Thursday, December 19, 2013

Family Date Night

The past few years, Zach and I have been talking about how to "do" Christmas with our kids.  We want it to be meaningful and special, and we love to bless our children with gifts, but we also don't want it to be too much, either (for practical purposes and for philosophical purposes).  We do incorporate Santa into our family Christmas, but we hold it very loosely, and we mostly "play" Santa and let the kids make their own conclusions.  We enjoy the "magical" aspect of Santa, but, of course, we really work the hardest at making Jesus's birth the center of our Christmas celebrations.  We settled on us giving each of our kids an ornament each year that represents something they enjoyed from that season of their lives, and then on Christmas morning, Santa brings three gifts to each child.  We have told our kids that Jesus got three presents from the Wise Men, so they get three presents, too!  They seem to enjoy the connection.  I have loved the simplicity that this has brought to our Christmas shopping, wrapping, and opening.  Our kids know what to expect, and they love and appreciate the three things they get.  We also take them to the Dollar Spot at Target and have them each pick out one thing for each of their siblings.  I love the value of them learning to give gifts to each other, while also sticking within our budget.  

We decided that with this "simpler" way of doing Christmas, we wanted to have a family experience for a gift each year.  This was more special to us than one more present under the tree, so we have chosen to make it our annual tradition to do a Family Date Night downtown Chicago.  Last night was our night!  We had such a blast.  We love taking our kids to the city, exposing them to the sights, sounds, and smells all around us.  I love them getting to soak in all the people and places and activity happening all around.  At Christmastime, we love looking at the lights, listening to street musicians, explaining the Salvation Army bell ringers, and seeing all the hustle and bustle on the streets.  I also love the opportunity to teach our kids how to bless people less fortunate than us.  One thing my husband wisely remembered to do was to bring McDonalds gift cards to give to those who were homeless or begging.  It soon became a treat to observe Micah looking for "people to bless," as he said.  When we ran out of gift cards, he wanted to stop and buy more, and I loved getting to watch his joy in giving to others.  I also was happy we could teach our kids not to be scared of homeless people, but, rather, to hand them the gift card, talk to them and say Merry Christmas, and simply give them a smile.  It was truly a joy.  

Sammy went on an earlier train to "work" with Daddy, a huge privilege for him.  Then the two of them met us at the train station to start our Date!  Our first stop was Macy's, and since we had extra time, we ended up walking through the maze to Santa Land and got the kids' picture with Santa.  We found the huge tree in the Walnut Room, and then we took our time walking to each window display outside, soaking in every detail and talking about all our favorite parts.

4






Sammy pretending to be Buddy the Elf on the escalator.
AND....this is the way we roll.  Yep, that IS indeed a double stroller on an escalator.  My ambitious hubby's idea...But, hey, it worked...
The HUGE tree in the Walnut Room


Our next stop was Italian Village, a "fancy," restaurant, as our kids call it.  It is SO special to go, once a year, to a fun restaurant like this and teach our kids about cloth napkins, quiet voices, not putting spoons in their water cups, sitting nicely, etc.  We all even shared two pasta entrees, so it was pretty reasonable, too.  We had SUCH a nice and yummy dinner, and we got to be tucked away in our own, secluded booth!  Loved it.





Our last stop was the Christkindlmarket, which was busy with activity and people!  But we weaved our stroller through and loved seeing all the unique, German food and crafts.  We tried a cup of hot cocoa and some spiced, cinnamon almonds.  Yum!  Sophia liked them most of all!  We also loved the huge, lit tree!



And lastly, a McDonalds ice cream cone to end the trip at the train station before dashing onto the train.  We cozied up for some reading time on the way home, and Micah was thrilled that he got to have some ipad time past his normal bedtime!  Big deal in his world.


 And, Sammy?  Well, he fell asleep at 6:15 tucked into the stroller at the outdoor market and slept the next three hours until we got home, where we changed him into jammies and tucked him into his bed.  What a trooper!

Hoping that you get some sweet time with your family this Christmas, too!  May you be blessed!

Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

ADDING Something This Christmas

I have seen lots of posts and hear lots of push to "simplify, simplify, simplify" Christmas.  And I agree....to an extent.  I agree that it is helpful for us to fight commercialism, to not get so caught up in spending money, checking things off a list, running around like a stressed-out maniac.  Totally agree with that.

But what I don't agree with is cutting out all of the special, unique, memory-making moments you can have with your families at Christmastime.  I don't think it has to be expensive or material or time-consuming, but I DO think it would be incredibly sad if we chose to ignore the beauty that is the season.

I am a big tradition-girl.  I grew up with a lot of traditions, and I have made it a point to create a lot of traditions with my own children now.  I remember hearing a wise woman talk once about the power of creating traditions as a mother...the sense of security and warmth that it brings to our children, the sense of family that arises, the art of creating sacred out of the ordinary.  And that, to me, is something worth creating time for.

