One Little Word - 2011

I can't believe this will be the fourth year that I've joined Ali Edwards in choosing a word for the year.  I love what Ali says in the blog post I just linked:  "You live with it. You invite it into your life."

In 2008, my word was FOCUS. 
In 2009, my word was GENTLE.
In 2010, my word was KINDNESS.

In 2011, my word will be JOYFUL.  A word you've seen multiple times in this space.  Joyful as in "He makes the barren woman the joyful mother of children..." (Psalm 113:9).  I want my life to be defined by JOY this year.  As the old mother of four young children, I often "survive" each day, fall into bed exhausted and have totally missed the little joys of the day with my children.  I don't want that to be true any more and the change starts now.

I plan on starting a Joyful Journal.  Ideally, I'd like it to be some sort of altered book - but we'll see.  I plan on recording whatever small, simple thing or big, amazing thing brought me joy that day.  I'm going to keep it on my desk since I'm here at various points in the day, that's a perfect place for it.  My phone has a great little camera in it and I'll use it to take photos of things - so there will be some photos in the book. And I'd like to blog about these joyful things, too, to be able to transfer info to the book once I have photos developed.

There you have it.  I hope to be more joyful in 2011.  Purposefully joyful.  Praying that God will make that happen in my life. 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

{so, if you're now hearing Johnny Mathis in your head like I am, I apologize)

Of course, it is December. It's crazy busy around here between basketball and Christmas "doings" but we're having fun and I'm not as whiney as I was last year (and aren't you glad?!).  I had an epiphany during the "round table" discussion time for our ladies' Bible study when the two ladies on the panel were talking about maintaining a relationship with your husband, and between your husband and children, when your husband is gone.  Since one was the wife of a man currently studying in Afghanistan and the other is the wife of a man who is an OB (and previously served in Iraq), I was set to tune them out with an "oh, this doesn't apply to me so I don't need to listen."  And Amber said, "You know, you remember that when your husband is away from the family, he often doesn't have a choice because his work requires it."  Whoa. Back up the train, time to engage the brain and listen because now she's talking to you, Gina!  Brad views what he does with the basketball teams as *work* (and he does get paid for it...not a lot, but still he gets paid) so in his mind, he doesn't really have a choice.  That has helped me frame my thoughts about him being away this season and helped me stop being so whiney.

We recently had the joy of attending the wedding of a precious couple.  We have known them for 20 years - since he was a toddler and she was a newborn.  Their parents have both been dear friends of ours - and as they've grown up, this couple has become more than just the children of our friends, they have become friends themselves.  Pretty cool.  It was a wonderful day, glorifying to God - I laughed and I cried.  It was definitely a day that bore the stamp of the bride and groom...just as it should.  The bride saw Elizabeth as we were leaving the chapel and called out to her, "Elizabeth Jane! Thank you for coming to my wedding! Come give me a hug!!"  Elizabeth was overjoyed, to say the least.  I mean, a bride is a big deal to a seven-year-old girl and especially this bride.  It would've been easy for the couple to have been so absorbed with one another that they didn't see us - but they reached out to a little girl and absolutely made her day!  Beautiful day, a lot of fun.

I thought I'd also share a couple of blog posts that I've liked recently.  One helped me tremendously in taking photos with Christmas lights and the other was thought-provoking about The Light of Christmas.  :) From The Daily Digi, How to Photograph the Lights of Christmas.  From Amanda, A Real Mess.  Amanda hits on how people have so glamorized the stable that they think their own life is entirely too messy for Christ to love them. It's only been in the past twenty years that I've realized just how filthy the stable was and become more amazed that Christ left the glory of Heaven (hello, streets made of gold?) to come to the filth of a stall.  No wonder angels stand in Heaven amazed at this, the Father's grandest display of love.*

*a line from All for Love's Sake written by J. Todd Murray

The "Christmas Letter" That Wasn't

I elected to not do a family Christmas letter this year.  Usually I make notes through the year about "big" events, activities, etc.  But this year, I just didn't do it.  Then I found a Facebook app that would compile my status updates for a year.  I decided to pull from it and do a silly "Christmas letter" for my blog.  Here it is:

2010 brought to you via my Facebook Status Updates (if we aren’t friends,  you need to look me up – I’m sooooo entertaining! {eyeroll})  For whatever reason, this Facebook app only goes back to February so I’m sure the most interesting stuff happened in January because, well, that’s just how I roll. So, I give you – 2010 in The Shoe, via 420-character-or-less status updates…the good, the bad, the ugly and the “Gina, you are totally losing your ever-loving-mind”.   

