Thanksgiving - Part 1

The holiday season is upon us - Thanksgiving is now just a couple of days away. As I look around me and the world we live in these days, it seems that everyone is focused on the economy and what difficult times we are in. And, it's true, these are hard times for many people; in fact, we've had some tough times ourselves this year but even in the midst of these tough times, in the midst of the days where I find myself focusing on our own challenges, I'm also trying to have an "attitude of gratitude". It's not always easy but when I set my mind upon all the good in my life, whatever despair or stress I might be feeling soon gives way to peace of mind and happiness!

God knows everything we've been going through this year and that alone is something that I am grateful for. I know that God never leaves us or forsakes us and even when the times get tough I know I can trust His plan for our lives. He's come through for us time and time again in our lives in recent years as a family, and I'm grateful for that.

It sounds strange but just thinking about BEING THANKFUL makes me even more thankful for all the blessings I have in my life this year. It's about what I DO HAVE in life and not about what I DON'T HAVE at THIS moment in my life. I am healthy, my husband is healthy, our daughters are healthy. I have a great husband and two really awesome little girls - they are the loves of my life and the bright spots in life. No matter what kind of day or year or circumstances I face, my family is always a source of joy and love. George Bernard Shaw once wrote "a happy family is but an earlier Heaven" and how true that is. Give me a family that pulls together in tough times, that still finds happiness and joy even when circumstances are stressful and challenging anyday. My family really is like a little taste of Heaven and God's goodness to us right here on earth, and I'm thankful for it!

So, Happy Thanksgiving to all of us, wherever you are and whatever circumstances you may find yourself in. God never promised us that life would be easy, that life would be without stress but with the love of my family, I find that it does make the journey a little easier and the burdens of this life a little lighter to bear. So, this Thanksgiving, I'm counting all my blessings, naming them 1 by 1 because I really do have so much to be thankful for....

Making Our 1st Gingerbread Candy House

I bought a gingerbread house kit this weekend which included pieces of pre-made gingerbread, pre-packaged icing, candies, and other tasty treats. All we had to do was start icing the gingerbread pieces together, then decorate. It was also a great way to get our girls involved in the start of the holiday festivities of the season! Mike actually put the basic structure together with the various gingerbread pieces and the icing. After the house was "built", the twins jumped right in and had a ball decorating with all the candies. Now, the real question is - do we keep it in the refrigerator and bring it out as part of our decorating display in the house this holiday season OR do we just start nibbling on it and enjoy all of its yumminess? Decorations schmecorations...I have a feeling we'll be nibbling!

Thanksgiving - Part 2

Okay, slight change in plans to our Thanksgiving travel schedule which I've previously written about on this blog - we are now NOT going to Arizona and Nevada but are STILL going to San Diego for a week. After doing a cost analysis and budgeting for our upcoming trip, we decided to nix the Arizona and Nevada legs of our road trip this year to save ourselves some money. So, San Diego, here we come!

Making that slight change in travel plans also leaves us in town for Thanksgiving but since we just decided to cancel our plans for traveling that day, we are now left with some options. In the past, we've either traveled to the East Coast to New York or to Virginia to spend time with grandparents and other extended family. During the years that we have not traveled back to the East Coast, we have either gone to friends' homes here in California or have had friends over to our house for Thanksgiving. This year, we're not doing any of those things since we are just changing our plans at the last minute ourselves for Thanksgiving.

While Thanksgiving this year will still be a time of connecting and remembering our many blessings, we're switching things up just a bit. Mike is planning on spending part of his Thanksgiving on the golf course. Yes, golf courses are open on Thanksgiving, and the rates are even discounted at the course for Thanksgiving and yes, I'm even 100% okay with him playing that day. While Mike is golfing that day, the twins and I are going to be getting in the giving spirit and will be visiting some regional homeless shelters Thanksgiving Day donating traditional Thanksgiving dinner items (pies, bread, stuffing, turkey, etc.) This year, our church pastor has inspired and encouraged those of us who can give of our resources and our time this Thanksgiving to those who have far less, hence the plans for the girls and I to get out of our comfort zone, so to speak, and visit some local homeless shelters to help those needy and hungry individuals, families and children in our community who might not otherwise have a holiday meal to enjoy.

