A Lesson From 100 Years Ago - Wild Wednesday

I have died a thousand deaths at the sound of a knock at the door.

And even as I write this, I've got yesterday's mascara bleeding with my attempt of last nights sleep, my bathroom isn't clean, and there is no fresh coffee brewing... oh, and there is laundry that needs folding on my couch.  So by all means stay away.

Have we become so deluded with ourselves and absorbed with our pride?  Yes.  Yes we have.

In the days of ol', they had their share of hardships, but they did get somethings very right.

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Hospitality.  Relationships. 

Pop-ins were the norm and living together (community-wise) was expected.  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were a given and all the merrier if someone unexpected showed up.  There were still dishes that needed done, bathrooms that needed cleaning and coffee that needed brewing... there was grace offered by friends when they showed up to something resembling chaos.  After all, in the between of spontaneous joys, there is a whole lot of living.  Especially in this humble home of six, soon-to-be seven.

In today's race of measuring up, we rush and stretch and bend and close our eyes.  We die a thousand deaths at the ring of a phone or, heaven forbid, the unexpected sound of the doorbell.  Is it the subconscious thought, "Who wants more of me now?"  Our homes and our heads are in constant turmoil... our children, alone, hunger for food and for time devoted to more than glances and shoulder brushes.  And now we have to make room for more?

Maybe it's actually a case of making room for less...  less idleness.  Less meaningless.  Less apathy.

Less dreaming and more doing.

Less Facebook and Pinterest - More folding clothes and preparing my day.

Less texting - More intentional, meaningful, human contact....  Realness.

So no more dying... Duties and messes and kids in all their wonder are a given, but despite them, my doors - my coffee pot - my fridge, even! - is always open.

Come and make my day.

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Wild Wednesday Returns --

Make someone's day.  Open your home this week.  MAKE THE TIME.  It does not need to be fancy in the least, but do make it special.

It can be as elaborate as a 5 course meal with fancy linens and a violinist... or for the more simple-minded like myself, a pot of coffee or a fresh quart of chai concentrate and maybe some muffins or cookies.  Or for dudes: some cans of mountain dew and a bag of chips...

Whatever shape it takes, it's the intention and relationship that is at the heart of it.  If you burn your cookies... that's all the better!  You are a fallable human and there are no fronts or pride you need to hold on to.  Open your home... and you just might find your heart opening too!

Remember it's about being real.  This isn't a time to showcase your biggest and best and get caught up in keeping up.  They have a daughter who won a talent contest (maybe it was even 10 years ago!)?  That is great!  Really great. ---->  .

So, off you go!  Make it happen!  You'll be blessed because of it.

*I do love hearing from you!  If you take on this weeks challenge, comment back and let me know... how'd it go?  What did you do?

Into the Wild Blue Yonder - Wild Wednesday

The torrent of bird calls outside bids the windows to open despite the still unfriendly temperatures.  I can't stand the sound when it spills from speakers playing "nature sounds", but the trueness of nature, flooding in through the open windows, is a pure delight. 

We welcome you, Spring, with all your splendor!

We did our best to put the rush on Spring... we made pinecone bird feeders and planted flower seeds.  With warmer temps and rain, rain, rain, instead of snow, snow, snow... I'd say we're getting there! 

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This week will be an adventure!  The family that explores together, soars together... (like it?)

 

Meet in the driveway with a picnic, a sweater, and a sense of adventure. 

Load up and head off (or, if you are walking -- just head off) into the "Wild Blue Yonder" (how far and for how long will depend on your whim and schedule -- and perhaps gas tank!).  Decide once you are on your way where you are headed!  Aim for somewhere you've never been... a tour of the city or head for the hills and scout for your first camping spot of the season.  Lord willing the weather is good and you can dine on your picnic when you "arrive" at your destination.  Be sure to regale each other with strange travel tales along the way!  Not that creative??  I'm not!  Make sure to take some fun travel books, or tell a make-it-up-as-you-go story where everyone gets a turn telling a portion of the story... 

