Your long awaited Christmas book
has arrived! Pull up a chair and relax! It’s that time of year again!
Let’s
start with Sebastian! He is a double digit midget this year! My youngest baby
is 10! And with that extra digit, he has grown physically and his personality
has grown. He has these long legs that he never had before. I look at him
sitting in the van and I am like where did those legs come from? Guess what? He
still loves video games and could spend his entire life playing them. He has
been making basic programs on Khan Academy that I am pretty darn impressed
with. I don’t understand half of what he says whether it is about programming
or building something in Minecraft or whatever the computer talk is about. I
have mastered saying, “Uh huh… uh huh” very well. I sound almost convincing. He
still has a fantastic group of friends. Our boys have gotten easier this year.
Less refereeing and more playing. We still have him in karate and he is up to
his blue belt now. Overall, he likes the class except that it interrupts his
computer time and well… we are okay with that – so he will continue and
hopefully keep learning a lot. Even though he is growing up on me, he still
lets me sing to him each night before bed. Sometimes he wants to say no, but
then he misses it! Not all grown up, just yet!
Savannah
aka Savy as she likes to go by these days has turned 16 this year! She has come
out of her comfort zone the past 6 months. She put herself out there to just meet
people and do new things. Once again, she joined student council and this year
she is the Secretary. She is involved in two very different homeschool
co-ops. One is large and has a bustle of
people and classes. The other is small
and a bit calmer. She worked at our local haunted house scaring people several
nights each weekend. This suits her! She
likes to be loud and obnoxious and meet people. Getting made up all creepy and
then freaking people out brings her a ton of joy! Can’t say that it doesn’t
creep me out when I pick her up and her face is all bloody and scary. Not my favorite thing to do, but Tim and I
gladly drove her back and forth night after night. Speaking of driving, not so much happened
this past year, so the new plan is drive time this year. Dad is going to be
helping more with that, so maybe next Christmas letter will tell you that she
is a new driver. She has decided she wants to go to school to be a physical
therapy assistant. This year we found an online school that offered a good
athletic sports medicine class. For her first time, she is doing an online
class. She is trying to figure it all out, but it is going to take a little
more time. Oh, but it is going too fast! Please stop!
One
of my silly memories of Timmy goes back to when he was a little boy about 7 or
8. We had him in tae kwon do. He had a
very serious teacher who was on the slightly short side for a grown man. One
day, Timmy came in with a lose tooth. It
was just hanging by a thread. He was fussing about how sparring was going to
make it fall out. His teacher, Master Dennis, told him to pull it out. Oh my
goodness! What a fit he threw! He did not want to pull that dang tooth out! No
way, no how! Master Dennis stood over him and demanded he pull it out. He
pulled it out and was not very happy. Fast forward about 10 years… we were at a
superbowl party and none other than Master Dennis was at this same party. My now 6 foot plus tall, 260 lb son walks
right up to Master Dennis and leans heavily on his shoulder – just towering
over him. He very calmly says to him, “Wanna make me pull my tooth out now?” Oh
my… I laughed so hard. It was just the
best memory. It still makes me smile every time I think of it. I still talk about
my boy Every. Single. Day. and I will until I take my last breathe on this
side. I still hear him talk to me in my mind. I hear his laugh and I feel his
hugs. Someday it will all make sense.
My
sweet husband is plugging away. He works and he rests and then he works again.
It is the pattern of his days. Sometimes crazy, sometimes lazy, but it has been
a good balance this year. It seems our rental houses go in spurts of all
needing him to make repairs and then there will be a lull of quiet time. When is
he is not working, he putters around with his hobbies. Always a plant or a fish
or a something that grabs his attention and he messes with that for awhile. As
some of you know from Facebook, he bought himself a brand new Jeep Wrangler
this year. It was his first new purchase of his choice. He has always gotten
the family car or what the family needed, but this time he got to just pick
what he wanted. It made him nervous, but
it made me very happy to see him get to do something for himself.
I
am older, fatter and a bit greyer. Sometimes my brain is swirling in 5000
different directions. I am teaching at our new homeschool co-op and managing
rental properties. We started back to school in July and plowed through 17 weeks
straight without a week off. I am enjoying our extended winter break immensely.
Here is the not so sing, song, cheery, blah, blah, blah part of my letter. I
love homeschooling. I believe in it and at the same time, wow! I am tired of
asking, ummm, more like begging and pleading for kids to do their work. I know
it is a test and I may or may not pass this one. Let’s hope January brings
renewed strength. We did a good bit of running around this year which is one of
my very favorite parts of life. Lots of Disney, even a couple days with Tim
there. That is always a huge treat for our kids to have dad at Disney. We hit
the beach and the mountains and took a very relaxing cruise. I am constantly
aware that exploring new places is this amazing gift that needs so much
gratitude.
There
is this song by Need to Breathe called Multiplied. It has this one lyric that
goes like this:
God of mercy
Sweet love of mine
I have surrendered to your design
may this offering stretch across the sky
And these hallelujahs be multiplied.
When
I hear this, it literally brings tears to my eyes. Possibly because I am an emotional,
crazy lady, but I think it is more than that. It makes me cry because I am
finally, little by little, with each moment learning that there is not a whole
lot I can control in life. Sure, I pay my bills, brush my teeth... all that
good stuff. But in the big picture – I have surrendered to His design. People
die and it just plain, flat out stinks. We lost our dear friend, Laurie, to
cancer this year and I hate it. I realized that there was nothing we could do.
The pain was just going to have to come and we were going to have to all get
through it. So, I have surrendered, but at the same time that I can’t control
the bad stuff – I also can’t always control the good stuff. And there is good
stuff. Really, amazing and wonderful stuff happens every day. And for that I
say “these hallelujahs be multiplied”.
Now, nobody is perfect. I still try to control so much. I still feel
better with a plan, checklists, order and neatness. I just know that this awful
pain that comes with the trials of life is worse when you try to control it.
Peace comes when you can accept the way things are, not what you thought they
were supposed to be. With that thought, I leave you and say hug your family and
friends! Tell them you love them! I wish you peace and joy!
Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year
Tim,
Kari, (Tim II), Savannah
and Sebastian
In memory of my sweet and wonderful Timmy 3.5.89 to 5.14.10
Until I see you again... I love you and miss
you more than any words can say.
