2017 Joys and Challenges

As I was looking back through my blog from this past year I am reminded of what a blessed year it was.  We were healthy and happy.  What more can one ask for?  My first joy this year is my mom's health.  She is truly living her best life.  In January I picked her up from the airport.  She had just gotten back from a trip with her grade school friends and as we walked to the baggage terminal she told me she had had it, she was going to lose the weight.  By November, she had reached her goal.  Another joy I had was being able to spend time with my sister this past summer.  We traveled to Myrtle Beach and Alabama.  Our car rides revolved around a lot of laughter, except the last leg of Myrtle when we were ready to strangle Nick - which leads me to another joy.  I loved my vacation in Myrtle with my youngest, and it's a vacation I know Nick will never forget.  It's been a joy to witness Jay as he approaches age 16.  He worked hard this summer, purchased a vehicle in October, and got a B average this semester.  Watching Jay gain more independence and come into his own keeps me inspired to keep moving forward with him, even during the times when he's acting like an unreasonable teenager.  Spending time with Ausili's has been another joy, even though we didn't make it to TN this year.  Every year that goes by I'm so aware our kids are aging.  My heart is always full every time we get together with them.  Mike's business is another joy.  There wasn't one time this past year when I questioned or wondered whether Mike running his own business was the right thing to do.  The work was beyond consistent.  At times it bordered on insanity (see my April blog posts), but I am very thankful for the work that has been provided for Mike, and not just for financial reasons but I truly believe this work is nourishing to his soul.  The beauty of following God's plan is not stressing over things.  I have no idea what His plan is for Mike.  For all I know Mike may be working for someone else next year or maybe he will have hired another person or maybe, just maybe, we will have that building Mike has needed to further his business.  Who knows.  I don't worry about it much.  It will all work out just fine.  One challenge I've had this entire year is time and aging.  Together, they don't mix very well.  I've decided as I age I have got to think things through as to what I'm doing and how I'm doing it and all of that takes time, which I don't have.  I'm a work in progress.  My biggest challenge, however, has been my dad.  My dad's entire situation is just heart breaking and there is nothing anyone can do about it.  He's had a consistent decline this year and when I visit him I never know exactly how I'll find him.  If he's up in his wheelchair he's a little better but most of the time when I visit him he's sound asleep in his bed.  He has no interest in seeing his grands.  He has no interest in me reading to him (because I've tried).  He has no interest in anything, other than sleeping.  I'm comforted knowing my dad knows Jesus.  I know that one he'll be able to laugh, walk and talk but it won't be this side of heaven.  Clearly I have way more joys than I do challenges.  I'm ready for 2018.  Jay will get his license and truly I am excited about that, even though it does come with extra worry.  I am taking a trip with my mom to TX in April.  I am going back to Myrtle in June, although the verdict is still out as to who in my family is joining me.  Faith graduates from high school in May.  I'm never inclined to make resolutions.  My only goals this year is to work, parent, move and pray.

Merry Christmas

 This Christmas was wonderful.  As my boys have aged I have truly enjoyed every year with them more and more.  I'm so aware that one day all this will be gone.  They won't be waking up at our house on Christmas morning.  I am trying to be so intentional and living in the moment.

 The dogs got Christmas sweaters.  Cole decided to wear his off the shoulder.  Ha.  Cole cuddled up next to Jay during present time.

 Jay wrapped Nick's present from him in duct tape.  It took Nick a painstaking and frustrating long time to get the present open.

 My mom, John and Linda and the Ausili's came out for Christmas day.  It was such a nice day with good food and good company.  This is Mike's motto (and mine too).  He wants a home where good food and good company is what people think of when they visit our home.

 These two.  What can I say about them?  Faith is a senior, a senior I tell you!  What in the world!  There just aren't words for this craziness!  Again I go back to being intentional.  I know my home and our times together will be staple for Faith as she gets ready to spread her wings and fly.

