happy christmas

This Christmas season has so far included: decorating our silver tree, making a gingerbread house (which got attacked by ants), wrapping presents (Charis wanted to help for about 2 minutes), watching Charis perform in 3 Christmas concerts, teaching Charis to knit, playing lots of Lego Starwars on the Wii, decorating Xmas cookies with friends (and eating raw gingerbread cookies-yum!), admiring the huge lego Christmas tree with those same friends, getting unexpected (and much needed) checks in the mail (that still happens?!), lots of reading by the fire (thanks to whomever anonymously sent us firewood) and watching Jonas climb out of his bed and sneak into the living room (over and over again). I feel really aware of God's mercy this month. I feel Him taking care of us. And I know he's letting us and others be a big part of the process, but I also know He is the orchestrator of it all.





I re-read all the accounts of Jesus' birth this week (in my favorite version of the Bible The Message). And something struck me as cool, that never has before. It's the part where the wise men have been following the star (Star Appreciation Society anyone?) and they loose sight of it, only to see it again right over Jesus' house. It says...

Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time! (Matthew 2)

How cool is that! I never really thought about how relieved they must have been to finally be in the right place. I like the assurance of it...the right place and the right time. I feel like I am in the right place at the right time. Led by God. I think this is always true. We are always right where we are supposed to be at that moment. And God uses those places to teach us and change us. I want that phrase to run through my head when I am doubtful. "This is the right place and the right time!"

I do believe Jesus came at the right place and time. I believe that His birth and eventual death is what allows me access to God. These words that I have heard so many times, and are often stale, are also what give me hope and assurance and joy.

happy christmas.

Cloud Appreciation Society

My beloved friend Kari gave me an amazing birthday gift recently. I recieved a large package in the mail full of beautifully wrapped packages. Each gift had a note attached explaining what part of my life it was for. Some of the highlights included a book for me (Eat, Pray Love. I really liked it.), a book for my kids, a cute nighty from Anthropologie, and the book of Phillipians hand written to me as a letter (such an enlightening way to read that!). But the highlight for me (if I had to pick one) was a framed piece of paper indicating that I am now a member of the Cloud Appreciation Society. I found the site and sent it to her some time ago and had since forgotten about it. Thankfully she did not.

My duty as a member is to "seek to persuade all who'll listen of the wonder and beauty of clouds". This will be no problem for me, seeing as it comes quite naturally. I absolutely love that this society exists and that Kari signed me up for it. I love that she knows I would love this. And I do appreciate, dare I say love (again), clouds.

roommates, cards and billys

Kat and Bas. ahhhh. A weekend with the old roommates. Paxton absolutely loves Bas. The thing with Paxton is he's less friendly and social than Charis, and more of a home-body. So I've always thought of Charis as being more of a "people person". But Pax is the real people lover. Although he'd rather stay home, he wants to be home cuddling and kissing. Whereas Charis is planning the next outing whenever we're home. So back to Kat and Bas. Paxton wanted to be near and on Bas all weekend. He's only like this with people he feels comfortable with. And I guess old roommates fit the profile.

Other than Pax and Bas hugging, we also played cards with K & B. That brought out this funny contrast of personalities. K & B are quite competitive, and me and Caleb are, well, not in the least. But it was fun all the same. I used to think I wasn't competitive because I'm not very good at sports. I thought it was some sort of defense mechanism. Like since Im not very good at "games" I don't enjoy them and am therefore not competitive. But I was "king" like 4 times during our card game, and I never digressed all the way to "skum". Yet, I was mostly ambivalent. Admittedly, I would have enjoyed the game less is I had lost the entire time, but I never felt angry or exuberant. K & B felt and expressed both. Having such strong feelings about a card game is baffling to me, but being so relaxed about life is boring to them.

"The billys"....this is what Jonas calls his toes. Why? I have no clue. But I love it, and constantly ask him to say it. Also, he has an affection for the letter "w". He can pick it out of a line-up and searches for it on the fridge. I also love that.

And I have begun the 5th Harry Potter book. I've only read part of chapter one, and Im already itching for the kids to go to bed so I can read more. Im no longer ashamed. I proudly read. 

 

Who eats raw in Alabama?

Nobody, is the answer. So after a short break from eating raw, I'm back to it. The other night I made a delicious Pineapple- Cucumber Gazpacho. It's more of a summer food, but I enjoyed eating it with my slippers on in front of the fire. My friend Ginger gave me a great raw recipe book, Raw Food Real World, and this one's from that...