ENJOY EACHOTHER! 

Be blessed as you make an effort to focus more on the joys of being a family vs. the struggles of it...

Come back and share where you ended up... I'd love to hear it!

-Alicia Grace

Rush the Spring - Wild Wednesday

"Where's my tie?"

In with Eligh.

"Uh... Mom?  I need a belt."

Haha! Yes you do! Unfortunately, it is also in with the little sleeping beauty...

"My tights??"

Why didn't you guys get all your things out before I put her down?

"I don't know..."

"I don't know..."

"ME DON'T KNOW EITHER!"

As doing something as effort-full as this usually goes... we were short on time and everyone needed something. 

Everything needed ironed. Oh, and we should be leaving now, but no one's hair is done. And make-up.

We manage.

We made our way out the door, through six inches of snow, in our fanciest of attire and in to town for lunch at Pizza Hut.  Boy howdy, do we ever know how to do fancy!

It was a big day after all...  Not only were we celebrating life as us, but we had a couple of readers on our hands that had earned their Book-it's last month!

Here are a couple of pictures of another participating Wild Wednesday family!

I love it!! Thanks for sharing!

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On to this weeks Family Fun Challenge!

In honor of this weeks snow, today's challenge is: "The Spring Rush" from a book called "Let's Make a Memory (here).

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Choose at least one but, if you are so inclined to do more, please do! 

Before Spring actually arrives, watch for it's promises.  When the snow is still on the ground in late February or early March:  (All you fun-in-the-sun-all-year-'round bunnies, just play along, would you?)

• Pick limbs of pussy willows and bring them inside.  Put them in water and watch spring pop out!
• Pick forsythia (click here for picture) or any other limb at the first sign of budding, and bring it in and put in water
• Plant tulip, daffodil, or hycinth bulbs inside.  Keep them watered and in a sunny window.
• Fill the house with construction paper daisies.  Tape them to windows, doors, refrigerator, and hang them with thread from the ceilings, etc....
• Welcome the birds with suet, tiny balls of meat, and seeds.
• Cut off the tops of milk cartons. Fill the carons with soil and plant dwarf marigold seeds.  They come up and grow quickly, and they may even be ready to bloom by the time it is warm enough to transplant them outside!
• Have a contest of Spring First's.  Make a sign from a poster board or chalk board, etc... and title it "Spring Firsts".  Place it in a prominent place in your home.  Discuss typical signs of Spring and make a list on the board. (Ex: A Robin, a tree blossom, green grass, crocus, etc...)  Then, as the season starts to change, little by little, everyone is to be on the look out for the items on the list.  Whoever is the first to spot a "first sight of Spring" gets to put their name next to it.  Make it a competition or just make it a fun way to explore God's gift of SPRING together!

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It has taken a bit of extra effort and a lot of just plain committing to do these challenges, but I (and my husband and children as well) have been exceedingly blessed by doing these simple things once a week! 

I can't wait to get a rush on Spring!

Alicia Grace

Make it Fancy -- Wild Wednesday

Rushing. Hurry. Rush. Rush. Go.

Wake up.

Morning routine

Eat. Eat. Eat!

School. Quick! Let's go.

Cousin's, Grammey's and friend's for the days. For the nights.

And again.

With a week like that, doing our Backwards Day challenge was a joy.

I'm a little off in the mornings to begin with, but our 13 month old had one of her worst nights yet due to a fever, so I decided to forgo the plan to have hamburgers for breakfast and make grilled ham and cheese instead.

(The picture did not turn out!)

We wore our clothes backwards, walked backwards most everywhere,  and said "thankyou" instead of "please" and "please" instead of "thankyou"...  I tried teaching Nia pig-latin.  She memorized a few key words. "I hay Racie gay and Ade Zay!"

