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!