Michigan Football

 A few weeks ago I attended a professional development seminar with a few colleagues on a Friday in October.  The speaker began the workshop by asking each of the attendees to share something for which she was grateful.  The speaker said it could be something in our classrooms, and with our students, or in our personal lives.

Each of the other attendees shared something she was grateful for in her classroom and with her students.  I, unashamed, shared that I was grateful for Michigan football.

Of course, I am grateful for hundreds of things in my life -- probably thousands of things in my life, but Michigan football has been very important to me this fall, even moreso than in past years.

I have had a long list of stressors in my life since May.  I don't mean to complain, because a lot of these things are good things... but I have worked almost nonstop for months:

• moving one hundred miles away
• preparing a house to go on the market
• living in a home while trying to sell it
• trying to buy a home for 8 people in a town WITHOUT ANY HOUSES FOR SALE
• starting a new job where the work is never done (I am filing two teaching positions that the district has never had before)
• supporting my husband as he works a new job
• being mother to our six children
• moving a second time in three months
• attending graduate school classes online

When I attended this professional development day, Michigan was going to play their in-state rivals, Michigan State the following day.  Michigan had not played the previous Saturday as they had a week off.

What I learned that previous weekend was that the only time during the week I let myself take a break and fully relax is when I'm watching a Michigan football game.  The weekend that Michigan did not play a game, I didn't put my feet up and relax at all.  I need that break each week and I really look forward to it.

I am so grateful for Michigan football.

I am also grateful that Michigan is undefeated with a 12-0 record for the first time since 1997.  That just makes those Saturday games where I relax all the more fun to watch!

The Tree

 Yesterday, our kiddos made a tree out of brown paper where we decided to write things for which we are thankful on leaves in order to fill the tree.

It was a really sweet project, and I've included a few of my favorite leaves (love the phonetic spelling).

college football and NFL football

Rodriguezes and Urban Millers

Grammie and Papa and Memaw and Pepaw

Cousins

Michigan football

Thankful

 So much to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving.

A Word from Hubs

 My hubby doesn't post things publicly very often, and when he does it is almost never introspective... but last night he did both.

Here's a word from Hubs:

God really does give us exactly what we need.

On the busiest week of my educational career, I left my 86 degree office yesterday and came home to change out of my sweat soaked clothes just in time to have our swamp cooler motor quit. It got pretty hot in the house last night, and we’ve only been in this house a little over a week. Houses aren’t supposed to have stuff break like this right after you buy it, so I was hot, literally and metaphorically.

RW came over this morning to help me figure out what was wrong with the swamp cooler (thank you R!). We went to Junction to do a Sam’s run and get all of our parts to fix it. I got the motors switched out, Howard helped me up on the roof tonight, which was a pretty great father son bonding moment, and it’s finally fixed!

After our swamp cooler broke last night, I listened as Brooke read a bedtime story to our kids. As she took a break from the story, my four-year-old asked her, “Why doesn’t Daddy live with us?” Brooke explained to her that I just had a very busy week with the new principal job, and I still lived with them. That broke my heart.

After I got the swamp cooler fixed, I sat down and reflected on today’s events and realized it couldn’t have been planned any better. If the swamp cooler didn’t break, I probably would have worked another 12+ hour day and gone another day not spending much time with my family. Instead, I got to spend all day with them making memories laughing, traveling, shopping, looking for animals, fixing stuff with my son, and just being together. I was upset when it broke, but I’m so glad it did!

Thank you God for giving me today!

Happy Thanksgiving

 I hope your Thanksgiving was as full as our was... Grateful.  Thankful.  Joyful.

Happy Thanksgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving

Strength

 I read this today, and I think it helps to have an attitude of gratitude to realize the fortitude that I (and many others have had) during so many unprecedented, unexpected, discouraging, and challenging changes this year.

When Grammie Visits

 When Grammie visits...

She runs the vacuum cleaner every day

I always have someone I can hand the baby to when I need two hands to do something

She folds laundry all the time

She feeds the animals for me

She gets up early and is ready to help me and be with children

She stays up as late as I do (after our husbands are sleeping) and I know I'm not the only one in the house still awake

She hears children crying in the night, and gets up almost any time I do to help in any way she can

She plays hide-and-seek, and Memory, and Guess Who

She goes on walks, and takes kids to the park

She crawls in Lee Lee's little tent to have a picnic with her

She has such a special bond with whichever child is the toddler at that time... she is so helpful with the moody, temperamental toddler, which gives me a break

She loads the dishwasher and tidies the kitchen for me every night while I'm putting kids to bed

I get such a break when my mom visits -- she helps carry the mental load of running the household, and I am so appreciative.

*** Please note:  Papa is also a lot of fun to have here, and he is very involved with the children, and also a big help to me... but truthfully, there is no one else on the entire planet who is as much of a help to me when she visits as my Momma.

