Beautiful Mornings

Have you seen this e-card floating around?

This quote is basically MY LIFE right now.   I have a renewed love for my old French press as I've discovered that I love black coffee just barely sweetened with a bit of cream and stevia.   Looking forward to my cup of coffee encourages me to get out of bed early and I even think about it as I'm going to bed at night.

As I used to (seriously, like 3 months ago) only like frou-frou lattes and mochas, I'm really not sure who I am right now.  

Most mornings I have to reheat my cup three times and of course I can't sit down to drink it because as soon as I sit someone wants on my lap.  But still, I feel as though I'm enjoying a leisurely morning in a coffee shop even though I am definitely not, and that is why mornings (with the coffee) are beautiful.   (Lately they've been made even more beautiful thanks to these homemade fig newton bars, which I conveniently made gluten free.)

My morning coffee has become a time of restoration for me.   I pick a mug I love, and even though I can't sit and enjoy it uninterrupted, I try to choose a time in the morning when the kids are playing and I can pretend like it's quiet time for me.  It's not the actual beverage that makes it so special, it's the experience of having something nice for myself each day.

"...He restores my soul..."  Sometimes through something as simple as a warm mug of coffee. 

Apparently it is important to us to instill the same love for the beverage to our children.  David let Christian try a sip (or 7) yesterday and he loved it.  I didn't think you were supposed to like coffee when you're 16 months old?

This was his face after having a few sips:

And then coming to beg for more.  Remember that this was DAVID giving him coffee.  DAVID (not me, as I would never do such a thing):

Today David had training and so worked a day shift and day shifts are the most wonderful thing.  Our morning was busy taking GAL to the airport, and then making bread and applesauce and baking gluten/dairy free snacks for the kids, and then before I knew it it was lunch time, nap time, and then David was home. 

The coffee was extra good today.

Firmness of Purpose

Recently David and I have been inspired by the book Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreide.   Of course if I'm being honest I was super inspired by it and kept reading portions out loud to David, who I'm sure was tuning me out all the while acting interested.  

(Just kidding.  He totally listens to every thing I say.)

I won't write a book review here, but suffice it to say it was convicting and encouraging and gave me this lovely quote that will be a theme for our household this coming year:

Lovely.  Just lovely. 

Also I've decided I love the idea of having a word of the year.  I've heard people talk of it in the past but have never been too inspired to find my own word, until I actually found a word and decided I love having a word of the year. (!!!!)

For 2013, my word (our family word, really) is purpose.

purpose  (ˈpɜːpəs)
— n

1. The object toward which one strives or for which something exists; an aim or a goal
2. A result or effect that is intended or desired; an intention.



We want our intentional actions to result in something good. 

So. 

We'll purposefully clear out clutter from our house and reserve our spaces for beautiful and useful things. 
  
We'll purposefully make our house a sanctuary where creativity is inspired.  I want my children to have the freedom to think and dream and create, and I don't think that can be done well in clutter.  I hate the way I feel when I walk into our house and all I can see are the messes I need to clean.  We aren't super messy or gross people, but when there's too much stuff around there's too much to clean and too much time spent on thinking about cleaning.  

 We'll purposefully clear out clutter from our calendar so that we can enjoy down time with our kids. 

We'll purposefully let things go of stuff so that we can spend time on more important activities.  For instance, I was spending many minutes a day straightening up the decor on the coffee table because little hands were constantly messing it up.  I took the stuff off the coffee table and now I spend no time at all on that chore.  I cleared up about an hour a week of my time just by cleaning off my coffee table.  The less stuff I have to take care of, the more time I have.  My heart feels lighter just thinking about it. 

We'll purposefully be saving even more money (for a down payment on our country home!) because we won't buy things unless they are beautiful or useful.  If one object is beautiful AND useful that's even better

(By the way, when you start saying 'purpose' too much it starts sounding ridiculous and like a made up word.  Purpose, purpose, purpose, purpose....see?  Weird word.)

Here's to 2013!  Go forth and be amazing.  We sure will. 

his resolution is probably to eat more potatoes

hers would be to decorate the entire house with her artwork

yeah, baby

 

Christian Says Good Words & Some Bad Words

Christian said his first little sentence today.  David came in the back door and Christian said "dada outside."  Outside is his favorite place to be.  He talks about it a lot. 

I feel like he's just too little to be stringing words together already.  There's a possibility he's going to grow up to be too smart for his britches.

Of course, his 'outside' sounds more like 'a**,'  so maybe we'll be fine.

Speaking of outside, he gets to wear Daphne's hand-me-down Stonz Booties now.   Sometimes I can be super lazy and send him outside while he's still wearing his jammies since the boots can go on right over his footie p.j.s.  If I had a baby gate for the driveway I could toss him out the front door and let him play in the driveway for as long as he wanted.  He may be immune to the cold weather but I, the babysitter, am not.

Sending out 2012

I woke up this morning thinking tomorrow was the 31st and so here I am having lost an entire day of my life.  Good thing we do absolutely nothing for New Year's Eve.  Part of me is sad about that, but the part of me who gets up early with the kids is fine with being asleep by 10 P.M.  I'm just glad that David is home tonight, because it is always sadder to be at home on New Year's when David isn't here with the kids and I. 

Our last day of 2012 was spent running some morning errands, watching the few snowflakes that fell and wishing they would stick around, and playing football at the park with the neighbors.

he said 'football' today for the first time

I'm trying to think of the 2012 memories that stick out in my mind and basically I've got nothing.  I think I'm distracted by the fact that Daphne has every battery operated candle that we own turned on and lined up on the couch and today's mail is on the floor and there is random Christmas paraphernalia on the fainting couch...and since David is giving the kids a bath and my cleaning fairy hasn't shown up for the day I feel like I need to tidy.  I have a hard time concentrating when my house isn't clean.  That means I always have a hard time concentrating. 

