First day back

Hello!

It's my first day of "back to normal" and it feels good.  Almost everything has been crossed off of my to do list and I'm getting my feet under me.  After I walked the kids to the bus stop this morning and kissed Gary good-bye, the garage door was closed, and Penny and I were in for the day.  Although I wouldn't want to do life like this every day, it feels so great.  Yesterday Penny was the star at school so I missed most of the day.  One of the things on my list today is "blog".  I'm going to love crossing that off of the list.  :)

It has been a month.  Wow.  Michael has adjusted very well to English kindergarten and his English is improving.  He is also known as "Michael S." as there is another Michael in his class.  Writing the "S" on papers has become very important and his friends all all him "Michael S." even when they are over playing at our house.  It makes me laugh.  I really enjoy having conversations with him.  He has lots to say and we often have to ask him to slow down.  The boy gets so excited about life that he just begins to roll sounds out of his mouth.  We will certainly have more than enough dinner conversation when he really gets going with his English.  If you ever want to feel good about yourself, hang out with Michael.  He gets excited about big things and small things.  I'm making supper and he is excited.  It's time to brush his teeth and he is excited.  We are going to get into the car and he is excited.  Peas-exciting.  Showers-exciting.  Going first-exciting.  Going last-exciting.  We do however see times of pouting.  We have two yellow cups in the house and three kids that want juice in a yellow cup every morning.  If Michael doesn't get it, then there is some serious pouting.  Buck up buttercup. His eyesight keeps improving and though he doesn't love wearing his eye patch every day, he does it and we notice a big difference.  He has also entered the "why" stage which is amusing and frustrating at times.  I thought I was done with all of that. :)

We had the best Christmas break I think we've ever had.  We found a wonderful balance between going out and doing fun things with staying home and enjoying each others company.  The kids are getting older and we loved doing puzzles and playing games.  I love saying that I really enjoy being with my kids.  Our family party was wonderful.  Michael added so much fun in that he had no expectations about Christmas.  Cutting down a tree, putting up ornaments, making his own ornaments at school, gifts that were for him, singing in a church program. . .it was a new experience for us to watch Christmas through his eyes.  We also loved telling him about baby Jesus and he often acted it out making a pillow, stuffed animal, or a magic wand into baby Jesus.

We bought a new car named "Big Steve" and sold our minivan.  Bit Steve is a 12 passenger Nissan NV.  I must admit it was a little hard to let the van go.  I love that car, yet we are enjoying more room and less fighting as we ride these days and I know that our new car will serve us well for many years to come.

Gary and I are trying something new this month.  I read a blog post about giving up spending money for a whole month and we decided to try it.  Of course we are doing the needed spending. . . things like bills, gas, and fresh produce.  My grocery list this week has only five things on it.  I'm excited to whittle down my pantry and be creative with meals.  Our whole family is having good discussions about needs vs. wants.  I'm finding how quickly I spend a dollar here or fifteen dollars there.  Right now I'm enjoying the no spending a lot. . .although things might be different in a few weeks.

Mostly over the holiday I enjoyed an amazing walk with my Lord.  I'm studying the life of Paul and am learning so many new things as well as finding a new respect for a man that I really didn't like all that much.  I just love it when God teaches me new things!  God even gave me a phrase from the book of Acts that will define my 2015.  Intimacy with God is something I crave and I've found it in the past month.  I'm amazed that the creator of the world wants to spend time with me!

That is where we are.  God is very good.  Family is good.  Three loads of laundry are done and I've reconnected with blogging.  Now, back to my list. :)