Blogathon "Home for the Holidays"

Monday, January 6th 2014

Christmas Recap


I am extremely excited to be joining Jonni at "My jolly little life" for her January Blogathon!
"Your personal "home for the holidays" recap complete with all of your own traditions you love,"  what an excellent first topic! My writing and inspiration has been dry as a bone so
this will be great.
        
After a month and a half of Christmas parties, shopping and fun December 24th came far too swiftly. My husband and I had completed all our buying and wrapping and the moment our two babies were in bed the excitement level rose! We stuffed stockings and filled the tree with presents while listening to Bing Crosby and drinking hot cocoa.We were so excited for the morning we could hardly get to sleep. It is funny how one makes the transition from not being able to sleep Christmas eve as a child because you get to open presents in the morning to growing up and still not being able to sleep because you can't wait to see your own child's face when they walk down the stairs to behold Christmas morning in all its splendor!



Our children are very early risers but my husband and I actually awoke before them and had to wait for them to get up before we could run downstairs. We didn't have to wait long before we heard little  excited voices in the other room. We all went downstairs together and their little faces did not disappoint! Seeing Christmas through a small child's eyes once again, beautiful! Our little three year old waited patiently for breakfast to be over and the Bible read then we let her open her minnie mouse stocking. With every tiny treasure she unwrapped her thankfulness kept pouring out. Our little 15 month old son, found a spider man tooth brush in his stocking and decided that was all he needed! When we got to some of the bigger presents my daughter opened she would give us these hugs and say "this is awesome" or "I love it" "this is my favorite" "Thank you so much" she was amazed and appreciative of every single present big or tiny.  My husband and I surprised each other with a few fun special gifts and Jackson (our son) was in heaven with all the wrapping paper and boxes to play with.

We had a wonderful time with our little, growing, family but that was just the beginning of the events of our Christmas day!

We were done by 8:00 in the morning, packed the car full of presents for our family and drove to my parents house to hold to the tradition that we have kept since childhood. All my siblings plus husbands and kids now meet at my parents to exchange gifts and enjoy the excitement together! Everyone's faces are priceless (not just the kids) when each family walks in and sees the growing mound of gifts.

by 9:30 my 6 year old niece had quoted the Christmas story in its entirety and we dove into stockings and presents. You know the feeling that you got someone something that they love and you just can't wait to give it? Yep that is every single one of us! we couldn't wait to give our gifts and see the other persons reaction. We halted the production to make an amazing Christmas tradition breakfast then tackled the mound again. We kept it up until after 2:00 then naps were in order before we returned for Dinner.

This year was extra special because we had a few new additions which we don't normally get to have. My aunt and uncle who just moved to our lovely little mountain as well as our grandparents who truly made the day great with their presence.

In all the noise and craziness I took a moment to sit back and appreciate every single detail! We are blessed above and beyond what we could ask or imagine. Having all the family together in celebration of our Lord, with giving and receiving, good food and so much love! I am beyond thankful and will look forward to next year quite like a child does and count down the days until we get to do it all over again!

-Shannon Leah
 

A Precious Moment Must Share...

I cannot resist telling this sweet and very touching story about my 15 month old baby boy. To start off I will say that the difference between my boy and girl is amazing. By this age my daughter was using short sentences and amazingly grown up and my sweet angel boy barely says a few words and is still such a baby. so with that in mind I will relate what happened tonight at the dinner table. 

I put a bowl of food in front of my son and started to feed him. He took a bite then as I was getting another bite ready he reached out for my hand, held it, and said "pray." I was totally stunned, he has never said that word before. It is our usual habit to pray before we eat but it was only him and I so I forgot to and boy did he set me straight. I felt a little convicted and absolutely blessed! 

I Just had to share that beautiful moment...

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

-Shannon Leah

Getting my Christmas Cheer On!!!

It is 6:30pm both my kids are tucked in bed and it has been one of those days! You know the kind that you wish you could just skip and go straight to bed. I try to be thankful for every day and all the precious moments with my children but I had a hard time finding my thankfulness today...

Nothing tragic or bad happened it was just one of those crazy, emotional, kids are a little under the weather, too tired to handle themselves, parental nightmares that when 5:00 rolls around you have already practiced in your head the sob story you are going to tell your husband when he gets home from work in the hopes that he will tell you to go take a drive and relax while he puts the kids to bed etc. but instead, you get the phone call that he has gone Christmas shopping with the boys and will not be home until late. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh ok count backwards from 10, cry and little, then put yourself together for just one a half more hours!

