Presents in the backyard

The hens are laying again! 5 eggs a day means I'm about to get serious in the kitchen with these bad boys. Have an egg recipe you love? Do share! 

Good Busy

I have a lot of catching up to do. Right now I'm just enjoying the good kind of busy that is happening in my home.
Reese, Quincy, and Corbin are on winter break from school, Soren is learning to walk, Aaron had the day off yesterday, it was almost 60 degrees yesterday, and our time is filled with everything together.  It seems like there are messes, fighting, playing, crying and laughter all happening in just about every minute around here.  It's loud and chaotic and there is a recognizable peace to all of it that fills me with happiness and purpose.  

I will catch up on the blog during the long cold days in January, when I'm sure I'll be more than eager to lay up sorry on the sofa (that's for you, Laura) with my laptop and some cider and blog while the kids are at school.

But for now, everyone's home and it is warm and I'm going to go enjoy the peaceful chaos and be the good kind of busy.

Besties

The girls just showed me a dance they made up. It was cute. When they finished, I told them how lucky they are to have each other and always have a best friend to play with.  They asked about my sisters and I told them that I was born a lot later than my sissies so even though we are good friends and love each other a lot, I don't have many memories of playing together with them when I was little, because when I was little, they weren't very little anymore.

Reese said, "That's sad. I would be lonely without Quincy."

Quincy said, "Well good thing you got married so you have a husband to play with!"

Elfed

Chippy has been into all sorts of trouble, this Christmas season. This year, Reese noticed that our elf looks different than all the other Elf on the Shelf branded elves that she's seeing everywhere. They're turning out to be quite the fad. Luckily, I already had a response prepared. "You can buy an Elf on the Shelf on Amazon for $30. Where do you think our elf came from?" The children decided that Chippy obviously came from the North Pole. 

...where he was well trained in snowball fighting. Those wise men don't stand a chance.

Caroling Caroling Now We Go

Tonight I took the girls caroling with me and a few other families at Concordia (a local assisted living facility). After the singing, I encouaged the girls to engage in conversations with the sweet elderly men and women who had come to listen to us sing.  Really, all they wanted were hugs and affection. Reese was very apprehensive, and Quincy was eager...she had a lot of questions to ask these folks.  She grabbed Reese by the arm and paraded her around to talk to all of them. She asked every one of them how old they are. When she finally found a woman who is 100, she froze, satisfied, then exclaimed, "This one. Mom come take our picture! Smile, Francis, you're the oldest lady in the room." 

These girls have big hearts.  Reese told me later, "I didn't feel comfortable hugging those people at first, because they were strangers and they still acted like they knew me. Then I saw how happy they felt to talk to us little kids and one of them was 94 just like Grandma Tenney. I hope some girls will go sing to her in California and make her happy too."

She gets it. Both girls get it. 

Our service was not our imperfect singing, or our imperfect crowd of people. Our service was simply that we were there. 

I am thankful for the reminder to live intentionally and give more of the gifts of my time and attentiveness.  One woman had to work so hard to lift her head up at us.  When I got down with the girls to speak to her at eye level, she was relived and so happy. I wonder what it must feel like to be older than most of the people in a room, yet have all of them look down to you as if you're a child. I am thankful for the humbling experience my daughters and I had tonight. 

Winter Freeze 2013

It's finally happened.  I've fallen in love with Winter.  I don't even know how this is possible. I LOATHE winter.  I don't like to be cold. I don't like driving in the snow. I don't like 10 extra loads of laundry every week, or not being able to garden (aw, guys, remember when I had a garden? I need to get on that asap at this house!), or cabin fever, or icy walkways, or running out of food because we've been snowed in for days, or one of the 100 other things I've heard complaints about in the past week.

Know what I DO like?  Winter. Why?  Because I love all of these things: 

I love my children. 

I love having my husband home in the middle of the day. Day after day!  He was home by 11:30 on thursday and we got to spend Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday together. He went in at 9 yesterday and was home by 4, and he didn't leave until 8 today.  

I love Christmas trees and a Christmasy house. 

I love cabin fever, or the lack of cabin fever. (everyone trapped together under one roof with nowhere that we have to be or anything we have to do for anyone else. Nothing but each other. Sing it!)  But honestly, cabin fever isn't an issue this time around and I'm giving 100% of the credit to living in a bigger house and the space to roam a bit.  I am thankful every day for my new home and the blessing it is to live here.  Aaron made it out (treacherously) for the first time, yesterday.  With a fresh layer of snow from last night, the rest of us are like most of Bella Vista and homebound until the thick layer of ice on the roads gets cleared up.  We're on Day 6 and we're still just loving being home together.

