Christmas blessings

We all want better for our kids.  I hear parents say it all the time.  I think to most parents better means, better education, friends, giving things that they didn't get to have as a child.  I am no better than other parents and want the same things for my brood.  I think I just may define it differently.
First and foremost, I want my children to have a relationship with God. A deep, meaningful relationship. 
As for the Christmas Experience....
I never remember going to church on Christmas, or giving back to the less fortunate with acts of charity. I always however remember LOTS of presents.  I probably couldn't tell you what one of those presents were now.
So I do want my children to have a "better" childhood and Christmas than I did but not in the conventional sense.  I want them to celebrate the birth of our Savior and give him gifts of love, praise, and glory through their acts of charity. I want them to carry on traditions that are important ( I don't mean the elf on the shelf).
Nothing made me more proud than my children's willingness to help out with giving to the homeless and I hope that it only grows from there. Even as little kids we would host a birthday party for Jesus and the kids would donate socks and mittens that we would deliver. I hope my children will remember their three gifts under the tree, not for what was in them but because Jesus received three.
 I want my children to have a love of all creatures.  It took me a long time to feel this love but really is the greatest gift. Some would say I take this to extremes with a dog, 4 chickens, 3 cats ( one that only has one eye and a crooked tail that we rescued.  It is no surprise that this year there will be 2 bunnies under the tree.  We really need a farm!
Ultimately, my goal as a parent is to make sure my children are lead to the gates of heaven after their journey here on earth.  What I want better for my kids is to have a better education, friends and things I didn't know I had which is the love of God. I want them to do all things for the glory of God and their lives will be just as they are supposed to be.
As for my Christmas wish and if you are looking for anything to add to your prayer list... There is an empty spot at our table and I have full trust in God that he will fill it in his way and in his time.

And this is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.  Pilippians 1:9-11
Merry Christmas to all! God Bless!

Summer catch up with the Goldens

I cannot believe how long it has been since I have written. It seems as though every time I picked up a computer I couldn't find a thing to say. That is very odd  for me I know. So this is a summer catch up of the Golden family.......
As always camping is great and I still get lots of looks pulling up in my big van with lots of kids, a dog and a 36 ft trailer. This has been a great season for all of us but me in particular. With only one in diapers and no more crib on the camper it's been easy. Many will laugh that it is easy with all those kids but they are so accustomed to it now that it's a breeze. Lucky for us we procrastinated and waited to long to book at Cherrystone and missed the tornado. Instead we spent a great week at Bethpage.
Thanks to spending some of my summer with Matthew Kelly I have a new philosophy on life which just makes all things easier.  As I am continuing my journey to becoming the best version of myself I am also living in the present day, not yesterday, not tomorrow. It really takes some stress out of things. Let's hope as I embark on my new journey of homeschooling that I can continue to remain patient in the present day. That is right, I am homeschooling Sadie. I like to keep things new and exciting and let's face it... If it never bothered me to hear what others say about me having all these kids nearing menopause I am surely not to be bothered by comments on homeschooling.
As always, I am sad to see summer wind down and have to get back to a more rigid routine. I'm definitely going to enjoy each and every last day of it and fill it with at least one more weekend trip. I will most assuredly miss the sun, pool, and my dear friend Miller Lite when summer goes. Hope you all enjoy the rest of yours...

Dollhouses

Violet will be 3 next week. We decided to buy a dollhouse. We thought of everything as well as one that fits barbies to ensure many years of play. What I failed to think of... There is one bedroom. Now this is a huge dollhouse and it only has one bedroom with one big canopy bed. This makes for one big fight between my girls. Have you ever noticed that if you buy the people that go with the dollhouse they come in a perfect set of Dad, Mom, boy, girl, maybe a pet. Well I propose a new kind of dollhouse.... An authentically Catholic Dollhouse. This would come equipped with features such as dad, mom and 4 or more kids. It would have 2 or more bedrooms and probably some broken furniture and of course some graffiti on the not so clean walls.
I am not sure this would be a big seller but I promise this... It gives hope for an extremely happy future!

