Missing My Baby

It's odd how memories sneak up on you. I am not quite sure why, but Emma has been on my mind a lot lately. There is something so special about grandchildren, those are the ones that you are supposed to spoil beyond belief and not feel bad about.

Although I haven't written much about her, she is in my thoughts constantly. Being born 16 weeks early shows that she was a very impatient little girl. Living much longer than she was "supposed" to shows that she was every inch the fighter. Six incredible months I got to play with her, read to her, love on her and admire her. It was no where near long enough.

Nearly ten months have passed. I still have to catch my breath when I find things that we bought her or see one of the dozens of books that I read to her constantly.

I had promised her that I would teach her things, like how to shop, how to read, and, despite her mother's incredibly bad grammar, how to speak properly. I also had visions of tea parties, sewing doll dresses and catching fireflies.

It's funny how God has other plans.

She was our first grandchild. There is something so very indescribably special about first things. First kisses, first dates, first loves, catching your first fish, your first car, your own first child.

Although there were many things that she missed out on, there were also things that I made sure to accomplish. Certain things that all little girls should experience were carried out as best as possible.

Even though we could not touch her for nearly six weeks, I started reading to her from almost the day she was born. We had read every Dr. Suess book imaginable. Stories from the Bible were also frequent. As soon as we were able, I would rock her and sing to her. I treated her as if she were in my own home, rather than in the hospital where she lived her entire life.

Since all the machines gave her terribly chapped lips, my remedy was a sweet pink lip gloss. Pink was her signature color. When we knew that she was in her last days, I bought her the prettiest pink nail polish, and her manicure was so befitting of a southern belle.

Children are a blessing from the Lord, no matter how long or short you get to hold them. Six months and one week was no where near long enough, but I am grateful for every minute that I got to spend with my sweet angel.

It took me a while to figure out how to "label" myself. One day I was a grandmother, the next I became a grandmother to an angel. Some grandparents call their grandbabies angels, but mine truly is one.

Maybe it is that the holidays have finally slowed down and my thoughts and emotions are catching up with me. Maybe that it's that her actual due date was this week. I only know that nearly a year later, I still ache for her.

Monday, Funday: Theater Tickets

Tonight we got to enjoy a local tradition: Christmas Pops. The event is supported by a couple of local businesses, so tickets are free. Thanks to a couple of friends at work (thanks, girls!) I got a couple of sets of tickets so the girls and I could invite my mom to go with us. We had so much fun!

The feature of the evening was the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble. They were simply breathtakingly amazing! If you ever have the chance -- GO SEE THEM!!!

So this week's family fun was free!

I am considering making Monday, Funday a blog carnival each week so that we can all share ideas on how to have frugal fun with our kiddos. You do not have to do it on Monday, just which ever day. It could be an activity you have done with your kids or ideas you have in mind for upcoming fun. If there is enough interest, we will start in January, since no one needs more things to keep up with this time of year. Would you join in??? Leave a comment and let me know if you would be interested.

Trio of Thanksgivings

We made it back safely from a few days with my sister. I love, love, love spending time with her. There are no pretensions. There is no bickering. It is just our core four, her and her sweetie. We cook only the things we truly love, nothing there just for tradition. After our lovely time with her, we scuttled back home to go to my mother's late yesterday afternoon for the second of our trio to Thanksgivings.

This is where the relaxing weekend ends. Amongst family you only see once a year, there is always an air of "it's for tradition." Why does it HAVE to be tradition? Do we really need 10 desserts? Pick 2 or 3 that everyone loves or -- sacre bleu -- only one! There is no real reason for such an overabundance other than "But we always do it this way."

