Christmas Memories

Tonight I sang an a Capella version of Away in a Manger with a special choir group at church for the Christmas Eve service.  My parents came to watch.  I got to sing Christmas hymns with them at the end of the service.  Singing with Mom and Dad reminded me of good times growing up... in church with my family, even with my Mom's friend and her kids looking at Christmas lights and singing Christmas carols.

I was talking with my sister the other day about the different Christmas experiences we had growing up.  We have not "done" Santa Claus with our children.  Our parents did not confuse us with the myth of Santa Claus.  We did watch the kid's Christmas programs with Santa Claus on tv.  I even remember sitting on Santa's lap once at the mall... I don't remember if I asked to, or what.  My brother, sister, and I always knew  that Santa Claus was not real.  We knew that the reason for Christmas was to celebrate the birth of God's Son, Jesus.  I saw kids at school who were so caught up in Santa Claus, and I remember when they found out Santa wasn't real.  I know some of them felt like they were lied to.  I know I felt like they were lied to.  I felt bad for them.

Since we've always homeschooled our children, and I like to find out the history behind things we do (I think part of that is all the Sociology classes I took in college), I looked up the history of Santa Claus for our kids.  I enjoyed teaching them about St. Nicholas and how he became the myth of Santa Claus people celebrate today.  We started a tradition of celebrating St. Nicholas Day (December 6th, in case you were wondering).  On that day, my children open their stockings.  I had began giving them a new ornament every year for our Christmas Tree, but opening a new ornament just before you take down the tree is not so much fun... so they now get their ornaments in their stockings on St. Nicholas Day.  Then they get to enjoy the ornament for a whole month!

My Dad grew up in a home that "believed" in Santa Claus.  My Mom grew up in a home that only celebrated Jesus' birth.  My Mom's family didn't always have a Christmas Tree at Christmas when she grew up (actually, I think she can count on one hand the times they did); if memory serves me correctly, they didn't usually have presents.  They both went to church and celebrated the birth of Jesus.

So, growing up a grandchild of my Dad's parents and my Mom's parents, my siblings and I (and our cousins) experienced different Christmastimes at each grandparents home.  I don't remember when I realized that we didn't get Christmas (or birthday) presents from my Mom's parents, but except for asking "why" at some point... not getting presents from my maternal grandparents didn't really matter.  My grandma was a wonderful cook, and so are my aunts.  We enjoyed a delicious meal and lots of playtime with our cousins (10, plus 3 second cousins... my mom is the youngest of 6).  I always enjoyed just visiting and being with my Mom's parents and extended family.

At my Dad's parents, when my brother, myself, and our cousins were young (my sister is 8 years younger than me) my grandma would have someone dressed as Santa Claus stop by to visit us. My brother and I had to pretend that "Santa" was the real deal.  We always got presents, but I remember being disappointed so many times... even when we thought they were getting us something we really wanted.  One year we were expecting boom boxes (portable stereo cassette radios)... they were not stereo, they were mono.  I remember an ugly doll that I named after a little girl I didn't like.  My three cousins were all boys and they were not very nice little boys (they grew up to be nice men though).  For the cousins, we drew names for presents.  My aunts took turns with me, until my sister was born, because both wanted to buy for a little girl.  One aunt usually made me things... doll dresses were my favorite (except the ones for the ugly doll, but they did fit other dolls later on); the other aunt always gave me something store bought ( I liked when she got me music boxes).  I did enjoy quiet times with my Dad's parents, and I loved playing with the toy kitchen furniture that my Great-grandpa made my grandma.  We did have some nice times playing kitchen with my cousins in the upstairs of the old farm house.

I remember visiting my great-grandparents (my dad's mom's parents... who were still living when I graduated from college!).  I had a thought today about how I was a little creeped out by my great-grandparents when I was little... I think it was because they were old.  Really, they weren't that much older than my Mom's parents, or my Dad's dad, but they were "great" grandparents.  I remember not really wanting to give them a hug and kiss goodbye.  Great-grandpa's face was scratchy many times from stubble.  As I grew up, I came to know his heart and love him so much!  I look forward to heaven, when I can hug him and kiss his scratchy cheek again (grandma, too... but without the scratchy cheek).  My great-grandma was so sweet, she even paid me to finish an afghan doing hairpin lace; she wanted me to learn that much.  She would give up her coat for someone who was cold, in fact I believe she did one time (maybe more than once that I don't know about).

I think, remembering these things that time, love, example and treasure in heaven are so much more important than gifts, trees, lights... and all those other things that appear so important to our modern world.  There are people around us who don't even know who Jesus is, people who don't know the real reason we began celebrating Christmas.  What a gift we could be giving.

Thank you, Lord, for giving me my family and your Son.

