Real Life Happens

So, if you come to my house unplanned, this is what you might find...

Now, I have to say that I don't let it look like this every single day. I do try to pick up and declutter every day. But, for some reason, I haven't been very motivated to stay on top of it this week. Plus, with us being home two extra days for "snow", there was more pile up going on than normal. One reason I am posting this mess is so that I can remember these days and share them with Grace and Lyla when they're moms with little kids at home.

I am choosing to believe this is somewhat normal for most people. But, we don't let the company see this when they come over for dinner or on Sunday nights for Life Group. I work like crazy to get it "ready" when I know someone is coming. It's silly. Why don't we let people see who we really are? This is the other reason I am posting this. I am tired of everyone pretending to have "it" all together and then struggling in private with problems/issues/etc. Doesn't God want us to share our burdens with others? Help each other through hard times? I believe He does and I believe that we (Christians) don't take advantage of this great blessing He intended for us to have in each other. We hide behind our tidy houses and cute outfits and appear to be in control when we're really not. This year I want to let God be in control. I am a perfectionist! I want to control every little aspect of my life and the lives of those in my life (which is dumb, I know). Through a Bible study I have recently completed, I have realized that I am not trusting God with my life and the lives of my family when I do this. There are lots of negative consequences to this. I won't go into all of that here. I just want to say that I'm not perfect. One of my resolutions for 2010 is to "let go" of the control I think I have. I want to trust that God will get me through whatever comes along and I don't have to worry about what I'm going to do and how I'm going to do it in the future (five minutes or five years). I want to let God control my attitude, joy and life in general. This is hard for me! I'm not saying I won't clean my house anymore. That was just an example. I'm just saying that my goal is to not stress over the details that I can't control. I'm going to do the best I can and then let it go. I could go on about this forever, but I think that's enough for now.

Here's a picture of what motivates me to change...

I want to teach them by example (and by words) how to trust God on a daily basis. They're worth changing for!

You gotta love snow days in the south

It has been very cold around here for the last week or so. We finally got a little snow out of it today. The weather people had been saying we would get 1-4 inches starting Wednesday night. Then they changed it to Thursday morning, starting between 6-7am. I figured they would go to school and then be released early. Much to my surprise, they called school off Wednesday night around 7pm! I do like knowing the night before though! It didn't actually start snowing until about 9am this morning. The girls went out immediatly. I didn't expect them to stay long but they did! They ended up pushing their heads around on the trampoline to get snow caked in their hair. I have no idea what they were thinking. Then Reesi came over later and they spent another 1 1/2 outside. When I went out to snap a few pictures, they were preparing to have a snowball fight. The snowballs on the table were Reesi's. Lyla and Grace were just making piles of snow though. They said it was too hard to make snowballs so they were just going to throw the snow. Poor Reesi was shaking like a leaf. I put two hats on her and told the girls that I thought they needed to come inside because Reesi was about to turn into a popsicle. Reesi said, "If I turn into a popsicle, promise you won't eat me." Classic Reesi!

This is Grace's snow pile for the fight.
This is Lyla's snow pile for the fight.

These are Reesi's snowballs.

Grace...too frozen to smile or open her eyes.

New Year's Eve, the real one

Since Dan and Amy were gone for New Year's Eve, we had the girls back with us. We cooked pizza and the girls ran around and played while we laughed at Elye's funny faces. I bought some New Year's Eve party favors and had little plastic fancy glasses and sparkling apple juice for the girls. They thought drinking fancy juice out of fancy glasses was neat. Grace and Lyla made a fort under their art table and made Papoo crawl inside.

New Year's Eve Eve

We have been spending New Year's Eve with Dan and Amy since around 2000, minus the year Dan ditched us, but we won't talk about that. Joni and Larry joined our party shortly after that and Julie and Jason have been with us many years as well. This year Dan almost ruined it again for us but agreeing to go to a bowl game with his brothers on New Year's Eve in Atlanta. We all decided we were not giving up our tradition so we changed our calendars and had our party on New Year's Eve Eve. Julie and Jason couldn't make it, unfortunately. So we got Bucca di Beppo take out, had lots of chips and dip and had our party. Amy and Eric love to compete in games, so we had to play a game or two. This year we played Catch Phrase, although, Eric and Amy prefer trivia type games. Amy brought ice cream and even remembered that I love Chocolate Chip Mint. Thanks Amy! Joni "played" some piano for us and Eric and Amy kept debating who was taller, Eric or Amy with her "amazon woman" high heel boots. To some, this party may seem pretty boring, but to us, time with great friends is never boring.

Jenny and Eric's Christmas present

This year my parents just gave Eric and me money for Christmas. I could never come up with anything to tell my mom to get us that we didn't need to pick out ourselves or it was too expensive. So, they gave us cash, which was great. Plus, Eric got a couple of gift cards from work this and we got a couple of gift cards from dirty Santa games. So, we took the plunge and used all of the Christmas money to get a new TV. Our old TV was a 27 inch. We upgraded to a 42 inch. In the picture it still looks small in this room. Imagine how small the 27 inch TV was. We used the old TV stand but I would like to eventually get a new one. Eric wants to build one, I think. We like our new TV and we're very blessed to have received the presents to help pay for it.

A restored antique

This is Mamaw's old Singer sewing machine. Mamaw Wade is my dad's mother. I didn't even know she had this until last year. We found it in one of Dad's barns. He said he was going to get rid of it and I said I would take it. I intended to refinish it but never got around to it. Eric took on the project a few months ago and finally finished it before Christmas. He took off the top, ugly, orange veneer, then sanded, stained and finished it. The top lifts up and folds over to reveal the old time, black iron Singer sewing machine in the table. I haven't plugged it in to see if it works or not. I like having a little piece of my family history, whether it really works or not.

Christmas at the Gardners

After having Christmas with my parents, we headed to Eric's parents. The girls opened presents immediately and were excited about the gifts they got. Lyla got a police helmet that makes noises and talks from her Aunt Angela. She LOVES it! She also got a Spiderman hat and gloves which she has worn every day since then. They both got some games and pj's too. Grace got a very neat Crayola wonders paint set with a brush that lights up from her cousin Danielle. Daniel, Eric's brother, brought his Rock Band video game home from college. The girls actually loved it and wanted to do it over and over. After presents at their house, we went to Owensboro to have Christmas with Eric's extended family. We did Dirty Santa, ate some good food and the girls ran around and played with Brianna. It was a good time.