From Christmas in Oklahoma to New Year's Eve

When we first arrived in OK, I wrote on Facebook, "Gas prices are $1.79/gallon. My daughter just went to the vet to pick up a chicken. As I look out the windows I see ducks swimming on the pond, peacocks in rehab, and shelters for raccoons & possums ready for their next rescued guest. Where in the world am I?"  Locals who don't know us well would have never guessed we were hanging out with a band of doctors, models, artists, musicians, SAHMs , and a CPA (my husband's family) in Tulsa, OK. 

Later, my daughter got to pin a chicken's wing to a board as a form of rehab while it heals. Grandma is always rescuing and rehabbing some type of critter, even in the winter.  It's always an adventure there, and we make some great memories. (Gift #874)

Our first night there we went out to eat at the best pizza place in Oklahoma with my husband's "Irish twin" brother and his family and my husband's parents.  It was a lot of fun and has become a bit of a tradition.  I took the pic below of our daughter with her Grandpa while we waited for our sinfully tasty pizza.

The day before we fly home, it has become the tradition over the past few years to gather at the 3rd son's home for tacos (he makes amazing pork, beef, and chicken for his build-your-own taco bar) and his popular homemade cookies followed by rounds of Wits and Wagers.  This year Madelyn and my husband guessed the answer to the question exactly which has never happened in our family until that night, and it happened twice! 

After the game, we went upstairs to join the kids in a jam session.  All of the kids have had piano lessons, though Kate has played the longest.  She also plays bass guitar, so she let my husband take a turn on the keyboard. Grandpa played electric guitar in a high school band, so he relived his youth by strumming on an electric guitar.  Our host played the acoustic guitar and our daughter served as lead singer.  My video camera's sound recorder was not balanced correctly, so the video does not do it justice at all, but I thought that sounded great.  What a blessing this musical family is to us. (Gift #875)

When I woke up the day we were scheduled to fly home, soft fluffy snowflakes were falling from the sky.  A slow steady snowfall continued for the next seven hours, but thankfully it did not stick to the roads too much, so our flights were not affected. (Gift #876)  I took the following photos through screened and glass pane windows.  Imagine how much prettier they would be if I could have obtained those perspectives while standing outside.

That bird house we gave them (lower right) had to be placed where the cats could not get to it, so it sits atop the tree stump.

I loved the contrast of the red cardinals (our state bird) against the winter background.

We've been slowly catching up on laundry and much needed errands (spending all the kids' Christmas gift cards was at the top of the kids' lists) since we returned. When we usually tell the kids to go get dressed for school, it takes them 45 minutes. When I told them to get dressed so we could go buy them Nike shoes, it took them 45 seconds. Motivation is everything!

New Year's Eve
We did not have an overly exciting New Year's Eve, although I did sleep in until 11am, so I achieved my goal for the day.  We visited with friends who came over, and then they decided to take both of our kids back to their house for a play date, so I got some quiet time for lesson planning and doing more laundry.  She sent me this photo of my son (red) and her boy (blue) walking down a cart path on Preston golf course. 

Armed and Dangerous

Our son bought an enormous mega blaster that is about as long as he is tall with his Christmas money, so these boys enjoyed some fun Nerf action together. (Gift #877)

His New Mega Blaster

My daughter emailed me this collection of images today and asked if we could dye her hair one of those colors.  I sure was grateful for her school's strict dress code policies (Gift #878) which enabled me to reply, "Sorry, sweetheart, while you would look absolutely lovely with neon purple hair, we just can't dye it without violating school policy. It's all their fault!"

I thought I would borrow a northern tradition of eating Chinese food for New Year's, so I made rice, stir fry vegetables and mandarin chicken for dinner paired with some soul food cornbread.  I experimented with some tweaks of the traditional recipe by adding honey and replacing the oil and milk with half-and-half, and the result was fabulous!  That was the best cornbread any of us has tasted, I do believe.

New Year Thoughts
If I said, "Money can't buy happiness", few would disagree, for we know in the recesses of our minds that the more of this world we possess, the less peace we experience. Yet, if we look around us, we see status seeking, ladder climbing, wealth gaining, stressed out parents transferring their anxiety onto their kids by putting them in too many activities and into expensive schools where the students feel pressured to excel, win scholarships, and gain admittance into top universities, so they too can run the rat race that leads to glamorous outward appearances and poor health, fat bank accounts and empty hearts, quick fixes and broken relationships, momentary highs and long term misery.

So this new year and henceforth, I am resolved to purposefully grant my children freedom to pursue their dreams not mine, to invest in relationships, to take risks and FAIL, to explore & discover, and most importantly, to spend time with their Lord and Savior, growing in intimacy with Him, seeking to understand His will for them, and letting Him lead them into fruitful ministry.

May they personally know both want and need, so they can learn to put ALL their trust in the Lord. May they have enough to further the work of God's kingdom and to give generously to those in need, but may they never have too many worldly riches which distract from God's leading and too easily become idols in God's place. (Deuteronomy 17:17). May they be rich in God's word so they can discern the truth from the lies of this world (Matthew 7:15) and prioritize wisely. May they know the fullness of joy by sowing seeds that reap an eternal harvest. May they never forget that this world is not their home, but that they are sojourners put here for a supernatural, exponentially valuable purpose. May they know they are loved unconditionally and eternally by the Creator and Sustainer of the universe and experience perfect peace (John 14:27) as they continually walk in the complete freedom that only He gives. (John 8:36).