Yep, I’m leaving. Not for good, just for the weekend.

When we came back to the US it was our goal to spend this time back home to be intentional about relationships that often take the backseat when we are abroad. One of those relationships for me has been our dear friends the O’Leary’s. Most of you know the story, I babysat the O’Leary kids when they were itty bitty and now they are teenagers! Growing WAY TOO FAST! In early January I decided to try to sit down and look at the calendar for a time I could take one of the boys with me to visit. As I looked at the calendar and talked to Annie we realized with the kids sports starting up again January was the time to come. So, me and my not so spontaneous self up and booked a flight to go only a couple of weeks later…which happens to be today.  We went back and forth about me taking a boy or not and Seth encouraged me to go alone. (His opinion may or may not have been influenced by ticket price rather than wanting both boys for a weekend alone but that’s not important! ) I took  him up on his offer and reluctantly bought a solo ticket on a late night flight . You know how I hate to leave the kids but I know I need to sometimes and I know it’s important for a mental health break every so often…. You know how it is. Maybe spontaneous is going to be my new normal so I don’t have enough time to talk myself out of things.

The O’Leary girls are going to the Grammy’s so our mission for the weekend is to shop for Grammy dresses and I am taking my camera so I can finally photograph Annie’s lovely home to share with all of you! Other than that we will just be relaxing and having girl time. I want to soak up these teenagers before they up and leave the coup. I am very much looking forward to some grown up time to catch my breath after some busy months with little ones and life in general. And it won’t be so bad to sleep through the night and let the boys be boys for a weekend I envision lots of sausage and macaroni in their weekend despite my diligent meal planning for them!

The fridge is stocked, they are pumped for a daddy weekend, Seth is all set and I will be home before they miss me!

Hope you all have a great weekend and hopefully I will come back refreshed and with lots to share next week!

A few years back I heard someone talk about using Christmas cards to pray for their friends. I thought it was a great idea but never really got my post-Christmas self in gear to make it happen.  And our boys were never really both at the developmental point at the same time for it to be entirely practical. (I can’t for the life of me remember who told me about this so feel free to claim the idea in the comments and I’ll give you credit! I feel like maybe it was related to MOPS at Vienna Presbyterian years ago?!)

SO, before you toss that Christmas card stack into the trash or a box think about keeping them and using them for a fun family project.

As we received cards from friends this year I took a tip from one of my favorite blogs… A Barefoot Day and hung our cards to enjoy for the season. Simple…twine and clothes pins.  Nothing fru fru!

So far since Christmas we have just kept our cards hanging on the twine that we hung on our front window.  Most evenings after dinner we let one of the boys pick a card and we talk about and pray for those friends.

So far it is serving a few purposes:

1. Taking time to pray for friends! For their jobs, safety, health, joy…

2. (one I hadn’t anticipated) To help our boys get to know family and friends that we may not see so often. It isn’t uncommon for the boys to not know everyone in the picture so it’s a fun way to introduce them (or refresh their memories) to our friends/extended family and their children.

3. Teaching the boys to pray…what it means to “talk to God” and pray for others. It has been such a neat way to teach the boys more about prayer and having others in mind when we pray. I won’t lie, there have been some silly prayers. But they are learning. We are all learning.  I don’t know about you but I want to be mindful of others needs and I often get a bit stuck in a rut and distracted by our own family needs. Praying for others helps get our attention off ourselves. And the visual reminders of the cards is helpful!

Sometimes we are aware of what friends are going through currently and can pray specifically, other times we just pray for them to be healthy, happy, etc. And I am attempting to send people a short message after the boys pick their card just to let them know that we care about them and spent some time in prayer for their family. That part is harder for me to remember to follow up on!

I am getting a little antsy to get things completely back in order around here and as much as I love seeing the cheerful cards, I am ready to take them down. So I took them all off the twine and punched a hole in them. I tied them together with a snippet of the twine (you could use ribbon, a ring, slip them into an old album, whatever you have). There are lots of ideas on pintrest for making them into a book to keep as a memento, which is fun too.  But for now, I just want to keep them together so we can continue our family project and not have them scattered.

So rescue the stack of cards before the recycling bin and join us as we start this New Year!

A couple of months ago my in-laws offered to get the boys a swing set for Christmas. It was in our long term goals to get them one but with all of the big house stuff it wasn’t high on the priority list…so this was a huge surprise and one that the boys will love. We printed a picture of the swing set and cut it into a puzzle for the boys to piece together to determine the surprise. We did it on skype so the grandparents could be part of it. Jackson understood it but Owen was just along for the ride and figured it was a fun picture. Without the real deal in the yard it was hard to imagine. Their reaction was more confused and ungrateful than I had hoped. (which I find isn’t that uncommon when I build expectations on the kids reactions, it’s a fact of motherhood)

We decided to have someone help us put it up and did some research to find the best deal. After doing the run around and setting up the day we happened upon hurricane Sandy followed by one broken bone…then another. You know the story. So after broken bone one we called the guy and postponed assembly a few more weeks. Add in broken wrist and we called back to postpone yet again. We felt like putting up a new swing set and then telling Jackson he couldn’t touch it would add insult to injury. And let me tell you the kid didn’t need any more low blows. He was down and out in the morale department.

Today is the day. I am sending Jackson off to school and coming straight home to meet our swing set guy. I can’t wait to see his face light up when he comes home to discover the work happening…

So day one came and went. I had plans to post this post yesterday when I thought it would be done. But the two guys working, despite working really hard and all day didn’t get it done. No problem for us. Unfortunately they felt misled by their boss who gave us the quote and told them it would take 4 hours. So this morning I woke up to an angry boss with no helpers who was mad that he under bid the job and would be losing money because he never read the plans of how long it would take. The instructions say 24 hours with two able bodied adults…which is precisely why we thought it wise to hire someone. 24 hours for trained individuals tends to turn into months for us. Just being honest. So when I went out on the deck to greet him this morning he yelled at me, threatened to leave the job undone, re-quoted the work for over $100 more than we agreed on and had a temper tantrum. He and Seth went back and forth on the phone and it turns out he wants to do the job and is “giving in” to do it for the amount he quoted us. Oh my. Just praying he doesn’t rig the swing set in his angry fit…

…Swing set it up and done and the boys have done the inaugural play time on it!  Whew. What drama. Glad we are to the fun part.

The swing set will require more supervision in the beginning but I am hoping that the boys will gain independence and it will provide hours of backyard adventure! It happens to be positioned in great view from the kitchen window where I stand and do dishes and outside of our downstairs window where the computer is so it might just be a win win.

Oh, and for all inquiring minds, we have a no broken bones rule on this sucker!

Thanks, Mia and Grandan for your generous gift!

A few (a lot of) pictures to sum up our Christmas festivities! People and food pics all rolled into one!  (And one added goal for the new year is to have Seth take more pictures so I am actually in some! My kids might think they had a single parent Christmas based on the photographic evidence. I hope they recognize my hands working in the kitchen)

Lots of fun memories with family and delicious meals!  Looking forward to a Texas Christmas next year!