Valentine's Day Celebrations - Part 2

For most of my life, I've been a Valentine's Day cynic.  The clever scheme by retailers to get love struck guys to spend lots of money on their sweethearts lest they end up in the doghouse is ridiculous.  Valentine's Day can also make the single population feel lonely and depressed.  I suspect that Valentine's Day might be especially difficult for widows or single mothers who were abandoned by their respective husbands.

This Valentine's Day, however, I woke up with my glass half full and purposed to show love to my husband and our kids in a more tangible way.  I decided on a meal that wasn't too fancy but was sure to please the entire family (which means no leftovers).  Many of my husband's favorite foods aren't particularly healthy, and I'm a health nut who wants to serve my family nutritious, all natural foods.  So, Trader Joe's is our compromise.  Unfortunately, I got to Trader Joe's during the lunch hour. Parking took 20 minutes, and pulling out of the parking lot took another 20 minutes.  The store was packed with charming young gentlemen who were buying roses and chocolates for their sweethearts. I walked right by the floral section to buy a few pounds of all natural bacon (no nitrites, nitrates, phosphates, or bizarre pig parts), because nothing says "I love you" like bacon.

I also purchased my husband's next favorite food, cheese, and some staples for making 100% whole wheat pizza crust which I used later that evening to make a heart shaped bacon and pineapple pizza.  I set the table more formally, hoping that the kids would notice and maybe even take notes, and we all enjoyed exchanging cards and gifts after dinner that evening.

Our daughter blessed us with lovely handwritten sentiments throughout the week while our son gave us the gift of song.

The tradition that started over 10 years ago of having the guys cook dinner for their wives on Valentine's Day continues.  This past Saturday, our community group ladies enjoyed a nice dinner and great fellowship thanks to lots of effort by our awesome guys.

Romans 12:10
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Scrapbooking: Basketball

Our daughter loves to jump around, flip upside down, shout, and dance, and she's very light on her feet, so I thought she would make a great cheerleader.  I don't think I could ever let her cheer at a secular high school where the outfits have gotten too skimpy and the dance moves have become too provocative, so I thought she could get her cheering fix through the Upward sports program.  Two years ago, she cheered for the Upward basketball players.  She was cute and enthusiastic, but her heart was set on playing basketball, not just cheering from the sidelines.

Our daughter has the build of a gymnast or cheerleader, not a basketball player.  She really wanted to play, however, so we signed her up for basketball last year.  She was the youngest, shortest player on a team of 1st through 4th graders.  Our goal for her was to simply make one basket the entire season.  The basketball goals were set at nine feet, which for her would be like a a 6' person shooting at a 15'7" goal.  Her determination and perseverance both amazed and humbled me.  Every practice and every single game stretched and challenged her.  It was a long, hard struggle, but she eventually did score a few points for her team.  I wrote about some of the faith lessons she taught me during that basketball season in an earlier blog post found here.  

She was eager to play basketball again this year.  She only grew enough over the past year to stay on her low growth curve, but based upon her performance this year, you would think she grew a foot.  She's a totally different player with a competitive edge I had not seen before.  The pastor's wife for the host church is her team's coach, and she has been phenomenal.  The team's skills have dramatically improved over the past seven weeks, and the sportsmanship they have displayed, even when other teams have bent the rules or played too rough, has been very impressive.  Our daughter is still the smallest player on the team, but when she gets in her groove, she is a scoring machine, using her small stature to her advantage as she weaves under around the taller players.

Our son was barely old enough to play basketball this year.  His daddy is the team's assistant coach, although he has served as head coach during the past two games while the head coach was out of town.  Watching this little team, Lil' Flash, play is a very different experience from the nail-biter, action packed games the Lady Cardinals play.  It seems that Lil' Flash is comprised of the youngest, smallest players in the league.  They lost their first five games, but they did win game #6 by about 14 points.  It has been frustrating for their coaches to watch these little players gaze off into the distance and repeatedly fall down over their own two feet without a care in the world.  For our son, it does not matter if they win or lose as long as the post game snacks include Doritos or Oreos.

Our son has scored a few points, however, with his signature over-the-right-shoulder throwing technique.  He has great aim when he actually focuses.  Kids at this age are really cute in their big boy uniforms, and I have enjoyed smiling and waving at our boy when we looks my way during the game.  I think the two girls on his team are a bit of a distraction as well.  The assistant coach thinks one of the girl players is sweet on #11.