 Are you noticing a trend with Cole?  He's always in the thick of things.  He thinks he's a lap dog and has no concept of personal space.

 Jay made this centerpiece in his Ag class.  I thought it was beautiful and because it's real, it has a lovely smell.  Jay joked that he kept it in his locker for a day and his locker smelled like a forest.

 We got a ping pong table for the boys this year, but as with most things with my family, it wasn't as easy purchase.  I bought an inexpensive table from a sporting good store.  As Mike was putting it together it literally fell apart which did not bode well considering our boys and their friends would be using it.  We ended up getting a nice, well made table at another store in town.  By the time we take back the table that fell apart Mike will have made 3 trips for our boys' entertainment!  Never a dull moment in our house.  On a side note, the table is a huge hit.  My boys love it.  Curtis loved it and my mom even got to school the boys in it.

 These boys.  Curt spent the night on Christmas.  This is how I found them this morning, curled up on the chair (probably looking at tires on the internet) with yep, you guessed it, Cole.  Imagine that.

I was so happy Ausili's were able to join us this year.  In looking back I think it had been 2 years since they were last with us.  It was a real blessing to have them with us this Christmas.

                                                          Me and my momma!

 Mike baked a 12 lbs prime rib and it was delicious.  He made what is clearly becoming his specialty, his twice baked potatoes.

All eight of us.  I wanted to freeze this night, knowing how things change and having all eight of us together is a rare gift and one that won't last forever, but while it lasts I will sure soak up every second of it.

Christmas Eve

 We had another wonderful Christmas Eve.  Our one hiccup was Craig got sick after church.  This year was a little different because Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday.  Our plan this year was genius.  We met at mom's church for a 10:00 service, headed to Kim's for lunch and then after Kim's we went to mom's for gift opening.  Poor Craig came home from church and went straight to bed.  In Craig's absence Mike was in charge of grilling.  The picture below was Mike and Kim searching her drawers for a meat thermometer.  She didn't have one but Mike jokingly kidded Kim she had plenty of wine openers.

 The hunt for a meat thermometer failed miserably.  Needless to say I know what I'm buying Kim and Craig next year for Christmas.

 Our entire family by the tree at mom's church.  We loved going to church in the morning on Christmas Eve.  We wish we could do that every Christmas Eve.

 The four kiddos!  Jay is 15 (almost 16).  Nick is 11.  Lauren is 10 and Luke is 6.  We are incredibly blessed.

Nana and her four grands!  Nana spoiled us of us this year.  What a difference a year makes, however.  My mom has had an incredible year.  She's lost half her body weight, she's traveled the country, spent time with her brothers and settled my grandparents affairs.  She is involved in two book clubs, swims or exercises in some capacity daily, and she and I are involved in Bible Study Fellowship for women once a week.  She continues to be very actively involved in all four of her grandchildren's lives.  2016 was such a difficult year.  2017 has been very kind to all of us and we are very grateful.  God is good, all the time!

Jay's Santa Visit and Meeting Jocelyn

 In the days leading up to the last day before Christmas break Jay and his friends got to meet Santa!  This picture has nothing to do with meeting my new baby 2nd cousin, Jocelyn, but I thought the picture was cute I felt inclined to include it.  

 On Dec. 23, Mom, Kim and I headed to Springfield to meet Michelle's new baby, Jocelyn.  She is a beautiful baby and we so enjoyed spending some time with Aunt Karen, Michelle and Kelly.

 It's hard to believe my boys were this small - in fact Jay was smaller, but indeed they were this small.  Once again, it's crazy how fast time flies by.  I prove my point on this (see picture above of Jay and his friends, ha).

Welcome to the world, Jocelyn!  What a wonderful addition she is to our family!

Picture it

Picture it, the week before Christmas and all hell has broken lose at my house.