Today we will head over to my in-laws house. (This is the point where I am sooooo very grateful that none of my family -- with the exception of my lovely baby sister -- reads my blog, ever.) The idea of going already makes my right eye tick. I try my best not to expose my kiddos to bad influences. This is nearly impossible when your sister-in-law has four children who act like wild monkeys. One is so hateful you can't even get a normal "Hello" out of her, another so wrapped up in her looks that she spends more time in the mirror than Suzanne Sugarbaker, the third kiddo has an attitude that makes 9 going on 39 a whole new meaning. And then there is the boy. . .

Gracious me.

Me and my girls spend a lot of time in the corner with a book or game or something. I don't run into the kitchen trying to help every two minutes. I am the newest member of this family, I know my place is not in the kitchen. (I have never cooked a meal there in the 7 years we have been married.) This particular dinner is the longest. First there is the eating. Then we have to play board games. Next we all sing Christmas Carols. Next we have to put up the tree. Lastly we have to open "Thanksgiving Gifts" which is just a little something to let the kids know that gifts will be abudant in the coming weeks. All total, it takes about 8 hours to complete the festivities.

I figure there are three kinds of holiday dinners: The fun one, the happy medium, and the migraine one. I get to partake in all three. Yay me!

Monday, Funday

The girls and I are having more alone time these days, since Sweetheart's new job means he works longer hours, but less days. So this week we spent our precious time learning origami. This year's tree is going to feature all handmade origami ornaments, which we will make next week. We are going to glitter them up for that extra special something. Can't wait to show ya pics next week.....

What did you do for family fun this week??

Fun with the Kiddos

My kiddos begged me to play a game with them when I got home from work. Once I finally had my wits about me and made it to the table, they had Scrabble all picked out and ready to go. Scrabble is a writer's FAVORITE game!!! They chose it without coaching, which is amazing, but awesome all at the same time.

We always purchase our children board games for Christmas. With all of our kiddos, that is a lot of games that flow into our home. The ones that don't get played with are happily sold at yard sales to make room for the upcoming ones they are already requesting.

As for the solution to lost pieces, we have had a method that works for years. All games are stored on a 4 foot book shelf that sits between our living room and dining room. Through many ears of practice, our family knows that games may ONLY be played at the dining room table or at the coffee table. No games are allowed in bedrooms. We have not lost a game piece in years. The shelf system helps keep them nice and tidy, while insuring that an overflow of games do not overrun us.

Since we currently have about 20 games, we can have a family game night almost any night of the week and not be stricken with "same game syndrome". Variety is the spice of life, after all. For more frugal ideas, scoot on over to Biblical Womanhood for Frugal Fridays.

What do you do to have fun with your kiddos???

Thank a Vet!

My father, grandfather, mother-in-law, father-in-law, my good friend Danny. All Veterans that I love and thank for my freedom.

Have you thanked a vet today?

After School Activity

There is something so sweet about sisterly love, even in the simplest of times.

Having a Ball

La-La has been invited to participate in a Debutante Ball. Is this still a true southern tradition? Until the last couple of years I had not heard of one in years. I'm not saying they don't still happen, but at least not in my social circles. But....we are not card carrying members of the Country Club.

So do girls actually still do this? I am not well-versed in this pomp and circumstance, so I am feeling a little like a duck outta water. I know it is for girls to "come out" socially, but girls seem to be out there enough on their own, without the formal ceremony.

Have any of you had girls to go through this? Did you do it yourself? Are the memories you receive from this worth it? Was it a good or bad experience?

Holding On While Letting Go

While holding on to all the sweet memories that I have of my precious Emma, I am now realizing that I had quite a lot of things gathered up for her arrival home. A beautiful high chair, clothes, blankets, snuggli, so many things. They were not all acquired at once, a yard sale find here, a thrift store score there......they added up.

It appears that it may be quite a while before we are blessed with another grandchild. So, should I hang on to these things or let them go? When we purchased them I thought of the wonderful memories they would create, and now sometimes the sight of them makes me sad.

Do you hang on to these things? Or let them go? I feel like letting go of them may mean I am letting go of her. Can you hold on to the memories and let go of the material things?

