Revolution of Love

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Making A Thanksgiving Gratitude Tree

Once fall rolls around, I start getting the itch to celebrate Christmas. Some people are adamant about keeping the holidays in their proper lanes, but I’m not. In our family when it’s someone’s birthday, we celebrate for weeks, if not the whole month. If we get that, I think Our Savior deserves even more celebration. When Halloween is over, I dedicate November 1st to All Saints Day and November 2nd to All Souls Day. Then on November 3rd, I’m ready to indulge in Christmas music and the 24/7 Hallmark Christmas movies. However, I force myself to resist decorating for Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. As a compromise, we tried something new this year – making a Thanksgiving Gratitude Tree.

Last year, I finally made the switch that I swore I never would do – we got an artificial tree. I have been a die hard fresh tree fan, but I hated that it eventually got so dried out that we had to keep the lights off. I started to toy with the idea of an artificial tree, especially after watching all those Balsam Hill Tree commercials on the Hallmark channel. We waited until after Christmas when the trees went on clearance and found the perfect one to fit in our living room. (I was surprised at just how life like it was!)  I have been eager to try it out, so I set it up with only white lights and turned it into our Gratitude Tree during November.

I searched Pinterest for a colored printable of pine cones and found some pretty ones from MorePrintableTreats.com. (They actually have a lot of great printables!) I printed them on white cardstock paper and cut them out. I used a silver Sharpie pen to write down things we were thankful for, punched a small hole at the top of the pine cone, and tied a bow with twine. I used a tree ornament hook to hang it on the tree. (You could also bend a paper clip if you don’t have hooks.)

Each day we add one more thing we are thankful for, which helps us to keep the focus on Thanksgiving and being grateful for our blessings, while still getting a preview of the Christmas spirit.

The one thing I do miss about an artificial tree, is the fresh smell of pine. To make up for it, I bought these Scentsicles Tree Ornament White Winter Fir Scented Stick that a friend recommended. I hung them in the tree and now our room smells lovely! (Although you may want to skip it if you have allergies.)

Plus, we buy a real evergreen wreath for our Advent wreath and pine greenery from Trader Joe’s to hang on the walls. This adds plenty of pine smell to our home. 🙂 Do you have special Thanksgiving or gratitude decorations?

Happy Thanksgiving!

PS – You can follow Revolution of Love on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, GoodReads, Letterboxd, or Spotify, 😉

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Favorite Advent Traditions: Keeping Christ in Christmas

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I am excited to be a part of Beth Anne’s Advent Blog Hop! I love reading about the traditions Catholic families use to keep Christ in Christmas and today I’m sharing the activities we do. Some of these we’ve been doing for years and others we’ve just started.

NOTE: Don’t try to do all these activities unless you have super powers or at least are immune to doing-too-much-at-once stress. (Ask me how I know. 😉 ) If you are just starting out, choose one activity that would work for your family. Then you can add on as the years go by if you’d like.

The Advent Wreath

revolution of love blog - advent_candleThe Advent wreath is probably the most familiar and easiest of the Advent traditions and it remains a favorite of the kids. There is something special about turning down the lights and watching the flames flicker in the darkness.

There are many ready made advent wreaths from Catholic online stores but it is also easy to make one of your own. I went to our local Trader Joe’s and picked up one of their fresh wreaths. You could also use clipped branches from your Christmas tree arranged in a circle or make your own wreath with materials from a craft store.

Next you need 4 candles – three purple and one pink. Starting with the first Sunday of Advent, you light the first candle. The second week light two candles and so forth. The third Sunday is known as Gaudete Sunday (Gaudete is Latin for “rejoice.”) We light the pink candle to symbolizing our growing joy that Christmas is almost here. (The priest will also wear rose colored vestments at Mass that week.) The last week is another purple candle.

We used to use the long taper candles but they were always toppling over. Finally I found four hefty sized candles at Hobby Lobby and we place them in our wreathe. (The only downside is that they are lavender scented so the kids think it smells like a fancy bathroom around them.) 😉 If you can’t find colored candles you could use white candles and tie purple/pink ribbons on them. (Away from the flame.) And if you have little ones who can’t keep their hands off the flame, you can use the battery operated candles!

Are you on a tight budget? Go to Pinterest and search “paper advent wreaths.” You’ll find all kinds of ideas including ones with construction paper and toilet paper rolls. It’s not really about the wreath itself, it is more about taking a few moments to quiet yourself and think about he coming Savior.

