Reality and Fun On NYE

I worked all day with pneumonia, then came home and changed a blown out poopie diaper while my husband and oldest son put our living room back together (they'd been cleaning).

Then it was to the bathtub with the three little ones who weren't all that interested in getting their hair washed. They were less interested in getting their hair brushed out, I tell you what.

But you know what, on this night of revelry, I don't look on these events as tests or trials.

I don't feel all that bad about them.

I have s'mores planned for later, and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve minus Dick Clark. There will be hugs and kisses and good things. I might play WoW with the boy or my husband or not.

You have to know what's good or what's bad. Sometimes, even your bad is better than other people's good.

I'm taking that idea with me into 2013.

And I'm making it a better year.

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Reality and Fun On NYE

I worked all day with pneumonia, then came home and changed a blown out poopie diaper while my husband and oldest son put our living room back together (they'd been cleaning).

Then it was to the bathtub with the three little ones who weren't all that interested in getting their hair washed. They were less interested in getting their hair brushed out, I tell you what.

But you know what, on this night of revelry, I don't look on these events as tests or trials.

I don't feel all that bad about them.

I have s'mores planned for later, and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve minus Dick Clark. There will be hugs and kisses and good things. I might play WoW with the boy or my husband or not.

You have to know what's good or what's bad. Sometimes, even your bad is better than other people's good.

I'm taking that idea with me into 2013.

And I'm making it a better year.

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Christmas Time in Atlanta

We are a little tardier than usual but we started with the Christmas activities finally and went hard yesterday absorbing the family fun and traditions.

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We started out our day at the Atlanta History center which has a great 19th century village where they do blacksmithing and lots of other traditional early Georgia activities. I was surprised to see the cotton was still in the field but it's pretty so I grabbed a pic.

Louis was surprised at the regular socks hanging on the fireplace, and that's why I love doing these sort of things with the kids. I don't think until yesterday he ever made that connection of "stocking" to "sock". When he realized that the big oversized Santa-ready stockings we hung up were not what has always been, he was so surprised. Imagine his horror when we told him that a good present was an orange.

There were crafts set up for kids to do inside the history center and so we made garlands and cornhusk angels for our tree.

Daddy might've been the one who ended up making most of the cornhusk angels. I'm not saying.

We were excited, as we explored the exhibits, to see that the Atlanta History Center was displaying Percival - one of the original Pink Pigs.

Which set the stage perfectly as we transitioned from learning about historical Atlanta and the Christmas traditions of the past, to....THIS.

Since we were already down in Buckhead we drove over to Macy's to ride THE PINK PIG, a modern Atlanta tradition.
It's silly and corny and it's like 45 minutes wait to ride this pig shaped train for 3 minutes. And I don't care. It's wonderful and festive. The twins were ECSTATIC when we got on and started the ride, hearing all about the meaning of Family Christmas from Priscilla, the modern Pink Pig.
I swear to you, it's the same voice as Mrs Crinklesack from The Cleveland Show. That in itself is worth the price of admission.

Christmas Time in Atlanta

We are a little tardier than usual but we started with the Christmas activities finally and went hard yesterday absorbing the family fun and traditions.

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We started out our day at the Atlanta History center which has a great 19th century village where they do blacksmithing and lots of other traditional early Georgia activities. I was surprised to see the cotton was still in the field but it's pretty so I grabbed a pic.

Louis was surprised at the regular socks hanging on the fireplace, and that's why I love doing these sort of things with the kids. I don't think until yesterday he ever made that connection of "stocking" to "sock". When he realized that the big oversized Santa-ready stockings we hung up were not what has always been, he was so surprised. Imagine his horror when we told him that a good present was an orange.

There were crafts set up for kids to do inside the history center and so we made garlands and cornhusk angels for our tree.

Daddy might've been the one who ended up making most of the cornhusk angels. I'm not saying.

We were excited, as we explored the exhibits, to see that the Atlanta History Center was displaying Percival - one of the original Pink Pigs.

Which set the stage perfectly as we transitioned from learning about historical Atlanta and the Christmas traditions of the past, to....THIS.

Since we were already down in Buckhead we drove over to Macy's to ride THE PINK PIG, a modern Atlanta tradition.
It's silly and corny and it's like 45 minutes wait to ride this pig shaped train for 3 minutes. And I don't care. It's wonderful and festive. The twins were ECSTATIC when we got on and started the ride, hearing all about the meaning of Family Christmas from Priscilla, the modern Pink Pig.
I swear to you, it's the same voice as Mrs Crinklesack from The Cleveland Show. That in itself is worth the price of admission.

So You Went For The Girl?

Ok first of all, thats a super rude thing to say to someone. If you are in the habit of saying it, you should probably stop. You certainly shouldn't be saying it in front of someone's OTHER children, because the implication there is "man too bad you had all these boys, lucky you finally got the one you wanted."

But, since people the world over have no manners, I hear this a lot - even now.

You want the truth? It's more complicated than that.

Some people have spiritual beliefs that propel them in their reproduction. Whether it's "have as many children as you can" or some think they receive divine messages when it's time to have another baby, most people have a belief system I find.
I don't really have one of those, I'd freely admit we tried for and got another baby purely out of selfish reasons. Perhaps because we DID want the girl (we did). Some probably think we were looking for a do-over on the twins, possibly that's true in some way because how unfair is it that they're BOTH autistic?

