November 30 Nativity Cat

Wednesday: Belle-Belle has been pretty high maintenance lately. She sleeps a LOT, like most cats; but when she is awake--watch OUT! She tears around here like a wild animal, meowing up a storm!

Tonight, however, she is completely contented to "blend in" with our children's nativity. She was very coy about it too.

Aren't cats funny animals? We love you Belle!
 

November 29 Little Cal is sick

Tuesday:  Kelly texted me early this morning that little Cal is sick today and will be staying home with Miss Jen while I pick Erin up from pre-school. We've decided to have Erin come home with me for just a little playtime and lunch, and then she and I will return back to their house to relieve Jen for the rest of the afternoon.

I believe this is the first time Erin has ever been to my house without her siblings! WHAT?!?!?!? Yikes, grandma Carol. There is no way that I shouldn't now and then have a 1-on-1 with each of the kids over here!

I love Erin's little face. She is the most expressive child. You should hear her talk. She is four going on 15 most of the time.

We arrived over at Erin's house by about 1:30 to take care of Cal and wait for the boys to get home from school. Poor little dear truly didn't feel good. They've all been passing around a respiratory "flu" to each other. This was Cal's turn evidently.

I took some pictures later in the afternoon with my phone. Cal had rested up and was feeling more himself.

Cal's a tough little cookie ... much rougher than the other kids ever were! He's so funny while he is being aggressive that it is difficult to reprimand him for it; but I do try.

When it was getting near the time for Aidan's bus to drop him off two doors down from the house, we went outside so that the bus driver could see we were waiting for him. Dylan had come home too and walked down to the corner where the bus was going not stop. Meanwhile, Erin got cold so I opened up my back hatch for her to snuggle up with a blanket and some good books while she was waiting. She liked it very much.

Here comes Aidan's bus!

For some reason, that was all the pictures I took on Tuesday. It gets busy once all of the kids are home and I just ... forget to take any pictures. This was Aidan's first day on the bus--I meant to get a picture of him stepping off the bus, but I was too busy making sure Cal stayed out of the street to remember my camera. Brendan came home soon afterwards and we all played for just a little while until Dylan got back from picking Kelly up from work. Kelly was feeling better from her bout with the flu. I was super glad to see her looking more herself. 

I left earlier than I usually do. I needed to be here for the handy-man to come and fix the plumbing in my bathroom. He came. He fixed it, and now ... I just have to wait to see how much it is going to cost to have my car fixed. It is presently in the "shop" having brakes repaired. Oh well. Life happens, and it usually costs money when it does. Good thing there are more important things than money.

November 29 Chris is NINETEEN

Tuesday:  I only have a few pictures to post (which Emma forwarded to me from her recent photographs) to show you how completely grown up and handsome Chris is. Today is his 19th birthday, which was mostly celebrated this past weekend since he was home for Thanksgiving. Today he is busy taking final exams at Olivet.

Emma snapped a pictures of Chris opening the card I made for him, with $$ enclosed ...

He SEEMS pleased with the card ... I hope so.

Emma got Chris this very cool light-up basketball set -- the net lights up, the ball lights up ... but it did NOT come with a rim/hoop, which they didn't know until the box was opened. Who on earth would sell a basketball set that is THIS cool and not include the hoop? How mean! So Emma had to go back on-line and order the hoop.

Emma designed a card for Chris too! We're a card-making bunch over here at the Beach House.

Love you very much, Chris. Life sure goes by quickly. It was like two seconds ago that he was THREE and looked (and acted like) "Spanky" from "Our Gang." 
 

November 26 Putting up the tree

Saturday:  I am never totally excited to put up my Christmas tree ... it kind of puts me out of my comfort zone to move furniture and add MORE clutter to this already small space. But having said that ... I DO love this time of year--not because it's all warm and cozy and emotionally happy--lots of times there is quite a bit of added stress that comes with the holidays, especially with relationships ... but putting those things aside I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I love it because I can play Christmas carols without feeling "odd" like I do when I play them in August! I love it most because God stepped out of heaven and became a human being for us, when we were His enemies through and through. I don't think I will ever exhaust the amazement of His awesome love for us. Christmas is a good time to remember all He has done for us.