Top left:  Just before his first game; Top middle:  "Friday Night Lights"; Top right: Cheering for his sister's team through closed eyelids; Bottom: His unique over the shoulder throw in action

Scrapbooking: History

Our daughter's birthday is approaching, so I've been playing catchup on layouts for her birthday scrapbook.  

Since beginning the homeschooling journey, I have fallen in love with history all over again.  One of my favorite things to do with the kids is to teach them history by reading either true stories from different time periods or historical fiction.  The mother-daughter American Girl book club has been especially memorable for my daughter and me.  

This past month, our book club studied Meet Josefina.  This book is about a ranchero family living in New Mexico (as we know that area today) during the early settlement period.  Our daughter and another book club attendee usually try to dress in period costumes appropriate for the book of study.  This time, the other girl wore a lovely traditional Latino blouse for the occasion, while my daughter wore her pink leather cowgirl boots and hat which weren't all that appropriate for the time period but at least reflected southwestern ranch life.

We enjoyed tacos for dinner and roasted marshmallows to make Smores for dessert.  Since Josefina's grandfather spent six months out of each year traveling to Mexico to trade goods for the family, the girls brought trinkets from home to exchange at our own book club swap meet.  Josefina was fascinated by her aunt's piano, so each girl in attendance took turns playing songs for the group.  This mini recital provided just the motivation I had been praying that I daughter would find to persevere in her piano practice.  The hosts led the girls in a fabulous history and geography lesson and facilitated a lively discussion.

Our daughter's school teacher also enjoys creating fun experiences to help the students remember and better understand historical time periods.  Recently, during their study of Victorian England, she invited each of the students to "High Tea".  All the students wore their best Victorian (or dressy) attire for tea with the future grandmother of England.  After trying on a wide assortment of period costumes, our daughter decided that she would rather just wear a simple white dress (which happens to be the same dress our niece wore as the flower girl in our wedding) with a shawl that was hand-woven by the group we sponsor through World Vision.

Special thanks to her teacher (upper left corner) for providing 3 of these photos.

On February 2, our daughter learned about the history of Groundhog Day.  I joked about not caring whether the groundhog sees his shadow or not since winter has been defined by mild, pleasant, spring-like weather this year.  On Groundhog Day, the temperature climbed into the low 70s.  The groundhog did see his shadow in Punxsutawney, PA, but when Georgy the Groundhog visited our daughter's school on Groundhog Day, he was too distracted by the crowd of school children staring him down to even notice his shadow when he crawled out of his hole.

2012: The year of the newborn

Eleven years ago, my husband and I joined a nearly/newly married Sunday School class.  Within the next few years,  there were at least a half dozen pregnant bellies in our classroom at any given time.  Our ladies' social events every single month (or so it seemed) involved planning a baby shower for one of our class friends.  Babies kept coming for years after that.  We eventually perfected the baby shower routine yet never repeated the same game or favor throughout all those showers.

Fast forward 11 years.  I am now tired ...and  old.  Everything hurts.  Baby shower invitations don't arrive as often.  I must be moving past the baby phase of life...or am I?

I consider myself very blessed to have so many mature, Christian friends who take the Bible quite literally. 

Genesis 9:7
As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”

These friends are amazing parents who are raising up awesome warriors for Christ.

Psalm 127:3

Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.

So they are still bearing children and are now up to their 3rd, 4th, 5th...or 9th.  God bless um'!

And since I also like to "hang" with some young-guns (saintly "Timothy"s), some friends are carrying their first child and only beginning the parenting process.

That said, 2012 is the year of the newborn.  During the past month, I have celebrated the births of six new babies to local friends with many more due this spring.  I've also enjoyed helping host two baby showers within the past six weeks. The first shower celebrated the pending arrival of this adorable little sweet pea who arrived a few weeks later on January 24.

BeasKnees Photography

The next shower was easy to host because all the family asked me to do was open the front door.  The family to whom this precious expectant mom belongs to is very dear to us.  As much as this family has loved and cared for our two babies, I can't help but love and celebrate this new baby as if she were part of our own family.

 Our kids crashed the party after their basketball games that morning.

Adaptation

My husband and I recently made a decision regarding my health that will involve seeing a doctor 30 minutes away three times a week for the next 1-2 years. So I have been searching for ways to free up six extra hours each week.

A wise roommate and friend of mine once compared a person's daily schedule to a wagon.  Some people seem to have very large wagons while others' wagons can only hold a few small bricks.  Large wagon people "seem" to be able to handle very busy schedules without compromising relationships, their physical health, or those precious daily quiet times with the Lord which preserve spiritual health.  She noted that bricks will get thrown onto our wagons without warning, so if we always keep our wagons loaded to maximum capacity, when one unexpected brick falls onto our wagon, the wagon will break.