But neither of those things are 100% true nor were they the driver behind us, as a family, deciding that we wanted that 4th baby.

The reason that we had #4 is simple. Someone was missing. We didn't know who. But we both felt it, this void at our dinner table. There was another little hand we were supposed to be holding. Someone else was supposed to be in this family. And I admit, I was exicted that it was a girl who joined us, I would also have been excited if it had been a boy.

I don't know why she was supposed to be here, but I know in my heart she was.

Possibly, it's just to made noodle mustaches at the table during dinner.

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So You Went For The Girl?

Ok first of all, thats a super rude thing to say to someone. If you are in the habit of saying it, you should probably stop. You certainly shouldn't be saying it in front of someone's OTHER children, because the implication there is "man too bad you had all these boys, lucky you finally got the one you wanted."

But, since people the world over have no manners, I hear this a lot - even now.

You want the truth? It's more complicated than that.

Some people have spiritual beliefs that propel them in their reproduction. Whether it's "have as many children as you can" or some think they receive divine messages when it's time to have another baby, most people have a belief system I find.
I don't really have one of those, I'd freely admit we tried for and got another baby purely out of selfish reasons. Perhaps because we DID want the girl (we did). Some probably think we were looking for a do-over on the twins, possibly that's true in some way because how unfair is it that they're BOTH autistic?

But neither of those things are 100% true nor were they the driver behind us, as a family, deciding that we wanted that 4th baby.

The reason that we had #4 is simple. Someone was missing. We didn't know who. But we both felt it, this void at our dinner table. There was another little hand we were supposed to be holding. Someone else was supposed to be in this family. And I admit, I was exicted that it was a girl who joined us, I would also have been excited if it had been a boy.

I don't know why she was supposed to be here, but I know in my heart she was.

Possibly, it's just to made noodle mustaches at the table during dinner.

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A Real Life Pay It Forward Story

You see those stories on Facebook about how some stranger helped someone out, usually at Walmart, and like they are sort of sweet and sort of trite and I confess - I truly have the urge to run them through Snopes.com because, I think nice things are nice but I hate it when lies are perpetuated. And I'm kind of cynical, if you didn't notice.

Imagine my surprise then, when this happened.

The husband was at Walmart last night to pick up some minilights for our tree. I sat home, diligently pulling the "prelit" strands off our tree, because they had burned out and I was determined to keep our black tree. I think it's cool. We only had two strands of minis that were working from last year so, he ran over to pick up some more.

While in the light aisle, he and another lady got to talking about lights and colors and types of lights, and they started reminiscing about the lights of our childhood, C9 and C7s.

He told her how, we've always wanted to do a retro tree with those kinds of lights but they're not cheap so we've never really been able to do it. It's about 65 bucks to do the whole tree, and well when you have four kids and three are in diapers, there is a lot ELSE you could do with that 65 bucks.

While they were having this stroll down memory lane, another man walked over and started talking to them.
"These kind of lights?" he asked. My husband said yes, and they talked again about how they were the lights from our childhood, and we really always wanted them - they were so cool, but that we just really couldn't ever afford them.

And then the man said "How about if I buy them for you?"

Then, just like that - he did.


We're not poor. But, we do have a budget, and there are choices to be made when you are a big family.
We don't want for food or shelter. But this stranger did something, for Christmas, to make a little Christmas dream come true at my house.
His only condition? That we pay it forward.

I promise you, we will.

Thank you, whoever you were. You are lovely.

Merry Christmas.


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A Real Life Pay It Forward Story

You see those stories on Facebook about how some stranger helped someone out, usually at Walmart, and like they are sort of sweet and sort of trite and I confess - I truly have the urge to run them through Snopes.com because, I think nice things are nice but I hate it when lies are perpetuated. And I'm kind of cynical, if you didn't notice.

Imagine my surprise then, when this happened.

The husband was at Walmart last night to pick up some minilights for our tree. I sat home, diligently pulling the "prelit" strands off our tree, because they had burned out and I was determined to keep our black tree. I think it's cool. We only had two strands of minis that were working from last year so, he ran over to pick up some more.

While in the light aisle, he and another lady got to talking about lights and colors and types of lights, and they started reminiscing about the lights of our childhood, C9 and C7s.

He told her how, we've always wanted to do a retro tree with those kinds of lights but they're not cheap so we've never really been able to do it. It's about 65 bucks to do the whole tree, and well when you have four kids and three are in diapers, there is a lot ELSE you could do with that 65 bucks.

While they were having this stroll down memory lane, another man walked over and started talking to them.
"These kind of lights?" he asked. My husband said yes, and they talked again about how they were the lights from our childhood, and we really always wanted them - they were so cool, but that we just really couldn't ever afford them.

And then the man said "How about if I buy them for you?"

Then, just like that - he did.


We're not poor. But, we do have a budget, and there are choices to be made when you are a big family.
We don't want for food or shelter. But this stranger did something, for Christmas, to make a little Christmas dream come true at my house.
His only condition? That we pay it forward.

I promise you, we will.

Thank you, whoever you were. You are lovely.

Merry Christmas.


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