Christmas Day!

 Christmas Morning!

Excuse our crazy messy house while we enjoy the morning festivities

that include me telling my kids to clean up the aftermath

but.....they are to distracted with all the nerf guns and start a war!

I'm trying to remember who started the nerf war and I think it was Logan

He was hilarious with his sneak attacks and pretty soon everyone joined while I watched and took pictures because you know who still feels sick.

 Mikey took one to the eye but it still continued on for awhile.

I loved it!

So fun

 Ok when Mikey and the kids got home from his sisters house for Christmas dinner Mikey showed me a gift that his sister Donna and her hubby Jeff made us.

This is so freaking cool and I was blown away with the amount of work Jeff put into this piece.

The American Flag!

 I could hardly wait for Mikey to hang it up

These pictures don't do it justice

the texture and feel of the wood it is incredible

I'm so excited and grateful for this and I will treasure it.

Thank you Jeff and Donna!

Christmas and Blah!

I love when the kids start winter break from school. Oh its so wonderful to not have a scheduled morning and we can set our own schedule. Yippee!!! The kids got out of school to start winter break on the 23rd the school year so it was a little strange to jump right in to winter break. I felt like ready or not Christmas is here!
Well I woke up Christmas Eve morning feeling like a I've been hit with something hard. I was so sick and I knew it was the flu! Oh my goodness I always have such a nice Christmas Eve planned just for our family and I was really worried how was I going to accomplish this task. Well I ignored all my symptoms somehow and carried on. I started making homemade rolls, and homemade apple pie. I still wanted badly for my family to enjoy our traditions. I had to take many many many breaks every little bit because the little jobs would take me out. I asked Julia to make the pumpkin roll and I started the glazed ham and mashed potatoes and asparagus and baby carrots.

We enjoyed our dinner together well I just watched and tried to be there with them. After dinner we all talked about the true meaning of Christmas and I read The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke. I love that story and I love to remind the kids of service and to not gloat.

I usually buy the family PJs for Christmas Eve but I wanted to do something different this year. So I wrapped 5 different recent movies on DVD. Then I wrapped a box of popcorn, a can of hot chocolate, and some apple cider. Everybody opened  and we had a movie night. When the older kids were really little they use to argue over what movie to watch so I came up with the "movie game"
I had the movies they picked out behind my back and I would think of a number and which ever kid got closest to the number picked which hand and the movie that was in the hand was what they watched. So no fighting and I tried to make it fun.

Anyways I brought back the movie game for Christmas Eve then I crashed hard because I pretty much thought I was going to die at this point.
Goodnight and hopefully I can feel better for Christmas Day!

That's what friends are for

My wonderful best friend came out this past week and it was so needed

Julia had her wisdom teeth taken out and by the way she was hilarious coming out of sedation.

My friend Julie and her daughter Hayden came out to lend support.

Julie helped me in more ways than she could ever imagine. She always does and I always feel this rejuvenation after she leaves.

Julie lives in Arizona and we've  known each other for over 30 years now.

Every time we get together after not seeing each other for a while its like we pick up right where we left off. Its wonderful and I think everyone needs a friend like that.

 Can you tell Julia and I are tired

Poor Julia is swollen from her surgery

Julie and Hayden

they are the cutest!

So while Julie was here the song by Dionne Warwick "that's what friends are for" kept coming to my mind. I love that song and I would sing it growing up.

keep smiling

keep shining

and know you can always count on me

for sure

that's what friends are for

I love when Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and Gladys Knight all performed it.

Great stuff!

Anyways.....

Julie bought all four of us the cutest Brighton necklaces

Its dainty and small and that's just how I love jewelry

I also made her a Christmas gift which took me FOREVER to figure out what to make for Christmas this year

I wanted something outdoors and I knew I wanted to make the same for Julie

and then I did a painting for her but I am defiantly cutting out new words because its crooked and its bugging me bad!!

I just love my friend and I'm so grateful for her and her sweet family.

She always knows just what I need.

The story about the ornaments....

It's the Holidays!

I'm really trying to get in the holiday spirit. Its a little hard for me for many reasons.

I try not to be a Grinch especially for the younger kids.

One of the reasons which is probably silly to some but to me its hard for me to accept.

We use to have a neighbor that lived alone and she was in her 90's. She was so sweet and she would randomly show up to our house and unload a car load of stuff she wanted to get rid of.

It was stuff like toys, bedding, kitchen items, ect.

