Bad blogger.
Bad.
Bad.
Bad blogger.
Benjy has a new imaginary friend: Angel Benjy.
Angel Benjy plays Star Wars. He splashes in the tub with Benjy. He hangs out in the van when the rest of us have already made our way into the house, hung up our coats, and settled down with after-school snacks. Angle Benjy goes to time out. A lot. He allegedly makes messes in the real life Benjy's room. Angel Benjy is real life Benjy's new best friend.
"Where is Angel Benjy?" I ask.
"Ooooooooh... he's out in the snow," the real Benjy answers thoughtfully.
"Is he cold?"
"Yes. It's brrrrr cold."
"Does he want to come in?" I ask.
"No, not yet."
Angel Benjy. He's like Super Man around here.

I think I totally forgot to post about Camden's karate tournament a couple of weeks ago. He did fabulous! (of course)
He scored three medals - one for Black Belt Attitude, one for Listening (my son??????) and one for Powerful, Sharp Knifehand Strikes. Wooohooooooo! He was so proud. And so were we. Benjy, too. And Emma, as you see here, wearing Camden's three medals. Probably not her desire, but with some bling around her neck nonetheless. :)

Wow, what a sense of accomplishment. I have sorted, tossed, and organized toys in both the basement and the playroom. And it feels so good to walk into those rooms and survey my handiwork. Yesterday it was painting. Today it was cleaning. Who knows what tomorrow brings.



These pix are blurry, but in real life the layouts are not. I managed to accomplish some scrapbooking this week. Funny how when I'm sick I'm super uber motivated to create.

This the painting/collage I made yesterday between coughing fits.
It's inspired by Claudine Hellmuth. Heck, it's a total lift of one of her pieces. She is just so darn awesome. I am so happy with my first collage piece. It's hanging in my kitchen smiling at me. :)

Friday

What I LOVE about Fridays:

Remembering what happened on "The Office". LOVE this show.


I wear jeans every Friday. Blue. Black. I don't care what color. Eddie Bauer makes the best jeans. Buy 'em at the warehouse store, and you've got the BEST price.


silly. irreverent. not much to make sense of here, except the obvious. Love this. :)

January 12

Today is Camden's birthday. My baby is 7 years old. Feeling quite sentimental, I kneeled by his bed tonight when he was barely asleep. I told him what it was like at 9:30 p.m., seven years ago at that very moment. I told him how I had already sent Daddy home to sleep and rest for the both of us, that the nurse wheeled Baby Camden into my room in the nursery bassinet and that I very, very carefully picked him up by myself and settled into bed to snuggle with him. I explained how he was so beautiful, so tiny, so perfect. That I cried as I held him and planted kisses on his tiny nose. I named him my little Buttercup. I don't have any idea where that came from, but it seemed to fit at the time. He's more like a Venus Flytrap at times now, but usually a fun daisy or maybe even a tall sunflower opening wide to the sun. Yes, seven years ago today, he was smaller than my pillow. Smaller than a good bit of his own stuffed animals. And I was smitten in love with him.

As I hugged Camden tonight and told him the stories of his first day on earth, he smiled and hugged me. Then he stretched out his lean seven-year-old arm, reaching up toward the top bunk of his big boy bed. He exclaimed, "Look, Mom, if you do your hand like this," twisting it about in the dim glow of the nightlight, "you can make a longneck." That's a dinosaur. "Yes, Camden. That's a really cool longneck," I told him. Then I hugged him as he made more dinosaur shadow puppets, kissed him on the nose, and told him I loved him.

Goodnight, my little longneck.

Godwink.
That's my word for the year. Ali Edwards recently challenged her readers to find a word that they could live with for a year. I sat on this for a few days and finally hit on Godwinks. I was in Barnes and Noble this morning, and found this wonderful book about Godwinks, those coincidences that are really little answers from God. Like when you're looking for a scale for your classroom, as my friend Barb was. And you find one for a buck or so at the Goodwill. Or when you keep thinking about a special long, lost friend. And they call you that night out of the blue. Or when you think you're miserable in your job, and you meet one person who introduces you to their school, and you suddenly have the teaching job of your dreams. (Thanks, Sandy!) Godwinks. That's my word for the year.

