Disorganization... and the need to feel ORGANIZED!

Haven's New Weekly schedule

So, it's only the 2nd day of the 1st week of the new school year and I am already excited and overwhelmed! It's always difficult to get everyone to establish a new "routine" and get everyone to fully accept and adapt to that routine. It makes everything feel a little up in the air and a tad bit chaotic if you ask me. 


Sunday night, Haven and I spent at the table together creating a "calendar". He helped me decide on pictures for each of his activities to help him know what "day today is". Monday is Preschool so we decided on an apple, Tuesday is daycare so we drew a cute little stick person "friend", etc. Wednesday is his HUGE day this year. He goes to preschool in the morning, Wednesday school in the afternoon and we can ALL go to 611 at Church on Wednesday nights! I'm super excited about this... more to come on it later! :) So we really had to get creative with our "pictures" for Wednesday's! Wednesday school and 611 are both at church... but both different Churches. Haven thought that a cross was the only fitting picture so we decided on 2 different colored crosses. I found a cute little heart magnet that he can move each morning to see what "day today is". It's nothing fancy, by any means...but he was as happy as a pig in mud! 


Luckily Haven is the only one with *BIG* schedule changes, but all of us have some adjustments to make, like: daycare days being switched, arriving to work early on Wednesday's, adding in new activities, etc. I'm really thinking at this point that *I* need a picture chart! LOL I'm really struggling to find a good "central command point" in my house. I am struggling to find a way to successfully store art supplies that they boys are using more and more frequently. I'm struggling to find a way to keep school papers close by that are important (ones to keep, ones to return, ones with snack ideas on them, ones with reminders, etc. etc. etc.), and store worksheets and artwork that comes home, and keep the budget balanced and the house cleaning on schedule and done. I need a place to keep the mail so it doesn't invade EVERY corner of the house. I need...well...help! I'm in need of an organizational makeover! What types of solutions have you seen used for school papers? What types of "Central Command" zone type of shelving/storage do you think would make the most of what LITTLE extra area we have...and STILL be very affordable?! I need a place for all of these "little" things that add up to one big disorganized problem!!!


The one thing I mentioned before that I'm UBER excited about is "611" at our new church. I'm so impressed because I'm used to the days of parents driving up to the door and dropping their kids off to run in for an hour of "class". I'm not exactly sure ALL the specifics because tomorrow is the first night, but it looks like 611 is a time for ALL church members Newborn-Adult to enjoy fellowship and the opportunity to grow in faith and knowledge! Hudson can go to the Nursery and enjoy "Christian Play and Fellowship". Haven will celebrate "God's Garden" in the preschool room, and I can attend either a "Knowing your Bible" or "Going Deeper" a group to discuss our upcoming church spiritual growth campaign called "40 Days of Community" and to discuss further the sermons given at worship each Sunday! I absolutely LOVE that they have opportunities for EVERYONE to be involved! It's FAMILY church night.. not just push your kids out of the car so you can watch an hour of TV uninterrupted night! 


Not only do they offer 611 but there is also "Sunday Morning Club". Hudson can again, visit the nursery. Haven can be part of the "Hero Headquarters" preschool program at 9:30 and/or  "Celebrating God's Word" at 10:30. Houston and I are signed up to attend a "small group" based on the "40 Days of Community" spiritual growth campaign. I'm really interested to see what this is all about. I'm so eager to learn more and grow in my faith right now that I'm thankful for this opportunity! And those are just the tip of the iceberg of what all is available and offered to Church and community members alike! (I'm also really looking forward to the one-a-month"Health Awareness" support group, starting on the 9th!) It's really amazing to see such great things happening. You can really see God working through these people and experiences! I, daily, find myself thankful that Cassie and Josh invited us to go to church with them just randomly one Sunday. I really feel like I have so much to offer to and learn from our new church! It's amazing, uplifting, and leaves my heart feeling very full! 

~Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

John 4:8

Memory Lane Monday... Earliest Memories: Pre-School/ Kindergarten

Discussing important "First Day" stuff! :)

How fitting that today is Haven's first day of preschool! I'm not exactly sure who was most excited today: Haven...who has been counting down the days until his "FIRST DAY!", Hudson...who got to wear his "new backpack" just to walk Haven to school, or Mom...who can't believe she is old enough to walk back through HER old school's doors...as a PARENT! It feels so funny to fill out HLV School papers and sign on the "Parent/Guardian" line! As we walked down to the (new, fancy, smancy) offices I see my old 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Nelson. I have fond memories of her...and her class! She looks at me, smiles and says, "Well, Hello! You can't possibly have a child old enough to be here!" Alas, I do! Impossible as it seems... it IS possible! Today is that big day!

 Haven was so excited to go meet new friends, learn new things, and be at the "big school"! So excited, in fact, that he forgot to say goodbye! (Hudson was really bummed about this!) He called me at work when he got home to tell me all about his day. He didn't even say "Hello", just dove into conversation about playing with play dough, finding shells in the sand, having teddy grahams and cereal for snack, and helping with the "really great rules" that he somehow couldn't remember by the time he called me! *lol* All the while, Hudson is in the background...VERY EXCITED that his big brother is home again! Mid-sentence Haven stops and whispers very loudly, "SHHHH... BE QUIET I'm TALKING to MOM!" After work, Haven was trying to remember some of the finer details about his day to share. Things like: "Mom did you know those little boxes where we put our folders are called CUBBIES?" To which I reply, "Yes, they are!" Haven stops and stares at me in disbelief for just a moment and says, "HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?" When I go on to explain that I once had cubbies for MY folders he stares at me in disbelief. I guess it's hard to think of our parents as being KIDS! :) He already brought home "Home" work in his "Home" folder. We had to fill out a questionnaire about him. I asked and he answered Here is his 4 year old insight... I love it:

I would like to learn about... "Animals, How things Grow, How things Work" {... Seriously?! I was figuring this would be super heroes, or dinosaurs. Nope... my FOUR YEAR OLD fills out a PRESCHOOL QUESTIONNAIRE with "I want to learn how things work!"}

I can: ______ all by myself... "write my name, and turn things on and off"...... {he goes on to say he's now tall enough to reach light switches and stuff since he's BIG... love it!}

I know ______ at preschool... "how to listen!" ... {I hope he intends to listen at preschool as well as he fills in his questionnaire questions! LOL}

Anyway, it was an adorably adorable first day of "big school" pre-school!

As for my own "memories".... MEMORY LANE MONDAY First Memories Preschool/Kindergarten Edition begins...... NOW! :)

The only preschool I went to was Wednesday School. It was a one day a week preschool out south of town at the Lutheran church. I L.O.V.E.D. Wednesday school!
I remember:

• getting fun little name tags in different shapes and you had to match your name tag to the group/table to find your group.
• the "Birthday cake" that had Christmas light "Candles" you got to light 
• the "Birthday machine"... you got to put in a quarter... turn a knob...etc. etc... (HAVEN STILL GOT TO DO THIS SAME EXACT MACHINE last year at his Wednesday School Birthday!!!!)
• the monkey puppet that sang to you
• the "offering bucket" which was an ice cream bucket with a hole in the lid. It was passed around during song time each week.
• the murals on the walls of Bible stories
• music time... we had instruments made of sand paper on wooden blocks, ice cream buckets (man these must be a valuable resource! LOL), some triangles, etc.
• WEDNESDAY SCHOOL GRADUATION! It was the BEST. We got to wear "graduation caps" made of construction paper with yarn tassels. ADORABLE!
• carpools! There were SO MANY kids that went we car pooled. It was HUGE back in the day. Now there is only 7 or 8 ish to a class! :(
• denim bags made especially for us... they were dark blue denim tote-style bags with red initial letters sewn on the front! I wish I still had mine!!!

Yes... Wednesday school was DEFINITELY full of fond memories! <3 I was THRILLED to learn it was still going on and that Haven could experience it as well!!!

