Jammed January

Considering how much I love making New Year's resolutions, and how very ambitious I can be about them, I sometimes think that January likes to mess with me. This January was so fun. Which also meant it was so busy. In one month we managed to celebrate not just two but three birthdays, hold Addy's baptism (finally!), host my mom and Don for a wonderful weekend visit (including two mini-trips), hold two piano recitals, throw two birthday parties (yup, separate from the birthday celebrations because I'm weird/partially insane like that), and start up a new semester of KinderKeys piano classes (haha, I thought I was oh-so-wise to end the semester in January rather than December, which I probably was, but the turnover still showed up at a very busy, inconvenient time!). All this got packed in alongside all my resolutions, which included a new 5:30 am wake-up (two hours earlier than before) and a renewed dedication to healthful eating and fitness for our whole family. Maybe I can give myself permission to feel as exhausted as I do!

We rang in the New Year by having some friends over, though we cleared out the house by about 10 pm. I think other time zones have an advantage because they can ring in the New Year at Times Square an hour or two earlier, while here there's no finality before the actual hour of midnight. Still, Aaron and I enjoyed a cozy evening after the kids crashed and toasted the end of a pretty awesome year and the hopes of a new one just as wonderful. On New Year's Day, we continued the tradition we began last year of making a molded rice pudding with an almond stashed inside that (we randomly decided) guarantees a lucky year for the finder. This year's lucky winner is Emerson! If he can grow a tooth or two to fill in the gaping hole in his face, that should be luck enough! According to Theo though (last year's winner), "it doesn't really make your year that lucky." Well way to rain on our parade there, tweenager.

With the new year, we introduced a new Family Theme! As the kids get older and get these themes a little more each time we do them, I become more and more convinced of the value that these yearly  themes have. They unify us. They give us common goals to work toward. They give us a launchpad that we can use to improve ourselves and our family's functionality. They motivate us to start new traditions. They strengthen the individual bonds between us. And they give Aaron and me a template for our family's activities during the year. It was partly a result of "Peace Pass it On" a few years ago that we started holding regular family councils on Sunday evenings, which have become one of the most important teaching times in our home. It was to go along with our very first theme, "Little Engines can do the Biggest Themes" fully eight years ago that the original paper version of The Mitchell Messenger came into being—and haphazard though it may be, I think these monthly write-ups are one of the most valuable family history items I can contribute to our family. I could go on, but why don't I just cut to the point?

This year's theme is: Building the Me I want to Be. It took Aaron and I about two months to come up with it—we knew we were looking for something that would encompass self-reliance, ownership, goal-setting, and self-improvement, as well as seeking out good literature and using time wisely, and I think we managed to find it. And laugh if you want, it was actually pretty hard to think of it. Anyway, instead of a visual reminder hung up around the house this year, each person got a yearly planning book with space to write goals and schedule the important things in their lives. The surprising part (to me) is that Sera took all this as seriously as anyone, and has the goal-setting column of her calendar filled in with things like "no yell," "be nice," and "brush teeth." I was thrilled practically to tears when I ran across a little post-it on Addy's bedpost that listed five or six goals she had for herself that week (including getting her morning chores done on time—hooray for that!) that she had written it all out with no prompting from me. Along with all the goal-setting, we've introduced some family awards (built off an idea here) for the year as well. In place of "compliments" time during family council on Sundays, we now have nominations for the four awards: Roots of Responsibility, Bark of Righteousness, Branches of Love, and Fruits of Success. Though the awards are pretty cute (*curtsy*), the real benefit of the awards has come out in the nomination process. The children can nominate themselves or others, and taking the time to say things they've observed in others or that they took time to make a wise decision about themselves during the week is a priceless gift they give themselves. It's so easy to forget a bed made for a sibling, a responsibility fulfilled, a difficult choice made; being able to celebrate it several days after the fact makes those little things imprint deeper than they otherwise would. I hand out a little taffy with each award as an extra bonus, but the time spent acknowledging progress and celebrating it verbally is by far the more lasting reward. Not all the awards go out every week because they are for exceptional things, but more often than not there is something really wonderful each child has done every week, and being able to exult in their successes puts such smiles on those faces!

Okay, on to actual events this month . . . deep breath.

