Saturday January 5, 2013
I hit the keyboard, fully planning to write “random” in the title bar until I noticed that was exact title of my next to last post. Really? I am THAT creative? Amazing.
Does anyone else feel as though they just got lurched forward in time? December was a month long celebration it seemed and for once, I thought I was really on top of the annual wind down and new year beginning in my head. Then I got walloped with a GI bug this week that would have left me unconscious on the bathroom floor at 3 AM had David not held onto me before I collapsed and dragged me out onto the floor of the bedroom until enough cold water woke me. The boys and I are still touch and go … mostly go 
… and it’s left my brain loopy and slow and thinking we’re back in 2012. In an effort to clear my head, I’m trying to clear my desk. Clean desk = clear thought processes. Unquestionable correlation, right?
December was filled with
winter weather
friends
cozy moments
and
hot chocolate.
I’d be just fine with thinking about pink tulips starting tomorrow. According to the weather forecast, there’s a lot more ice-skating, steel cut oats drizzled with maple syrup and loaded with blueberries, and goosebumps predicted. I’m still trying to figure out exactly how to stay warm at Wednesday night vespers when it’s 26 degrees out and we’re sitting on split logs with ice on them. Leggings? Check. Layers and layers? Check. Scarf? Check. Hat? Check. Boots? Check. Coffee? Check. Suggestions? ______________
But back to December.
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Really quick. Close your eyes and name five close friends. People you consider to be someone you could call on for support if you needed it. Got it? Go! Let me guess, you had that done in about 3.7 seconds and could have given me another five in a heartbeat. Do you realize what an enormous gift this is? Sometimes I take my friends way too much for granted until I realize not everyone is so blessed. One night as I was telling someone we have friends coming in for the weekend she said, “So does your church try to send someone up to see you guys like one weekend a month?” I was confused … until I realized how blessed we’d been with visits from friends since we’re here. “No,” I said, “Only one family was from our church. We just have a lot of friends.” Those words just don’t leave me. “We just have a lot of friends.” On days I’m lonely and feeling far away, they’re like a hug, reminding me of how blessed I am. Other days, they echo against the words of a camper’s mom when David asked her if she has anyone she can go to for support. “Yes,” she said. “I’m sure *Jim and Susan would help me out if I ever needed anything.” Two names. One couple. Suddenly the “s” in friends goes echoing against the house walls and I feel selfish. Why have we been given so much when some have been given so little?
December is a month for giving gifts. I love finding the perfect gift for someone, even if on years like this one it means shopping until almost the very last minute because I could not think of the right thing. This month, perhaps because there were more days of homesickness for old friends …. perhaps because I’ve come face to face with people who have so few friends, I’ve been thinking more about the gift of friendship. It’s one of the few gifts we get to give to someone all year long. And {most of the time} it’s one of the best received and most cherished gifts. But somehow we forget just how priceless the gift of a true friend really is.
*names changed
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Excitement was running high at our house because Ryan and Tury were coming! Tury is such a good friend of mine and one of those people I miss terribly since we’ve moved. She’d come over after work, fix herself a glass of tea, and we’d talk til she or I had to go. She was like the boys’ aunt really, and took care of them often when I needed a sitter. Now she’s just too far away to do any of it, but it was so much fun to have them here for a weekend and instead of only being together for a few hours! Adam and Liam spent the night before they came getting little notes ready for their bed. We had a blast just being together, going to see the Nutcracker, and playing games. You can’t possibly know, until you move away, how special it is to have guests from home!
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That same week I got to hang out with some Lancaster friends thanks to David needing to make a road trip to PA! An hour with Cindy at her kitchen table, sipping tea and discussing boys (funny how that sounds different when you’re a mom then it did when you were sixteen), and dreams, and life… a fantastic lunch in Thelma’s cozy house with Rachel and Andrea …. meeting the adorable new babies and watching the drama of their personal introductions …
Bentley: “Well, hello there, Miss Kate.”