February:
If you tried to call my house sometime after 4:01p.m. and before 9:16p.m. and didn’t get an answer (or the machine)…well, that would be because my son unplugged the phone line from the wall.      Why, good morning, snow! Thought this winter weather was supposed to be “no big deal” to Central Arkansas.         Yeah – a foam brush, cardboard tube and votive candle will usually keep the toilet from flushing        Two years ago today we welcomed this precious baby guy into our family and what joy he brings us! Happy birthday, baby boy!!       When one hears a thud in the laundry room, one should immediately go to investigate…otherwise one will walk into the laundry room only to find about 100 oz of a BRAND NEW 125oz bottle of liquid laundry detergent all over the floor.  Just sayin’     3 hours and 45 minutes later…the laundry room floor is clean and smells like Spring Rain ALL.  Top of the washer and dryer are clean. Behind the washer and dryer…clean. UNDER the washer and dryer…clean. AND, I’ve got some clean towels!!          Y’know what? I love friends I’ve known forever.

March:
Thinks she and Brad should play Super Mario Bros Wii in celebration of our engagement 21 years ago tonight. We were playing Super Mario Brothers when he proposed!!     Walked into the family room this morning to find a dozen white roses in a vase on the table – and a very sweet card. A happy anniversary, indeed! 20 years ago today!     If you’d stop throwing dirt and sand at one another, you might get to stay outside longer. Just a thought.      Harrison sleeps better when he is covered by my Grandma’s quilt. I find that so interesting…and sweet!     A freshly-mopped kitchen floor is a guaranteed magnet for a homemade Cherry-Limeade.     Annie got dressed. I told her she looked adorable. She ran to her room and said to  her sisters, “Guys! Look at me! I’m adorable!”      Has no status today.     Now has a status: “ Mom, you are the master cooker of the burritos!” Does it get any better than being the master of burrito cooking? I think not!        Little darlin’ it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter…here comes the sun, and I say, it’s all right.

April:
Just found yesterday’s lunch in the microwave. Guess that’s why I was so hungry when Brad brought pizza home last night, huh?     {sniff} it’s a proud moment in The Shoe. I just taught Elizabeth Jane how to IRON!     Just as an FYI…name-brand Crocs shrink if they get dried in the dryer.     Licorice jelly beans remind me of my Grandpa Harrison. He always ate them. My Annie *loves* them. She had to have gotten that from him because she didn’t get it from me!     Going to pick up 166 pounds of beef!     Sheets and mattress pad in the wash. Pillow and pillow covers next. Then the comforter and blanket. Then the bathroom rug and a whole bunch of towels. Dontcha just love that unexpected kind of sick? Yeah. Me, neither.     Elizabeth just had her Daddy take the training wheels off her bike. Then she jumped on and took off!      So thankful for friends who walk the path with us…just when we need them…just how we need them. God is good to orchestrate things like that.

May:
“Mommy, I want a turkey sandwich for lunch!” “Bitsy, we don’t have any turkey.”  “I know, Mommy. It’s okay if you make me a turkey sandwich with ba-yonee.” So, Bitsy had a turkey sandwich made with bologna.      So, this morning my son proved he’s ALL boy. He pulled out the almost-empty gallon jug of milk and DRANK FROM IT! I was on the phone with my sister and said to her, “There’s something on the Y chromosome that makes them do this, isn’t there?”       Six years ago today we welcomed our 2nd Miracle into our lives. She is our little entertainer and drama queen. She loves God and His Word (for which I am eternally thankful), her family and piggies. She is the one who is guaranteed to make us laugh. We love her like crazy. Happy 6th birthday, Katherine Martin!!!       Elizabeth Jane leaves for Grammie’s today. She’ll be gone for TWO WEEKS!!!      Elizabeth Jane lost a tooth while at Grammie’s. It fell out during the night…and the tooth fairy left her money before she even knew the tooth was gone!      Listening to my sweet boy play with his Matchbox cars.      Harrison, to Brad when Brad changed the TV from hockey to basketball, “HEY! I like hockey!”       Freedom has a price and often it is a dear one.