Frugal Fridays: Enough Already!

With kids running wildly through my house, I ordered, as if pretending to be a drill seargent, "Go outside and play!" Of course, their unanimous response was, "But there's nothing to do!"

So, I quickly surveyed their options: basketball, sandbox, trampoline, bicycles, baseball, volleyball, horseshoes, kickball, roller skates, skate boards, and on and on and on. Nothing to do??? What???

I then asked my husband, "How much stuff do our kids actually need?" Without skipping a beat, he replied, "As much as we can afford to give them." UGH! This was not his finest frugal moment.

Honestly though, how much is enough? With Playstations, PSPs, Nintendo DS, TVs in every bedroom (complete with DVD players and VCRs), more books than some children's libraries, movies, just about every board game Target sells, art supplies galore and more stuff than I have room to mention on this entire blog, when is enough ENOUGH?

Even though with lists this long and detailed, it gets to seem like bragging -- but it is simply to make a point. How much stuff do kids need to keep entertained? I mean we were happy to have a few cool-whip bowls to fill with mud in our "play house" when I was a kid. A house with no walls, no roof, and only contained by an outline of sticks that we found while picking up the yard. Tables were made from boxes or crates that were cast-offs.

So this year I have decided enough is enough! They have so much already that we simply do not need to add huge amounts to their overflowing amounts of stuff. We have agreed to pare down Christmas this year to 7 gifts each (including clothes) and one birthday gift each. Although it is still more than some receive, this is an area which I have never really practiced frugality. Christmas is that time of year when I usually go all out. So ENOUGH ALREADY!

Does your family still do the holidays with a bang, or do you keep things to a minimum? Do you over indulge your children or keep things simple? How did you decide enough is enough?

For more Frugal Fridays insights, scoot on over to Biblical Womanhood and see what Crystal and the rest of the gang has to say.

Daddy's Little Girl

How do you make a redhead happy? Put her on a four-wheeler with her daddy!

Living in the country gives us the chance to have room to run and have fun, and this is a perfect example of the way that we all run around together. I think I'm gonna have to find her a smaller helmet though! Hmmmmmm........wonder if they have any pink ones on sale now?

Since we are not huge partakers in outside entertainment, we are very content to learn to make ourselves happy. Sometimes we are lucky enough to be gifted or donated items by friends and family. Our trampoline is a great example of this, it was free for the taking from my husband's uncle, all we had to do was get it out of his yard. Other ways we procure our goodies are by yard sales, buying good toys and bikes cheap -- who cares if the Little Mermaid is on the bicycle, it rides just as good as Hannah Montana would, and where we give about $5 for yard sale bikes, the new ones can cost well over $100.

Don't get me wrong though, some things are brand new, and they were gifts for birthdays and Christmas. Our basketball goal, sand box and four wheelers are among those. We shopped around for the absolute best price we could find in what we were looking for. We are very grateful to have all these outside things to do on warm days that are now plentiful. But....if it's raining.....you will see us all inside playing "Rock Band" which was a wonderful gift to our family from my sister.

What do you do to have fun with your family? Board games? Video games? Play ball? We are always looking for new ways to have fun with our kiddos!

What a ride!!!!

How does life get so very crazy so quickly? Why is it that one minute we can seem to be sailing along in our own little pattern, then BAM! For the last couple of months, everything has been in constant uproar. The last six months weren't easy, but we had seemed to get into a flow with visiting Emma and Jamie, and keeping up with the daily lives of our other children. Then she had a turn for the worst, and the last month in particular was extremely hard on all of us. I don't mean to sound whiny, but it was even harder on the other children at home. We usually live a very simple, homebody lifestyle. We do not roam very far from our little nests other than to gather things we need (like go to work to gather money or go to the store to gather needs). We are the type of family that likes to find fun in our own back yard (literally). This may be why my yard looks like it belongs to a daycare rather than appearing to be a fancy garden like in all those beautiful magazines that I adore so very much.