4 cups chopped peeled cucmber

4 cups chopped pineapple

1 cup fresh pineapple juice (I didn't do this)

1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced

1 green onion, white and 1 inch of green, chopped

1 Tablespoon lime juice (I used lemon)

1 handful cilantro leaves, plus a few for garnish

3 Tablespoons avocado, macadamia or olive oil (I used olive)

1 handful finely shopped raw macadamia nuts (I used almonds)

In a blender, add 3 cups each of the cucumber and pineapple, the pineapple juice, jalapeno, green onion, lime juice, and salt. Blend until smooth. Add the remaining 1 cup pineapple and 1 cup cucumber, the handful of cilantro, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the oil. Pulse the blender quickly a few times - it should remain chunky. Taste for seasoning. Can chill or serve immediately.

Before serving, add the nuts to the gazpacho and stir to distribute evenly. Drizzle with remaining oil. Garnish with cilantro.

H-TOWN

My (not so little anymore) sister lives in the (not so) beautiful town of Houston. It was wonderful to see her face. We stayed two weekends with her. It was nice to spend some time with her boyfriend's family, and see where she works. We stayed up late one night talking. It's been a while since we've done that.




April and Charis have a special relationship. It's endearing how much Charis loves Aunt April. I think it's the big earings, high heals, impromptu dance shows, and clarinet skills that win her over (who wouldn't be?). Oh, and there's the hair rollers. Thank you April for this...

Sweet Home

Alabama? Caleb said it was time for us to come home when Charis announced she wanted to move to Alabama after we live in Fallbrook. Needless to say, we had an amazing time. The kids played hard and long everyday. And it was almost a week's break for me. My cousins are 12,13,15,16, and 18. The oldest was at college, but the other 4 loved on and tired out my kids everyday. Their house is on 5 acres of land which has a creek and small forest in the back yard. Not to mention a tree house, trampoline, 4 wheeler, basketball hoop, toys, games, etc. But the thing that made my kids love Alabama so much was the play time with the cousins.





A big motivator for going on this trip was to see my precious 94 year old grandma. Its really special to me that my kids got to know and play with their "meemaw". It was fun to watch her pretend to be annoyed at Jonas. And just the smell of her house (corn bread and vegetable soup) and the "sameness" of her life was comforting to me.

Lauren, my 12 year old cousin, had a horrible accident while we were there. We were all at Cheehaw Park climbing rocks and enjoying the spectacular fall colors. Lauren was somewhat out of view climbing up a large rock, when a boy "harmlessly" threw a (big) rock over the side and hit her in the head. This caused her to fall backwards off the rock (a few feet) and also hit the back of her head on the rocks below. We thought for a second she was dead. It still makes my stomach turn to think about it. Her parents rushed her to the hospital where she spent the next 4 days. She recovered beautifully, and we got to spend our last 2 days with her. Since she ended up being okay, it was actually a cool bonding time for all us. There's nothing like a tragedy to bring people together and put immediate perspective on life. I think every church in Alabama was praying for Lauren (and sending us fried chicken). It was pretty awesome to see the support and love of all their church family.

There is so much more I could say about our trip, but this post is way too long already. So, I'll end with 2 of my favorite pictures. The first is of Paxton looking like a true farm boy. If there is one thing he's not, its a farm boy. Despite the forced smile for the camera, he hated the farm visit. Charis on the other hand, ran around like a crazy kid picking up goats and chasing the miniature horses. I love to see the differences in my kids.

And Jonas. He's 2 now. So tough and fun and loud and kissable. I love this picture of him.

Life is a highway

and I don't want to ride it anymore. At least not with three small kids in a motor home. But seriously, it could have been much worse.

We played a lot of "Whosit?" My parents still have the 1975 edition. It is awesome. It was Paxton's favorite game.



We grew to love and hate gas stations. There was such excitement over getting to stop and buy a (nasty) truck stop treat. The sweet video games and ridiculously expensive toys were a bonus too. And yet the smells and the possible big rig maulings were something we are glad to be done with.





We fell into a nice routine in the motor home, and I only had occasional moments of "this sucks!" A lot of the places we stopped at were really beautiful, which always excited me. The beauty was mildly interesting to my kids. But one RV park in Texas was so desperately ugly. There was nothing pretty about the place. But it was my kids favorite stop. Why? Because they got to play with 2 fun girls for a few hours. They are still talking about those girls. It was a good reminder for me...people are the most beautiful thing to children, and should be to me as well.




We talked a lot about America and each state we were in (7 in all). Unschooling was a breeze. Charis can proudly spell m-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i all by herself. And Paxton almost has America and California distinguished from each other.



Im so glad we did it, although next time it will definitely have to be with Caleb.