It's Snowing . . . Yay?

And I'm okay with that.  A week ago, I was completely not ready for snow and was dreading the thought of it.  I'm a little scared at how steadily it's falling considering that it's out first snow of the year and started several hours ago.  I'm hoping that there's not going to be enough of it for a while to really stick around and make driving tricky.

I think the thing I've dreaded most about it being snowy is picking up Rachel at school.  I hate hate HATE having to sit in the carline and will usually just park and walk over to her and go back to the car as an alternative, but then it's sometimes hard to get back out of the parking space due to how many cars are backed up waiting in the carline.  They move to the right so that people who are leaving the lot can drive down the left, but if they're blocking you in from behind, you're pretty much stuck until someone leaves enough room or the carline gets short enough to back out.

So most days I park on the street just past the school, put Ben in his stroller and walk up to the playground where we wait for Rachel's class to come out of their upper floor classroom on their way to the stairway and the front of the school.  We just meet her there and walk to the car, and take off and we're done.

Not sure that's going to work so well with temps in the 30s and icy ground.  If the ground's not icy and I can keep Ben warm enough, I think standing and waiting for a few minutes in the freezing temperature will still be preferable to dealing with the overcrowded parking lot, especially if I can time it so that we're pretty much just walking up to the playground as the classes are letting out.  It's hard to time, though, because some teachers let out right at 3:19 or 3:20 (dismissal time is 3:20), some seem to wait for the bell to ring so that it's more "official" (and the bell rings late for some reason, around 3:22 or 3:23) and some are stragglers.  Rachel's class is often one of the last to leave.  I don't know if that means there are a lot of dawdlers in her class, but if so, she was placed in the right one.

Anyway, I *am* enjoying watching the snow fall.  We get a lot of rain here, but snow can be harder to come by, especially some years, so it's usually welcomed by most people.  I'm just hoping we aren't in for a repeat of the Great Snow of Aught Six, when living on a hill that doesn't get plowed became a serious issue.  If so, Rachel just may be missing some days of school.  But, hey, I won't have to worry about the carline then.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, pt. 1

I saw the latest Harry Potter film today, and overall I think it was a really strong adaptation of the first half of the book.  Some (possibly spoilery if you haven't seen the movie yet) thoughts:

• The scene with the Death Eaters around the table at Malfoy Manor and Charity Burbage dangling above it was harrowing, just as it should have been.
• How Hedwig meets her fate made more sense than in the written version, I think, as well as the fact that her defense of Harry is what gives him away to the Death Eaters.  I thought it was strange in the book that they would just put her in a cage and shove the cage into the bottom of Hagrid's motorcycle.
• I wish they had included the interactions between Harry and the Dursleys as the Dursleys were leaving Privet Drive.  I especially missed Dudley's conversation and handshake and think that would have made a touching moment.
• I would have liked to have seen more of the flight from Privet Drive and the battle that went on, but what we saw was well-done, though condensed.
• Mad Eye's eye was left at the Ministry of Magic, which seemed like a big oversight to me.  Harry made a point in the book that he couldn't leave part of Mad Eye there for Dolores' use, and I believe it's his taking of the eye from Dolores' office door that alerts the Ministry to the fact that there are intruders.
• It would have added more poignancy to the trio's inability to return to No. 12 Grimmauld Place if there had been scenes of the warming relationship between them and Kreacher, and his increasing care for them.
• The time wandering in the wilderness was handled well and didn't feel like it dragged on overly long.  The book has about 110 pages covering that, and it did seem like it went on and on.  I'm thinking the book editors could have trimmed a little here and there while still conveying how they were weary, demoralized and spending a lot of time doing nothing.
• I was disappointed that Wormtail didn't meet the end that he does in the book.  Presumably he'll die in the second movie, but I liked that his moment of mercy towards Harry is what leads to his undoing.
• Dobby was awesome, totally heroic and not at all annoying.  He was great when helping Kreacher to drag Mundungus to Grimmauld Place, as well as during his appearance in Malfoy Manor.  And I'm not ashamed to admit that I teared up at his death.
• I thought the movie ended slightly abruptly and would have liked for them to have already had the discussion to decide whether they should pursue the Deathly Hallows or the horcruxes.  I thought the ending would be when they decided to go after the remaining horcruxes, somewhat like in LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring when Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas go after Merri and Pippin and there's more of a note of hope and purpose.