Merry Christmas

Christmas is a time we should be rejoicing in the coming of the Lord.
How come December seems to bring the most stressful time of the year? We blame commercialism, flu season, visiting relatives. The  stress is different for all of us.
As for me....
I don't get all caught up in these things. I go into the season with respect for what Christmas really stands for. However bad news finds me every December. I am not sure why it happens like that. Deaths, stomach viruses, colds, etc...
I just want a healthy Christmas for my family to really enjoy the season but yet another year of disappointment..
Really 2013 was fine until December which brought an unexpected miscarriage as well a tooth implant gone bad for Joey. Sadie's retainer was chewed by my mother's dog yesterday. Oh yeah and Violet has a fever and cough.
All of these things combined will not stop my family from heading to church tomorrow to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus. Of course we will also be praying that next December is finally the one that brings a stress free holiday. One can only keep hoping that the bad luck of December passes from the Golden house one of these year.
Merry Christmas my dear friends and Good blessings for 2014.

A great loss to our family

How can you love someone you never met? Well it happens.
Everyone likes to joke around about how many kids we have. Letting everyone know there is another one coming gets many replies? Most are "Is this it?". Once the critical time of the first trimester passes along with the blood work saying all is fine and "It's a boy" we feel pretty confident shouting it to the world.
Yesterday at 15 weeks at a routine appt we found that out precious baby had no heartbeat. A sonogram confirmed it and like that it was over.
No matter how many children we have this is awful and sad and we are devastated.
Then we had to tell our kids, another gut wrenching event. Off to the hospital we went and before they can even get me into surgery my water breaks and labor begins.
This was a truly horrifying experience for Joey and myself. Our love and our strong faith in God will get us through this.
I wanted to share this with all of you so that if you ever experience a similar situation know that you are not alone and it is okay to love and grieve someone you never met. My baby is in heaven with my family that went before us and I hope he is loved as much as I love him.

Food for Thought

A leopard doesn't change his spots

We hear that, we believe it and then we think somehow we found an exception to the rule. I think the real meaning to this quote is that some people suppress their behavior, hide their behavior even can go their whole lives without repeating the behavior but....
Somewhere deep within them the evil habit lies and if given the opportunity, BAM. It creeps out and hurts someone who actually was dumb enough to believe they were exempt from said behavior.
Don't get me wrong I think there are a lot of success stories. The husband who never cheats again, the alcoholic that never drinks again. The drug user that never uses again. This is amazing and should inspire people to forge ahead to achieve greatness.
I just also think there are people with good intentions but they are weak and give into temptation. The alcoholic who drinks once in awhile and knows their actions will hurt their loved ones. The husband who cheats again even though he loves his wife. These stories are sad and split families and friendships leaving us with the question...
How do you help someone who won't help themselves? Do you throw in the towel or continue to live in fear of the repetitive behavior? Do we feel sorry for these folks or do we often say " You made your bed..etc".  Do we offer forgiveness at the expense of our own feelings?
It is hard to separate the heart from the mind. Good luck to all those struggling during this holiday season. May you find peace and happiness.

Elf on the Shelf season of torture

Maybe the dinosaur will eat him and I will no longer jump out of bed and run to move Chippy before the kids wake. I am sure Ms. Carol Aebersold is laughing all the way to the bank now that her Christmas tradition has thrown up all over America. All you new parents out there.... go ahead and try to not participate and I guarantee you will lose that battle and next thing you know some little boy or girl elf will appear and you to will be scrambling for new places for a month to put the dumb elf. In my house there is no avoiding the little ones touching Chippy so he always has to be up high or tears will flow as Jillian bites his head and the others believe he loses his elf magic.  Thanks to Pinterest (sarcasm) you can find new and exciting ways to pose your elf.  Some not so g rated though( maybe that is facebook). Now my kids are saying "Why doesn't Chippy respond to my letter? My friends elves write back.") Really??? I told them maybe our elf was dumb and never learned to write (True story, bad mom moment). Inevitably our elf forgets to move at least one or two night during his stay. When that happens I tell my kids they must have been bad so he decided to sleep instead of travelling to his home for the night and Santa knows if the elves don't come there is no good news to report. Their behavior throughout the day never seems threatened by the elf anyway. And btw it was my kids that were not even clever enough to come up with a new name for the elf. Sadie says she dropped the E from his name to give him his new identity. Well here's to twenty more days of jumping out of bed!