Did everyone have a great weekend? Thanksgiving is a great time to get together with family and share good times. Ours was really lowkey this weekend.Holidays are really not the same anymore, I'm not sure if I am sad about that or if I embrace the welcoming of new traditions. I'm a little torn. But as our family grows and everyone has extended families, we have to make changes. So this weekend, people came and went, harvesting still took place. For us I don't think our holidays will ever be quite the same since gramma and grampa died. They seemed to have a certain glue that held everyone together. I really do miss the little traditions we did when they were alive, the smell of gramma's house walking in and everything was cooking. the hustle and bustle of everyone trying to help with preparations. finishing the meal with mississippi mud pie. I miss grampa's genuineness. He always made you know how special you were. He had a constant smile on when his children and grand kids/great grandkids would come over. At this time of year, especially Thanksgiving is when I miss them the most.
So I thought I would look at my list of what I am truly truly thankful for:
- family. I love working with Jim building ours, working together as a partnership. I love that my parents & siblings feel it is important to be a part of our life. I love that it is important to my family to want to be a part of our kids growing up. That is the biggest blessing we have. support. Life is hard.
- unconditional love. this one is crucial. we are not perfect in any way. we need to be able to be there with more understanding.always. we all have faults.
- true friendships. friends are easy to make, however a true friendship is really truly hard to develop, make, keep and cherish. A true friendship takes work, mutual respect, honesty. It is actually eye opening when you have a moment of true honesty with someone. A real friendship respects the truth,and figures out how to work through issues, a fake one suddenly disappears.
- freedom. that we live in a free and safe country is such a blessing.this summer I read so many true stories that have been happening to people right now all over the world. They broke my heart. Seeing children forced to kill so young, girls having such nasty things done to them. The world really is a scary place.
These are my most immediate broad things I am grateful for. I sat down today and just made a list of what and who I am thankful for. It was a long list. It was a wonderful list. It made me smile. It made me really count my blessings for those that are in my life. I definitely invite you to think about your life in a true reality. It is eye opening.
Last week we celebrated Jager's 5th birthday. WOW. busy time but fun. My favourite part of the whole event was watching Jager come up with his invite list. It was like a wedding process. Usually I just invite my friends kids, but we decided as a family now that they are both in school we will put it in their hands the choices. We told both boys they couldn't invite everyone, so they really had to think about their lists. This is amazing. As an adult we actually should make our friendship lists like kids do. I think it would save us a lot of hardship. There was no judgement between sexes, ages, he picked anyone he really likes. At one point when he was telling Riley who he was inviting, Riley asked about a certain kid from school. Jager replied "oh no he's a bully to my friends, I don't want him to be mean to me or my kids at the party." Wow. pretty strong statement for a 5yr old. He wanted to go to Putt n Bounce. This turned out to be brilliant. Possibly the best birthday we had so far. 17 kids, the course to ourselves, fun.
Little Beckett seriously may be the next TigerWoods. He is an amazing golfer at 2.
I like watching how the kids would go off in different groups and change groups and get to know each other, because a lot didn't know the other kids.
my favourite moment of the "epic" party as Hannah taught me weeks ago. See Hannah I have been using the word frequently. :)) A point where all the kids wanted to be on the same course together. However the balls all got stuck in the tunnel. Huge dilemma! But nothing a little water couldn't cure. We had one fun dad stay at the party with his daughter. Jager just met her this year and said she is a nice friend.
The gift opening part was psycho. Wayyyyyy too many gifts and loud kids that were excited. WE even forgot to sing Happy Birthday. oops.
Then before we met Jim at Fuddrucker's for supper, we did a little Rock climbing. Riley is amazing at this. The guy let us do it for 30min for free!!! what sweetness. JAger only went so high and that was it. Riley must've climber a dozen or more times, constantly switching sides. I showed him how to rappel down the sides, he loved it and became very good at it. However at the very top he did a back flip off it and then rappelled. Daredevil!!!!
I LOVE this one.
well must go pack class kits. I have about 40+ hrs of kitting left. It's been a long week. ei yi yi. But today's Oprah is HILARIOUS. Are you normal? My stomach hurts from laughing.