2012 C to the Mas

Who doesn't love a Christmas montage?

Scrooge.

This goes out to the rest of you...

Thank you, pinterest

all FIVE Keim grandkids

Sage is committed...comm.itt.ed....to bringing the 80's back.  

sweetest ever.  makes me miss my cousins.

Is it just me or does she look 17?

ChachiBand's #1 wish was a spa.  Should've been at the top of the two little's lists too.

Reba's night with my 3 favorite women in the entire ENTIRE entire world.  

Nothing awakens my soul like hours with lifelong friends.  

Over dinner, we tried to think of things about ourselves to surprise each other.  

You know, "guess what I did once....."

No one could think of a single thing.  

I know its super gigantic good fortune to know one another so 

thoroughly and still love one another so deeply.  

This cup of mine, it overflows!

Bartel Christmas....where my children were spoiled beyond recognition.

Auntie Erin was home from Tennessee.  These two are so identical its freaky.

Mmmmmmmm.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!

joy is now

So its been a bit....sorry to be absent.  Life has been full of life stuff the past bit.  Let's just sum it up by saying all will be well because we KNOW that joy is in the now.

A few tidbits of this thing we call home....

* Eva stayed home from school today because she was super dizzy.  I just assumed that this was a random word chosen to describe "I don't want to go to school today".  But because she had a deep, bad cough, she got to cash in the "Mom's not in the mood to force me to go to school today" card.  BUT....thank goodness for grandmas.....My mom suggested that she could in fact be dizzy because her inner-ear could be affected by this horrible cold.  D-U-H.  "Maybe she needs some cold medicine?" was the gentle suggestion.  I gave it to her, and the dizziness left.  When oh when will I start taking seriously what my kids say about how their bodies feel?  This tendancy to assume they are crying wolf has to be a curse I carry from teaching 10 year olds for years.  For them, "dizzy" meant "I didn't study for this spelling test and our nurse is really nice can I please go see her and find a way to say there until recess?"

Tonight, she said,

"Mom, I know it is truly a miracle that I am healed now.  I feel like a fresh glass of water without any specks."

* We caroled at the villa yesterday.  Oh how I love it when old people and new people look each other in the eye.  Just plain love it.

* The Buzz started wrestling tonight.  As in the actual sport, not just on our living room floor with his dad. He was so excited he couldn't eat supper.  He even let me put shorts on him with sweats over them, because "that's what the wrestlers do."  Riv in a singlet could quite possibly be the cutest, most disturbing thing I will ever see.

* My kids learned today that there is a special four-letter-word reserved for when I find stick-figures drawn in PEN! all over the nice couch.  That's all we'll say about that.

* Did you know there is a 1-800 # for getting out stains?  Here's what you do.....Call 1-888-295-6457. Then dial ext. 1.  They will look it up on the internet and help you.  I'm not kidding.  Why not look it up yourself, you ask?  Well, mostly - and quite importantly - hearing the soothing voice of a calm and reasonable stranger just after you have found pen on your couch is exactly what the doctor ordered.

So......pen on a suede couch?  Rubbing alcohol.  It worked like MAGIC.  I might draw another stick figure just so I can do it again.

* Here's what's going on as we speak.  See?  JOY IS NOW!!

may you...

Today I was reminded why I (mostly) stay at home full-time with my kiddos.  Not that these moments don't happen for families whose parents work full-time.  I simply do not have my stuff together enough for these moments to happen when I'm very busy.  I require stretches of downtime - full days in sweat pants and children in pjs - to seize moments like this.  So tonight, I'm full to the brim with gratitude for my circumstances.

We spent a good hour playing with our nativity sets this morning.  

Something about those teeny hands holding that teeny Jesus so carefully, yet with such confidence and purpose reached my soul.

Sage was always careful that Mary and Joseph were nearby, and often cuddled the baby who was "kyyyying".

River took apart the puzzles and creshes repeatedly, patiently determined that each piece fit in its own way, just where it should.

And they played at it together like pros - with great compromise - sometimes side by side in their own worlds and sometimes fitting pieces of different scenes together.

I know it was just plain a morning of carpet time together.

But it was more.  It really was.

Sage, may you always find your family close when you need them to be.

May you nurture the Jesuses around you like you nurtured that teeny Jesus.

May you know that Jesus does cry.  