If we don't stop to add something extra to our months, how will we remember to usher in the season of remembering the Christ-child?  This babe sent to earth to bring us LIGHT and LIFE and HOPE and PEACE.  Who doesn't need those???  This son of God come down in the most humble of ways to serve US, to show us the WAY, to bring us JOY and life everlasting.  It was, indeed, a holy night, friends.  And I desire for this month to be a holy season in my house, too.  I don't want the month to pass as normal as June or October, and I don't want the month to pass in a blur of lists and stress, either.  But I DO want to stop and bring the joy of this Christmas season to my home in some special, meaningful ways.

Is there just one thing you can pick this season?  Can you add one thing to your normal routine to stop and proclaim that we are celebrating something HUGE?  Can you bake cookies with your kids?  Can you create a paper chain countdown?  Can you go Christmas caroling?  Create a Christmas craft?  Take them shopping for the food pantry?  Can you deliver a loaf of bread to a neighbor?  Buy a gift for an underprivileged child?  Can you read an advent devotion or the story of Jesus's birth in Luke 2?  Can you drive around looking at Christmas lights or take a winter trip to the zoo?  Can you just pick one thing to add to your days to mark this season as special and holy?

I am not suggesting that you become a stressed-out mama monster.  I have been there, and it is not pretty.  But I promise that when you choose to pick something to make this time special, you will be blessed.  You WILL be blessed.

So I boldly suggest that we don't work too hard at simplifying, but rather, that we take time to make this season the "most wonderful time of the year."

Merry Christmas, Friends!

Be blessed!


For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6


Monday, December 9, 2013

Lunch Ideas!

I remember when I was first a mom, I was often asking other moms what they fed their kids for lunch.  I was running out of ideas and always loved hearing some fresh ideas from others.  Well, over the last couple of months, when we have made one of our favorite lunches and weren't eating on paper plates(!), I snapped pictures to share with you!  Hope this will bring a little inspiration to that noon hour!

My main goal for lunch is a fruit and a vegetable.  I also try to do lunches that I know all my kids will mostly enjoy.  I do not like meals (and certainly not lunches) to be a battle, so I really pick our favorite things and cycle through those.  We will often do leftovers, too, if that is an option.  I also make it a priority to sit and eat lunch with my kids.  I love this time to visit and talk with them, and I also try to remember that part of my job is training them in how to behave at meals (some days harder than others in this area...).  So here goes!  

Happy Lunchtime!

Our all-time favorite lunch is noodles.  We eat them ALL of the time.  Our favorite noodles are the organic, whole wheat noodles from Trader Joe's.  I toss our noodles with olive oil, garlic salt, and basil, and some of the kids like parmesan cheese on top, too.  We often just do frozen broccoli in the microwave on the side, and my kids LOVE tomatoes, so we have those a lot with lunch, too.  When we eat this for lunch, I add broccoli and tomatoes and fresh parmesan all in the bowl with my noodles and it is SO yummy.

Another lunch favorite is quesadillas.  Our favorite tortillas are the homemade flour tortillas from Trader Joe's, but you could always use corn tortillas, too, if you eat gluten-free.  My kids just like cheddar cheese in theirs with salsa on the side to dip, but I cook salsa right into mine along with the cheese and top it with sour cream.  Yum!  If I want to make a few at once, I grab out the griddle.

An easy, non-cook lunch is just deli meat and/or cheese along with crackers!  We pretty much only buy triscuits (or, rather, generic triscuits from Aldi) since the ingredient list is so small.  Three of my kids love ham or turkey, but my oldest doesn't, so I just put peanut butter on his crackers, and we then grab out some easy veggies and fruit.  We also love Trader Joe's custard-style yogurt cups, so we often add those on to a simple meal like this.  My favorite way to eat this kind of lunch is to make a mini cracker sandwich...cracker, provolone (or other kind of cheese), and/or ham, and a slice of tomato on top...

Tostadas are a new favorite around here!  All I do is heat up refried beans and spread them on the tostada shell, and either top with cheese or leave plain for the kids, depending on their preference.  I top mine with cheese, salsa, and sour cream, and we sometimes make some instant rice to go along, too.  So easy.  (AND, tostada shells are super cheap, especially at Aldi!)

Another similar lunch is make-your-own burritos, and my kids put beans inside tortillas, possibly with cheese and salsa, too.  Brown rice is shown on the side, along with tortilla chips, and cut up veggies and clementines.  This is a nice meal to appeal to many picky-eater tendencies.  Sammy doesn't like beans, so he mostly eats rice.  Sophia is dairy free, so I just omit the cheese for her.  Micah likes to dip chips in beans and eat a plain tortilla.  Works for everyone.