While our family is currently plodding through the busiest time of the year for us, this new health commitment should not break my wagon thanks to the flexible nature of my work.  Had I not retired from my full time engineering career, my out of balance wagon would surely capsize.  As a freelance writer and very small business owner, I can work when I want and as much or as little as I want.  And as a homeschooling mom, I can work wherever I want.  My doctor and his wife homeschool their five children, so he understands my need to bring my children with me to appointments.  He has established a children's play area at each of his offices filled with developmental toys and activities. We also bring our schoolwork with us.  

*Having a son in kindergarten, when school is fun and gets done very quickly helps, too!

 

The duffel bag method is so much simpler (why bother with an organized formal classroom anyway?), and my son seems to enjoy the changes of scenery that come with a mobile classroom.

Do not worry about who moved your cheese.  Embrace change, but never forget to leave an open buffer or warning track on your wagon.

Valentine's Day Celebrations - Part 1

Grandma made the girl's dress

The kids began celebrating Valentine's Day early this year with a valentine exchange at our homeschool co-op.  I have heard friends talking about lots of great valentine ideas they found on Pinterest, but I am one of the few moms on earth who has yet to register with Pinterest.  I don't really need another on-line time sink, but if someone will kindly send me an invite, that may be all the incentive I need to take the plunge.

So, without Pinterest for inspirational valentine ideas, this left-brained mommy had to dig deep into the recesses of her dried up imagination well for any creativity residue that may remain.  While out shopping, I found mini heart shaped balloons that automatically inflate upon opening.  During my engineering days, we used a lot of compressed air during the manufacturing process, so those little tacky hearts appealed to me.  With the help of Picasa, I designed this little inspirational Valentine for the kids to attach to the inflating hearts and then decided that was enough creative exertion for one day.

Unlike their mother, our kids are very creative.  So, when a local author and her talented illustrator invited homeschooled children to help illustrate the author's next children's book, our kids wanted to participate in the contest.  After learning about the book series and receiving a brief introduction to the illustration process, the students were given 10-20 minutes to create an illustration for her next book, which is about adoption. 

The kids exchanged valentines and treats before, during, and after this event.  When my ~ three dozen PE students came to my health and PE classes later than afternoon, they were buzzing on sugar.  As their health and PE teacher, I simply could not offer them more candy, so I filled up a basket with lots of fruit and Valentine's themed notebooks, pencils, erasers, and bookmarks and let them take whatever they like. I expected them to turn their noses up at my healthy alternatives, but they swarmed that basket like ants at a picnic.

Our kids also received some early Valentine's Day cards in the mail last week.  These cards were stuffed with cash.  Despite our many lectures about saving and investing, money usually burns a hole in our 5-year old's pocket until he spends it all on Legos. So when I asked him how he planned to use the cash in his Valentine's Day card, I was shocked to hear him reply, "I'm going to save it so I can buy a convertible when I'm 16."  That boy is fascinated by convertibles and "wings" (aka "spoilers").  

Perhaps the best gift our son received this past week was a basketball win.  His poor team is comprised of the smallest, youngest kids (6 boys, 2 girls) in the league and were a poor match for some of the more serious teams they faced.  Their record was 0 for 5 games going into the game on Saturday. For the past two games, their head coach has been out of town, so my husband stood in as head coach without an assistant coach to help him. All the mismatched games and losses were wearing on him as well.  Yesterday, while my husband was coaching, they not only won, but they won by about 14 points!  My boy was beaming as he told others about the time the opponent he was guarding bounce passed the ball to him (oops...I suspect his opponent just dribbled in the wrong direction), and then he ran the ball down the court and scored.  For a boy who rarely pays attention during the game, this play was a true accomplishment.

Last night, my husband took our daughter to a Daddy-Daughter dance where they enjoyed great music, dance lessons and refreshments with friends while supporting an adoption fundraiser.  I was a tad jealous when I heard they would be learning line, ballroom, and swing dancing, since I love all those dance styles.  Each lady in attendance also received a long stemmed rose. Our little girl was glowing when she came home.  When she's much older and suitors come to call, I pray they will treat her as well as her daddy treated her during their date tonight.

Our next Valentine's venue will be hosting a Valentine's Dinner for couples in our church life class.  The  tradition of having the guys prepare a fancy dinner for the ladies for Valentine's Day began about ten years ago.  We are renewing that tradition with our community group this year, so it will be interesting to see what the guys plan at the last minute.  I suggested these bacon roses as a way to impress both the women and the men.