Snow, more snow, sickness, and more snow

It's been snowing a lot here. Most of you know this, but just in case you didn't, now you do. We've been confined to our home quite a bit lately because of the massive amounts of snow that keep falling, the bitter cold temperatures, and catching the flu. How we managed to get the flu when we had been so confined to home is still something I'm trying to figure out! Here is what life as looked like for us over the past few weeks.

Practicing the letter F in as many ways that we can think of. These Dollar Tree foam shapes stick to the window when they area little wet.

Reading the Bible story about Jesus feeding 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. Then we made our own baskets and cut out fish and loaves. Great lacing and cutting practice for Curly Girl.

Playing with paper towel and toilet paper rolls and Pom poms. Gravity at its finest :)

Turning the water play table into a bean play table. I'm still finding beans everywhere! 

Reading time together on the couch. It will be so fun when she can actually read to him!

Play dough play and mixing. The mixing drives me absolutely crazy, but I've given up on trying to stop it. That only makes me crazier!

Coloring time. Lots and lots of coloring time.

Indoor snow play. There's enough of it outside, so why not bring it in too?

Trying to bring down the fever on my poor, sick girl :(

Watching Tangled, while dressed up as Rapunzel with her prince.

Cornstarch & water slimy goo play. Messy, but so fun! 

Some apple math, including some basic addition! 

A trip to Target with some special treats for good behavior. Getting out of the house felt good!

Helping Darling Daddy with a little work project.

A Valentine's Day game that included some Lego building. 

Darling Daddy FINISHED PAINTING THE BASEMENT!!! Now we just need heat & carpet and then it can be our playroom! Hooray! 

A visit to the indoor zoo. Also known as Pet Smart ;)

Free birthday treats from the Barnes & Noble cafe for some special birthdays last week.

Made my first batch of natural hand lotion. It was super easy and so far seems to be working great on our extremely dry & chapped winter skin.

Flowers from my mom when we were sick have been brightening the kitchen, as well as the tulips that I couldn't pass up on our last trip to Market Basket.

The view out on our walk-out back patio. The fence is probably about 7 feet tall. And that's our table & chairs somewhere under there too. I wonder if we'll be able to use it by Memorial Day? 

We went outside to play in the bitter, freezing temperatures. The snow piles are gigantic! The light Poe that I'm level with is about 12 feet tall! 

The target.com shipment box that has provided lots of fun and will continue to bring hours of fun :)

Our first ever meal at Moe's! Did you know that kids eat free all day on Tuesdays? Daddy was working late, so this was a win for all of us! 

So there you go! These are just some of the things we've been up to over the past few weeks! 

 

Making the Most of the Blizzard!

As many of you know, we're in the middle of a blizzard right now in Massachusetts. It started snowing last night and is still snowing right now at 3pm. I think we're up to about 30 inches. The kids are napping now, as I write this, but earlier today the snow was so deep and the plow hadn't come through at all, so playing outside was a bit difficult since the snow was almost as tall as they are! Darling Daddy is fortunately working from home, so he took them out on his lunch break. Am I the only mom who isn't the biggest fan of snow play during a blizzard? I hope not. I sure enjoyed the peace inside while they played. 

But we surely have been making the most of this blizzard. Getting things done and having fun!

Darling Daddy and I made the most of last night and primed the second half of the basement. The other half is already COMPLETELY painted! Hooray! Getting closer to being done! (And yes neighbors, you do spy a fire pit! Got it for Darling Daddy for Christmas! Fires here come spring!)

Decided to start learning about the letter F today. What better way to start than coloring some Frozen pictures in the letter F?! Curly Girl was excited! She's getting better at coloring too. Oh, and since it's a blizzard, I let her pick out her own clothes :)

And of course Ginger Boy's favorite winter character - Frosty the Snowman! I wish I could insert him saying that here. It's adorable. 

Then we made a flower garden and played with some fire trucks. Fun!

And built the letter F out of Legos!

Took Mommy's phone to make some funny faces...

Daddy took a quick break and we took some fun family pictures.

Made some dairy-free ice cream out of snow, almond milk, sugar, salt & vanilla. Yum! We can all enjoy it without pain! And we've got plenty of snow to make more!

And Darling Daddy the hero took the kids out to play. Hooray!

All in all, it's been a great day and we'll have more fun when the kids wake up from naps and more priming in the basement tonight! 