I think this movie did quite a good job of including all of the important pieces and depicting them well.  It translated the spirit of the book without jazzing it up too much for the movie audience and including things like a dragon breaking free from its chain and going on an extended chase of Harry around Hogwarts.  I'm glad that they decided to break the book into two parts, because I can't imagine what kind of choppy mess they would have ended up with had they tried to fit everything into one movie, even if it was a very long one.

Definitely looking forward to part 2 and seeing the Battle of Hogwarts happen, even though I won't be happy seeing the deaths to come.  I have a feeling I may need some tissue for that one.

Darn, I Missed a Day

I realized earlier today that I'd missed posting yesterday.  I totally intended to post, even though I knew I was going to have a late night.  And I toiled away at the other things I needed to get done, and completely forgot.

So here's post #1 for today.  I'll post a second post later so that at least I'll average out to one a day for November.

And here's what I'm sharing with you:



I used to love this show, for some reason, and the theme song is still stuck in my head all these years later.

You're welcome.

One of Those Days

It's been one of those days, and I'm tired and don't feel much like blogging.  I'll just say that the day started out rough with Rachel choosing to misbehave.  She pulled it together and we got her to school.  She did alright for a little bit after school, then just went right into intense dawdling mode and not doing what was asked of her.  Got her ready just in the nick of time to go to Awana at our church.  She seemed to enjoy herself there and was sweet when I picked her up.  I gave her a cracker snack in the car and made her some warm vanilla/maple milk when we got home, and then it all went to pieces from there.  Manic behavior with an intense focus on direct disobedience while smiling.  We finally got her calmed down and ready for bed, with no nightlight and almost everything removed from her bed (stuffed animals and comfort blankets) except for one polar bear, Poley, who's her special favorite.  She was also aware that any further misbehavior would result in Poley going out the door for the night.

I hate times like these and wish she wouldn't choose to be so darned willful and stubborn.  It's like she thrives on wreaking havoc when she gets into this particular mode of behavior, and it's so difficult to derail her from that and get back on the right track.  We're working on it and we won't give up.  I believe we'll win out in the end.

But sometimes it sucks.

My Love Language

Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year.  I love all of the excitement, joy, fun events, the music, visits to Santa, Christmas cards, yummy food, the Christmas tree and other decorations, and everything else about it.  And, of course, I love celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ throughout the season and having that special worship service on Christmas Eve.  It's wonderful having so many visual and audible reminders about Jesus as I go about my days!

I was thinking about my gift list today and realized that's one of the reasons that I love Christmas.  It may sound shallow to say that, but gifts are my love language, so I have a reason to express my love language over and over as I work on my gift list, start buying gifts early, finish up with the last-minute ones and the stocking stuffers and then get the joy of giving them to people!  It's why I put pressure on myself to find something they'll really enjoy or need and why I find it so frustrating when people make it difficult to figure out what they'd like.  Not everyone needs to have an Amazon wishlist for me to know what to get, but it makes it easier if I don't know enough about their interests or hear "I don't really need anything" or "I'm not sure what to get her, either" when I'm trying to figure something out.

And it's why I have a hard time drawing the line on buying gifts for some people and have to tell myself 'Seriously, you are giving them plenty.  Enough.  Save it for the next occasion.'  That doesn't happen with James, though, because his birthday is about 5 weeks after Christmas, so I usually struggle with the opposite problem of using all my best ideas for Christmas, then having to figure out what to do for his birthday.  Or I forget that I'll have another gift-giving occasion in the near future for him and try to cram it all in for Christmas.

I'm always disappointed when I'm done buying gifts and then just have to wait for Christmas to give them away.  If I had more disposable income, I think I'd just keep buying things to donate to charity and go crazy with it!  Maybe one day I can do more of that.  For now, I have to practice self-control, being wise with our finances and making sure I'm keeping my focus where it belongs, instead of being too wrapped up in the gifts. But I'm sure looking forward to giving them away!

I *Love* Finding a Bargain!