Crafts. Crafts. Crafts. Yesterday, the children cut up an American Girl Doll catalog and made paper dolls. They glued them in adorable little scenes on construction paper and were entertained with creativity for hours.

I love warming up a cold baby with a sink bath.

I love celebrating the first of the December birthdays (Q will have her own post up as soon as we can actually have her party. It's been postponed for now, since we're all still snowed in. )

I love living without a schedule.  When we return to ordinary life, I will embrace that too, happily, but living without schedules for a week means we have time to say "forget you" to important things like bills, paperwork and meetings, and instead, bust out a dozen tiny holiday aprons for Q's gingerbread house decorating birthday party.

I love the inevitable return of Buddy, our neighborhood dog, who only shows up in bad weather. Here he is after a rainstorm.  As expected, on the morning we woke up to snow, he was out back in the neighbor's yard, romping around in it like he belongs around here.

I love babies who get stuck behind the Christmas tree.  I have a great video sequence of his rescue posted on Instagram, but can't figure out how to get it on here. And before you ask, no, he isn't walking yet. He is an adorable crawler and I kinda hoped he'd stay a baby forever. But then I saw that SNL skit about the Baby Boss and decided that I should let him grow up eventually.

I love the messy evidence of having kids home all day.

I love making them do chores because they are home all day. 

Speaking of messes and chores. I'm loving the new "hostage box" system.  Everyone is given fair warning. After the allotted time has lapsed, toys, clothing, blankets, basically anything that is not where it belongs gets places in the hostage box.  The children can earn their stuff back by doing chores, and anything that sits in the box for longer than a week without rescue is fair game for me to do whatever I like with it (donate, throw away, hold hostage longer, etc). Some of the chores have been "read to Corbin for 20 minutes, put your sister's laundry away for her, practice walking or play Little People with Soren for 10 minutes, and some chores have been more typical, like emptying trash cans, sweeping, and dish duty. 

I love that my Soren has been able to take the BEST naps without having to be woken up early to go pick anyone up from school or meet them at the bus stop.  It always stinks to put a half wakened baby into a carseat for a 5 minute drive.  He has loved being able to sleep uninterrupted and thanks us by napping for 3 1/2+ hours every day. 

I love curling up in my sunny winter spot.  There's a corner of my sofa that gets slammed with heat and I could stay there all day (when I'm not parked in front of the fire, or you know doing other important stuff that involves being non-sedentary.) It doesn't come around every day, for every day is not sunny, but when it's there, I'm there, soaking up the sunlight and warmth. 

I love that my children aren't mentally exhausted from using their brains all day, but instead physically exhausted from playing all day. 

I love First Presidency Christmas Devotionals and children who fall asleep in nests on the floor during the devotional.  I also spy part of our collection of green, red, and white framed Christmas pictures from through the years and these also makes me very happy.  

I love that we had so many cups of hot cocoa that I had to wash mugs mid-dish-cycle, because our whole dishwasher was full of cups. Behold, one (yes, it has spread to two since taking this pic) of the bins of hot cocoa essentials.  We have a cocoa problem. Save your intervention until Spring and come have a cup. 

I love the firewood that my lumberjack split in November. Seasoned wood burns better, but one log of fresh oak or hickory makes the whole room just smell GOOD.  I'm so thankful that Aaron does this:

...so I can have this every day and night. Real fires just warm your bones.

I love that the favorite Christmas books are out and getting lots of love by little hands. 

I love Apple Cider + red hots candies. You're welcome. 

I love our Elf on the Shelf (yeah yeah, you're all getting sick of Elf posts on facebook and instagram. I get it. That's why I don't post ours anymore...even when they're totally amazing and super creative. We're still having fun up in here, FYI.

I love Christmas card making for every person ever. I think I've received 10+ homemade Christmas cards from my kids this week. 

Every Christmas movie we own.  I love that Quincy was grouchy yesterday and Corbin threw his arms open and quoted, "Does someone need a hug?" from Elf. 

I love bread. OH THE BREAD. You guys. I have a problem.  When I die, just bury me in bread and I will think I've gone to heaven.
orange rolls

soft pretzels with King Arthur everything topping

My mother's dinner rolls

Bread pudding with berries and meyer lemon custard. Oh my gosh. You guys. Bread pudding.

 3 Cheese Crusty Bread

Easy White Artisan bread with King Arthur Artisan topping.