With that said, in a perfect world, each night we gather around the Advent wreath, light the candle(s) and say our night prayers. However, it was hit and miss since evenings are hectic with homework, bathing, getting the boys to bed early, prep for the next morning, etc. Family evening prayer was just not happening. So Brian suggested we switch our prayer to before we say our dinner grace. It is the one time in the day when we are always all together at the same time. It has worked so  much better!

The boys are eager to turn down the lights while Brian lights the candles and I read the reflection from  Sarah Reinhard’s book Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent and Christmas Reflections for Families. (It only cost $1.99 at Amazon and $0.99 on Kindle). It has wonderful daily reflections that are simple enough for the kids to understand.  Most days we use the reflection book. Other days when we have evening activities scheduled, Brian says a short spontaneous prayer. The main thing is that we are praying something together.

(Click here for a simple prayer from Loyola Press to say each week when lighting the candle.)

UPDATE: Fast forward two years and we are now in the habit of saying night prayers and a decade of the rosary as a family before the kids go to bed. We light our Advent wreath before our prayer time. Remember, baby steps. Start small and then you take on a little more as the kids get older. 🙂

The Advent Calendar

After we say our Advent wreath prayer, the “person of the day” gets to open the next box in our Advent calendar. We started this tradition years ago as a way to combat the seasonal “gimmies” (give me this, give me that). To help bring the focus back on Christ and sharing his love with others, we started the tradition of making our Advent Calendar into an Act of Love Calendar. We explained that we can show our love for Jesus by sharing that love with others and what we do for others, we do for Our Lord.

Revolution of Love Blog - advent_calendar_pic_1A couple years back I found this little country house Advent calendar at Target and I loved it!

advent_calendar_pic_2WNormally you would put in a treat or little toy for each day but instead I put little slips of paper with different acts of love our family could do each day.

revolution of love blog - advent_calendar_pic_4W2 If an activity doesn’t suit our family or I have something else in mind, then I write my own act.

revolution of love blog - advent_calendar_pic_7At dinner time, we each take a turn sharing something about our day. During Advent this will sometimes include sharing about our act of love. For example, Andrew shared how on the day he was supposed to help someone in need, he helped a classmate that fell down at recess and walked him to the school office to get a band aid.

Another time we had to be a peacemaker so I shared that instead of losing my temper and yelling at the kids, I first went into my room and screamed into my pillow, then came out of my bedroom and corrected the boys calmly. (They got a kick out of that one.) This sharing helps us to see how we can apply our faith into the daily fabric of our lives.

If you are looking for a nativity box, Target has some other cute ones. Amazon also has a pretty Wooden Nativity Advent Calendar with 24 Magnetic Figures. Or if you prefer a wall calendar there is the Traditional Nativity Advent Calendar Personalized Version or the cute Little People Nativity Advent Calendar. But you certainly don’t need to spend money on these fancy boxes!

For the full post and links for the Acts of Love calendar, visit the full post here.

 

A Letter to Baby Jesus (Instead of Santa)Revolution of Love Blog - A letter to Baby Jesus (Instead of Santa) - letter_baby_jesusWI posted earlier this week about this activity we added to our family this year. You can get all the details here but in a nutshell, a few years back, I asked some fellow Catholic moms how they keep Christ in Christmas. A friend shared with me how she has her kids write letters to Baby Jesus instead of Santa. I loved the idea.

The boys still believe in Santa and they wanted to write their wish lists but I liked the idea of a letter to Baby Jesus so I incorporated the two.  I put together a simple form letter that I could print off and give everyone to fill out.

Before they can get to the wish list part, they first have to think about what they will give Baby Jesus as a gift.

revolution of love blog - jesus_letter_2Then they chose a person they would especially pray for during Advent.

revolution of love blog - jesus_letter_1When they were done, they folded up their letters and put them in their shoes for St. Nicholas to deliver to Baby Jesus. In the morning they found their letters gone and their treats instead.

If you’d like to print of a copy of the Letter to Baby Jesus for your little ones, I posted the PDF here. Also, I made a second version for those who don’t want the Santa aspect. It can be found here.  🙂

For the full post, visit here – A Favorite Advent Tradition: A Christmas Letter to Baby Jesus (Instead of Santa).

Advent Adventures

Photo Credit

I have enjoyed using the Holy Heroes activities for Advent in the past and now, along with their daily activity emails, they have their worksheets in a book form.It has made it much easier to have all the worksheets already printed out and in one place!

