Moves her momma didn't give her.

This is my baby. But "boss of the world" would be a better title. She's got confidence in amounts I can't even fathom. I told her I wanted her to do a dance for me and she didn't hesitate before whipping up this little number.

P.S. Sorry about the quality of the video. We're having issues with Youtube.

One Bite at a Time: Bite #23 - Regularly turn off your tv

I sort of chose a gimme task for this past week's project, regularly turn off your tv. It's something we already do, but since it's not that intentional, I realize it has the potential to get out of hand. When we're all at my in-laws, the tv is almost always on. That's really the place I need to enforce this one.

The thing that is intentional, though, is the lack of satellite tv at our house. My husband made a promise that he would never pay for television and so far, he's kept his promise. I've noticed that when I'm at my in-laws there are so many options, some of them very educational, it's easy to pick something that seems harmless and waste a couple of hours. It is harmless if that happens only occasionally, but if we had that many options at our house, it would be a regular thing. Especially with my need to get what I pay for.

So, in our home, where we have about 5 channels of less than mediocre programming, we are content with a regular movie night, provided by Netflix. My husband and I have complete control over what our kids are watching and have the freedom to be intentional about it. Sometimes, it's something fun, and sometimes we have a hidden agenda to educate. No matter, we are all together, popcorn in hand, enjoying something that was a planned event.

Regularly turn off your tv - check. What does your family's tv habit look like?

The problem with choices

In our house, we've been trying to give our kids more choices. When they are acting up, I give them a choice between changing their behavior or continuing - with consequences. It works pretty well when I don't get lazy and resort to ordering them around like a drill sergeant.

My youngest, April, is pretty used to the drill. This morning, she was making noises at the table while we were trying to do school. I gave her the choice of making noises in the other room by herself or stopping the noise and staying with us at the table. She sighed and chose to stay with us.

Later on, I was giving her her reading lesson. She told me she had to go to the bathroom and when she came back she had this to report:

April: I was going to the bathroom and God told me I had a choice whether I wanted to wipe or not.

Me: Oh, great. Well, what did you choose?

April: I chose not to.

She later admitted that she was just joking. I didn't check to see.

One Bite at a Time: Bite #6, Create a family purpose statement

Get it here

After last week's haircare post, I wasn't sure where I wanted to go next in the 52 Bites book. There's no set format for doing the projects. There are 52 of them, but they can be done in whatever order and at whatever pace you prefer. I like that flexibility, but I also have a hard time making decisions when faced with a lot of options. I was still undecided during church yesterday when we stood up to do our declarations. After saying them out loud again, I realized they had become more of an empty mantra rather than something I was intentionally living by. I remembered that there was a project in the book about creating a family mission/purpose statement and decided that that would be a good place to start this week.

In the book, there's a link to a mission statement builder on Franklin Covey's website. I went through it and came up with a rough statement, but wanted to start our family with something more foundational. I'll be working on a more practical, day-to-day statement, but this is where we're going to put our focus for now. I've listed the point, and then expanded on how I've interpreted it's meaning and how that will apply to our family.

1. We experience love daily.

In our home, there will be an atmosphere of love. Love will be something we can always count on. My children can be confident that they will feel loved every day.

 2. We give love on all occasions.

In our interactions with each other, we will make love our highest priority. We won't be controlled by fear or anger. We will let love dictate how we should handle situations.

3. We open ourselves to be fully known.

Our home will be a safe place to be completely open and honest. We won't hold things back because of the pain it might cause to share it. We will trust each other with every part of ourselves.

4. We see others through the lens of love and destiny, not condemnation and judgement.

In our family, we will do and say what's best for each other in a loving way so that we can be the people God created us to be. We will not condemn or judge each other, but speak truth so that we can overcome the areas that are holding us back.

5. We value family, no matter the cost.

Our family will be our top priority. We will do what it takes to know each other fully and be intentional about our time with each other. Even if that means sacrificing things like lots of extracurricular activities.

6. We are free from the weight of performance.

In our family, love is not based on how well you perform. There will be freedom to try new things and explore what we are passionate about, knowing that if we fail, that will not determine our worth. Each one of us is a valuable member of the family based on who they are, not what they do.  

