Richard and I were opening up Christmas cards tonight, and one initially shocked me and then brought me to tears, and now I can barely stop crying while I type this. I have no idea who the thoughtful person or persons were, but I hope they are fully blessed by their giving. I hope we can use it for something good. Sometimes I forget in all our trying-to-do-it-on-our-own-business that we can still use a little help.
I'm reminded by this generous person of another incident of random kindness given to our family. Richard, Abigail, and me pregnant with Aaron were eating out at a little restaurant in Corvallis. You see, we almost never went out to eat then because it simply cost too much. We rarely went out on dates because we couldn't afford a babysitter (unless we conned our friends into it). If we went out at all it was with the babies. So, I saved up enough money over a few months time and we went out to eat.
It was a small, all-you-can-eat restaurant. We chose it so we could really make the most out of our money. Richard ate like a king, Abigail ate all her veggies, and I ate what my shrinking stomach could handle. When we asked for our ticket, the waitress brought it back with a giddy smile and said, "A gentleman left this for you." The receipt read...... Well, darn it if I can't find it after searching for the last 30 mins, but I did save it! It was something along the lines of, "It's really nice to see a happy family enjoying their time together. Enjoy your meal on me." This kind man bought us our meal and left before we could say thank you.
You see, an act of random kindness can leave an everlasting mark on someone. I'm so thankful for those who have shone us kindness throughout our lives, randomly and non-randomly. I hope this encourages everyone who reads this to perform random acts of kindness. The benefits will be worth it!
Have a very Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
I'm up late writing Christmas cards I hope I mail out by the last week of December, and I just thought I'd update our blog a wee bit.
We finally convinced ourselves, with the help of a group of friends, to go cut down a Christmas tree for the first year ever. You'd think this would be a no-brainer considering we live between two mountain ranges, but alas we finally took the plunge! It was a BLAST, and actually didn't take as long as I feared it would:)
Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you to my best friend Jen for making a nontraditional filet mignon roast extraordinaire meal for my tired-just-got-off-a-12-hour-night shift bum!
A visit with Papa & Grammy is always a way to warm your heart!
A visit with Nono and Nona over Halloween is also a great time. Especially with popcorn, candy, & gruffy grandpa snuggles involved!
We finally convinced ourselves, with the help of a group of friends, to go cut down a Christmas tree for the first year ever. You'd think this would be a no-brainer considering we live between two mountain ranges, but alas we finally took the plunge! It was a BLAST, and actually didn't take as long as I feared it would:)
Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you to my best friend Jen for making a nontraditional filet mignon roast extraordinaire meal for my tired-just-got-off-a-12-hour-night shift bum!
A visit with Papa & Grammy is always a way to warm your heart!
A visit with Nono and Nona over Halloween is also a great time. Especially with popcorn, candy, & gruffy grandpa snuggles involved!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
A New School Year
School time!
This is often how Bear occupies her time while the kids are doing school:)
School Pictures: Awwwww!
Abigail finishing her kids triathlon. Way to go Snapple! Aaron fell on his bike two days before and hurt his ankle, so missed out (a very sad day that was for him).
I organized a homeschool field trip with a local entomologist. My kids are still talking about it, with Abigail saying, "Thank you, thank you so much Mommy! That was the best day EVER!" Can't beat that:)
They're sifting through pond water here, looking at naiads, snails, tadpoles, froglets, and a whole host of other water bugs.
Tons of baby stick bugs are in that cage. One of which we have living in our home now:)
One of the few times Bear was caught laughing. She is a runner and climber unless she's contained and then she becomes a screamer. Good times there, lol.
Notice Leah in the background, she's chasing runaway frogs:)
Leah's first day of ballet. Only slightly happy wouldn't you say?
This is often how Bear occupies her time while the kids are doing school:)
School Pictures: Awwwww!
Abigail finishing her kids triathlon. Way to go Snapple! Aaron fell on his bike two days before and hurt his ankle, so missed out (a very sad day that was for him).
I organized a homeschool field trip with a local entomologist. My kids are still talking about it, with Abigail saying, "Thank you, thank you so much Mommy! That was the best day EVER!" Can't beat that:)
They're sifting through pond water here, looking at naiads, snails, tadpoles, froglets, and a whole host of other water bugs.