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For Bella and Andrew, there are a lot of various activities and puzzles they can do. For Matthew and John-Paul, they like to do the coloring pages. (They also like the Childhood of Jesus Coloring Book.) The Advent book also solved a problem I had with the next Advent tradition…

Filling Jesus’ Crib with Straw

Like the letter to Jesus, for years I’ve been wanting to do the activity of filling Baby Jesus’ crib with soft “straw.” Every time one of the kids completes their act of love or does some other sacrifice, they can put a piece of straw in Jesus’ crib. Or if I see someone doing their chores without complaint or sharing a toy with a sibling, I will tell them they they were acting very loving and they can put in a straw for Jesus. (It is the same concept as the sacrifice beans we did for Lent and that was a hit with the boys.)baby_jesus

I kept putting off starting the activity until I could buy a baby Jesus like the one we had growing up. Well, I have yet to buy one and thought I would just skip it again this year. But when I bought the Advent Adventures book, I was excited to see they had a paper version.

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With some tape, scissors and yarn to cut up as straw…

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We now have our Baby Jesus manger. (The book also comes with a paper Baby Jesus to cut out and place in the manger on Christmas morning.)

A Nativity Set for the Littles

Anyone with children knows that they are very hands on. They also know how their blood pressure rises every time their little one grabs the ceramic Mary or St. Joseph from the nativity set and starts running down the hallway with it. One of the best investments I ever made was purchasing the Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set. They can be a bit pricey but it was worth it! A nativity scene that the kids can touch and move around makes life sooo much easier. Amazon has the Fisher Price deluxe models and the simple “To Go” Set.

A Birthday Party for Jesus

It is a family tradition that on each child’s birthday the dining room table is decorated with a birthday sign and stuffed animals to “greet” them when they wake up. Being Jesus’ birthday, it is only natural that it is celebrated in a similar fashion. Since Christ is the guest of honor (not Santa) our St. Nick plush holds Jesus’ birthday sign. I also place on the table the birthday cake we made for Jesus’ party.

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On Christmas morning we all gather around the table that holds the empty manger. We place a large white candle in the center of the advent wreathe and light it. Mom or Dad (or an honored sibling) places the child Jesus in his manger and we sing Happy Birthday. Then the festivities begin.

 

The Spirit of Giving

John-Paul, Matthew and Andrew packing stockings for soldiers stationed in Afghanistan.

Nothing invokes greediness quite as quickly as a materialistic holiday season. To help conquer this, it is helpful to keep kids (and adults) focused on the spirit of giving, especially those less fortunate. If you have older kids this can be done through working at a soup kitchen, food pantry, or visiting the elderly. This year Bella will be singing Christmas carols at a local Catholic convalescent home with her youth group.

Most parishes have programs where you pick a name or number and buy a gift for a specific child. Brian’s work also sponsors a local needy family so we have a number of choices. I make sure to pick a young boy that the boys will sponsor, a tween/teen girl for Bella and Brian and I will pick someone on the list that is often overlooked – an older boy or a single mom. The kids, including little ones, can do extra jobs and chores around the house to earn some extra money (or use their tithing money if they get an allowance) in order to buy small gifts for these needy children. Or they can help you buy canned good for the local food bank.

This is a great lesson in selflessness for the kids – a certain 5 year old of mine was shedding dramatic tears when he realized the skateboard we bought was going to little Jose and not him. Moreover, it is a lesson of real patience for me to let the kids get involved. I love buying gifts for people and making it special but it is another thing when you are walking down the grocery aisle with three opinionated little boys arguing over which items to purchase for the food baskets for the homeless. (Seriously?) It’s easy for me to say forget it and just do it myself but I need this lesson in sacrificial giving as much, if not more, as they do.

 

Plan Ahead for Charitable Gifts

I’ll admit that the extra gift giving can add up to a lot of extra money! Luckily, I have been looking for bargains throughout the year. Once a month during one of my many Target visits, I’ll check out the dollar section for various care package items. You can pick up small toiletries, snacks and hand warmers to give to military troops or the homeless or you can find coloring books, games, craft projects, socks etc to fit into a child’s care package. During off-season sales or Pre-Thanksgiving sales or Black Friday sales I find generic gifts like baby dolls or skateboards for the Angel Tree children. To help the kids understand sacrificing for others, we’ll give away some of their older toys to St. Vincent de Paul and as a family we’ll give up one of our “Pizza Nights” and eat sandwiches or leftovers instead. The money we saved goes towards buying gifts and food for others.