He also dances and yells and sings and dreams and gives and laughs.

Buzz, may you find the pieces that you need to puzzle together a deep, hearty understanding of Jesus.

May you, like today, find great challenge and little frustration in having to work hard to make the pieces fit.

May you both find fragments of understanding of Jesus from all corners of this world - from people who think differently than you, love differently than you, eat differently than you, sing differently than you.  And from people who are exactly like you.  

May you always be comfortable in pulling your faith from imperfect and mismatched places.

May you play side-by-side with each other always.

And may you know - with the same quiet confidence with which you played today - that YOU rest securely in GOD'S hand.

Advent

If it looks like we're having a birthday party here, we are.  The Buzz is totally into this being "Jesus' birthday".  Maybe because he just had one??  So for our daily Advent activity this year, we wrote them down on paper, rolled them up and put them in balloons, and hung them from the rafters.  Every day the kids get to pop a balloon and we do whatever is inside.  

So far we have gone on the luminary walk at the arboretum (SO magical), given warm scarves to the homeless shelter, watched a Christmas movie, and made paper snowflakes.  Today we're decorating Christmas cookies.  It already looks like the glitter fairy threw up in my kitchen, why not add some sugar sprinkles to the floor too?  We're pretending our linoleum is made with sparkles - like in the 70's. I suppose in the 90's, they could've added sticky sugar for special effect.  Don't you think?

I love doing this every Advent season with the kids.  When I just had Eva, we did this sort of over-eager-crafty-mom thing every day.  Now I save up all my energies for Advent!  At least that's what I will go on telling myself.

This year I won't win mom of the year, because Riv is allergic to latex.  Otherwise, a great idea!

And when we aren't busy with our Advent stuff, we are very very very busy watching Survivor.

Is there some kind of a conflict there?  We welcome the Savior who opened up the Kingdom to absolutely all, while we watch people systematically voted off an island for a million dollars?  Hmmmm.  Well, its all about balance, right?!

Clearly on Family Survivor, Riv will be Jeff, Eva will be at tribal council, and Sage will be the one to actually compete in the challenges.

We have them pretty well trained to not watch commercials.  Ever.  This is what happens during every break.  Every one.

Happy Advent to all!

behind before between

Let's talk about the difference between memory and reality for a minute here, shall we?

Feeling a tad excited about having more than 5 minutes for a shower, I did a little twirl in front of the bathroom mirror before hopping in this morning.

Oooh look how my tummy is a tad flatter and oh wow I think my boobs look a little bigger and look at that amazing tight ahhhhhhhh waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyt a minute....how did the cottage cheese I ate yesterday afternoon make it to my ass already?!  There it is, that is it, the cottage cheese is literally showing through my skin, why do they not put warnings on those containers?!  And where are my thighs?  When did my butt become friends with the back of my knees?!  Is this what they mean when they say "saddle bags?!"  Because clearly I have two bags, stuffed quite heavy, resting below each hip.

What in all tarnation happened to me in the last three years?!!  My showers have been sandwiched between scraping oatmeal off the wall and herding cats to the van for preschool.  I have somehow forgotten to check out my hind quarters every morning and have left the beloved mirror twirl behind for the sake for an extra swig of coffee before jumping in.

In my ever-so-clear memory, mine hind is tight, smooth, and standing at attention.

What I saw today does not belong on my body.  It belongs to someone quuuuuiiiite a bit older and saggier.

Tears have been shed, glute-tightening exercises have been researched, and people, I am moving on.

I suppose I post this here to say to my fellow sisters-mamas-friends-womankind that your mama warned you about it, and I am here to testify that it is true......Enjoy it while you've got it, because ladies, these asses, they do eventually sag.  And when you're like me and you discover that yours has joined the club, try these things...

1.  cry if you like.  Its your party.
2.  call on your friends
3.  do what you can to bring it back to attention (I resolve to do those stupid exercises)
4.  invest in great jeans (thank goodness for my 2 new favorite pairs.  Otherwise today would've been spent shopping)
5.  dance it out. SHAKE what the good Lord gave you!
6.  celebrate that we women are crazy awesome.  And that whether cottage cheese resides in our fridge or our asses, we are SHE - and we are wise and beautiful and powerful and creative and lively and soulful and rich and kind and fun and REAL.

Onward, my sisters!!!