Remembering

Today I am remembering thinking of you, my little angel in heaven....three years ago, at 10 weeks along, we found out you had flown up to heaven on your angel wings.

"Precious, tiny little one
You'll always be to me
So perfect, pure and innocent-
Part of heaven's family


We dreamed of you and your life
And all that it would be
We waited and longed for you to come
And join our family


We never had the chance to play,
To laugh, to rock, to wiggle.
We long to hold you, touch you now
And listen to you giggle.


I'll always be your mother,
He'll always be your dad
You'll always be our child,
The child that we had


Now you're gone...but yet you're here
We sense you everywhere.
You're our sorrow and our joy,
There's love in every tear.


Just know our love goes deep and strong,
We'll forget you never-
The child we had but never had,
And yet will have forever" (Author Unknown)

I can't wait to meet you someday and get to hold you.

"You Are Loved, So Very Loved
How very softly you tiptoed into my world.
Almost silently, only a moment you stayed.
...But what an imprint your footsteps have left upon my heart."

Your Mommy 

Organizing and prioritizing

Last Monday I was co-leading a MOPS meeting about organization and I put together this handout from tips I found online. I also read and did a little activity from a blog of a friend and author Tricia Goyer. It is focused on organizing and safety and 13 tips for the overcommitted/overloaded. Be sure to check out the full entries on Tricia's blog by clicking on the links! It's a 5 part post so click on the next entry to keep reading on the 13 tips!

This is a some of Tricia's advice that I included in the handout:

Change can happen. Especially when we realize getting our priorities in order makes us available to God and to those most important in our lives. To summarize, we can stop the insanity by 1) focusing on what’s most important, 2) concentrating on key people, and 3) using ministry as family bonding time. Only then will we be truly available to the work of God in our lives, in our families, and our service.

Major on the Majors
Want to focus on the most important? Try this:
1. List everything you do in your day, your week, your month.

2. Rate these items on a scale from 1 – 4. “1” being most important, with “3-4” things that are nice but you can live with out. (For example, cooking dinner, giving kids baths, reading your Bible, spending time with your spouse would all be “1s.”)

3. Ask yourself: “Will this really matter five years from now? Ten? Is God at work here, or is it my own ambition?” Also, “How does this task rank in light of eternity?”

4. Eliminate out all the “4s.” Consider which “3s” you could put off for now. This may mean taking your toddler out of dance class. (Will she even remember it a few years from now?) Or cutting down on your television usage.

5. Revise this list over the coming weeks. Ask God to show you what tasks to focus on.

When prioritizing remember these tips:

1. Get a good night’s sleep.
2. Take control. Don’t blame others for your overload.
3. Say “no.” Prayerfully consider every request.
4. Set boundaries to protect your family time.
5. Seek solitude in order to sift through your daily problems and brainstorm solutions.
6. Ax the guilt. No one can do it all.
7. Refuse to compare your weaknesses with someone else’s strengths.
8. Decide what things matter most in light of eternity.
9. Realize that kids will someday be grown up. Enjoy them now.
10. Spend quality time with your spouse. Encourage each other.
11. Don’t get caught up in the “extracurricular activities” trap. There are many successful adults who never played t-ball or took piano lessons.
12. Realize the values children learn from down time and home life will set a foundation for their future households.
13. Seek God. Our limitations remind us how much we need Him.

What changes do you need to make in your priorities?

What is one small step you can take towards that?

Remember: Today is Someday. The things that are most important on your priorities, focus on TODAY!

These are some other tips I gleamed from books and other resources:

Tips for organizing and de-cluttering your busy schedule

Prioritize your schedule and daily activities. Cut out unnecessary things that just make you too busy. (see other side for tips in doing that)

Do quick pick ups through out the day to help with the mess build up so you don’t have one huge mess at the end of the day when you are tired

Plan meals ahead to help with last minute meal anxiety. Pre-boil eggs, pre-wash and pre-cut, veggies etc when you have a little more time so that you can quickly throw lunches and meals together. When possible, buy groceries and drugstore items in bulk to save a trip to the store. When you prepare one casserole, make one or two extras and freeze them.

Try a timer. Multitasking doesn’t always work when it comes to keeping yourself organized. Sometimes, you need to be able to focus on a single task in order to really get it out of the way. Using a timer can help. It's amazing how much you can get done if you’re trying to beat the clock!