My New Year's Resolution for 2013 is to get a cleaning fairy. 

(Actually, I have real resolution-type things for this next year.  Maybe at some point when I can concentrate I will share them.)

Christmas in Review

I've started and erased this post about a million times, so apparently it is very difficult for me to record our Christmas week?

It was a wonderful week.  We decided that with how busy it is going from Christmas party to Christmas party that we would save our little family celebration for once we were finished with our visiting and back home again. 

We got home Thursday, so yesterday was like Christmas day all over again.  I think we'll keep doing our Christmas this way.  It was a slow, relaxing day and the kids had a blast opening gifts and spending hours playing with their new things. 

Christian is becoming such a ham.  Daphne was posing in front of the tree when he rushed over and plopped himself in her lap with a big grin on his face.

Daphne's gifts from us were the Melissa & Doug wooden pizza and doughnuts.  She also got the sandwich set from her cousin.  Those kitchen toys are the best; she has spent the past two days serving us plates of wooden food.

Christian got the Little People Garage that I found on super clearance for about $6 last March.  We like to give our kids a fun Christmas but I sure am cheap about it.  Hence the finding a great gift and keeping it hidden away in the closet for 9 months.

Daphne got the movie Tangled from Christian.  She said "thank you for shopping with Christian and getting me this show!"

serving Eyeore some pizza

David let the kids pick out some bracelets for me and I had to take a picture of their writing on the tags.  Sweetness.  (I don't know why David used Valentine's paper.)

Daph did the top two

David also got me the movie October Baby.  Have you seen it?  You need to.  It is so, so, so good.  We watched it last night

David got this travel Scrabble that he is so excited about.  We are kind of nerdy in that sometimes we'll set up a Scrabble game in the guest bedroom and spend a couple of days playing our turn when we get a chance.  This game's board has little grooves so the pieces don't move.  Pretty classy in the Scrabble world. 

Christian is pretty thrilled with all the new trucks and airplanes he got at all our parties.  This is how we usually see him:

Poor Daphne asks at night if when she wakes up her stocking will be full again.  She wouldn't mind some more Christmas parties. 

It's hard to leave the fun months of fall and Christmas behind, so I'm trying to get myself excited about some January projects.  I have curtains for the front window to hang (finally, after 8 years of wanting some) and I think I'm going to make some new pillow covers for the living room.  I would LOVE to paint the trim in the living room white and do this neat trick to make the trim look wider than it is but I know how much work it would be and am not sure I want to tackle it with the kids.  We have some kitchen ideas, too, which means I really need to be talking myself into wanting to paint.  Blah. 

Our December was wonderful, with both kids being at great ages to enjoy the fun.  Daphne is going to be heartbroken when the lights and trees come down.   I guess she needs to get excited about painting, too.

Two Posts in One!

Our little Daphne turns four today.

Four will be a big year for her, I can tell.  She already talks about what she will do at school when she starts next fall.

She told me yesterday that Christian is her best friend.  And when given the chance to pick a Christmas carol to sing at church, she first chose 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing,' since it's her favorite, but quickly changed her request to 'Away in a Manger,' since it's Christian's favorite.     

As David says, Daphne comes alive at Christmas.  She's like a little jukebox, always, always singing Christmas songs. 

When she knows that we're having company, she finds toys that her friends will like to play with and she gets out our spare chairs and sets them up in the living room.  When we bake, she loves delivering plates of goodies to our neighbors.

I love that she recognizes people's needs and desires to make life easier for them.  She is a helper, a tender heart, a kind soul.

And she is pleased as punch to be the birthday girl.  
















P.S.  When I asked her what she wanted to do today, she said she wanted to wash dishes.  And when I said OK, she was thrilled.  She's a rockstar. 

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Last night was our big slumber party, and while I don't think anyone got much sleep, we did have a really good time.

It's been many, many, meany years since this group of people has all been together (we were just missing one) and we're glad the AK people stopped through for a little visit.  

(Half the folks in this photo are headed to Mexico right now.  I am not one of those people.)

This morning we had a birthday breakfast with all the non-Mexicans, and now we're putting our house back together before continuing on with the day's events.

Christian is a non-sleeping mess.  I think he should have gone to Mexico. 

Happy Christmas Eve!

The Santa that Wasn't

In order to accomplish all we've needed to accomplish this week, we've basically had our week mapped out to the hour to make sure we can fit it all in.

That's why when today we went to the mall and waited in line for an hour only to have Santa not show up at all, we were very sad. 

So this year, instead of photos on Santa's lap, we just have photos. 

hugs while waiting in line

I'm actually really disappointed.  One of my favorite Christmas keepsakes is a box I have that I put two photos in every year: our Christmas card and the picture with Santa.  Someday we'll have a box full of photos to look through, and 2012, the year of no Santa, will be a blight in our box. 

this is what happens when you're in line too long

Did I mention we were first in line?  We were, because of having our days mapped out so well.  I went hunting for mall management, only to have a security guy say he would call Santa to see where he was, only to have the security guy disappear as well.

Maybe it really was the end of the world, but only for a few people?  Like Santas and security guys?  

calling up Santa

a little too much Christmas cheer in this picture

I really don't think there is time to try to visit Santa again, so I guess this year will just have to be the year that Santa wasn't. 

Sad.