Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving. Shocker. :)

I didn't participate in an alphabet thanksgiving countdown or a daily Facebook Thanksgiving post. I didn't blog every day. Nevertheless, I'm thankful. I could list everything I'm thankful for, but I'd never be finished and you'd get bored. My gratitude is never ending thanks to my God. He gives, I rejoice and hopefully give it back to Him every day.

We did go around our Thanksgiving table and share what we are thankful for with my side of the family. I love listening to them give thanks. We are in fact worshiping together and that is great. Gary was gone working: yet I was thankful. He has a job. He likes his job. Penny didn't want to nap and woke up her cousins, yet I was thankful. I have her and she had a sleepy-do day the next day when there were fewer people to entertain her. Several of my siblings couldn't be at Thanksgiving, yet I was thankful. I love my sisters-in-law tons and I missed them. Not everyone can say that. I brought a meal to my brother who was home with a sick Tessa and we had a nice conversation, one which we probably wouldn't have had if we had been at my folks together.

So we sat at the table Thursday afternoon and something happened that hasn't happened for three years. My parents sat together. Yup, there is tons to be thankful for.

Christmas Lights

Wow-it's been a week and I haven't blogged. Sorry. I have a few knocking around in my head. . .we'll see which ones make it out. :)

We put up our tree this afternoon. We made sure Penny was sleeping and then we went to work. I kept smiling and reminded myself and Gary that the process is more important than the product. 75% of the ornaments were on the bottom half of the tree and there were many branches that held more than one, and in one particular case--four ornaments. Love them. Simon even insisted that he put up at 5x7 picture of himself on the tree. He poked holes in the picture and shoved branches through them. Process Shanda. It is about the process and not about a huge picture of Simon hanging on the tree. I patiently (mostly) moved some of the ornaments to higher ground and to their own branches. It does make me happy that they remember the stories of the ornaments--"This one is from Grandma Karen" "I made this in pre-school" and the like. Isn't that one of the purposes of Christmas? To share our stories? To re-tell the story of God keeping His promise and sending His son?

We also made cookies and each kid promptly lost one of the cookies for bad behavior. Yeah-we are awesome. We have a ceramic tree up that Grandma Arlene made. She died this fall, so it is especially awesome to have it. The nativity is up and my favorite angel--the one that makes me cry every time I take it out of the box--has a new spot. She is standing on top of the stable rock! We'll do our kid hand prints another night. The Christmas Pickle wouldn't sing because the batteries were dead. Gary was all over it and some on on their way from our friends at Amazon. As I write this I'm realizing that I'll need to take a few pics. Ya'll need to see it.

There is one problem, besides Penny shouting at all the balls on the tree and taking down the stockings. The lights. We put new lights on the tree and I don't like them. They are crazy bright! I feel like I'm sitting by a neon sign. I don't feel like taking it all down tonight, but tomorrow night I'm going to take everything off and then put it all back on again. I don't think I'll ask for help from the kids.

The Koemans

Saturday morning was fabulous, well mostly fabulous. My evil mom made delicious food and I stayed strong until the end. Then I fell down and ate said delicious food. Boo. For the record: my mom isn't evil: just an amazing cook and wonderful hostess.

My mom hosted a get together for the Koeman aunts and cousins. I'm proud to be a member of the Koeman clan. I love these people and don't see them very much. Growing up we got together often, especially during this time of year. We did Thanksgiving, got our Christmas trees followed by hot chocolate and cookies in someone's garage, Christmas parties, and sleigh rides on the farm. We camped in the summer. I learned to ride a bike on a Koeman camping trip.

I loved sitting and laughing with my cousins on Saturday and I'm thankful for the heritage given to my by my family. Not every family is perfect--the Koeman's certainly aren't. Don and Julia must have done a few things right. (That's my grandma and grandpa.) Cool to see God taking care of the generations and continuing to bless my family.

Reaction

I got on Facebook yesterday and vented. This is a-typical for me and I should probably remove it. I don't like to use Facebook in this regard.

I had just had it. I was frustrated and there was nothing I could do about it. See. . . rather than get my kids pictures taken at school: one shot, say cheese, no choice, quite pricey. . . . Boo, I tried local photography studio which offers to match, so we went with it. Choices, poses, laughter. . . it was a good time.

Anyway, the pictures were taken on September 23. I ordered them the day after they were posted on-line--Sept. 29 or 30. THEY didn't order them until October 12. Hence, my boys have no pictures to trade on picture trading day--which was today. That's o.k. says the teacher, they can trade an eraser. Seriously? An eraser? How about they trade chicken pox germs or blades of grass?!?

"Never Fear!" Between super dad and creative mom, we solved this problem. Since I was up four times with Penny in the middle of the night and enjoyed her company beginning at 5:45 this morning, I had plenty of time to think. Meijer might make little pictures. Indeed they do. Gary found a silly picture of Simon and I took a cock-eyed picture of Garrison. Gary uploaded and at 10:00 this morning, 44 wallet photos were ready to be written on by said children. I loved watching my boys write their names so proudly on those pictures. Lovely.

