My Christmas Gift Morning.

 

Right now I’m sipping my deliciously brewed (thanks jen) Hawaiian coffee (thanks dad) from my pretty new mug (thanks jen!) about to pick-up one of my new books (thanks jordan and sasha!). Gotta love the holidays!

While Eating Toast.

Ammie: What’s Peanut Butter made out of?

Rhys: Peas. That’s why it’s called PEA-NUT-BUTTER.

Ammie: Oooooh.

Bria: Um, nope. It’s made out of peanuts.

Rhys: Why butter?

Bria: Because it’s spreadable like butter.

Ammie: Who makes honey?

Bria: Bees.

Ammie: What’s honey made out of?

Rhys: Flowers.

Ammie: (laughs) That’s SILLY!

Rhys: No. It’s not. Bee’s help us.

Ammie: Helpers?

Rhys: Ya. They help other plants survive.

Ammie: But they sting you on your fingers if you touch them.

Rhys: Ya, but that’s only to protect themselves.

More Thoughts on Lighter Living.

I’ve been searching around the internet for different thoughts and ideas and ways to go about living lighter. If you’re interested here is a post about how to sample living with less from the blog Becoming Minimalist.

Lighter Living.

We’ve lived in this house for just over 4 years. In that 4 years we’ve accumulated a lot of, well, crap. Things we don’t need. Things we don’t use. Things we don’t love. Things and things and things and stuff. We spend time trying to clean and organize. We spend time looking in and through it. We spend time shopping for more stuff because we can’t find the item we need in all of our stuff.

Why do we need so much stuff? It doesn’t make me happier. It makes me sad because it’s an anchor and a waste. It makes me sad that I have to spend time sorting and cleaning or I become depressed because I’m ignoring the sorting and cleaning. I ignore the kids so that I can clean. I yell at the kids because they make a bigger mess with all of their stuff which makes me ignore them more so I can clean more.

Is success based on stuff? If I go out and buy that new dress that I like people will then see how good I look and how on top of the trends I am and that will translate into the appearance of wealth which, in turn, must mean that I’m successful and happy…right? But a new season brings a new style and a new style means that dress I just bought is now out of style which means I need to buy that new dress which means that my closet is running out of room because I can’t bring myself to get rid of that old dress because I love my stuff so I just keep all of it..everything..so what’s the solution? Get a bigger closet! Buy a bigger house! If we have a bigger house then we need more furniture to fit into all of the nooks and crannies and then we need more things to put on the bookshelves and in the closets.

In my heart I don’t buy into the world’s version of square-footage success. Bigger house = More stuff. More stuff = More money. Money = Wealth. Wealth = Success.

Life is more than that. Life is more than stuff.

But in reality I have bought into a large portion of this. I don’t feel like my thinking and my living have aligned very well.

In the past few weeks I have been mulling over ‘Lighter Living’ and wondering what it can look like in my life.

What if James and I got rid of over half of our possessions and only kept what we truly need and love? Could we be happy? Could it work?

 Hm. I was awake for a few hours last night thinking about this.

All By Herself.

Ammie: I don’t think that Summer was at school today because I didn’t play with her.

Bria: That’s too bad. Who did you play with then?

Ammie: I just played by myself.

Bria: What did you play?

Ammie: Cops and robbers.

Bria: (pause) Who was the cop and who was the robber?

Ammie: I was both.

Tiny.

Through The Enchanted Forest.

Take a walk with me through the Enchanted Forest.

Here you will find a wise old owl sitting high in a tree,

Watching the small travelers come and go as they please.

A frog prince waits in his lily pad pond

For a fair maiden to look on him with eyes so fond.

Magical butterflies fly round and round and round,

Their colourful wings flutter with hardly a sound.

For those cold forest nights, come, warm those toes by the fire

The bright dancing flames are sure to inspire!

All travelers will find a friend or two,

They’ll show you around (so long as they don’t become stew!).

And last, but not least, you’ll meet the Ladybug Queen

Living under the enchanted tree with its leaves so beautiful, so green.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you come back soon!

Isn’t it amazing what some people can do with an ordinary room?

(I had to post these pictures from the birthday party Amelia went to last Sunday.

