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Category Archives: Blessing Box
A Tribute to Baba
Yesterday my mom, affectionately referred to by her grandchildren as “Baba” – the abbreviated Russian word for “grandmother”, turned 70 years old. And you know what she did on her birthday? She showed up at my doorstep with a 9″x13″ cherry cheesecake that she made for ME. On HER birthday. I should be used to her selfless acts of kindness but I’m not. She continually astounds me with them. Throughout my life, I have never known anyone else to be so completely and genuinely selfless, freely giving of her time, love and resources, and having an unwavering servant attitude toward others. In this regard, she is as close to emulating Christ’s serving heart toward others as I have ever witnessed. What makes her even that much more amazing is that she is the way she is despite the multiple hardships and challenges she has endured throughout her entire life: born and raised in the poorest of conditions in Soviet Russia during World War II, uprooted with her family to a Displaced Persons Camp in Germany; being separated from her mother who suffered from tuberculosis while in the DP camp, experiencing the death of her 9-month-old brother who died of neglect … Continue reading
Posted in Blessing Box, On Motherhood, Teachable Moments
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Music to My Homeschool Ears
“Mom…I just love homeschool!” <sound of car brakes screeching to a halt>. These were the words my 7-year-old DS suddenly blurted out this past Wednesday afternoon, while in the midst of playing a home made math board game to reinforce his math facts. “You WHAT?” I replied, not completely sure that the waxectomy one of my homeschool friends so kindly performed on my clogged ear a few weeks ago actually cleared out ALL of the wax. “I love homeschool!” he repeated with a huge, dimpled grin. “You DO????” I asked, quite incredulously. “Yeah…and when I have kids I want them to homeschool, too!”, he added. Ah! <joyful scream> Music to my homeschool ears! Why in the world he decided to make those feelings known to me at this point in his life, at that moment of the day, is a mystery to me. I mean…HE’S SEVEN YEARS OLD! He HAS no other point of reference except this life which he lives! He has no idea what it’s like NOT to be homeschooled, to get on the bus everyday, to spend all day away from his family. And to be honest, it has not been the most pleasant around here this past … Continue reading
Posted in Blessing Box, Homeschooling
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Good Things Come To Those Who…Give Up
Hurray! Hurray! Hurray! <wild cheering in the background> My almost 3 1/2 year old son has FINALLY decided that it is TIME to go poopy on the potty! I’ve waited three days to go by before writing this post…hoping that it wasn’t some sort of fluke. For some inexplicable reason (because I had given up complete hope) he has decided on his own that he was ready. He never even told me he needed to go! He just helped himself to the potty (without the kid’s potty seat, no less) without me knowing then yelled for me to come and see the poop in the potty for myself! I was only too happy to wipe his butt for him as tears of joy rolled down my face for I had truly believed I would never see this day come! Needless to say, I was completely overjoyed as was my newly trained 3 year old along with his 7 year old brother. We all started doing the Snoopy Happy Dance and singing and carrying on. I even baked cupcakes to celebrate! I’ve gotten alot of grief from members of my family about my boy’s delayed progress in this area…and I’ve given myself some of that … Continue reading
The Evil Mother-In-Law
I am sure many people can relate to the title of this post. Unfortunately, the title was a shameless and underhanded trick on my part to hook you into reading this post which is, in fact, about my Mother-In-Law (MIL) except the dear woman is anything BUT evil. In fact, in the eight years that I have been married to her son, she has consistently invoked overwhelming awe in me because she is as close to perfect (if not already perfect) as one could be as a Mother-In-Law. I never really gave much thought to the “in-law factor” when I decided that my DH was the one for me. My in-laws were nice and all but if they weren’t I don’t think it would have changed my mind about marrying DH. If anything, I was prepared for the worst kind of MIL based on my experiences with my own mother (no offense, Mom). My mom is loving and generous and nurturing and will defend even the slightest of her children’s transgressions. But at times, she can also be overbearing, critical and controlling and knows she can get away with it because…well, because she can. These traits of hers I’ve learned to accept and … Continue reading
My Person Trumps Second Fiddle
I am often in awe of people that I meet who have a best friend from when they were in elementary school…sometimes even as far back as kindergarten! I can barely remember the name of the person who I sat next to every day in my senior year homeroom class…much less keep in touch with anyone from that period of my life. And I certainly don’t have a best friend from my school age years. I was too poor to be accepted by the rich kids…and too rich to be accepted by the poor kids. Completely stuck in the middle…plus I was one ugly geek! Things are different now, though. I’m still not one of those people who are surrounded by dozens of best friends (you know the ones I’m talking about…who invite one another to be one of 15 bridesmaids in all their weddings). I have a select few friends who I consider CLOSE FRIENDS. People who I enjoy spending my time with more than anyone else in the world. Less than five of them, I think. There’s one such friend, who I’ll refer to as “Magnficiently Flawed” to protect her privacy (or MF for short), who especially stands out. I … Continue reading
Blessing Box
Sometime over this past Thanksgiving season I read a homeschooling magazine (is there anything else to read?) that had an article about holiday traditions. One family celebrated Thanksgiving each year by remembering their blessings throughout the previous year by way of a Blessing Box. They created a box in which each member of the family, on any given day of the year, would write down something that they were particularly thankful for. The family member would then slide the the written note into the Blessing Box. On Thanksgiving Day, the Blessing Box would be opened and all the blessings would be read and remembered for that year! I thought that was such a great idea that I promptly created a Blessing Box for our own family. I took a Thomas the Tank shoe box (the kind that has a separate lid) and wrapped both the top and bottom with colorful wrapping paper. Then I created the “Blessing Box” banners using the Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter and cut a slit in the middle of the lid. The color of the wrapping paper that I used clashes with the color scheme of every room in our house but I don’t care! It stands out … Continue reading
