bluestocking mama: 2014

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Celebrating the God Who Came to Be with Me

This Christmas season has been full of the usual stresses and the usual hustling and bustling about. But I have also been deeply humbled over the past 2 weeks as I've listened to Christmas carols that celebrate the fact that our God came to be with us. I wrote about that in my Segullah post this month, in which I quote Erin Straza's way to combat getting to Christmas Day worn out and empty. "To combat this," Straza says, "I look for special ways to be with the God who came to be with me."

It's tricky to do that with a busy schedule and 4 demanding children. I tend to get down on myself when I see friends' and neighbors' families doing truly charitable things during this season--arranging trips to Mexico to build homes for people, collecting and donating hats and scarves for cancer patients, distributing new gloves and hats and hot cocoa to the homeless people in a park in Salt Lake City, and so on.

All I can do at this moment in my life, is think. Think while I'm doing the dishes, think while I'm driving to the store, think while I'm rocking the 1-year-old. Think about my Savior and the truly glorious fact that He came to be with me.

I did manage to take a few pictures of our December so far . . . .

Decorating the tree

And undecorating the tree:

Sweetie's A.L.L class did a performance of Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Sweetie was Mrs. Crachit and she did a great job! I was impressed with how good the performance was.

Sweetie's band concert:

We went to the local live nativity:

And we've been watching at least one Christmas movie a week. Here we are gearing up for The Santa Clause:

We've also been making a lot of gourmet s'mores over the stove, courtesy of J:

And in case you didn't know, there are 10 days left until Christmas:

Sunday, November 23, 2014

September

After school started, the Hs were left to be entertained by yours truly--and by themselves, of course. We did a little painting.

visited the museum a couple of times

and hung out around the house.

H started his computer preschool

and learned how to ride his bike without training wheels.

Over Labor Day weekend, we went hiking with cousins to the rock slide, where we all took a turn or two except Zelly. Sweetie went 9 times:

In September we also headed up to the cabin for a weekend and invited friends to join us for part of the time:

Man Alive, H is FIVE!

Some days I don't know how H has managed to stay alive until his big fifth birthday but he has made it and we can't imagine our lives without him. H lives his life in a state of excitement about what is coming next. We love his smile, his sense of humor, and his love for his family.

H had a superhero birthday party with his friends. We decorated treat bags, played superhero bingo, had a superhero training obstacle course, shot silly string at Venom and then at the villains who ambushed us (until one little boy started crying because he was scared!), played superman muscle stuff, and had a pinata and presents. I planned lots of activities, but the boys seemed to enjoy the post-party playing upstairs with the legos more than anything.