As we are getting closer to the Holiday season, Halloween is just a week away, I am reading more and more blogs about the holiday season and how the economy this year is going to impact that. One in particular that I read has posted a no spend challenge for the rest of the year. The idea is that people are spending way too much as it is and then add to that the holidays and the spending goes through the roof. She has said that other than basic necessities, and emergency needs she does not plan to spend any extra money the rest of this year. When I read this my first question was, as I am sure yours is as well, what about Christmas? Before I had a chance to post a comment with my question, somebody else asked the same thing. Her reply surprised me. She said that they do no celebrate Christmas or Easter. That took me back a bit. I know that they are a family that believes in Jesus (she has said so many times on her blog.) Before I comment on her blog I wanted to get some other opinions.
To me celebrating Christmas and Easter is much more than presents and Santa or the Easter Bunny. Much Much more. For me during those two holidays we are celebrating the gift of Jesus. First with the celebration of his birth and second the celebration of his Resurrection. How can you not celebrate those two holidays. I look forward to Christmas and Easter every year, I love celebrating with my family and teaching my children all about the holiday and why we celebrate. I am having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around this idea. It just baffles me to no end. It is not that I think we have to spend a ton of money on either holiday, in fact I agree with the idea that we spend less. In fact I am going to give it a try this year, Spend much less on gifts for friends and family, and try to make many of the gifts that I give this year. I had already planned to help the kids make gifts for each other and family members this year. Santa is a very small part of Christmas for us and the Easter Bunny does not exist in our house at all. I have to believe that you can celebrate the holiday and not be too materialistic and go overboard.
Heather
I am taking a new Bible study this semester at a local church. This is nothing new. I have taken Bible studies since I was pregnant with Alex. I have always felt that it is important to study the Bible, and not just by myself. I need the guidance and input form others around me. I can read and study the Bible on my own all I want, but what is to stop me from reaching the wrong conclusions and going down a path that is not what God intended. That is not to say I don’t read the bible on my own. I try to get in at least 10 minutes every day to at least do devotionals. If I don’t I usually don’t have a good day.
Anyway back to my point. I am taking a parenting study this semester. It is nine weeks long and it focuses on getting to the heart of your children to parent them. I had a very hard time deciding which study to take this semester. There were three options, this being one of them. I finally decided that given the fact that we were experiencing some behavior problems with Alex, and even Lizzie, that the parenting is probably what I needed to take. Now I am starting to wonder. We are now four weeks into the class and I am really not getting anything out of it at all. It is very frustrating. I have never felt this way about a class before. Usually by the end of the first week I have already learned something and can’t wait until the next class to come back and learn more. This is not the case with this current study. I go every week hopeful, and come away every week disappointed. Usually whatever they are talking about is something that I am already doing. The topic this week was discipline. The main point was that we are going to have to discipline our children. Well no kidding, you mean that our children are born with the same sin nature that we have and therefor are going to do things that are not right or what is the best thing for them. And get this that we as their parents need to correct them. Get out of here. I mean really, are there people out there who don’t know that children have to be disciplined. The speakers also said that we need to have a discipline routine for our children and that it needs to start with words, rather than action. Again, who wouldn’t start with words. I commonly make it a practice to send my children to time out without first giving them a warning and telling them the correct thing to do. Time out is another big thing they talked about yesterday. Apparently the speakers don’t like time out. I personally have no problem with it, when it is done correctly. The speakers talked about using a break to help the child get their emotion under control. For me that is time out with just a different name. I don’t use time out as our usual punishment, it is a way for the kids to sit back, think about why they got in trouble and suffer the consequence of missing out on a fun activity while they are in the time out spot. So for the second week in a row I have come away from the study with no new knowledge. Everything that they talked about was something that I already do.
The other thing that I find hard about this study is my small group. Normally I am at least indifferent about my small group. This is the first time I have not liked the women in my group. And it is not all the women, in fact now that I am writing this It is really only a few of the women. One in particular is one of those people who talk nonstop. She is the table co-leader and I can tell this is her first time, so I am trying to be patient. However several times yesterday I had a point to make and by the time I was able to get a word in she was four topics away from what I was going to be making a point on. It was very frustrating. I don’t feel like I am connecting with any of the women at the table. That may be due to the fact that I have to come late from dropping Alex off at school, so I am missing out on the first fifteen minutes of the study, which is fellowship time. Since I do come late there is never a chair available at my table, so overall I am just feeling very down about the whole study.
