Today was a strange day that started out pretty wonderful. Since Tim and I were both home today, we decided to surprise the kids at school by meeting them for lunch. This made them very excited as they walked down the hall and saw us. Big E’s lunch was first and we sat with him and his friends. He smiled the entire time and enjoyed pointing out all of his friends to us. When it was C’s turn she was just as happy. She gets a little goofy when she is excited, so it is always kind of fun to see her in that mood. We got huge hugs from both kids before we left. I’m so glad that we had the chance to join them!

Most of the rest of the day was running errands and wrapping presents!

This evening I got some difficult news about a loved one. In respecting their privacy, I will not be posting any further details, but the circumstances have made me very sad. Having Tim here this evening has given me the breathing room to process without having to be in sole control over the children. Needless to say, I’m definitely ready for this day to be over.

My heart sank when I opened the email containing the settlement sheet for the van this afternoon.  Total Loss. I let it sink in for a minute. We paid off the van less than a month ago, and now it’s gone.

The accident Tim was in on Monday wasn’t horrible. The damage didn’t look that bad, but I guess when they opened everything up there was more than we anticipated. $4700 worth of repairs on a 2007 vehicle with 181k miles on it. I’m not surprised they wouldn’t fix it. Sad, but not surprised.

With the van gone, we will have to deal with the annoyance of loading all three kids in the smaller car. Tim is able to borrow a car for a little while, so we won’t be getting a new van for at least a few weeks. Luckily we will have a chance to look around and avoid any impulse buys. I’m particularly thankful that the settlement amount is higher than the money we just spent to pay it off, so it isn’t a complete loss in financial terms.

I fought back some tears today, and I sighed from disappointment, but in the end, things happen. Life throws us curve balls, but if I have learned anything over the past year, it is to not linger on the frustrating or difficult things. So instead of complaining I’m going to brush myself off and keep moving forward. God is good- oh so good, and because of that I’m good too. 🙂

 

 

Today I paid $3.50 in a sanity tax.

I remembered going into this evening that we were going to have dinner at our church. They offer Wednesday night dinners, which is wonderful because it saves me the time and hassle of getting the kids home, fed, and back to church before their Wednesday evening activities. We don’t go all of the time because I don’t want to pay for them to go if I know they aren’t going to eat what is being served, but I thought we would be pretty safe with taco salad, at least they could eat chips, right?!?

On the way home I realized that I didn’t have time to stop at the ATM to get cash out for dinner, so I would have to get the money after I picked up the kids. And so began my dilemma. 7-11 offers a free ATM for our bank, so going there is always the best option, but the busyness of the store and the position of the ATM inside make me very hesitant to leave my kids in the car for the two minutes I would be inside. A trip to 7-11 would mean getting my three hangry children out of the car, drag them into a store with food options, and then tell them they couldn’t get anything. Sure, I could buy them something, but then that defeats the entire purpose of going to the free ATM, right? So… I opted for the ‘sanity tax’ and used the ATM that charges $3.50 for a simple withdrawal, but it is a drive through located right across from the church.

So technically I spent $3.50 this evening to not take my cranky, hungry children out into public. That may seem silly, but for me, it was money well spent. And to the patrons of 7-11, you are welcome.

Have you ever paid a sanity tax? I’d love to hear what it was!

It’s been just over a month since we sold our house. Baby E keeps asking to go back and I keep reminding him that we don’t live there anymore. Then he asks if we can go back when the people that are living there now are done. Poor kid, he really misses it. I miss it too, but not as badly as I thought that I would. Tim’s been working a different schedule lately, and I really love not being in a house by myself. On top of that, drop off and pick up of the kids is going much easier than I had anticipated.

In the evenings, I have been making sure to take extra time with the kids at bedtime. We have been spending about a half an hour each night just sitting in their bed reading stories. They are currently obsessed with a book that has a ton of short stories in it, and we have been randomly choosing which stories to do each night. There have even been a few nights when I wasn’t much up to reading, and C offered to do it for me. I can’t believe I have a kid that is old enough to take on story time! It happened so quick!

I let the kids pick out presents for each other this year, so we sat down at the computer and perused Amazon for some ideas. I let Big E do his ‘shopping’ the other day and C did hers tonight. I was amused that they both picked out the same thing for each other- but it actually worked out well because it was a puzzle/trivia/game thing that they had available in both kindergarten and second grade, so they will each get one that is age and skill appropriate. But seriously, what were the chances that would happen?

Well, I’ve rambled a lot and I am super tired, so I guess it is goodnight! 🙂

When Tim called me this morning on my way to work, I was surprised to find out that he was not yet at work. I was even more surprised to learn that he had been in a fender bender halfway there and was in the van on the side of the road. While the damage does not look extensive, he couldn’t drive it because the coolant had all leaked out. It has been towed to an auto body shop and Lord willing, it won’t take long to fix.

Tonight I am so very thankful for the fact that my husband wasn’t hurt. Commuting in our area can be quite hazardous, and his commute is pretty rough, so I am incredibly grateful that he is ok. What a way to start our week!

We don’t have a Christmas tree this year. It’s the first year we have not had one. When we moved, we put all of our Christmas stuff in storage, and since we are still living among boxes it doesn’t make sense to put one up. And because my in laws have a beautiful one right upstairs, the kids don’t seem to even mind that we don’t have one of our own. Grandma has already started putting presents under her tree, but we will wait until the kids go to bed on Christmas eve to put theirs there.

