Still plugging along almost 3 years behind on blog posts. Maybe I can make it my summer project to catch up to current time since Piper will be almost 2 then and potentially easier to entertain than last summer? At any rate, I'll try to keep up my paragraph or 15 minute a day habit of working on it until I get some extra time to work on it. I love looking back on these seasonal posts too much to just give up on 3 years of our lives! So here I go!
Remember when we were getting Covid stimulus packages?? Well, we decided to use one of our stimulus packages for a new playset for the kids. The old one we had was given to us by our neighbors and it had seen it's day and was falling apart. The kids adore the new one!! I can say 3 years later they still use it daily! No regrets on this purchase.
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| He gave the best hugs! |
Alright. I'm trying to keep most notes on here short, but I can't keep this section short. One year after my grandfather's passing we were finally able to hold a celebration service of his life. We attended his Veteran's Service the day before the Celebration service. It was done so well and we were all crying. Just following the Veteran's service my dad said he wanted to try to find Papa's gravestone. As we arrive at the grave site we were surprised to find the worker had just finished digging the hole for Papa's ashes. He asked us if Mama wanted to lower it in and if each of us wanted to add the first bit of dirt on top to say goodbye. It was so sweet of him to offer and it touched us all. I can't write about it without tearing up. My grandmother lowered the ashes in and my mom helped steady her. The rest of us took turns adding a bit of dirt to start, not a dry eye around. It was not what we had expected, but it was wonderful. The next day was definitely just as emotional if not more. My grandmother had asked if anyone in the family would speak at the celebration service for Papa. All of us could say a lot, but not many wanted to do it in front of a crowd. I said I would. I'm so glad I did! When I got up to give my speech I was definitely nervous, I had barely gotten in my seat before my name was called. (a mix up about how childcare was taken care of delayed us) It may have been better to go up there right away and not give myself too much to think about beforehand anyway. Once I got started with the speech I calmed some. I only broke down to cry one time! My cousin's son Colin also gave a speech. I asked specifically to go first as to not follow the super sweet kid! (in fact the speaker after Colin did say "How can I follow that?!") He did amazing!! We were all so impressed. A few parts of Colin and my speeches had similarities. The biggest ones were that Papa had a way of making people feel special and cared for and that we both wanted to follow his example of loving others well. The whole service had people coming up to share just how caring and wonderful my grandfather was. It was a beautiful service. People came up to me and told me how well I did with my speech and I specifically remember my dad had such praise for me and praise from him is not easily achieved. God gave me the words to say and the courage to say it and for that I am grateful.
I would like to share the entirety of my speech here so I have it somewhere other than just sitting on my hard drive. Maybe it can help my grandfather's love and care for everyone continue to inspire others to do the same.
Hi, My name is Christy Daniels, daughter of Gary and Marianne, The youngest grandchild of
Joyce and Paul. They have always been known to me as Mama and Papa.
When I started thinking about what I would say about Papa I wasn’t sure because there is so
much I could say! So I tried to think about what he would want me to say.
It’s not hard to know what was most important to Papa because he made sure he told us when
he found out he had cancer. The most important thing to him was to make sure we knew God
and Jesus Christ as our savior before he left us. So with that in mind What I want to focus on is
my last conversation with him. Which consisted mostly of us sharing our testimonies with each
other.
He grew up going to church with his family. Around the age of 10 he responded to an alter call
to give his life to Jesus. He says he had been feeling the call for awhile but was too shy to go up
to the front. One Sunday he took the first step down the aisle and the next thing he knew he
was at the front. That was the beginning of his personal relationship with God.
Then He went on to say to have true repentance you have to know you are a sinner. For him his
sin was he was a thief. Nothing big, but he’d steal a quarter from his mom’s purse or a candy bar
from the store. And he’d get caught by his dad who was quite the disciplinarian. It didn’t make
him stop it just made him better at getting away with it. So now he wasn’t just a thief but a liar
too.
He said around 13 or so he started feeling like he needed to change this about himself, but
didn’t know how. So he prayed for God to change him since he couldn’t change and conquer
this sin on his own. The change wasn’t overnight but a few months went by and then he
realized the urge to steal was gone and on the rare times it did come up he had to power to say
no.
From there his relationship with God grew. I know he felt he had many other failures, but he
kept learning and he never let those failures defeat him. He never stopped growing and getting
closer to God.
When he finished his testimony Mama asked me to share my own. I was touched to realize it
was actually very similar. When I was very young I prayed with my mom and accepted Jesus into
my heart. But around the age of 13 I realized I had a problem with sin. It was anger and pride. I
would let anger control me and I used my words to bring others down to feel better than them.