A Great Girl, My Gums and God's Grace

This past week has been a bit rough here with the Red 3 + Me. I feel like sometimes, we just have those difficult weeks, you know? Life with a 1.5 year old and 3.5 year old is just so unpredictable. I'm learning more and more as time and life goes on with little ones, that life isn't always going to go according to a plan. Not my plan, not any plan. Tough lessons for this type-A planner and doer. But life does go according to God's plan and we've got to just hop on for the ride. He's got this, we just need to trust Him and rely on Him. He will see us through the difficult and unchartered territory in life. Sometimes, this picture below is life. And I'm feeling more and more at peace with it as time goes on.

Curly Girl has been acting out and testing the boundaries a lot lately. I'm not sure if it's an almost-4-year-old thing, or her strong-willed personality. She wants to be the boss, she wants to be in control and she wants to have the last word. All the time. She's going to make a fantastic CEO someday, but right now, we're having to teach her that we are the authorities over her and that God is our ultimate authority. I think I'm learning as much as she is through all of this. Life lessons being learned the challenging (difficult?) way for both Mommy and Curly Girl. We'll get through this phase, just like we always do!

Huge thanks to Kara Lynn Bird Photography for using the kids are her models!

But despite her difficult-to-deal-with personality, she is really great. Like really, really great. She can be so tender and caring with Ginger Boy and attends to his needs so sensitively. She also can be so thoughtful, like wanting to make cards and draw pictures for friends and family all the time. And she sure does love her Mommy. She tells me she misses me when I'm away from her. We're talking being away for an hour or so at a time when I take a bootcamp class and a shower at the YMCA or go out to tutor for an hour in the evenings. Super cute. I wish and hope that she'll always miss me in these ways, but I know that they'll come to an end all too soon. I thank and praise God every day for the great girl she is and the girl she will become someday.

Huge thanks to Kara Lynn Bird Photography for using the kids are her models!

Another thing that's been going on here is that I had gum grafting surgery in a third location in my mouth a few days ago. Unfortunately, I was not as well-prepared as I could have been for the surgery. It's like I had other things demanding my attention, or something? I had two other locations done 7 years ago - Pre husband and Pre kids. I was able to recover a bit more easily than this time around. Icing could happen more frequently, as well as laying on the couch for hours on end. Not really the case this time. And I didn't prepare enough with stocking up on soft foods. Actually, I didn't get any soft foods at all. We always have yogurts, so I've had that, and I've made a couple of fruit and veggie smoothies, but besides that, I got nothing. My bad. And there's more swelling this time, like chipmunk cheek swelling. I don't remember being this swollen last time, but it was in a different location, so that could be why. I don't know. Just hoping for some major healing in the next couple of days! There's only so much TV and movies I can let the kids watch because I don't have the energy or pain tolerance to do anything else with them... :)

But through all of these difficult things this week (forgot to mention our epic grocery shopping trip, spilling hot coffee all over my leg and into my crotch while driving a few days ago, as well as the chore and effort of getting to the mall with two little ones only to have the ONE store I needed to go to be closed for inventory...) like I was saying, through all of these things, I've realized that there is always God's grace. And His mercies. No matter how many difficult things I go through, or how many times I feel like I've messed up as a mom, He is always there. And when I ask, He will forgive me and help me through these difficult days. He'll be there as long as I ask. I think the reason he leads me through so many trials is to teach me to depend on him more. And to show me that things get better when He's included as part of my daily life. 

To end, I'm going to share the lyrics of a song that I've been listening to A LOT lately. Like listening on repeat in the car and during my gum grafting surgery. It often brings me to tears, but it is a great reminder of the greatness that is our God.

Never Once

by Matt Redman

Standing on this mountaintop

Looking just how far we've come

Knowing that for every step
You were with us

Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much You've done
Knowing every victory
Was Your power in us

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much Youve done
Knowing every victory
Was Your power in us

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Never once did we ever walk alone
Carried by Your constant grace
Held within Your perfect peace
Never once, no, we never walk alone

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Every step we are breathing in Your grace
Evermore well be breathing out Your praise
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

What Christmas Looks Like in Our World

I love Christmas. It is definitely one of my most favorite times of the year. I also feel very fortunate that I can fully enjoy the entire Christmas season because my line of work allows for it. We take full advantage and soak it all in every day. As opposed to my college years when I felt I could only really enjoy it once final exams were over. Don't miss those days! 

