Longies

well, I finished Rowan's longies.... and they're huge on her! Oh well. I learned a lot, and I'll keep working on them. She can grow into them. Know that I know how they work, I can change them around to hopefully fit better. They were really easy. I also just tried to throw together a hat for her. Made up my own pattern... well that was too small. It's a newborn size. feels like I can't do anything right. I'll keep it too, put it in my nb box for the next baby.

I figure I'll keep up with my Christmas plans here. I have a majorly hard time enjoying Christmas. The whole thing just depresses me. Everyone expects the house to get decorated, carols playing in the background, a tree, perfectly trimmed, brimming with presents. Reality is, my house doesn't get decorated, everything I try to put up, the children trash. If I try to put out decorations, they become toys, swings, etc. Christmas carols, I really don't like them, never have. I can think of 2 I like. The Carol of the Bells, and Silent Night. Tree: see decorating. I love the look of glass ornaments, can't have them, they get smashed. I go with the plastic ones, they break them. I try having them make ornaments, it turns into a fight because "Liberty has the purple and won't share, Michael got more glitter than Natasha, Jamie's jealous of Noah's paper." And the presents? highly overrated in my opinion. Last year, every toy we got the kids, or that the grandparents got the kids, all but 2 were broken by the end of the week. What is the point? It's just wasteful. It's depressing. I remember being excited over the McDonald's gift certifcate my grandmother would send me every Christmas, the puzzles I got, and nothing was more amazing than a brand new coloring book and new crayons. Now, there is so much fighting for children's attention and parent's money, it's just not worth the effort. And we try very hard not to focus on things, but it is still so saturated. My children are noticing. When Christmas items are in the store before the middle of Oct, they don't like it either. But then the cataloges come, and the toy displays in the stores, and the whining begins. I will be the first to admit, my children are not up on all the most popular toys, that is by design, but marketing is marketing.

Well, this year is different. I told the children a month ago, that the money we would spend on junk for us is going to a much better cause this year. The $100 we would normally spend on the kids is going to Gospel For Asia. I sat down and showed them how we could give animals to help the Untouchable class in India have something to eat, to raise, to share. How we could give a sewing machine for $80 to provide a trade and income for a family. How for $25, we could provide a water filter to improve their water to help them stay well. The children were enthralled. Now, lest my mom thinks my kids aren't getting anything for Christmas, they'll be getting new gloves, new night clothes, and some new books. Things that will be used, things that can last. I think it's good for them to take from the overabundance that we have, and to keep less for themselves, and help those who have nothing.