Friday, December 11, 2009

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Chistmas

Things are a little different this Christmas around the Petersen household. For starters: no tree. We have two young kittens and I'm quite certain that a tree would spend more time lying down than standing up. So, since I like the kittens, my ornaments and my sanity; we chose to be tree-less.
We began home schooling this year so the kids and I have had extra time to make decorations and ornaments. We have garland all the way around the living room and will soon have home made ornaments hanging from it. They've made Nativity dioramas, wreaths from their hand prints, and paper trees to count down the days till Christmas. So who needs a tree anyway?
We also will get to string the gifting part of Christmas out for a few weeks. My parents hope to come to visit the weekend before Christmas, (Shh, don't tell the kids. It's a surprise!). Of course the kids will be opening presents then and hopefully presenting gifts to Grandma and Grandpa as well. We have a few things we've purchased that they will get to open on December 25th. Also, because of emergency car repairs, we will be finishing present purchasing some time after Christmas.
So to sum up - Petersen Christmas, 2009: different but maybe even better than the normal.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Buttons

I began planning our children's Christmas program for church, today. I found a really cute one about "Happy Birthday Jesus" buttons. We get to make buttons for all the kids to wear and buttons to hand out to everyone who comes to watch. There are even some children in the program who dress up as buttons. It got me to thinking, what kind of button do I wear? Do I announce good news? Complain about life? Offer encouragement or just crude humor? When people pass my way what does my life shout out to them? I think too often that I'm wearing one of those holographic images. Look at me from one side and you see a happy little picture with an uplifting message written in an elegant script. Shift your position a little and a whole new image comes forth. It's dark and grim and the doom and gloom statement screams out at you in bold red caps. How does a person balance this out? When I'm down do I still pin on the yellow smiley face offering a "Nice Day" to all who meet me? Or is it better to lay it all out there with a button that would frighten small children? Perhaps, I'm looking at this all wrong. Maybe my button should have nothing to do with moods or which direction the reader is coming from. Perhaps, it has nothing at all to do with me. I think regardless of the picture on the front or the state I'm in when wearing it, my button should always say the same thing. Jesus. That's it. That's the message I want to bring to everyone I encounter.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Where has the year gone?

Wow! Has it really been almost a year since I last blogged? That's just crazy!
This year has flown by in a whirlwind of failures and successes. I am now home schooling the kids which has been great. We are still in Edinburg and Rob is still working on his Masters at Lincoln Christian University. We are busy with church, school, 4-H, Boy Scouts, babysitting and camp. I hope to be on here more so that I can share, vent and work out my every day challenges.