Ok, well maybe that’s dramatic. It’s the end of November. Which means we are further and further away from my beloved summer. And closer and closer to the LOOOONG winter ahead. I think when it comes to winter I’m a glass half-empty gal, though my tendency in most other areas of life see me as a glass half-full sort of personality.

I am now working full-time at Kings Landing for the Christmas season. This is a huge challenge for me. The job itself is one that is fun – we dress in period costume, and serve guests by candle-light. So many satisified customers who truly enjoy their evening away in “1855″. However, it was never part of the plan for me to be working. We were content to be a single-income family. That has become very difficult. If we want to purchase homeschool supplies, birthday/Christmas gifts, and have money for things like fuel and groceries, it has become necessary for me to work. At one point, I was very critical of women like me. “Why don’t they just learn to live on a tighter budget?” What a horrible attitude I had. However, we have gone through a difficult time financially, mostly due to the dishonesty of our accountant (now former), and with the loss of contracts for five of our six vehicles. We have gone over EVERY scenario possible. Selling the business, hiring someone else to drive for us, so Greg can find work elsewhere (thinking behind this is we would have benefits), moving, putting the kids in school/daycare and me working full-time, selling our house and renting….The list is exhausted. For now, unless God directs otherwise, we are staying put, and I am working temporary full-time during the more critical times. Right now my employment will be specifically paying for Christmas and curriculum. Mostly I don’t mind, but there are times when I want to scream “It wasn’t supposed to be this way!” I so desperately just want to be able to put ALL of my energy into my husband, children and home. I am still struggling with depression, and the exhaustion from working and being wife/mom is hard.

So this sort of sounds like a whine, I suppose, but what I want it to be is a request for prayer. Please pray for me if you think of me.

I’ve been struggling lately with realizing that my oldest is almost ten, and how his young childhood is nearly past. Of course we want our children to grow, but did it have to happen so quickly???  Anyway, I was trying to think of something interesting for him to do, and was wondering if anyone has or knows of a boy around 8-11 years of age (Cole is 9), that would like to be a pen-pal.  I think it would be fun for them to do, and would also give us another fun project for school.  It would help with handwriting, grammar, creative writing, as well as a great way to study geography.  If you think of someone, let me know.  Maybe we can start off by sending a Christmas card. 

I used to love Christmas, and now I find that I just want to forget the whole thing.  So I’m trying to figure out a way to look forward to it again.  I don’t want to just say forget about it with gift-giving, but I sure wish we had more focus on Jesus, and less commercialism.  I have thought about possibly doing a Jesus-focused Christmas only, and having a Day of Giving around Epiphany.  This would give me almost two more weeks to shop, plus everything would be on sale, making it more tight budget-friendly.

So, these are my thoughts this morning.  Today I want to get my house in order again.  It’s rather fallen apart over the busyness of the past few days (I was in a musical on Saturday, and between that and work it’s been crazy.)  I’m *hoping* to start Christmas decorating tomorrow, and later this week, we’ll do some Christmas baking.

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting a Christmas Giveaway. To see the giveaways and enter, please click over. There are a few ways to enter, and several items being offered. Worth a look!

We are going to attempt to do the Jesse Tree this year.  We started off trying to do it before, but got sidetracked.  Depending on which guide or site or suggestion I use, it can take anywhere from 24-28 days before Christmas.  If we do the 28 days, that means I have to start on Friday.  I am hoping to order the iron-on transfers from a great site I found to make REAL ornaments next year.  For this year, I think we’ll just colour/draw some, and laminate them.  Haven’t decided for sure, but I think I might use a 1-D tree made with my kids handprint cutouts.  We’re short on space around here these days, and so whatever I can do that’s flat against the wall is probably best. 

Speaking of which, we had a flood in our basement in February.  A valve on the pressure tank let go.  We still haven’t finished the renos, and the first six and a half months were dealing with the insurance.  We finally got a settlement, but have gone through two people so far trying to finish the flooring.  So frustrating.  This has meant ALL five kids have been sharing a bedroom for nine months now.  As much as it’s not convenient, I realize I still have it much easier than our pioneer ancestors.  They usually had more children, less space, and of course lacked the modern conveniences of electricty, indoor plumbing, and all the wonderful appliances we enjoy like clothes washing machines, dishwashers, dryers, etc.  So, I will choose to be thankful that in the end, my basement will be beautiful and useable, aside from maybe a few hundred dollars, most of it will have been “free” to us.  The biggest expense?  Patience and gratitude for what I do have while being squished.    I am really excited though, as we have found someone we may be able to do some bartering with who fixes roofs, lays tile, does carpentry…I may have my basement finished by Christmas!  We’re excited at the thought of setting up a nice school area, play area/family room, and the boys back in their bedrooms.  After that, we are hoping to get started on renovating our attached two-car garage into bedrooms.  THAT will be wonderful when it is finished.   We have more plans for our house and property, and sometimes it’s hard to be patient to get it all done.  Fireplaces and additions and landscaping and verandahs and sun porches.  Ah well.  It’s fun to dream about it, and planning is half the fun.  Well, I’m not sure my husband would agree with that, but for someone who spends far too much time researching house plans, interior design, houseware stores and suppliers, and various topics related to improving your home, I LOVE the planning/sketching stage. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American brothers and sisters!  If you take part in Black Friday, I admire/don’t understand you.    Happy celebrating either way.

Let’s all remember what we have to be thankful for.

We took our kids tonight to one of the Wesleyan churches in town to see The Donut Man.  We’ve actually never had an exposure to him or his ministry, but my brother’s family  has, so we were excited to go, hang out with them, and have fun learning more about Jesus. 

Instead we were entertained by Perley the Magician.  Don’t get me wrong.  Perley’s great.  He came last minute.  He kept the kids attention.  He made a lot of people laugh, and ooooo and aaaah over the tricks.  But he wasn’t The Donut Man.

Apparently, the airline bumped his flight, and he wouldn’t have arrived to start the concert until 10 pm.  Just too late.  My kids were ok.  A little disappointed.  As was my niece.  My nephew took the news very badly. 

We’re sorry we missed you, Donut Man.  We’re sorry that coming to our area usually results in drama for you as well.  We really do want to see you!  Maybe the fourth try will be the charm???

Hi, I’m BJ.  And I’m a non-blogging blogger.

There are those of us who have blogs who actually, ya know, BLOG.  Then there are those of us who just really make it sound good.  I was on such a great roll last year before the “Great Crash of ‘08″.  I was doing my weekly assignments with two great weekly memes.  I was updating regularly in between.  I was enjoying the therapeutic effect that writing has on me.  But after the computer crashed, and we went so long without one – ten months – and I lost my groove.  I have had very little motivation to pick it up again.  However, I know that I enjoy being able to look back and read through what I’ve written since I started blogging a while ago (circa 2002, I believe).  I haven’t been a great blogger, but I enjoy it.  I enjoy meeting people through blogging.  I enjoy events that are Bloggyville-wide.  I enjoy the comments folks leave.  As a stay at home mom, it’s one way get to socialize, and feel like I’m part of something more than my immediate 1400 sq. ft. universe.  If I have anyone hanging in there, thank you.  I still read most of my bloglines with regularity, but actually posting has obviously been a struggle. 

So, wish me well as I get ready, set, go again with this thing called blogging.