Thanksgiving: We have been invited to spend Thanksgiving with Dan's brother and his family. While the kids are very excited and looking forward to spending time with their cousins, I'm a little ambivalent. Over the years, some relationships in Dan's family have been strained. Things don't always go smoothly in the "let's all just get along" department. As an observer for the past 15 years, it seems there is always an elephant in the room when we are together. I'm not sure exactly what this elephant is, but it has been in this room for a long time...well before I appeared! These relationships have gone through rough periods and times of relative peace. This year, I'm hoping for peace...the keeping-your-mouth-shut-and-smiling kind of peace. The bottom line is, we are family. We are called to love and support each other. ***We've been asked to bring a dish of our choosing! You know, something our kids like and will eat. I'm still trying to decide what to bring. My kids are too darn picky! Olivia doesn't like mashed potatoes....Amelia doesn't like stuffing...and Nathan doesn't like turkey! None of them like sweet potatoes or green beans! About the only thing they all can agree on is the dinner rolls! Perhaps that's what we'll end up bringing.*****
Christmas Cards: This year, I'm making our Christmas cards! I'm excited yet, nervous. This is a big undertaking and I don't want to mess it up. My goal is to get them done in the next two weeks so I can have them in the mail early! I've got to make time for this instead of playing Candy Cane Saga on Facebook!
Facebook: I need to finish up cleaning out my friends list. My Facebook account and I had a "come to Jesus" meeting the other day. I deactivated my account with the full intention of it being permanent. Then, however, I realized that I needed my Facebook account to log into Pinterest. I NEED Pinterest! So, after a week long hiatus, I'm back on....but with several changes. For one thing, I've learned that not every relationship I've ever had was meant to be kept active and current. God sends some people into our lives for a short time...and some are meant to be with us for a lifetime. Facebook made those lines very cloudy and I realized that some relationships were better left in the past. I let go of well over 30 people and to tell you the truth, I feel much relief. And I do mean RELIEF...physical relief. This election was a stressful one and the political lines were drawn. I don't believe there has ever been an election as important as this one, and therefore the stakes were very high. I've since seen some Facebook threads addressing me and my "judgemental and hateful" attitude. It was eye opening and humbling to read what others think about me. Because they did not know that I would read those posts, they were honest and open about how they felt. I can't lie and say that some of those words weren't hurtful, but I suppose I deserved it...at least in their eyes. I'm sure they felt justified. I really don't mind anger, as a matter of fact, I prefer it over the "pity" many of them expressed. Apparently, they feel badly for me...for my poor, misguided, intolerant and undeserved disdain for our current president and for my lack of filter in expressing myself. They all agree that their world is much better without having to endure my endless political posts and judgements. Perhaps they are correct. In any case, I think everyone benefits from my decision to remove myself from the situation for awhile, get my bearings and clean house (so to speak). They are happier and I am happier. All in all, this is a win-win situation. I can't promise that I will not offend someone with my posts in the future. I can't guarantee that my ideas and opinions won't be perceived as judgemental or hateful at some point. I can only promise that I will be honest with how I think and how I feel. I will not beat around the bush or tiptoe through the tulips. No one will ever have to wonder how I feel about something. It is unlikely that anyone will call me "wishy-washy". We will all have to stand before God someday to explain how and why we lived our lives the way we did. We will all have to account for the things we did...the things we said, and maybe more importantly...the things we didn't do or didn't say. While I have MUCH sin in my life and will be judged justly by God for EVERY.SINGLE.ONE.OF.THEM...I will also be able to stand before Him and know that I defended my faith, defended my Church and defended the lives and souls of unborn babies to the best of my ability.
Gift Giving: We've decided to scale way back in this area. Dan and I always have a discussion about how we are going to be very frugal and how we will keep things to the very minimum for Christmas. We rarely stick to our decision. Keeping in mind that our budget is VERY limited, we still end up doing too much and I always feel guilty for over doing it. I recently saw something on Pinterest about being better stewards of the resources that God has given us and helping our kids to not focus so much on the amount of gifts but on the quality. I found this "Wish List For Santa" on Pinterest and I love it!
On Thanksgiving morning, I will give each of the kids one of these for them to fill out. Then we'll pop it into the mail so Santa is well aware of how we're going to roll this year! I feel really good about this and I'm looking forward to implementing this! I just don't feel comfortable anymore with letting them make this endless list of material nonsense that is a waste of money, a waste of time and is not in the best interest of their souls. I'm hoping this change doesn't backfire on me!
Well, I think this post is long enough.....plus, it's 11:56pm and I can hardly keep my eyes open. I keep having to use the backspace button because almost every word I type is spelled wrong! It's definitely time to go to bed.
I will share more plans as the days go on! Please feel free to share what your plans are!
