Four years ago today we squeezed a triple christening in between family and fireworks, then came home and joined a church. This – religion, faith, spirituality – was important to me in my life post-marriage.

As parents, and as witnesses, when our children are baptized we make promises to be responsible for seeing to it that they are brought up in the Christian faith and life. I’ve tried to keep that promise as best I can, going to church as often as we possibly can (though sometimes we take breaks and there were several months when we stopped for personal reasons) and being as involved as my schedule allows.

Luckily for me, my children really, really enjoy going to church. And so does my husband. I’m so thankfuly God answered my prayers and sent me Darin, who has always been active in church.

When I met him, we started our journey in fatih together. He and Emma started coming to church with the kids and me near Easter 2008 and he’s been in the pew next to me ever since. In Sept. 2009, we had Emma baptized and he and I were confirmed as Episcopalians (I was Lutheran, he was Presbyterian).

This morning in church I was thinking about this, about the kids’ baptisms four years ago and how truly lucky we all are to have one another. It’s such a nice feeling.

My mom says it’s time for an update, so here we go …

1. Sports are killing me – and I’m just a spectator. Well, kinda. Cheerleading has finally wrapped (whew!) and last week all four children started soccer. We have practices on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday (until games start in a couple of weeks).

At the last minute, Darin was asked to coach in the beginners league, the 3-4 age group, and so he and our friend coach Jenna and Emma’s team. At Saturday’s practice there were a few meltdowns and once one or two start crying, it’s pretty much a wave of tears! Ha ha.

Lucky me, I’m team mom of all three teams. Gulp.

Games start in a few weeks and it looks like we’ll be spending quite a bit of time on the field, thankfully it’s pretty close.

Darin is also playing sports – basketball, softball and soccer. All at the same time. Basketball will end in April, then the men’s softball league starts. I swear he’s keeping me busier than the kids do.

One of these days I hope my family cheers me on like I do for them. That would be awesome.

2. The weather is getting more awesome by the day. The temperatures have dipped here and there, but today it was 71 degrees and beautiful. This makes practices and games more bearable, especially for the children who aren’t practicing/playing because they get to play at the playground (yay!). And that never gets old, apparently.

My allergies haven’t bothered me yet. I’m surprised by this because usually by the end of February I am entirely too miserable. I’ve been advised that taking a teaspoon of local honey (that is, honey produced within 20-30 miles of your home) can help with seasonal and nasal allergies (do you say it in the bee’s voice from the commercial like I do? lol). I’ve tried it. I don’t know if it helps, but I have yet to take my usual Claritin, Mucinex or anything else. I don’t even have any allergy medicine, come to think of it.

3. Not being miserable makes being outside tolerable. And I like tolerable. Because I can do things like playing with my new 50mm lens (used in the flower photos). The above photo was taken after I shot my first wedding of the season – and my first wedding as a pro! That was awesome. I’ve shared some of those photos over on the photog blog.

4. Jaiden is now in the gifted program at school. She’s terribly excited about it and I’m really proud of and for her. Her IQ is 119 according to the testing conducted by the school. She will now attend a special class for two hours every week (one hour per day on Tuesday and Thursday). Last week I had a meeting with her teacher and the special education staff; it was great to hear the teacher say so many great things about Jaiden and give me a little glimpse of the person she is when she is not with me. I kept thinking, “Wow, that is such an awesome person and I gave birth to her!”

5. No DNA test required, these are my children. Maybe. On Sunday it rained and the kids couldn’t play outside, so I sent them upstairs to clean their rooms instead of watching yet another episode of “Big Time Rush” (a horrible show if you ask me). While they were busy, I wasn’t feeling so hot, so I took a nap on the couch. You already know where I’m going with this, don’t you?

They woke me up, telling me that they wanted me to watch their show. This is not unusual – they’re always making up shows. But I sent them upstairs to clean, not choreograph! (My parents and Darin get so frustrated with me because I procrastinate tasks like cleaning my room – I once read the dictionary instead!) These are definitely my children, I thought.

I patiently watched the show and I’m glad I did. Jaylen’s dancing is quite hilarious (especially when you fast forward it!) and Darin and I couldn’t believe how much Jaiden stayed on beat. lol. Lo and behold, when I tucked them in at bedtime, their rooms were clean. So maybe they aren’t my children afterall. And they didn’t get their singing and dancing skills from me, either. lol.

6. All the women who are independent/Throw your hands up at me. All of my girls are struggling with wanting more independence and I’ve been struggling with giving it to them. Jaiden wants to do her own hair and choose her own clothes (she’s not the best at either) and it’s huge for me to just let go and let her do it. HUGE!