With a little creativity, planning and sacrifice, you can make your charitable gift giving more affordable for your family. (NOTE – If you are anything like me, you may also want to download the free printable from the post Keeping Track of Your Hidden Gifts from Orgjunkie.com. I wish I had that last year because I have two Christmas presents that I know I bought but I can’t figure out where I hid them! LOL)

 

A Few Things to Keep in Mind

Sometimes when I read posts like this on other mom blogs I think, “Aw! Look at all that stuff they are doing! How come we don’t do things like that? Look at those eight kids in matching home-sewn outfits, kneeling reverently as they pray the rosary. And look at the gluten and dairy free Christmas recipe they followed using only fresh produce from their organic home garden. Sigh. I’m lucky I barely (fill-in-the-blank) let alone what they are doing…”

Yeah, none of that kind of talk is allowed here.

revolution of love blog - advent_messyTruth be told, this looks great on paper but in real life it is messy and chaotic. We light the candles for our Advent prayer and two of the boys will be in laughing hysterically over one of their ill timed farts or they will be near blows because one brother blew out the candle when it was their turn. Most years the activities don’t start on the first day of Advent. For example, the baby crib to be filled with straw. I literally just put it together yesterday and it only had five straws in it so far. I added more so it wouldn’t look so skimpy for the photo.

Although we are all trying to be more loving, more generous and more patient this Advent, it is not an easy road. When Brian came home yesterday I was nearly in tears because days of stormy weather and having the boys cooped up in the house had them climbing up the walls. Matthew and John-Paul are two playful buddies but sometimes they reach a point where they are arguing over everything. No, really. Everything. The ridiculousness of it coupled with the noise and fighting becomes like nails on a chalkboard. I finally blew up at them and I yelled at them like I hadn’t yelled in a long time. It was not pretty. It made me feel hypocritical for writing this “happy” post today.

The point is that even thought we try to use these tools, it is not always roses and sunshine. We all fall short. That is when we turn to God (and confession) to give us the grace to pick ourselves back up. Then in between the realness there are moments when the kids “get it.” We see a loving gesture or a chore being done without being asked,  a spontaneous act of love or a contrite apology (from child and mother). When we see in ourselves that the second time around we held our temper or that we turned off the radio to pray the rosary or that we finished all the laundry instead of checking Facebook, then we know progress is being made slowly but surely.

The other good thing about Advent is that is is four weeks long. It is never too late to start a new tradition or refocus our attitude in general. And if you are season of life right now that consists of just making it through the day in one piece, then store these ideas for the future and offer to God the little acts that pop up throughout your day. No need for elaborate activities. God knows your heart.

With those thoughts, I wish you a blessed second half of Advent! If things are going well, keep up the good work. You are an inspiration! And if things have not been going well, let’s work on this together and pray for one another. 🙂

Lastly, a big thank you to Beth Anne for including me in the Advent blog hop! Check out the other featured bloggers this week.

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PS – You can follow me on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope or Katch (past Periscopes), GoodReads, Letterboxd, or Spotify, 😉

PPS – Disclaimer: “Revolution of Love.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.”

In other words, if you click on my affiliated links and make a purchase, I get a small compensation that goes towards keeping the blog online. Big hugs to those who click and help support the blog! xoxo 🙂


Pinterest Party & Link-Up (vol 32): The Gratitude Tree

Welcome to the RoL Pinterest Party. Join me as we link up and share how we made, cooked, baked, crafted, planned, organized, followed or created one of the pins on our Pinterest boards OR share something original that others can pin onto their boards.

Not on Pinterest? No problem. Link-up your own creation to inspire us so we can pin in to our own boards. It can be a recipe, sewing project, Catholic craft, homeschool project, organizing/ homemaking tip, themed birthday party, whatever you’d like.

Don’t have a post ready? The link-up will be open for 10 days so there’s still time. Plus, feel free to link up a new post or an older post that hasn’t had much traffic lately. 🙂

PLEASE NOTE: Because we are entering the busy season of the holidays, I will be doing the Pinterest Party only once a month. It will be every first Tuesday of the month and the link up will be open for 30 days, so there is plenty of time to join the fun! 🙂

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I’ve been cleaning up some older posts and I found this one from a couple years back. I thought it would be perfect to re-post since I just finished my 31 Days of Gratitude and Thanksgiving is this month. This is a great gratitude project that you can do with your own family.

It is our family tradition that the week of Thanksgiving we visit our family (and Disneyland) in So Cal. Eight out of our nine siblings still live in California, except for Elena who lives in Virginia. A couple years back Elena posted about The Thankful Tree project she made. When I read her post, I thought it would be a perfect Thanksgiving project for all the siblings/relatives meeting at my mom and dads for the holiday. .

