Nicknames

My family is all about nicknames.  Let me clarify, I am all about nicknames.  Always have been.

To me, it's a term of endearment.

It began with my siblings.  Increased with time.  I gave my youngest brother the most.

I continued this tradition with my girls.

Grace quickly became "my little muffin", "muffy", "Gracie","Gracey-dee","Gracer"," GJ".

For Eva, it was "my little cupcake", "cuppy", "Evie", "Ever the beaver", "Beebs".

And last but not least, Beth became "Bethie" and then, "Beps" after she began referring to herself as "Beppy".

These names don't even include the ones Steve has made up over the years.

My girls have even nicknamed their younger cousins.

Term of love and affection, right?

How do you feel about nicknames?  Do you give them to the people that you love?

Family Day Weekend

For all kinds of really great reasons, the weekends leading up to Family Day weekend were really busy.

As we looked at our calendar for the Family Day long weekend, we realized that we didn't have many plans and as the weekend got closer, we made the radical (for us) choice to keep it that way.  Other than an overnight Grace had planned, a long awaited breakfast date that I had on Saturday morning with girlfriends, Church on Sunday and skating on Monday afternoon, our weekend was pretty open.

This weekend turned out to be fantastic.  Can you believe I told Steve that I think I enjoyed it more than Christmas holidays?  Friends spontaneously dropped by on Friday night for a couple of hours.  Steve had time to work on the construction of our new mudroom.  We rented movies.  Planned spontaneous friend sleepovers for the girls.  Tried 2 new dinner recipes that were BIG hits (and that is saying a lot!).  Napped.  Skated.  Walked.  Hung out and rested.  The fact that the sun was shining was pure bonus.  I feel like my soul was enlarged this weekend and I actually feel refreshed.  Tonight my cup feels full.

Going into this weekend, I was praying for God's peace to rule in our family.  Peace that would permeate and settle in deeply - in our home, in our hearts and minds, in our conversations and so on.  My hope and dream for the weekend was that we would "ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives".  It was a quote I had heard from a study our Mom's group had done a few years back ( I believe the credit goes to John Ortberg).  That was my prayer for the weekend.  And God delivered big time.

More and more, I'm seeing the value in taking time to slow down, rest, create margin and leave room for the unexpected and spontaneous.  One of my goals for 2012 is to do more of it:)

Happy Family Day!

p.s.  the recipes I mentioned can be found here and here.

A recap of 2011

Well friends, I've taken a bit of a blogging break.  It's fun to be back.  But, before I can go forward with 2012, I need to quickly reflect on and say good-bye to 2011.  Is it too late to do an end of 2011 survey?  I hope not.  I saw this on babybangs and thought it was such a great idea. Thanks, Amanda.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?

Disney ( first time for the 5 of us)

I sent my baby girl to JK.

Travelled with my husband and good friends to Mexico and left the girls with Gran for 8 days.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I didn't make any resolutions last year.  However, I wrote out and submitted to God five big dreams that I had for 2011.  At the time of writing them out and praying about them, they seemed huge and impossible.  They were the kind of things that only God could accomplish.  I had forgotten about this 'list' and came across it recently, only to discover that  two of the five dreams have come to be a reality and the other three have come leaps and bounds in the last 12 months.  Those three are the kind of dreams/goals that are harder to measure, nonetheless I was encouraged and thrilled to note the huge progress.  Only God.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes.  My sister, Lauren gave birth to her firstborn, Harper Ava, born on July 7th.  My sister-in-law gave birth to her second born, Callie Evelyn, born on November 25th.  Both are adorable:)

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No.

5. What countries did you visit?

USA - Orlando ( family vacation)  and Chicago ( for the Global Leadership Summit at Willow Creek).
Mexico with Jeff and Becky.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

More peace - less hurry.  More quality family time.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory?

*Mother's Day
*My friend, Shelley's baptism.


8. What was your biggest achievement for the year?

Sending Beth to Junior Kindergarten and convincing my husband to leave the kids and fly to Mexico with me for 8 days!  Oh and helping my husband find a new job.  That was huge.


9. What was your biggest failure?

Being ruled at times by fear.
Taking responsibility for things that were not mine.
Overreacting.  Blowing things out of proportion.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Thankfully, no.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

*Together with my Dad and my siblings, we bought 2 plane tickets to bring my Mom's 2 nieces over from Scotland to surprise her for her birthday/Mother's Day.  Priceless.

*A kiva loan.

12. Where did most of your money go?

Not sure!  Probably on the kids:)

13. What did you get really excited about?

Eldering, VMB adoption, taking the girls to the Magic Kingdom (Disney), becoming an aunt again.

14. What song will always remind you of 2011?

Pretty much anything by Adele.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
-Happier or sadder?

Happier.

-Thinner or fatter?

Not thinner.

-Richer or poorer?

Little bit poorer in terms of money, but way richer in terms of quality.
I am hesitant to even use the word, "poorer", feels wrong considering we are all so rich compared to the majority of the world (http://www.globalrichlist.com/).

16. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Exercise, pray, had people over for dinner, slow down, simplify, be fully present, spoke words of affirmation to the people closest to me.

17. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Fear, hurry, panic, fear conflict, overreacting, people pleasing.

18. How did you spend Christmas?

We spent Christmas morning and the early part of the afternoon at home as a family.  Opening presents, making breakfast, playing with new toys and games and resting.  We spent the latter part of the afternoon and the evening preparing and serving dinner at the homeless shelter at our church.  This is the second year we have done this as a family and it has become a beautiful tradition.

We spent time with our extended family on the 24th, 26th and 27th.  This was our third year being home on Christmas Day and we loved it.  I've learned that Christmas is not just about celebrating one day, but rather the season. Less rushing, less hectic and more quality time and meaning has been our goal in all of this.

19. What was your favorite TV program?

Parenthood and more recently, Friday Night Lights.

20. What were your favorite books of the year?

Secret Daughter
the Help


21. What was your favorite music this year?

Nothing really stands out to me....

22. What were your favorite films of the year?

I can't think of any...must get out more in 2012!

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

My birthday is 5 days before Christmas and it turned out that it was Steve's work Christmas party that night.  My parents hung out with the girls and we celebrated with Steve's work gang.  I turned 39.  Yikes!

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

um...hard to answer.

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

Casual - but I love my accessories...scarves, shoes, boots, jewelry and or course MAC lipstick.

26. What kept you sane?

God....and my husband.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.

Well, there are 3.


1.  Love always trusts.  Always assume the best and not the worst of people.  Give others the benefit of the doubt.  Life goes way better this way.


2.  God is trustworthy.  He's good.  He is for me and not against me. He is worthy of all of my confidence.  I have nothing to fear.  The things He teaches us in the dark times and in the waiting are pure gold.  He is my provider.  He is my everything.  He is worthy of all my trust.  His ways are good.  He is good.   I'm learning to trust him in ways like never before.  I'm allowing him to anchor me and grow my roots deeper.  To center me.  So thankful for this life lesson.


3.  No one else can live my life for me.  I must find my own voice and my own path and calling and live it wholeheartedly.  It's time to stop apologizing and regretting past mistakes and downplaying my strengths and it's time to shine.  It's time to use my voice and speak up.  It's time to be ruled by love and not fear.  It's time to embrace my calling, to rise up and to be comfortable in my own skin.  It's time to cheer others on to live their best life and to soar.