I then would say "thank you but we don't need it" and she would just ignore me.

I think she just needed someone to take it off her hands and she wanted to give the kids toys.

I would then load my car up and donate the items.

About 3 years ago......

One time she came to my house while I wasn't home and dropped a ton of stuff off at our back door.

It was a bunch of Holiday items

Lots and Lots and Lots of Christmas stuff!

I had my boys put it in the garage until I had time to go thru it.

So....

In one of my lets get organized moods

I had my boys go to the garage and get all the Goodwill items and load up the car.
Then I said get the items our neighbor dropped off also.

Well I didn't pay attention and my sweet boys loaded up one of my Christmas buckets into the car.

Off I left to Goodwill and happily donated

I love getting rid of stuff we don't need

This was summer time and how my bucket got mixed in I still cant figure out.

When December rolled around I had my kids go get all my Holiday buckets from the garage.

We get ready to decorate the tree and I tell my boys to go find the ornament bucket from the garage.

I must of sent them out 3 or 4 times before I went to look myself.

No bucket in sight!

I even had Mikey go look for it

I then realized what had happened

My bucket was donated!

All 5 of my kids ornaments for 20 years are gone!

I go down to the Goodwill and nothing

This is horrible!

I was hoping to give my kids their ornaments when they started their own families.

I was devastated and wanted to kick myself.

So since then when its time to decorate our tree, I really have a hard time.

Some friends of ours recently gave us Disney ornaments and it made me so happy.

 So here is our tree

All the kids have good attitudes about it

Thank goodness the kids made some cute stuff at school for our tree

So what did I learn?

Go thru everything before donating

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was interesting this year.

We always go to Mikey's sisters house here in Acton and that's always great.

Its so nice to enjoy time with family and catch up with everyone's lives.

I want to get family pics since our hair is brushed and we look clean...lol

So the kids actually cooperated for me this year and it was wonderful

 The older ones were so patient with me it was awesome

 Isabelle doing her own thing

Lowell thinks this is ok

 We are getting there

just warming up

ok almost ready

Good enough!

This one will do....

I love it!

It's wonderful to capture pics of these kiddos no matter how they turn out.

I'm grateful for my family and all the blessings I have received since becoming a mother.

I'm grateful for cooperation and the smiles on their faces. I'm grateful for great weather!

I'm grateful that we have our good health and a home to celebrate our blessings.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Farmhouse Table

Ok wow! I haven't blogged in a good while.

I'm so excited about my kitchen table.

About maybe 3 years ago I saw some scrap wood on the side of the road in our neighborhood that said free. It was these heavy duty 2x8 boards and they were in great condition.

I had to have them! I've been wanting a farmhouse table and these were perfect.

Here's a picture of how it looked before and we kept the wood the same how we found it and just sealed it to prevent splinters while we ate.

I don't have a good picture of my table from the first time Mikey built it.

So this pic will have to do.

It was still a little to high to be able to sit and eat comfortably so we needed to fix that and I was just not loving the finish on the table top.

So Mikey took it apart in the house because its so big and he took it outside and sanded the day away. Then made new legs to go with a updated top.

 After all the sanding its more even now.

I wanted it to still have the worn look and very used.

 I love the dark stain....LOVE IT!

Then a few coats of gloss, then let it dry for forever.

 The new legs are so much better and stronger.

Love it!

Now to figure out chairs

The struggle is real folks

I have talked a lot about my Isabelle

I should talk a lot about my kids. I love them and want the very best for them.

Just like every parent I'm sure

I have said on here about Isabelle's health troubles she's dealt with since birth. Well there is so much more to her story than I have ever said and I don't need to give details because its her story. I felt I've probably said to much but it is what it is.

Since probably 1st grade Isabelle has struggled making friends and has tried so hard since she was little. She LOVED her 2 years of preschool and kindergarten and she had many friends.

I guess because she is a little different in personality is where people find her "different" I think Isabelle is a fun loving, very caring, helpful, and a true friend. But I am her mother so of course I think all those things about her and they are true.

Since about 2nd grade is when I noticed a change in Isabelle, she wasn't as happy or outgoing anymore. She said she didn't have any friends and nobody would play with her.

She would come home hurt and bothered that nobody "liked" her.

So I started going to the school to observe(without her knowing) her while playing on the playground.

Now this is Isabelle recently but this is pretty much what I saw. My Isabelle walking around by herself looking down. Isabelle has tried countless times to make friends. I've witnessed this! Why?