We love grilled cheese, too!  We have mostly been making our own bread in the bread machine lately, but on the occasion we have a loaf of whole wheat bread around, we definitely make grilled cheese.  American cheese is so not that great for you, but it is the one thing we still use American cheese for.  All of my kids will eat this, and I just use vegan cheese for Sophia.  This is shown with some veggie chips from Aldi, and we ALWAYS eat pickles with grilled cheese.  Don't know why.  Just one of those things that I ate growing up so still do with my kiddos.  And who doesn't love pickles?

This is my need-to-go-shopping lunch.  When we don't have a lot of fresh ingredients around, we open a can of Joe's O's (Trader Joe's version of Spaghetti-O's), make a bag of frozen veggies, and open a jar of applesauce.  My kids love unsweetened applesauce, and we sprinkle ground cinnamon on top.  They also love string cheese.

What are some of your favorite kid lunches??

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Saying YES

There are tons and tons of blog posts and articles written about saying, "NO."  Encouragement flows about setting boundaries and not taking on too much, not living a stressed-out life and not overdoing it.

But I have come to realize that there is one very important place to say YES, and that is to help.  

Whether you have two kids, seven kids, or no kids, we all need people to come alongside us from time to time and help us walk a stretch of this road of life.

I had an epiphany recently in which I realized that because I have four (soon to be five) children fairly close in age, that this disqualifies me from asking for/accepting help.  I was telling myself that I have chosen my circumstances, and that I need to be able to do it all by myself...that if I am letting others help me, that must mean that I am incapable of handling my own life or my own family or my own house.  I was afraid that others would think I shouldn't have had so many kids, or have made the decisions we have made.

But - hear me now in a whispering voice - I think I was wrong.

Yes, we have most certainly chosen our circumstances and our number of children.  And guess what?  We can do it!  We can pay our bills.  We can feed all of our kiddos.  We can tuck them all into bed at night.  And most days of most weeks, I can take care of them by myself.  But that is not the goal, right?  Life is not about proving how much we can do by ourselves.  Life is meant to be lived out in community.  Together.  With others.  As a village.  And if we never let anyone into our lives to help, we deny ourselves (and others!) the blessing of doing life together.  Have you ever noticed that washing dishes at someone elses's house was way more fun than washing your own?  Or how bringing someone dinner after surgery or a new baby brings YOU so much delight?  There is a reason, friends!  We are blessed by doing life with others, by stepping into others' lives and walking with them.

Because I have had a rough few months of pregnancy, this whole concept of letting others help me has stared me right in the face lately.  Two of my besties brought me dinner, just because, and my mom sent me home from a family dinner with a pan of lasagna.  We received generous gifts of pizza gift cards so I wouldn't have to open my fridge and think about cooking, and a dear friend from church even insisted on taking home my dirty laundry one day.  Another dear friend from church came over to take my girls out for a couple of hours so I could focus on schooling with my boys, and then she showed back up at my house with bags of fresh groceries from a local farm.  Whaaaat???  I know, so overwhelming.  

THEN, in one week, we had some of our favorite people insist on giving me money to buy a maternity coat for the winter because they knew I was busting out of my regular coat.  Then a few days later, we came home from a difficult family funeral to find our bathroom freshly painted (a task that has embarrassingly been on our to-do list for years).  And realized that our dear friends from church had snuck over and fixed a rotting post on our front porch that we had no clue whatsoever how to fix.  That week was hugely humbling.

And this week, I got sick again.  Discouraging, for sure.  But I cautiously texted my mom to see if she had time to come over after work to help me.  Definitely a stretch for me.  But, guess what?  SHE said yes.  My mom came over yesterday to help me put clean sheets on the bed, fold loads and loads of clean laundry with me, and chop our broccoli for dinner.  When talking to my girlfriend yesterday about how I'd been sick and now staring at some opened and overflowing boxes of Christmas dishes and decorations I hadn't been able to tackle and finish, she said, "Why don't we have book study tomorrow night at YOUR house?  We can do it together!  It'd be so fun!"  And, honestly, my first instinct is to say, "No, that's okay, I can do it."  Because I still care about what people think about me.  And I still want everyone to see my house as put together and organized.  And I still want others to think that I can handle it all.  But you guys...I was so proud...I said (after a few stalling comments) OKAY.  I will let you guys do that.  Because if one of my girlies was pregnant and sick, I would LOVE to go help unpack her Christmas dishes with her.  This is real life!!!  And life is so much better lived together.

This season of sickness and all has humbled me in so many ways.  And I have had to graciously accept the help of so many people in my life.  Big things and small things.  And I know I am not even typing it all out.  But, you guys, I have been so blessed.  I have been overwhelmed by the love and the support and the care of our family and our friends.  And I don't think one of them was thinking, "Oh, geeze, she really shouldn't have gotten pregnant again."  I think they are supporting us in the things that God has called us to, in the children that God has chosen to bless our lives with, and they have decided to walk alongside us in our journey.  Oh my word.  It has been the biggest lesson EVER.  I have had to say YES so many times, and I have realized that I have got to keep saying yes when others offer to come alongside.  Because if I don't, I will be missing out on some of the greatest blessings of life....doing it together.