I took a few pictures of my Christmas trimming adventure. For once, I actually put the tree together, got both strands of lights draped around it without any negative incidents ... and then I stopped and waited to decorate it until Sunday. That was a good decision.

My tree is tall and narrow. It has to be! I only have a 3' sq. space to put it in--and it fits pretty good there!

A few years ago, I condensed all my Christmas decorations into these two totes, which are easily spotted in the shed behind my house. 

I move this small bookcase from the living room into the "dining room" to make room for the tree. I have a "Little People" nativity set that I got probably 10 years ago now. The little kids love to play with it.

I picked Kaity up at 3:30 from Jesse. She came over for a little while and we just hung out together. It was good to see her--she had been sick last week and couldn't come over. I missed her!

I've been noticing a "noise" in the last few days while I am driving. At first I thought it might be the brakes--but it wasn't exactly THAT noise I was hearing. Kaity noticed it too. On the way back to Jesse's, we decided to road test our noise to see if we could narrow down when it occurred and under what conditions. Kaity looked in the glove box and found a note pad and a pencil to write our findings down. She was hugely enjoying this. We found that the noise happened especially when first starting up (like from a cold start) and going slow, especially when turning the car LEFT. Fast speeds? No noise. Slamming on the brakes at a good speed? No noise. Driving straight ahead ... a noise now and then.

We reported our "findings" to Jesse when we got to the house. Jesse diagnosed that I have a wheel bearing that is going bad. He looked things up on the internet to see if he could do the mechanical work on it, but found that since my Kia is a SOUL, the wheel bearing requires a certain compression machinery to replace and install. SO, Jesse is going to talk to some "car" people he knows and recommend a place first thing Monday morning.

This last picture of the tree was taken Sunday evening. The tree is all decorated now. I moved the little nativity underneath the tree where Erin and Cal can readily reach and play with it. 

PS. The 14.5 inches of snow we received out here in Belmont just one week ago has entirely melted! There are just a few "piles" where it had been shoveled out of the way. What a weird weather week. Two weeks ago on a Friday, we had a high of 75 degrees. Six days later, we started our 3-day snow event with temperatures dropping into the upper 20's and low 30's. THIS weekend, we've been in the upper 50's. Only in Michigan!

November 24 Thanksgiving

Thursday:  After making a double batch of turkey stuffing this morning, I placed it in a crock pot, grabbed my freshly baked pumpkin bread (Starbuck's recipe) and French bread (Arnie's bakery) and drove over to Dylan and Kelly's to eat dinner at noon. I arrived about an hour early so that I could free up Kelly in the kitchen--play with the children--or whatever she needed me to do. Upon arriving, Dylan told me that Kelly was sick. The illness that had gone through their entire household, finally got HER. She had already prepped everything for the meal--all was in the oven cooking or on the stove top--so she went up to bed and Dylan and I took care of watching over the food and then serving it to the kiddos. We had a ton of food and it was delicious. 

Football began at 1:00, so the timing of our lunch worked out perfectly. Everyone went downstairs to watch the game and I elected to clean up the kitchen as best as I could before I joined them. Everything worked out really well. We sure missed having Kelly with us--but I am glad she decided to go to bed and just sleep. Sometimes our body doesn't give us any choice in the matter!

Cal really enjoyed his whipped cream
and pumpkin pie--mostly the whipped cream!

Aidan wanted me to photograph his
"shots" ... so I tried my best!

The Lions/Bills game was on--it was a good game ... with a disappointing loss right at the very end of the game. 

Isn't Cal something? He is an interesting little person, for sure! Thankfully, he still loves to cuddle and hug. So does Erin!