I don’t like my kids to look like ragamuffins, so I usually help them chose their clothing and do their hair. I send them back to change if they don’t match or have holes in their clothes, etc. This is natural, right? I care what my children look like when they walk out of this house because they’re a reflection of me – and I want it to be a good, accurate reflection.

Letting go has had some positive results in just a few weeks – Jaiden’s hairstyling is improving and having her friend Emily spend the night and give her a ton of hand-me-downs has helped her make better choices (read that as Emily has encouraged her to match).

Now four, both Emma and Jenna have exerted an increasing need for their own independence. Jenna is more forceful about it than anyone else right now, though. Well, she’s more aggressive than the other three, period. She now wants to do everything on her own, from buckling her own seatbelt (she’s now in a booster seat) to making her own sandwiches or pouring her own juice. I don’t ‘let go’ as much with her as I do with Jaiden simply because a four-year-old has no business pouring juice. lol.

“Nooooo, Jaylen!!!!! I WANT TO DO IT MYSELF!!!!”

This is totally priming us for the teenage years. I think it’s going to be one decade of alcoholism for me.

7. I made a cake wreck that was actually quite tasty. It was our turn to host coffee hour at church this past weekend, so I made a strawberry cake. And used icing instead of frosting. Because it’s made with powdered sugar and butter, icing doesn’t typically hold its shape; it was a mess by the time we got to church. But! It tasted pretty good. The Jewish priest (yes!) that was visiting our church said he wanted to take me home and that I deserved extra blessings! Ha.

It was pretty easy to make, too. I say that even though I had three little ones helping me make it. Check out the recipe over at our food blog, daylicious.

8. Speaking of being daylicious, we’re taking over. Kinda. Last week, Dara accepted the position of head librarian of Munford’s library! I’m so excited for her! Around here, everyone’s related and now I am finally related to someone that a lot of people will know (the rest of my family is pretty low-key). Very cool, right?

Our poor library is still stuck in the dark ages – physical card catalog still in use and the library is not computerized at all. Dara hopes to come in and change that! And the library committee has confidence in her.

Dara Gonzales: Change we can believe in!

(We’ll wait while you finish barfing over that last statement, Dara.)

She finishes her masters in May and will start here in June. She and Isaac are, of course, relocating. It will be great to have them close, but I know they are really going to miss Texas. Beach, barbeque and, most importantly, their friends and family down there. Hell, I miss their friends; they rock.

9. I am rocking this Lent thing. I gave up chocolate. Wednesday (tomorrow) will make 35 days since I’ve had any chocolate whatsoever. No Thin Mints. No brownies. No sweet, heavenly bite-sized Milky Way Midnights. No Twix. And did I mention no Thin Mints? No chocolate ice cream. No chocolate milkshakes. Not one chocolate chip cookie.

It’s been a struggle, no doubt. But it’s getting easier. I just sigh, poke my lip out and continue on my merry way. I can’t cheat on Jesus, dude. He died for me, I can go without chocolate for a few weeks.

I think my dad is torturing me, though. He knows I gave up chocolate. He likes to bring me cakes at work (YES!); sometimes I come back and find he’s left one on my desk. (What can I say? I think he gets bored when my mom’s out of town.) Yesterday I came back after lunch and a horrible accident/breaking story to find the cake carrier sitting on my desk. Inside? A yellow cake! Covered in milk chocolate frosting. Sniff. Darin is enjoying it, though. (Dad makes great cakes.)

Next weekend, though, I will get some chocolate! The end is nigh, my friends. (PS – I’m pretty proud of myself for sticking to it and learning to resist temptation, which is what this is really about.)

I’ve also been fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, eating fish or vegetarian instead of red meat. I go for at least two meals without red meat, but I do sometimes give in and have beef. I’m sorry, Jesus. Please forgive me (and see the previous four paragraphs about my much bigger sacrifice and how GREAT! I’ve been doing at resisting temptation!).

10. Better than crack and totally legal. I recently tried the spinach and artichoke cream cheese and I am IN LOVE. It is delicious! I find excuses to eat toast or bagels. Mmm.

11. It’s just a number. I know I always freak out over turning 30 this year, but my sweet Grannie has quite a few decades on me and I have never heard her complain. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is her birthday!

The number would make you think she’s an old, old lady, but she’s not; she gets around better than some people 20-30 years younger than she. She’s probably older than some of her “old ladies” she took care of when we were kids, but you wouldn’t know it.

Anyway, we all love her like crazy and feel so blessed to have her in our lives!

Grannie, you’re the best grandmother ever! We hope you have a great birthday!