7. We value people over purpose.

We will pursue our dreams, but not at the expense of our relationships. Success can only be achieved if we can go after the things we are passionate about, while maintaining full and healthy relationships with the people around us.

This year, I will be going through all the projects in the One Bite at a Time book and sharing my experience on Mondays. You can keep track of my progress here.


Linking up here:

A Perfectly Random Thursday

This past week has been a hodgepodge of activities. On Friday night, I wanted to take my girls to the movies since Mr. Park and my boy were hunting. At first, I planned on taking them to the dollar movie, but the only movie playing there was the smurfs. Thankfully, I remembered the historic theater in town that usually plays old Christmas movies around this time of year. I checked their schedule and sure enough, they were showing White Christmas. Oh, how I love that movie. And to see it at The Paramount really makes it an experience. Here's a shot of the girls before the movie started. This was taken right after April said, "Oh my goodness! This place is so romantic!"

I was really proud because the place was packed. It seems like so much is vying for our attention these days, especially with movies, so it was refreshing to see a theater almost completely filled to see a Christmas movie from 1954. And the audience ranged from little kids to senior citizens with lots of college students in between.

On Saturday night, our family had a date to watch Rudolph on CBS. Of course, we all know the words and say them out loud along with all the songs. When April was just 2 1/2, she cried at the part where Rudolph didn't get to play in all the reindeer games. We thought it was just a fluke, but when we asked her what was wrong, she said she felt sorry for Rudolph because he got left out. Now, whenever we get to that part in the movie, everyone looks at April to see how she's doing. This year she got a little irritated and said, "Stop looking at me. I'm not gonna cry this time!"

After Rudolph, we watched It's a Wonderful Life and I cried like I always do. It's such a good movie to watch to reset yourself if you're feeling overwhelmed with the commercialism of the holidays or just hopeless in your situation. It reminds me that I always have something to be thankful for.

Speaking of being thankful, I got my Christmas present early this year. And this is it.

As you can imagine, I've been making smoothies like a mad woman. I'm sure one of these days I'll get around to watching the DVD that came with it so I can get my money's worth out of it, but for now, I'm happy to make a delicious smoothie every morning for Mr. Park before work and have him tell me that it really hit the spot and he didn't even think about food until well after noon.

One evening this past week, Mr. Park played a game with the kids where he would hide a little elf ornament while the kids sat on the couch. Then the kids would open their eyes and try to see who could spot it first. It turned into a story time where Mr Park told the kids about the mean side of Santa's elves. And then my boy, who is always looking for an opportunity to liven things up, dressed up as what he imagines a scary elf would look like, quietly went out the back door, walked around the house to the front door and knocked. The evening ended in screams and running around and eventually a request to be walked to bed because they were scared. I always say our kids are either going to be the most well-rounded kids on the block or they're going to need therapy.

This is what I found when I walked in from taking a short trip to the store yesterday. I wonder if this is what the rapture is going to look like.

Here's some random things I've heard from my kids this past week.

On music:

(With Kenny G's version of Silver Bells playing on the radio)

Autie: Can you change this, please. I don't like jazz.

Me: I didn't know you even knew what jazz was.

Autie: Oh, yeah, I know about jazz and I don't like it.


On travel:

April: (with a sigh) I can't wait to go to France someday and see the awful tower.


On being efficient:

The kids' Papa came over to cut some wood and when April went out to see him he had his foot propped up on his truck tying his shoe.

April: Hey, Papa, whatcha doing?

Papa: I'm tying my shoe, darlin.

April: Why'd you come over here to do it?


On respect:

Me: Anna, I need a response from you. When you just shrug, I think you're ignoring me.

Anna: Yes, ma'am. (rolling eyes)

April: Ahhhh, I remember when I used to say, yes ma'am. Yes ma'am, yes mam, yes ma'am."

It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas

One of the things I love about Christmas is that it has its own sound. I love music anyway, but when you take great classic music that you can (and should) only listen to for a short time, once a year, it becomes really sentimental and special. That's the way it is with Christmas music. Over the years, especially since I've been married to Mr Park, I've narrowed down my selection of cd's I listen to. Of course, I listen to the radio when I'm in the car, and I like to listen to Pandora when I'm cooking or housecleaning, but this collection has become my go-to stash for several years now. I've added one or two, but I imagine this club will stay pretty exclusive. There's not much room for newcomers in the Christmas music category.

