A photo array of Christmas

These are some good looking kids!

Christmas dinner at Granny and Papa's

The Gonzales Family!

Thomas and I!

My mother and I!

Aaron-The Little Christmas Elf !

Isabella dressed up to spend an evening at Granny and Papa's house.

Christmas is over!

Why an exclamation point after my blog title today?
Well, I am actually pretty happy that Christmas is over. Don't get me wrong, I love the Christmas season and as happy as I am to see it come, I am just as happy to see it go. So much to look forward to in the new year. Time to move on down the road of life. Sometimes the Christmas season gives me a sense to being stuck. Stuck waiting, stuck preparing, stuck stressing and then Christmas comes and there is the release. Christmas morning! Ahh, it has finally come! All that anticipation has finally released and the settling comes once again. So, here's to the settling back down. The start of a New Year. The start of something new and good.

December Happenings

December always seems to be such a busy month. Not only are there holiday activities to take part in, there is also a ton of school projects that seem to be crammed in at the last minute. I am looking forward to the upcoming school break and having the children home with me. I plan on doing some outdoor activities: nature walks, exercise trails, weeding flower beds and planning our spring garden. We will also begin planning a MAJOR change in our eating habits. More to come on that change in the New Year.

The Advent season began on November 29th! It has been a wonderful time of gathering together as a family and reading from scripture, discussing the events leading up to Christ's birth and anticipating together the coming King.

One the first night of Advent we read from scripture in the book of Isaiah. We learned about Jesus coming to a dark world to bring light to us all. We turned off all of lights and we sat in the dark. We talked about the earth being a dark place without Jesus. We then turned on one light and the children knew right away where the lesson was going. They all shouted out that the one light we lit was like the light that Jesus brought to this world at the moment of His birth. We went on to do this stain glass craft and hung it on our advent/Jesse tree. What a blessing to have the opportunity to pass on our Christian faith to our children. Truly a gift worth giving!

The True Meaning of Christmas

What makes a holiday season special? How is it made meaningful? There is no right answer. The answer to these questions are defined by each of us personally. These are questions I ask myself each year as I sense the holidays drawing closer.
I love the holiday season! I enjoy the feelings of togetherness and warmth. The yummy food that is cooked and baked for the ocassion. The time spent focusing on blessing others with the gifts they love. I love all of it!
My dilemma is from within me. Something deep and at time unreachable. I struggle at Christmas time. As a mother of 6 beautiful children, gift giving can be a real struggle. The things I would love to get for my children are often unattainable as the cost is certainly an issue. It forces me to be creative and the energy that that takes can be overwhelming at times. I want the holidays to be meaningful to my children as well. This struggle has forced me to look at what the meaning of the season is for me and for my family. I am forced to dig deep and come to a place where I choose to celebrate Christmas season for exactly how it was meant to be celebrated.
As believers in Jesus Christ, the focus is Him during the holiday season. After all, isn't it His birth that brings us to this day anyway. So, as Christmas passed last year I became increasingly drawn into seeking out how our family can focus even more on the reason for the season. JESUS!
For me personally it's not even just about Christ's birth. It is the mere fact that he came to us all for the purpose of saving us from eternal death. So, it is the whole story that draws me during this time. It is a reason for celebration! It is a special time to anticipate His birth, His coming to to our world for the sole purpose of saving us. I don't know about you, but I certainly need saving. I can't do this life alone. I screw it up on a daily basis. My sin, my insecurities, my selfish ways.
This Christmas season begins The Gonzales family's first advent adventure. I am so looking forward to sharing with my children the joy that comes in anticipating Christ's birth and all that means for their life. They know the Christmas story already, but this will be a great way to going deeper in the realization of His love for us.
So, I am choosing not to stress this year on where all of the money is going to come from to buy gifts for our large family. It always works out. I am choosing to start some meaningful traditions that can be passed on through generations. The story of Jesus to be passed on to my children and on to their children and on to their children. A gift that lasts through the generations sounds like a perfect gift to me.