I went shopping today at Once Upon a Child, a children's resale shop.  I found some cute things for both Ben and Rachel, including this sweater for Ben:

It was brand new with the tags still attached and was only $8.50 for a nice, heavyweight sweater for our upcoming reputedly-very-cold winter.  Cute sweater and a great deal, right?

But wait!  There's more:

That's right.  This sweater was from Nordstrom and was originally priced at $62.00 before 4 markdowns occurred and it finally went on to greener pastures at Once Upon a Child.  Who on earth would pay $62.00 for a sweater for a 2-year-old?  Obviously it's someone who has way more disposable income than I do and isn't concerned about paying that much for a child's sweater that will be outgrown in 6 months to a year.

I buy a good deal of my kids' clothing second-hand because I find a lot of great clothes that way for good prices, and you also find a better variety at many childrens' resale stores than you do by going to one store at a mall.  I've gotten or seen plenty of things from Gap Kids and Baby Gap, The Children's Place, Old Navy, OshKosh, Carter's, Ralph Lauren and other name-brand clothing stores and been able to do it with one-stop shopping.  I now would find it hard to justify buying all new clothes for my kids every time they outgrew their current wardrobe.

Away With You, Clutter!

Along with our newfound determination to lose weight and keep it off for good, James and I have been increasingly motivated to rid ourselves of the clutter that has been the bane of our existence for far too long. James has always hated clutter, but I've been more laidback about it until fairly recently; it annoyed me, but I figured that was just the way things were with young kids and that we'd eventually get around to clearing things away.

For about the past year, we've been able to successfully beat it back in most of the common areas of our home and have kept those areas from getting too piled up and overwhelming, but we were still struggling with numerous little piles of clutter in our master bedroom and too much disorganization in the family room.

Our family room was half-painted for months, and we had a bookcase that was mostly painted but needed to be painted the rest of the way and assembled so that we could finally unload our books from their boxes in the garage. James and I buckled down and got the painting of the room finished. He completed the bookcase and moved it into place, and we brought in our books to figure out which ones we'd keep and which we'd donate.

Then James cleared the clutter from our room and moved it to the family room so that we'd have one area of clutter on which to focus and could reclaim our master bedroom for ourselves. We've been working through it a little at a time and steadily making progress, enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Tonight, we were waiting for Rachel to finish getting ready for bed. The shelves in our closet had become a place where I put things until I got around to putting them where they belong, but somehow that step of the process never seemed to happen.  I'd already made a note on my to-do list to clear out the shelves and go through things, do a little rearranging and use them for organizing Christmas gifts for now and other things once Christmas is over.  I've been chomping at the bit to get started, so I started pulling things off the shelf while we waited.

I cleared off two shelves, moved (with James' help) the clothing rod to a higher shelf, got rid of enough stuff not worth keeping or donating that I could fill a decent size shopping bag, came up with a big box of things for donation and gathered like items for storage (shorts - too cold right now; maternity - don't need that currently).  It was so nice to make a big dent in the shelves, and I can hardly wait to get back to it and get them finished!

Getting things cleaned up and decluttered is making me feel really good, like I'm clearing away things that have been weighing me down.  It's similar to how my weight loss is making me feel, and I think both are emblems of being in a time of transformation.

One last area where I'm also working on "decluttering" is in my spiritual life.  The Bible study that I'm currently doing, Breaking Free by Beth Moore, talks about the things that weigh us down and keep Christians from living an effective and abundant spiritual life, not fully experiencing the blessings of a relationship with Christ (knowing and believing in God, glorifying God, finding satisfaction in God, experiencing God's peace and enjoying God's presence).  We may still do some or all of these things, but we may not be experiencing them to the extend that we can because of things that hamper us.  This study really gets to the core of issues that are sometimes long-standing and is helping me figure out how I can become closer to God and truly love Him as He should be loved - and how I can experience that love to the fullest myself, and be satisfied fully by Him,  so that things like the love of family and friends, material blessings and activities I enjoy are icing on the cake and not the means for my sustenance.  It's opened my eyes to quite a bit, and I'm praying it brings about a lasting transformation in me.

So many good things are happening as I get older!  Honestly, I should have turned 40 years ago.