So--I won't use this studio again. I won't react on facebook again (well, I'll try)--although I told them I would tell others not to use them, so I fulfilled my promise. DeVries Studios. There, I told more people. I will remember that even in the middle of the night when my daughter is not sleeping but rather wailing, I might think of a good idea. I will remember that my boys won't ever remember trading these pictures, but they would have remembered giving their friends an eraser.

Trading cards

It has hit the Sprick house. Trading cards.

Garrison took his fifty cent piece with glitter glue on it to school one day. I didn't have a clue. He came home with four trading cards: three baseball and one football. These were HUGE treasures to him and he carried them around, lost them, mourned for them, and joyfully discovered them again. He was the envy of Simon. I was a bit miffed that he spent his tooth fairy money and got conned by some kid of the bus. . . but it was his money and totally worth fifty cents to him. I'm over it.

Then, a few days later I waited in our driveway and watched as my boys got off the bus. I love to see them get off and eagerly await for them to run through the Good Judge's (our neighbor) yard to me. We greet each other with hugs and kisses (I'm still allowed--Yeah!). This particular day, something was different. While Simon ran to me I watched as Garrison seemed to be trying to get the attention of a bigger kid. The kid obviously didn't want anything to do with Garrison, and though I couldn't hear what was happening, Garrison's body language was very clear. The older kid walked the other way and with a hanging head, Garrison began to walk my way. He turned around a couple of times, but finally made his way to me. Oh, this mama's heart was ready to break. I think I may have had tears in my eyes. I knew something was wrong in my boy's heart.

He looked at me and then tried to wipe away his tears. I tried to hug him, but he broke away a bit. . . and then returned to me and buried his head in my stomach. Have I mentioned how much I love him? Hmmm. I do. Tons. And tons.

We chatted a bit in the garage and I determined that we needed a serious conversation in the house, in the bedroom, by ourselves. We went inside, headed to the bedroom, and I prayed that Penny wouldn't get into too much trouble and that I would have the right words for me son.

See, this older boy had baseball cards and he wouldn't give any to Garrison even though Garrison had asked nicely. We talked about how this boy didn't have to give him cards. We talked about how Christmas was coming up. We talked about how Garrison could earn his own money. I held him and he cried. I was thankful that we could learn lessons together. I wondered what other things he'd learn on the bus. It was a good time. I'm thankful that God gave it to us. I also made Garrison promise that he wouldn't ask this boy for any more of his cards. (Lots of lessons which I'm sure we'll revisit.)

So Garrison's love for trading cards (the boys call them day/gay cards--we are working on this issue!) hasn't waned, so Gary and I have been looking for ways the kids can earn some money to visit the dollar store. They can pick our their own cards with their own money. I won't even go into Simon's feelings about Garrison's cards "which he won't share when I ask him nicely". There has been some envy here. Ah....

Are you confused yet? Following? Good.

The kids earned a dollar each. They were so excited. I warned them that they needed to put their dollar in a safe place. SAFE! PLACE! Garrison carried his dollar around, showed it off to our dinner guests, had it by his plate, and promptly lost it. Pure grief. Seriously, this boy was grieving. I wouldn't give him another dollar. He would have an opportunity to earn another dollar. He earned it yesterday by shoveling rocks and today was the day. [On a side note, both Simon and Noel both lost their dollars as well. They did find them though. They both thought that their bed would be a safe place. Um, no.]

Today I took everyone to the dollar store. Simon found his trading cards and carried them around the store. Noel found a gummy sucker (sarcastic Yeah!). Garrison. . . after two weeks of talking about these cards, of working extra hard to earn a dollar, after telling so many folks about it. . . chose a Christmas stocking.

I'm puzzled. Although, some light may be shed on the situation from this comment in the car. "Mom, we can hang up this stocking next to my other stocking and you could put stuff into both of them." This child might just be brilliant.

Yeah! and Boo!

Yup, we aren't changing the world here. . . unless you count raising kids the best that we can so that they be kingdom changers wherever God takes them. Hey---I guess I am changing the world. Here are my recent Yeahs and Boos.

*I did lose 3.5 pounds last week. Yeah! I celebrated by doing an extra bit of work-out. Yeah! And eating some M&M's. Boo!

*I did apologize to my kids for yelling at them too loudly. I recognized that they did do things wrong and I was angry. That is fine. I didn't have to yell so much though. Boo. It is something that is getting better because I'm praying about it and being very aware. God is a patient with me. Yeah!

*We dog sat for my brother this week-end. The kids LOVED Maggie and played a ton with her. Yeah! I vacuumed three times and filled it all the way to the "Max" line each time with dog hair. Boo!

*I have finally and successfully made chicken noodle soup. Yeah! It has always seemed to elude me.