Sure, it's not how we've traditionally spent our Thanksgivings in the past, but on the other hand, I'm actually more excited about this Thanksgiving because as our pastor has encouraged us - we're putting our faith into action doing something for the hungry and homeless in our neighborhoods. It's also going to serve as a nice reminder of what this season is truly all about - giving to others less fortunate.

Thanksgiving - Part 3

I Am Thankful For....

A husband who takes terrific care of me and our daughters and who provides us with a wonderful life.

A great playschool in the neighborhood who offers me the occassional break from the twins in order to grocery shop, run errands, etc.

A church that helps Mike and me in our relationship with each other and with God and that provides a Sunday School for our children where they are happy, learn songs and stories about Jesus each week.

Daughters who allow me to see the world with continued wonder and newness and who always keep me on my toes and exhausted (but exhausted in a good way).

A "job" as a stay-at-home mom that provides our children with full-time care from me every day of their young lives. In the words of Dr. Laura Schlessinger, "I Truly Am My Kids' Mom" and I love that part of my life.

A car that runs, okay, 2 cars that run.

A house that is warm.

A refrigerator and cupboards with food for our table.

Clothing that fits.

Friends, old and new, who share in life with me.

A generous and loving God who has blessed me with all of these.

Little Miss Personalities

The genetics of my husband and I produced two beautiful children who don't yet look like either of us. Oh, sure, if you talk to Mike's family and friends, they'll tell you that the girls look just like he did as a small child. If you talk to my family and friends, they'll tell you that the girls look just like I did as a child. Ultimately, that tells me that the girls really don't look like either of us whatsoever! Of course, there are some physical traits which are clearly Mike's and other physical traits that are clearly mine - they have Mike's mouth/lips and Mike's eye shape, and they have my blue eyes and curly hair.

I actually have a much easier time finding which personality traits the kids have inherited from us to this point than their physical traits. They both are independent, free-spirited, confident, determined and strong-willed. Funny thing is these are also how I would describe many of Mike's and my own character traits. They are such determined little things! And, I love that about both of them.

The Mystery of Family

"The family you come from isn't nearly as important as the family you're going to have." - Ring Lardner, American Writer (1885-1933)

I have heard a number of variations of the sentiment above from authors, psychologists, pastors, historians, etc. but I like the way that Ring Lardner puts it perhaps best of all. Like some people, blogging can occassionally be a form of "therapy" for me. I suppose anytime one puts thoughts to paper, or in this case to the keyboard, it is that way. It is also a way to record some memories (before I forget them) so the memories can survive a muddled brain that is constantly juggling a million things and remembering daily details and a plethora of to do's in our family's life.

I am often in the car driving to and from various doctor appointments as well as speech and physical therapy programs, and the twins are in the back reading stories, singing or chatting with one another as we drive. When you're in the car a lot like I am, you begin to find yourself pondering life, relationships, God, family, all kinds of stuff. Sometimes I think about wonderful things to blog about here, but usually those thoughts are gone by the time I come and sit down at my computer.

My goal in blogging at Twinsanity has always been to share about the positive aspects of my family, my life with twins, my experiences as a wife and as a mother. I may break this "rule" from time to time, but this post today is not one of those times.

I have a lot of really great memories of my childhood. I had a wonderful childhood, oh sure, there were the tough times once in a while and there were times and experiences that I'd like to forget but thankfully, those were the exception and not the rule to my childhood.

My childhood memories are made up of all kinds of moments; and looking back upon my childhood, and as a parent now myself, I find a new appreciation and value in the role of my own parents. They helped me grow, they always loved me, they helped me make good decisions, they comforted me in disappointment, broken relationships or hard times.