“My goodness, you’re so cute, I just can’t get enough of you!”
“Oh, no. I wonder what I did wrong?”
“This is totally overwhelming.”
“OH, wait! There’s another cute chic … let me introduce myself to her”
I could do that day all over again!
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And then there were all the camp Christmas activities …
a morning spent making Christmas cookies
an evening spent caroling for the neighbors
a Christmas party with a traditional meal the night before the boys left for homevisit
a Christmas party for all the staff the next morning with a handmade craft exchange
Honestly, I think you could squeak by without any family traditions and celebrate Christmas well around here. 
By the time we’d had our own little family Christmas Day and were ready to head to Virginia to celebrate the actual day, the boys were convinced it had already happened. “I’m glad we live in Maryland because we already had Christmas,” Liam said enroute to Grammie’s house. He still doesn’t get it. And we have another year to figure out whether to squeeze in a cookie making day of our own sometime.
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And now a few favorite quotes I’ve stumbled across in the past month.
“Forgiveness, for the most part, is something you do and not something you feel. It is an act of the will, not the emotions.” — Kevin Leman in his book, Born to Win
“The most important thing she’d learned through the years was that there’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one. — Jill Churchill
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Come to think of it, my desk isn’t looking any better than it did. How was this supposed to work again?
oh michelle. so fun to click on xanga and see that you posted. 🙂
bummers about the sickness. it seems like the meanest bugs ever are everywhere.
that whole catching, dragging and cold water part sounds a little scary.
i’m getting the unquestionable correlation. haha. are you saying… what? it didn’t work? 😉
your pics are always a treat. because they are a peak into your life.
but now that i’ve met those amazing young sons of yours my smile at them is bigger than ever.
the snowflake catching photo is awesome.
and those notes and artwork for your friends? precious. lovelove.
speaking of friends…your thoughts…yes. so true.
nodding my head, feeling sobered, knowing that i am beyond blessed with the gift of true friendship.
and speaking more about that very thing—your visit! it went so fast like good things do.
i loved having you here, something special about a friend in your home/seeing theirs
and then connecting over lunch with everyone at thelma’s as well.
your sequential photos and captions are hysterical.
big hugs to you late on this saturday night! <3
with happy sunday wishes for tomorrow.
titles can be the hardest thing, i think. i continually have to squelch the urge to title another post “random” something or another because i realize that left unsquelched, half of my posts would end up with that title!!
the kate and bentley interaction is priceless! so, so cute!
i think i sometimes forget how wonderful it is to have friends. i didn’t actually complete your little brain exercise, but i know i could. i am sure there are 5 that have helped even without being asked, and then 10 more that would gladly help if i would ask, and i am sure depending on the situation, it wouldn’t stop there, either. and that’s just the local ones. such a blessing.
Loved this update! Loved all the pictures. Happy moments for sure.
love your last 2 quotes too!!
So you’ve read Born to Win? Please give me a review. 🙂 Just got it on my Kindle and am looking forward to reading it. Love Dr. Leman!
@my_pilgrimage – I did read Born to Win and LOVED it. I think every firstborn should read it! I’ve been meaning to mail it to my SIL for weeks, but there’s a chapter I want David to read first. I think my favorite parts were the ones where he talked about how our firstborn tendencies play out in our parenting. Let me know what you think after you get done.
@down_onthefarm – That visting thing? We need to figure that out more this summer. I want to meet your kids!
Thank you! This makes me even more excited to read it. My husband and I are both first-borns so maybe we should be reading it together. 🙂
OK let me expose my ignorance to life at camp.
Do those boys sleep in those little tent like structures even in the winter? We are having zero & below temps here, the boys from camp came to mind & I was trying to figure out how they stay warm!
Having a lot of friends is truly a huge blessing! I hope you continue to feel love & support from friends to make these winter months sail by.