Today I thought I'd share my list of favorites and a little about how each one made the cut. Now, I'm no music reviewer. In fact, I've looked at the liner notes on old albums and even reviews on i-tunes and I do not speak that language. I don't notice bass tones and rifts or continuity and bridges. Even though my husband is a musician and he can discuss that stuff at length with the best of them, I either like it or I don't and I usually can't explain why. But I'll try to give you a little more than that, here.

These first two are pretty sentimental and we don't pull them out until we're ready to officially begin the Christmas season in our house. Usually while we decorate the Christmas tree. When Mr Park was little, his mom used to buy Goodyear Christmas albums every year. If you're not familiar with the promo that Goodyear put on for a number of years, here's a commercial from 1963 about it. 

When Mr Park and I lived in Arlington, he found these albums at the public library sale. These two have an all around good collection of songs most everyone is familiar with. These are the classics sung by the greats. And you can still find them in old record shops and thrift stores. For a while, I was always hunting them. Then I realized it's not much of a hunt because they're not really that hard to find. I've included a link to a guy that sells these already converted to cd.

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This next one could possibly be my favorite Christmas cd of all time. I know that probably seems weird, considering all the great classic Christmas music out there, but I'm a sucker for the big band stuff. If you grew up in the church, you probably remember Russ Taff from his Imperials days. I grew up listening to that stuff so I probably picked up this cd because I recognized the name and I could tell from the microphone that I would like the music. ;) Or maybe it was during the time I was a member of that cd mafia club and it was unbelievably easy to build a cd collection without spending much money. This particular cd came out in 1992 and I've probably played it a hundred times since then. Speaking of Russ Taff, did you know his wife is a blogger? Her name is Tori and she's pretty funny. Here's a link to her blog.

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I spent my teenage years in the 80's so I'm naturally a big fan of Annie Lennox. She had me at "Sweet dreams are made of this." When I saw that she had a Christmas album out last year I was intrigued. First of all, I love the cd cover. It's something I have to be really careful about. I'll buy anything if I like the way it's packaged. This cd's beauty isn't just skin deep, though. It has an old English sound, like the way I imagine Christmas carols sounded in the 1800's. It's different, but I really like it.

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My Diana Krall Christmas cd came out in 2005, but I just got it a couple of years ago. This is just a simple case of loving a certain sound. I could probably listen to Diana Krall sing the phonebook. This one has a classic sound with a full jazz orchestra accompanying.

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I've saved the best for last at my husband's request. This is a compilation cd he made in 1999. It contains his all time favorite Christmas songs. He took them from a bunch of cd's and painstakingly put them in the perfect order so it can merit the title, "The Greatest Little Christmas Album of All Tiime!" It's the one we take with us when we get our tree and look at Christmas lights every year. It's also the one that Mr Park plays on Christmas morning to wake up the kids. We've listened to it so many times that we know the order of the songs and can start singing the next song before it begins. 

I've told you my favorites, now what are yours?

A few Christmas traditions

 Sunday afternoon, Mr Park and I loaded the family in the suburban and headed to the big city. First, we stopped by the zoo to see if the ice skating rink was up like it has been in past years. No go. The kids were a little upset but I was relieved because I don't ice skate anymore and it was too cold for me to sit and pretend I was interested in anyone iceskating. Next we headed to our favorite chinese restaurant and ate steaming hot bowls of hot and sour soup and stuffed ourselves at the buffet. Well, ok, I stuffed myself. The kids have learned their lesson with chinese food and are starting to get the concept of moderation. Plates were cleaned, ice cream cones finished off and fortune cookies cracked open and read. Here's what mine said...

I'll let you know if anything crafty develops around here this week. After supper, we drove through some old neighborhoods known for their Christmas lights. Mr Park popped one of our favorite Christmas cd's in the player and then, as we passed a house decked out in old school, traditional house lights, he announced that the Christmas spirit had hit him. Here's how the conversation went...