June:
Is almost certain she didn’t raise her children to think they live in a barn       Harrison sitting with me on the sofa singing La-La-Lullabye (Pajanimals). So sweet! Love the song, too…it reminds me of when I was pregnant with him.     Trying to convince my two oldest children that sleep is a good thing when I was told, “I’m afraid you’re going to have fun while I’m asleep!”  “Yeah! We both are!”  Apparently I have parties while my children sleep. Yeah. Riiiiiiight.     Is so thankful for my BFF coming to the rescue by keeping me from appearing on “The People of WalMart” website. I walked out of my house to go to WalMart and had on my slippers!!!!!!!!!!! Granted, they were Vera Bradley, but they were slippers none the less. Panicked call to Kim solved the problem and I ended up in stylish flip flops.     Getting ready for the first slumber party of my parenting life. Let the slumbering commence!     Sweetness overheard from last night’s slumber party, “Katherine, I’m about to go to sleep. I’d like to hold your hand.”      They took all the trees and put ‘em in a tree museum.      Harrison’s preschool and college tuition savings will be used to pay for the heat pump repair.

July:
Pillowcases drying on the line. Hope it doesn’t rain while they’re out there.   Horrible, no-good, very bad mood.      Annie is officially registered (deposits paid) for preschool!      I just spent an hour obsessing over a “missing” Netflix DVD.  Went through the trash. Went through the recycle bin. Went through the house with a flashlight looking in, on, behind and under everything. Checked my Netflix account. They shipped the DVD YESTERDAY.  I wasn’t remembering the DVD arriving. I was remembering getting the email that said the thing had been shipped.  {sigh} Seriously?     Is making laundry detergent       I think the top of my head just flew off!       Katherine lost her first tooth!     Is listening to Brad as he explains the intricacies of open-wheel racing to a 2-year-old.  He also loves watching the Tour de France…the original open-wheel racing!       Paid off Brad’s truck!       Katherine lost another tooth!!       Pineapple KoolAid slushies apparently turn one into “the best mom, EVER!”     
August:
Performing emergency surgery on Elizabeth’s BehBear. He has a flesh wound near his left subclavian artery. I don’t think it’s deep enough that he’s going to bleed to death (how does a bear bleed stuffing, anyway?) And it’s certainly not as significant as his arm wound from last week. But to a certain 7-year-old, it is tragedy.        History, grammar and handwriting start tomorrow!       Just in case you were wondering: it’s really, really, REALLY uncool to discover your  a/c unit is backed up and draining INTO your house at 1:30 in the morning when you happen to step upon super soggy carpet!  Yikes!!!       Televised flag football.  Why?      The Big Girls and Brad are off to Chattanooga for the weekend.  Brad and Nin will be home Sunday. Elizabeth will be home in two weeks!       Fresh sheets on everyone’s beds. Line-dried in today’s wonderful sunshine!       Has a little boy who is upset that he doesn’t have a handwriting book of his own. Uh-oh! Looks like I’ll be heading to Mardel this weekend to buy him one!       When Annie talked to my mom today she said, “Boop, today was my first day of preschool and I didn’t get kicked out!”       Harrison was asleep when Elizabeth and Brad got home. He was so surprised when he woke up.  “Girl!!!! You’re HOME!!!!” and threw himself at her to give her huge hugs and kisses. So, so sweet!       {in case you don’t know, Harrison calls Elizabeth “Girl” most of the time}


