12 Days After Christmas ~ Day 1

So as promised, here is the first of my 12 day series following Christmas.  Expect a mix of emotions, ramblings, daily happenings and so on...

Christmas was spent with some of our extended family.  David arrived to my parents' house just after 11 at night on Christmas Eve, due to some "shenanigans" at work.  I was so glad to see him that I didn't care so much about the timing.  At this point, Micah off his schedule had just fallen asleep not too long beforehand.  Micah slept with us so I slept worse than usual, which here meant cold and sore, leaving me to contemplate leaving early.  

We did stay, however, heading over to my aunt and uncle's house later for the afternoon and evening.  David left for home to get home around dark since he had to work 12+ hours each the following 3 days.  It was calm and enjoyable, watching the kids play, enjoying the relative calm and of course, a yummy dinner.  I went to bed a little more hopeful for sleep last night and was pleasantly surprised to do so once Micah was out.

Today was restful, cleaning up my computer and some e-mails with cute children playing near me.  For now, the plan is to stay a few more days so the kiddos can have the run of the place and enjoy the space and backyard here.  I'll breathe more and pray this cold either stays at bay or gets its worse out while I have the "backup" here.  We will head home sometime Sunday and work on reestablishing a routine so when school starts back up, Joy won't be completely caught off guard.

Overall, I am mostly just surprised at the calm.  I came into this week sort of ready for disaster, not because of any particular person but because of the cold and all of the morning sickness I had earlier on in the week.  My creative powers are zapped at the moment it seems.  I have nothing witty to say and my challenge groups are still in my head not developed as planned.  I am busy thinking ahead to the New Year only days away but nothing concrete still...  I hope you all had a blessed Christmas.   I will post again tomorrow, hopefully something more...

As always,
Melis

Don't Lose Hope!

I am 23 weeks pregnant today!  Another week down, another reminder of God's goodness on our lives!  Still plenty of things are not quite the way I would like but today is a testament to His goodness and His power and the reasons I have not given up on all of humanity yet...

A day that started with me telling Joy we were going to have to leave her dance class after Christmas and me contemplating how to deal with that...

It went down quite differently than that actually.  After her mature response, I found myself almost in tears, feeling guilty and frustrated that I could not change things to be better for her.  She is 6.5 and she handled the announcement with grace.  And I could not get it out of my mind.  Fast forward a few hours, several episodes of Chuggington with Micah later, and I was touched...

All I can say is things were taken care of.  At least the big one was and we could deal with the rest of them as we went.  Micah and I headed off to see David on his lunch break at work, where Micah made "dirt angels" on the floor.  (It isn't as bad as it sounds, I promise!)  We visited with David and then headed into Livermore a little early to grab a surprise for Joy and then walk with a new friend and her kiddos.  I was surprised to have a kind stranger return my cart for me at Target where I started to realize how blessed we truly were .  The walk with our new friends was far too short but definitely fun.  We then walked over to pick up Joy from school and dashed off (safely) back to Tracy for dance class.  On the way over, Joy discovered a surprise new dance outfit which she told Micah and I both boldly how much she loved.  Spilled coffee and yet a still pleasant Joy later, we arrived a few minutes late for Jazz but Joy was happy.  And Micah was content.  And I was sitting, reveling in the moments that God created, in the day He planned long before I arrived there.

A few errands and a long wait later, we finished up dinner at Red Robin on the end of my Christmas money.  It just made sense.  So, today I am 23 weeks pregnant and Baby Girl has been kicking up a storm and dancing all over my bladder... repeatedly... but I am genuinely and truly amazed.  So DO NOT lose hope.  God's got ya!

That's all for now...

Melis <3

In the last 36 hours...

...Was encouraged by 2 Michelles

...Visited with my close friend who is hosting my baby shower

..."Outsmarted" Micah when it came to errands today

...Got a little grocery shopping in

...Heard encouraging news about a pregnant friend

...Chatted with one of my best friends in Santa Cruz

...Fell asleep quickly
...I figured out easy, happy dinners for 2 days in a row

...Was given a few pieces of school clothing for my Joy Joy

...Found out my phone survived its latest catastrophe

What are YOU Thankful for???

As always,

Melis

What was stolen? Broken? Hurt?

Phone appears to be broken... check!

Stolen wallet on Halloween at work (David)... check!

Phone that was working is now overheating and not working again... check!

Popped tire on freeway... check!

Other car won't start... check!

Discover heater does not work... check!

Half of recyclables stolen off of porch... check!

Phone screen officially refuses to turn on again... check!