In the meantime, I chose a door in the basement to start hanging our Christmas cards and the very sight of it makes me exceedingly happy. Despite the cold and the considerable darkness, this really is one of my favorite times of the year. How could it not be?

This evening I worked on some presents, addressed Christmas cards, and even baked cookies. I have a short week at work and then a break over the holidays and I am really looking forward to it!

My in laws went out with some friends and family this evening to do some caroling. They invited us to go along, but with the kids we thought it might not be a good idea. After they had left the kids got upset that they didn’t get the chance to go, so we quickly practiced a few simple songs and set out to find people to sing to. We went to six different homes (all people that we know well, and we wouldn’t be afraid to sing in front of) and we sang our collection of Away in the Manger, Silent Night, and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. While this was way outside of my comfort zone, I tried not to think too much about it and just did it. After all of our singing we ended our evening with some hot cocoa and bedtime stories. The kids really enjoyed it all and I am sure memories were made they will keep for a lifetime. 🙂

Thank you to anyone we stopped by and visited!

 

Today was a rare day indeed. There are a few days a year that my kids get to visit my work and today was one of them as we enjoyed the office holiday party. The day started off with a scavenger hunt, some coloring, and a hot cocoa bar. It started to snow and sleet outside, so the walk to the restaurant was cold, but when we got there we enjoyed some wonderful food, the most awesome door (see photos), live music (one of my co-workers plays the cello beautifully), and some crafts and games. The kids made friends quickly with the other children and within moments they were dancing onstage to the holiday music.

The highlight of C’s day was that she wrote and directed a short play for everyone to watch. She sat down and wrote a script, then she recruited some of the kids, asked the emcee to announce her play, and then directed the performance. I walked that line of whether or not I should intercede, but I was impressed with her courage so I just watched it unfold. My co-workers were great and very encouraging to her, and it certainly helped that all the kids were adorable. 🙂 I wish I had gotten a video of it.

Big E’s favorite part of the day was dancing on the stage. Who knew he was such a little performer?

And naturally they enjoyed trying all the deserts, making some crafts, and building a gingerbread house. By the time the party was over they were exhausted and Big E fell asleep on the way home, which took two hours because of the weather.

I picked the kids up this evening and they asked to go see the train again, and since we didn’t have anywhere we had to be, we headed straight there. The kids enjoyed pushing the buttons and watching the trains pass by. They were pretty excited to be the only ones there, because they could stand on all the platforms and look in all the windows without being in the way. When we were done we came home for dinner and bedtime.

I’m not exactly sure why, but today was a difficult day and I’m incredibly tired, so I’m heading to bed early. Hopefully a good night’s sleep will set me straight!

We pulled into the driveway close to 9pm this evening. I had taken the kids to their Wednesday night program at church and we were all ready to go inside and head for bed. Since the temperature has dropped dramatically in the past 24 hours, I decided to run to the front door and unlock it before getting the kids out. That way they could make a beeline for the warm house.

I turned off the car and stepped out and that’s when I first heard it. There was a rustling in the woods in front of me. I paused as I listened to it and whatever it was, it sounded large.

Have I ever mentioned that I have an overactive imagination? Did you know it has a field day when my surroundings are dark and quiet?

So, I hear this noise and I immediately think bear. This is ridiculous because we do not live in bear country. We don’t live anywhere near bears. In fact, in all my life I have never actually seen a bear outside of a zoo. But my fear of bears is so great that naturally any loud noise in the dark woods must be a bear. Note to self- It’s NEVER a bear!

It took about .5 seconds for me to shake that hypothesis, so naturally the next logical conclusion was axe wielding murderous madman. Not that we have a lot of those in our area, but it’s actually probably more likely than the bear scenario if I’m honest. The rational side of me (yes, I do actually have one) shrugged off murder man, but the thought of him lurking in the woods kept fluttering through my mind as I hurried to the front door and unlocked it. When I got back to the car, it was quiet.

Great! Murder man has gone radio silent. Crap, he could be anywhere. Wait?! Was that him? Man, whatever it is it sounds large. But then I got to thinking that sounds in the woods are often amplified, and what I might be dealing with is a squirrel out for a late night snack. Now this scenario is even more believable than the bear or murder man, and much safer too.

Yes, it must be a squirrel.

But now I have to know. So I jumped in the car as quickly as I could and turned on the lights, flipping them to the high beams to catch our squirrel in the act.

As my eyes adjusted to the quick flood of light I saw it… not a bear… not a murder man… not even a squirrel.

A deer.

A large dear meandering through the woods munching on leaves and grass.

Of all the scenarios, this one made the most sense. We live in the heart of deer country. Deer everywhere. It should have been my first guess, but clearly my overactive imagination couldn’t bother to settle on the most obvious answer.

I quickly got the kids’ attention and we watched the deer for a few moments wandering around the woods, not twenty feet from the car, eating his dinner and paying us no attention. When he was finally gone we got out of the car and into the warm house.

So tonight was a good night- a night where we didn’t get eaten by bears or chased by a deranged murder man. It was just us sitting in a car staring at a deer chewing some leaves. You’ve got to love a story with a happy ending. 🙂