A “new” definition of patience, thanks to studylight.org’s website & original Greek:

“…slowness in avenging wrongs.”

For me, having patience with my children & with myself are the two hardest things. When I think of this in terms of having patience with my kids, it shines a whole new light on things.

When Samuel & Addison are fighting, something needs to be done, and they even “deserve to be punished”, I need to have patience with them… I need to be slow in avenging wrongs. To be slow to inflict a penalty in return for something they did wrong.

Just thought I’d share that with you. Gonna try to think about that more in the days to come & apply it in my everyday (and minute!) life.

We started a new tradition this year for Christmas: The “boys” go and get the Christmas tree! Sam was so excited, thinking he was going to saw down a tree & fight off bears (which may or may not have been what Chris told him he was going to do… ahem…).

They came home with a 3 1/2-4 foot tree, which is the perfect size for Samuel & Addison. Samuel loved decorating it. He helped put on the lights, he put on most of the ornaments, and he said he loved the star (which we think is hilarious, cuz it’s kinda, well… really red – ha!). Right before bed he grabbed his teddy bear and starting walking out of the room. He then turned around, said, “OH! Bear wants to see the Christmas tree!” He showed “bear” the tree, and bear “said”: Oh, I love the Christmas tree! (In his little bear voice, of course! lol)

So here are some pictures (sorry the first ones are so dark) of the boys decorating (I had a hard time getting Addi in a picture, but she did help a bit).

Putting the lights on (a very posed picture. Ha!):

More putting lights on:

Putting the star on the top (we were planning on Sam doing it, but it was a little more difficult than we expected):

Samuel putting ornaments on the tree:

Chris putting an ornament on:

Samuel putting final ornaments on (gotta love that tongue, helping him to concentrate):

Finished tree!

We’ve got a bit more decorating to do, but the tree is up & makes me wanna wrap presents & put them under it. I’ll get to that soon enough, and I’m sure I’ll have enough of a job keeping the kids from pulling all the ornaments & lights off the tree as it is! Merry Christmas!

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory

and the exact representation of his being,

sustaining all things by his powerful word.

Hebrews 1:3a

Awesome verse! Come along as I break this down, k?

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory…”

Radiance = reflected brightness; in Christ in that he perfectly reflects the majesty of God; effulgence (the quality of being bright & sending out rays of light); shining forth, of a light coming from a luminous body; out-raying

Glory = splendor, brightness, magnificence, excellence, preeminence (high status importance owing to marked superiority), dignity, grace, most exalted state, belonging to God

“…and the exact representation of his being…”

Exact representation = an instrument used for engraving or carving; the mark stamped upon that instrument or wrought out on it; stamped on, an impression; the exact expression (the image) of any person or thing, marked likeness, precise reproduction in every respect, i.e. facsimile

Being = that which has foundation, is firm; that which has actual existence (a substance, real being); the substantial quality or nature of a person or thing; the steadfastness of mind, firmness, courage, resolution

“…sustaining all things by his powerful word.”

Sustaining = to carry some burden; to move by bearing; to endure the rigor of a thing, to bear patiently one’s conduct, or spare one (abstain from punishing or destroying), bring forth, produce, lead

Powerful = inherent power; power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts & puts forth; power for performing miracles; moral power & excellence of soul

Word = that which is or has been uttered by the living voice; any sound produced by the voice & having definite meaning; an utterance; subject matter of speech

So what I like to do is read the verse many times & insert the meaning(s) of each word in the appropriate places. One way to read it would be like this:

“The Son (Jesus) perfectly reflects God’s magnificence, the excellence that can only belong to God, and it shines forth from him. He is the precise reproduction of the substantial quality & nature of God in every respect. He brings forth all things by taking the burden on himself to do so, and he does this by his inherently powerful word, the power that can & will do miracles.”

What a powerful verse. I just cannot fully wrap my head around this one! I think this has even more special meaning at this time of year where I’m thinking of the Christmas story – the birth of Jesus. When Jesus was in Mary’s womb, when he was an infant, a toddler, a young child, a teenager, a young man, living, dying, working, laughing, etc. – He perfectly reflected God’s magnificence & was bringing forth all things by his powerful word. He is the precise reproduction of the nature of God in every respect. Whoa. As a baby. Think about it. Meditate on it. Let God speak to you today.

