Creative Care Package

I attended a moms' conference in the fall and learned this fun way to send a care package.  Cut three sides of a square into a 2 liter bottle.  Fill with goodies. Tape up the square and add a label. You could probably just cover the square with the label, but mine ripped further down the bottle, so I taped it up. You can use scrapbook paper to wrap the bottle where the original product label would have been. You don't even have to put it in a box.  The post office will ship it just like this.  

For Valentine's Day we have always given the kids a small box of chocolates, and we bake a cake to decorate.  A friend once told me that she always bought small gifts for her kids for Valentine's Day so that they would not think it a miserable holiday if they did not have a boyfriend or girlfriend.  I thought that to be wise council. I never cared for Valentine's Day growing up - not because of where my life was romantically but because my baby sister was buried on Valentine's Day, and that was a hard time of year for my mom.  

I thought I would be the mom who always had the house full of kids friends running in and out.  I thought I would be the mom always sending fun, care packages to my kids away at school.  The reality is that I am neither.  I have not sent a care package to Savannah since finals week last spring, and I ordered that one online. Some of my reasons are valid - the campus has finals week "care packages" everywhere.  Between her church and dorm, Savannah came home loaded with sweets that she did not want last summer.  I don't need to add to the junk food.  I am limited by my own lack of creativity and my finances.  Even putting this together, I struggled with ideas, so we basically filled it with sweets. 

So what's in the bottle? 

• A message of course - actually four messages - cards from every family member except Julia who was at a sleepover when we packed it.
• Some cereal bars that Savannah likes
• mini candy bars and candies
• suckers
• a gift card to a favorite fast-food restaurant
• a small Russell Stover heart full of chocolates

The reality is that junk food is fairly cheap.  I could have gone with some more expensive items but wanted to stay in line with what the kids at home will be receiving for the holiday in terms of budget, and our budget is in recovery mode post Christmas while being hit hard by high energy bills after too much time spent with single digit temps.

Some ideas that I could have used

• make-up
• fun earrings (I would have probably had to get them approved first as we have different tastes)
• deodorant, toothbrush (I learned of this idea from a lady who always sends a toothbrush because she's grossed out by the fact that college students do not change out their toothbrushes 😜), etc.
• favorite pens and pencils (for Savannah that can get pricey as she is into artistic pens and expensive colored pencils - also a problem because I am not sure what she has - that said, she's very inexpensive when choosing basic pens and pencils for everyday use)
• of course gift cards can be as varied as the person - her campus has an Insomnia Cookies store (oh so yummy!), coffee places, various restaurants, various stores etc.

Heart for Adoption

Please check out the gofundme link below.  We met the Bestwicks on our journey to Wyatt.  They have a heart for children with broken hearts and are returning to China.  Supporting a big family and special needs kiddos is not easy or cheap, so they are fundraising.  If this is your heart and you can spare a little, please consider helping this family out.

https://www.gofundme.com/rosalie2018

I have to say that it seems appropriate that this fundraising launches on Sanctity of Life weekend.  💖

Christmas Break Art

As is typical for Savannah when she gets some downtime, she gets creative.  This piece was based on a photo she took during a school trip to Chicago.  The buildings were drawn using ink.  She then painted the background (skyline) which was a full page and then merged the pieces using Photoshop where she also added the reflection of the buildings on the river for an impressive mixed media piece.  

God has put more talent in Savannah's pinky than I have in my whole body.  When I want to just ask where did she come from?  I have to remember that Andy is a pretty talented visual artist.  His sister is an amazing artist - actually owns her own fine art business, and his mother is an art teacher. Dianna (Andy's sister) recently did a piece inspired by the statue of David that is totally amazing.  Savannah has some talent from my side of the family too. My dad could draw.  

2 year olds are moving targets

We gathered yesterday to celebrate Kallie's second birthday.  I regret not taking the camera because the phone neither handles moving targets nor zooming very well, so I have some images that are blurred.  It was a fun, laid back celebration that was at risk of being postponed because our roads are less than ideal right now.

Kallie started the day as Rapunzel, but as you will see, her family knows her well.  Clothing, princess dolls and dress up clothes came to her in abundance yesterday.  So ultimately, she changed into an Elsa dress from her paternal uncle and aunt and then into her new Minnie Mouse outfit from her Nana.

Kinsley had not had a nap and was subdued with some screen time.  By the time we left, our basketball team had pulled off a victory, and Kinsley was sound asleep.  It was barely dinner time.

Obviously, Kallie loves princesses and clothes.  When asked how much laundry this clothes loving girl produces, Tessa responded by saying that Kallie's room door is kept closed all day long.  Otherwise Kallie would be asking to change clothes all. day. long.  In other words Tessa is in trouble when Kallie gets big enough to open the door and change her own clothes. Kallie also likes dolls of all sizes - particularly Disney Princess dolls and small toys such as Little People.  Her young cousins provided her some Weebles for playtime.

Funniest birthday story: Kallie is full of personality and pretty easy going.  She slipped and fell backwards on the kitchen floor.  It was one of those falls where everyone took notice, but Kallie needed to assess the situation to decide whether she was having too much fun with Wyatt to let that phase her or if she wanted to cry and get some comfort.  After probably far too much thinking, she went for a third option and re-enacted the fall for her captive audience.  I. am. not. even. kidding.  It was hilarious, and the crowd reacted with much laughter.  So acting maybe in her future?  She doesn't speak much, but her facial expressions do plenty of talking for her.  