Now it is over and I am thankful for that and as of this moment I am going to change my attitude (as I am constantly telling my three year old to do) and get my Christmas cheer on! I am thinking comfy clothes, eggnog, Christmas music or maybe a little Bridgette Jones Diary and spiked cider!

A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.  – Anonymous

 
One of my goals this month was to find the "moment" in every situation that I want to remember and am thankful for. Life is so short and kids grow so fast and when I have days like this I hate that I wished it away. For there will come a day when I am wishing for my kids to be babies again and will look back at these times with great pleasure. So... even though it was a rough day I am thankful for

-that moment that my one year old waddled up to me with a book in his hand and plopped down on my lap so I would read to him

-or when he gave me the sweetest kisses when he first woke up this morning.

-I am thankful for the moment my daughter hugged me and said she was so so sorry and that she was
going to change her attitude (even if it did take her all day to do it)

-or when she told me she loved me and told me that "I truly am the best"!

-I am also very thankful that they are both sound asleep and I have the whole evening to unwind!

And in the words of Anne Shirley "tomorrow is a new day, fresh, with no mistakes"

Here's to tomorrow and all the wonderful moments that we all find in our day to be thankful for!

-Shannon Leah

Oh Parenthood

As a mother to a one and three year old, I must admit, my life is always full of excitement.  Some days are harder than others but all days are precious to me. Trust me when I say I have been on the bad end of a public temper tantrum when every mother who passes you says "oh honey we have all been there" or just gives consoling, pitying looks as they walk by.

The more I read about parenting, the more I felt like a failure. I decided to start taking things one day at a time. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by looking at the huge picture of raising a child I started dwelling on just today. I am no where near the finish line, yet I have seen some pretty remarkable headway.

My three year old is a strong willed, extremely intelligent little lady that is always ahead of her age in everything (which, trust me when I say, is not always a good thing). One can only imagine the kinds of fits we went through with her, starting the day that she discovered her own will. We have tried lots of different disciplining techniques but without true commitment and consistency we made no headway. My daily focus now is "training" instead of just discipline. we run through training exercises at home. We work hard before we leave the house so the kids are already well behaved by the time we go into public. I will save the training details for a later date but needless to say I am seeing results.

My kids are happier when I am not a frazzled mess and I am not a frazzled mess when they are behaving. Now when I tell my little angel to try some new food or pick up her toys I hear her sweet voice responds with "yes ma'am", oh how that is music to a mothers ears! When my daughter was two I took her to her first swimming class and the teacher told her to do something and she said "yes ma'am" the teacher looked at me and asked me with unbelief "what did she say" I told her and she said she had thought that's what she said but had never heard a two year old say that before. We went to visit my sister, who has three kids, who are also my daughters very best friends and when I said it was time to go she said "yes mama" I was so proud of her and felt so good about the impression I was leaving behind. It sure beats the pitying looks I used to get.

We still have our set backs but we are true to the commitment and as long as we stay consistent parenting is going to be the greatest joy in our lives. I will be a happy, put together, at peace mother who never has to raise her voice because we put the time and effort into training these precious little angels that God has entrusted us to raise and raise them well we shall! 

A word about being thankful...

 

       At church on Sunday my dad, who is also my pastor, was talking about thankfulness. Very appropriate considering it is Thanksgiving week. A few things he said really got me thinking. One was having the correct perspective, at which time he shared a witty anecdote that got the whole church laughing yet at the same time striking many cords that hopefully resulted in much contemplation and change. I know it did for me... I sat there holding my husbands hand, looked over at him and realized that I need to show more thankfulness to this wonderful man. So often I get caught up in all the toils that being a stay at home mom require and forget that he works very hard also. I have lately been turning our relationship into a competition, saying things like I work every bit as hard as you maybe even harder, you have no idea how challenging it can be being with these kids all day, I cook, I clean, I do everything! Those words came out of my mouth long after they had already been in my heart and poisoned my thoughts. I failed to remember that my husband goes to the gym every morning at six, comes home and makes breakfast and often times even for me, at this point I am focused on the fact that he got to go to the gym and I didn't (way wrong perspective). He works all day then comes home to play with the kids and try to have some down time, any which point I feel the need to tell him that I never get down time! Oh us silly women if only we could realize that a good man would do absolutely anything for their woman if they are just given respect and treated well. So... I have changed my approach. I have been more thankful for everything instead of feeling like he should be more thankful for me, already I have seen amazing results. Once you take your eyes off yourself you can see clearly the blessings that surround you!