My oldest son got to go snowboarding with his dad that day, so he missed out on most of the fun (I have a  feeling he didn't miss it too bad!).  My three year old wouldn't have anything to do with putting his clothes on the wrong way or even walking backwards, and the baby would have just been more effort for the sake of my satisfaction... So, it was just Daughter and me. 

We headed off for lunch and a prayer meeting at my sis-in-laws, so the cousins got to join our fun for a few hours.

We had breakfast for dinner -- biscuits and gravy.  Homemade.  Can I say that, for me, there is something deeply satisfying about making something from scratch and seeing it transform into something pretty?  Whether in the kitchen our in the craft room.  I got way happy from our breakfast-for-dinner long before I took my first bite!

The two that were home wanted to sleep on the floor to end Backwards Day with a bang.

Brother came home smiling from ear to ear.  He had fun.  I know this to be true for that was the one repetative statement that kept coming out of his mouth accompanied by an unfading grin.

He didn't want to sleep on the floor.

After boarding all day... 

I can totally understand that.

What a way to tell my kids with actions how much I love them. We had fun together.  It is so much easier to just get through the day.  Rush through the day... days, with those extra pieces of luggage that almost seem like figments at times.  Our children.  Slow down, I urge you, even if it is just from time to time, though, the more often the better.  Make a moment special if not a whole day. 

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This weeks challenge is "Have a Fancy Dinner", inspired by none other that the expert on all things fancy herself: Fancy Nancy.  (I highly recommend the book!)

Dress up in your Sunday best, black tie formal, or for those truly extravagant, do it Fancy Nancy style.

Decorate you dining room table to the hilt...

or again, for those more extrovert family types, go out! 

Dress up, then go out for pizza, or Chinese, or even "Oo la la, Italian"...

What fun!

If anyone participates in this weeks challenge or even if you still want to do last weeks challenge this week,  I'd love to see pictures!  I'll have to figure out how to make it so you can upload your pics to these posts.

So go on now... make some memories!

Who wants to have some fun? A first for Wild Wednesday's...

It is late.

Ben is hard at work -- trying out stain stripper on that three inch border around the floor I was telling you about.

My house is in a massive state of disarray... but it's all getting moved anyway.  So here I sit...

My three older "little chicks" are tucked in and fast asleep in mom and dad's bed.  The little is, unbeknownst to her, though curled up and far away in dreamland, all alone.

Now, in the quiet of this evening, I am finding the Lord is doing some work on this hard woman.

I need to slow down, I need to laugh more, I need to be patient, I need to play.  When did I stop enjoying what I have right now and lose my focus completely to the future?

Can we enjoy right now again?  Can I be thankful for the grubby unwashed hands that just plunged into my bread dough because those hands couldn't resist the opportunity to help?  Can I laugh instead of the frightening opposite of laughter?  The answer is yes.  Though I do prefer thoroughly washed hands before food handling... life with children happens... frequently.  Oh how I do adore those short, but skillfully created people God entrusted to me!! 

In the midst of our hasty days for the forseeable future, I would like to dedicate Wednesday's to a family fun challenge.  Not all of us are renovating on an impossible time frame, but we all are too busy.  So here's to actually acting on what our heart's are crying out for: More time for what actually matters.  More time for the Lord, His Word.  More time for our spouses, our children.  More time to breathe with out the invisible push from behind...

Let's have some real fun -- together.

WILD WEDNESDAY #1:

Backwards Day -
This is an easy one when time really is crunched.  A simple way to connect with and amuse your kids (and yourselves!).  This can be as simple as just switch breakfast with dinner - or - as complex as walking backward everywhere you go, wearing your clothes backwards, or anything else wild and wacky you can come up with!  The wierder the better! A real hit... this one is!

So off you go... make it happen between now and next Wednesday. 

*Please comment below when you have hosted your very own "Backwards Day" and let us know how it went/what your children thought/what the funnest part was.  I can't wait to hear from you!

Big day tomorrow... Good night!

Alicia Grace