definitely a nurturer.
• "Hi Roser!"
• "That's a good girl, Rosie!" Said in a very high-pitched voice. I wonder where she got that from?! LOL
• "Rosie outside." Grace wants to make sure that I know that Rosie is waiting by the door to go out.
• "Rosie, no food." She's letting me know that Rosemary needs some food in her bowl.
  
• "No, Rosie!!" Said in a very stern voice. I wonder where she got that from?!

Grace's language skills are really coming along. In addition to all of the verbal attention that Rosemary gets throughout the day, Grace can also say the typical "bye, bye", "potty", etc., she is counting to 10 in English (most of the time), she can sing "head, shoulders, knees and toes...", she says all of her siblings names, as well as the other three children that come to our house for tutoring, and each day she is picking up more and more. It is amazing how fast children learn!

"The very best moment of my life..."

A few days ago, Lily asked me, "Mom, do you know what was the very best moment of my life, so far?"

"No, Lily, what was it?"

"When we got Grace. That was the very best moment of my life."

Big Brother Love

I just love to see the affection of a big brother for a little sister! And this big brother adores his little sister. He is absolutely smitten with her.