If by Rudyard Kipling

I've been on a Rudyard Kipling fix recently.  His poems have been calling out to me as I think about this coming year.  My kids are growing.  We are moving past the raising young kids phase.  I don't like it but to everything there is a season, so I have to acknowledge the passing of time and embrace the next phase.  This poem has been a bacon to me most of my life and I hope to pass the message onto my growing children as well.  As I welcome each year with excitement as well as slight trepidation, I think back and look forward, I find comfort in this message.  Welcome 2011.  

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son! 

Happy Anniversary to us!

13 years ago we got married.  Best decision I ever made.  

Photo taken at our wedding lunch, the day before we got married.  Look how happy he is to soon be married to me.  (Or maybe one of his brothers was making wise cracks during the photo.)  

Things that make me happy recently

Things have been fun and busy around here.  Below are a few things that have made this a fun December.

I turned 38 this month and my friends remembered me well.  Their gifts showed me that they know me and love me.  I got various gift cards to fast food places, a pedicure gift card and below is the highlight--a Diet Coke t-shirt.  I laughed out loud.  Too funny.

I have three "dead zones" in my house where clutter seems to gather almost without warning.  Yesterday, I got two of the three completely clean.  

My butler's pantry and guest bedroom bed.  (Yes, I know there are somethings still on the bed, but one is an item I need to mail to my parents and the other is 11 year scout stuff.  I still need to figure out what to do with it . . .)

Puzzles out everywhere.  I love that my kids LOVE doing puzzles and I love during the Christmas break how they seem to be everywhere.

And of course, snow.  My Swedish cells are singing because of all of this glorious snow.  

If you need a good fun benign Christmas romance, I would recommend, "A Prairie Christmas Collection."  I picked it up at my grocery store and they have been perfect for a lighthearted easy, December read.

Somehow I am not teaching my kids correct principles . . .

This morning, I was cleaning my house and noticed the following:

My fire place mantle

My tree with presents all around

My Christmas village houses are set up (I have two or three houses "sets" up all around the house).

And then I discovered this, my Nativity scene all piled up, in disarray on a Christmas plate.  Everything else I have cautioned and warned my kids not to touch.  I neglected to inform them to show reverence and love to the most important, sacred, reason for the season, one item that clearly represents what Christmas is all about, item in the house.  

The Best Cup of Hot Chocolate I ever had.

This morning, after dropping my kids off at school, I drove through the McDonald's drive thru and purchased a cup of their hot chocolate.  We got fresh snow last night and there is nothing better than a cup of warm hot chocolate after a fresh round of snow.  If you are curious, they make really good hot chocolate and it got me thinking back to a time about 13 years ago, when I had the best cup of hot chocolate ever.

It was November, Dentist husband and I were engaged and soon to be married in December.  We both had cars that had been given to us by our parents and we decided in order to save money on car insurance, we would get rid of one of the cars.  I had a 1985 Honda Civic Wagon and he had a Plymouth Sundance America.  My husband's little sister was soon to get her driver's license and we agreed to give her the car.  So, over my husband's (then fiancé's) Thanksgiving break from dental school, we headed out over the mountains between Colorado and Utah to drive it to her.

The car had one little hitch.  The heater had quit working.  We discussed this problem beforehand and thought, "The engine still gets hot.  Once the car has been driven for a while, we are sure the radiant heat from the engine will warm the inside of the car."  Just to be safe, we packed extra blankets and of course our winter coats.

For some reason, we decided to do this trip in the middle of the night.  It is an eight hour drive and I remember we went to bed early, (as in right after work and school) and he came and got me at around 2:00 am.  We might have been trying to drive ahead of a snow storm but I can't really remember.  What stands out about the trip was how dang cold it got.  The inside of the car NEVER warmed up.

I was actually better off than Dentist husband because I wasn't driving and I was wrapped up head to toe in a blanket.  But poor Dentist husband had to drive and while he had his coat on, he really couldn't drive a stick shift with a blanket wrapped around his legs.  At first we just pretended like it wasn't that cold.  We tried to "talk" our way through the cold.  We shared stories; we laughed and we joked about the cold.  We even started to sing some songs, hoping it would distract us from the cold.  Unfortunately, as the hours went on, we were driving higher and higher up the mountains to colder and colder temperatures.  We were freezing.  We were grumpy.  It took too much energy to talk.  We had reached a point where we just had to endure.