Get a great planner to help organize your schedule. Put your PDA to good use, try managing your time online with Google Calendar, or go with the tried-and-true -- an old-school day planner. Even a basic, notebook-style planner with plenty of room for you to jot down notes will help you manage your time more efficiently.

Designate Days. Choose a day or night to do your grocery shopping and errand running each week. Choose a day to clean your home. Stick to your schedule and forget about these responsibilities the rest of the week. Maximize Your Trips. On your way to town, are there errands you can run so you don't have to do them at night or on the weekends?

Teach your child how to prepare a drink mix, do laundry, empty the dishwasher and clean his room. An extra set of hands goes a long way.

Streamline housework. Let the voice mail pick up calls while you clean, to help maintain momentum. To make daily tasks go more quickly, use comforters instead of blankets (to make beds more quickly) and keep cleanser and sponges in each bathroom (to do quick scrubdowns). Organizing the house better makes cleaning up not seem like such a monumental task. To get rid of kitchen clutter, for example, clear counters of anything you don’t use at least once a day. Clear out drawers and closets of outgrown clothing. But don't do everything at once, break down the work into a task or a time frame. For example "I'll clean one closet every week until I'm done.'"

Christmas

 Eric's Kindergarten Christmas Concert was last week and it was soooo cute!
Joe's parents and my sisters, Martha and Miriam came to see him and it made him so excited.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

Eric was concentrating so much that it was hard to get him to look at us to take a picture. He told me later "I was so embarrassed, Mom". That's his way of saying he was shy to have people looking at him, lol.

He got every word and really enjoys singing.

Shawn started to fuss until Grandpa held him and let him see the performance and then he sat there the content the whole rest of the time. It was so cute!

Eric and his Miriam

June, Jessina and Jeannie

 Our Italian family has always had a tradition to eat raviolis on Christmas. Growing up we always made our own and we have continued that tradition which is really neat to pass on to our kids. This year we had my extended family come over, my aunts: June and Jeannie and my cousins: April and Jessina. It was so fun to visit and "help" Martha make the raviolis.

April, Martha and Monica

Martha, Lynette and Kendra

 On Christmas Eve, Joe and I go to his parents house and this year we took some my family with us. We had a wonderful meal of lasagna, green salad, ham, scalloped potatoes and green beans! Then we did a little white elephant game which is always alot of laughs!

Cody (BIL), Gareth, Shawn, Kip and Sandi (FIL and MIL)

Jon, Joe, Shawn, Monica and Jennica (SIL)

 Christmas Morning

sideways pic....Opening the stocking

A book...my favorite

So excited to get Woody from his cousin Will

A phone...my favorite toy, thanks cousin Jake!

Mark

Monica

Mom

My favorite picture

 Eric made Joe a framed letter, painted him a mug and gave him a big bag of gummi bears!!

 For gifts we did a secret Santa exchange for the kids: 10 on down.

For the adults we usually do a secret Santa too but this year we all got a $30-$50 present and then we played a "while elephant" type game where we got to pick and steal presents from others! It was so fun and everyone ended up with some great stuff!

Joe playing with the hover craft I got him for Christmas. I was really proud of myself because I have a hard time coming up with stuff to get for him. Joe's brother, Ted, gave me the idea (Thanks, Ted!) It was a big hit with not only Joe but all the other guys too!

All the grandkids!

 Back row: Lee, Lynette, Hans, Kendra, Paul holding Shawn
Front row: Eric holding Ellina, Eliza, Gareth and Tony

Shawn but he was grumpy cause his teeth hurt

Joe and his wonderful and silly helpers, Lynette and Kendra

It was a great Christmas and I am very thankful for a nice relaxing day and wonderful family! 

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Christmas Letter

Hey Everyone,

It’s almost Christmas again and we are surrounded by piles and piles of snow. By now they have turned into piles of slush and ice, which isn’t my favorite. Hopefully we get some more nice fluffy stuff for Christmas!

We have really enjoyed our year in our “new” house since we built our addition last fall. We finally got a lawn and Joe had a fun time this summer building an elaborate tree house!

Shawn's First Christmas

Shawn and his twin cousin Eliza: 9 days older

The view from our bedroom window

Eric's new ornament

Shawn's baby ornament

We did a few family trips this year which I was nervous about doing with a baby but we are blessed with a pretty laid back little guy.

