Rather like a life buffet…

• The girls did a beautiful job in the church’s nativity! It was beautiful. It opened with a poem from The Forgotten Carols about Joseph. The nativity was one without words, but it focused on Joseph, and was followed by the young children singing beautiful carols

• The girls spent the night at my mom’s, so I ended up doing some (solo!) present shopping, and picked up a beautiful book called Fear Not, Joseph!: A Story of Christmas.
• On Sunday, I was closing a window (the top of the window had slid open when the bottom of the window contains an air conditioner). I managed to slip while doing that, fall, and hurt my back. Ow! I ended up flat on my back for a day and a half. Yes, it still hurts now, but … there’s a fair amount of suck it up and deal.
• Tip for other parents – avoid having your kids jump on the bed when you’re laying flat on it…
• Yesterday we watched a lovely Christmas video, in which Jimmy Stewart conducts the Mormon Tabernacle Choir… very sweet, and nice and short!
• Today the girls visited with their Nani & Vovo while I went to the DTA (aka welfare) office. The people are very friendly & helpful. My problem was with their chairs. ow! I was in a lot of pain by the end of the visit there. It’s a really helpful place, though, and the rewards should outweigh the inconvenience and discomfort.
• The girls and I spent some time making Snowflakes out of white paper. We decorated a few with some glitter glue. It was a lot of fun. I managed to engage miss “there’s nothing to do!” whiny-tween, too.

Other than my random health stuff and financial stuff, life is good. I have 3 wonderful girls to snuggle with, and 3 pups to cuddle with, too. With love and faith we can deal with the rest.

On Thursday we decorated our tree & our house. I had to dig through the “Harry Potter room” (aka the cupboard under the stairs) to find most of the decorations, but it was well worth it. The girls and I loved decorating!

We listened to some new-to-us Christmas music via the free Slacker radio, which I found through woot! Now that I actually want religious Christmas music, I am having to search for them – there were none in my musical collection. Amazon’s 25 days of free mp3 downloads was a good place to start – don’t miss those or Amazon’s other current mp3 deals.

Tonight we celebrated with some Christmas movies and books as we stay warm under plenty of blankets. Unfortunately I’m not managing to get the DVD part of the vcr/dvd player to work right. gah, I am so frustrated! Thankfully, though, we have plenty of vhs movies! I want to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special I picked up, though! *pout*

Maybe I can figure the vcr/dvd stuff tomorrow after I’ve gotten some sleep. My afternoon of present shopping was tiring! I’m glad I shopped on Amazon first, though – Amazon’s prices were better and I didn’t have to worry about things being in stock at that particular store, and then trekking all over searching for it. I’m tired enough as it is.

We have friends nearby without heat or power, so we are feeling grateful for everything that does work! I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.

The expression “darkest before the dawn” has always rung true for me. However, it’s tricky to get a picture of darkness… Hence my current alliterative attempt – Bleakest before the Best.

On Sunday, when I took this picture (from the van, we weren’t walking, thankfully!), I had no money for presents for the girls, and while I knew a couple people were going to help us, I figured I’d need to borrow money from the girls to buy them some other presents.

In the past few days, though, there have been some incredibly generous people, and we’ve found out more about state assistance! We’ll be able to make Christmas candies, the girls will get some wonderful presents, and I’m not anxious about Christmas. I keep finding myself overcome with tears, overjoyed and overwhelmed with emotion that people care so much about us. While this Christmas will be different as a 1 parent family, it won’t be bleak.

My heart aches for the choices I’ve had to make for our family, but my heart is also overflowing with joy We have some truly amazing people in our lives, and we are so incredibly blessed. We have a wonderful outlook for the New Year thanks to friends, family, and faith.

Thank you, dear readers, for all of your support!
If you’d like to help us, an easy way to do so is to shop at Amazon thru the gaggle, it costs you nothing, but we earn up to 10%!

Due to a bit of confusion and some misunderstandings, Friday morning the girls and I ended up taking a 2 mile long walk in 30degree F temps with strong winds.

The walk through the salt marsh near our house is beautiful. Just very cold that day! We were expecting a 30 min walk, and ended up with a 1h 45min long walk. brrrrr.

If you look at the picture of the 3 girls to the right, they are saying “it was a freaking long walk!” Along with “we’re cold!” You can see a white water tower above LG’s head, near BG’s head. Our house is a few blocks walk farther than that. We use it as a landmark to show visitors how far we are from the rest of the world, as you can see the water tower when you’re still pretty close to civilization.

Thankfully, we ended up warm and happily hot cocoa-ed after the long walk. There’s nothing quite like stovetop hot cocoa, mmmm… Sadly, because the walk took so long, we missed out on a chance to swim at the YMCA with some friends. Maybe next time! We aren’t doing that walk again any time soon!

Tonight the girls were so grateful for our wonderful day. They loved it so much, i thought I’d share our recipe – perhaps someone else’s family will also benefit from our plan for joy.

Take 3 parts girls, 1 part puppy, and 1 part Mama. Add to a van and mix for 3 hours.

Blend in a few hours worth of time with great-grandmother and great-grandfather (plus a chili & cornbread lunch!) and a visit with a K-friend (6/7 weeks with K-friends). Beat with extra vigor intermittently (aka run with Ra up and down the yard).

Mix in a surprise ingredient for extra fun (a wonderful box of treats from JadenKale). Ignore the “Best By” date, Halloween treats are still tasty in December.

Add a pinch of a visit with another great-grandmother, then let rest in the van for an hour.

Receive a blessing on the recipe by meeting some friends for a visit to a church activity, complete with Christmas music and over 150 nativities!

Add one more surprise ingredient (a trip to the golden arches for dinner), then bake in the van for 3 more hours.

End result will be delicious and sleep-inducing.

twas a fun jaunt. I love little adventures and side trips, and I’m so glad we were able to do this one – we had the van, gas prices are lower, and I am feeling better.

Our family game nights and family nights have been resurrected, and we are having so much fun! Last night we played Yahtzee and Frog Juice. Both are games loved by everyone in the family, and while Frog Juice says it is for 8 and up, we have found it’s great for 5+.

Most of the time playing games together is just wonderful. Except for the tantrums when people lose. Or the times when someone says “I’m losing, I’m going to quit!”. We just won’t talk about those times.

We ended the evening with some cuddling and scripture-reading together and individually. Watching my girls read to themselves before they go to sleep brings tears to my eyes. I love it when they can’t wait to see what happens next!