A New Year: Reflections and Saying Goodbye

I was reflecting on December 28th, about the birth of my special little guy, Ryan.  I could not believe we had been responsible for keeping him happy, healthy and alive for six years.  Not to mention the tremendous happiness he brings to our lives just by being himself.
He was so soft, round, cuddly and sweet as a baby.

Now he's tall, slender, has a great sense of humor (except he's still figuring out how to tell a good knock-knock joke), he has a heart to obey and please his parents, and you could not ask for a better big brother to Dylan.  We also discovered my special little guy had his first loose tooth the day of his birthday. 

This year, Ryan's birthday was touched with sadness.  We got the call that morning that my grandmother had passed away, on his birthday at 12:40 a.m.  We immediately began packing to leave for the funeral, which was a two day journey away.  And so this happy day was also touched with grief.

My grandmother was one of the sweetest people I have been privaleged to know.  Her house was always a sanctuary of comfort and rest, not only thanks to keeping her house immaculate, but also thanks to her gentle and quiet manner.  She was in pain for much of her life, thanks to having an autoimmune disorder.  Yet I never recall her complaining or speaking much about herself.   

In more recent years, she had a characteristic shuffling walk and she would often get attention by laying a gentle hand on your arm.  Grandma never thought ill of anyone.  She was always putting herself in someone else's shoes and trying to see how they were feeling.

Growing up, I recall they always had a jar of M&M's free for the taking.  My parents, being responsible parents did not always allow me to have as many as I wanted, which would have been all of them.   I had been begging for m&ms from the jar that was always filled with candy at their house but my mom had forbidden it. Grandma asked me to come help her in the basement. On the way down, she held my hand, pressing a small handful of m&ms into my chubby hand. "Shhh" she whispered and winked at me. I stared at her round eyed and told her mom had said no. Surely she didn't know that or she wouldn't have gifted me forbidden candy. She just smiled and told me she was "grandma" and grandmas did what they wanted. She said it was our secret.  Grandma was a special person who gave and loved without cause and especially when it was not deserved.  

There is no question that cleanliness was of great importance to my grandma.  If you wanted, you could probably eat off her bathroom floor.  It sparkles.  She was always insisting gently that we wear slippers in the house, the garage and the basement.  Yet, she was patient with our childish messes.  When I was about three or four years old, I had the great idea to pour my mother's face wash on the sparkling wood floor of the guest bedroom with my younger cousin.  We smeared that stuff over every inch of the floor.  Then we began "ice skating" on the slippery surface.  When they found us, Grandma must have been horrified by the mess.  But she was the first one to insist we didn't know any better when punishment was metered out.  

It's really hard to fully capture with words the person she was or express the void that will be there now that she is gone.

This new years eve found us in black, gathered around her casket and saying final goodbyes.  Nothing reminds you that the essence of what makes someone you know who they were like looking at the body they left behind.  It truly brings home the fact that they are gone.  But there was relief too.  Relief she is no longer in pain.  And peace in knowing that this goodbye is only for a short while.  I know exactly where my grandmother is.  She is in heaven.  She is happy and whole in a body that does not hurt or feel pain.  I know I will see her again.  This goodbye is just for a short while. 

Happy New Year: Recap Part 1

Welcome 2015! The last bits of December 2014 were incredibly busy and we had a lot going on, so here's a little bit of a re-cap: 

Mid December: We traveled to spend an "early christmas"with the Grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. 

 As luck would have it, my sister and her family were traveling through the same city at the time we were visiting and we met up with them at a local Chick-Fil-A.    Ryan and Dylan enjoyed playing with Noah and Jesse for a few hours while the adults played catch up. 

Ruby Falls:  As part of the kids Christmas, we wanted to give them one more experience gift.  We had planned on Mammoth Cave, but it was sold out of tickets the night before, so thankfully Aunt Linda discovered Ruby Falls Caverns instead.  All the cousins, Uncle Ken, Aunt Cassie, Unle Rod and Aunt Linda caravaned to Ruby Falls for a fun adventure.  We hiked a few hundred feet to an underground waterfall.  The kids were blown away by not only the waterfall but the stalactites and stalagtites and other rock formations.

