A Wonderful Christmas Wonderland.....

.........though not a Winter Wonderland....

We had an absolutely wonderful (though mostly snowless) Christmas this year. We celebrated over four days, visiting friends and family, sharing gifts and holiday joy. My favorite day of course was December 25th. We spent a fantastic day at home simply enjoying our children and keeping our family and new traditions the center of the day as opposed to commercialism, others expectations, or busyness. It was a wonderful day watching our babies unwrap Christmas in a whole new way!

The boys had a blast decorating our tree a couple weeks back and mama dear even let go of her perfectionism and didn't micro-manage the ornament placement. I was even the proponate of purchasing a "fake tree" and actually enjoyed it immensely (no pine needles in the carpet fa lalalala la la lala!). After the boys decorated the tree, Alan declared it ready for the "perfect star" to be placed on top. Roger picked him up, Alan placed the star, and.....flop! The tree top was too weak to hold up the vintage star topper that I like so much. Well, a tree must have a star, so the boys and I created a "gingerbread star"from cardboard, lots and lots of glitter, buttons, and a little ribbon. (Again, mama is making positive strides and let go of her perfectionism-obvously something I'll be making goals to work on and conquer in 2011). I love the star, and as we were boxing up the ornaments and packing away the tree my four year old Alan declared that our star needed to be set on top of the mirror in the living room-so there it sits for now.

We even enjoyed a sticky evening building a tiny gingerbread village. Every year I declare to myself that the boys and I are going to make gingerbread, and design and build a wonderful gingerbread house decorated with perfect lil' gum drops and m&m's. Again, I pushed the foolish perfectionism aside and bought a kit for us to put together. The boys had a BLAST and I loved the wonderful silly time working with them, their childlike ideas, and goofy lil' sayings. They work together so interesting-like. I was a good girl and simply glued the pieces together, and put the gooey colored icing where the boys directed and they placed all the candies. They were so proud of their accomplishments and they did a fabulous job! Not sure if Alan stuck his hand in some icing or stole a piece of candy here. :P

I have completely enjoyed the past few days of mostly uninterupted time with my boys and fully intend to make this the norm. I am a stay at home, working mom but have discovered recently just how much I have allowed stuff, activities, and poor time management take away valuable, quality time with them and me personally. Another goal to tackle in 2011! This mama is ready to tackle some goals, new priorities, and habits this near year!

Boys will be boys....

I shouldn't be, but I am always amazed and ammused by our two little people and the way their wee minds work and how they perceive things and learn through everything around them.

My 4 year old is getting very efficient in dressing himself from top to bottom but will occasionaly struggle if his clothes are "inside out" and is quite happy when we help him to get his clothes "inside in" for him. His younger sibling recently bent over and stood on his head in the kitchen to peer at me from between his knees and said, "Mama, I see you and kitty and I'm upside down!" As he stood up he continued, "Now I'm upside up!".

Today we were discussing the coming of a new cousin in late fall and that two different aunties have babies in their bellies. My eldest responded, "And you too mommy, you're a girl too. So you have a baby in your belly too!" Oh dear, I assured him that no, Mama does not have a baby in her belly. "Oh, Ma-Maw (Gramma) doesn't have a baby in her belly either because she is a Ma-Maw."

The eldest, more so than the younger, has a pretty particular nature about him. I think he has a bit of his Great-Grammie's orderly genes in him. There has been some digging and repiping by the water company across the street from us and each night he looks out our windows and exclaims, "Mama! Look at the mess! We need to go clean that up!" I can't complain too much, he's a wonderful picker upper and LOVES helping his mama clean up. Just recently as I was dusting, wiping, and cleaning he grabbed a wipe (baby wipes work great for lil' helpers) and took himself all over the house wiping down whatever he felt needed it while saying in his cute lil' singsong voice, "We're going to make this place shine!"

Our youngest loves to win whenever possible and with an older sibling around he doesn't get to do that too often. We live on the second floor so each return home is a "race" (a slow and steady race) up the stairs, usually with the 4 year old reaching the top and turning to say, "I won!" as he looks down on the rest of us. His younger brother used to pout and fuss because he wanted to win, and we assured him that he was a winner and to keep going. He now loves to get to the top before us and will exclaim, "Brother win me and I win you!" Their grasp of the english language is SO adorable!

And my favorite of the recent "conversations": The four year old of course has begun asking the seemingly constant and endless "why" and "what" questions. "Mama, what is the sun?", he asked at bedtime recently. "Well," I explained, "it is the great big star in the sky that shines during the day and makes it really hot here on earth." "Oh, what is earth?" he questioned. "It's where we live, planet earth." I stuttered to explain. "But where is earth?" he asked again. I answered, "Well earth is the planet we live on and is in outer space with the other planets and the sun." His eyes light up and he says, "We live in outer space!" I start to re-explain, "Well, no honey, we live here on earth, not in outer space." He looks at me matter of factly and says, "Earth is in outer space. I live on earth....in outer space." How can a mom argue with such logic!?

Peace, Calm and Serenity

Heard an awesome message this morning from a rather wise man. It is wonderfully ironic how timely of a message it was as well. My husband and I have been thinking, praying, talking, discussing, and praying again and again, about changes in our family, our lives, our business, our lifestyles, our whole shabang. We have slowly been filtering things out that are really unnecessary, some things that are harmful in the long run, and looking at our lives from a different angle. It's been very enlightening to say the least.

So today, our wonderful pastor talks about "Spiritual Ballast" using an illustration of a sailboat and it's keel and ballast. See, I KNEW water and boats were straight from GOD! :D A sailboat must have a keel and ballast in order to be righted if tipped. Idealy, supposedly, and according to our avid boater pastor, a correctly ballasted sailboat can be completely tipped upside down in the water and will right itself. Quite amazing when you think of all the mast and sail that would be underwater!

Apply that to a personal, human mindset-I want ballast in my life! I need, want, must have that ballast that runs under the surface; very seldom seen, not flashy or high tech, a simple utilitarian stableizer to keep me rightable when everything around is stormy and choppy.

It's not the fancy schmancy things in life that keep us righted. It's not the showy, technilogical things that can return us to our feet. It's not even "right people" who can set us on track. It's the things we keep ourselves centered on, our faith in GOD, the positive habits we set ourselves on. It's the things under the surface that keep us righted and on track.

The highest advanced sailboat with all the latest and greatest technilogical hoopla, high end bits, and best of everything available on board can't withstand a storm without having a proper keel and ballast. Just some food for thought I.....thought I'd share. :D

On a side note: This 'blogging daily challenge' is a little more, ummmm, well, challenging than I originally thought it might be. But I shall keep on a' blogging, 27 more days, and I complete my challenge with flying colors and have a new habit to call my own!