Kindergarten Memories:

• I remember Homecoming Week in Kindergarten. They made A HUGE HUGE deal of us because we were the "Class of 2000!!!" Can you believe it?! They made buttons for us that declared that too! (In fact, I saw one hanging on the wall in the offices today! Brought back great memories!) I also remember making Indian headbands with a feather (we were the Warriors) which probably is totally NOT politically correct anymore! :) We also made signs by cutting big red and black letters out to spell HLV. I remember a classmate being photographed holding hers upside down! lol
• I remember Mr. Tibben in music class. I really liked going to music class with him.
• I remember making clay "pots" (*HAHA* that term is totally used loosely!) in art class, and painting with those brick style watercolors!
• I remember having the big bulletin board that showed "The Helpers" such as line leader, etc.
• I remember Mrs. Roe's big sign on the wall that showed "right" and "left" hand prints in red and green with the words printed below them.
• I remember my new shoes and how excited I was about them. They were HIGH TOPS! The coolest of all cool! :)
• I remember wearing a horridly bright colored button down shirt with toucans on them. YES!! It's as ugly as it sounds! Not only was it ugly but it had tuxedo like TAILS on the back! O.M.G. The 80's! I remember my Daddy dropping me off at school and telling me not to get my "tails" stuck in the door. And I worried all day!
• I remember it being SO COOL that there were 3 KRISTI(E)Ns in my grade. We were infinitely bound to using our initials. (Kristin S.)
• I remember the little sticker charts we used as incentive to learn to tie our shoes!
• I remember making locker tags in December that were Santa's head. And each day we glued a cotton ball onto his beard until it was full in time for Christmas!
• I remember using rag rugs for nap time, and NEVER really wanting to take a nap! LOL
• I remember being completely and TOTALLY envious of the OTHER class having an (almost) life-sized horse to climb on and sit on during free play! Their room was SOOOO cool. That teacher still teaches in the SAME room...but I didn't see the horse today! I'll have to look closer next time! ;)

I'm sure there are other things that will creep back into my ol' memory back now that I've got the juices a goin'! ;) But actually I'm happy and surprised I came up with so much! I'll definitely have to start thinking of the coolness that was "1st grade" for next week! :)

~Behold, Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward...

Psalm 127:3

Faith and Blessings

"Don't worry, I'll take care of you."

I've decided to *TRY* and start my 3 blog. I've never been a very successful "regular blogger", but I've always aspired to be. I always thought, "Hey, what a neat way to keep up with 'life in general' in a way that can archive all those special times and memories for years and years to come! The time has come to give it another run, in hopes that I can truly capture life's "little moments" as they happen. (Maybe then I'll be able to get the baby books updated! *lol*)


One of the major things that lead me to try blogging again is my recent "inner struggle" with my faith. Faith, church, family "traditions"... it's all a big deal, right? I mean, some people were brought up going to church every Sunday, some weren't. However, most of the time I would venture to guess, people tend to follow in their parents' footsteps and continue to follow the path they've been on from an early age. Up until very recently, I did just that.... well sort of. More "recently" I've been not doing anything at all really! :( I never even CONSIDERED "going against the grain" of my Catholic upbringing.  But because I have not been "doing anything at all, really", I wasn't getting the Faith I needed, nor was I providing that opportunity to my children. I wasn't very proud of that.


So, I have done a lot of soul searching and had some internal struggle lately as far as Faith goes. As I said, my parents raised me Catholic, in fact they still are very devout even though my brother and I are both grown and gone. We were the family that went EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY. Sat in the 4th row back, clear to the left side. LOL I think our names may be inscribed on those pews! LOL  I remember teaching Kindergarten CCD classes when I was in High School, attending "Youth Rallies" and going on a big trip to the National Catholic Youth Conference in St. Louis. It's totally not that I wasn't "involved" in the church...just maybe not "connected"?!... Once I graduated I kind of fell away, and was searching for my own way.  Once I had Haven, my parents basically were begging me to come back to church so Haven would have God in his life. I wanted him to have church in his life, too. I started going every week (well mostly lol) and got him Baptized, etc. Up until recently, I even worked in the church office as my 2nd job. That job totally was a challenge and so hard for me. People expected so much of me in that position, especially with another full time job and 2 SMALL children at home. I tried to give my notice 3 times but the Priest didn't want to see me go. I finally said, "MY FAMILY and MY MARRIAGE will not survive this anymore!" Once I was able to get out of the position I couldn't hardly THINK about going back to church there. I felt like everyone was still forming all their small town thoughts and opinions...and I just felt *shrugs* I don't know... NOT connected. We stopped going to church for a few months because I just couldn't walk back through those doors! Considering I live in the town I grew up in and it's the size of a microwave bag of popcorn....EVERYBODY KNOWS EVERYBODY THAT KNOWS ANYBODY...and they all make YOU their business!