Sera's birthday comes so quickly after the new year! On the plus side, it's really easy to remember to get either extra gifts around Christmas time, or better yet at those after-Christmas sales. On the minus side . . . so quick!  We woke her up singing our special birthday song in the morning and enjoyed a trip to Sara's Family Restaurant for dinner. The restaurant had delicious (breakfast) food, but they sort of let us down when they didn't do a single special thing for Sera even after we told them that her name was Sera and it was her birthday. Geesh, you wouldn't think an extra cupcake or something would be too difficult to throw in there! Not that we actually needed any extra sugar, however. We went back home to a Mermaid cake with a rolling ocean and an island, and Sera enjoyed some gifts from us. The microphone she got from us was a hit, along with a play-doh set (I'm starting to grieve over the other kids outgrowing that stuff!), a pen and some candy from Addy, and an Ariel bath doll from the boys. She felt pretty special (and she is!).

The next week we got Joy School back up and running (thank goodness it wasn't at our house that first week!) and I got the house more or less back in order after the holidays. Then, entirely too quickly, came Emerson's birthday . . . and a visit from Grandma Michelle and Don! We had tried to get some visitors over Thanksgiving for Addy's baptism, but failed to account for outrageous airfares, then tried again for Christmas and nearly had a go with a visit from Papa, but that also fell through. We were surprised and hugely delighted when my mom and Don decided to switch from a fun birthday trip for my mom to California, to a visit out to Indiana to see us over the MLK holiday! As luck had it, they arrived just in time for Emerson's birthday . . . which happens to be Grandma Michelle's birthday too! Despite my own no-sugar vow (for which I make 1-slice birthday cake exceptions), I made double the birthday cake (mostly because despite an R2D2 cake being really cute, it's not nearly as delicious as the Ghiradelli dark chocolate brownie mint/chocolate chip ice cream cake I made for my mom) and we all celebrated in style! On Saturday morning we got up early, ate really quick blueberry pancakes from a mix, hit Theo's first basketball game of the season, and headed for Indianapolis! We had a great time visiting the Indianapolis 500 Speedway Hall of Fame and the kids loved munching on the tasty chocolate covered delights (dark chocolate covered pomegranate and marzipan—mmmm) that my mom brought along. The only sad part was not having enough space in our van to all drive in to the city together, but the kids loved switching off rides in Grandma Michelle's car. 

We got back home in time to squeeze in a dinner out at our favorite O'Charley's. As much as we love trying new places (or maybe that's just me), it's hard to stray very far when there's a really yummy place that's close, has amazing hot rolls, and lets kids eat free every day! Of course, not having to cook was an awesome bonus as well. After it was all over, Emerson declared it "the best birthday ever," and I think he might be right—it will be a tough one to top, that's for sure! Coming back home to his R2D2 cake (Aaron said he'd never have recognized the Star Wars robot without help, but I'm not too offended—a week later I was the one answering his question "what the heck is 'the death star'?" when we were making Emerson's piñata), he was a pretty happy camper who only got happier when we pulled out some gifts. We usually try to keep it pretty simple for birthdays, but somehow Emerson managed to get spoiled with two light-sabers (when Walgreens does clearance, they really do clearance) from Addy and Theo, a pack of Transformer combiners (okay fine, Target does good clearance too), a Transformer bubble set (from Sera), and a some ultra-cool camouflage pants from Grandma Michelle and Don. Sera got spoiled all over when she got to open the gorgeous dress Grandma Michelle had brought for her too (if I could I'd just hire my mom to do all the dress shopping for my girls—she always finds the best ones!). Then, at long last we went to bed, so tired, but happy!

No rest for the weary though. The next day we held Addy's baptism! Though it was a little long in coming, it couldn't have been more special to see our darling Addy, our lark, our little blueberry, an angel in our home, enter the waters of baptism. She has always been as pure and good a girl as there could be. As we sang the opening song, Addy's favorite, "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus," both Aaron (sitting beside our sweet daughter) and I (back at the piano) couldn't help tearing up. That song, Addy's favorite for as long as we can remember, so perfectly describes her kind and noble efforts to be exactly the person she is meant to be. She is so special and we love her so much! We were so glad that Grandma Michelle was there to give a talk about baptism, that she could be baptized and confirmed under the hands of her father. She was pleased with a beautiful new set of scriptures from us, and a beautiful CTR ring from Grandma Michelle and Don to remember the covenants she was making. Addy has been a gift to our family from the moment she was born, and her kind and loving example will continue to be a blessing to all who know her throughout her life.

