Christmas Tree

When I was a kid, we had an artificial Christmas tree. (Artificial is a prettier word than fake.) We had the same tree for as many years as I can remember. In fact, my mom still has that tree.
In 2003 I got married. James' family always had fresh, live, real Christmas trees. They went to Casey's (a hardware store...confusing, right, Midwesterners?) or Safeway and bought a real tree every year. I thought real trees were a mess, a hassle.
Our first Christmas, we lived in a tiny apartment. There wasn't room for a tree. Someone gave us their old artificial tree and we just used the top of the tree as our tree. We went over to my parent's house and sorted out all of my ornaments and decorated our very first Christmas tree. It was pretty Charlie Brownie.
By the time our second Christmas came around, we had moved. Our apartment was above a store in downtown Oskaloosa. It was a long and skinny place, almost half a block long. We had several bay windows and 10-foot ceilings. It was a Christmas tree's dream! We borrowed my dad's truck, went out to a Christmas Tree Farm and cut down our very first tree. It was a big one, probably 8 feet tall. It was amazing! We had to buy extra lights and ornaments to fully decorate it. This tree has been remembered and pined after every Christmas since its existence.
The next year we lived with my parents and shared their tree. Actually, I'm not sure that we even put up a tree that year since my dad was sick.
For the first 3 years we lived in Lee's Summit we went to Santa's Tree Farm and cut down a tree. It was a pretty fun experience, especially once we had the boys with us.
The last three years we have hiked out to rugged Home Depot and pulled a tree out of their display. They are actually pretty good trees, and cheap! It's not quite as festive, but the result is the same.
Now that we've had several Christmases with live trees, I love them! It's fun to find a new tree and make it look nice every year. And the pine scent is delicious!

Pretend there's a picture of our tree here. Apparently we didn't take any this year.

And this post is late, in honor of the 12th day of Christmas!

Five Years

Five years is a long time. It's more than half of the time we have been married.
In the last five years we have had 3 children.
We bought a house.
We settled into the house.
We cleaned up the jungle that is now our back yard.
We met the most wonderful group of people we have ever known.
We went to a lot of Royals games and a handful of Chiefs games.
We traveled to Arizona, North Carolina, Florida, Iowa.
We have hosted family and friends at our house more times than I can count.
We have endured snowy winters and steamy summers.
We have learned so much about ourselves and our God.
We have struggled and conquered.
So much has happened.

Today, on November 19, 2011, I remember that five years ago, my dad died.
It was a sunny and windy Sunday, much like today.
I remember the details of that day.
Some of us went to church.
We waited.
We talked quietly.
We wondered what would happen.
I called James with updates. (He was mashing "light" mashed potatoes for the NBC Thanksgiving Dinner.)
As the day grew dark, the house grew quiet.
We sat in the living room, in dim light.
No one spoke.
Dad took his last breath.
I knew that was it.
It was final.

We knew this day would come. Dad was sick for 16 months. Even knowing that death is near doesn't make it easy. In that moment, I began to wonder what life would be like without my dad.
Would I forget him?
Would we replace him?
How would we survive without him?
Tonight, five years later, I know some answers.
I will never forget my dad. He lives on through me. I tell stories, introduce my boys to Randolph and give puppy dog kisses.
We could never replace Dad.
We have survived without him. Some days the pain is barely even there for me. I know my mom feels it every day. I wish the pain would just go away. I suppose the only way for that to happen is to completely forget. I wish I could see my boys doing tricks with Dad. I wish they could sit next to him during church and draw pictures of farm animals. I would love to sit and listen to Dad's version of the Christmas story on Christmas Eve. The list goes on and on.

But tonight, I just remember. And I thank God for the life of my dad. He and my mom gave me a great foundation on which to build my life.

The Valley

The Light family has survived the stomach flu.
It wasn't the valley of the shadow of death, but I thought I might die.
No, not really.
But almost.