Seriously Candice, you did an AMAZING job!)

 

The Highs and Lows of Parenting.

For the most part, James and I have been fairly focused parents. From early on we have tried to teach morals and work lessons and faith into our daily lives. When our children were younger we worked on things like self-soothing, sign language and playtime independence so that Rhys and Amelia would be content, happy babies. During the toddler years we worked on using words to communicate things, how to listen and obey properly, how to use our please and thank you’s and other such manners in the hopes of providing them with a comfortable environment to grow and explore. We’ve tried very hard to see eye to eye and provide a united front so that the kids wouldn’t be left guessing. We have felt the weight of taking into consideration our children’s (as cheesy as this sounds) ‘heart health’ in this role of parenting, not just providing a meal and a bed for them.

I’ve tried to be a proactive parent, not a reactive one.

However, I’ve slipped. Or we’ve slipped. Or something…

Lately I find myself just living day-to-day with James and the kids and not thinking further then what will be for the next meal and if they have clean underwear to put on in the morning. I find myself yelling and irritated and horribly exasperated. I’m behind in all of my cleaning, all of my laundry, all of my hobbies (although those have gone by the way-side and are now non-existent), all of my reading, a bunch of my blogging, and, most importantly, my quality time with my kids and my proactive parenting.

James and I have been able to transition from being just a couple to having babies, to having two babies, to having toddlers, to having pre-schoolers without a lot of hiccups. Sure, life was chaotic the entire time but I’m looking at our parenting. I think that we’ve been good parents to Rhys and Amelia.

But you know what? Parenting school-aged children has come with a whole new set of issues and it seems that I need a whole new set of skills which requires a learning curve and some patience and it feels like I’m short on patience these days.

Parenting has been getting me down. I feel like we’re not getting anywhere with them and I feel like we’re running out of steam. I look at all of these mom’s with new babies and wish that all I had to think about was a feeding schedule and if I have enough diapers packed in my bag. Sigh. I remember those days. Obviously it’s much harder than that….but you get my drift.

I’m floundering.

I was driving back from an early morning dentist appointment when Rhys started talking to me about a bully at school. He told me about all the mean things that he does to kids and all of the mean things that he says and all of the bad words that he uses. I started asking him questions to get him thinking and then he told me that there’s only one person that he’s not mean to. I asked who it was and he said that it was himself! Then he said that no one likes the bully and I asked if the bully has any friends. Rhys said the bully had only one friend. I asked who it was and Rhys said that it was him. He said that he tries to stick-up for the kids that the bully picks on and he tells the bully that those words are bad. We talked about why some kids can be mean and what we can do to love them anyways.

I was so proud of my son. It was the sunshine that I needed to keep me going.

We bought the kids Advent calendars a little late this year so they’ve had a few chocolates, instead of just one, for the past couple of days. After dinner James popped-out three chocolates for Ammie. She ate one and then brought two over to James and I and handed us each a chocolate. I told her that she didn’t have to do that and that they were hers to eat. She looked at us and simply said, “No, I want you and daddy to have them.”

My heart melted (not the chocolate…I stuffed the chocolate in my mouth before she could change her mind). It was such a little thing, but it packed a powerful punch.

Parenting can be so rough and exasperating and it will make you feel like you’re losing your mind. Then you have this moment where you see that things have clicked in your child’s head and they are living-out the faith and morals that you’ve spent years speaking into them and it makes all of the craziness worth it.

*oh, and guess what? this was my 500th post!!!!*

When you live with a little boy…

When you live with a little boy…

…you begin to love anything and everything that can be used to build and construct.

…you start to appreciate the space a gym has to offer.

…you quickly learn that there is no limit to the amount of exploring they are capable of.

…you are astounded by their depth of creativity and role play.

(yes, that is Rhys stuffed into his pj pants pretending to be an ancient pharaoh)

…you become educated in the fields of entomology, war history, astronomy, architecture, engineering and various other creepy-crawly, squishy-gooey, clash-bang-boomey topics.

…you see more funny faces and hear more fart noises than you ever thought possible.

…you realize that while they are eager to appear big and strong, they have the most caring and sensitive hearts around.

Isn’t it great to live with a little boy?