Choosing Christmas Cheer

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Some years Christmas time usually leaves me frazzled, anxious, worn out & disappointed.  But this year I don’t feel any of those things!  I am so in love with this whole Christmas season & celebrating the birth of Jesus.
  I’m most thankful that I had another year of making memories with my little family.  Praise Jesus for these good times!
Here is what’s working for me this year:
  • I chose not to make platters of cookies for all of the neighbors.  I did however do simple neighbor gifts (I’ll post this soon!).
  • The 2 cookie platters that I did make were filled with 2/3 store bought goodies and 1/3 homemade cookies… that were from a mix… yes, I really did that.  & they were lovely and appreciated all the same.  –Am I really the same person who wrote a few years ago about cutting out processed food and only making all natural?  Yeah, well, uh… that girl had a 3rd baby and needs a break right now.
  • I chose not to worry about putting a price on gifts & trying to keep it even for everyone. Shopping is so much more fun when done from the heart and not the wallet.  Hopefully this doesn’t backfire and leave anyone comparing (or complaining).
  • We are not exchanging gifts between us siblings.  This is kind of sad, but it cuts out A BOAT LOAD of stress!  Those brothers of mine are already spoiled, and very difficult to shop for!
  • We are lightly homeschooling through the holidays.  Rather than taking a week or two off and trying to get back into routine, we are just lightly schooling through it all.  In all honesty, I think we are getting MORE done, when I am more relaxed and not pushing the schedule.
  • I’m throwing out random acts of kindness every.single.place I can.  I don’t want to reveal too much, because that would suck the joy right outta the whole shebang.  I do want to encourage you to just bless someone, anyone, in anyway you can.  Whether you get to stick around and see their reaction or just imagine what their expression was, it feels SO good either way.

Oh and here’s a silly one:

  • We put the great big over sized Christmas tree downstairs and let the big kids load it full of ornaments just as they wanted to.  The basement is off limits to the toddler, so she and the tree are both safer that way.
  • We bought a smaller (6.5ft x 3ft) pre-lit tree for upstairs.  I only placed one ornament on it. Um, because I bought the ornament, came home, hung it on the tree, and it hasn’t moved yet!

All of these little cut backs have made it easier to put my time, money and energy  into the things I feel more passionate about right now.  What can you do, or are you already doing, to go LOW STRESS this week and next?

Memories For The Boy

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It’s nearly midnight, I’m exhausted & I want to crash.   But tomorrow my boy turns 6!! This quick set up took less than 10 minutes and I had everything already on hand.  I know it’s not pretty.  I also know my son will love it regardless. Making memories for my children is my favorite thing to do these days.  A week from now he won’t care that the streamers were pink & the only gift he had in the morning was bubble wrap on the floor.  He loves that stuff!
But he will remember that his momma loved him and took time to surprise him with the fun things that little boys love.

I hope he never forgets that he was prayed for and loved.   It’s his special day, but I feel like I am the one who received a gift.  My boy.

Flag Day

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This Friday June 14th marks Flag Day. This also happens to be the wedding anniversary of my loving parents.
My father tells a great story about how he fooled my young mother into thinking he hung flags all around town for their first wedding anniversary. 😉

If you are looking for a song to teach your children about Flag Day try out this fun one we found on YouTube.
Watch “Flag Day Song for Kids (FREE LYRICS BELOW) DidiPop Kids Music” on YouTube

The Boy Turns Five and a Half

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This past Saturday our family celebrated something special. Even though we didn’t celebrate in the way we normally do, because we were busy cleaning and taking care of household things we were still celebrating. The celebration was marking 5 and a half years of what we call “The Carben1 Comedy Tour”. Yes it’s hard to believe it just 5 half years ago we welcomed our son into this world.

I wholeheartedly enjoy this boy so very much. There’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t make me smile and laugh and sometimes do one of those rolling on the floor laughing things everyone post about online. I mean, do people really do that after they read something funny? Doubtful.
Spend a day around this sweet little boy and you too will be rolling on the floor laughing. So Jesus, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for my little boy, my joy.
I know that someday he will grow up to be an amazing husband, like his father is.  He will be a wonderful father to his children and he will make all of his friends laugh just like he does for me now. When that day comes I have no doubt in my mind that he will still love his mother very much, but I know so much of him will be with his own family then and so these days I have him so very close I will cherish.

DIY Table Top S’mores

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Last night we made Table Top Driveway Smores.  I had everything on hand already except the charcoal and the pot.

Driveway S’mores
Being impatient we roasted some while there was still a little flame, this makes deliciously burnt mallows. 😉
The Basics.  I think this bag of charcoal will last us all summer, and then some!
Update: 6 years later, we’re still using the same bag!

What you’ll need:

First I made a ball of tinfoil to put into the pot (about softball sized).  This way the pot wasn’t so deep.  Then I lined the pot with another piece or two of tinfoil.