It would be a way to share our gratitude with each other and since Elena inspired the idea, it kept her close despite the distance.

First we took a large piece of a paper roll, sketched out a tree and colored it.

Revolution of Love Blog - The Thanksgiving Tree - pp_thanks_1

We cut leaves out of construction paper and placed them in a basket with pens. We had each of the family members and guests write down what they were especially thankful for this year.

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We had various answers – faith, family, and loved ones, our country, our servicemen and women, the ability reason and forgive, running buddies, as well as dirt and rocks to play with. (Pictured is my leaf along with Andrew’s and John-Paul’s.)

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Lastly, we had everyone add their leaves to the tree. All in all, it was a fun and meaningful project! (Thanks, EL. ;-))

What Thanksgiving traditions does you family have?

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Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose your creation, share about it and snap a photo if you can.

2. In your post, link back the original blogger/idea, rather than your Pinterest pin. That way credit goes to the proper person. 🙂 (But feel free to add your Pinterest profile link so we can follow you!)

3. Add a link back here so others can play along.

4. If you want to use it, here is the html code for the logo:

<a href=”http://www.revolutionoflove.com/blog/?p=2157″><img title=”Revolution of Love Blog – Pinterest Party &amp; Link-up” src=”http://www.revolutionoflove.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/pinterest_2_medW32-300×240.jpg” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”240″ /></a>

5. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address.

The link up will be active the whole month. Have fun!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads, Letterboxd or Instagram.  😉

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31 Days of Gratitude (Day 17): Decorating Our Home for Fall

The 31 Days of Writing Challenge continues. It’s Day 17 of my 31 Days of Gratitude.

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After a long, hard week the kids are off school today and I have no appointments, meeting or errands so I get to stay in the house the whole day! I am sooo grateful for that because I need a day off.

Besides catching up on housework, I promised the kids they could help me decorate for Halloween/Autumn. We dug out the decor boxes in the shed and made the home look fall festive. After reading about Bonnie’s Autumn in the Home blog hop and reading Amanda’s A Glimpse into our Home: Fall Edition, I was inspired to get my butt in gear and not do what I usually do every year – wait so long to decorate that I give up trying since the season is over. I’m also linking up with The Fisk Files for her Fall Decor Link-up. (Well if I can get this post done in time. There is literally less than an hour until the link-up closes. It depends on how many interruptions I have. ;-))

The front door of our house gets our scarecrow family, pumpkins and the wreath we bought when we first moved into our house nearly ten years ago!

The front door opens up to our entryway and living room. I was unsure about hanging the plastic leaves garland but the kids loved it, so it stayed.

We bought the Mickey Mouse jack-o-lantern years ago at Disneyland. (It is next to a family photo of us in Disneyland.) It went well with our favorite Peanut characters in costume.

This is the top of our entryway shoe shelf. Technically the turkey is Thanksgiving but I thought it was appropriate since October is my 31 days of gratitude. 😉

Our pumpkin guys near the front door.

This is about as “spooky” as the little guys can stand. (Even thought they watch watch scenes with Darth Maul with no problem.)

Our indoor scarecrow.

To the left of the entryway is our library/front room/my desk area. Above our bookshelves I added a few leaves to the decor what was already there.

Our cross and Charles Dickens collection with random leaves.

To the right of the front door is our little prayer table. It pretty much stays the same year round (except for Christmas).

In the family room, next to the dining table, we have a second prayer spot. We decorate this one according to the season.

We first put up the card with the boys names for Lent but it worked out so well we kept it up. The name on top is our prayer leader of the day. This helps minimize the brawls over who gets to say their intentions or lead prayer first. 😉

In the kitchen, I put away the blue and light colored bowls and bring out the bowls and plates with reds and golds.

Revolution of Love Blog - fall_dec_14I got these cute little Fall plates for the kids.

These are small touches but it really made a difference and added a coziness to the house. All we need is the smell of pumpkin donuts in the kitchen and we will be set! I’m grateful for the free day that allowed me to spend time with the kids in our home.   After the last few days of stress and busyness, it was a balm to my soul. For that, I am especially grateful.

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads, Letterboxd or Instagram. 😉

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For more 31 Days of Gratitude, visit the home page here.


