Jacob's Winter Concert

Ah...the Winter Concert Season continued with a second night in a row of activity as we went to Jacob's concert tonight.  The school did a nice job with getting the various grades in to the auditorium, and back out so that all 1st through 4th grade all came in, did their thing and left....AND it didn't seem like an interminable amount of time.  That is well done.

Jacob's grade did both singing and recorders and treated us to 5 total songs:
Get Up, Get Up, Get Up!
Golf BAG Boogie
Hot Cross Buns
Merrily We Roll Along
Secret Agent

Here was a small section of one of them that I captured:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10203037369760245&l=973292633294218322

It may be tough to see him, but Jacob was in the front row, sixth from the left.
Great job Jacob!

Jaden's Winter Concert

Tonight was Jaden's Winter Concert at Miscoe Hill Middle School.  While it is certainly entertaining just getting Jaden to dress up, it was equally entertaining, in a different way, to listen to the Chorus and the Concert Band play.

It was a decidedly shorter event this year, and was disappointed that they didn't really give any opportunities for each of the sections so that you could hear them alone...but overall it was probably good for all the poor parents and our sore bums from sitting on the hard wooden bleachers for the hour plus that we were there for already.

If interested, take a peek here at Jaden and the band:

Transformation

Every year amidst the normal cycle of New Year's goals and plans that we all tend to make for ourselves, I have noticed that alot of the same things come up year after year...

Improve my physical conditioning

Improve my spiritual maturity

Improve my parenting

Improve my mind

Become a better husband, worker, and on and on it goes.  

It always comes back to becoming a better version of me...the me I wish I was but am not yet.

There is some serious mental gymnastics that you could go through that are part of the human condition within this cycle and part of me wants to throw my hands up at it...to even mock myself for participating in it.  I know that there is not something inherently different about this year than last year that will make these changes last.  But...despite that, there is something awesome and amazing and liberating about the cycle of time that God has created that enable these pauses...these resets...these arbitrary new beginnings that we can choose to take advantage of if we want to.

And with that, I choose to and I will do my best that change habits and patterns that will enable the better me to become a reality rather than an unfulfilled wish.

I guess by writing this down, hopefully I will hold myself more accountable to completing it...but one of the ways I choose to do this is by completing a workout program starting today that will complete at the beginning of April.  It will be tons of work...and if I put that work in, I know that I will be in a better place...so, pray that I can stick to it and not only do it for me, but as a good example to my children.

Jude's Birthday Party

We were crazy enough to let Jude invite 3 other 6 year-old boys over for a birthday party and sleep-over celebration.  He was quite excited and had a fantastic time.  We thought that they would relax with a movie after hanging out for awhile...but no movie, show or anything else would sway them from the consistent tackling and rough-housing that we were in for all night.

Luckily, no damage was done and eventually they did fall asleep, but Mom and Dad were exhausted and happy for pickup time to arrive the next morning.

I think I may be re-thinking the cost of the big party places :)

New Year's Letter

from http://www.hdwallpaperstop.com/clock-creative-wallpapers/

A gauntlet was thrown down by a friend regarding "upping our game" for our letter and I took that challenge and had one small bit of inspiration and off I went, thinking..."No problem.  This is going to be fun and so neat."  Yes, in my head I thought I was neat...different post entirely.  Anyway, to say this simply.  Creating the song lyrics and a video were WAY more time consuming and WAY more difficult than I really was expecting and at some point...now...I had to cut my losses and admit defeat.

So, everyone is getting the letter, as planned (a CD cover/insert) and it still directs them to this page...

This is the partial video...it really wasn't good (maybe it was bad enough to be good?...but, know that an awful lot of effort went into creating it for your enjoyment and I got lost in the messy middle of the project.

We do love you all and wish you a Happy New Year and we will resume our normally scheduled (which means late) Christmas / New Year's letter next year.  (Yes, I am planning on the fact that it will be late ;) )