After that hike, we were able to go on the Christmas Cave tunnel. The kids hiked down a decorated tunnel to see Santa Claus. 

 There was a little elf village.  The kids were given a leather pouch with three gingerbread men tokens to exchange for activities on the trail. 

 Here they are with Santa.  They sat on his lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas. Santa gave them each a glowing ball "wish" to put in his wish machine. 

 Here Dylan is putting his wish in the machine.

 Here Ryan is exchanging his first gingerbread man for a crystal.  He put the crystal in the joy-o-meter to see how much Christmas spirit he had.  He got an A plus and got to keep the crystal.

 For the second gingerbread man, they searched for the red joystone, also which they got to keep.  The third gingerbread man was exchanged for breaking and keeping a geode.  

 Here all the cousins pose before leaving the caves for home.

 Back at Grandma and Grandpa's, it wouldn't be Christmas at their house without baking, decorating and devouring gingerbread and sugar cookies!

 After a big Christmas exchange, it's time to say goodbye.  Saying goodbye to family is never fun. These cousins will miss each other!

Ice Skating

This year we wanted to do an "experience" gift for the family.  We decided the Wintergarden's Christmas Traditions around the world and Gingerbread Display (FREE) and then ice-skating in the plaza would be the perfect "experience" this year.  

We started the day with the Wintergarden's Gingerbread house display and competition.  Schools and orginzations from all over the area submit their gingerbread houses and they are judged and put on display for the Christmas season. 

 Here are a few of our favorites: 

Ryan and Dylan thought this was pretty neat.  Hopefully they got lots of good ideas for the gingerbread house they will be making with Grandma this year! 

I was extremely proud of Dylan's self control.  He did not try to dive through the rope and devour the gingerbread houses!

 Then we looked at the display featuring Christmas traditions from around the world.  It started with Santa Claus in American and covered, St. Nicholas from Germany, traditions from Haiti and the Ukraine, La Befana from Italy, Grandfather Frost from Russia, and Papai Noel from Portugal (not to mention a few others). 

Then we took a break for lunch with some hot delicious fries and juicy burgers at 5 Guys before hitting the plaza's ice skating rink.   

My husband decided not to skate since we had brought our nice camera, so it was up to me to take the kids around the rink, which was no small feat!  I started out with Ryan and we wobbled quite a bit that first lap.  I haven't ice skated since college, so I was pretty rusty.   Here we are concentrating and being wall-dwellers.

 Then it was Dylan's turn.  It was a painfully slow lap, but thankfully I was a little steadier the second time around and did not have to rely on the wall as much.   

 Then, I bravely took both of them for the rest of the laps.  Ryan fell several times but each time he got back up and tried again.  Each lap he got steadier and by nightfall, he was out in the middle of the rink and leaving Dylan and I in the dust.

 As for Dylan, he was pretty proud of himself.  He did his best to take me down a few times, but I managed to stay on my feet.  He kept saying things like, "Wow mom! I'm so good at skating!" after nearly taking me down. Good thing he's so humble.  

Ryan absolutely loved ice skating.  

 We had to get off for a few minutes so they could re-surface the ice, and Ryan really enjoyed watching the machine do it's job.  He was begging to keep skating but unfortunately we had a few city blocks to walk back to the car. 

 Maybe if he's really lucky, we'll get him some lessons for his birthday...but I would say our family "experience" gift was quite the hit! 

3D Cell Model Science Lesson

One fine school day, the science lesson suggested (but did not require) making a three dimensional model of an animal or plant cell.  I browsed online quickly and decided a cake would be closest to my comfort zone for making edible models.  When my husband descended for lunch and I casually mentioned we would be making a cell model out of cake, he instantly decided I was going to mess it up and do it wrong.  Besides, he was a scientist and had spent the better part of five years taking detailed pictures of cells, so who better than him?  I decided I could not doubly crush him: first by doing it imperfectly and secondly robbing him of educational quality time with the kids.  