September:
Three words: Pumpkin Spice Latte. It’s a GREAT birthday!       (to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas) “from the first full week of preschool my Bitsy gave to me: a cough and a nose that’s runny…”  Mmmm. Lovely.       Listening to Katherine read LITTLE BEAR.  Yay! She finally feels confident enough to read a real book. Hooray!!       Katherine just lost yet ANOTHER tooth!       Tomorrow is preschool Pajama Day and as is his tradition, Brad is going with Annie…and yes, he’s wearing his PJs. Then he’s taking her to lunch.  So, if you happen to be in Purple Cow and see some man and his little girl in their PJs…well, they belong to me.      (I had three children with bronchitis and two who had it bad enough that it moved into pneumonia during September…it was a slow month for status updates)

October:
Came into the office where my mom informs me I have paint all over the back of my pants. Um. How long has it been there?  (it was dry so I’m going to assume it had been there a while)  YIKES!          The dried paint? It was actually melted crayon.  Lovely       is snuggled under my Grandma’s quilt with my baby boy watching the weather – he loves yelling out the numbers when he sees them.       I’m ironing (I know you’re shocked) and Annie is sitting on the sofa singing Black-Eyed Peas       Harrison has my phone, “I call somebody” so if you get a phone call from my cell phone – it’s really him.       Wasn’t it Nolan Richardson who used to call Razorback basketball “60 minutes of hell”?  Well, he’s never been at my house with 4 kids while I was on a conference call.  Just sayin’.         Is thankful for my fix-it-dude husband. He watched a video online to learn how to fix what was ailin’ the dishwasher!       Loves, loves, loves that Annie is singing “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong. It is one of her favorites and she learned it in music at preschool. Thank you, Mrs. Laurie!!!       Okay! It can get cold now!! Thanks to some wonderful friends, we have our new heat pump installed!

November:
7:30a.m. and the kids are already asking, “at 10 or 10:30 can we have some candy?”      dividing your 20 item WalMart purchase into two 10-item orders does not qualify you for the 10-item-or-less check-out. Just sayin’       Bittersweet time laying my Great Aunt Kate to rest, hearing stories about her love for Uncle Wendell, about her and my grandmother (and my uncle who was rotten to the core!)        left debit card in the ATM at the bank, on the phone with poison control since my son drank 2oz of Dimetapp Cold and Allergy, left the van with the mechanic, cluster migraine, met with the Speech Path for Annie (she’ll start therapy in the next two weeks)…just a taste of the past 24 hours in The Shoe. You wish you had my life, don’t you?       Why must I suffer through fishing shows on TV?  The things I do for this man….       so very thankful that it’s going to cost HALF of what we budgeted to fix all the stuff on the van! (Kittle’s Garage in NLR, my heroes!)         some days there’s just not enough red wine       “Get inside with your sisters, you Turkey!” to which he replied, “I not a turkey! I a BOY!”  That you are, son!       “Wash my armpits!” all four of my kids say this in the shower. They’re so funny. Glad to know I’ve instilled in them a desire to not stink up the joint.          Those of you who know my husband very well know that he is NOT the world’s biggest Razorback fan…at all.  Well, today, I witnessed, for the first time EVER, him actually rooting and cheering for the Hogs!   WPS!!!        I don’t care if it says “I love Happy Days” you are NOT hanging a Post-It Note on my Christmas tree!              

December:
My redneck son: I take him to Fresh Market, he looks at me and says, “Mommy, we need to go to WalMart”  Oh. My. Gracious. Nooooooooooo!!!    Dontcha love it when you’re walking into Target and your kids say, “Mommy, there’s blood all over the back of your shirt. And you have a rip in your pants.”  Yeah. Me, too.     Too bad there’s not a Facebook app to compile status updates for a selected date range, export them (so they are editable) and let that become the family Christmas letter. App writers, get on it.       Wishing you a very Merry Christmas from The Shoe!!!

What Will Happen to Your Facebook When You're Gone?