Next, I added about 5-6 pieces of charcoal along with a little dryer lint to start the fire.  This wasn’t successful, so I resorted to lighter fluid (back up when you squirt this on-  It really works fast! Be so safe with this, please)

The coals will get hot while the flame goes down, then you will have flameless table top s’mores!
Much safer for little people, although it is still crazy hot up close, you won’t have to be quite as paranoid about the flame catching their clothes on fire (maybe that’s just me that worries about that), or burning little hands if the wind comes along.

The heat of the coals is enough to roast your marshmallows, and I’ve read the pot gets hot enough to melt whatever it’s on- that’s why we chose the driveway for this.  You could also put it into a stoneware bowl or something if you wanted it on a table outdoors.

The original pot of 5-6 coals stayed hot enough to roast on for at least 3 hours.  After that we just called it a night, we maybe could have gotten more time out of it, but we were exhausted from being out all day!

Best of all-  Our clothes didn’t stink like smoke when we were done!  Yeah!

Go on, try this out and make some memories with your precious family!

Melted Crayon Shapes

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What would you do with an ice cream bucket FULL of crayons?
Well I’ll tell you what I did.  I sorted them by color and saved all of them longer than 2 inches for precious little hands to color with. The ones under about 2 inches went back in the bucket to be melted into new exciting shapes!
I did this a few years ago with my playgroup friends.  At the time it was just about Easter & we made butterflies, eggs, and spring shapes.
Today it’s just me and my little guy, so we are making dinosaur shapes!

So far I have had the oven set at 170 (the lowest my oven will go) for about 20 minutes.  I checked them at 15 and they weren’t totally melted yet.
I’ll post an update when they’re completed!  I hope they turn out well, but if they don’t, I’m not too worried about it.  These were just pieces of crayons that had already had lots of love.  And really, more than anything it’s something for the short guy and I to do together until his big sister comes home from school.

*Update:  My dinosaur took FOREVER.  I know this is because I didn’t break mine into little pieces.  So the result was it took longer (about 50 minutes), and the back of my dinosaur looked like it had bones and a horn where there were still pieces that hadn’t melted.  The front of both looked just right though!  Mine is the brownish/red (I used all the dark crayons I was sure the kids wouldn’t want to use).

Now the two creatures are playing with each other and the little guy is occupied because it’s like he has a new toy.  Success!

THANKSGIVING

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Philippians 4:6 (Worldwide English (New Testament))

 Do not worry about anything. Talk to God about everything. Thank him for what you have. Ask him for what you need.

Thank you God for:
Loving me, unconditionally.  Really, no one else could do it like you do.
The family I grew up in, & all of the wonderful memories I have of my childhood.  And the not so good memories, because I have learned through those as well.
My parents, who even when faced with tough times decided that the Lords plan for them was more important than their own plans (or however it was they ended up together again… I’m just thankful they did!  My life would be so different today had they not reunited, I take such pride in saying my parents have been married for 30 some years, I hope someday that will mean something to my children as well).
The family I represent, with my husband & children.  I feel so blessed (I saw this defined as being blissfully happy, I thought it was very fitting).
The gift of being able to see my extended family, although it doesn’t happen nearly as often as it should, I am thankful for the times we do get to spend together.

Lord, I ask for:
Your protection over my family.  I ask that we may all be in good health.

Guidance as I continue in my profession of motherhood.  I pray that with all things I do concerning my life, especially raising my children, that I will make you truly proud.

The ability to love my husband unconditionally. 

Lord, I also pray that there will be a cure for so many diseases and illnesses, especially for diabetes and cancer.

Holiday Cards

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How do you feel about holiday cards?  To our family, they’re Christmas cards and when they come we are so excited!  The kids and I just love checking the mail through out December and seeing updated pictures of our family and friends.  Some whom we haven’t seen in months, years, and others who we have just recently seen, but it’s still great to get an update with what they’ve been doing.
I love the hand written notes, those are priceless.  The well written double sided folded printer paper stuffed in an envelope with a picture is awesome too.  I have hopes of doing those every year, but of course, I am a busy mother of two, and above all a procrastinator.
So, because of my wonderful procrastination habits, I order my Christmas cards online, get them mailed here, address them when I have time and mail them out.  Simple. easy, and affordable.
I do have friends who buy coordinating outfits for their family MONTHS in advance, get pictures done for the card, in addition to the double sided folded printer paper of what they’ve been up to.  To those of you who do this, you rock, and thank you.. Please keep it up!  To make it a little simpler you may want to use the Shutterfly greeting cards, or Story Cards

As far as a gift idea to go with a few of those holiday cards, why don’t you include some canvas wall art?  I had a picture of our wedding rings in a flower made into canvas and it turned out beautiful!  Check out this link to see what Shutterfly has to offer.

I imagine our family will most likely use the basic Christmas cards this year.  There are some really beautiful layouts to chose from.

Have fun!!

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