I want to look for the Godwinks that happen in my life this year. And, God willing, I want to remember them here. If I'm really good, I'll even scrap them! Godwinks. Cool, huh?

Suburbanites we are. We headed to the mall today. The big one, the one out of town a good 45 minutes away. The drive was nice, the mall was so-so. But if you're a kid, the mall holds mysteries we could never understand. Camden and Benjy, though bored and whiny in the calendar shop, were delighted by every other bright light and salty scent and happy noise that surrounded us. The mall. Hmmmm, not such a bad outing. Surburban, but not bad.

Busy today. Couldn't take the clutter anymore, so we took the tree and all the decorations down. Even the awesome outside lights that I neglected to photograph. There's something about Christmas decorations after Christmas that brings me down. It's not the lights. I miss those. But something about the STUFF in every corner, nook and cranny. (Is that how you spell "cranny"???) Maybe it's the let-down of knowing I have to wait the better part of a year to get psyched up for Christmas again. Maybe it's the reminder the decorations are that the mailman will bring bills and not fun catalogs, colorful sales flyers, and Christmas cards from friends.

Speaking of Christmas cards, guess what I found today when I was putting away our 7 boxes of Christmas goodies........
At least a dozed signed and sealed Christmas cards that didn't get mailed!!! So, if you've not rec'd one from us, you will. I'll have to get these in the mail tomorrow. It was my job to go to the PO for more stamps, and it was probably my job to get these last few cards out in the mail, but I failed on the latter big time. Oh well, I can't sweat the small stuff. It's all good in the great scheme of things. The cards will be in the mail this week, and, hey, that's before Epiphany, right?!

I've finally uploaded some pix of my Christmas art journal. This has been such a blessing to create. I look forward to reading each day's prompt and then sitting down with my tools, ribbons, stamps, papers - mmmm, love the smell of new papers! and CREATING. Something about cutting, pasting, piecing together parts to make a whole. Love this process as much as the product. I read through last year's art journal and was amazed by the growth I've made as a Christian in just this year. I've always relied on my faith, but I've never lived it like I try to do now. Nothing to say except thanks be to God!

Merry Christmas!

It's finally here! And not a disappointment in sight, unless you count Camden's cold. Poor guy, he feels lousy. Nevertheless, he was up at 5 am peeking in the family room to see what Santa brought. He came up to tell us and I curled up with him and we just chatted about Santa, the reindeer, presents and Jesus' birthday. Finally, at 6:30, we could stand it no more. I tucked him into my bed and let him watch TV while Curt showered and I got dressed for the big present-opening extravaganza. I woke up Benjamin at a quarter till 7, and we were off, down the stairs to discover our loot. Guess what - stockings for all! They've been my favorite part of Christmas morning for years now.

During this week I wanna play catchup on my Christmas art journal. I've had such a blast recording the everydayness of preparing for Christmas. I'll upload the pix and stick them on here so you can follow along, too. I suppose the remaining page prompts may be about cleaning up after the big rush!

Just another day in my busy week. Thought I'd take a moment to post a few of the cute things I've seen this week.

Last night was the school's Christmas pageant. Benjy's preschool class sang a version of Mary Had a Little Lamb...
"Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb.
Mary had a little lamb.
He is the son of God."
Well, from the mouths of babes it came out:
"Mary had a wittle yam, wittle yam, wittle yam.
Mary had a wittle yam.
He is the son of God."
Priceless.

Benjy can now sing his ABCs. And a year ago he didn't even speak.

The washer broke on Sunday. No hope of getting it fixed till Monday. Rats. It's hard to watch the laundry pile up. But the neighbors across the street were so sweet. Loaned us a key and told us to come on over any time and wash away.

A few images from our Christmas decor...

5 things

I'm challenged to list 5 things I have enjoyed today........
1. Camden ate spaghetti at dinner. He even said "spaghetti" and not "skapetti".
2. "The Office" cracked me up! (NBC, 8:30 p.m.)
3. Benjy told me I was an angel and sang a song to me about Jesus.
4. Almond M&Ms. Need I say more?
5. Christmas lights everywhere.

manifesto

Manifesto: Noun. A declaration of one's intentions.