I didn’t want to change, but I felt God telling me it wasn’t ok to follow Him and have this in my
life. So I asked God to change me since I could not do it on my own. And just like Papa, it wasn’t
overnight but months later I realized anger didn’t control me anymore and I now hated to make
someone feel bad. I still struggle with anger and pride at times, but I do not live in slavery to it.
God gave me and Papa victory over sin. And all we had to do was have a willing heart and ask
for him to change us. I know He can do the very same thing for you! In honor of Papa I am
asking you to join me and examine your heart and ask God if you need his help to change
something in your life that needs to change in order for you to love God and others better.
I can’t speak about Papa and not talk about the impact he had on me. Everything reminds me of
all the things he did for me: from my walls he helped paint, the blinds he hung in my windows,
to the van that I drive. The one he called and offered to me having no knowledge that my car
had broken down that same day.
It wasn’t just me he did things like that for. Everyone in the family has stories like those. It even
extended beyond family because everyone he cared for was like family to him. You didn’t have
to be blood for him to care for you like family.
He was always thinking of us and how he could do more for us and others.
He had this unique ability to make everyone feel special. Even if you knew someone else was
special to him that didn’t make you feel any less special in his eyes. He made everyone feel
special in a real and personal way. I imagine this is a small glimpse of how we’re all special to
God. Somehow he figured out how to do it in a human way and I think we should do our best to
follow his example.
This whole past year I’ve kept thinking that I can’t believe he’s not here anymore. I know this
might sound cliched, But really he is. He has left a legacy of doing good and it is carried on
through all of the lives that his kindness touched. We are who we are because of him. And I for
one am very glad. The good that he accomplished in his life was and is eternal.
I will say I’m always going to miss his great hugs, his smiling face when I walked through the
door, the way he said my name, his Donald Duck voice and many other things, but mostly I’ll
miss the general warmness he carried with him everywhere he went and how he loved so well.
I’d like to end with this Bible verse.
Philippians 1:6
being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it
until the day of Jesus Christ
Phew, that was good to get out, but emotional and heavy. So let's follow that up with something light! By this time in March 2021, I was fully back into anime with Sam! I love Attack on Titan so much I had to get myself a shirt! Still one of my favorite shirts. We started our anime date nights on Saturdays and began reading manga together around this time too. I think our first series to read together was Demon Slayer. We have read many more Manga series together since. I love it!!
Xan was about to turn 3 and she basically potty trained herself. She was ready! She is the youngest of mine to potty train and was probably the easiest to get the hang of the gist of it, but also had the most regression weeks where we would have lots of accidents. So I probably still prefer a 3 1/2 age for potty training because I will take dealing with diapers over cleaning up accidents any day. She still did very well! Proud of my girl!
A little home school update here! Jane was in 1st grade and read Go Dog Go all on her own! She still would not read unless I required it though. Atlas knew 36 sight words in preschool and finished up his first three preschool explode the code books! I was very pleased with their progress!
Thanks to a great tax refund (I think it was still apart of Covid relief efforts) we were able to replace our old roof and fix a beam that was sagging. It was such a burden lifted off of my shoulders. It was something I knew needed to be done, but I wasn’t sure how to afford it. I know we are paying for it now in inflation, but I’m still glad it helped pay for our roof when we needed it.
Our homeschool group had an Easter party! The kids had fun hunting some eggs. I don’t remember anything else about the event other than it was Flynn’s first hunt experience.
I really do enjoy Easter. We do a small family celebration with basically no obligations! I hide eggs, the kids love finding them and we go to Cici’s for lunch. Usually we do confetti eggs later that day or the day after. All very relaxed and fun!
Alexandria turned 3!! This was when I changed birthday’s from parties to experiences, so Xan got a tiny party with co-op and then a trip to the Zoo which as you can tell from the pictures, she adored!! I need to take her back. I think this was the last time we were there. After our zoo trip we went back home to rest and do cake and presents at our house then back out to Marmee’s house for a birthday swim and Marmee’s present! She loved her day! <3
My only note here is Beautiful spring park days. We love park day!!! Alexandria learned to climb the rock wall. Woohoo!
We made it to the MOCO Fair!! The kids loved it! All of it! Grateful my mom could come with me to keep up with everyone. Look at all their smiles. Makes me happy to see them happy. I enjoyed it too though! Jane was big enough to ride some of the big rides with me! I have my thrill seeking buddy. So much fun! We can’t wait to go this year!
