Twenty Ten and a New Look.

Happy Twenty Ten!

I changed my blog header for the new year... I hope you guys like it!

I was reminded of how much I LOVE old vintage matryoshka dolls recently when Ezra was given one by our friend Dan who lives in Colorado. They are so intricate and so beautiful, and I love the generational (and motherly) imagery that comes packed and stacked within each one. They are pretty much the coolest toys ever. (Besides Legos, of COURSE.)

I found the illustration here and the background image here.

I figured this doll would work well for representing both me and my boys since all three of us have pretty much the same haircut anyways.

ahhhhh ha ha ha. SAD BUT TRUE.

2009 was a doozy of a year... one that brought such new life and joy into my heart that I am a little bit remiss to see it slip so quietly away.

Speaking of which... there is a certain little person in this household who is turning ONE YEAR OLD in about 12 days.

OH MY HECKITY HECK WHAT THE HECK?!?

That went by fast.

Happy New Year, Everyone!! :)

My Dream Outfit.

I got some shopping money for Christmas, so I have been looking online at clothes...

DROOL.

Dress- from ModCloth
Hat from Village Hat Shop
Shoes from Pink Studio

In the Light, In the Dark.

in the light.

Christmas was fabulous!

But the drive there and back almost did me right in.

We drove twenty hours there and twenty hours back home again, and it would have been rather enjoyable if not for the small humans in the back seat. They sure do know how to make things... challenging... what with all their chattering and crying and fussing and carsickness and 'Is that mountain utah? Is THAT one utah? Whaddabout that one?'

(For every single mountain! Or hill! Or speed bump!)

It was really rough, but I would do it all over again to be able to spend that much time with my family. We don't get to be together like that very often, and it really is worth whatever it takes to get out there.

near the end. when the desperation was setting in.
"here! just gut a box of kleenex, son!"

I keep catching myself glaring out the window at my car.

Because I am MAD AT IT and don't want to talk to it for a good long while.

in the dark.

Tonight, around 4:00, it started to snow. Moments later, a transformer blew down the street (KABLAM!) and we lost power for four and a half hours.

Our house was cold as all heck dang.

But we made the most of it and read books on a pile of blankets in the living room and figured out how to pop popcorn and brew tea using only these little camp stoves Chris had made out of soda cans years and years ago- back in the days when he was in my same College english course at UNR and he only showed up to class 30% of the time, yet somehow managed to get a better grade than me at the end of the semester. (Oooh I was AM STILL miffed about that.) I kept thinking as I watched him light these little aluminum contraptions how we'd never have dreamed we'd be using them almost a decade later to make yummy treats for our family on a dark, snowy night in the plains of middle america.






It was brilliant fun.

I have the fondest childhood memories of when the power would go out when we were growing up. We always lit the fire and piled in the living room and had a grand ol' time reading books and making forts.

What about you? What did your family do when the power was MIA?

It's Ice Storm season, and I need to gather some ideas.....

:)

Sled Away, Baby!

Sledding!!!

The best thing in the whole wide world.










And then...

Hot cocoa by the fire!

(Also the best thing ever.)

Wonderful Winterland Wonderment.

We went and found the perfect tree yesterday! It was so fun to trek back there and find it and cut it down.

I love my sweet family so very much, this time with them has been completely amazing already!

















I hope your holidays are full of warmth and love and peace this year, as mine have already been...
merry merry christmas!

xoxox

A Rough Ride.

After two hellish days in a car, this:



The drive was 20 hours of brutal. I was stressed and sick, Myer was fussy and sleep-deprived, Ezra got car sick and we had to pull over in the middle of nowhere and clean him and the car up with baby wipes in the 2 degree weather and then a police man came to make sure we were okay and the whole rest of the way I was fighting back nausea and OH MY GOODNESS it was terrible.

But then there was this:



And it was all worth it to be here with family for Christmas.

My brothers got in yesterday. The news is calling for more snow on Tuesday, so we're going to go hunt down a tree to cut on the property today. I can't wait!

I'm so glad we MADE it!

Avalanche Tips, for your Living Room!

Did any of you ever do those Winter Survival Days in school, where they take your class out into the snowy wilderness and teach you how to build shelters and start fires and, basically, not die from being cold?