The Bentley/Kate Narration made me smile so hugely! I forgot that little interaction occured. He realy was trying so very hard to be friends. Just hasn’t learned yet that it not polite to eat one’s friend.
I loved this post. Happy January. And i’m right with you, those tulips could come up anytime now.
i did your little exercise of naming friends and yes! i feel encouraged just stopping and thinking about what you shared with all that – the blessing it is to have great friends! so true~
always love hearing your RANDOM updates. 😉 seeing a glimpse into your life. i know it hasn’t been an easy adjustment, but i think you’ve done it with such grace and .. well, gumption was the other word that came to mind but i’m not sure if it means what i think it does. but i’m going to put it anyway, cause i like the sound of it. 🙂
seeing all my ffe friends together makes me happy! love your purple sweater btw. and as thelma said, the narration between the bently/kate shots had me smiling. so funny! you just wonder what goes through their little minds.
i’m wishing for tulips too right now as i see more snow falling outside my window. more? sometimes i wonder where it all comes from.. like isn’t the bucket empty by now?? c’mon! ;))
wishing you a happy week ahead! xox
@sewhappymomma – They do, but once it gets cold they winterize them by putting plastic over the open areas. They have a woodstove in the tent and the campers in the group make a joint decision about what temperature they want to start the stove. I don’t know what the kids here decided but when David was chief in PA his group started the stove at night if it was 32 or below and in the morning if it was 34 or below. They have to cut and split their own wood so they get ownership on when to burn it and when to brave the cold. The tents definitely aren’t a toasty 70 degrees or anything, but they also aren’t hanging out in temperatures in the twenties.
@fruitloops115 – The best part of that interaction is the one I have only in my memory. His look of utter bewilderment when she first started to cry!!!! You’ll be seeing that look again in about sixteen years … give or take a few. 🙂
@grace_to_be – Gumption sounds like a good word to me, I’ll take it. 🙂 I really don’t even want to think about how long it will be til you see pink tulips. If I start whining about winter too much I give you permission to smack me. 😉 Glad I get to count you when I count my friends!
oh, this was a fun post to read! yay for friends coming to visit! that Really is such a blessing!
and, it was Great to see your pics from Thelma’s place! Kate and Bentley! those are a just a riot!
i wish you a happy week, a WARM happy week!
♥
Beautiful, my love, Beautiful!
Oh I love that Kevin Lehman quote. I wonder if that book is new? I have not read it. Do you have an awesome winter coat? Like Lands End’s highest rating for cold weather. And maybe a long one? Friends are such a blessing and it was good to be reminded. Thank you for this fun post.
Okay, yay!!!! A post from Michelle! But I don’t have time to finish reading, so I’ll be back! 🙂
Awww. I’ve not seen or heard anything of Ryan for quite a long time.
@LydiaJo – I don’t have an awesome winter coat. At all. It was okay when I bought it a few years ago for running in and out of stores, but I’ve washed it one too many times and the puffy filling has all but gone away. I’m watching a nice one at a Columbia outlet in Hagerstown. They have a new reflective coating inside that is supposed to reflect your body heat and actually help produce warmth. It’s still $159 though. :/
@VirginiaDawn – Were you guys at Hillcrest together?
Such a fun and interesting read, Michelle. I really liked your thoughts about friendship. It is SO good sometimes just to sit back and get some perspective. And how awesome for you to have so many friends come and visit over the past few months! I have no idea how you can stay warm around that campfire but I have so much trouble with being cold and a few years ago Jeremy bought me these expensive and very, very warm footie pj’s from “Pajamagrams.” I lovingly call them my “bunny suit” because when I wear it I look like the Easter bunny. Anyway, whenever I am going to be somewhere that I would normally be freezing to death, I wear my “bunny suit” under my other clothing. And it seriously keeps me warm. So maybe you need to beg David for one of those!
I LOVED the picture and note from Adam to your guests. That was too cute and so “all boy!”