Taking Time To Play

After a very sick winter, then months of catching up on cleaning, etc., I took some time to just play with my kids.  One of the things that I really wanted for them when they were little was Fisher Price Little People.  I got a Little People House for Christmas when I was 4 years old (maybe 5, if I had Mom & Dad's picture album, I could tell you for sure).  Anyway, my brother had a Little People Gas Station/Garage... so I wanted Ellie & Wyatt to have them, too.  My brother and I had so much fun playing Little People together.  I still have my Little People House, so we all got out our Little People things and played together.  Wyatt has a Little People Fire Engine that he got second hand.  My brother had a Little People Airplane. :)

So, here are some pictures we took:

You can see Ellie's house behind the kids, with the pink roof.  My house had the yellow roof and blue siding.
Wyatt's Garage and Gas Station (much larger than my brother's) is in the front of the picture.

Pointing to my house, not sure what I was saying.  You can see my "Dad" in his red car.

Ellie and I holding our babies in our right hands and mommies in our left hands...
from the 1980's to the 2000's is quite a difference in the look of Little People!

Wyatt is holding his mechanic in his tow truck and I am holding my  dad in his car.
Wyatt likes to put my family's dog in the car!

Playing with them is something the kids always say that I don't do enough of.  They do think I'm fun, and that's a nice compliment.  We enjoy our time together.

Treaure Hunt

This kids needed some motivation today and I needed to see some better attitudes with their schoolwork.  I still have most of my old toys, well preserved.  I didn't get a lot of stuff (at least not compared to some kids), but my parents taught me to take good care of my stuff.  Anyway, they like my old toys.  So, we made a bargain.  Ellie could have one of my old Cabbage Patch Dolls and Wyatt could have three of my old Hot Wheels.  Not the best bargain on original cost, but they were both happy.  I was happy, too; I saw instant attitude changes.

The Cabbage Patch Dolls that I was going to show Ellie were in a plastic container in our storage room in the basement.  It took me a while to remember where I'd put them.  I have a lot of stuff in there!  Especially since I am still painting the basement and I keep shoveling things in there to get them out of the way.  (I so need to concentrate and eliminate, as my Aunt June would say, when I get done with the painting projects.)  Wyatt got my Russian Cabbage Patch Doll, because he had been promised one of my boy dolls when I gave Ellie my My Child doll.  So, his deal was a little sweeter.  Well, in finding the doll container, I found an identical container that held some of my tiny doll like miniature Strawberry Shortcake Baby, some of my paper dolls, coloring books, folders.

The real exciting finds were in my books.  I found the Young Writers book from my elementary school.  I was "published" in it in 5th grade.  It was so exciting to be chosen for the book.  It's just a bunch of facsimiles (remember those?!) bound together with a comb binder, like the "books" I make for my kids at home, but I'm so excited I found my winning story!  I thought it had been thrown away over the years, lost forever.  I also found a SuperMag that my neighbor (about 5 years older than me) had given me.  I thought I'd gotten rid of all of them.  Wyatt found one at a thrift store and was so excited to ad this one to his collection. I found my Helen Keller book that I had just about convinced myself was not mine, but a library book, because I couldn't find it here or at my mom & dad's house (or that it was just lost forever, too... I should've known they were together!).  I found all those fun books we pulled out and stapled together in elementary school.  I can't wait for the kids to read them.  I found a stack of Wee Wisdom Children's magazines that I didn't even remember keeping and a couple other books that I don't remember reading.  Books are definitely treasure to me.  My Bible is the best treasure, but these other books are pretty special, like finding old friends.

Well, I'm off to read my kids The Not So Wonderful Step Sister by Me in the 5th grade!

Light Bulb Moment

Okay, I'm a bad girl...staying up past my bedtime.  I'm going to be a tired girl tomorrow.  But I'm downloading an audio book, chapter by chapter.  While I'm doing that, I'm cleaning up my e-mail.

I opened a new homeschool e-mail that I started getting and it had the verse that I taught my Sunday School class this last Sunday, which is Deuteronomy 6:5 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."  And low and behold, had I not connected that the verse directly following that is the verse I helped pick as our verse for the homeschool support group that my friend, Colleen, and I founded:  Deuteronomy 6:6-7 "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons (and daughters) and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up."


I know I've read both sets of verses by themselves many times.  I'm sure I've read them together a couple of times.  But seeing them today, in that e-mail newsletter, hit me like a ton of bricks.  That is the number one, most important thing to be teaching my children:  to love the Lord with all their heart, soul and strength.  Which is a pretty tall order when you find out what loving really is.  I shared with the ladies in my Bible Study a while back about how some people call the Bible the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.  Well, how much more basic can we get, God tells us exactly what we need to be teaching our children day in and day out.  If we fulfill that order, I think we'll be doing pretty good.

Why I love my teacher

guest author: Ellie
age: almost 9

1. She is my Mom.
2. She teaches me fun science.
3. She is the most important Misty in the whole world.
4. In arithmetic, she allows me to chew gum as much as I want.
5. On field trips, we have fun!