*I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to write to a friend that I sensed was hurting. Boo! on the hurting. Yeah! that I did what I was nudged to do because it was encouraging. I'm hoping I can do more "hearing" of the Holy Spirit.

*We had friends over on Saturday night for a Thanksgiving feast. If it is so good--we should do it more often. Yeah!

*I finally fit into one of my coats that I love love love. Yeah! It is missing two buttons and looks funny when I wear it. Boo!

*November 10 marked three years that Simon has been our son. Yeah! Oh, that deserves two yeahs. Yeah! Yeah!

*Penny is 18 months old today. Yeah! See previous post on my little pumpkin. Boo! :)

*My boys collected about 600 pencils. Boo! They spend hours playing with them and creating designs, cities, patterns, instruments and various others things with them. Yeah!

My cup runneth over and despite a few Boos along the way, I am blessed and grateful. God has given me a pretty cool life.

Ack!

I'm not getting much done these days. Care to guess why?

PENNY!

Doesn't she look great here? Quiet. Sitting. Angelic.

This happens infrequently.

Now, the above picture is more like it. This girl will CLIMB! She climbs on chairs. She climbs on the toilet. She climbs up the bunk-bed ladder as well as the playset ladder outside. She climbs on stools. She moves the stool around the kitchen looking for interesting things on the counter. This morning she pulled the drawers out on Garrison's dresser and tried to climb up the dresser. It fell on top of her. She has eagle eyes to find things that she isn't supposed get into. This girl is driving me wild! I love her. I love that she is talking. I love her smile and her hugs. I just can't get anything done when she is awake. Does she know that I have other children? Does she know that laundry needs to get done? Look at Garrison--he is not happy with his sister. I don't blame him. I feel the same way sometimes.

Every day, I'm so very thankful for naptime. I can breathe, look around my house, count my other children and sometimes even shower.

I won't even begin to talk about her eating habits. :)

Bless God

Hi friends

Join me in praising God that my parents are living together. Yup, no type-o's here, just two married folks living together in sobriety.

1. Thanks for journeying with us.

2. It has been two years and two months.

3. New reasons to pray!

Though they are together (did I mention that already?!?), there is still much to pray for and be supportive of. It will be a new way of life for both of them. Every day is still a challenge for dad. You don't EVER stop being an addict and it is so easy to fall back into your addiction (look at the statistics if you desire) or to change over to a new addiction.

It will be easy to forget about us Koemans or to continue to run away from us at the beach or grocery store (see previous post). It will be easy to think that everything is hunky dory doo and move on. I asked you two years ago if you'd join our army. . . and army dedicated to praying for my mom and dad. So many of you have been faithful warriors and I'm thankful. . . my family is thankful. I hope you continue to pray for us as we adjust to our new normal and all the great and challenging things that come with it. Our God is mighty to save!

Hiding

Last night we went with friends to Ottawa Beach for a picnic. It was totally spontaneous and crazy and fun. It reminded me of the DenBleyker/Koeman picnics.

As we waited for the sunset and played on the rocks, I noticed someone walking toward me from my past. She (I'll call her Eve) was taking a walk on the boardwalk. Eve and I used to be very close, but two years ago when we followed our counselor and showed tough love to my dad, she refused to talk or see us. She has refused to learn about addiction and refused to listen to us, ask us questions, or even look me in the eye. It is fine when someone disagrees with me, but to refuse to even hear or acknowledge me. . . that is rough.

So, last night when I saw her coming. . . I wasn't sure what to do. I've always acknowledged her and greeted her kindly. I knew she saw me because she picked up her pace to get away. Of course, Noel decided that she had to go to the bathroom "RIGHT NOW!". We ended up walking about 30 feet behind Eve. I would see her peak back at me to see how close I was. She scooted ahead to the parking lot. Noel, Penny and I made our way down the sidewalk and as I passed her vehicle, I saw her hiding underneath the dash. Really?!? Hiding under the dash in your car? Her husband was obviously confused and then he looked out and saw me. (Adam has the same feelings about me as Eve does.) I smiled and waved and moved on.

There is so much humor in this. . . there is also sadness and a great lesson. It makes me laugh that Eve needed to run away from me. I am scary. :) What is sad is that this happens to me occasionally, but it happens to my mom often and my guess. . . to many people. When we don't agree, when we don't know what to say, when it seems hard, when you are embarrassed. . . we sometimes choose to hide. Want to know another sad thing? I've done this. Think about yourself--do you ever see someone and hide? Go to a different aisle? Drive a different route? Smile and hope they don't say something to you?

As a Christian, I need to be different, to show the light of Christ to those around me. Yes, it is hard. In some ways, being sanctified is much harder than living life selfishly. Obedience is so very difficult, yet being in a personal relationship with the Lord--AMAZING!!!

Me? I'm going to try harder to make sure no one feels like a nobody around me. I'm not going to run to my car and hide under the dash. . . unless of course I'm playing hide-n-seek. :)