In Glenwood Springs, CO, we stopped for gas.  Dentist husband looked at me and said, "Do you want a cup of hot chocolate?"  I said, "No."  At this point, I was in my cocoon of suffering and nothing was going to improve it.  Dentist husband came out with a tall styrofoam cup filled with chocolate powder stirred in hot water.  You could still see the paste of chocolate around the inside edges of the cup.  I put it to my lips and started to drink.  Dentist husband did the same thing.  In 10 minutes, I was warm inside.  I couldn't believe it and neither could my husband.  We started talking again.  At first, it was just a few uttered words, "I'm warm."  It later turned into sentences about the amazing event that had taken place.  One hot beverage had warmed us from the inside and made the trip warm again.  I even checked the heating vents to see if maybe the heat had spontaneously started working again.  No, it was just the hot chocolate and the amazing power of a hot beverage.  The rest of the trip was uneventful.  The sun came out around 6:00 am and helped warm up the car.  It actually felt balmy as we drove through snow up Highway 6 toward my husband's home.  We made it to Salt Lake City in great spirits.  All because of one cup of hot chocolate.

So, you see to this day, that is the BEST cup of hot chocolate I have ever partaken.  Hot chocolate has never been the same for me since.

I could feel it coming . . .

I could feel it coming, it was like my body was trying to tell me something and I was ignoring it.  Like most people, my November/December has been packed with holiday activities.  I have tried to be rational and realistic and turned down many requests to attend functions, help with certain things, etc.  I tried to only fill my days with good, important things.  This past Monday, my body was saying, "Slow down."  I ignored it.  My child got the stomach flu on Tuesday night and I spent the whole Wednesday with her on my lap (between getting up and trying to get things done).  I thought that was my day of rest.

Friday was very busy but I managed to relax in the evening, watching Elf with my kids and husband.  Saturday morning, I felt yucky, but who doesn't feel yucky after staying up late, eating like crap and enjoying her kids company?  Saturday afternoon (while at the Dicken's Festival watching my daughter dance), I really started to feel yucky.  I rationalized, "It is the weather.  The crowd is loud and busy.  I'm not getting sick."  Saturday evening, after another family movie night, "A Christmas Carol", it hit me.  My body said, "No more."

I won't go into the details but I couldn't really leave the bathroom for about 10 hours.  That was it.  I gave in.  I called in a sick day.  I stayed in my PJ's all Sunday.  I took three long hot baths.  I read a very silly Christmas romance novel.  I didn't drink my many Diet Cokes I have been using to get through the day. (Gatorade was the only "safe" choice.)   I just sat.  It was pure heaven.   Dentist husband got it.  He completely took care of the kids, meals and all.  

Today, I woke up feeling normal.  More normal than I have in DAYS.  I get it.  My body was talking and telling me to slow down.  I said no and my body said, "Well then, I will make you slow down."  I'm just grateful it only took one day to recover.  And yes, tonight, we are all going to bed early.  :)

Gorham Melon Bud Flatware

Later this month, my husband and I will have been married for 13 years.  At the time we were married, my husband was in the middle of his 3rd year of dental school and I working a low paying job.  We were very poor.  When it came time to register for our wedding gifts, a good friend of mine told me, "Janice, just because you are poor doesn't mean you should register for cheap stuff.  Register for quality, last forever type stuff.  Don't look for trendy, faddish stuff either.  Think long term."  

I took her advice and went to a nice store and registered for nice dishes, china, cooking pans, and flatware.  (At the time, Target was the "new" place to register and I bucked the system and didn't go there.)   I had been advised by someone else to look at Gorham because they had been around forever and their stuff was good quality.  I found the above pictured pattern and registered for it.  It was one of the more expensive things on my registry and through good friends, my siblings and a few others, we ended up getting 12 five piece place settings.  

Well, today, as I was putting away my dishes from the dishwasher, I had the thought, "I never purchased the serving spoons with this set.  I LOVE this set.  I should buy the 'hostess set' and pick up a few more 5 piece place settings."  But alas, I couldn't remember the name of it.  Fortunately for me, I have kept all of my wedding planning things in a 3 ring binder.  I went there, found my original gift registry and was able to order more.  

Moral of the story:  When you get married, register for quality stuff and NEVER throw away your gift registry.