When I saw the weather forecast for today I determined right then & there that Thursday, December 10, would be a stay home day. As I’m typing this (around 2:10pm), weather.com says it is 16 degrees out but feels like -1. Yeah. Negative 1. Anyways…

I didn’t want to feel all cooped up though, so I decided we’d get Christmas-y. We watched Bob the Builder’s A Christmas to Remember, made ginger bread cookies (per Sam’s request, actually… didn’t even know he knew what “gingerbread man cookies” were…), listened to Christmas music, made hot chocolate & drank it, got out decorations from the basement, & read Christmas books. I found the kids’ Christmas bears, so they are now taking a nap with them.

We’ll bake the ginger bread cookies when they get up from nap (yeah. oops. forgot to look ahead on the recipe & they had to chill for 3 hours!). I didn’t take any pictures yet but I’ll probably take some pics of the cookies & cookie-making later this afternoon if I remember.

It’s finally starting to feel like CHRISTMAS!!!

I did it. I finally made a menu for a whole month in advance. Not only that, but I shopped for it as well! I got everything except produce, milk (which I’ll need halfway through the month cuz of expiration dates), and possibly something I may have forgotten but we’ll find out later. lol So I’m not sure if you’re interested or not, but I figured I’d list them all for you. I know that reading blogs, etc., really helps me get ideas for what to make. So… here goes (oh, and if you want recipes or reviews on how the family likes/liked it, please feel free to ask).

Friday, Dec. 4 – Shepherd’s Pie

Saturday, Dec. 5 – Homemade mac & cheese

Sunday, Dec. 6 – Crockpot baked potatoes w/steamed broccoli & cheese

Monday, Dec. 7 – Whole roasted chicken w/mashed butternut squash & stovetop stuffing

Tuesday, Dec. 8 – Grilled cheese w/tomato soup & pickles

Wednesday, Dec. 9 – Hot dogs w/homemade chili & chips

Thursday, Dec. 10 – Southwestern pasta

Friday, Dec. 11 – Pita pizzas w/fresh broccoli & carrots

Saturday, Dec. 12 – Egg muffins for breakfast, sub sandwiches for lunch, taco salad for dinner

Sunday, Dec. 13 – Crockpot garlic chicken w/salad(?)

Monday, Dec. 14 – Lasagna w/green beans & homemade garlic toast

Tuesday, Dec. 15 – Chicken nuggets w/fries

Wednesday, Dec. 16 – Omelets, toast, smoothies

Thursday, Dec. 17 – Eat at Chris’ mom’s house

Friday, Dec. 18 – Chicken fried rice

Saturday, Dec. 19 – Homemade honey muffins for breakfast, soup, etc. for lunch, & eating at Chris’ aunt & uncle’s house for “Christmas” dinner

Sunday, Dec. 20 – Crockpot veggie chili w/corn muffins

Monday, Dec. 21 – Christmas dinner party

Tuesday, Dec. 22 – Pasta marinara w/green beans & homemade garlic toast

Wednesday, Dec. 23 – Chicken potato bake w/salad

Thursday, Dec. 24 – Spaghetti & meatballs

Friday, Dec. 25 – Eggs, pancakes, & bacon

Saturday, Dec. 26 – Quesadillas w/refried beans & Mexican rice

Sunday, Dec. 27 – Crockpot chicken pot pie

Monday, Dec. 28 – Chicken parmesan w/salad or green beans

Tuesday, Dec. 29 – Turkey sloppy joes w/chips & carrots

Wednesday, Dec. 30 – Chicken rice casserole

Thursday, Dec. 31 – Veggie wraps

Friday, Jan. 1 – Chipotle chicken wraps w/veggies

Saturday, Jan. 2 – Chicken baked ziti w/green beans or salad or fresh veggies

Sunday, Jan. 3 – Eat out!