Tons of baby stick bugs are in that cage. One of which we have living in our home now:)
One of the few times Bear was caught laughing. She is a runner and climber unless she's contained and then she becomes a screamer. Good times there, lol.
Notice Leah in the background, she's chasing runaway frogs:)
Leah's first day of ballet. Only slightly happy wouldn't you say?
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
An Appreciation For Time
Abigail at her dance recital. She was an alien here for her tap class and was also in ballet. Grandma Kathy was here to enjoy the show.
Yes, Bear has been the big O-N-E for a couple of months now. She's VERY thankful for sweets when she can get her hands on them. She's been our latest walker, not picking up the art until 14 months. She's off to the races now. She's very giggly and quite the ham with everyone, except for when she's teething or has a cold:(
What our kids do with free time.......
The older kids invented 'The Bear Containment unit!'
Bear with her Ashy
"I'm not tired," he says. I say, "Yah right. Caught ya!"
The lettuce wasn't a big hit, but the go-tee was for everyone else. Bear just laughed along with us oblivious to the fact that it was her we were laughing at:-)
Dixie loves to snuggle with sick kids. Maybe it's the constant fresh blankets that come out with all night barfing sessions or genuine sympathy I will never know, but it's sweet.
The four hoodlums, stopping barely long enough from their play time to let me capture them on camera.
What time really? I've been operating at a break neck pace and sometimes a one-man-show with Richard farming, so my apologies for all of those who follow this little insight into the Oregon Affeldt world for my delays. I'm told "some fish are just delay fish." It's funny how little snip-its of kids movies just happen to 'POP' into my conversations:)
Anyway, it's been forever since I posted and this one has been in the works for a few months. Survival mode is the name of the game, but surviving we are by the grace of God.
I started schooling the kids this week. I'm really happy with the curriculum and hope it continues to be a good fit for the rest of the year. Soon the pace of life will pick up even more when dance, soccer, piano lessons, and wrestling begin. Leah wasn't quite ready for preschool this year so she's got some workbooks to do at home and will be enrolled in ballet for the year, which she's been desperately waiting for a couple of years now:)
Well, I'm off to the races....
Yes, Bear has been the big O-N-E for a couple of months now. She's VERY thankful for sweets when she can get her hands on them. She's been our latest walker, not picking up the art until 14 months. She's off to the races now. She's very giggly and quite the ham with everyone, except for when she's teething or has a cold:(
What our kids do with free time.......
The older kids invented 'The Bear Containment unit!'
Bear with her Ashy
"I'm not tired," he says. I say, "Yah right. Caught ya!"
The lettuce wasn't a big hit, but the go-tee was for everyone else. Bear just laughed along with us oblivious to the fact that it was her we were laughing at:-)
Dixie loves to snuggle with sick kids. Maybe it's the constant fresh blankets that come out with all night barfing sessions or genuine sympathy I will never know, but it's sweet.
The four hoodlums, stopping barely long enough from their play time to let me capture them on camera.
What time really? I've been operating at a break neck pace and sometimes a one-man-show with Richard farming, so my apologies for all of those who follow this little insight into the Oregon Affeldt world for my delays. I'm told "some fish are just delay fish." It's funny how little snip-its of kids movies just happen to 'POP' into my conversations:)
Anyway, it's been forever since I posted and this one has been in the works for a few months. Survival mode is the name of the game, but surviving we are by the grace of God.
I started schooling the kids this week. I'm really happy with the curriculum and hope it continues to be a good fit for the rest of the year. Soon the pace of life will pick up even more when dance, soccer, piano lessons, and wrestling begin. Leah wasn't quite ready for preschool this year so she's got some workbooks to do at home and will be enrolled in ballet for the year, which she's been desperately waiting for a couple of years now:)
Well, I'm off to the races....