Merry Christmas 2013 – Our Family Letter

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful day today with family and friends. If you didn’t receive our Christmas letter in the mail and you actually have a desire to read it, here it is. If you are the type that hates Christmas letters, just skip this post and have a wonderful Christmas season!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas! It is hard to believe that the year is almost over. And what a year it has been. I just finished looking over our photos to refresh my memory of all that has happened over the last 12 months. Here’s a quick recap of how each of us are doing.

Brian – The biggest challenge we faced this year was Brian’s illness. He had been feeling ill for awhile and seeing various doctors. Finally, after a trip to the ER, we found out that he had colon cancer. We were shocked. Thankfully, Brian’s cancer was caught early at Stage 1 and his operation was successful with no signs of spread. It was a difficult time for each of us but we were incredibly happy when Brian was released from the hospital and we brought him back home. I watched him as he was playing outside with the kids and tears could not be stopped as my heart felt overwhelming gratitude. I could not imagine what life would be like without my sweetheart and I am glad this was not the time to find out. Secondly, we were grateful for the incredible amount of love and support that came from our family and friends. From my sister who took off work for a week to take care of the kids (and her boss that said it was ok) to my in-laws who give so much, to Brian’s coworkers that brought us home cooked, full course meals and desserts for a week. I told Brian he can never doubt that he’s loved! Okay, since I am literally trying to type through my tears as I recall all this, let’s move on.

Bella – My sweet little girl, who is growing into a young lady, turned 12 years old this year. She is doing well in the 6th grade and recently spend a week in the Santa Cruz mountains for science camp. It was her first (long) solo trip away from home. How we missed her! But I am glad she had a lot of fun. Bella still loves to draw and her talent continues to grow. (No, I am not the least bit biased!) She is an awesome big sister who knows how to mother (and tease) her little brothers, who love her dearly. She is also my comrade in this house full of boys. When we get tired of stepping on Legos or dodging swinging light sabers or hearing the yell of Packers fans, we escape for a mom and daughter day out.  She truly is a ray on sunshine in my life.

Andrew – The oldest of the boys, Andrew is my sensitive child with a playful heart. He is six years old and doing well in Kindergarten. I love to see his eyes light up as he practices his reading and discovers new words. He loves to play with his Legos and build new creations. He is the leader of the boys as they dress up in costume or act out a Star Wars scene or race their Big Wheels out on the deck. Although he is quiet around those he does not know well, he is a bundle of energy and has a contagious laughter that can get me giggling even if I have no idea what he is laughing at. His sweet smile and soulful eyes melt my heart every day.

John-Paul – JP is my night and day child. He has a sweet, playful spirit with a laid back personality but when he gets upset, everyone knows it. At the end of summer John-Paul turned four and he is really enjoying pre school. His favorite place to go is the library. Like his father, you will always see him with a book in his hands. He loves to play with his “broders” whether they are wresting on the floor, running outside or battling Angry Bird Star Wars. I love that John Paul is at an age when all the ills of life can be cured by a kiss or hug from mom. His curly top head and sideways smile steals my heart daily.

Matthew – What can I say about my little spitfire with the mischievous smile and big heart? The baby of the family may be small but he packs a big punch! Matthew is full of energy and spirit and he is ready to conquer anything his older brothers are doing. He is also the child most likely to fall in love with the country life! He loves the outdoors and hates wearing socks and shoes. I have to keep a close eye on him during these cold days because he’ll strip off this jacket and footwear to run outside in his t-shirt, sweats and bare feet. Matthew is also tender hearted and quick with his hugs. If he sees I’m upset he’ll pat my arms and say, “Don’t worry, Mama.” I can’t help but recall when I was pregnant with Matthew. I was worried about how I would handle a fourth child but looking at his sweet smile and feeling the joy he brings, I can’t imagine life without him.

It’s funny but lately I have been thinking about when I was younger and growing up with eight siblings. I used to wonder how a mom could love so many children equally and fully. But I’ve learned that a mom’s heart has an incredible capacity to grow and stretch with each child. I love each of my babies tenderly and marvel at their unique personalities and abilities. I’ll admit, I’ll sometimes have to remind myself of how much I am blessed when I am in the middle of the chaos, but truly, I love it and thank God each day for the gift of life. This year in particular, we were acutely aware that life is precious and it should never be taken for granted! So give an extra hug to those you love and reach out to those that have grown distant. Life is too short to not share your love with others.

With that thought, I’m sending you heartfelt wishes for a wonderful Christmas! May this New Year be filled with peace and joy. And a special thanks to all of you that have kept us in prayer this last year. It was your prayers and God’s grace that carried us through the difficult moments. God bless you!

Love,

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