Picture it.  Dec. 17, 2:00 a.m.  Mike and I are awoken by little feet and not the good kind.  It was a sound like finger nails clicking through our cold air return.  We were sure it was a mouse.  Mike set out a sticky track and the next day, we find none other than a bat stuck on that pad!  While it hissed at us, although Mike said they don't hiss, they click, the boys were fascinated, but me not so much.

Picture it.  Dec. 19, midnight to 5:00 a.m.  Mike's 45th birthday.  Nick gets poison ivy, like an EPIC case of poison ivy.  How Nick managed to get in poison ivy in December is a mystery to me.  Anyway, Nick makes many trips to our room in the middle of the night and gets all Incredible Hulk on us, ripping off his clothes, screaming in misery.  During one unfortunate trip, Nick and I didn't know we were both headed towards one another and we slammed right into each other.  Mike said because I'm me and Nick is Nick, we had to then discuss the infraction for 5 minutes, waking up the entire house while we apologized to each other.

Picture it.  Dec. 19, 9:30 a.m.  I take Nick to the doctor.  Doctor prescribes steroids for Nick.  Just what Nick needs, something to make him more Incredible Hulkish.

Picture it.  Dec. 19, 8:00 p.m.  Nick is undone over his itching.  Mike and Jay are out of town at a basketball game.  Nick and I get in my car and drive back into town for more sprays, creams and Oh yeah, a picture.  Nick needed a picture sent to his teacher which I had attempted to email twice.  She never received it.  Imagine that.  I finally had enough sense to print the darn picture out with my SD card at the pharmacy - crises averted, for the moment.

Picture it.  Dec. 20, 7:00 a.m.  I'm preparing for my 8:00 hair appointment.  Jay is livid because my hair appointment means he'll have to ride the bus to school.  Clearly I'm a terrible mother.  How dare I make a hair appointment that conflicts with me being his taxi driver.  You would have thought I was dropping him off at a concentration camp.  

Picture it.  Dec. 20, 7:30 a.m.  I drop the boys off at school, as Jay is getting out of the car he turns to me and sarcastically tells me to have a splendid hair appointment, Mother!  Oh yes, he broke out the very strong and enunciated mother!  He ended it with slamming the door behind him.  On a positive note within an hour he did send me an apology text.  Luckily for Jay in the hours to come my focus would shift from his poor and selfish attitude and my focus would then be on his brother.

Picture it.  Dec. 20, 11:30 a.m.  I was driving home, trying to enjoy my day off, when I get a call from the school.  As soon as I saw the 379 number I thought, ummmm, this can either be about Jay's Trump shirt that he wore to school today or Nick unloaded on some kid who said he had herpes (yes, that was another issue this week too, but my blog has only so much room and it's only Wednesday).  It was a real toss up.  Which boy can it be?  It was like  trying to play Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and using my 50/50 option.  It was Andy, our friend and middle school principal.  All I will say in my blog is Nick wrote a highly inappropriate note which got intercepted straight to Andy.  It was not a threatening note, I will say that, but it earned him a nice long 2 hour detention tonight after school and mortification of facing our friend and his principal.  It was a good lesson as a parent.  I have gotten way too relaxed in his Kindle usage and his phone usage.  No more!

Picture it, Dec. 20, current time.  I actually feel better putting this all in writing, trying to see the humor in it.  Tonight I'm spending time with my girls, Sarah and Jenny, and hopefully the alcohol will be strong.  Only kidding, kind of.

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

 In November I promised myself that I would be very intentional about what I did in December.  In other words I wanted to prioritize what was and what wasn't important to me.  My list of priorities included spending time with friends and family, going to church more regularly, spending more meaningful time in prayer and trying not to let the demands that December brings consume me.  Sadly work has been all consuming but there is really nothing I can do about that.  I remember a few Decembers ago I spent several weekends baking red cakes after red cakes to deliver to teachers at school.  I laugh about that now.  I was old enough to certainly know better.  I like to think I've "evolved" since then.  It was thoughtful but crazy!  Last Saturday I hosted Ausili's, Mary and John, Shannon and my mom for dinner.  It was an intentional act, something I really wanted to do.  My heart was so full that night, having all of my favorite people in my home!