Great Thought

 Here is a great thought for November...

and a great thought for the day after an election...

and a great thought for every day.

Not For Granted

 Happy Birthday, Dad!

Welcome to another year of life, and thank you for taking such good care of yourself that you are around, and aware, and truly enjoying your golden years of life.

As a child, my dad was older than everyone else's dad.  The only exception to that was one cousin of mine who's dad was older than my dad... her dad also happened to be my dad's older brother.

EVERYONE'S dad was younger than mine but you would never know it by how involved my dad was in every childhood activity, sport, and club I participated in.

Now, 30-some years later, I have a not-small-number of friends who have buried their fathers.  It is not lost on me how fortunately I am that my father, who was older than theirs (sometimes by a few decades) is not only still living on earth, but living well, living abundantly, joyfully, fully, and happily.

I really hit the dad-jackpot, and I have no idea how I was so lucky.

Every time I stop to think about it, the only words I come up with are, "Thank you!"

Corsets

I started reading the Little House on the Prairie books to my children last summer.  We don't read it every night because some nights Hubby reads Magic Tree House books... but we are currently on "Little Town on the Prairie"

It is fun to re-read these as a grown woman, and as a mother.

Here was a excerpt from last night's reading that I enjoyed:

"I'm glad I don't have to wear corsets yet," said Carrie.

"Be glad while you can be," said Laura.  "You'll have to wear them pretty soon."  Her corsets were a sad affliction to her, from the time she put them on in the morning until she took them off at night.  But when girls pinned up their hair and wore skirts down to their shoetops, they must wear corsets.

"You should wear hem all night," Ma said.  Mary did, but Laura could not bear at night the torment of the steels that would not let her draw a deep breath.  Always before she could get to sleep, she had to take off her corsets.

"What your figure will be, goodness knows," Ma warned her.  "When I was married, your Pa could span my waist with his two hands."

"He can't now," Laura answered, a little saucily, "And he seems to like you."

"You must not be saucy, Laura," Ma reproved her, but Ma's cheeks flushed pink and she could not help smiling.

------------------

I'm very grateful to have a wonderful husband who "likes me" these 9 years later when my waist is not the same width as it was when we were married.  Through all the (literal) ins and outs of five children and four pregnancies and the fitness efforts in between, I am incredibly grateful for my Hubby who loves me through it all.

And I am grateful that I do not feel pressure to wear corsets to bed.

Gusty Winds

When we get gusty winds in our area, which often happens -- usually in the afternoons and sometimes into the evening and night, I can feel the wind even from inside our sturdy house.

I sense the push on the windows, hear the howling at the doors, and practically feel the walls standing firm against the tremendous gusts of wind.  In these winds, I do not doubt the strength of our home.  In face, when I see the tress blowing outside or our recycling flying down the street -- yes, that happens, I am overcome with gratitude for our strong house and sturdy home.

I will frequently say to the children, "We are so fortunate to have this strong house to protect us from these winds."

Yet, when strong winds blow in my life -- uncertainty, job loss, unsure of what to do in parenting, I do not look to God in the same way I have gratitude for my strong house amidst gusts of wind.  So often, I timidly ask God for his Will to be done, but then cower in fear of what His Will might be, because it might be a disaster.  Or, I pray to God to fix a situation, then I still am wrought with stress as I try to solve the problem myself.  I would say I rarely, if ever, feel the winds of life blowing around me and simply say, "I am so fortunate to be in God's Will to protect me from these winds and guide me through these winds."

Do I have more faith in my home than I have in God who blessed me with this home?

I surely hope not!!!

He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, [my safe home when gusty winds blow], in whom I trust.

Psalm 91:2

For Good

Great Video

Older Siblings

I absolutely love watching our little kiddos growth into older siblings.

Lee Lee was the youngest for the longest of any of our children -- and she had the most number of older siblings doting on her for her whole life.  We didn't know how she would adjust to having a little brother or sister.  Thankfully, she takes her cues mostly from Caroline, and also from Howard and Tracey, and she has done wonderfully well as a big sister.

I love the pictures I'm getting these days of our playing with and loving on Hunter.

They are reminding me of the pictures from when Howard and Caroline were adjusting to being older siblings to Lee Lee... and when Tracey was adjusting to being an older sibling to the twins.

The truth is, living in quarantine could be miserable for children.  I think about the children without siblings, or just one sibling maybe five or more years old who do not share much in common.  I imagine those households are incredibly hard -- and so much more difficult than our household, which literally has children falling over each other.

Our kids are so close in age, and there are an above-average number of them.

But, I suspect, when they look back on social distancing and COVID-19, years and decades from me, I suspect... and I hope, they will just remember adventures with their siblings.

For laughs... look at these similarities: