A Master of Legos

From Matthew's blog:

I have a long history with legos. They are a big part of my formative years, from castles to spaceships. I'm big on spaceships.

The point of saying that is I'm an expert. I know how to play with them, and turn any pile of ordinary or un-ordinary pieces into something extraordinary. Last night though, I saw something that truly put me to shame. It was a new way to play with legos.

I guess I never really considered how my lego people felt when I played with them. After a long day's session of building the perfect thing, I left my people in the bin, on the floor, or fixed in place in whatever epic battle I was interrupted in the middle of with bedtime. 

My daughter, done with her people for the night, tucked them in, and then had me tuck her in. 

When she plays with legos, she cares.

Christmas Trees

From Matthew's blog.

I was impressed. It's always kind of interesting to see how our hunt for the Christmas tree goes. I'll be forthright, I don't always like the adventure of trying to find the right tree. This year almost careened into disaster-land when we decided to attempt to find a new tree farm just by driving out towards the hills. I'm not good with wanderlust. I'm a find a place, go there, and ignore everything on the way kind of person. I'm also better at going to the same place I went last year sort of person too.

Regardless, once we decided that wandering around in the hills with about thirty miles of gas left in the car wasn't a good idea, we went to a farm we were familiar with and I swear had a tree picked out within about ten minutes of wandering around. That's expeditious! The kids were successful as well, and got two Charlie Brown small trees for their room. They demanded lights--multicolored lights of course because what kid loves classy-looking white lights like their boring parents? Today was officially Christmas season kick-off because virtually every other word out of their mouths had to do with Christmas.

We did a sanity check to be sure they understood the meaning of the season, and they promptly replied that we are celebrating Christ's birthday. Whew. Okay, they probably will only be thinking about Jesus Christ for brief, fleeting moments, but at least they know what it's about.

So, we have three trees in the house. They smell good. I'm pretty sure my daughter has a pair of scissors in the room and will give her tree periodic haircuts until all the needles are gone, but she's happy. That's good.

The Light is Just so Bright!!!

When we got married, I had savings. Not a ton, but I was headed towards buying a house within a year or so. Then I met and fell in love with my sweetheart who was going to law school and I threw caution to the wind and said yes to him and his student loans.

With that "yes" I immediately went from being in the black to being neck deep in red.  I remember being so sick to my stomach when, after finishing law school, we wrote a check for over $10,000 that went solely to the interest he had accumulated while in school.

For our whole married lives (11 years now) we have talked about how rich we will be when we are done with student loans. We would travel, buy fun stuff (just because we could) and not worry about finances. With my infertility I continued to work after he graduated and we talked about paying off all our loans in 5 years. The light seemed dim but attainable in those years. And then we felt inspired to send Matthew back for more graduate school, this time to get his MBA. That 5-year plan died and with it, the light at the end of the tunnel.

Matthew getting his MBA was by far the best career move he has made to date as he doubled his salary with two more years of school, but someday continued to be a far distant construct for us. Fast forward to the beginning of the year. We had about $30,000 left on his loans and we both felt the impetus to focus on paying them off within the year. It felt daunting but we knew the Lord would help us reach the goal he wanted us to achieve.

Thanks to a generous year-end bonus, paying off my car, and work for me, today we are officially student loan debt free!!! We have finally made it to someday!!! Hallelujah and thanks be to a wonderful Heavenly Father who helped us reach that goal!!

Is this a Treat?

Reposted from Matthew's blog - adailysliceofawesome.blogspot.com

My daughter is extremely cautious regarding what she will do with her one allotted treat per finished meal. When we do pizza, we usually get a free two-liter soda with it. Each time we do, she asks before she imbibes: "Is this a treat?" If you say yes, she won't drink it--her notion of value places it lower than a piece of candy. If you say no, she happily guzzles the soda.

Last night, my wife made orange rolls. They are delicious. However, in my eager desire to dispense with dishwashing for the night, I washed the mixing bowl that I mistakenly thought had extra left-over dough in it when it fact, it was the icing for them. They still taste goood, they just don't have the additional icing. So, my daughter finishes her dinner and wants an orange roll. That's perfectly fine.

She asks: "Is this a treat?" I answer: "Yes."
She thinks, and then nods, alright. She goes over to the cooling racks upon which the rolls are resting and picks which one she wants. Then she notices something is amiss.

"Where is the good stuff?"

"What good stuff?" I answer.

"The good stuff that makes it taste good. The icing?"

"I don't know," I reply, with a sinking feeling in my stomach that I put the icing down the sink by mistake.

"Then I don't want it," she puts the roll back. Not worth it. Delicious orange roll + icing = treat. Delicious orange roll - icing = not worth it. I'd rather have a measly small piece of Halloween candy.

It's amusing and a little awesome watching her value different treats.

Allowance

A few weeks ago we decided the babes were ready for additional responsibility. Now, in addition to cleaning their room, they are responsible for clearing and setting the table in preparation for dinner everyday. Despite explaining that I do my job in making dinner and Matthew does his job of cleaning the dishes afterwards, there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth at the change. I wouldn't say the allowance is a bribe for these new jobs, but it may have been the impetus for the institution. That and I want to teach my children about tithing and savings.

Last week I put 10 dimes in a jar for each child. I explained that at the end of the week they would get those dimes, but if they complained about any of their jobs they would lose dimes. Boy Howdy still complained about his new job but with the threat of losing money he begrudgingly held his tongue. Cheeks was good until Saturday when she was supposed to clean her room. She lost $0.30 in the course of an hour. It was a sad morning.

Tonight for family home evening we reviewed how many dimes they had left and the concept of thanking Heavenly Father by paying tithe. We also discussed the merits of savings. To induce them to learn to save, we have opted to pay $0.01 per dime they save per week. Free money, is how we labeled it. With the promise of that "free money" at the end of the week they opted to put all their remaining money into the savings jar. Color me a proud mama. I'm not sure how long we'll be able to keep up with our current interest rate of 40%, but for right now, I'm just happy to start teaching my children the concept of saving and tithing.

Mama has a Birthday

Be still my mother's heart. At bedtime Boy Howdy asked for art supplies so he could make cards for my birthday. When I came to bed I found these two cards on my bedside table. Seeing Boy Howdy's writing "mom" melted my heart (he's just learned how to spell it) and Cheeks' portrait of me makes me so happy.

The next morning the kids were so excited to show me the rest of their creations they made me. Boy Howdy made some adorable cards with hearts and his own portrait of me complete with crazy hair and crown.

At one point after bedtime, Boy Howdy called down the stairs to ask about my favorite animal. I answered that it was the elephant. The drawing is Boy Howdy's rendition, the other is Cheeks'. Both make me so happy.

And here are my sweet girls' creations. She is such an abstract thinker that it makes sense that her artwork takes on the same form. I might not keep any of this but I love my jewels and smiley face with random bits of tape thrown in for good measure.

Boy Howdy put all of his "cards" in a suitcase. Cheeks' couldn't remember where she put hers. She was so very distraught. I tried consoling her that we would find them eventually but she was so eager to give them to me right then (first thing in the morning) she got back in bed crying. Hero mom to the rescue finally found them and boy was she so excited to show me each individual item she had created for me.

I felt so loved. For sure the best way to start my birthday. The rest of the day was just as lovely. Rain poured the night before leaving beautiful blue sky and a rainbow in the morning. Melissa, Jared and Charlotte met me for brunch while Cheeks was in preschool. My friend Danielle took Cheeks in the afternoon. I made a super yummy dinner with an even better cheesecake for dessert and had Danielle and her family over to help enjoy it with us.

The next night I got to go out for a yummy dinner and shopping date with my sweetheart. The weekend before I got to go to Time Out for Women with my sister, niece and their sister-in-law and had a completely wonderful experience. From beginning to end of my week of birthday was so fantastic. Yay good birthdays!!