I remember them telling us about what to do if we are ever caught in an unexpected avalanche. (As if you would ever be expecting one. ha.) If you get caught in one and get tumbled around and don't know which way is UP anymore, you're supposed to clear a space by your head and then spit. Yes, spit. Whichever way your spit falls would be DOWN. (Due to gravity, you see.) So, you'd want to start digging yourself out in the opposite direction... upwards. Towards the air and sunshine again.

In preparation for our upcoming road trip to Utah, I am currently doing laundry. Laundry of such quantities, that I was thinking this little avalanche tip might just come in handy if these heaps of dirty clothes were to topple upon me unexpectedly.

If you don't hear from me for a couple of days, please send Search and Rescue to my living room.

I will be the one that is upside-down in a pile of socks and things... spitting and desperately trying to dig my way back out.

har har.

(he thinks I am hilar.)

Christmas Cuties.

Big day today. The boys had their Christmas Program at school this afternoon. Ezra has been so excited about this recital, he's been practicing for weeks. He did SO well singing all the songs and saying all the lines and doing all the hand motions!



Myer got wheeled out on a 'present cart' with all the other munchkins and looked allllll kinds of adorable.




While they were at school this morning, I finished up my Christmas shopping and found a couple of little things for Ezra's stocking. I also got some really cute warm clothes for Myer for our upcoming trip to snowy Utah. I found all this at one of those 'gently used' kid's stores for under $20! score!



The hat was too cute to resist, so I immediately stuck it on Myer's noggin when we got in the car. He's so yummy!!



I hope you all had a lovely Tuesday as well!

xoxo

The Calm After the Storm.

This blog has been so healing for me over the past three and a half years. Every once in a while, something will cause me to go back... to re-read the 'me' of two or three years ago, and I am always blown away at how far I have come in such a short amount of time. Maybe it isn't anything profound or astounding... maybe it's nothing more than the natural progression of having children and the painful years that follow as you shed the skin of your youth and become a grown woman, but it feels like so much more than just that to me. It feels like I am finally walking on steady ground after a lifetime of feeling wave-tossed and wibbly-wobbly... unsure of self or purpose or heart's desire.

I have a lot of things and people to thank for this feeling of groundedness.

God.
My husband.
My children.
Community.
The adventure of stepping out on our own.
And writing.

Nothing has brought all these pieces together so well as that last one. It was like all these things were pulling for me and calling me to take huge steps and leaps in growth and confidence and faith, and they would have all remained jumbled and scattered and splintered in my head if not for the glue I have found in writing it all down. I am so so grateful to have found a medium where I could not only get it all out of me, but then be able to actually SEE and HEAR stories of how my bumbling journey was actually helping some of you in the process. It still baffles me and I am blown away that we live in a time where that is even possible.

Think about it! Anyone can share their story- for anyone to find and read who may be struggling with similar issues. Before, stories were only made accessible to others if they were published and distributed and ultimately purchased... it was like lots of stars had to align for certain stories to end up in certain hands. Yet, now-a-days, a person like ME can write and share and bless and be blessed by people I may never meet face to face! It is so wild.

The gem that has surfaced in all of this over the last few years of my life has been Peace. I wake up feeling peaceful, and I go to bed feeling peaceful. Even when I have had a stressful or whacked-out day, my heart is still deep down peaceful. In the years past it often felt like I would go to bed with my heart screaming and wake to it whimpering.

There's not a day that goes by without me being consciously thankful for this change in my life. It's been like a long breath of fresh air after being held down in water for too long. It has made me realize what I have, and it has given me the clarity to realize that I never want to be back in that place again.

In all of this, the underlying strength has come from the growing knowledge that God is for me, and that He has already won every battle. He already has the victory. And in Him, I do too. No matter what. Even in death. Whom shall I fear? He is the stronghold of my life- the same one who will not be shaken even though the mountains should fall down flat into the ocean.

This, more than anything else, is the thing that has finally quieted my heart and given me space in my thoughts to just rest and be. If it weren't for this knowledge, I would still be floundering and thrashing. And stuhhh-ressing.

An image keeps coming to mind as I am babbling about all of this. You know that part in the movie "Forest Gump" where Lieutenant Dan is screaming at the storm in rage and bitterness, only to realize the next morning that, because of that very storm, his boat is one of the only shrimping boats left and from then on the shrimp are SO plentiful that the ship is almost sinking underneath the weight of them all?

That's me. In the calm after the storm... practically sinking from the weight of the catch... realizing that all the pain and struggle and heartache were worth it- if only because they led me here.

moms are for everyone!

I made myself a Christmas Banner for my blog. I've never done that before, but I just couldn't stand to look at the birdie banner for one more day. I don't know why, I just got tired of seeing his little birdie face and his little birdie body on his little birdie branch. So I replaced him. blam!

I chose a nativity scene because it worked well with the title of this site (something along the lines of: "even jesus had a mom!"), adding a whole new dimension to the strangeness that is this blog's name. I usually get one of two different reactions in response to my blog title:

1. moms are for everyone? I guess... that's... true. Everyone DID get born.

Or,

2. moms are for everyone? bow-chicka-bow-wow! (editor's note: Eeeew. You are gross.)

When I sat down to create this blog, that title was the first thing that popped into my head, so I wrote it in the box and I haven't looked back. It is weird. And slightly ambiguous. Yet, somehow inclusive? And weird.

I like it.

heh.

Anywho, a new banner will replace it by the new year.

***

Today was bitterly cold, yet Myer and I still managed to make our weekly trip to the thrift store while Ezra was in school. I feel like recently there were months where I couldn't find anything good at the thrift stores, but the last few times I've gone, I've found TONS of stuff that I love. (I haven't bought it all, but at least I've found it!)

Here's are a sampling of the goodness I found (and brought home) today:




-A set of large serving platters with OWLS! Be still my heart!
-A cute metal farm-scene bowl.
-And a couple of new down filled pillows for the couch!

Other than that, I finished up my online Christmas shopping and enjoyed some one-on-one time with Myer.

He's such a cool little guy. I really LIKE him.

Happy Wednesday! :)

I'll Be Home for Christmas...

This year, Chris and I and the boys will be making the two day trek out to Utah to spend Christmas with my family. This will be the first Christmas in the new house, and to say that I am excited to get to be there would be a gross understatement.

They got 18-20 inches of snow there yesterday and last night.

{{Lord, if you can hear me, please please please PRESERVE some of that for me for when I get there.}}

There is absolutely NOTHING as amazing as snow in this world in my mind. I love it with a deep down gut-level passion. I am really hoping to get to sled down some of the mega-hills by my parent's house this year.

Oh, how I love sledding!






I can NOT wait!!!!!!!!!

Where will you be this Christmas?

The Joys of Boys.

I love being the mamma of boys. They are just so dang cool... little men in the making. I feel like, at this point, I could be a mamma to a whole gaggle of boys and be perfectly content. As some may remember, when I was pregnant with Myer, I was desperately hoping for a girl. But, I am SO glad that I had another boy because it has created a perfect balance in my heart.

I was so worried that if we had two boys, I would feel all this pressure- like, now we have to have three kids so we can try for a girl again (and what if it's another boy? What then?!?), or we just stop after two and always feel a little sad that we never got a girl. Thankfully, I feel absolutely none of that pressure. If we decide to have another baby someday, I will be so excited to have a boy OR a girl. Or if we decide to stop, I will be completely content with these two ragamuffin brothers that I already get to raise and care for.



Chris and I were laughing the other day, though, because a certain Mr. Ezra James is SO sensitive and SO dramatic and SO emotional, that it is sort of like having a girl already... haha. I can't even imagine what it would be like if we had an actual girl. WOAH. Turmoil.

Example: yesterday Ezra got the teeniest, tiniest, eenciest little scrape on his wrist. I'm talking get out the mircoscope kind of small. He proceeded to screech and wail and roll on the floor for a majority of the morning after that. And, get this, he didn't even know how it happened! It had probably been there for three days before he spotted it.

When I finally convinced him to allow me to put a bandaid on it (mostly so he would stop staring at it and wailing afresh from the sight of it) he walked around ALL DAY holding his "injured arm" in his other arm- about 6 inches in front of his body like he was bracing it from the agony of the slightest glance or breeze.

No joke. ALL day. I was getting sooooooo annoyed.

My mom says I was the EXACT SAME WAY.

Ahhhhhhh ha ha I think that's what they call payback.