Monday, Jan. 4 – Lemon pepper chicken w/gravy, rice, & steamed veggies

Tuesday, Jan. 5 – Club sandwiches w/pickles & chips

This took a lot of time to do but it was SO worth it. It is so nice to know I have everything I need, shopping is done for the MONTH (except produce/milk), and I have a plan so we don’t eat out, go over budget at the end of the month, or me pull my hair out trying to come up with something last minute. Who knew I could get this excited over food?

A lot of my friends are doing Christmas activities each day of December. I didn’t think about doing that until after December had started & I read my friends’ blogs about it. Then I decided I’d also be too stressed to try to commit to every single day. Ha! But I did want to do something Christmas-y so I decided our first thing to do was make a fireplace. Last Friday we made a fireplace out of brown paper grocery bags, paint, & tape. So simple & I think it looks great in our living room! We’re adding decorations to it to make it more “real”. Today the kids made stockings to hang on it. Later this week or next we’ll make something else (it’s a surprise) to go on or around it. Here are a few pictures of the projects so far:

Painting bricks on the fireplace:

Finished fireplace (on our living room wall):

Addi “sewing” her stocking (with yarn):

Sam sewing his stocking (he did this part all by himself!):

Samuel decorating his stocking (with Christmas stickers):

Addison decorating her stocking:

Sam’s finished stocking:

Addi’s finished stocking (it’s a little blurry. The heater turns on & blows it; I was trying to hold it still.):

The fireplace with the stockings hanging:

There ya go! I’m excited to see what else goes on and around it & how it all turns out. We haven’t decorated with anything else yet, which feels so weird to me, but we just “haven’t gotten around to it yet”. At least we have a fireplace!

I know you’ve probably all heard of the whole “handprint/footprint turkey” craft… You may have even done it as a kid. Well, I was looking for something easy for the kids to do & when I saw it, I was like, “Hey, That’s an oldie but a goodie.” So each kid made one. We did a little bit of a twist, though. Instead of just brown construction paper for the body of the turkey (the kids’ feet), I had them color with marker on cardstock, then traced their feet & cut it out. It’s not the “correct” color for a turkey body, but I thought it added a more personal touch. Then on each of the hands I wrote something Sam told me he was thankful for (he helped Addi think of things too). I also let them glue on their own eyes, beak, and legs (well, I admit… Addi put one of the eyes super low so I ended up showing her where to put it… lol). Here are the pics.

Addison’s turkey:

Samuel’s turkey:

Friday, November 20, was our 5th wedding anniversary. 5 years! In some ways it feels like forever, in others like it was just yesterday. My parents came in to watch the kids so we could get away overnight – for the first time since having kids! It was a perfect night & weekend away.

We went to J. Alexander’s for dinner, which is where we went on our very first date 9 1/2 years ago! We also had free tickets to the Cranbrook Institute of Science so we went there for the first time. It was very nice! We stayed at the Marriot at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit on the 43rd floor. VERY high. I only worried for the first little bit about having to run down 43 flights of stairs, 7 1/2 months pregnant, if there was an emergency.

Looking out our window to Canada:

Looking down to the ground from our window:

On Saturday we slept in (never get to do that at home!), then rode on the People Mover to tour downtown Detroit (my first time on it ever). Best 50 cents spent all weekend.

Inside the People Mover (Chris videotaped almost the whole ride!):

We topped off the date with watching The Christmas Carol & stopping for some Starbucks.

A big thanks to my parents for watching the kids so we could have a very relaxing, refreshing, enjoyable 24 hours away!

I wanted a place to compare “side by side” all my pregnancy pictures so far, so I thought I’d share them with you as well. Most of these are on Facebook but this will make it easier to see all at the same time.

8 weeks, 5 days:

13 weeks, 4 days:

18 weeks, 5 days:

22 weeks, 6 days:

25 weeks, 1 day:

30 weeks, 1 day (today):

So there ya go – you can see my belly grow!

I finally took a picture of the pumpkin Samuel decorated for Halloween. I had to hurry & take a picture cuz apparently it is getting a little mushy in the back & needs to be “taken care of”. So we let him pick what to decorate it as, and gave him a Sharpie. Chris made the hair, but Samuel drew the face. He wanted it to be a cat. He has big eyes, a big smile, and big ears (on the side). Isn’t it cute?