Haven went to a one day a week preschool program at a local Lutheran Church. He was very intuitive and had a lot of innocent interest and intrigue. He started ASKING to go to church...a 4 year old! He began ASKING to pray at night ("Look mom, you kneel by your bed like this. That's what Lilo does on "Lilo and Stitch"). He began ASKING to go to every VBS he heard talked about. A children's faith is a beautiful thing. They don't see the politics or any unpleasantness. If only we could all have faith like a child, innocent, honest and pure!


Then back in May I followed the story of little Ben Ricketts. I don't know if you're familiar with it, it was ALL OVER Facebook and the news. Ben was 22 months old when he got tangled in the blinds in his room at nap time. They spent so much time at PICU at U of I and the outpouring of prayers on Facebook was inspirational...almost 50,000 people joined his "Pray for Ben" page!! But even beyond Ben and Facebook was Ben's family. Through such terrible times in their life, their faith and love for God ABOUNDED. I was amazed and also jealous. I had NEVER experienced faith like that. I had NEVER had a relationship with God like that! Between meeting Ben through Facebook and meeting a new dear friend that has a 3 year old daughter with SMA, a WHOLE lot of things got put into perspective for me. I realized that maybe part of it is that this is not where God is speaking loudest to me. I have nothing negative to say about my life or growing up Catholic. I'm blessed that my parents saw to it that I had church and God, values and morals! I just that I feel like I was at the point where I went because it was SUNDAY and because we were SUPPOSED to. I didn't want to go to church out of OBLIGATION, instead I wanted to go somewhere where we could CONNECT as a family and WANT to learn and grow together. 


Then one day when I was processing all of this through a wonderful conversation with my dear friend Cassie, she said, "You should come to church with us some Sunday. We only went once, but we're so wanting to go again!" She proceeded to tell me about St. Paul's and how the music was wonderful and how inviting it felt. So we made a "Church Date" to attend the first Sunday in July! All it took was that SUNDAY! We were amazed at the experience. Ironically, the first week was the start of a message series on FACEBOOK. Yep, FACEBOOK! I can only be amazed that through Facebook I found BEN and his family's BEAUTIFUL faith that inspired me to want MORE! And through Facebook I found my way back to wanting a stronger, more fulfilling relationship with God...and here is the pastor talking about what FACEBOOK can do in your life if only you let it! Talk about a message from God! :) I think that was my own personal "Godwink". I truly believe it's the message that God is sending to tell me that this is where we belong! 


We feel so blessed to have found a place where we feel compelled to be PART of SOMETHING...not just "attend". We look FORWARD to going as a family on Sunday... not just "go, because it's Sunday". We talk throughout the week about how much we now look forward to Sunday and the time we spend together at church. My husband that used to be "ho hum" about God and church in general is EXCITED to go...feels INSPIRED to get involved! My kids are experiencing such wonderful things through VBS, the preschool room, and the nursery. It's ALL there! We're not "obligated" anymore! We're EXCITED!! I struggle to find the words to describe all the things that have changed in my life or my heart in such a short amount of time. I feel overwhelmed and blessed all at the same time. I've learned a whole lot about faith and a whole lot about what's important in life and it continues to amaze me. Every single week we've gone (and we haven't missed a week yet!) some part of the Sermon, a bible verse, a song, SOMETHING speaks so deeply to me! It's amazing!


I know it's only the beginning of a lifetime journey in Faith. I know there is so much more to learn and live. I'm just very excited that for once I feel like I'm in a place that uplifts me and feels so alive!


I'm going to try to find a scripture or a quote to end each blog. (I'm not very good at knowing different scriptures yet, but I'm hoping to connect and learn more!) The one for tonight I purchased on a little wooden sign from the Christian Book Store not long after little Ben touched my life. I wanted to ensure myself that I would NEVER, EVER forget him. So I bought a couple little wooden signs to put up amongst my pictures, to remind me each and every day of the ways Ben touched my life and my heart.


                      "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see"
                                                                                                               -Hebrews 11:1