Sledding.  Q got a sled for her birthday and she loves it.  I took of her with it were videos because they were awesome, but here are some pics of all the kids enjoying it. We went over to the Fousts during the first snowfall and enjoyed sledding until long after sunset. 

Primary children singing adorable Christmas songs.  It makes me quite happy that Samuel Corbin still sings, "Ho-SaaaanTah! Ho-SaaaaanTah!" instead of "Hosannah! Hosannah!" in the song about Samuel. 

"painting the snow" with colored water in spray bottles. 

Eating all three meals a day together with my family.  I could totally get used to this. Hot breakfasts, dinners at 5pm. Lots of smoothies, hot leftovers at lunchtime.Whatever it was, we all shared. 

I love the service and charity that abounds this time of year. 

I love snowy bonfires with Laura the Great in her backyard. I love having friends next door so so SO much! 

Wearing pajamas for 6 days straight. 

Reading books by christmas tree and firelight.  

Wrapping presents and opening presents.

Bath & Body Fresh Balsam candles. I love this smell year round, but force myself to reserve it for use in winter months, only.  As soon as they show up in the store, I buy like 10 of them so I don't run out. They're always out of stock by Thanksgiving. It is hands down, my favorite holiday scent. It's like Clean fresh forest air, and Christmas poured in a jar and doesn't let off that awful fakey waxy smell that many candles do. Nice and clean. Like a freshly cut balsam tree. Hence the name. 

Teaching preschoolers about Winter. 

I love that Corbin found Santa in the checkout aisle at Walmart.   When Corbin asked him if he is really Santa, "Santa" winked, put one finger up to his lips and said said, "shhhh" like it's a big secret, then opened one side of his coat to reveal red suspenders. Then he said, "even Santa has to buy toilet paper."
Corbin was in awe. No joke. I think it really was him.

I love cranberry orange green smoothies. They taste like Christmas in a glass.

I love Christmas Advents. I made this one with Katie and there is a little hanging wooden tile to flip over for every day with a photo and story of Christ to tell the children. 

The view out every window.   I still cannot believe I get to wake up here and live here. 

Christmas music. 

Getting Christmas Cards in the mail. 

Vintage, non matching Christmas lights. Old school style. Hung by Clark Griswold himself, right before he waxed up the sled.  I've never liked crooked lights until now. I'm suddenly in love with them. Probably because installation did not involve getting on the roof like it did in our old house.  There are still like 5 broken bulbs to replace (happens every year) and I love them even more for it.  I'm also glad our neighbors don't mind our ghetto style 1980's christmas lights with the one random blinking bulb. 

I love cold, mostly nakey children with bright rosy faces after they come in from playing in the snow.

I love our neighbors and our night sledding bonfire-in-the-snow adventures with them.

I love snuggles under snowflake blankets. 

I love snow chickens buried under their snow house. 

I love having trees everywhere I look (inside, outside) and the smell of our real Christmas tree. 

I love children in snow bibs and handmade hats. Thanks, Grandmas! 

I love snow angels.

I love how bumpy the snow is after 4 days from all of the times little feet have romped through it and left tracks. I love that our backyard has a perfect little hill for sledding.

I love the piles of snow clothes when everyone comes in that remind me of how much my children have grown in the past couple of years. It seems like the last big snow we had, I was responsible for getting everyone dressed and it was a 30 minute affair every time they came in or out, which was every 15 minutes.  Now, I can say, "ok, go bundle up!" and maybe I'll need to help zip a coat, or pull gloves on. It makes a huge difference.  I cannot believe how long they last out there!  One day, it was 6* degrees outside and I finally called everyone in because they were going on 4 hours. We LOVE our neighbor friends, and we love our new backyard for sledding!

I love that Soren loves to be in on the action. Here he is attempting to put a knit hat on so he can look like his siblings. I love the way toddlers hold clothes behind/around their neck or arm to "wear" them. He was so proud of himself.

I love that I can feel happiness and so much of it.

I love that I can give happiness to others.

I used to always focus on what winter took away, but this week all I can see is how much this season has to give me.   Time with my family, time to rest, time to catch up, time to ignore day to day responsibility, time to play, time to be cozy, time to indulge, time to "lay up sorry" on the sofa and watch movies, time to finish the book I started reading in October, time for adult conversations with Aaron, and time to catch up a bit on this blog.

This big freeze has frozen the temps, but it also frozen time.  I know it won't last forever, and I like that, too. Every minute of this winter freeze will be enjoyed for just what it's giving me: a minute.