Andrea was reading an article about making life with little ones easier. It was pretty interesting, very straightforward and still a good reminder for all parents out there.

I find that every evening (especially in the winter months when it’s dark outside and the time between dinner and bedtime seems like forever) I know that yelling or spanking or getting frustrated isn’t going to help *at all* but it doesn’t keep me from feeling the feelings.  I’m lucky that Jesus “takes away the ugly things in my heart” (a Timothy quote) — because I’ve got a lot of ugliness in there right now.  I hope that I can look on my kids with wonder, compassion and patience again soon.

We’re running out of time to fight the atrocities that are going on and completely eroding our democracy.  I don’t even know how to fight it, but it’s time.   I always wondered what we would think if we were in Germany in the 1930s– would we recognize that we were evil?  Thanks to the patterns of the “Fascist Shift” we can see some of the same things overpowering our democracy.

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We had a seemingly perfect Thanksgiving this year. We left on Wednesday around 4 and got to Abilene around 7:30 — the kids played, we had a good time and watched a movie–low stress is good!

On Thanksgiving, we had the most wonderful time. We woke up in the morning and played with the kiddos, the Turkey began to fry (we love the fried Turkey) and all the wonderful fixin’s began to get made. The kids played outside with Pop and Nana, but about 11 or so it started to sprinkle little bits of sleet. After we had a great time eating we noticed that the sleet had turned into big flakes of snow! By the time the kids woke up from their nap at 4, we had stayed warm inside by watching a movie, but outside the ground was covered in 3 inches of snow!

We had a snowball fight and then had a great time making a snowman. I couldn’t believe it was snowing so much! After that we went inside, had hot chocolate (or, as Timothy says, trocolate), watched some football, and enjoyed the fire in the fireplace. I can’t imagine a more relaxing day. And we still have a weekend left after this! Woo-hoo!

And the funniest thing happened the day after Thanksgiving. Music was playing and Pop decided to sing along. Timothy told him “You can’t sing!” and I told Timothy that “Telling someone that takes away their joy! It’s not nice”

Without missing a beat he said “but… He understands me.”

The whole room erupted in laughter.

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