Oh my goodness!  Happy days of being two to you Kallie!

Happy New Year!!

 We are one week into 2018, and here's how the first week went..

We hosted a New Year's celebration.  Kinsley was the recipient of a game for Christmas that we broke out on New Year's - The Pie in Your Face Game.  Very few adults participated, but the kids had a blast with it.  Despite my concern that we would have a big mess and lots of sticky kids running around, clean up was very easy, and even if it had been messy, the fun would have been worth it.

Kallie started the year with a bang - quite literally.  She fell from a chair onto a tile floor and busted her head.  As is the case with any head wound, the blood was scary.  Her blonde hair was quickly turning red as we raced to find the source of bleeding to see if she needed stitches. 

Other than the dramatic fall, New Year's Eve was a casual event with lots of good company.

The Christmas decor came down on New Year's Day - at least the indoor stuff did - too frigid for outdoors.  In the process of removing ornaments from our sad tree, I discovered this.  Nobody has confessed to this added decor.

Saturday gave me the opportunity for a girl's night out.  I have such smart friends.  I was lost in the Breakout and certainly little help, but it was fun, and I would do it again.  Someone from another group mentioned wanting to do this with their dad.  That got two of us to talking about how our dads would do with this.  In his younger years, my dad might have enjoyed the challenge, especially one like ours with so many numbers, but I can't see him paying to do this.  Mom would have been great at it and would have done it.  I miss the fact that we don't get to do things like this with her.  I would love to do this with my siblings and their spouses.  I have said for years that it would be fun to play Laser Tag with them too.

Today we returned our girl to school.  75 hours down, and 75+ some change to go.  She's thriving!

Sav and I enjoyed a movie date before I drove her back to school this afternoon.  The Greatest Showman is an enjoyable movie, but  I don't think it lives up to the hype.  Spoiler alert - I think the group dance scenes all have a High School Musical vibe which is very strange given the time period for the movie setting.

Other than the above, we have certainly bemoaned the crazy cold temps.  I have had a complete freakout over the coming rise in tuition for Wyatt and Julia - more than our combined income increases for the coming year, and more than I make per month at my second job.  Praying hard about that one.

I did decide on some goals this year.  Including:

• paying $1000 off of a debt that I am working hard to unload - that won't pay it off, but that was a goal last year too, and I am on target with that one (that goal was not set until June)
• organizing our basement (that will mean lots of purging)
• painting my bedroom and the furniture in it
• organizing the armoire pictured below - anybody else have a space that looks like this?  I will actually only organize my side. This is one of those places that I periodically pull everything off of and redo it only to find my efforts undone in a matter of days, so...

• I am still working on a word for the year - leaning toward THRIVE
• I have a jar by our front door where everyone is free to write down memories, silly happenings, blessings etc. that we can review on New Year's Eve next year.
• While I did not make this an official goal, I am months away from the deadline to settle my dad's estate, so there's that- a bittersweet goal as we sell off the last of his possessions, including the last home he shared with my mom. 

Starting the year hopeful for provision, blessing, good health and joy for the year.

Creativity

I love Julia's creativity.  It's a reminder that we are created beings.  I think the arts and humor are two very key things that separate us from the animal kingdom, and for me these two things prove we are not evolved from animals.

Loser Christmas

I have decided to dub this Christmas the Loser Christmas.

I am not a particularly organized person.  I think I am drawn naturally to organization, but I have learned that I will never get anyone in this house to nest the dishes or even put them back in the right cabinet after I have emptied and scrubbed and organized the cabinets.  My attempts to organize anything are met with rebellion, so someday when my kids all leave, I will have a room of my own organized and off limits to anyone else. There was that time, years ago, when I emptied and organized a closet for one of my children's room, and that child literally tore it all apart.  I pushed everything back into the closet and told said child that the closet was no longer his.  He could not access it, could not store clothing in it - could. not. have. it! Until these little sinners leave the house, I will have to live in this state of disorganization.  UGH!

This year we lost a few things around the holidays.

Before Thanksgiving I was in Bath and Body Works, and they had aloe infused socks decorated with penguins....you can't find a more perfect gift for Savannah.  I bought them at full price- fearing they would sell out as they often do with those socks.  I have no idea where they are. We were out shopping yesterday, and they had the socks on the 1/2 price sale, so I just went ahead and purchased another pair.  Savannah had been brainstorming about where the missing socks might be and searching for them.

Just days before his birthday, I bought Wyatt a Google Play card.  Now this one is a true mystery because I watched Andy put it up so that we would both know where it was.  We went back to get it - gone.  After days of Wyatt tearing the house apart to find it, Andy caved and replaced it.  UGH!

Last year I bought a scarf to go with a sweater.  I bought it online, and it did not match when it arrived.  I have been looking for a simple shirt to wear with the scarf.  I bought one two days ago, and I have no idea where it is.

My tweezers went missing.  I  bought new ones a couple of weeks ago.  You guessed it, can't find them.  I bought new ones last night.

I have never experienced losses to the degree that we have replaced so many recent purchases.  It's ridiculous.

Anybody else ever had a Loser Christmas?  - and no I do not like the word loser.  It does make me laugh a bit as I am reminded of a funny Jackie story about when she dreamed that she wrote a blog titled When God Called Me Stupid. Jackie did not like the word stupid. Her sister shared that story when our Sunday school class gathered to share stories about Jackie.

Now if only I had lost some pounds from my belly instead of all these items.  Hmm.

P.S. I have found my shirt.