In July we went to California to visit my Grandparents. Joe finally wore me down into getting a mini-van so we were able to drive very comfortably in our new Sienna!

 

We took my sister Gina and little brother Mark. It was pretty special because my brother Michael flew over from Philadelphia to visit them at the same time.  He and I have birthdays a week apart so we got to celebrate them together. We had a great visit and got to introduce Shawn to his great-grandparents. It was so relaxing; swimming every day, visiting with family, going Disneyland, Knotts berry farm and being in the wonderful California weather!! Eric and Shawn both couldn’t get enough of swimming and loved our trip. Shawn is very easy going and did really well on the long trip to California.

 

In October, Joe’s grandma and uncle Brett came for a short visit from Idaho and Eric had a wonderful time getting to meet his great grandma and great-Uncle Brett whom he called “Grandpa” Brett. Eric has a total of 6 grandmas altogether so it’s like he’s always getting to meet new ones!

For Thanksgiving we got to fly to Chicago to spend time with some of Joe’s family and attend his brother Dan’s wedding. It was Shawn’s first time flying and he did very well on the flights. Eric was ecstatic and couldn’t get enough of the airplanes! We had a wonderful 10 days staying with his brother Ted and his wife Kellie and their two boys. Eric loved playing with his cousin Will who also has a love of Toy Story and Buzz Lightyear. Jake and Shawn are close in age and had fun and fights over important things like toys and food! The wedding was beautiful and we loved getting to visit with all the relatives. Unfortunately we all got the flu, which put a slight damper on some of the funL

This year I feel like the kids have grown up so much, too fast!!

My little Eric is not so little anymoreL He has had a year of big firsts. After finishing off a fun year of preschool, Eric was very sad to say goodbye to his friends that he had spent the past couple of years with. We had a lot of adventures in preschool, “visiting” other countries and taking field trips to the skating rink, doing plays and creating our own art at the art studio. 

 

He turned 5 in March and had a fun day of roller-skating with his friends and then a family party at home. 

One of Eric’s firsts was playing T-ball in the spring. He was so excited and did really well listening to the coach and learning to hit the ball and catch. It was a lot of fun and he can’t wait to play again. Eric loves summer just like me. We got him a bigger bike and he is able to keep up with me now so we took a lot of bike rides together. Every chance he got he would be playing outside: jumping on the trampoline, riding bike or playing in the woods.

And then, it was time to start kindergarten. It came way to fast for me, and I definitely had a lot of anxiety about which school to send him to. He ended up going to a great school and his teacher is someone we already knew! He is doing great and loving it. Eric has always been very advanced and when kindergarten started, he was already reading at first grade level! They tested him and now send him to the first grade class for reading. He reads books to me everyday and I am amazed at what he is able to read. We are so proud of our little guy!

 

My little baby Shawn is 15 months old! He has grown up so fast over the past year. We have enjoyed him so much. He is daddy’s little buddy and spends a lot of time cuddling up to his daddy!  He was always a pretty chunky little guy but around 10 months lost a little weight and thinned out a little. The doctors weren’t too worried because he is very active and developmentally on target but we did regular weight checks to keep an eye on it. He is gaining normally but is still a little small. However I am pretty small and I’m told Joe was a scrawny thing himself so I guess he takes after us!   

Being small hasn’t slowed him down any. He rolled over at just a few months old, was crawling all over and pulled himself up standing at 6 months and walked around the furniture. He has always been quite the climber and could get himself on the couch and up and down the stairs at around 9 months. He really liked crawling though, (more efficient you know) and wasn’t interested in standing by himself or walking until a year old. Now at 15 months, he’s walking around like a pro. He is a very happy little baby.

He loves to play with puzzles, talking on the phone and playing with remotes. He takes the remote control and points them at the TV so he can be like us! He says a lot of words: uh oh, all done, Eric, mama, dadee and ball. He says “Mam” in a very demanding voice until I say what. Then he proceeds to tell me a story. It’s so cute.  He also says hiya and biya for hi and bye.

Joe and I are very thankful for our little ones and the life that God has blessed us with. We’ve had some very difficult times in the last year and although it’s easy to get discouraged, it helps to think of all the good things we have and be thankful.

I hope that all of you are doing well and have a great Christmas full of happiness and relaxing moments.

Love,

Moriah, Joe, Eric and Shawn