Mom vs. the Dot: Making it COUNT!

In the last month or so, everything spun wildly out of control.  Crazy-fast, extremely crammed, not a moment to think of anything except completing the next task.  The kids, on the other hand, had a great time! I'm not exactly sure how that happens.  We homeschool, so I set our schedule.  We keep our "out of home" activities pretty limited - two evening activities a week, and church activities on Sundays. All the extra Christmas shopping, baking, present coordinating, buying, wrapping and hiding might have done it.  We only baked one batch of cookies.  I sent only a few Christmas cards.  We went to only one Christmas party...but it all adds up.  Every time I sat down with the thought of writing a blog, there was something else that would come up. Things like Shop Girl's hair being caught on the water spout of the tub during bath time.  Shrieks of "Cut it off!  Cut it off!" could be heard throughout the house.   (...

I just love celebrating the New Year! Even though it is just the difference between Thursday and Friday this year, it also is a time to start over.  To try again.  To set goals and try to achieve them once more. I remember celebrating with my dad's whole family when I was just a child.  One year my cousin made homemade fortune cookies for the event.  Almost everyone said they wanted to lose weight, but I think there were other resolutions left unsaid because they were the more serious ones.  Like working on marriages, trying for greater success at work, or other important matters.  It's about adopting a new attitude.  Leaving whatever happened in the past 365 days behind us, opening a brand-new calendar and beginning again. I love The Sandlot , as you may already know.  In the movie, the boys yell, "Do over!" when things haven't gone quite right and they need to start their game back at square one.  All of them understand this....

Six months ago, my parents-in-law packed up and moved out of their house, ready to begin retirement.  They were told they would be able to move into their newly built house by the end of summer.  The construction company was a bit off schedule, as September, October, and November passed by and the house still wasn't finished.  Finally, the weekend before Christmas, the house was ready! We loaded up the kids and headed over to help them move in.  My dear husband made multiple trips with a U-Haul truck for four days - loading, unloading, carrying.  We were so glad, so relieved that the time had finally come!  We wanted so badly for them to be in their house before Christmas. My husband recently shared a story during one of his sermons:  Growing up as a United Methodist pastor's kid, he moved from house to house fairly frequently, his father being assigned to a different church every several years.  When they'd pack up then set up house in t...