 

     On top of being thankful for my man I have a blessings list that I would like to share...

 

2. I am thankful that I am a christian I couldn't imagine life without my God.

 

3. My babies! This is a big one because I am thankful for every little detail... their tiny fingers wrapped around mine, their sweetest kisses. When my 14 month old wraps his chubby little arms around my neck and hugs me with all his might or when I ask him for a kiss and he opens his mouth so wide and kisses me! Early mornings when our three year old gets in bed with us and tells us that she woke up and the sun is awake and that she missed us then gives us these hugs and says I love you so much! The way they have grown to adore eachother. Oh how rewarding it is to be a parent!

 

4. My family: Disneyland, cruises, thanksgiving in palm springs, Sunday night tacos, best friends, mentors. Our family is so full of life, I daily count myself blessed to be a part of them.

 

5. My parents: all good things in my life are owed to them... if they had not raised us all with wisdom and Godliness then my life would be nothing like it is today!

 

I have a much larger list but these are all I am going to share for now. I challenge you all to use this week to take your eyes completely off yourself and be thankful! Be thankful for the good and easy times as well as the challenging ones. Appreciate what you have instead of dwelling on what you don't have. Then your perspective will change and you will see that you possess so much more than you thought.

 

-Shannon Leah

Nectar of the gods!

     My husband and I looked at each other this morning, with two small children crawling around us, and both had the same thought... Coffee! After one strong cup of the "nectar of the gods" I feel like I can do anything. The husband gets packed up and sent to work, the kids are fed, they play in the living room while I put my "off duty" sign up and have my morning Bible time. The baby then goes down for his morning nap and I start our lessons with my three year old. We fly through her reading lesson and all her little workbooks (I really like the Kumon books). She then sits to have her alone reading time while I catch up on some housework, laundry, bills etc. By the time 11:00 rolls around I need a nap because my coffee has started to wear off and I feel less like superwoman and more like Cinderella (before she gets married to the handsome prince and moves into a fancy castle).

     In actuality this post was supposed to be more of an ode to coffee instead of my mornings play by play; so now I will get to the true point!

     In our family coffee has always been more of an event than a simple drink. Ever since I became of coffee drinking age I have developed a true appreciation for these times together. I remember every thanksgiving we drove up North to my grandma's house to spend the holiday with all the family up there. At some point my dad would take us girls to the mall and we would sit under the tiny palm tree in the tiny coffee shop and share a moment. We did this every year until my grandma passed away and even though it has been quite some time since we visited that little coffee shop I will always remember it and the fond memories that we created there.
That is just one of the many examples where coffee has been the tool to get the family together. To this day my dad still brews a pot every morning at nine and every evening at five with an open invitation to the family to come and sit in the yard with him and mom and continue to make those memories that are so precious in this life! I already started with  my daughter, when she was 2 I took her to starbucks for special girl time; she was holding her juice box, looked up at me with so much love in her eyes and said "so, mom, how are you doing today?" My tiny little 2 year old sat there like she was "so big" already feeling how special that moment was.

     My challenge today is... take time to smell the coffee. Get your best friend, sisters, brothers, parents or kids together and create a special spot that you will look back fondly at and say how thankful you are for those memories. Life is short, remember to always live in the moment!

-Shannon Leah

Day in the life of a stay at home mom...

     Today I was able to brush my teeth! As silly as that sounds, being mom to two small children often leaves you with unbrushed teeth and messy hair. Don't even get me started on the luxury of a shower! I pride myself on how "put together" my children usually look when we go out of the house. I fix their hair and dress them well but then I come along with my yoga pants and workout tank, wild hair and no makeup to top it all off! It really doesn't feel good when you run into an old friend or worse an old fling and all you want to do is run away and hide! Yet, I do it to myself day after day! 

     So... Tomorrows world changing challenge is to wake up and before I dress my babies I am going to brush my teeth, get dressed up, fix my hair and put makeup up! I am already feeling like a new woman!

-Shannon Leah