Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees

With Pedro’s 13th birthday last week, I now have three teenagers in the house.

No wonder my grocery bills have been climbing – really climbing.  (By the way, I now believe in the “hollow legs” theory.)

My computer is always in use with someone else’s email logged in and weird music playing.

My laundry piles are bigger and the clothes in the piles are bigger. My son is taller than my husband and I can almost share clothes with my daughter.

The shower is always in use and the remote control is a hot commodity.

And my schedule is crazy!

I thought it was hard having babies and toddlers in the house! Hah! They were a piece of cake – at least they went down for a nap every afternoon, went to bed before midnight and didn’t use all the hot water!

But I wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s exciting to see these kids growing up – maturing – becoming the adults that God meant them to be.

And I have a front row seat to cheer them on.

How blessed I am!

I have a unique family. A large, loving, fun, creative and very unique family.

A few years my mom realized that with the size of the family and the distance we have to travel, having Christmas in the winter was no longer feasible. We just didn’t fit in the house and often the weather kept some of us from attending.

So my parents decreed that we would have Christmas when everyone could travel and when it was warm enough so that we could spill out into the yard in tents.

So we now have Christmas over Labor Day weekend.

People look at you oddly when you tell them. But one gets used to odd looks when you’re a member of my family. We enjoy each other and like to keep our livers healthy by laughing.

Every year we act out the Christmas story on the lawn complete with animal costumes and a camp fire where the shepherds can hang out.

We exchange Christmas presents in the shade of the oak trees while swatting mosquitoes and nursing sunburns we acquired while tubing down the West Fork River with the kiddos.

And we eat! Everyone brings a meal and desserts to make it easy to feed this multitude. We have lots of chocolate and lots of fresh salsa! (Interesting combination?! Hey, I said we were unique!)

And the laughter! Meal times stretch out as we sit around swapping stories and sharing laughter.

(Did I tell you we eat in the garage? My parents set up a buffet line out of planks and saw horses to serve from and picnic tables to eat on. We are in the shade and away from the bugs!)

As you can tell, I can’t wait for our Christmas in September celebration to get started! I’ve learned long ago, it’s the people you want to share it with that makes Christmas, not the time of year.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Some wise words from one of my favorite authors, Edith Schaeffer:

“A balance that is important to consider…is the balance between the danger of wasting the “now” or of considering that everything is going to be static, with no future!

Don’t waste this hour, Don’t waste today…Think hard-what can you do now in this combination that you can’t do in ten years, in five years, even next year? Then do it!….

What does this summer have for you and what does today have that you can do, that won’t be possible five years from now, two years from now, next week?

Someday all that you can do today or this week will only be a memory. Let it be a memory of what you did do…

What if we have to move; what would you want to do first? What do you enjoy about this garden, this house, these books, that if it all were taken away, you’d wish you were here to do it for just one hour?…

Don’t waste the now…”

~Edith Schaeffer, from her book What is a Family.

It’s time for our Annual State Home School Conference and I am packed and ready!

This has become a tradition for my husband and I, a time away to really focus on our home and children. It’s a time to set goals, choose curriculum and be encouraged. It’s a time to evaluate where we are as a family and decide where we are going and how we are going to get there.

Some sessions we attend together, some we split up and take good notes. Everyday for lunch we picnic at a nearby park and talk over the things we are hearing.

We never know in advance just what speaker it will be that bring tears to our eyes or conviction to our hearts. But every year we come away blessed and thankful that we invested the time in our family.

I wonder what God will have in store for us this year?