 The kiddos.  I've been taking pictures of them (Faith's friend Daisy recently started joining us and she just adds to the sweetness of the group) around the tree for 17 years - the year Faith was born.  It's mind boggling to know how fast time has gone.

 I just thought this was sweet picture.  Jay has been working on an essay about "Hamlet" all week and this particular night Cole decided he cuddle up next to him.

 And here's Nana checking Jay's essay for sentence structure, etc....thank goodness for my mom, a former English teacher who knows a thing or two about grammar, spelling, vocabulary and how to form a sentence.

 Nick and his friend, B!  Nick and B get along so well because there is nothing "cityish" about B.  They are 2 peas in a pod.  In this picture they are in Nick's fort, chopping wood, and cooking burgers over an open fire.  It's the perfect afternoon in Nick's world.

My favorites!  How blessed am I to know and love these women?  As I write this I can't believe we are one week away from Christmas Eve.  I remember as a kid December seemed to go so slow but as an adult it flies by.  I will be taking some time off during the next week, which I'm looking forward to.  It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

My beautiful friend

Yesterday in church I sat by Jenny and two things happened that prompted me to write about her.    First off it's Christmas and our pastor mentioned hand made cross stitched ornaments.  I have no idea why he mentioned them (Again, reference my previous blog, I forget things.  I blame hormones) but I think it was more of a memory, remembering the days when people cross stitched ornaments.  I nudged Jenny and we both smiled.  My tree still has her cross stitched ornaments she made me back when we were young, engaged to our Mike's, and had time to do things like cross stitch.  Then during the service she broke out her reading glasses to read her bible.  I didn't know Jenny had reading glasses.  When did that happen?  Then I chuckled to myself as it reminded me how both of us are aging, but how well Jenny is aging!  She can sure pull off looking quite distinguished in a pair of reading glasses!   Every 43 year old woman should have a friend like Jenny - someone you've grown up with because let's face it, do we truly know who we are in our 20's?  Jenny and I were mostly concerned with making good hamburger helper, cross stitching ornaments (Jenny), watching 90210 and sleeping in on Saturday mornings (after watching 90210 in our apartment on Orr Drive).  We became mothers together, we vacationed together and we know each others families inside and out.  Now I'm witnessing my dear friend as she closes in on Faith's final chapter of high school and I can see it's a reality she's not yet comfortable with, but knows it's going to happen sooner than later.  The two of us have navigated parenting, marriages, our faith, and  jobs together.  In the years to come we'll have to navigate our empty nest together.  Perhaps by that time we can take a breath, sit down with a cosmo (of course), slip on our reading glasses and cross stitch ornaments for our grands!

Ready or not, it's December

 Everyday I get up I intend on spending time working on my my blog and yet everyday the task of working on my blog slips away when I'm confronted with the fact it's 8pm and I'm just too tired and brainless to work on it.  I am in the trenches of parenting right now.  I have a full time job, a bible study I'm involved with once a week, two boys who play basketball, a husband who runs his own business, and small group for my boys once a week.  Okay, as I just wrote all that I thought, "Geesh, Amy, cut yourself some slack."  Ha.  Anyway, I have these great blog ideas but by the time I get around to putting thought into writing them, I've forgotten them.  Go figure.  So for now I'll focus on the daily ins and outs of my life, which is pretty sweet right now - see picture above.  At the last minute Ausili's came out Thanksgiving weekend, on Sunday night, and Faith came!!  We determined Faith hadn't been to our house since June!  My heart was so full that Sunday night.

 And I got a double dose of Faith time.  This past Friday night Mike and I attended a fund raising event.  Mike, Jenny, Faith and Curt were there and Faith sat by me.  She snapped this selfie of us and sent it to Jay!

 On Saturday night my mom and I went to the high school's production of "Madrigals."  We really enjoyed it, even after sitting for over 2 hours!  It was festive and something light and fun to do.

