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Spend Less, Give More

12:26 pm By

Many people are being forced to cut back on Christmas this year, but many of us are also choosing to step back and reexamine the way we celebrate. After all, Christmas is not supposed to be about getting more stuff. It’s about God becoming man, living among us, and redeeming us from the curse of sin. His was an eternally-significant gift.

We are making a few changes this year, small ones, to be sure. We’ve asked our family members to give differently to us, and we’re giving differently to each other. (Not that we’re giving nothing, but we’ve cut back a bit and thinking harder about what we choose to give.)

We have an Advent calendar, made by some friends, that the kids can’t wait to start tomorrow, to help them remember the what and why of Jesus’s birth. We decorate one Christmas tree with ornaments that help to tell the story of his birth.

And, after watching this video put out by the group Advent Conspiracy, we have been challenged to go a step further. We want to think about where to donate some of what we did not spend and where to give the time we will not spend shopping.

Filed UnderFaith and Doubt 2 Comments

Peanut Butter Quarantine

7:53 pm By

You know you’re a germ-o-phobe when you do this:


Yes, Little Girl has managed to score her own private tub of peanut butter, the world’s best banana topping. We are currently battling cold germs (Little Boy is on his 3rd cold of the season.) and Little Girl is the second one to succumb to the bug. This is not surprising since she finds Little Boy, her currently-snotty-sneezy-slobbery brother, irresistible. The kisses and hugs and caresses of his face seem to intensify when he’s sick. Perhaps she has a future in nursing.

Anyway, this morning, Little Girl was painting her breakfast banana with peanut butter when I peered around the cereal box just in time to catch her lick the knife and then plunge it back into the peanut butter jar. (Is it bad that I was more worried about the peanut butter than the fact that she licked the knife?)

I admit it. I kinda flipped out. Since I had been sheltered by the cereal box, I had no idea how many times this sequence had already been repeated. I hate being sick, and I hate it when my family is sick. Sickness means we can’t go anywhere and especially in the winter, that gets everyone down really fast.

I took immediate action. I quarantined that jar, labeled it as hers, and got the rest of us one of our own. Thankfully Kroger had a super-duper sale on those tiny jars and I bought about ten awhile back. The small jar 2/3 gone made it a whole lot easier for me to just sign it over to Little Girl and grab another one. If it had been a 64-oz Jif, I probably would have scraped out what I guessed to be the contaminated peanut butter, prayed over the remainder, and put it back into general use.

Filed UnderUncategorized 1 Comment

Thanksgiving

7:37 pm By

Even though Halloween is technically the first holiday we celebrated without Elli, it isn’t quite the same. It isn’t a day off and it isn’t one of those where you gather with extended family and eat a festive meal. It’s about costumes and candy and best celebrated with neighbors, I believe.

So yesterday was our first major holiday without Elli. She loved Thanksgiving — she loved the food, she loved the family time, she loved the atmosphere. But as I told my mom that evening, even though I miss her terribly, I wouldn’t ask for her to come back. She had a difficult life and was facing some pretty yucky things in the next year. So I look forward to joining her at the end of my own life here, instead.

Despite feeling all day that she was missing (I suppose that feeling will never completely go away, and I don’t want it to either), we still had a nice holiday. We had a big hot breakfast together before we headed up to spend the day with my parents, sister, and my own grandma. I also took about 20 minutes to visit the cemetery. The kids enjoyed their time with extended family, and it was really good to play with them and be together as one big family.

My family has a tradition of listing some of things we are thankful for each year. While it’s tough, in the midst of sadness, to be thankful, it’s a really good thing to try. We all found many blessings this year to thank God for, even in our loss of Elli. One thing I’m most thankful for is God’s patience with us as we ever-so-slowly learn the lessons He teaches us through these difficult circumstances.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Filed UnderElli, Faith and Doubt 1 Comment
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