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the liturgical year and the four-week celebration of the coming of Jesus Christ. Unlike in years past, this year we will be celebrating and commemorating the real reason for the season in hopes of staying grounded and focused on what really matters.

Let’s face it, it’s too easy to get wrapped up in the material part of Christmas. We, as a society, are more concerned with personal wealth than we are with our spiritual wealth (and health). We place more emphasis on Christmas gifts than we do on God’s gift to us. We live in a capitalistic society and businesses prey on this weakness, with sales for Christmas gifts and putting out items on All Saints Day. How many times have we made lists and plans for presents and parties? And how many times have we sat down to reflect on our personal relationship with Christ? (Yes, I’m guilty, too.)

I want to instill in my children the belief that Christmas isn’t just about gifts, so today Jaiden and I made an Advent wreath using bough from the evergreens bordering our property and “>framed our Advent calendar. After dinner we sat as a family and discussed this week’s celebration: hope.

I have been searching and searching and searching for information about Advent for hours and, honestly, I’ve come up pretty short. I wanted to find some ideas for activities that we could do as a family, ways we could discuss the lessons Advent is meant to teach us. I don’t want to just light candles and open windows on a calendar, I want to help explain things to them. This is going to prove difficult as I am not a great teacher without great tools.

We started by discussing birthdays and recognizing those in our family who have birthdays during the Advent season (three of us in this family, my ex-husband and also Darin’s ex-wife), then we discussed briefly Jesus’ birthday on December 25 and that Advent was a celebration of the four weeks leading to His birth(day). This opened the door to the introduction of the four candles, what they represent and when we light them. I lit the first candle, a violet one which represents hope, read Isaiah 60:2-3, discussed it with the children, then prayed:

Lord God, we light this candle to thank you for your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world. We who have sat in darkness have seen a great light, the light of Jesus Christ, our salvation. We give you thanks and praise in Jesus’ name, because he lives and reigns with you in your glory, and in the unity of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Tomorrow is Emma’s fourth birthday, so we also added in the birthday blessing from the Book of Common Prayer. We have a cardboard Advent calendar (that doesn’t contain candy, we don’t need that); tonight’s picture was an angel who I presume to be the angel Gabriel. I told them the angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her she’d bear a son and he was to be named Immanuel. Jaiden said, “MANUEL?!!”

Of course, nothing in this house happens without some sort of comic relief.

“No, not Manuel, he’s not Mexican. He was to be called IMMANUEL!” I replied. (Hello!)

We also had a discussion about hope and the children said they were hopeful that their dad would come visit (Jaiden) and their mommies would pick them up from school (both Emma and Jenna); Jaylen didn’t want to participate in the discussion, however.

We will continue to open windows on our Advent calendar each night and next week we will light another violet candle, this one symbolizing love. On my own, I will read the collects for each week and I’m following along with a blog I found during my search called Prayer, Plain and Simple. Today’s entry sums up exactly why this lesson of Advent is important, more important that pretty packages tied up with string:

The word “advent” means “coming.” But the season is not merely a time to be marked off our calendars amid all our other holiday events. For what is this Advent but an invitation given to us from Isaiah’s prophesy: behold. Look at the miracle of the Incarnation. Christ put on the fragile garment of human flesh; He lived among us, being both God and Man; He suffered and died, and He promised to return. His coming, Advent, begs the questions, what does this mean to me? How do I behold Him?

Our mission for the next four weeks, should we choose to accept it, is to define the ways in which we behold our Lord Jesus Christ. Define him in your decorating, your baking, your partying, your gifts. Make sure His presence is one of the presents you give to yourself and your family.

It sounds pretty simple: take stock of your relationship with your Creator. That’s what this is all about!

Here are some links I found relating to Advent, calendars and wreaths:

• How to make and use an Advent wreath by Rev. Ken Collins (thank you to Twitter follower G_Wake for the link)
• The Christian Season of Advent at CRI/Voice, Institute
• Praying Advent, Creighton College (there’s also a list of advent-related links on this page’s sidebar, like The Two Parts of Advent and Preparing Children for Advent)
• Countdown to Christmas with Advent Calendar for Kids, homeschooling.about.com (a great comprehensive listing of Advent and Christmas activities for the whole family)
• Advent Candles Paper Craft (for children), DLTK
• Advent resources for Catholic Moms, catholicmom.com (great resource for coloring pages, crafts, devotionals, games and more)
• And one more, from our friends in The Great White North: Andrea challenges you to make these next four weeks fun with the 25 Days of Christmas Challenge. I saw this via Sherry at Chaos Theory and thought it was a wonderful idea, but one I didn’t have time to implement. (Boo, I know!)