What will happen to your Facebook when you're gone?  If I should drop over dead from a MI tomorrow (that's myocardial infarction for the uninitiated...and myocardial infarction is medical-ese for "heart attack") who would let my 748 friends know?  (okay, granted about 10 of them would already know as they are my family and first team)  Enter Otrib.  Or...maybe not.  I'm not sure.  I was asked by BzzAgent to review and blog about Otrib and their Facebook application "Final Wishes."

I have had two Facebook friends - both young - die unexpectedly.  Like it or not, Facebook is the way to disseminate information these days. If I were to die, how would my 748 friends be notified?  My husband doesn't know my Facebook password - and if my cookies have expired along with me, he's hosed!    So, Otrib says they have a Facebook app that allows you to name an "heir" to your FB page.  Actually, I think that's an excellent idea.  Facebook, Twitter, Linkdin (or whatever it is) -- social media seems to be here to stay - it's a good idea to have someone be able to access them after my/your passing to eternity.

I wish I could give you a full review of Otrib beyond "what a great idea!!"  But, it seems there are some kinks to work out.  When I went to their Facebook app website, I got nothing.  When I clicked on their link outside Facebook, I got the following:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Page Could Not Be Loaded

We're very sorry, but the page could not be loaded properly. This should be fixed very soon, and we apologize for any inconvenience.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hmm, bummer. I'll assume the owner is going through some growing pains and will (hopefully) get it worked out.  A link to the FB app is on the Otrib site and I'll let you find it yourself -- also gives you a chance to poke around the site if you're interested.

Twitter won't care at all that I've kicked the bucket.  However, there are 748 people who wait with baited breath to see what we're having for lunch in The Shoe every day, help me find the remote for the family room or read about what we're learning in The Shoe Academy...my FB "public" will need to know I've expired!!!  If Otrib gets their stuff together, I'll be loading their app!!

Black Friday Shopping

As is our tradition, my sister and I were up and at 'em this morning.  Only, this year I started a little early - on Thursday night.  I know a lot of people have a fit about the Thanksgiving Night "door busters".  They don't bother me.  Our family gathers for lunch, not supper, and so by Thanksgiving night, we're ready to go!

Elizabeth Jane and I went to Michael's. Scored some great deals...and I looked at the Cricut...tempting!  I brought Elizabeth home, did some ironing (I know, you're shocked) and I was going to go to Toys R Us.  Insanity!  No way.  People lined up around the parking lot?! Um. No.

So, I went to the insanity that was WalMart. After Elizabeth and I got home from Michael's she reminded me that we'd not stopped at Kroger to get the stuff for green bean bundles.  I'd told her we'd have them Friday for lunch...so I needed to go get the stuff.  So, there I was. In WalMart. If you thought Toys R Us was madness it didn't hold a candle to WalMart (who really needs to be more organized if they're going to do that in the future).  I figured while I was there I might as well join the madness and try to grab a couple of Christmas gifts (what was I thinking?).  I wasn't stupid enough to try to buy the bicycle, though!  That can wait for another day.  So, there I was...waiting in the checkout line for over an hour...to buy six things.  Six.  A one-pound package of bacon and two cans of green beans included.  My daughter just doesn't know how much I love her.

Two and a half hours after I got home and got in bed, my alarm went off to meet my sister.  She howled as I recounted the green beans and bacon story ("You are stooo-pid!!!"  Feel the sisterly love...hahahaha).  We knocked out a few things on our lists - though much of our shopping has been done online.  There weren't many door busters that we "had" to have.  We did go back to Toys R Us, which was much more calm at 6:00 this morning as compared to 11:30 last night - walked in, got what I wanted (two door busters - another one was already gone and that's okay), walked out. Groovy, baby! 

Was home by 11:30a.m.  Still need to buy the bicycle.  And need to find the "kid Snuggies" - yes, two of my kids want Snuggies for Christmas.  I found them on Amazon but refuse to pay $16+ for shipping. (order not fulfilled by Amazon, therefore I have to pay shipping).  Crack smokers.  So, if you're in the area and you know where I can get kid Snuggies, Facebook me or send me an email.