Valentine's Day 2016

Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday....always has been and always will be. 

One of the best things about Valentine's Day is the elementary class parties. Woot! So fun to party all day long with my kids. Oh the glitter and hearts and sugary sweets. 

In Sis's class this little boy handed me this Valentine. My heart just burst! How sweet of him to make me a card. 

The class parties were on Friday which was Feb. 12th. That meant two fun days of celebrating.

But, I was coming down with a bad cold and by Sunday I was feeling miserable. MISERABLE! I did not want to be sick on my favorite day! But, I was sick. Ugh!

I laid down most of the day and then pulled myself up to set the table and make dinner. Well, the table wasn't as festive as year's past but it would have to do. 

For dinner we had marinated flank steak, caesar salad and garlic toast. See's Candy for dessert. 

Dinner was good. Pj's were the attire for our special tradition....in red of course.

We usually get a family photo but I was just feeling so phooey. This is how I spent most of the weekend. 

Cam had the kids make me special Valentine cards. Very sweet!

I did line the kids up and get their photo. Not the best but it's what I could get. 

I love my little Valentines.

Moses Grade 4

I recently read THIS old post about Moses...back when I called him Busy Guy. He is still that inquisitive and helpful boy. 

I remember when he started Kindergarten and I was so surprised that he wasn't wiggly or noisy or silly at school. Instead he was the perfect student and actually got annoyed at the other kids when they disrupted his learning. 

I was subbing the other day at the kids' school. At lunch in the teacher's lounge the teacher that led Moses's Robotics said the nicest thing to me. He asked me something like (I can't remember the exact words) how I raised such a great kid....saying that Moses is kind and helpful and quick to jump in and problem solve. It was a humbling thing to hear and really I don't have an answer other than to agree. Moses is all of those things. He is such a great kid!

Speaking of Lego Robotics. The team did very well at competition! They went to semi finals at the state level. The were the top finisher out of all the teams in our school district. Moses is hoping to be a part of the team next year too.

Moses's report card is full of high marks in all areas...including compliments from his teacher on his attitude and character. That means a lot to Cam and I.

Moses is finishing up his indoor soccer season. This was his first time playing indoor and he loved it. He is thinking he will play Flag Football for spring.

I have such glee in my heart when I think of this boy's future. I know it's going to be bright.

Mr. P Tween

This might be the last blog post about Mr. P before he is taller than me. It's VERY close. He is growing so tall and looking so much like a young man. Oh my heart. 

He is loving middle school and doing very well....both socially and academically. Report cards are coming next week and it's looking like all A's. Very nice! 

He might like a girl. I wouldn't know because he has stopped telling me those sorts of things. It is killing me. Bah! But, I've been reassured by other moms of boys that he will once again share things with me. 

We are nearing the end of basketball season. Mr. P played in a select league this year and it's been SO MUCH FUN. We love watching the games. That's a good thing too since it's our entire social life. There are regularly 2-4 games every weekend. Mr. P has worked hard on his skills this season and it's paid off. He is playing really well. He can be fierce! His team is a fun group of guys, plus the parents are great too. 

There are changes in my little boy. He is doing lots of eye rolling and tells me "I know" to just about everything I say. That is annoying and hard and I deeply regret all the times I did that to my parents. Really. It pushes my buttons when he gets all teenagey and persnickety. I guess that's his job...and it's my job to be annoyed. 

But, I see other changes too. I see maturity. I see him making changes in negative behavior towards siblings. I see growth in his heart. I see an inkling of the teen and man he will become.

Change

Writing on my blog helps me get my feelings out. Get my thoughts in order. But, sometimes I'm not sure that all my thoughts should be out there for everyone to read.

I've wanted to write about something for a long time but I  refrained. My family and friends read my blog and I didn't want to say what I was feeling in case it was interpreted wrong. I didn't want to be misunderstood.

But, it's time. 

Cam and I have made the very difficult decision to leave our parish. 

Very difficult. 

We are not leaving our faith. We are still Orthodox Christians and we are going to attend a parish closer to our home.

For many reasons...personal and practical...we came to the conclusion that this is the best choice for our family.

Over the past couple of years I have begun to feel disconnected at our parish. My family grew and changed and also things at church grew and changed. I don't like change. Nope. Nevertheless things change. My heart has a hard time keeping up with those changes.

So I waited and stewed and waited and talked to Cam and waited and continued on. But, things have only gotten busier in our lives. And yes, things change. That's life.

As our kids have gotten older they have become more involved in activities and sports, they have more homework. It's a different kind of busy from when they were little babies and toddlers.

If you know me well you know that it's excruciatingly hard for me to make decisions. It has to be (feel like) the perfect decision to me. It makes me crazy and yes, Cam too.

Cam is a practical thinker and a Big Picture kind of person. He made the decision that we would switch parishes. Not that he was deciding for me but he had made the decision for himself. He knew...and I knew that it was the right decision.

But, my heart. I cried and cried and cried. Tears of grief. Cam and I were married at our beautiful parish, we were chrismated Orthodox there too. All of our babies were baptized in that building. I have worshiped there for 20 years. There are families in the parish that we deeply love and will miss seeing weekly. It has been hard. Very hard.

It's been almost a month now since we made our decision and my tears are dry (drier) now. I sent emails to a hand full of friends to let them know of our change. I received some beautiful messages in return. A few people did not reply at all. That does bother me but I am thankful for the kind messages I did receive.

We will visit our old parish too. I'm hoping it feels nice and not awkward when we do visit. I'm worried about that. But, we have friends that we love and lives that we want to stay in touch with. When I met with our priest to tell him about our change he was very kind but also sad. I was relieved that he was sad. It's nice to know we are loved and will be missed.

So, on to the new chapter. We are now driving 8 miles instead of 25 to church. That makes a HUGE difference. The parish is small....small building but has recently purchased a building and will be remodeling/building a larger church. It's exciting to be part of that.

We know most of the families at the new parish. There are some of our oldest friends and some families that we have known just a couple of years. And now we've met several new people too.

The kids are loving the change. They have met kids and are having fun together. They like the short drive too.

I want to become connected in our new parish life so am working on ways to accomplish that.

Change is hard and yes I'm still sad but I am reaping the benefits of this change already. It's going to be a good change...even if it takes some time to get used to.

Seriously, It's a Dog's Life.