seeking

My loss for words carries over into the new year. And when that happens, sometimes a simple quote will help me organize my thoughts.

So I found this, and it was for me. And maybe for you:

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential. ~Ellen Goodman

Maybe it's because our family's on the verge of a giant trip...and I have lists of to do's and to get's. Maybe it's because my birthday lurks around the corner.

But I don't want to look for flaws this year. This year, I'm seeking potential, and goodness, and joy, and kindness. As I write that, it sounds like I may just be seeking the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.) But that's a mouthful.

So I think I'm going to focus on KINDNESS and JOY.

I saw them in my children today, my great teachers of what's important in this life.

KINDNESS in self-less sharing of an ICEE, unprompted from Mom. It was beautiful and I was inspired.


And JOY...in three siblings that can fight like the rest of them...but deep down, there's JOY and I hope to find it.


But how will I do this this year? I hope it's with heavenly help. There's a manual.... if I'll only read it.

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8


But if all else fails, I'm comforted in knowing:

Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.
Proverbs 19:21

Blessings to you this new year in all you're searching for.

it was very merry.

The first Christmas. The first for us with just us. No other family. We made it ours. And it was special. And it was happy.


Angels and wise men at our Christmas Eve service.


I love this image of Santa and Wiseman...so conflicting for me.


Hop on Pop. We had a beautiful fire for the first time in two years. I'm not sure why we didn't use it last year, but its warm glow mesmerized us all for a bit.


New pjs on Christmas Eve!


Lasagna and Texas toast. Lasagna on Christmas Eve has always been the tradition. This was the only meal I cooked all weekend.


Thanks Nancy and Lew! I think the box was his favorite present.


Santa went overboard, as he usually does. But lit-up faces on Christmas morning are priceless.


My cake for Jesus' birthday would NOT come out of the pan. But I made the frosting from scratch and it was delicious.


Diego opened all his presents with his teeth.


We wrapped up their passports that had arrived a week ago.


The giant lion and tiger were my favorite gifts this year...I thought they were for Diego but the big kids confiscated them.


Diego's checking out Isabela's new dog, Jingles. Looks real...just doesn't smell or sound real. That's good, right?


Diego's playhouse. This is why you haven't heard from me for weeks. Sorry about that. I'll post more about that later.


And the wagon was waiting for them in the big room after all was opened. There's nothing better than one more present.


After lunch we headed up to my aunt and uncle's house. Leah Ann got a Wii for Christmas, and I'm telling the truth, the kids played it for two days straight...and we let them. The morning after we got home, they both woke up complaining about their arms hurting. I thought they had slept funny, but then we figured out it was from bowling and sword fighting.


Ava and Diego...she's always super patient with the kids....and they love her.


Far away cousins.


And a Merry Christmas was had by all.

Spanish advent

Our advent tree has turned into great practice reading and understanding Spanish. I've been writing the clues in Spanish to where the tree ornament is hidden. The kids are taking turns reading them and usually run off right away to the hiding spot.


We made these one year from those wooden shapes at Michael's...we just drilled a hole in them and painted them.


Child-friendly, and I think they'll last for many years!

snow + school= smiles

making their way

We're doing something different with our Nativity this year.

As we set it up, we used a blanket for the ground and placed 25 small stones leading up to the stable. Mary and Joseph make their way to the stable, one stone, one day at a time. Baby Jesus isn't there yet, but he'll show up Christmas morning. The sheep roam around. The wise men can be off in the distance (although, this set doesn't have wise men).



Sometimes they fall down.

Like we all do.

early risers

Sometimes, as a consequence for something the kids have done wrong, I have them write. I know it doesn't always fit the crime, but maybe they'll get neat handwriting out of it.

So the other morning, they both got up early and for some reason came barging into our room...waking up Diego, which then meant I had to wake up. I was NOT happy about it. So I sent them both to their separate rooms to write sentences about not waking us up (unless it's an emergency, of course).

This is what they wrote:



I had to laugh.

"I will not wack mom and the rest of the family."
"I will not wack the family."

Well, I'm glad I won't be wacked anytime soon.

do NOT make these cookies

These are my mom's cookies. Ginger-spice sugar cookies. I'm sure many people have this recipe, but this is the one cookie I remember making with my mom. And I finally shared this tradition with Isabela yesterday.

But it almost wasn't to be.

This recipe calls for ground cloves, but all I had in the cupboard were two bottles of whole cloves. I thought maybe the kids could pound the cloves into little crumbs, so we put some whole ones into ziploc baggies and I gave them spoons to bang them with ( I think Isabela actually used a rock at some point.) But after a few minutes and a lot of noise, the pieces weren't small enough. I gave up and said we'd just have to wait until I could go to the store to get the ground cloves, then got distracted by something else and went about my day.

But Isabela kept pounding away.

After about ten minutes, she declares hopefully, "I think I did it! Are these small enough?" And they looked pretty tiny to me. I wasn't sure, but after all her hard work, I thought why not?