Seriously, with a trampoline, basketball goal, sand box, bicycles, four wheelers, three (yes, count them, three) tire swings (all on one HUGE old walnut tree, I might add), wagons, push toys, volleyball net, and assorted other stuffs that kids seem to acquire, and with current construction underway so that we can get the ground ready for a new swimming pool, I recently posed to my husband the question "How much stuff do our kids actually need?" to which he answered "As much as we can afford to give them." Hmmmm......

So...back to the topic....life has been crazy. It has been so crazy that I have had to set aside my blog to make room for the other things in life. As much as I love you, my bloggy friends, I simply had to make time for my family, which is why I have neglected you for so very long. Maybe, just maybe, I can get back to a regular posting schedule........if the train slows down long enough that I find a spot to jump on board!

Big Families = Big Fun

Although we do not have a mega-family, we do have a good sized one though. With only 4 kids we get quite a few questions and comments, but I could not imagine those families who do have lots of kiddos running around.
I am simply in awe of the huge families that are recently being featured on the Discovery and TLC channels. Of the bunches of broods that are shown on all the different shows, there are two that I enjoy the most. I always seem to learn something to help me with my small family from these huge ones.
The one that first garnered my attention was the Duggars. This family has 17 children and Michelle and Jim Bob (the parents) have no set number in mind of when to stop. They say children are a blessing from the Lord and will take all the blessings they receive. The thing that I learned from this family and implemented in mine is the JOY rule -- Jesus first, Others second, Yourself last.
The other family -- the one I simply adore -- is the Gosselin family. With a set of twins and sextuplets in their care -- Jon and Kate (the parents) live a very fun, giggle filled life. Their show Jon & Kate Plus 8 shows the family, complete with spats and tribulations. I love, love, love this show, it is one of my very favorites. The parents bicker sometimes, and DH and I laugh that it is just like us. Life IS very hectic with a houseful. They show that you can be normal and have an abnormal size family.
Although our family is currently shrinking, since our oldest daughter has recently started her own family, she is making me proud! At lunch last week, I asked her how she liked being a new mommy, and she replied that she wanted at least four or five kids, maybe more! I was THRILLED! She was so happy with her own childhood that she wanted hers to have a similar one. So I see more grandbabies in my future, which is fine with me! The more the merrier! It really is true....big families really can have more fun, because there are more of them to share the good times and love.

Pantry raid!

On the way home from the orthodontist today, my darling 14 year old daughter asked if she could cook dinner........."Sure!" was my excited response to an evening without cooking! So, without even knowing she was making a frugal choice, she made spagetti sans meat, with all items straight out of the pantry that were either cheap or free with coupons. It may not be the healthiest meal, but on a cool evening such as tonite, the prospect of a warm bowl of pasta is just the ticket.
So, thanks to her helping hands, I get to spend the time I would have spent cooking -- blogging instead!
Oops....time's up! It's time to eat now.......

Testing, Testing, 123

Ok, so this blogging thing is all new to me. Sure, I post on forum boards for a few different things, like couponing (which is a PASSION of mine) and Christian living, but not just an everyday life sort of thing.
Which is odd, because I used to be a writer. Until recently, I worked at a paper and wrote about human interest and places to go. So now, I work in research and wanted a writing outlet. So here it is........
I have a lot of inspiration in life, in varied places, that only seem to connect because they catch my attention. I love HUGE families, and since we are kind of a smaller family with only 4 children, then it seems like I am in constant awe of families with huge families. Like The Duggar family! I love them, and I think it is WONDERFUL that she has recently had another child, which is her 17th.
Anyways, life, in all aspects, is what I intend to comment on. Of course, since my viewpoint is that of a frugalite, then you won't see me rambling on about the latest fashions. But, raising my family and giving thanks to God is high on my order of things to do......Stay Tuned!