Since I have no where else to catalog my drawing journey I thought I may as well do it here! From my first drawing of Levi for Sam's Birthday I had found a new hobby! I realized I loved drawing anime characters. It had been a childhood dream of mine and now that I was finally capable of it I was hooked! I drew every chance I got! The guy above with the white hair and blindfold is Gojo and I drew him in about 15 minutes while Jane was doing independent school work. Probably my fastest drawing ever. Not my best of course, but I just still couldn’t believe I could do it! I drew Goku the night before my speech for Papa. It helped me relax and he is such a lighthearted yet courageous character. It helped me relax and gave me courage! By the time I drew Rengoku, firey hair guy, Sam told me he thought I was better than I knew and I should buy actual drawing tools. Like maybe there was something better for me to use than just sharpies and the kids crayons. So I did and I couldn’t believe when I finished Shikamaru that he looked almost exactly like I wanted him too. My dad thought I had just colored it not drawn the whole thing. I thought that was a pretty good compliment. Sam was not surprised, in a really supportive way. He knew if I had the right tools I was capable of that kind of drawing. His confidence in my abilities spurred me on to try drawings I didn’t think I could do! Friends have told me they are impressed with my drawings and that has been so encouraging, but I always like to follow that up with telling them I believe my abilities are just from trying, learning, spending time on it and having the right tools! Having an open mindset is key. I believe anyone is capable of creating great drawings because just a few years ago I was only capable of stick figures. ;) If I can do it, you can too!! If you really want to learn to draw, I believe in you! Don’t give up.
Before I had my nice drawing tools I would do the outline in sharpie and color it with crayons. Once I had my new tools I started my drawings with an outline using a mechanical pencil. (seen above) I was still learning to make light strokes that I could erase. When I finished the outline I traced over with a micron pen and erased the pencil lines. I finished by coloring with Bianyo alcohol-based markers. Later on I bought some Prismacolor colored pencils that I used to add extra details and more shading to the coloring of my drawings as well. I documented my new drawing process while I drew Tanjiro. I lose track of time when I draw. It’s something I enjoy so much!
A few weeks after Easter we had our annual hunt at Marmee and Pappaw's house! Pappaw always has such great hiding places. The kids were really excited to find the money egg!
We made it out to our friend Ariella’s party! The kids had such a fun time! I was so obsessed with drawing at this point that I was making cards every chance I got! Nowadays I can only find time to make my own kids' birthday cards. One day I’d like to get back to making everyone cards. Maybe I will once I finally catch up with my blog. Haha!
Just the next day I went to my sweet friend Mel's baby shower! I took Jane with me and she got to play with a couple of her friends while we were there. I specifically remember talking about feeling really good with my decision to have just 4 kids. Little did I know Piper would be on her way at the end of this same year.
Jane got to have a fun play date with her besties, Paige and Cambrie after gymnastics one day. They had such a fun time dressing up together!
On Mother's day Sam's brother Travis was in town with his sons because his wife Cerena was working a market that weekend in Houston. They came to hang out with us while Cerena was working. Sam grilled, the kids played, it was good. Have I mentioned before that I don't like mother's day? It just all feels so forced and why do we want a break from being a mother for mother's day? It doesn't make sense. Plus, which mother gets celebrated most? Me? My own mother, my grandmother? It's just not my fav. But I do love to do a Mother's day questionnaire with the kids. I love to hear their answers.
My notes here are: Jane is truly helping with dinner now, not just playing at helping. I also wrote that I feel like we had a pretty set routine and work is finally feeling really good with my new job.
We had not been good about flossing for a while. We seem to go in and out of the habit for some reason. One night Atlas came out from his room and complained that his tooth hurt. I thought it was just another excuse to get out of bed, but when I took a look at where he told me it hurt I saw his tooth was turning grey! I couldn't believe I hadn't caught it before it had gotten to that point. We quickly got into the dentist and had to get a pediatric dentist recommendation to have the work done. He did well, it got fixed. He's just got some silver caps on 3 molars until those baby teeth fall out much later.
It was Jane's 7th birthday! Apparently it was a really rainy day. (That’s what my notes tell me) So we pretty much stayed inside and just did presents and cake on her actual birthday. Jane loved to go through the car wash so we did it a few days later when the rain had gone away. She enjoyed her day! She wanted one last big party before I stopped doing parties, so we kept it simple on her birthday.
We finally got to go back inside the library!! It was the first time in a year and a half! I had been avoiding the library since a month before Flynn was born. As soon as I was ready to take my little baby inside the library Covid showed up and closed down the library. :( we missed it soooo much!! It was so good to be back!
We had a big ol’ pool party for Jane's 7th birthday party complete with a homemade Elsa cake! I think all the friends she really wanted to be there were able to make it! It made for a great party. She loved it!! We all had a great time but man, looking back at this I am so glad that I don’t do parties anymore!! Yes, it's fun, but it's so much planning and it's exhausting for me, especially since I would have to plan now 5 birthday parties each year! I enjoy the experiences so much more. I look forward to planning the experiences they want to do. It's so much less pressure.
1 John 4:7-8
Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
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