Getting Ready for Christmas

As busy as things have been, we've somehow managed to find time to celebrate the holidays and get ready for Christmas together. Over the past couple of weeks we've....

Gotten our tree:

This year's was the perfect size and not 10 feet around like it was last year. My apologies for anyone who came to our house last year and had to maneuver around the ginormous tree. I kept it reasonable this year, see? 

We welcomed our Elf, Piper (PiPi, as the boys call him) back to our home for the holidays.

It's always fun to see where Piper ends up every morning. Climbing the Christmas tree....

Being held hostage by Lego minifigs...(the sign says "This is our house")

Piper retaliating by tying up the minifigs the next day...

Other locations have included fishing in our beta's tank, wrapping himself up like a present, riding on our Nutcracker's shoulders, and ending up head-first in a cereal box with his legs sticking out the top. He must have been hungry after his nightly trip back to the North Pole.

We also took the boys out to the raceway to see the Christmas lights. I'd been wanting to do that for years and we'd never had a chance, so it was a fun change from freezing our patooties off at Zoolights. Sitting in the warm car was fantastic!

John and I attended his company Christmas party. It's something I look forward to every single year, since I get to gussy myself up, spend time with the other wives, eat a fabulous (paid for) dinner at Five Spice in Lake Oswego, and we get a night away from the boys at the hotel right next to the restaurant.

 I think we clean up decently. And yeah, don't mind Nathan there. He was feeling extremely goofy and insisted on being in the picture.

This is the other couple we spend the most time with. They recently moved a little closer to us (15 minutes away instead of 45! Woohoo!), so we look forward to seeing each other more often throughout the year and getting the kids together for playdates (they have a little boy about Nathan's age).

We look forward to what the rest of the holiday season has in store for us!

Good News/Bad News

The good news is that I ended up with a straight A term. A's in all three courses!! Woohoo! It is SO nice to be done with this term and I am hoping that next term is much easier. I feel like I lost out on a lot of family time over the past few months and I'd prefer not to feel like that again. I'm in no rush. The kids are more important.

The bad news is that we're apparently coated in germs and that's putting a real downer on the holidays. Aiden missed school all last week due to whatever it was that he had (cold, stomach bug, fever combo) and now I've come down with it, and Nathan woke up with it last night as well. I actually woke up with it on Sunday, the morning after John's company party, which means we were in a hotel. I can tell you now that a hotel is never more uncomfortable and unwelcoming than when you're horribly ill. I've been able to rearrange my week a bit to accommodate not feeling well, but there's only so much I can skip out on. Still have to pick up Aiden from school, take him to wrestling, Christmas shopping still isn't finished, and I had to take both children (yes, one of them sick) grocery shopping with me this afternoon. It took two hours to get $85 worth of groceries. It didn't feel like two hours....so I'm wondering what on earth I was doing in the store all that time! Probably wandering around looking confused and unwell.

Anyway, fingers crossed that the germs have gone away by this weekend, because I HAVE to be well to see my little nephew for the very first time. And we don't want to be sick for Christmas, of course. Here's hoping for lots of rest and maybe a decent burst of energy so I can bleach the entire house.

Reflection

I had to take a moment to reflect on today. I know you're hearing about Connecticut today from all angles, so please feel free to step away from this blog post if you need to.

My children went to bed tonight blissfully unaware of what occurred today. It was almost strange, watching them throughout the day. Playing, laughing, talking together like nothing had happened. I envied them a little. A few times today Aiden would look over at me and I could tell by the look on his face that he was confused about why I was watching them like I was. He would look at me quizzically and I would smile back at him and say something along the lines of "I love you, Aiden", and he would respond, "I love you too, mommy" and then go back to whatever he was doing. Innocence preserved. For now, at least.

I have to go back the first sentence of the last paragraph. "My children went to bed..." and I stop it there. I have never been so aware of the fact that I have children to put to bed tonight. My heart hurts. My stomach is sick. I am angry. I'm usually a fairly "plugged in" person - to news and social media and whatnot. Don't forget that I first went to school to become a journalist. I've always been the "plugged in" sort. But today, I cut myself off. No more news, no more social media, nothing. I got to my blog through closed eyes and muscle memory. I couldn't handle it anymore. I'm ignoring it, but I'm not really ignoring it. I've prayed and cried countless times today.

I don't really know what else to say, other than just keep praying. We may not know the families affected by this personally, but the grief from this is rippling throughout all of us. I don't know anyone involved and I still fell to my knees this afternoon, crying and praying for peace for the parents who have lost their children today. The bible verse that has resonated with me most today is a portion of Romans 12:15, "....weep with those who weep". That's all we can do.

Leaving them out of it

Do you talk to your kids about violence? Does it matter how old they are? This week, I'm happy we no longer have cable.

On Tuesday, there was a mall shooting here. And now today, many, many children died in a school shooting in Connecticut. And I haven't said a word about either to my boys. It's not easy - especially today, when I'm crying my eyes out over the poor families who have lost their children. As a mom and even more so as a mom of kids that age, it's just unthinkable. I can't imagine in any capacity what they are experiencing right now.

Aiden has been home sick from school all week and I have to say that I'm happy about it, because it has probably kept the news of both shootings from getting to him. I know I can't shield him from it entirely, but I can sure as heck try my best.

Maybe some of you are speaking with your children about it and that's absolutely your choice. But for me, I just can't. They are too young. Aiden doesn't need to be worried about that happening at his school. Let's keep some innocence around a little longer.

If you have kids, hug them. Play with them. Praise God for the fact that you are able to do those things with your child today. And pray for those families. They are going to be hurting for the rest of their lives.

Done

The finals are done. Finally, finally done. I know I have A's in two out of three courses and should have a third A, provided I didn't just completely bomb my library procedures exam.

I am so looking forward to finishing up getting ready for Christmas and spending some real, not stressed out time with my family. My family who deserves a ton of credit for bearing with me through this massively insane term. I honestly don't know how we got through it.

Here's to a relaxed upcoming month.

Almost There

Thank you to everyone (friends, family, and the staff at our church who asked if there was anything I needed prayer for) who said a prayer for me. Just a few hours after my post, a professor from another class offered a five-day extension on a large project out of nowhere. It was perfect timing and I was able to devote that time to re-doing a huge project for another class. I now have just four (FOUR!!) assignments left to complete the term, and while they are all on the larger side, I feel so much more at ease and able to get this done.

I suppose I've learned what my limit is for classes through this whole thing: two. No more than two classes per term, or else everything tends to snowball and I develop "crazy homework face". One of the moms at the preschool took one look at me and said, "Finals week, huh?". Great....

Now, time to get back to homework. I fully expect to hear the Hallelujah chorus the moment I submit my last project.

This Week

I could really use some prayer about making it through the rest of this week and getting all of my final projects done. I've had a rather large setback in one class and have very little time to fix it, if I'm able to at all. I'm sleep-deprived and overwhelmed and have spent a majority of the afternoon in tears. I'm not feeling very capable regarding school and parenting at the same time. It's frustrating to say the least. I anticipate many more very late nights in order to get everything done this week (1-2am has been my standard bedtime over the past week, then getting up 4-5 hours later to get the family up for the day). In short, I'm struggling big time. At least I've discovered my limit when it comes to classes, I suppose. Anyway, I would really appreciate some prayer. The end is so close and yet feels so far away.