Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart

What a difference a year makes. Unfortunately the illness that plagued my daughter was the onset of many things this year. But we are now seeing progress in a certain area of her life. I always look at hitting bottom as a blessing as we can only look up and work at it. That is what we are doing, working on it.

This Christmas will be different as I will miss the company party that I have attended the last 5 years. I never thought a job change would affect me. But it really became part of my life, not who I was but working with the youth on top of assistant to the youth Pastor became a big passion for me. I miss it, but very happy where I am now.

So much crammed into a month sounds chaotic but it will be a blast. I look forward to every Christmas carol, reminder of Christ's birth and the goodness of God, decorations, friends gathering, food, all of it. I love Christmas.

I am so thankful for many things this season. My Savior who has giving me so much and still teaching me more, my family - my husband is amazing, my kids are smart and growing into who God wants them to be, my parents, my brother, my in-laws - all of them. I am so grateful for my friends, those that are new and those that have known me for 20 + years! God is good!

Parenting 101 Class Please!

I am need of this class today. I love how you never get out of the parent role. My mom is still my parent. We are friends but there are moments she tells me what to do with my kids or my life and I listen and then talk with Steve if it is something that we would consider changing or needing to change. I get how to be a daughter, but a mom is whole other thing.

Any help or just acknowledgement of prayer would be great. My oldest is starting the process of emancipation. I know I went through it, I hear that this is normal, but the constant arguments about why she should get her way and then the statement that she will do it anyway is wearing on me. This week I have 'given up' and let Steve do all the discussion times with my daughter. I know that I must be having an off week, maybe hormonal but was nice to stay out of it this week.

Then I get a call from my mom challenging me on some of my thought processes. Am I letting her do too much? (I have tried to stop her before with no success so I don't really see it as stopping, you can't make a kid go to sleep, I think we as parents learn that around 2 days old.)
Should I be more involved in her choices with friends? (YES. Don't know how to do that right now. She has chosen some people we do not appreciate but those we do could hide a lot or those we do not like could be a diamond in the rough. This one is hard for me as a mom and Christian. I am to protect my kid yet teach them to love as Christ.) Can't you put down the rules more? (I don't know. We do punish her but the behavior returns, we do natural consequences. We listen as she tells us why she is doing stuff. I am at the end of my rope.)

So as I present this to Christ can you join me? And if you have any pearls of wisdom please share, even if it is how you parent your toddler, really I need it!

My Wish

Love this song. My wish right now is to freeze time as my kids are growing too fast. So thankful for every fight, hug, smile, tear, all of it. I will miss it and will choose to embrace this part of life with open arms.

My eyes are opening to a lot of things right now. I am growing and maturing, against my will sometimes, but happy to be molded by Him.

I am so excited for this season as I get to see it from such a different perspective. A viewpoint of those who are not all in a community where love is. I see a lot of lonely people, hope that we don't forget the people in our lives that live alone.

Now That We Found Love What are We going To Do With It

I so enjoyed this song in my youth and if I ever get to wedding that plays it at a dance what a fun one to jam to. :)

This weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with my parents and brother. It was fun but fast and always a bit sad as my folks are going to leave for Florida real soon.

We also have a big celebration at my church of 125 years. It is great to be reminded of what was done before us and we celebrate fun events. I hope that we can continue to be a part of where God is leading us. I wonder what the congregation that spoke mostly a different language would say about our building and plans.

I am working through a number of issues in my head as of late, one being my baby going away to college next year. This one is a hard one. We visited one college so far with more to come.