Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Flow and find your joy


Aunt Laura came to visit.  I can't even begin to say how excited I was to have her come for a visit.  We rented a place in the mountains.  Super awesome place at a lodge and with a pool.  I was psyched to just be, relax and enjoy my kids with my sister.  Not often I get to share my life with just her.

I wanted to make it special for her since the Christian was coming to visit the Jews.  I had some gifts, some sweets and even a stocking.  There are no photos here of the stocking.  There are no photos here of the mountains.  That is cause we were only there for maybe 14 hours and made a very hasty retreat back home.  We left in our wake a room full of 'sickie' (as Elizabeth calls it).  We will spare the details.
The poor little dude had it bad enough that he bought himself a visit to the ER for IV fluids after four days of 'sickie'.  He eventually recovered nicely.  Elizabeth and Jeff were only down for about 12 hours.  Laura and I were spared unless you consider the mega clean up duty and then no one was spared.
I was sad for a bit of time that we didn't get this great trip with Auntie Laurla.  Disappointment is really about expectations.  You expect things to go a certain way and then when they don't there creeps in the sad disappointment.  I am working on this awareness and was able to let these expectations go after a bit of time and really embrace the different trip with her.  This is not easy for me but if you let life and kids teach you then you learn to just flow and find your joy.  We laughed a ton, the kids recovered, the adults recovered, there was some sun, there was the park, there was the Nutcracker and it was nice.  Not the nice I had expected but its own different joyful nice. 

Sunday, December 08, 2013

Now and one year ago!

Kids really let you see how time flies.  The first four photos are from last weekend.  The last four are from a year ago.  It goes so fast.  It is funny to me that in the photos from 2012 he always looks surprised. 







Baltimore and Vancouver

 Not a lot of photos lately but we have been busy.  Went to Baltimore for Thanksgivikkuh.  Great to have the Speert cousins together.  The traveling was a challenge as it is with any 15 month old but he rallied.  Elizabeth was also a trooper.  She was sick in the middle of one night and asked Jeff to open the curtain so she could look outside cause it would help her feel better.  She thought it was like in the car when you are car sick.  Bless her.  The kids are really great little travelers.  I think all of our camping adventures have provided them with the flexibility.

We also had parent teacher conferences this month.  I asked Elizabeth if there was anything she wanted us to talk about with her teacher.  She said that she doesn't like the lock down drills.  It broke my heart to hear this especially once I heard why.  She said the kids all have to get down and be very quiet so 'they don't hear us.  Mom who is they?'.  That really broke my heart.  Needless to say the teacher and I were both in tears talking about the implications of this needed drill.  Many discussion have followed with our sweet E.  We love her school and especially her teacher but it is tough.
We returned from Baltimore and felt a bit bad realizing that Henry had three teeth come in during that week.  Umm no wonder he was so clingy and a bit needy.  He has just recently started to walk but still prefers his scoot and crawl.  His words are exploding which is so fun but also frustrating cause he gets MAD when you don't understand what he is trying to communicate.

Today we just returned from a weekend in Vancouver.  Jeff and I both love that city.  We went for Jeff's office party.  Elizabeth was such a delight to have along.  She has really learned how to join in on conversations and has such sweet stories to share.