Misty's notes: I didn't know I taught fun science...yea! I have fun on field trips, too. And I love my students, Ellie and Wyatt!

Why does your Momma not make hard tack?

guest author: Wyatt
age: almost 7

It will work your Mommy to hard. You don't give her enough attention. She doesn't know the recipe for it. And you don't give her enough morning cuddles. Because you don't have good Science projects; like you don't have a popsicle stick two story house. And you don't grow butterflies out of caterpillars. And you don't get your commission. You don't paint your popsicle stick house. And I don't think that you could bite it. One of your teeth might fall out. Whenever I bit hard tack, it took me three times, just to get a little piece out. And you don't yell, "Mommy, help!" whenever you see a spider. And you're not old enough to eat it. Any you're too lazy to help. And you don't treat your Mommy with respect. And you don't give her back rubs (I still owe you a back rub!). And you don't let your Mommy make you work. You don't clean the basement. You don't clean your bedroom. You don't clean the playroom. You don't clean the classroom. And most of all, you do not wash your hands whenever you go to the bathroom. Ewww!!! And you don't keep your pencils sharpened. And you act like a baby. And you do baby talk. Now that is the end of the Wyatt hard tack story.

Misty's notes: Wyatt is none of these, because he & Mommy are going to make some hard tack today. Commission is payment for chores...what we used to call allowance...thanks to Dave Ramsey, wages have a new name at our house.

Life Lessons

There are so many posts just waiting to be written...I had a great time at our Mini Conference last Saturday and I will be posting my handout on here in the very near future...I wanted to write one on love for Valentine's Day (kind of late, but better late than never)...I have a fun story about friend's children who are ready to move in with us to be homeschooled...our schedule...but what I'm going to write about is some wisdom of my past teachers. Please, excuse my rambling, run on sentence, I like to write the way I think; which is not necessarily the proper way to write. I have a BA in English, so I do know how to write. I choose to write the way I think.

I read an article from The Heart of the Matter today that got me thinking about two of the best lessons I've learned outside of my parents and the Bible. The first that I usually think of is from my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. McVey, who taught me that "You are responsible for your own actions." We have a written list of house rules, and that one is on the top of the list. I think that is an especially bad problem of the generations after my own (not to mention many in my generation)...blaming others for our own actions. I even have to remind myself at times that I am responsible for my own actions!

The other lesson is one that I can't quite remember who taught me, but I'm fairly certain I learned this gem of wisdom sometime in my teenage years. I was told that mistakes, failures, and the like should be looked upon as "Learning experiences". If we don't have any troubles or difficulties, how can we learn from them? That has served me well through the years. The article I read today especially reminded me of this one.

My daughter began "offical" homeschooling (you know, when we start calling it school and keeping records and such) with a great fear of failure. She didn't want to try for fear of giving the wrong answer or sounding out a word wrong. Part of her fear may have been my tone of voice or feeling my frustration in those early days (I felt we were on trial in my husband's eyes.). I have have worked on myself a lot in those areas. Thankfully, I realized the other day that I felt strange raising my voice. So much time had gone by that I have not raised my voice. Thank you, God, for helping me. The Lord does answer prayers.

I do feel that at least part of her fear was just that of failing. After explaining to her multiple times that I am glad for her to make mistakes so that she can learn from them, she approaches most things without fear, sometimes even reminding me about learning experiences. I believe I have even heard her give the advice to others. I think that learning from failure is such an important lesson to learn. I am glad to pass that one on, too.

I'm sure that some version of these lessons could be found in the Bible, that is just not where I first learned them. I do believe God provided for us in all ways when writing the Bible. As I child, I remember the story of King Solomon and how he asked God for wisdom. That story etched itself on my brain and heart. I knew that God answered prayers, with the right answer, all I had to do was ask. My mother's testimony led my to my own relationship with Christ. I will write some other days (for future generations) about the wonderful examples of my immediate and extended family.

I was not homeschooled, but my parents were wonderful part-time homeschoolers (meaning I went to public school, but they taught me plenty at home). Mom was, and is, full of imagination. She passed on her love of reading to me. She is a very patient teacher. I did not learn how to find answers in public school, but my Mother taught me how. She taught me how to write my name in cursive and how to teach myself typing, both before I learned in school. My Father is skillful in woodworking. I took Shop class not only to learn, but to be closer to my Dad. I can look at my projects and remember the help and advice he gave me. There are so many wonderful things both my parents taught me, but the most important lesson was to let my children know that I not only love them because they are my children, but I value them as people. I enjoy talking with them, hearing their opinions, and I choose to be with them more often than not. I knew my parents valued me as a person, not just because I was their child. I chose my parents more often than not, because I not only love my parents, but I really like them. Thank you, God, for my parents.