On Monday we journeyed only a little way north to the city of Auburn, where one of the best automobile museums in the country is located. What a wonderful morning we spent ogling the automobiles (I can't bring myself to use a word as simple as "cars" to describe them) of bygone years. We discovered that and Don (and my mom!) share Aaron's love of these old sculptures of metal and leather, and truly had a wonderful time. I think we might have to return all dressed up for a family photo shoot one day—what great backgrounds those vehicles make!  After a quaint and fun lunch at a little tavern just up the street to which Don treated us (thank you!), we were sooo sad to say goodbye to our visitors, who never seem to stay long enough! 

After all that, you might think some breathing would have been in order, but alas no. On Tuesday came the first KinderKeys mini-recital, followed the next day by another (which was . . . not very formal, given that it consisted of six 4-5 year olds). And then, with just a day off for prep, on Friday it was time for Sera's birthday party! 

Despite all the craziness just before it, her party ended up being so fun! We decked the basement with under-the-sea decorations (I've done our bedroom with a sort of island theme, so it was really just a matter of hauling everything downstairs), filled it with blue and green and white balloons, and partied down with glittery mermaid crowns, bubble (balloon) games, hula freeze dancing, a few rounds of sharks and mermaids (the kids became insta-mermaids with kitchen garbage bags tied around their waists and secured at their ankles with duct tape). The cupcakes turned out pretty cute too, especially since I finally got to show them off on the little cupcake stand I got for 75% off after Christmas! Her friends spoiled her with gifts (I sort of long for the old days when I used to write 'no gifts required' on all the invitations, but it's pretty hard to go back there once the kids are old enough to catch on), and it was days before she could stop talking about how awesome her party was, which makes it all worth it (although I should insert the disclaimer here that it was definitely a pretty easy party to pull off). Possibly the highlight was the treasure hunt at the end—could I get a "huzzah" for the cuteness of the treasure chest and treat bags (picture post)? They may have been lost on the 4-5 year-old set, but Addy and I sure had fun making them the night before.  Which reminds me!  We spent the night before the party having a little "girls' night" painting nails and watching a movie while Aaron took the boys to use the Harlem Globetrotters tickets he'd gotten them for Christmas!  They had such a fun night, and the signed souvenir basketball they came back with has gotten lots of play by both boys, but especially Theo, this basketball season.  So much fun!

After an almost leisurely week off from teaching piano classes (except for time-consuming recruitment for the next term), we screeched headlong into Emerson's birthday party the next Friday after school. Since his school class this year is pretty girl-heavy, he talked me into letting him invite all the boys in his class for his party. But, the day before the party, not a single one had RSVPed! Only two of his friends from church and one from his piano class were confirmed attendees—and I had gotten most of his Star Wars themed party supplies back in November (after-Halloween is awesome for Star Wars stuff, by the way)! Luckily we ended up getting three more same-day confirmers and ended up having exactly the right number of friends show up. But let me tell you, trying to get that exact right balance of how many invitations to send without getting either too many or too few attendees is possibly the most stressful part of party planning for me! After making some chocolate-dipped giant pretzel rod light-sabers, we took the partiers down to the dark, deep-space basement for some glow-in-the-dark space hide-and-seek (with a Darth Vader mask for the seeker). It . . . was pretty much the most awesome thing ever. Since it ended up being a really long (and fun!) game, it was on to cupcakes and presents after that (again, so spoiled—the kid has the most awesome Lego collection in town, I think), then we finished with a Jedi mission to find the Death Star. After a long and arduous (not really) scavenger hunt that ended in our clothes dryer—and during which the kids amassed huge Yoda and Storm Trooper marshmallow pops (after-Halloween sale again) and two sturdy light sabers—they got to attack the Death Star piñata (which, I must point out, we made, thank you very much) to fill out their loot bags. Lots of work, I admit, but such fun parties this year. Posting the pictures will pretty nearly make it worth it.

After we made it through all that, KinderKeys classes started back up the next week, and I can't help but feel a little relieved that despite all my publicity efforts (which were reasonably substantial, but also probably a bit too-little, too-late) I didn't pull together enough students to add another class (the three from last semester carried over). Though I may regret that little fact when I'm trying to arrange next year's classes, right now I can't quite see how I could have made a new class happen with my current time-constraints, so I'm enjoying what infinitesimal amount of extra time I'm left with. At the moment February looks like nothing quite so much as relief. In fact, I can't quite think when I have looked forward to February this much—it's usually one of the drearier ones for me. Not this year, though. Bring on the LOVE (and also hopefully a little leisure time)! Happy Valentine's Day!