Oh well, I will have to push through this. I am sure that if I keep at it, God will show me something, even if it is just that I can get through a rough class.
Heather
I can’t believe how well Lizzie’s 18 month Pictures turned out. She has always been my difficult one to get pictures of. When she was 4 months old, I had to sit on a stool with a blanket covering me holding her just so she would stop crying long enough to get her picture taken. Today was no exception. She was constantly on the move and any toy that the photographer used to make her laugh she wanted and when she couldn’t have it she threw a tantrum. She absolutely loved this white kid sized rocking chair. They kept moving it so she wouldn’t see it and she kept finding it. I laugh now, but it was very frustrating at the time. So by the end of the picture session, I didn’t really have high hopes for how well the pictures would turn out. I was pleasantly surprised. They took 92 pictures!!!! and I loved most of them. She was full of personality in all the pictures so I really feel like they captured who she is.
I was trying out a new picture studio this time. From the time Alex was born I have always gone to Picture People. And up until 6 months ago I felt that they have always done a good job. When I took the kids for their Easter and Birthday pictures last February and March I realized how much their quality and costumer service had slid. I was driving out to Deptford for service that I really didn’t like. The pictures were okay, but i think they could have done better. So I decided that for Lizzie’s next pictures at 18 months I would go somewhere else. Several other mom’s suggested Portrait Innovations. They did a great job, like I said I loved almost all her shots and the price was great. They were running a special, for $9.95 I got a 10×13, 2 8×10, 4 5×7, 4 3.5×5, and 32 Wallets. I also got a free wall calender. Wow!!! They also had some nice specials if you got 3 or more poses, including a CD of your pictures, which Jason likes. I didn’t feel the need to have that many pictues of Lizzie at 18 months. As it is I have way more than I will ever use, but it was cheeper to get the package than it was to buy just one sheet. I am looking forward to getting the kids Christmas pictures done this year, and especially their Easter and Birthday pictures. I decided that this year I would get their Easter and Birthday pictures done all at once. They are all so close together that the kids are not going to change that much in a three month time span. So I am def. going to take advantage of the 3 pose package then.
Have a great day
Heather
This week was a strong reminder to why I menu plan. Last weekend was a busy weekend, so I never really got the opportunity to sit down and plan out our menu for the week and get the grocery shopping done. Big mistake. All week, starting around 4:00 I start to get this feeling of dread that starts in my stomach and ends up as a whopper of a headache. Why you ask, because I have no clue as to what I am going to make for dinner that night. I have no meat defrosted, no veggies to work with, nothing. That is no to say there is nothing in the house, there is plenty of food in the house, it is just either all frozen or in its raw form,(flour, sugar, etc..) I don’t typically keep prepared food in the house anymore. The kids can’t eat it and it is silly to spend the extra money on something that only Jason and I are going to eat, especially if I still have to cook something for the kids. So here I am at 5:00 on Thursday night sitting with the kids while they eat, what are the eating you ask, chicken nuggets, mini egg rolls, and french fries. Such a healthy meal, and very simmilar to what they have had for dinner every night this week. We ate together as a family one night this week, not because Jason had to work late, or I had bible study. No because I had no clue what to make for dinner so I just threw some chicken nuggets at the kids and Jason and I got something later when we were hungry.
This is how we ate a lot when Lizzie was an infant, mostly because I was too overwhelmed with being a mother of a active toddler and a demanding infant. However the last few months I have gotten a lot better. I now cook almost every night, and it is usually a reasonably healthy meal. This is because I menu plan. In the morning I know what I am going to be making for dinner that night, so I can take the meat out of the freezer. At the beginning of the week I know what groceries I need so that when I go to make dinner I have everything that I need. As a result most nights we eat dinner together as a family, and even if the kids don’t eat what I have given them, at least I know that I offered them something healthy. I figure eventually they will eat what I cook.
I already have my menu for next week planned and my grocery list made up, so that on Saturday I can go to the market and come Monday I will be ready to actually cook this week.