Mr Park: Ahhhh, it just hit me.
Me: What?
Mr Park: The Christmas spirit. Just now. Ohhhh, I love it! Has it hit anybody else yet?
April: I got it! It just hit me!
Autumn: Me, too!
Anna: Ooooh, me too!
Me: Really, Anna?!?
Anna: No, I'm just kidding. I don't feel anything yet.
John: Let's roll down the windows until we're freezing to death.
Mr Park: What about you, Pam.
Me: I've had it since October 31st.

Right as we were all getting hit in the face with the Christmas spirit, one of my children announced that she had to go to the bathroom. And not just a little. She was in emergency mode when she decided to tell us. (Aren't they always?) We finished the tour in super sonic speed and went to search for a bathroom. The first place we saw was a donut shop. We pulled in and Mr Park decided that we needed to add another tradition to our list. We let the kids pick out a donut, drink hot chocolate and use the potty. Speaking of traditions, weren't they just made for kids? My kids love them and are always looking for more to add. On our way out of the donut shop parking lot, they saw a carwash and said, "Can we make it a tradition to get a carwash when we look at Christmas lights every year?" That's about how often I wash my car, but no, I gotta draw the line at a carwash tradition. 

This year, the gas station where we usually get our tree, didn't have any. So we went to Lowe's because we needed some other things, too. We picked out a tree, got a couple extra strands of lights, some beautiful half priced poinsettias and a water filter for our icebox.

I know I said I wanted to be fully present when we did all of our Christmas stuff, but I have to confess, I did lose it a little toward the end of the night. The kids were getting tired and irritated with each other and I knew the night wasn't near over. We still had to get the tree in the house, put it in the stand, pull out the lights and string them on the tree. And by the time all that was done 2 out of our 4 kids had fallen asleep in front of the fire. I let my oldest girl put some ornaments on the tree before we called it a night.

We woke up to a light dusting of snow on Monday morning, so I decided we only needed a light dusting of school work and a heavy dusting of the house. We did laundry, cleaning, organizing, and more decorating. But first, my girls started the day with a science lesson. Namely, water and it's different forms!

This weekend, I'll be climbing up into the attic, pulling down all those familiar red and green plastic storage boxes and decorating for Christmas. I'm not much of a holiday decorator, or even a regular decorator for that matter, but for Christmas, I try to make an effort. I do like the way the Christmas season has a look all it's own. But, I don't want to go crazy with it. I want my kids to remember the warmth and coziness of this time of year. I want them to remember the time we spent together doing things and enjoying each other. I don't want them to remember me snapping at them for stepping on the Christmas tree lights, again. I don't want them to remember sitting around the tree, amazed at how those little colored lights can make you feel like all is right with the world, while mom was in the kitchen clanging dishes into the dishwasher. I want to be fully present this year.

With that said, I feel a scale down coming. I have a lot of things that I take out every year and stick somewhere just because they were in the box. A lot of it I don't even like. I don't want it to look like Father Christmas threw up in my living room. I want it to look simple. And inviting. Without all the fussiness. I'm even seeing visions of the expensive nativity set my mother-in-law gave me several years ago, painted white. Can I do that? Will I? I guess we'll know soon enough.

So, this weekend, I'll be weeding out the things that I don't love. And I feel like I'm going to be really strict. It's gonna take a lot to make the cut. (I can see all the ornaments in the box right now, like in some movie from Pixar, discussing who'll get to stay and who'll get tossed. Some will start to say their goodbyes early just in case it's them and in the middle of it all will be our old, vintage elf doll, reassuring them just like Woody would do.) I'll try to find something simple to do with my mantle and maybe even make some new stockings. I hate the ones I have that I picked up from the dollar store years ago.

On Sunday, we'll head out to buy a tree from the local gas station, eat out at the kids' favorite chinese restaurant, come home and start to decorate. I'll fumble with the lights a lot longer than I expected to and we'll end up sending the kids to bed before the decorating has even started. But it'll be different. I'll be there for real this time. I won't just trudge through it because it's something on the list that needs to get done. I don't want to try to fabricate idyllic scenes hoping to ensure good memories for my kids. I think we all know how well that works. They'll know. Kids are too smart for that.