Here's the story:
Asa puked at a restaurant Friday night. The waitress asked if he had been acting sick. Right, like we would go out to eat expecting a child to throw up. Asa was sick through the night, his last episode happening around 10:00 Saturday morning.
By Saturday night, everyone seemed fine. The boys were wrestling around. We decided to go to church Sunday morning.
Sunday night we had friends over for pizza. Still, everyone is fine.
Early Monday morning (3:30) it hit me. "I shouldn't have eaten so much pizza."
Nope, this wasn't caused by pizza. It was not pretty.
On Monday, James stayed home from work. Reuben was a trooper. He slept so much. I wasn't sure how I was going to feed him but it worked out fine.
Judah woke up around 8:00 and started throwing up. Fun. Our living room was covered with blankets and towels.
I was feeling better by noon, but still tired and with a blaring headache.
James started feeling funny Monday afternoon. He was puking, etc. by evening. All day Tuesday his whole body hurt. Poor guy.
I think we're all well now. I hope!

Here are my observations:
Kids take sickness much better than adults. They asked for food and tried to play just after getting sick.
We really need to get rid of this carpet. And we will. We're planning to rip it up starting next week and refinish the hard wood floor under it.
It was about time to get out all of our towels and blankets and wash them. Who doesn't do that every spring?

I am thankful for our friends and family who offered their prayers and support.
I wish the American Red Cross would have come to take care of us.
And I hope we don't get sick again for 5 years!
Or 10.

Time is On My Side

Yes it is.
Preschool is over. I'm back to being a stay-at-home-mom. I am in complete control of my schedule.
Now, don't get me wrong. I really liked my job. It was fun having something to do every week and using my skills as a teacher. The boys loved going to school and learning with their friends.
But it is a relief to have a clear slate.
I have a million things on my so-called to-do list.

• pay bills
• clean the house
• make granola bars
• organize the basement (this alone is a 3-week project)
• play at the park
• work in the yard (another multi-week job)
• write a blog
• clean out my hard-drive
  

I'm hoping that I can start accomplishing some of the things on my list. I have all summer, fall, winter and spring!

On a side note, this funny thing happens every time I kiss Reuben's cheek. He smiles! I love it.

One more thing, read my husband's blog. It's fun.

Sunday School Craft

Today James and I were asking Asa about his day at church.
What did you learn?
What was your story?
Asa didn't have many answers. He did finally tell us that they talked about talking to God.
Then we asked about the craft.
James: What was your craft today?
Asa: I don't know.
James: You had a cup. What did you put in the cup?
Asa: Dirt.
James: And then what?
Asa: Seed.
James: And what's going to happen?
Asa: Flower.

He was very matter-of-fact. No extra details and it was so cute!
Now I can't wait to see our flowers grow!

Handkerchief

According to Webster, a handkerchief is "a small usually square piece of cloth used for personal purposes (as blowing the nose) or as a clothing accessory."
It is also known as a handkercher, hankie, kerchief and probably other names.
It is usually made of cotton, cotton-synthetic blends, silk or linen.

Now what do people use hankies for?
These days we usually see them in suit coat pockets or around someone's neck or head.
Back in the day, a handkerchief was just used to blow your nose.
Many people had a special design or their initials embroidered on them.
Today we have disposable handkerchiefs.
AKA Kleenexes.
Did you know that were originally intended to be used to remove make-up? When people started using them to blow their nose, Kleenex changed their marketing. Brilliant!

Back to handkerchiefs. (Such a long word.)
My dad used handkerchiefs.
He had 2 kinds: good and every day.
Those terms actually described all of our clothes, good or every-day.
You wore good clothes to town.
Every-day clothes were for, well, every day. They were older clothes that could get splashed with hog manure and still be OK.
It wasn't until I was in college that I realized everyone doesn't categorize their clothes this way. Who knew?

Back to handkerchiefs.
I remember being out in the middle of a pasture and needing to blow my nose. No disposables in my pocket so I would resort to dad's hankie.
Sometimes you would be lucky and it would be un-used.
Other times, not so lucky.
Gross.
It was always tricky trying to find a dry spot on the hankie.
Ewwwww.
Then one day I learned how to "farmer blow."
Plug one nostril and blow, all the while watching out that your snot doesn't get on your clothes.
And if it does, that's actually OK since there's probably some pig manure already on your leg.

My dad always had a handkerchief in his pocket.
They were useful for a number of things, not just blowing your nose.
Sometimes James carries a handkerchief, but he uses them to wipe sweat off his face.
No snot there.

It's a cute little accessory, really. Perhaps we should bring them back.

Scroll

Scroll down. There's a post about Asa's birthday. It's published with the date from the day it was started.