I love him to pieces. 

These two! Three years apart. They are starting to enjoy playing together more and more. Cal's kind of rough on Aidan ... but then ... Aidan is kind of rough on Cal too.

Dear Erin--I love you, baby girl. She wasn't feeling 100% either and just laid on the bean bag and let me play with her hair and rub her back for the longest time.

Brendan was still really under the weather from this respiratory "bug" they have all experienced. I think Brendan has had it the longest and perhaps the worst. He missed two days of school this week too. I was sad to see him feeling miserably still.

By mid-afternoon, Cal was quite tired; so he cuddled up with Dylan, who read him some "Gossie and Gertie" books for awhile ...

Cal finally gave in and ... slept! I love this picture of Dylan and Callaghan.

Shane was here too. In the past I have been asked not to take pictures of him; and since I haven't been told differently, I try very hard to respect his wishes. However, it leaves me with no recent photos of him whatsoever. I guess that's okay. My brain still works well enough to see him when I want to see him! The picture I see tonight is of Shane playing with Aidan (rough-housing, tickling etc.) on the floor of their basement while watching the Lions' game. I see Shane talking kindly to Brendan, laughing with Aidan--enjoying him and Aidan clearly loving his uncle right back. Cal too, and Erin--they clearly adore Shane. It's a happy memory that I will cherish, even without a photograph.

November 23 Chris' birthday card

Wednesday:  Well ... it took me most of the day (!!) but I finally got Chris's card designed. I'm posting it here because the way I am printing out cards now makes it difficult to save it completely intact in my "Documents" section on my computer.

The front picture was taken over at Tyler's mom's house the day of Chris and Tyler's graduation open house. Tyler's mom has several acres next to her house--beautiful woods! The inside picture was taken a few months ago (during the summer) at my house. We were sitting at my table playing games (if I remember correctly).

I struggled with the inside message for his card ... and I hope it doesn't sound "preachy." I don't want it to! It's just that Chris is going to be 19 this coming Tuesday. He has been away at college this semester, so I haven't seen very much of him at all, let alone interact with him. But this has been the case now for the last few years. He's grown up now, doesn't come over very often, and even when he does he is with his siblings--I can't remember the last time I had a 1-on-1 conversation with Chris that lasted more than a minute--just greetings as we come and go--that kind of thing. So I cannot say I actually KNOW Chris ... like what he thinks about or what is most important to him. So as I prayed while designing his card, I asked the Lord to help me communicate my heart for him.

I've been spending significant time in the Psalms during the last few weeks. As I was beginning to read the VERY long 119th Psalm, these verses just jumped out at me for Chris. I love this entire 175 verse Psalm. In the past, I thought it was very repetitious and couldn't understand why 175 verses had to be written to communicate the same truth over and over again: God's Word is central and we MUST obey it! But as I read and thought about each section, it became SO beautiful ... the writer is so desperate to find out what is really important to God ... what makes life worth living ... how can we know what decisions to make ... how can we truly honor God, what is true happiness ... etc.

"How can a young person live a clean life?" Ah. Now THERE'S the question! How can anyone--old or young? We live in such a dark world ... so much sin and sickness and sadness, both inside of us and all around us! "By carefully reading the map of God's Word." I like the way this is worded in The Message, so that's the translation I used. The other verses talk about where real happiness is found ... anyway, I thought they were appropriate for anybody, and I do pray this for Chris and ... all of us.

Emma was going to spend some time with Chris today. He is "home" for the Thanksgiving holiday, but returning to college for his finals next week. Emma is going to deliver Chris's card and gift today. 

November 23 Belle's new sweater

Wednesday:  Look what arrived in the mail today for our Belle!

Emma ordered this Christmas sweater for little Belle ... she looks adorable in it.

Belle was NOT in the mood to pose for any pictures and kept turning her face away from my camera. Oh well--these show how darling she looks. She is READY for Christmas!