Starting December first, I will keep a Christmas journal. In it, I will write something every
day to reflect on the holidays of my past, enjoy the holidays of the present and dream
about the holidays of my future. To some, this will be a stack of papers and trivial
scribbles, but not to me. I am taking back my Christmas, I am letting it be something I
relish and, most importantly, I am giving at least fifteen minutes every day to myself no
matter how crazy this season becomes. I hope you will share, encourage and understand
as I make something with my own hands, my own words and my own memories.

I may post some or all of my entries here. Other artists are doing this with me, and you
can see there work here.

Who's got my attention???

I admit it. I'm becoming more and more conservative. Scary, huh?

This epiphany of sorts comes as I realize that as a Christian, I am definitely in the minority.
Not only do Islamic extremists want my faith wiped out, but Americanism, or whatever you call it, wants it obliterated, too. Is it such a bad thing to be a Christian? To be a follower, a believer, a disciple of Jesus Christ? Why is it that in this country, being a Christian is worth ridiculing? Worth dismissing and being sent to the corner? Why is it that we can't say "Christmas" when we celebrate the birth of JC? As the youth minister at my church says, "It's the economy, Stupid!"

So, who's the new man in my life that has my attention? It's Glenn Beck. SHOCK! (Go ahead, gasp and fall down, then get up and read on.) He's on CNN Headline News at 9 pm on weeknights. This is a man who's not afraid to say what he's thinking. Now, I might not always agree with everything that he says, but I do think he's right on with his passion in saying it. I think in America, we've forgotten exactly what it is that we stand for. We're so concerned with not offending anybody that we've forgotten what it is to be offended. To be persecuted. We're so busy being politically correct that we've forgotten what it is to believe in something. Heck, we just believe in "whatever." And we wonder why this country is in decline........

In other news...

We're bigtime into the lights this year. We've got a tree in almost every room. Well, one big tree and lots of little trees. The boys are so proud of their tiny trees with multi colored lights. I'll have to get some pix and post 'em.

Camden had a PERFECT math test yesterday. :)

Thanksgiving - beautiful. Just beautiful. Mom and Dad and home. Can't quit remembering where I was a week ago right now. :)

Thankful for what?

Thankful for home.
Home.
Where I grew up.
Where I could go for a jog at midninight and not worry about a single thing.
Where Mom and Dad were always there.
Where the train whistle soothed me to sleep.
Where Magic Mart could stand up to Walmart.
Where the mountains embraced you.
Where everything seems so small now, but so comfortable.
Where small is good.
Where time seems to stall for just a bit, long enough for one to stop and appreciate its passing.
Where memories flood one's mind, one's heart, one's very soul.
Home.

Christmas Parade - not "Holiday" parade

Not even Thanksgiving, and we've spotted Santa twice. Once at the mall and today in the town Christmas parade that they aren't even allowed to call Christmas.

Your Ideal Pet is a Cat

You're both aloof, introverted, and moody. And your friends secretly wish that you were declawed!

What's Your Ideal Pet?

I swear, that's what this stupid quiz says. Of course it's wrong. I hate cats. I thought it might spit out polar bear or something interesting. But never in a million years CATS!
Check this out:
take the ideal pet quiz

Grateful

Today I start my Grateful art journal. I made it yesterday to help me focus on the little things I have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season. Not the biggies, the obvious ones, like my kids, my dh, God, etc. But the *small stuff* little things. God is in the little things. I'm convinced of it. I want to focus on those, to look for them and expect them.

So, I woke up this morning, a wee bit late, and got myself ready for school. Camden and Benjy's alarm clock rang and I walked to their room to drag their sleepy bods out of bed. What I saw made me giggle. It wasn't really all that funny, but I could see the humor in it, the blessing of the *small stuff*, the not-so-innocent but oh-so-silly side of my boys. I'm grateful they're friends and that they can entertain each other.

Well, I suppose you wanna see what I saw:

Christmases past

The question for the day on 3 Scrappy Boys was to recall a favorite Christmas. Well, I don't have a favorite. Mine are all rolled up into one wonderful, happy memory.

My memories don't involve a specific present either; although the smell of Barbie plastic still makes me smile as I recall the cool Barbie case, house, and dolls of my past......

We always attended the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church, drove home the long way to see all the Christmas light displays, and came home where my two grandmothers spent the night with us. We snacked on Grandmomma Stapleton's peanut butter rolls and party mix and stayed up till around midnight to watch Johnny Carson. (It was always the NBC Orchestra and Doc Severson on the Christmas Eve show. I have no idea why I would have liked it at that young an age. I guess it was just that I was up with the grown-ups, with them as they watched and listened and giggled at my sister and me as we opened up a special gift reserved only for Christmas Eve.

The Christmas tree had gold tinsel and fat blue bulbs that got hot to the touch - you could even smell the heat! It's a wonder it didn't go up in smoke. On Christmas morning we always jumped out of bed after waking up one grandmother by knocking on her wall from our beds next door. My sister and I had been counting the presents and rearranging them under the tree for at least two weeks, so we knew full well whose name was on what box. Passing out the presents was speedy and opening was chaos at best. Candi, our German Shepherd Elkhound was always afraid of the din of ripping paper and squeals of delight, so she hid away with her Christmas rawhide bone.

In the few precious minutes it took to dispense with the opening of presents and insane shrieking over the Santa goodies, Christmas morning was over. My favorite breakfast of scrambled eggs - dry, not runny - buttermilk biscuits, white gravy, and chewy bacon - followed, and the rest of the day was spent playing, playing, playing. No wonder my kids can't wait till Christmas. I wonder now what smell will take them back. Does Star Wars have a scent???

Camden's trophie for following directions at his tournament last weekend. He came home and gave it and his other one a bath. So cute!
I've been counting Weight Watchers points since Thursday, and I'm almost starving. I remember the last time I did this I felt the same for the first week of counting and cutting back on my intake. I also lost 10 real pounds - not just water - so I am willing to feel starved for a bit in hopes that it'll work again. I did go over my points tonight, though. Curt made chili and cornbread. Man, that stuff gets better every time he makes it! I figure the chili is really good for me - beans, tomatoes, green peppers, and protein. Yeah, that's what I think. At least I skipped the cheese. I think I can feel a pound missing from my tummy!

I had the most relaxing day - after church, that is. This morning I had three things to accomplish: load the powerpoint for the church service, substitute for Camden's Sunday School class, and help serve and clean up after the coffee hour, which was PACKED since we had two baptisms today. Sweet little babies. :) Once we got home I changed into my pj pants and took a two-hour nap. I woke up happy, the scent of chili filling the house. I was bummed, though, because I had wanted to get with my friend Alecia to catch up. Drat - missed that. If you're reading this, Alecia - I swear I didn't mean to sleep for soooo long! Let's get together this week or over the weekend. :) :) :)

Here's my least favorite thing that one of the boys said this week:
Benjy - "I want that! I WANT THAT THAT THAT, MOMMY! I WANT THAT! MOMMY I WANT THAT!!!!!!" when a commercial of ANY TOY comes on.

I'll be on the lookout for my favorite this week.

What Halloween picture?

Trick or Treat was last night. We took Camden and Benjy to a few houses in the steady rainfall. They still managed to get a load of candy which the good Halloween Fairy traded for a couple of Star Wars guys each. Good deal I think. Still, not one single solitary picture of the whole shabang. A crazy night it was. And I'm so glad it's behind us. Time to move on with November. Here's what I LOVE about this month:
Cold temperatures and the smell of heat in the house.
Candles lit each evening - well, when we're HOME, that is.
Sweaters and turtlenecks.
Thanksgiving Day - the parade, the dinner, the time to focus on blessings
Christmas decorations that go up after Thanksgiving.
Football.
Christmas lights in town.
Snow. Wishful thinking.
Hot cocoa at Barnes and Noble's Starbucks. It's just different there than when you get it in the drive through at the real Star Bucks.
Turkey and dressing.