I'm Thankful

This time of year I am reminded of so many things for which I am thankful. My ultimate question is why do we only dedicate one day a year to giving thanks? I feel like it should be done all year long...maybe something would be lost, but I think there is more gains to be had if we did.

We made the trip down to Indiana for Thanksgiving. It took us three hours just to get outside of the city...it should take one. Driving rains, wicked winds, slow traffic...it made us think that maybe we should have just stayed home. But it was worth it.

It was so wonderful to see my family - most of them anyway. Grandparents, aunts, cousins, and of course my parents. Time with them always feels far too short and I'm left longing for more time and more opportunities to be with them.

Reality is that some of them won't be with us for too many more years. My grandparents are showing their ages and states of health. It's a heart-wrenching thought to realize that each time I see them could be the last...but I cherish what time I am able to spend with them.

I wish I could have taken some of our friends with us to Indiana just to share a holiday with them. I love our Chicago family. They fill the void of not having any blood relatives in the remote area. They love and dote on our girls, they offer comfort and advice, they provide hours of laughter, they share meals, and they yell at the football games on the television alongside us. We are truly blessed by having all of them in our lives.

I am thankful...

I am thankful to be able to stay at home and raise my daughters and not work outside the home.

I am thankful for a loving, god-fearing husband who loves me more than I could ever know.

I am thankful for my two, beautiful daughters who teach me (and challenge me) every day regarding the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. Not a day goes by where they don't make me laugh and smile.

I am thankful for a warm, inviting home.

I am thankful for my god-given cooking abilities that allow me to feed and love on others...if only I could have some god-given Cleaning abilities...

I am thankful for truth speaking pastors and leaders in our church. New Life, you have blessed me beyond words.

I am thankful for loving parents & family.

I am thankful that I am in Chicago...as much as I long for a slower pace of life, I am thankful for this too. Only in Chicago would I have met many of the people I call dear friends and only in Chicago would I have been forced to grow beyond myself.

My friends and family, I love you. And I am thankful that God has made a way for us to have such a love through His Son, Jesus Christ.

1 John 4:7
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

Creative Nostalgia

I know, I know. It's been nearly 2 months since I last updated this thing...life is BUSY, people. :oP

Seems like the only "me" time I have right now is when everyone else is asleep. My brain fails to let me rest, even when I know I need to rest.

I don't know if it's because my 10 year high school reunion is coming up, or the fact that we're going to the Ball State vs. Purdue football game this weekend, or what, but for one reason or another I've been reminiscing about the days of yore...and all the creative things I did or was involved in.

I was actually thinking about some of my pottery pieces I created during my stint in ceramics sometime during high school. I wonder what happened to the large vase I spent hours carving.

I've been thinking about the Latin songs I sang during the time I was a nun...in the Sound of Music production my Junior year of high school. I know it was high school, but I can help but think about how I got goosebumps whenever we hit the chords just right on Gaudeamus. (Mr. Hayden was a great conductor/director/teacher. I miss being challenged by the songs we sang.)

I keep wistfully remembering all the literally countless hours I spent swing dancing in college...and the ballroom class and country western class with Ya'akov.

I keep dreaming about a day that I could be on Dancing With The Stars - or some version where it's just regular people that no one really knows.

Yes, I know, I could go on a dance date with the hubby....but Brian's not much of a dancer... I love my hubby to pieces, but there are times I want to just dance and not have to re-train him. (Not to mention the fact that we have two kids, so we have to find a sitter anytime we want to get out on our own.)

*sigh*

I've come to realize that I don't have much of a physical or tangible creative outlet.

Years upon years of always having something - choir, art, dance, etc. - and now I have nothing really. No church choir, no worship team, no art classes, no dance classes or outings...

Kinda bums me out...and makes me get all itchy thinking about what all I used to do.

I want to sing - and not just with my daughters.
I want to dance in public.
I want to create in a way that is fulfilling to me.

I just need a means to an end...and I'm not sure where to find it.

Life As A Family Of Four

If you've talked to us lately, you know that Kyleigh's arrival hasn't slowed us down a bit. In some ways, it seems like we're doing more...maybe it's just the season.

We regularly try to do activities that Mackenzie enjoys or make sure that she gets some one-on-one time (i.e. park, movie, Target, grocery).

We've also done a whole mess of other stuff that isn't on our regular activities list: blueberry picking, swimming out @ a pool in the 'burbs, hiking @ Indiana Dunes...

So, if you're one of my faithful followers/friends/readers that has an infant who isn't as flexible as Kyleigh...don't worry. I've discovered that Brian and I, and our children, are not the typical standard of normal that most people envision when they think of life adjustments with a newborn child. We are what most people consider "ideal" or "weird" or "atypical"....or some people have even called us "crazy".

Let me take a moment to knock on wood, or pray that when and if we have another child that they are similar to my first two, because I'm not sure I could handle having a "high maintenance" child. I would deal, but I'd probably go crazy.