 And this girl turned 10 yesterday!  How can she be 10?  Kim went above and beyond and threw her a puppy themed party.  Kim puts all of us to shame when her party throwing skills.  On Saturday Kim had 15 little girls over for Lauren's puppy party, with Peanut being the star of the party, and then yesterday Kim had the family party for Lauren.

 Nick and Mike weren't able to attend Lauren's party (see picture below).  Jay attended, although by this picture you can see how thrilled he was to be attending a little girls puppy party.

Yep, Nick got sick!  He went to church with us, but told me that morning he felt miserable.  Honestly, I just thought he had a stomach ache, but as the morning went along I noticed his eyes didn't look good, and sure enough, Nick did not make it home!  Thankfully Nick is old enough to know when he's going to throw up.  Oh boy!  All is well today.  Nick is back at school.

Best Thanksgiving Ever!

 I love Thanksgiving!  This year I hosted and my mom, Kim and family and my cousin, Cora and family joined us.  The Ausili's were missed but they were at Jenny's niece's house.  We truly enjoyed our day together.  Everyone was healthy, happy and the food was delicious.  Mike deserves a big kudos for the food this year.

 These dogs!  What can I say about this picture?  My mom, although she doesn't have a dog of her own, she sure loves our dogs.  Nana is Cole's favorite person.  Every time my mom comes over, Cole sticks to her like glue.  Doesn't my mom look fabulous?  She has lost over 50 lbs!

 And here's my soon to be 16 year old.  He was really helpful to Mike the morning of.  We had a lot to prepare and get ready.

 There's a funny story behind this picture.  Mike had just gotten the turkey out of the fryer and it was burning his hands but mom insisted she get a picture.  It's a good thing Mike and mom love each other.

 Here we are minus Nick.  Nick spent a lot of time playing with Carter, Luke and Lauren most of the day.  The weather was warm enough that the kids played hide and seek outside.  Notice the look on Mike's face.  By this time in the afternoon we were all so full we could hardly stand it.

 Mike made this very unique but good apple dessert.  He cored the apples with his drill.  He's so resourceful.  Then he filled the apples with a mix of butterfinger candies, dried cranberries, brown sugar.  Then he put them in a steamer and when they were done we served them with ice cream.  They were very good!

 This year Mike delegated and used every teachable moment he could.  Ha.  Me, Jay and Nick were his minions!  It actually worked like a charm this year.  The picture above is Mike and Nick figuring out what time to put the turkey in the fryer and calculating the pounds and the time needed.

 Mike made these amazing twice baked potatoes.  Even though we are smiling in this picture, our hands are on fire from scooping out scalding hot potato pulp!

 Nick helping dad scoop the potato mix back into the potato shell.  I seriously can't describe how good these potatoes were.  Ridiculously good!

 I had to take this picture of Craig.  He was decked out in his swede jacket, his cowboy boots and to top off the look he was wearing a huge belt buckle with a big C on it.  I called him Cowboy Craig all day.

We sat around our table yesterday and laughed and talked.  My dining room table is my favorite piece in my house.  There's a great story behind the table but most of all, I love the gift of having family and friends sit around my table.  It's big enough to sit 10 people.  I love the light that streams in from the window.  I love Grandma's book case (which you can't see in the picture) and my corner china cabinet.  It's often the little things with me that make me happy.  This Thanksgiving I'm so thankful for my family.  I realize that having my boys wake up in our house on Thanksgiving will one day be a thing of the past.  I am thankful that my mom is in such great shape and her health is incredibly good!  My sister's family is doing well.  I continue to be thankful for my job and the amount of work Mike has.  My mom and I joke that Mike doesn't let grass grow under his feet.  I'm thankful the Lord has blessed him with steady work this entire year.  I might be a little over the top with the title of my blog but for some reason this Thanksgiving just felt very special and I felt really blessed!