This is a snapshot of our last month and a half or so...

OR IS IT?

As I cried to my friend today about our recent "disasters" today, I realized how easy it is to focus on the negatives.  Sure finances haven't been anywhere near great for awhile.  Sure, my pregnancy hormones have me crying, puking and forgetting just about everything.  Micah is 2.  Kids are 2.  They survive.  And so do their parents!  Oh, and my phone didn't die for 1.5 months after it started acting up!  The car with the popped tire was partially paid for by someone close to us who heard what happened.  The other car was opened and jumped by our insurance company a day later.  It did not cost us a cent!  (This is why my hubby is in charge of taking care of our insurance.)  The person who stole our recyclables off of our porch... missed some!  Our heater is still broken.. but we have at least a dozen blankets in this house.

And guess what? Even though we deal with struggles... we have people in our lives who care.  One of my friends regularly picks up and brings home my daughter from school 2 of 3 school days each and every week.  Today, when I had a panic about the car not "registering" the little bit of gas I put in, a friend bought me some.  In fact, she bought me more than I needed to get home.  Today,  my close friend who I adore did my hair.  I love going to her.  She always gives me such a good experience and she is a precious, precious friend.  If she allowed, I am sure I could talk her head off for much, much longer.  Last night, hubby cooked me dinner.  (I took photos but they are on the currently broken phone.)  Oh yeah, and he baked cookies... from scratch.  Tonight too!  Do you know how hard it is to feed a pregnant woman?  Especially one who is picky to begin with and has been puking almost every week of her pregnancy??? Oh yeah, and this guy gives foot rubs sometimes before bedtime on his nights without doubles! 

So I guess what I am trying to say is just that... our lives are not always easy... or fun... or what we want them to be for that matter.  We go through stages and seasons, sometimes which feel... way... too... long.  But they don't last forever.  And if you are paying attention, you will often notice those little or bigger blessings God is trying to show you along the way.  When I was on the side of the freeway a few weeks ago, I went through the list of blessings.  Thank goodness the car stopped in Livermore, near friends, 30 minutes from home, not where the road is dangerous or where I do not have cell phone signal.  The car stopped 30 minutes before David was off of work, not in the middle of his shift.  My mom was free to talk to me on the phone while I waited for David and the guy to help me.  It was just a tire, not something worse, not something more expensive.  And we still had our spare available and the guy changed it for us!  Oh yeah, and the kids slept though 99% of the entire experience.  We got home just before midnight.  It was the eve of one of a holiday, a day without schoolwork for Joy... you get my point, right?

I am not asking you to forget what happened or not mourn or grieve or be sad at frustrated.  People have real reasons to be upset, often around the holidays especially.  And it is important as friends to be there for them and listen.  But I guess I am trying to shed a little perspective on things.  It has taken a me 2-3 days of pondering & praying about this blog ent.y to get it here.  And I am not even sure if it came out the way I liked fully.  Feel free to share your thoughts...

As always,

Melis

P.S. Still working on adding more graphics and photos.  It's a work in progress for sure!

Dinner Win!

Many of you know most of 2013 I resisted doing any major cooking or baking.  Life was hard and my kitchen made me mad so I chose to just stay away.  This meant that, yes a lot of microwaving and much more takeout happened than any sane mom would like.  However this was life.  And being that I actually do enjoy cooking and baking, it felt a little weird.  So, this year one of my goals has been to really get back into baking and cooking.  And it turns out I picked a pretty good time.  Joy is ripe to help me bake and apparently is learning that just because you haven't had the food doesn't make it bad.

This was especially important tonight.  If you have spent anytime talking to me about my childhood, you likely know what my favorite food was growing up, nothing frilly, nothing fancy but it was a big deal.  My parents always called it Chicken Lickin' Porkchops and it was mostly done in a crockpot.  This recipe is also what inspired my own love and use of the crockpot.  For whatever reason though, I only recently bothered to find out how to make it.  And realizing we'd NEVER eaten porkchops in this little family of ours EVER, tonight became the night.  (Plus, I can use the protein ;-) )  So, I attempted it with a different soup because I forgot to the buy the right one but I knew it wasn't a crucial change.  Joy originally told me she wouldn't be having any.  Her tune changed as she realized this was dinner.  Micah will eat just about anything but with Joy its hard to know some days.

Much to my surprise, she not only tried it, she asked for seconds with a smile before the side dish was even on the plate (one of her favorites too).  So for me, a dinner win also reminds me how much I love to cook for my family and eat real food.  It also inspires me to keep on cooking, even when the days are hard.