I guess what I'm wanting to do more than anything this year is create an atmosphere where my kids feel loved, wanted and worth my time. And of course, I want them to know what it is we are celebrating in the first place, the simple fact that we were loved, wanted and worth His time.

Monster fingers

Yesterday afternoon I got groceries, came home and unloaded them all and then put them all away. After that, I made supper. After that, we all ate. After that, I was tired. I sat down on the couch with a book so I could rest a bit before starting the whole process of cleaning up the kitchen and getting everyone ready for bed. Mr. Park took over with the kids and when he does that, it either turns into a quiet evening with music and drawing or a crazy evening with wrestling matches and a daddy monster chasing little children. Last night, it started out calm enough, but things quickly turned crazy when Mr. Park pulled out the kid's favorite game.

This game is a favorite with all kids, actually. Mr. Park holds his hands out flat, palm side down, and the kids, in turns, select a finger to push down. With every finger that's pushed down, Mr. Park makes a funny noise. Eventually, you never know when, someone will push down the finger that activates the monster. When that happens, all kinds of crazy breaks loose. Tonight, I decided to video the whole thing so you can get a feel for the suspense that builds in the room.

By the way, that high-pitched scream you hear above all the others is my 13 year old son's. And it's days are numbered.

Instagram Sunday

Yesterday was filled with the sights and sounds of my family. After reading this post, I just wanted to be with them. I'm so thankful that God saw fit to bless me with a fantastic husband and 4 beautiful, vibrant children. I got laundry done, my kids dug a fort in the sand, April did what she always does when the weather's nice - took her clothes off, and Mr. Park got some firewood chopped. And later in the day, we saw a horse-pulled, covered wagon pass in front of our house.

These are the kinds of days that make me thankful for my life.


Note: If you want to read more about Compassion International or the bloggers who are in Ecuador right now, click here. And thanks to Nester for sharing.

Last night our family had it's first ever movie night. Not that we've never sat down together and watched a movie. Last night was an 'official movie night'. I'm getting all nostalgic with the changing of the seasons and the holidays fast approaching so this is my attempt to start a new tradition. I think it's about time actually. My mother-in-law, who from here on out will be referred to as 'Nunie', made a big pot of stew and invited us over to eat some of it. Okay, you know me better than that. We invited ourselves over and I picked up some Subway to go with it. I brought along some pumpkin seeds for roasting, my new/old popcorn popper I got for a steal at Goodwill and Toy Story 3 (Thanks, Nana!)

After the meal, I started the pumpkin seeds and got the popcorn popper ready. My kids could not figure out what that contraption was that I was pouring popcorn into. I'm sure they were all wondering just when the microwave was going to do its part.

Popcorn, ready. Roasted pumpkin seeds, check. Snack for mommy, who is dieting, check. Then, an amazing thing happened. We all sat down together and watched a 2 hour movie. All of us. And no one left to do other things. At one point, I looked around the room and took a mental roll call of everyone present:

• Autie, who sat without moving the entire time. She really loves movies.
• Anna, who bit her tongue for most of the movie trying to keep from saying, "Oh this part's funny! Watch this!" She had already seen it.
• John, who was the only one to come and go. He had a project going on the front porch. Something about a rifle, a tree branch and duct tape. He did watch a good part of it, though.
• April, who stayed on the verge of tears for the duration. She is our child who, at 2, understood completely the plight of Rudolph and his exclusion from the reindeer games and cried, inconsolably for a half hour after seeing the movie.
• Elliott laughed at all the hidden adult jokes and had a look of disgust on his face when, halfway through the movie, he realized that he released his song Blue Dog a little too late.
• My father-in-law, Papa, who actually watched the whole thing and appeared to enjoy it. Even though it went a little past his 9:00 bedtime.
• Nunie, who really enjoyed it, but declared that she hated the ending. She thought all the toys should have gone to the attic. Someday I'll show you her attic and you'll understand.

And that leaves me. I happen to love a cleverly-written-by-adults-movie-for-kids. And I really enjoyed all the nostalgic toy references. But mostly, I enjoyed the view around me of all my family spending time together. In the same room. It doesn't happen that often and even if we were all watching a movie, we were together. Actually, it's all part of my master plan to get everyone to stick around when there's youth and baseball and soccer and theater and choir and this and that and the other. I've got lots of tricks up my sleeve for that.