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
The 'Quick and the Dirty' kind of Affeldt Update
Soccer time for the kids has been a lot of fun. Abigail likes it, but prefers ballet. I think she doesn't like ALL the running:) Aaron loves it. After almost making a sweet kicking goal, he turned around and said, "Sometimes I just have to go for it." Such wisdom has he:)
Abigail and Claire are about the same age apart as me and my sister. They love each other now, but we'll see how they are when Claire is 6:)
Big man REALLY wanted a John Deere cake equipped with the appropriate farm implements, of course. Plus, we invited some friends to help celebrate. I like to have one GIANT party for everyone's birthday during the summer and then let the kids have a SPECIAL day on the actual day of their birth.
Boys that love their Mommies shower them with flowers:)
This is what happens when I fail at multitasking! 'Flatter-than-pancake' cookies! I'm not entirely sure what happened, but having Leah help bake, talking on the phone, washing clothes, teaching school, and who knows what else I was doing simply just DIDN'T work out!
This is a frequent occurrence. Some day I'll have a picture of all of their feet on stools helping in the kitchen.
What does Jesus' resurrection have to do with eggs anyway? Yah, we know it's not biblical, but it sure is fun:) However, thanks to a dear Christian friend, we now have a super fun way to make Jesus' life, death, and resurrection come to life. The kids had a blast making the clay tomb and pipe cleaner Jesus. We read the Easter story and on Resurrection Sunday the stone was rolled away and Jesus was gone. Though, he wasn't completely gone! The kids had to search for him in the house:)
Child-sized cowboy hats are not actually a uniform requirement for his new job, just his current job as 'Dad.' :) He's still enjoying his new job, working hard/long days, eating like a horse, and still losing weight. Wish I could say the same.
When one doesn't have a real bunny and hutch, just resort to pretending a stuffed one is real and construct a hutch out of K-Nex!
Happy 34th old man! We had a couple of friends over to celebrate with us.
Claire found dad's baseball cap and thought she was pretty cute.
I had to get at least one of our kids in time out. I'm reminded of a friend once saying she wanted to remember the good and the not-so-good times of motherhood.
I wish the kids all fell asleep as sweetly as their little lizards. Ahhh, cute!
He actually fell asleep like this. Do you remember this bear Nonno and Nonna?
Oh yes she did! And continues to do, when she can't get into anything else. Pesky little baby!
<
Abigail and Claire are about the same age apart as me and my sister. They love each other now, but we'll see how they are when Claire is 6:)
Big man REALLY wanted a John Deere cake equipped with the appropriate farm implements, of course. Plus, we invited some friends to help celebrate. I like to have one GIANT party for everyone's birthday during the summer and then let the kids have a SPECIAL day on the actual day of their birth.
Boys that love their Mommies shower them with flowers:)
This is what happens when I fail at multitasking! 'Flatter-than-pancake' cookies! I'm not entirely sure what happened, but having Leah help bake, talking on the phone, washing clothes, teaching school, and who knows what else I was doing simply just DIDN'T work out!
This is a frequent occurrence. Some day I'll have a picture of all of their feet on stools helping in the kitchen.
What does Jesus' resurrection have to do with eggs anyway? Yah, we know it's not biblical, but it sure is fun:) However, thanks to a dear Christian friend, we now have a super fun way to make Jesus' life, death, and resurrection come to life. The kids had a blast making the clay tomb and pipe cleaner Jesus. We read the Easter story and on Resurrection Sunday the stone was rolled away and Jesus was gone. Though, he wasn't completely gone! The kids had to search for him in the house:)
Child-sized cowboy hats are not actually a uniform requirement for his new job, just his current job as 'Dad.' :) He's still enjoying his new job, working hard/long days, eating like a horse, and still losing weight. Wish I could say the same.
When one doesn't have a real bunny and hutch, just resort to pretending a stuffed one is real and construct a hutch out of K-Nex!
Happy 34th old man! We had a couple of friends over to celebrate with us.
Claire found dad's baseball cap and thought she was pretty cute.
I had to get at least one of our kids in time out. I'm reminded of a friend once saying she wanted to remember the good and the not-so-good times of motherhood.
I wish the kids all fell asleep as sweetly as their little lizards. Ahhh, cute!
He actually fell asleep like this. Do you remember this bear Nonno and Nonna?
Oh yes she did! And continues to do, when she can't get into anything else. Pesky little baby!
<
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