Our Forever Family: December 2013

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

End of Year Book Review

On Jan 1, 2011, I wrote this:

Every year, my goal is to read 52 books.

(not including the hundreds of children's books I read to my children every year)

Even though I didn't reach my goal, I did better than last year.

In 2009, I read 32 books.

In 2010, I read 40 books.

If I continue to increase by the same amount I will read 48 books in 2011 and 56 books in 2012. Although, if I were to go with these numbers, the growth would be exponential, meaning that in 2020, I would read 120 books.

That's insanity.

It's just not going to happen.

On the other hand, I am an amazonaholic. It's like putting a fully-stocked bar into an alcoholic's computer room. The access is easy and the draw is overwhelming. So, while it is possible that I would purchase or check out 120 books in 2020, I have no idea how I would find the time to read them all.

I think I will just stick with the 52 books goal.

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope you all reach your goals this year, so long as it is not something crazy, like reading 120 books in a year.

I can't support that kind of insanity.

Yep. I'm so vain that I am quoting myself. Might as well buy myself a charity and name it after me...

However, to the present point...

in 2011, I ended up reading 87 books. Far surpassing my goal of 52.

And in 2012, I read 125. Far surpassing my idea of insanity.

And in 2013, I read 141 books.

At this point, I have no idea what that makes me. What is beyond insane?

In reality, I wrote very little this year. Only a few short stories and a few entries into my latest novel. So I had more free time to disappear into other's works. But, I also had a new baby, who was colicky, which decidedly cut into normal reading time. It evened out, I guess.

However, I am in shock. I can't believe I am lucky enough to read so many creations. 141 stories. About 75% of them were worthy of my time. So many adventures. So many laughs. So many gasps of wonder and delight.

And for Christmas, I got a Kindle. Oh heavens above!

I will demur from making any predictions about how many adventures I will engage in during the next year, but I can say that I am very much looking forward to returning to some great reads and exploring new territory.

And I have decided on my dream job. I want to read for Mirror Press, Shadow Mountain, or Covenant. I love what they publish and I want to be a part of the process. Dreams today...

Baby

We are so grateful to have Baby with us.

I love that he has allowed Five to become a big brother.

I love that he loves to interact with those that he comes in contact with - through smiles and giggles.

He is not a particularly cuddly child. However, he loves to be held. But, not to snuggle. He wants action. He wants to be carried, held so he can jump, played with. He is all about movement, with very strong legs. And if he is not the center of attention, he is very good about making his wishes known. He carries on, as if to scold, 'look at me, look at me!'

And we all hop to his demands.

Here he is, playing with his brothers. They put him in the carriage and pushed him all around, giving him endless rides.

2013 has truly been good to us.

Building

The boys have been building.

Oh, how happy that makes me.

Five built a train track.

And yes that is Three on the edge in a box.

Four and Five built angry bird towers to knock down.

And they took the extra boxes and made cars and planes to journey into their imaginations.

I love when they use their creativity!

Babies

I've meant to write about this topic for quite some time but, alas, I have four wild boys and time is in short supply most days.

So I'll will sum up this little quirk of society that I can't help but notice.

I have four children, which is considered near mad where we live. There is a heavy Asian influence in our area but I am not convinced that this oddity is just cultural pattern because of that. We also have large Persian, Indian, and Jewish populations and they also tend to find the idea of four children rather insane. Well...except the Jewish population perhaps. I think the local ones tend to be larger than normal as as we have two synagogues in the neighborhood I have ample opportunity to see them out as families as they walk to and from worship every Saturday. Anyway, the point is that - yes we live in an unusual place that is populated with many people who are visiting from other countries for a few years or culturally and historically tend toward smaller family sizes. And yet, I wonder if this phenomenon that I am about to describe is becoming more common place around the country in general.

Back to my four children. I am one of the few mothers in the entire elementary school population that can boast of having three or more children. Seriously. Only a handful of families have more than two. Two is the norm. And one is more popular than three or more. Many of my Asian friends are astonished and have indicated that from where they come from (mostly Japan, Korea, and China) that they are unusual among their friends to have two children. And I have the courage to have four. Yes, they often tell me that they are impressed that I would choose that many. So I don't think they are being rude, just sort of awestruck. Even most of my Indian friends have only two. Whatever size of family they choose is fine by me. However it works out, works out.

Since I have had Baby though, I have noticed that the children that go to school with my kids (who mostly come from one or two children homes) find babies to be rockstars. Six is extremely popular as a result. Most of the kids know him by name and come up to talk to him and ask to touch him all the time. I cannot walk with Baby without gaggles of elementary school children following me and asking how Baby is.

At first I thought that it was because he was new and exciting. But it still happens. Some of the children are even brave enough to ask to hold Baby. Then I realized why this was happening. When you come from a one or two child home - by the time you hit elementary school age, babies around you are a thing of the past or a rarity. I started looking around the school and realized how few babies all of these elementary-aged children come into contact with on a regular basis.

On the one hand it made me sad. On the other hand I understand what a true blessing every baby is. And now when kids ask to talk to Baby or touch Baby, I understand why they are so enamored.

I am grateful that my own children have so many brothers to play with at any given time of the day. But then I think about Baby. He is the last. And when he is elementary-aged he will no longer be around babies. He will be like all these other children.

So...in five or six years, I will have to make doubly sure that we have friends with babies so he too can see what an amazing gift a baby is to be around. And that, in itself, might just make me considered mad. More so, that raising four kids in the first place.

Oh well...the things we do for our kids...

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Beach Day - December

We went to the beach. In December. And it was beautiful.

We had a goal to go at least once every month this year. We did pretty well. Only missed November.

Not bad.

Baby decided to be a Johnny Boyd Beach Baby for the day. Yes. He is wearing a Johnny Boyd onesie. They actually had these. So fun!

So one of Johnny Boyd's songs has the line "...I'm going to buy myself a charity and name it after me..." It is from his Twisted and Turned around song about how you kind of end up in a different place that you expected. Anyway, I thought it was particularly funny to have onesie's and t-shirts with your likeness on them - when you can write great lines like that above....

At any rate, Baby loved sporting the crooner on his chest.