Why is it so hard to make friends for some? When I see girls her age yell " Hi Isabelle" It is so heart warming and brings a smile to her face.

The reason why I'm putting this on my blog is because Isabelle has been in school for 2 1/2 months and has missed 10 days of school. Trying to get her to school some days is impossible. I cant even get her in the car some mornings and when I do she trying to escape out the door. Now imagine doing this every morning for the past 3 years of school. Now wouldn't you think "why does my child not want to go to school so badly." So for the last 3 years this is what I've done to help my daughter.

I've gone to the school to observe without her knowledge.

I've helped in the classroom and on fieldtrips

I've met with the principal and teachers a number of times

I've talked and talked to Isabelle

One time I actually got her into the car and to the school but she would not get out. She was screaming and crying and hiding in the back of the van.

I went and got the principal so she could understand what I deal with every morning in trying to get my daughter to school and why she has absences. The principal reached in my van pulled my daughter out while she's screaming crying and pulled her into the school.

I had parents all around watching, staring, and wondering.

I had one ask me how I punish her. Say What???

Today was another morning of melt downs and I could not get her to stay in the car.

I have met with the principal a couple times already, I have met with her teacher 3 times already this year and I have gone to her class to observe all this school year.

Why does my daughter not want to go to school?

Isabelle told me that kids are mean to her and she walks around the playground alone and sad. She just doesn't want to feel that way anymore.

I'm so frustrated!

with talking with the Principal and teacher I was told "maybe she's to sensitive"

"maybe she's like the boy who cried wolf"

How's this going to help my daughter want to come to school?

I'm tired of feeling like I'm not being heard.

There's a missing link somewhere

Something needs to happen here to help kids who feel this same way.

I'm sure it happens a lot more than we think.

Nows the time

I'm grateful that I'm a mother

I'm grateful that I have a mother

I hope my children will always need me in one way or another as they grow

I hope to be around for them to need me for a long time

My mom asked if she could come for a short visit and talk and catch up

You bet!

Its so nice when you can build your relationship up and mend anything broken

I'm grateful that I still have the time here to be able to do that

Life can be taken from loved ones so incredibly fast so don't waste it being mad at someone and then regret what you didn't get to do or talk about anything needed or work out whatever with someone.

Regret is an awful thing to feel!

Its terrible to hold onto anger towards someone

So with Grandma coming over she got to work right away

 She made chicken and dumplings which is Julias favorite food that she makes

 She helped with homework which is Lowells favorite part of the day

 Time for dinner

Then of course she needed to make the kids favorite Texas Sheet Cake "Brownies"

 I made my mom a painting that I made a duplicate for me so we both can have this great saying in our homes. This is something so many of us need to remember and take to heart. My sweet niece before she passed away would say this all the time and its  from a talk from Elaine Dalton gave.

 My mom painted this picture back in 1978 and I have it hanging in my home. I like to look at it and try to imagine her painting this. I was only 4 years old at the time. I get all my talents from my mom, she paints, crafts, quilts, does calligraphy, and just about anything else.

Me and my Momma

Just remember

You can do hard things....

Frankie

One of my sweet sister-in-laws brought me a craft project to do.

It was a unfinished Frankenstein!

I couldn't wait to complete him so I could display him in my Halloween décor this season.

I love that he has bolts in his head. He needs something more and I'm trying to figure that out but I love how it turned out.

Thank you Donna!

Painting

I think I love to paint.

Actually I do love to paint, just not my walls in my house. I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea for my old wood frames that have been sitting around.

I found these awesome frames at a great thrift store by my house.

Ive been hanging on to them waiting for some inspiration.

Well that was last night. I never did like painting a picture from my own imagination. I thought I was never good at it. But......I actually like what I come up with so I had some wood laying around and fit a piece for this frame. I wanted a saying with some flowers and garland and wanted to paint the frame.

 So I painted the piece of wood black and let it dry then worked on another project while I waited and its name is "Frankie" but that is for another post.

 I painted different flowers and kept on adding until I was happy with it

 added gold vinyl letters

Then mod podge it all together

 I painted the frame with a very light pink chalk paint and let it dry

then did a coat of clear sealing wax

after that dried I rubbed on dark antique wax and didn't get a pic

but I LOVE how it turned out.

All done!!!

I was thinking I should of done this for my kids when they were little. I would've hung it in there rooms.