O Canada! Part Deux (the pictures)

I know it's taken a while to get these up, but I tell you, It takes forever to get a lot of pictures up at one time. And I still don't like how it looks. I just don't have time to study html in my free time right now! Is it this hard for everyone???


When we flew into Calgary, it was getting dark so there wasn't much to see. We checked into our hotel in Banff and hit the sack. The "sack" by the way, was apparently filled with concrete. I gather Canadians don't sleep much because their beds were extremely hard. I woke up the next morning when the sun came peeping through the curtains at 4:30 am, but decided that was a little too early so I went back to sleep and got up at around 6:15. I got dressed and went out into the town to take a few pictures.

Our hotel with beautiful mountains behind it.

 Cool, old, Presbyterian church.

Breakfast at a local hangout. Mmmmm...lots of crispy bacon!

I wanted one of these so bad. So.....I went back later and got one. I expected it to taste like a gigantic turtle. You know, chocolate, caramel and peanuts. It was called a Murtle and instead of peanuts it had cashews. It looks better than it actually was. (Not worth 6 Canadian dollars!)

I know you can't tell by the picture, but this hotel was spectacular! It's called the Fairmont Banff Springs and it was built in 1888. It was made in the style of a Scottish castle and it's just massive. It has 770 rooms and if you're thinking about staying there, a basic room for two will only set you back $459 Canadian.

Okay, this is Lake Louise and it was absolutely beautiful. The color is normally a turquoise green, but just 2 days earlier it was frozen over. The blurry looking stuff around the edge of the lake is the floating shards of ice because it had just recently melted. Close-up below. Anyway, the color comes from a mineral in the mountains you see behind the lake. It's a glacier fed lake, so the glaciers grind this mineral under them and they go into the lake with the water that comes off of them. The mineral floats in the water and absorbs all the colors in the spectrum except green and blue so that's why the lake is that color. Because it had just thawed, the pretty green color had only made it about half way across the lake.

 

  

Another picture of Lake Louise with the glaciers behind it.

Halfway up the trail to two other lakes up in the mountains. The first was Mirror Lake and the one higher up was Lake Agnes aka Lake Agony. My hiking distance so far is 4 miles.

At the top of the falls that come from Lake Agnes. There was a teahouse up there, but it was still closed for the winter. Arrrrgggggghhhh.

Day . Took the Jasper Tramway up to the top of Whistlers Mountain.

View from the top. That's Jasper down below. Cute little town.

I know it looks like an ant trail, but that's the hike up to the very top of the mountain ridge that Elliott and his brother Eric just had to climb. I only made it halfway up. I think I could've died. If you're counting, my mileage so far is 4.5 miles.

View from the top. Elliott, of course, took the picture.

My Moses, coming down from the mountain with the freshly inscribed tablets!

Beautiful lake. Look how clear and blue the water is!

Here we are in front of our cute cabin in Jasper at 10:00pm! Imagine trying to put your kids to bed when 10:00 looks like this!

We hiked on a trail through Maligne Canyon that followed a river. We saw a place by the bank where the water was bubbling out. What does my husband do? He decides to stick his arm in up to his elbow. Boys! It turns out, it was an underground river that was flowing into the main river.

This is Pyramid Lake. So beautiful and tranquil. Until.....

Elliott rents a kayak that is way too small for our weight combined, then starts rocking it to scare me. I had a camera around my neck with about 200 pictures in it. Is he insane? All you could hear on this lake of tranquility was me screaming at my husband to sit still!

How's that for the retired life? That's Elliott's mom rowing her newly retired husband around in a row boat! Elliott, don't get your hopes up!

If there's something to climb, the boys will climb it. Now I know where that comes from!

Couldn't go to Canada without taking a picture of a Moose. Or is that an Elk?

Last day we were there, it looked like the weather was going to turn bad. There were some low clouds that actually covered the tops of some of the mountains. John had said before we left that he wanted to see a cloud on the top of a mountain, so this picture is for him!