Is there someone offering to help you today?  Is there something you could even boldly ask for help with?  I promise...you will be blessed.  And this person offering or saying yes to helping you...I am pretty sure they will be blessed, too.

Let's do life together.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

What We've Been Up To

As I wrote about here, my blog has taken a pause due to my first trimester of pregnancy.  Something had to go, so this did.  When I wasn't doing something necessary, I just wanted/needed to rest.  We still continued on with a fun fall of activities, however, and I wanted to capture the memories we made.  I found that it was better (most days) to stay busy and distracted, so I tried not canceling anything we had on our calendar.  Here is what we've been up to the past two months.  Fall is my favorite season, and we have had some sweet moments amidst the hard moments,  as well.  And, just a note of warning, this post is FULL of pictures!  If you can believe it, I tried only picking a few of my favorites from each event.  But there's still a lot.  I can't help myself.  Enjoy! 


This fall, we went to Disney on Ice!  The most amazing birthday present from our beloved family friend, Tony.  Sophia was sick, so my parents offered to stay back with her so I could take the big kids.  We ate at an amazing city diner, Little Goat, and all the kids were in awe at the show.  I don't know who loved it more, them or me.



We took a field trip with our best homeschool buddies to Brookfield Zoo.  Loved it.  Sophia is at a precious age for the zoo, waving and calling hello to each animal she saw.  Adorable.

Probably my most favorite family activity of every year is the apple orchard.  I love everything about it, the cider, the donuts, the apples, the trees, the play area, the store, and, of course, watching my children enjoy life in the beautiful outdoors.








This is our annual, see-how-big-you-are picture!  As you can see, the sun was bright.

We went to Michigan and loved going to Grand Rapid's Art Prize festival with some of our most favorite people.   We also went to my see my brother's team play baseball at Cornerstone University.  Proud big sister watching him thrive in his role as a coach there.  AND Micah loved every minute and couldn't take his eyes off the game.



We took a quick trip to Minnesota to attend a reunion with the group of people I traveled abroad with in college to the British Isles.  I have stayed in touch with four of the girls through the years, attending each other's weddings, seeing each other's babies, even returning to London together, and other spontaneous visits.  So fun to see our kids play together and to get a day to catch up with these precious friends!



We enjoyed Veteran Acres in it autumn beauty.

My niece, Savannah, came over for their first sleepover together, and they loved it all.

A bunch of our family met up at the pumpkin farm!  We enjoyed taking a hayride out to pick our own pumpkins!




We tagged along with Zach on a work trip to St. Louis, and the kids and I had a blast at the zoo and the amazing children's museum there.  We had a visit with their Auntie Manda, and Zach and I took them to the Arch on our way out of town.  We planned to ride it to the top, but it was closed due to the government shutdown!  Who knew?!  Ironically, the government opened again the next day when we were already back in Illinois, but we still had fun running around the bottom of the arch, enjoying its structure and history!





One of my favorite things EVER is little girls in jeggings and boots.  Is there anything cuter??


We got together with the Lyons Family to make lunches for PADS, the homeless ministry our county and church participate in during the winter months.  The kids were so invested in helping with the process, and I am thrilled we get the opportunity to do this monthly together.

We took a field trip to Tom's Farm to enjoy it's fall festivities!  It was soooo cold that day, but we bundled up and ended up having a fun time!



My mom came over and we got out Ella's porcelain teaset for her first-ever tea party.  So sweet.

Lydia and Luke and Jen came over for our little homeschool Halloween party!  The kids dressed in costumes, played Bozo buckets, decorated brownie haunted houses, and painted pumpkins.  So fun!






We had our last Bread and Wine cooking club.  Seriously a highlight of my year.  I loved each time we got together and laughed and talked and cooked in each of our kitchens.  So so so fun.  Love these women.  So thankful.


Halloween!!  We hosted our 7th annual family Halloween party.  Each year, my family and all the cousins have gathered for taco soup, cornbread, cider, and trick-or-treating with all the kids.  This year was so fun.  I absolutely love my home filled with people and laughter and happy chaos.  AND, this year, we trick-or-treated in the rain.  Just another way to create memories, right?




We took another field trip to the Shedd Aquarium downtown, and we had a great day exploring all the creatures there!!!





The Lyonses came over for our monthly science project, and this time, we made models of the layers of Earth's atmosphere!  So cool!


Well, that's what we've been up to the past couple of months!  Glad to be blogging again, and feeling thankful for this stay-at-home-mommy season of my life.