And so.....behold.....the animal cell.....

I had suggested little labels so we knew what everything was, but Mr. Scientist told me that was unnecessary since HE knew them all and had "imparted all (his) wisdom to his offspring."

The Infamous Art Presentation

I love our homeschool co-op.  Ryan does too.   Every so often, the kids have to give an oral presentation to the class.  Last month, the topic was art and each child was to pick an artist to present on.  Ryan does not exactly know many artists at 5 years of age, so I suggested the first one that came to my mind: Vincent Van Gogh.....because of his beautiful swirly "Stary Night" painting.  In some cobwebby recess of my brain I slightly remembered he had a hard life.....but I had forgotten many things about Mr. Van Gogh. Things that quickly returned when we sat down with our stack of library books detailing the many troubles Van Gogh encountered.  Things like mental illness, depression, cutting off his ear, living with a prostitute and rumors of suicide.  Oy vey! 

We stumbled through those books as I attempted to soften the message.  I would get halfway through a sentence and then realize I could not read that to my five year old! 

  I paraphrased and omitted things.   I tried to focus on reading about his young life when he had ambitions to become a pastor and help people and the inspirational quotes Van Gogh penned to his brother.

Then we sat down to make Ryan's poster presentation.  He carefully wrote out his four sentences.  "Vincent Van Gogh was an artist.  He wanted to be a pastor when he was young.  He was kind to those in need.  He had a hard life."  We practiced what he would say over and over.  We practiced talking about the names of his paintings and the vocabulary that went with them.  We talked about where he was born and some of the inspirational quotes.  Then we talked about how to play I-spy with the class with the painting of Van Gogh's bedroom (Who can find the chair? Who can find the bed? etc).

On the morning of the presentation day, we went over it one more time.  He had it down perfectly. 

He patiently waited his turn while all his friends gave excellent presentations on their chosen artist.  Then he proudly and exictedly began his presentation.  "Vincent Van Gogh was an artist.  He lived with a woman and her kid and then he left them.  He cut off his own ear.  Then he shot himself to death.  Who wants to play I-spy?"
The words just poured out.  So fast.  I was in shock.  My mouth opened to stop him but nothing came out because my mouth was stuck open.  My eyes panned the room to see every other living soul in that room was also doing their best imitation of a codfish.  Eyes bugging out, jaws on the floor.  This day will live in infamy as the day we brought the concept of self mutilation and suicide to our wholesome Christian homeschool group.  

Bathroom Re-do

When we first bought our house five years ago, I knew that someday I would want to re-do the "powder room" bathroom.  I was not crazy about the previous owners sponged on fish or the 70's style blue toilet, but it seemed to go together and appeared to have been newly painted at the time we moved in, so we left it. Recently,  it felt like no matter how I tried to clean the bathroom--scrubbing walls, the floor, the mirror...etc....it just seemed...dingy and dirty.  And I was sick of the blue trim and the blue toilet.  So, I asked my sweet husband if my Christmas present could be re-doing the bathroom.  

We tried to keep it low budget.  I was going for a light soothing gray....since the bathroom is a confined space and windlowless, I wanted to keep it light.  Well....the gray I picked turned out a bit darker than I expected and at first I was really worried and Josh thought he might have to kick me off the team...But once we painted the trim a bright white and put a white toilet in, it really started to grow on me. 

 One of the things I love the best about the re-do (besides the sparkly white toilet) is the white flooring.  Before the flooring was a grayish blue and the white tile really helps brighten everything up and gives a striking contrast to the darker walls. 

I found some small "apothecary" type jars at the dollar store ($2.00) to put cotton balls and q-tips in.  Maybe over the next few months I can add some pops of color, hopefully red or yellow accents to help set everything off.  For now, I'm very happy with the outcome!