Groundhog Party!

2 February 2018, 11:55 pm by Giggles

Categories: Happy Things, With the Kiddos

Last year on February 2nd I thought it would be fun to do shadow puppets with the kids to celebrate Groundhog Day, but not last year because I hadn’t thought of it soon enough and I didn’t think Shimri and Shimei particularly would be that interested in it given their age. So I put that thought away for later.

About two weeks ago I remembered that thought and had a second thought. I knew it would be fun to do with our kids, but I also knew that Iddo loves getting together with her friends so I suggested to her that we invite some of her friends over and we have a Groundhog Day party. Because why not. She LOVED the idea and was so excited. She started counting down till Groundhog Day. Nobody has ever looked forward to Groundhog Day more than she did this year.

So Iddo colored some groundhogs and we put together some invites and she was so excited to take them around to her friends. Then I started pulling together all the activities I could that dealt with shadows and sunlight. We live in Tucson, so we could pretty much count on a lot of sun for a Groundhog Day party.

We were definitely doing shadow puppets. I had some sun print paper left from the solar eclipse last summer. Amazon suggested I buy some UV reactive beads to go with the sun print paper, so I did. And for some strange reason I have a prairie dog/groundhog cookie cutter, and fun days at our house always involve sugar cookies.

We started the party by stringing the beads to make some bracelets that changed colors every time we ran outside to do another activity (the photo below was taken inside so the beads all look white). I cut out some shadow puppet shapes – animals, butterflies, suns, and moons, for everyone and after making our bracelets they each got to put their shapes on a piece of sun print paper and we watched the shadows make a design on the paper. After making the sun prints we taped the shapes to skewers and they each got a chance to sit behind the shadow puppet screen and tell us a quick story. To finish the party they each decorated a huge groundhog cookie with M&Ms and sprinkles.

Speaking for myself, and based on the noises from the girls, it was a successful party.

Happy Groundhog Day!

3 Shared thoughts

The Moon!!

31 January 2018, 5:10 pm by Giggles

Categories: Family, Happy Things, Learn Something, With the Kiddos

In August we were in Kentucky to see the total solar eclipse. Our kids thought it was awesome. And it was. This morning they got to see a different type of eclipse and were pretty excited about it as well.

Last night before bed I took them all outside our front door and we looked up at the giant super moon that was big and bright in the sky. We told them it was a blue moon but they all agreed it actually looked white. I told them I’d be coming to get them real early in the morning because the moon was going to go into the shadow of the earth and wanted them to see what color it was going to be then. We had them guess. Shimei guessed blue, it’s his favorite color and we had told him it was a blue moon after all, or black.

At 6:00 this morning (normal wake up time at our house is 8am) I picked up each of them out of their bed one at a time and took them into the backyard so they could see the moon in a total eclipse, and then they all went back to sleep. They were excited to see that it was red. I talked with Iddo about how if the moon is in the Earth’s shadow where would she need to point to be pointing at the sun. We noticed how many stars we could see with the moon darkened. Shimei was next and after noticing the color told me, “The stars can play with the moon!” And then Shimri was last. She thought the color was great.

Photo by Amanda Roberts

Izri didn’t get to go outside to see the moon but I found it fascinating how before the eclipse I could sit in my chair by the window to nurse him and enough moon light was coming through the blinds that I could see the details of his face but when I got up with him at 5:30, well into the eclipse but not at totality yet, it was too dark to see more than his outline.

We’re going to go back out tonight before bed to see what color the moon is again.

2 Shared thoughts

The miracle of the stockings

18 January 2018, 4:08 pm by Giggles

Categories: Life

Brett and I got married in November 2009 and a month later needed stockings for Christmas. So I told Brett we would be making them and called him from Hancock Fabrics and asked him what he wanted to decorate his with. He told me he wanted to use gold glitter. In his mind I was buying cheap ready made stockings and we’d be decorating them with glitter and Elmer’s glue. That evening he discovered otherwise. I had red satin fabric that we appliquéd gold and silver lamé to (him a gold Aleph and Tav, me silver snowflakes). Then I quilted them and put them together and we hung them up for Christmas. The following year I embroidered our names on them.

At Christmas 2012 I was pregnant with Iddo and went to JoAnns to buy some red satin to make another stocking with. But when I got home the JoAnn satin was too orange compared with the Hancock satin so I returned the JoAnns and bought more from Hancocks and made another stocking. This time with a green satin Christmas tree. The following year (after she was born), I embroidered her name on it.

At Christmas 2014 I was pregnant with Shimri and Shimei. I went back to Hancocks and bought some more red satin and made two more stockings. Shimri’s has a white and yellow candle and Shimei’s has a yellow and white star. The following year (after they were born), I embroidered their names on them.

In July of 2016 Hancock Fabrics went out of business. But that was okay. We were finished with our family and I had a matching set of five beautiful red stockings.

At Christmas 2016 I was pregnant with Izri. I just didn’t know it.

So Christmas 2017. Izri is very much a part of our family and he needs to be included as such. Which meant I needed a sixth red satin stocking, made out of red satin from a store that doesn’t exist any more. I found scraps from Brett’s and my stockings that would be enough for me to do the front half of a stocking, but not a whole stocking. I’d heard rumors that Michael’s had bought the fabric line from Hancock and was selling it online. I could order a swatch to see if the red satin matched for $2 plus shipping, or I could throw caution to the wind and buy a whole yard for $5 plus shipping. I bought the yard.

The package arrived and I nervously opened it up. I pulled it out. It was definitely the right type of fabric. I got my scraps out to compare the color.

Perfect match!

And so I made a sixth stocking. This time with a gold present with a green bow.

Next Christmas I’ll embroider his name on it.

4 Shared thoughts

I take the tree down

6 January 2018, 10:37 pm by Giggles

Categories: Family, Infertility

I took down our Christmas tree today and Brett, referencing “The Forgotten Carols” asked if I cry every time I take it down. I told him I’ve only cried taking the tree down once, and that was January 2012.

The day before Thanksgiving in 2011 we found out I was pregnant for the first time. We were ecstatic! It was our first round of IVF. We were over the moon. I knit our little baby a Christmas tree toy that weekend. We made plans to tell our parents we were pregnant on Christmas day. We even took a photo of us with the photo of our embryos that we were going to frame and give to our parents.

One week before Christmas I had a massive bleed and felt a hollow empty feeling as our baby’s heart stopped and his spirit went back to heaven.

Taking the tree down that year, the tree we’d put up right after finding out we were pregnant and sat at with the lights on and Brett’s hands on my still tiny belly, that hurt. It felt like I was putting away my connection with that baby.

That year I cried as I took the tree down.

This year I told our kids to eat the popcorn as I brushed it off the tree.

2 Shared thoughts

A true runner

16 December 2017, 12:34 pm by Giggles

Categories: Exercise, Family

Back in February I ran my first half-marathon and later that day Iddo ran her first race, a kids 1K and she did AWESOME! It was a tender moment for me. I need to go into greater deal on that race, for both of us. She’s been my faithful running partner since she was 6 months old. Since getting back to running after Izri was born Iddo has started pacing me on her bike for the first 1.25 miles or so before stopping at the house and then I continue on with Shimri and Shimei in the stroller.

Today was Iddo’s second race. She was super excited to get to do another one. We’ve spent the last 11 months trying to help her understand that they didn’t retire her bib number from her first race (#367) and that won’t be her bib number from here on out and forever. She didn’t see why she needed a new bib when she already had one taped to the back of her door. She went along with it though and today was #72 (I was #73).

It was a cold and windy morning. I lined up with her at the starting line and then went on ahead a bit right before it started. She wore her leggings, running shorts, long-sleeved shirt, “Speed Turtle” race shirt, a fleece jacket, and her Santa hat (the race was the Santa’s Little Helper 1K). The 5K afterwards was a cross-country type race and the 1K followed the last little loop of that. At one point the terrain changed from dirt to road and she tripped up a bit and fell hard, really banging her knee. She tore her leggings and cut the skin a bit and is probably going to have a good bruise there tomorrow.

But she got back up. And she kept going. She walked a ways while she got all of her crying out and then finished running. I was so proud of her! She’s a true runner. Her finish time was 8:08.

Based on the disappointed faces on Shimri and Shimei who had to watch from the stroller I’m guessing next December we’ll have 3 runners in the 1K. And I couldn’t be happier.

My own race went great. I did right around 10 minute miles and finished strong. Considering I just got back to running after Izri 6 weeks ago I’m very pleased with it. Brett took all the kids into the cafeteria of the high school the race was at while I ran and listened to their show choir perform. Iddo has been telling us all day that they sang Rudolph just for her.

And we did the whole thing with bells on our shoes, which is a fun effect when everyone is running with them on.

4 Shared thoughts

Grant Me Grace

13 December 2017, 9:54 pm by Giggles

Categories: Gospel

Yesterday at nap time Iddo asked me what grace was. I told her it’s what Heavenly Father and Jesus give us when we make mistakes that makes it all better. Then she asked why Heavenly Father and Jesus give us mistakes. I told her that they don’t give us mistakes but they give us opportunities to try and grow, and then when we make mistakes they give us grace to fix it.

As I heard myself explain it to her I realized I really like that definition of grace. It’s simple, which definitions need to be when I’m explaining something to our kids. But it’s also true. Grace isn’t complicated, although some like to make it seem like it is.

We’d had a hard couple of days so when I was saying good night to her last night I pointed out that yesterday was a pretty good day and it was good to have after the rough day we’d had on Monday. She reminded me that we’d had two rough days, Sunday and Monday. We had. But every day we get to try again to be better. And it’s grace that let’s us try again.

All we need to do is each day try to be better than we were the day before, and let grace make up the rest. There will be ups and downs in our efforts. But as long as we are trending towards being more like God then we’re doing alright.

I did the best I could today. Grant me grace to make up for the rest.

3 Shared thoughts

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

30 November 2017, 11:01 pm by Giggles

Categories: Life

We put the finishing touches (thrown popcorn which will most likely be mostly eaten in the next month) on our tree tonight. Through the miracle and magic of the internet we did it with my parents who were also throwing popcorn on their tree. Thrown popcorn is a Giles tradition. The inside of our house is decorated. We’ll get to the outside next week. So while it definitely doesn’t feel like Christmas, we were in the 90s this week and Iddo wondered why we were decorating for Christmas if it was still too hot to hang out in my hammock, it’s beginning to look like Christmas. The kids even got their Christmas pajamas tonight.

So here’s some Christmas music to get us started. I dread radio Christmas music. It just sucks. But I’ll gladly put together my own mix and listen all month long.

This is a chill-causing arrangement of one of my favorites: