and so December begins...

 

Do you like my coffee cup-gingerbread man top?  It's not technically pajamas, because I didn't sleep in it.  It's around the house clothes.  

Ah, the morning pour-over area gets festive!

Shh, we may or may not have used these mugs all year, but now, yay, it's the season!  (I got four Starbucks mug gift sets, with cocoa packets, coffee packets, and chocolate, at the dollar store after Christmas last year).  

Yesterday was a puttering day.  I vacuumed and did dishes, did some cleaning and more decorating...the girls think I have too much stuff out, and I probably do, but I like it all, and don't want to put any away.  A few years ago, my son-in-law told my daughter that it looks like autumn threw up in her house, because I had so many fall decorations...ouch, but SO TRUE. I've taken that to heart, and cut way back on those orange flowers, ect., but Christmas stuff...eeks.  I like it all so much.  The throw pillows and warm blankets, and the little trees, and strings of lights...

In the early afternoon, yesterday,  Camille and I headed out in the wind and pouring rain to her optical appointment at Walmart.  The eye dr. has been having issues receiving payments from our insurance, so we had to pay for the exam, and submit it ourselves for reimbursement.  Cam had her exam, and we were picking out glasses...the insurance covers a certain amount for frames...but wait, they weren't authorizing payment...the nice lady behind the desk called the company, and...oops, our policy had changed:  even under 18's can only get glasses/exams covered every other calendar year.   Camille's last glasses were July of 21,  so the exam won't be covered or reimbursed, not a huge deal...and we decided to just go back in January to get the glasses.  The lady there, Amy, is so super nice and was so kind about it all.  I can't believe our policy changed like that...it was always that way for the adults, but kids, how can their glasses last for two years?

Anyway.  I had made dinner earlier, it was simmering away in the crockpot...chili!  It was the perfect day for chili!   Shh, it was venison chili!  (I didn't mention that fact to the kids, ha)

I admit, I am not a huge fan.  But, it's in the freezer, and I hate being a snob...so I browned it up, added a little bit of ground beef too, with lots of onion powder, garlic, salt, pepper, and a chopped onion...added crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes, black beans,  lots of chili powder...it was kind of bland, so I added a packed of taco seasoning, (because we ran out of chili powder)...then another, and it was actually good!   When we came in from the store, armed with some boxes of corn bread muffin mix, the chili smelled so yummy...Cam mixed up the cornbread and put it in a small square pan, it was 52 cents for a box...and it added so much to the dinner...I only had a little pinch of a taste, but they really liked it.

We had a cleaning shift last evening, at church, and it's hard to leave the house when it's dark out, on a chilly rainy evening, but we all went...and it was fun...

This fine day, I wrapped a few presents...I'm trying to wrap things as they arrive in the mail, except for things for the grandkids, which the kids here can help me wrap.  

I am jealous of people with natural organization skills.  I have to suffer through it...and figure it out, write things down, make lists, my head just feels all jumbled with all the events and parties and gifts for different things.  I need to organize all these wrapped gifts, I don't know who will be coming over, or when, yet.  I'm thinking maybe just open up the house on Christmas Eve, then the small families can have their own Christmas mornings, then if anyone wants to come over later in the day, they can...

Maybe it's the season, maybe because I'm getting old, but I'm so sappy and nostalgic these days.  My mother died 16 years ago, my dad 6 months later.  My older kids remember them, but life goes on.  I realized that if I died tomorrow, my grandkids would barely remember me.  My grandmother died when I was two, I have no recollection of her at all.  Anyway, not to be so morose, but all those fun times of piling into my parents' house for holidays and birthdays...then we went to my brothers' house, but with ten kids of their own, mostly married with kids now, he has his own huge family...but things don't last forever, life is constant change, and someday, gatherings at this house will also be a fond memory for my own kids.  

The older we get, the speedier the years go by.  We didn't know it was just a blink, and they would grow up.  We were told that, but the days were so long, the nights even longer...there were fevers and teething and diaper rash and tantrums and thumb sucking and lost pacifiers (and trying to take them away, oh how that was such a big ordeal that turned into a distant memory!)  Potty training stresses and finding mittens for them all, managing nursing babies and curious toddlers and school kids (signing the homework logs!  Going to project fairs and open houses and school plays!),  then when there were teenagers too, oh my!  You need tampons RIGHT NOW?  And you need poster board for a project due TOMORROW?  It was your snack day today?  I am SO sorry!!!  You need five dollars tomorrow for a field trip?  Your flute needs repair?  The orthodontist?  Dentist?  Yearly pediatric check ups?  Your ear hurts?  Your finger hurts?  

Yes, the days were full, actually overflowing.  I would get up in the morning, tired already, and give myself little speeches...one day at a time, no, one MINUTE at a time, dear Lord, please help me today!  

I'd walk into the kitchen, say with a baby who needed changing, nursing, rocking...and perhaps nine or ten children would need to be gotten up and ready for school...I ALWAYS got their clothes out the night before, at least for the elementary kids...of course sometimes there were itchy tights or a shirt someone hated, so we had to scramble to fix it.  With eleven girls, there was usually a line of them to get their hair done, I remember Joseph and Aaron being baby holders on school mornings...then one of those teenagers would start in...she's wearing my skirt...one would dislike what was on the lunch menu, and it was a miracle if every child could find both of the shoes they were going to wear.  

If I was impatient with them, or with any one of them, as they went out to the bus, I felt horrible all day.  Patience is the very most important ingredient in the raising of children, but it's also not something we have an abundance of.   Tired, stressed, frazzled, but God was always near at hand, and always gave me when I asked.  Patience and humility go hand in hand, and God gives grace when we are humble.  

Anyway.  On and on I go, blogging as if I didn't have a thing to do around here.  Remember when I cleaned out the laundry room? Well, there are at least five, six garbage bags of blankets, towels, clothes, ect.,which I have to drop off at the thrift store...yesterday,  Miss Cam and I decided not to haul them with us because of the rain and wind...so in the kitchen they are.  Here in the living room, four boxes/bags filled with wrapped presents...maybe I'll stick them in the laundry room, now that there's room...

There are still bins from decorations, that have to be put away, and when you have dogs and cats, you have to vacuum every day.  Grace is coming over today for dinner, with Grant and Ruth, because Sam will be in class tonight...and do you think I have an inkling what dinner will be?

Kathryn and I were thinking of doing something today, too, so I had better get moving...

Just a few short years ago, shopping with six of them...Sonja and Suzanne, Kathryn hugging Charlotte Claire, little Camille, and Evelyn Joy...

The youngest seven...dear little Jonathan with so many sisters!  

All right, enough rambling for today...have a really good one!