Here are some of the advent activities we are going to follow.

www.truthinthetinsel.com

Jesse Tree Journey at:
www.aholyexperience.com

Thanks to a couple of my friends for sending me their ideas as well. I am going to blog about our adventure. See you soon!

Things to come

I am looking forward to the future. Sometimes, I just get a little excited inside because I know that the future is bright. Even if 10 years from now I sit here doing the same things, I know I am right where I need to be. Mothering, keeping house, teaching childbirth education, attending births are very fulfilling things to be doing.
The monotany of the house work and teaching lead me to boredom at times. Mothering is always an adventure and attending births are always exciting and new. My life is good! I love my life! I do however think often about the things I would like to add to my life. Writing is one of them, crafting is another, gardening and learning about new and healthy ways to live. I just lack the "umph" to get it started. Maybe there are not enough hours in the day. Maybe I expect perfection and in that I just give up because I can't always give my 100% attention to projects as I would like. Either way, I know that in me lies the desire to make my life richer and more enjoyable for me. For my authentic self. For my spirit. I desire to live "richer". Not monetarily although that would help too, but to live deeper, presently and authentically. So, with that I want to start a few projects and I will keep up with them on my blog. I know, I know I get back to blogging and blog once and a year later come back and am ashamed that I haven't kept up with it. I am going to give it my best shot this time. I promise!

Returning to the things my heart loves

More and more lately I feel pulled to return to the things I love. Yes, I love God and my husband, my children and my work. All of these things are a given. I love my life even on the crazy insane days where time marches on even when I drop out of the parade. I am talking about the things I feel drawn to from my innermost core. I love to write, I love photography and editing photos, I love blogging, I love creating. My daily life is so busy that even when I do get a moment to possibly dabble in a little creativity it is so short lived that I just give up and go back to laundry. So sad... It truly makes me sad. How can I make the time to pour energy into the things my heart loves. This is the question on my mind and heart these days. I am asking God to order my days so that every hour I am awake I am doing just what He wants me to be doing. Order my days and reveal to me what it is you would have me to be doing with my time. Time is a gift, not to be wasted. Teach me to work, rest and enjoy this life you have given me.

Months gone by...

Well, let's see we have had Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day and we just sprang forward which means that we are on our way into Spring now. Blogging is just one more thing to do everyday which I haven't quite found the time to do. I enjoy it greatly, I just need to find the few minutes I need to do it. Maybe I will use blogging as a way to journal this pregnancy.

Most of you already know that we have been blessed with another child who is due to arrive in October. We are thrilled and look forward to meeting this little one. How exciting! The children are so excited and are already talking about names and where the baby will sleep and who is going to hold the baby. I love listening to their conversations about this baby. I also am just thrilled with the way they are so accepting of another child in the family. They are proud of our large family.

I am 8.2 weeks into this pregnancy. Morning sickness has hit me hard, but not in the morning. It is really is it's worst in the afternoon or it tends to be all day long. I am functioning, but not 100%. Smells are getting to me. I am especially gaggy too. Just that general gross feeling. :( Yuck!!

I am trying to figure out what I am going to do about a care provider this pregnancy. Some seem to think that Thomas and I could just stay at home and deliver this baby all by ourselves. We porbably could and we would be just fine. I am not there yet and feel like I still need a safeguard of a midwife if we stay home. The decision to either homebirth or hospital birth is still yet to be made. Hopefully this week we can decide something.

I will blog more later. I am getting super sleepy here at the keyboard and I think a cup of Pregnancy Tea would be helpful right now.

Facebook?

I was thinking about Facebook this morning. Isn't funny how everyone goes to one place and updates their status and adds photos. I think thanks to facebook, myspace, twitter and blogging no one ever has to talk to anyone in true person. I was going through my stationary box last night thinking that it had been ages since I I actually hand wrote a letter to someone. Isn't that so sad? Thomas was telling me that he read an article about how cursive writing is now a lost art form. Children these days don't learn to write in cursive like I did when I was in school. No one needs to write now. We have computers! I think I will start writing notes again this year. I know how much I like to receive a letter in the mail. For now I will continue to blog and add my silly status in facebook and stay connected to all my friends and family via the virtual world. :)