Now, I'm a woman and mother myself, and as wonderful as my childhood was, I have recently found myself thinking upon the statment at the outset of this blog posting: "The family you come from isn't nearly as important as the family you're going to have." And, how true that is. While we certainly will always have our experiences from our own childhoods, our parents and our siblings, what is also inescapable is that once you marry, start a family and begin raising your own children, the family from which you came begins to take a back seat, if you will, to the family to which you are now making for yourself. Family is a mystery like that, I suppose. Everyone comes from a family, and those who go onto create their own family begin to forge new family relationships in a way that I could have never even fathomed until becoming married and a parent myself.

So, here at this blog, I often think about that. I think about what I hope and wish for in my children's lives and futures. I realize that they're "ours" for only a few years really; that utlimately they will grow into young adults and young women, perhaps marry, have children, and begin families of their own. I am committed to writing in this blog about their little lives, their futures, their happiness, their potential, their talents, their experiences. I might not always talk here about how as twin sisters they fight because I don't wish for them to remember their childhood fights as much as I wish for them to remember their childhood love and hugs with each other. I also hope that someday when they are young adults, or even mothers themselves, that they will be able to remember memories and experiences from their childhoods, just as I have, that will make them smile, laugh, even cry.....

Life is good these days, in spite of some difficult and challenging situations. We are all healthy. We are a family of 4, blessed beyond measure. Although there is stress in our lives - as any married couple raising children, managing a household, and juggling all the balls of life that come with that responsibility - I'm truly thankful for the haven of my family in between our moments of stress or strife.

As I was growing up, my parents often talked with me about giving everything that is important to me over to God through prayer. I do find myself turning to God in prayer a little more these days because as with everything in life that is important to me and my family, taking it to God in prayer seems equally as important. As I look ahead to the many more years of raising our children, I hope that we will always help to facilitate the same in Paige and Taylor - teaching them to turn to God in prayer in both the good and the tough times, teaching them to make good decisions, comforting them if/when they don't make good decisions, helping them mend broken hearts if their hearts are ever saddened; and, then, eventually watching them take flight from our little nest to building lives and nests of their own with their families. Someday, we will even have the Ring Lardner "talk" with Paige and Taylor about how the family that they "came from isn't nearly as important as the family they're going to have" and/or the children they're going to raise....

Yikes! Pressure Sores from AFO Braces

I know it's not just me. It really is always something when you have kids, isn't it?!

This evening, for example, as I was getting the girls ready for their evening bath, and as I sat on the floor with Taylor, helping her take off her little braces, I noticed it - a pressure sore on the bony part of the inside of her ankle. And seeing that sore, well, I got very sad. Yikes! A pressure sore.

Taylor has never had one in the 2-1/2 years that she has been wearing her AFO braces. What I know about pressure sores from braces is that once you have one, that particular area of skin becomes weakened and especially prone to getting them again even after the sores have completely healed. And, if there's one thing that a mom of a child with cerebral palsy gets bragging rights about - it's that your kid has never had pressure sores from braces. Oh, well, so much for bragging rights on that...Taylor got her first pressure sore from her AFOs today.

When I saw it, I asked Taylor if the spot was hurting her...Taylor told me that it "wasn't an owie" and it didn't seem to hurt her. (That made me feel a little bit better). After Taylor's bath, I treated the sore with Neosporin, covered it with a band-aid, gave her little ankle a kiss and Taylor an extra big hug and told her that her ankle would be "all better" real soon.

Until the pressure sore goes away, I will NOT be putting Taylor's braces on at all so that the sore on her ankle can fully heal. I also will be contacting the orthotist who crafted Taylor's braces first thing tomorrow when their office opens to let the orthotist know that we need to get her braces checked again for proper fitting and make any adjustments we might need to make as soon as possible!

Perhaps Taylor's just going through a growth spurt and her one foot/ankle is no longer fitting that one brace the way that it was first designed; well, whatever the reason, it's got to be corrected and right away. It absolutely broke my heart tonight to see that Taylor had developed a pressure sore on her ankle from her AFOs, and I just hope that her orthotist can fix whatever needs to be fixed on Taylor's brace so that she will be able to wear her braces again without further issue.