It’s three weeks into the new year and this is my first post. I’m sure you can tell that posting more often on our blog was NOT one of my New Year’s resolutions! I did have a few though, here they are....
#1 – Spend more time in God’s word. I have found time and again that the more time I spend reading God’s word, the more content I am. I’m more focused on others and my selfishness does not rear its ugly head quite as often.
#2 - Get together a book of recipes that we enjoy as a family and keep a menu planned for at least the next week. I find that I absolutely hate late afternoon and it is mainly because I have to figure out what I’m making for dinner but have no idea what to make. I’m hoping to alleviate that problem by getting together a list/book of recipes that at least half of our family will eat and then plan meals for the next week to month!
#3 – Start exercising. We joined the local YMCA on January 3rd and it’s been wonderful to take advantage of their workout rooms, pool area and track. I told Emily after our first work out that I was proud of myself even though I was only able to do half of what she did (calories burned and distance gone). I told her, “I haven’t exercised in…..”, then looked at her and said “How old are you again?” It’s a sad fact that I have not had any regular exercise since I was pregnant with Emily, almost 16 years. YIKES! I pray that I will keep all of these resolutions.
The New Year also brought my brother Thom and his wife Katherine into town to visit! We were able to see them several times during their six day stay and took them their first night in town to the Cincinnati Zoo Festival of Lights. This year it was very mild, 40’s-50’s. In the pictures you can see us with practically unzipped jackets and yet Thom and Katherine are bundled up. Even these “mild” temps were chilly to them where in Texas the highs have been in the 70’s. Here are some pics from our time with them.
New Years was a quiet event for us this year. Both Emily and Ella spent the night at friends houses and we had Thom and Katherine over for a quiet evening of talking and watching the ball drop on TV. David and Masamo went to bed by 10pm. Once we got over how sad Dick Clark sounded on the TV (he really should just retire) we said goodnight and the Kelly’s left.
The New Year also brought a new project to our house. One that I have been itching to do since we moved into this house five and a half years ago! We repainted our master bedroom!!!!! The color on the walls before was an ugly burnt orange. Although many people complimented me on this color it actually came with the house and I have never been able to stand it! The new color is Burnt Almond. I love it! We hung new curtains and put some more baseboard around the floor to fill in the gap left from where we took out the floor covering the original hardwood floors.
Here are some pics from before and please don’t judge me on the clutter on my bed. We were getting ready to move things out when I realized I hadn’t taken any “BEFORE” pictures.
Here's some pics of the DURING, the old and the new paint together.
Here are the AFTER photos!
Just this past weekend I hung a wall saying that I had custom designed. It is a line from the song that Jason and I have as “our” song. If you have any interest in this, the website that worked with me was wonderful and was the cheapest one that I found out of the ten or so that I previewed. My creation is now an option to choose from on their site! Here is their link Trading phrases
Jason and Emily went skiing this past weekend with the youth group from our church. This is a yearly event for them and they have an awesome time. Emily said that this year was especially perfect due to the weather, people on the trip and no one getting seriously injured. It was kind of lonely without them but the younger kids and I kept ourselves busy. We went over to my mother’s house on Saturday morning and stared working on a craft with my mother and sisters that Jennifer had seen done on the Today Show. The craft, which is a wreath, involved shatterproof ornaments, a wire coat hanger and clear thread. The ornaments I bought on clearance at Walmart the day after Christmas and the coat hangers were bent into circles. We quickly learned that the clear thread just wasn’t cutting it for the project and so had to go out and purchase some wire to attach the ornaments to the hanger. Here is my final result hanging on my front door…..
Kid Updates:
We’re getting a little nervous around here about the state of our school system. As a result we are contemplating doing something else for Emily for school next year. We haven’t made any decisions but are in an information gathering stage. We’re seriously considering sending her to another school district that has open enrollment. There are a few nearby that offer it but it is something that we would have to apply for. The reason for all of this is the concern as to whether or not our district will even be able to offer the types of courses Emily is going to need to prepare her well for college. She is in many honors classes and those are up for the chopping block next year, along with a lot of other things. The future is unknown but we will make the best decisions we can based on the information we have.
Ella has spent a lot of time lately learning some simple crafts that are teaching her how to hand sew. On a recent snow day she used her new sewing kit and a sewing book she got for Christmas to make a “Quiet Mouse”. She did an awesome job! Next she decided to kick in a little of her creativity and made what is called a “Stuffy”. She decided to go with a Pokémon character named Buizle for this particular craft. Here are her finished projects….
We had a breakthrough with David in the past couple weeks. It first happened when we were sitting around the living room one evening and David said the word “rocket” for some reason. Now, if you know David you know that he has a very hard time pronouncing his letter “R”. This time instead of saying “Wocket” for the word rocket he actually pronounced the “R” and said “ROCKET”! Jason and I immediately looked at each other because we had both picked up on what a significant and new thing this was for David. We had him say a few other words that started with “R” and some he got and others he did not. I must confess, I teared up and cried at the fact that my little boy was losing the last little bit of “baby” that he had left. I am overjoyed that his speech is progressing but sad to see him growing up. It was truly a bittersweet moment. Here is a video of him pronouncing some “R” words…
Our youngest son is always entertaining us with, sometimes intentional and sometimes not. He was eating a powdered donut one morning and when he was done, well, here’s what he looked like…
I couldn’t help laughing and once I was done taking a picture I showed him in the mirror how he looked and he laughed too!
We were driving in the car recently with Emily driving, me in the front passenger seat and Jason sitting in the back with the younger three. Jason decided to dance to the music on the radio and Masamo looked over at Jason and asked him very seriously “Daddy, do you need to go potty?” It’s a sad comment when you child thinks you are doing the potty dance when you are instead just having a good time. Thankfully Jason took it in stride and laughed along with the rest of us at Masamo’s question.
Another funny story I’ll share with you is that I was wearing a short sleeved shirt the other night and was getting Masamo in his pj’s when he pointed to my arm and asked “What is that?” I had to clarify what he meant but he was pointing to some goose bumps on my skin. I explained that they were called goose bumps and that they meant that I was cold and needed to get warm. He thought about that for a moment and said “Yeah, we need to get you warm so the goose doesn’t bite you anymore!”
Here is a video of Masamo showing us his eyebrow “trick” and then singing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”, with David accompanying him in the background.
I want to encourage you to click on this link to see Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Although we may have heard it or parts of it many times, this year it was particularly special to me because Masamo is home and Dr. King’s dream is now personally my own dream. I sympathized with the civil rights movement my entire life but now feel that I am really a part of it having a son whose skin color could possibly cause other people to judge him unfairly. I will leave you with one small quote from this incredible 17 minute long speech that really fits our family.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
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