We carefully poured the little specks onto the teaspoon over a cup measure so we wouldn't waste any of our precious ground bits. We only had half the amount needed, but I read somewhere that whole cloves were stronger than ground cloves, so I figured it would be plenty. So we measured out all the ingredients. We poured. We mixed. We beat. Keep in mind, we don't own an electric mixer. I only think of buying one when I'm mixing something, and by the time I've finished mixing, I'm glad I haven't spent the money.

So Isabela was dissappointed when I told her you have to refrigerate the dough for one hour before you roll the cookies. And I said, "You know why this is good? It gives us time to clean up the kitchen before we make the cookies." And my girl that HATES to do dishes, sat at the sink beside me washing the mountain of dirty dishes we had sitting around.


Then we baked them. And we tasted the first one. And she loves them just as much as I do. Then I told her, "You know the bad thing about these cookies? They're so good, you never have enough left to give to anyone else."

We have four left.

great deal-update!

The National Wildlife Federation is having a great deal today on their magazines...Ranger Rick, Your Big Backyard, and Animal Baby...two years for $20. These magazines are great for children because they're all about animals, and each one is geared for a specific age group. The proceeds from these subscriptions help fund the NWF, and there are NO ADVERTISEMENTS in these!! I think they rarely go on sale. Click here to go to the site.

A great gift idea that doesn't end on Christmas morning!!

update: OK. So apparently they go on sale again. If you missed the above deal, today you can get one year for $12.09. It still a good price.

a host of angels

It's the second time I've seen this video now...and it gives me joyful goosebumps each time.


I think my one wish in life right now is to be an unsuspecting witness of a flash mob.

I loved how a blogger I've just discovered compared this beautiful choir to the heavenly host speaking out to the shepherds proclaiming the birth of Jesus.

From the Bible:
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2:13-14

Ann Kroeker, mentioned above, has some wonderful posts on Advent you can read here and here.

But for OUR family, today, we slacked on Advent. I don't have candles for our wreath that sits upon our table, so I've yet to light it. Our daily reading was forgotten today. And although it was replaced with family time and crafts, after reading these posts, I'm tempted to wake the kids up, light a match, and break out the devotionals. But advent is about waiting, so I won't do that.

I'll wait with anticipation and renewed excitement for tomorrow and the rest of this special season to share with the kids.

bass pro shops

OK, so these pictures are from Thanksgiving Day...but better late than never.

On our way up to DC, we stopped by Bass Pro Shops to visit their big Winter Wonderland setup. We really enjoyed it, although I'm not sure I would go out of my way to drive up there. There weren't many people there at lunch time Thanksgiving day, but if it were busy, I'm not sure it would be much fun.

That being said, there is so much to see! The kids were fascinated by all the real stuffed animals throughout the store. If you can shoot it with a gun, it's probably there.


There's also some giant aquariums with waterfalls and huge fish that are pretty amazing.

Santa is in the wonderland part... and there are plenty of things to do if you're waiting to see him. You can write him a letter, play with model trains, shoot toy guns and bow and arrows, play in a tent, and play with remote control cars and jeeps.



Diego chose to throw paper snow all over himself, but he's one and you may not want to do that.





Santa sits by this cute little house. We played a bit while we waited for him to come back from lunch...but then the kids didn't want to talk to him. Figures.


There's another wonderland outside...mostly for the Dads...but the kids had fun with it, too.

advent tree

There are so many amazing advent trees out there. When I saw this one, I knew I had to make it with my box of 1000 popsicle sticks.


It got tedious though. Isabela helped me make all these tiny paper boxes and as I type right now, Juan Pablo is folding some more.


We might have 25 by the 25th! Maybe we could add a box each day instead of opening one.

maggie's farm

We took a trip up to Aunt Maggie's house over Thanksgiving. She lives quite in the middle of nowhere...and it took five hours of driving there and back to make the trip...but it was definitely worth it! She had pizza and fresh baked cookies waiting for us when we got there...and a yard full of nature for us to explore.

Her new pets are some chickens, a rooster, and a turkey. This is Turkey Lurkey, and he is beautiful...


...and thankfully, he will NOT be eaten.


Diego, my outdoorsman.


He is quite a lover of nature...I did keep imagining him wandering off through the woods, though, and getting lost.


Maggie took us to look for deer tracks, but we didn't have any luck.


She's got some great yard decorations...including this weather vane...


...and a nice door for a fairy or nome.


I LOVE LOVE LOVE her porch. Actually, my own is quite similar, but hers has a beautiful wooden ceiling and feels much more solid than mine.


The chickens finally got brave enough to come out of their pen...I think they thought the kids would chase them. (So did I.) They have great names, too....Henny Penny, Chicken Little...I can't remember them all...Maggie help me out.


But when we got too close, they took off following the rooster in a little line. It was very cute.


Love pics holding hands!


Diego had a little problem with this tree...


...it was making faces at him.


And here we are saying good bye just before heading home....laughing all the way!! Thanks for a great time Maggie!!