As much as I love this season and its True meaning, it surely has changed in the past few years for me. The activities and decorations leading up to Christmas day are a bit different, but enjoyable in their own, new joy-filled childish ways. 

Here are some of the things we did both inside and outside our home this year to prepare for and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas - the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

First are the Christmas outfits and perfectly lit tree and happy, smiling (& adorable!) children. This is most important, right? We got tons of pictures like this. Ok, I'm lying. This was the only good one. And it was pretty much a miracle. Hence why it's first ;)

Next comes our Fisher Price nativity set. Notice that one of the three wisemen is missing. No idea where he is. He must have gotten lost somewhere on the journey to Bethlehem. I'm taking it as a sign of a well-played-with set. I'll just tell myself that. He was here at the start of the Christmas season! But we do love this and play with it often. 

Our advent calendars and kindness elf. Every morning (ok, almost every morning - I slacked a few times) our kindness elf, Pepper, has a note under her arm telling us what we're going to do that day. Some things we did included making different crafts and ornaments, going on a shopping trip to buy our Giving Tree gifts, picking out some old toys we no longer use to donate, baking cookies, mailing & delivering Christmas cards, playing/visiting with family or friends, seeing Christmas lights or watching a Christmas movie. Then there's the advent calendars. The one on the wall has different Bible verses to read each day, as well as two M&Ms in each pocket. We figured out pretty quickly that the M&Ms had to be the reward for sitting still and listening to the reading of the Bible verses :)  There's also the family advent calendar that we weren't as good at using. The kids are still a bit young for a lot of it. We'll save that for the future.

Window decorations. The nativity gets rearranged daily in various formations. We did make the "stained glass" nativity though and that has remained in place. I've learned to just let things go and let them be involved rather than have perfect looking decorations. I just end up driving myself crazy trying to fight that fight!

Christmas sticker countdown. This has been wonderful. Peel off a sticker and stick it on the tree each day and also know how many days until Christmas remain. Will definitely have to do this again next year as it easily avoided the "how many days until Christmas?" question.

Visiting Fatima Shrine to look at the lights. We did this at least three times. This visit pictured was with some of our friends was especially fun! The best things about this place are that its free, the lights are great and my energizer bunny of a daughter expends some energy before bed.

And of course making sure we focus on the true meaning of Christmas while there. 

We also did some activities that were fun, but also caused a bit more stress and anxiety than I had anticipated. Two kitchen helpers is just twice the fun! We made memories though and I know it will get easier in years to come. Here we are making cinnamon applesauce ornaments and cookies.

One day I surprised the kids with a long-overdue visit to see some of our most beloved friends who moved over an hour away. The girls had a great time decorating Christmas cookies, playing dress up and doing crafts while the littles played together and biggest brother was at school. And even more important was that the moms got some time to reconnect and catch up.

Touching and rearranging the ornaments on the tree. Multiple times a day. This wasn't exactly a planned or organized activity, but it happened. We didn't have a perfectly pretty Christmas tree this year, it just wasn't going to happen. I let that go and just let their little hands and hearts have fun. And also let pine needles find their way around the entire house. That is not so fun.

Meeting the Grinch. This was HUGE. He came to our local library one morning and did a meet and greet. For those that don't know, Curly Girl has quite the obsession with the Grinch, along with other green guys like Gumby and Yoda. She was pretty much in heaven. And Ginger boy surprised us all by getting right up on his lap. (But if we are anywhere even near a Santa, he insists on me holding him while he nervously quivers). Glad we got to do this!

This may become our new Christmas Eve tradition - watching Rudolph together in the morning before heading out for the day's activities.

And last, but not least, my favorite thing leading up to Christmas is the Christmas Eve service at my hometown church that I grew up in and we got married in. (First Congregational Church of North Brookfield, MA) They do a children's Christmas pageant and then we sing songs by candlelight. And if I'm being perfectly honest, this year brought a little more anxiety than years past because we sat in the balcony with our little busy bodies (and my 3 year old nephew) and they aren't ever really still and have to work pretty hard at staying quiet. So there's the height thing, and then the fire thing with the candles. Just a little anxious. But we made it through the service and all enjoyed it. And I think everyone in the church knew we were there... And best of all, the true meaning of Christmas rang throughout the service. 

From the Red 3 + Me we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May you feel and experience His love in this coming year.