It's Been A BIG Year!

Historically kicking off a new year brings hope and goals for the year, 2017 started out a bit different for us.  We started off the year celebrating Aspen and Afton turning two (though they weren't huge fans of their outfits hence the lack of a cute photo). We also found ourselves in a new church. This church would be exactly what we needed at exactly the right time.

See our 2017 started out strained.  We were without a church home and it showed. We were struggling in our marriage and Satan was picking away at any weakness he could find. Thankfully, our God is bigger and we landed in a church that would help get us through some of the tough days ahead. I could feel God saying "It's Me and Her" and we're all going to make it through this.

February brought the toughest days we'd seen in a long time. Valentine's day in itself isn't anything special to me, but the date February 14th is. Way back when in 2003 it was the date of the first date Rob and I went on. Strangely enough, it is also the day that it felt like our world was crashing down in 2017. We shared the straw that almost broke the camel's back in When You Let Your Guard Down. From there we had a choice to make, it would either define us or we could choose to keep fighting for what was important to us, US. We made the choice of us. The choice that started fourteen years ago. Thankfully we found our church home, Net Community, that helped us recenter God and our marriage. It wasn't easy, but through that I learned to let go. I learned to let go of a lot, and I tried to let it shine through to my parenting as well. More messes, more fun, (the laughter is totally worth most of the messes).

Those choices changed the course for the year and what would have normally been the hope of a new year, came a quarter of the way through. March brought Maui's 9th birthday.  We remembered how to dance in the rain and find the joy that comes through the raindrops. 

Some of us got (or gave) ourselves new haircuts (good-bye sweet baby curls).

In May, Rob and I took a trip to Mexico. We spent our time reconnecting and remembering how good we really have it. We remembered how important all the small things in life are because they really are what makes our life so great.

We spent the rest of the summer making memories with our kids. Playing at the park, eating ice cream way more than we probably should have, and laughing.

We got to experience some of the best gifts throughout our summer with our family. Maui went away to church camp for the first time and had a blast making new friends, though it was hard for me to believe she was old enough to go.

August brought a new school year. Maui began 4th grade at Beckemeyer, it was a big change for her, but she's adjusted well and is enjoying her new school. Brylynn began Pre-k this fall. I can't believe my sweet little girl is big enough for school, but she absolutely loves it and looks forward to it every day!

Now my babies are asking when they can go to school too...not yet, mama isn't quite ready!

Fall was marked with soccer and football. We've really come to love the fall season as a family. November was a whirlwind. We celebrated Bry's 4th birthday!

Over the years, we've continuously looked for houses that were big enough for our ever growing family. Nothing ever seemed right. This year we were yet again reminded that God's timing is perfect when we bought our forever home and said good-bye to the home that had been our first together. We were moving on and our realtor deserves some sort of award for dealing with us for the last eight years (Brandi Lentz)! On November 1, 2017 we closed on our forever home and couldn't be happier!

I had the honor of being sworn in as the Vice President of the Illinois Association of Court Clerks in November.

We also got Kevin the cat. For a cat, he's a pretty alright guy and has weaseled his way into our hearts and home. Thankfully, he and Tanner get along pretty well!

December brought us to our favorite holiday family traditions , memories, and celebrations in our new home.

We welcomed a new member to our family, our niece, Emilynn Grace Lemons!

We had the twins' 3rd birthday party (a little early) and a New Year's Eve party the same day to extend our time with family and friends!

 

It's been a big year. It's had ups and downs. It's seen tears of sorrow, laughter, and joy. Mostly, it's seen the beauty of love and a great reminder: 

Here's to 2018!

Christmas Memories

What is it about the Christmas season that is so magical? As a child I remember the excitement as we put our tree up. My mom had a knack for making the whole house feel like Christmas. I loved the way our house looked after mom was done working her magic. One of my favorite trees from my childhood she had decorated in little white lambs. I had almost forgotten how much I enjoyed that tree with the train tracks going around the bottom until this year as my kids were decorating our tree.  I had in my box of ornaments one of the little white lambs, it landed towards the top of our tree, and made me smile.

I remember the excitement of Christmas morning, tiptoeing down the stairs to peak around the banister to see if Santa came then running up to wake up mom and dad way before the morning would have normally began.  We would gather around the tree with excitement opening presents.  Then we’d wait for dad to take his life-sized stocking down and open his gifts, he was always the last one. Afterwards, we’d eat a breakfast feast before heading out to celebrate with our extended family.

Each side of the family has something that always stood out. On my mom’s side I remember the delicious food my grandma would make, her sugar cookies and pies are still to this day the best.  We’d all head back to the family room and sit cross legged on the floor going around the room opening presents.  On my dad’s side, I think of the games we’d play, spoons being the crowd favorite. I think I still have a scar from a serious game one Christmas. The one thing I could always count on from my grandparents’ stockings was an orange being in the toe of it. I remember the laughter and the smiles and the love that filled the rooms on both sides of my family.

When I think of Christmas memories, one of my most vivid is our family trips to look at the Woburn Christmas lights. I remember how excited we were to load up in the car and walk through to look at all the different displays. That was and is one of my favorite memories from my childhood. Perhaps that’s why I wanted to make sure it was a tradition that I carried on with my own children.  Now I love watching them run from box to box “ohhing” and “awwing” with excitement. I hope that it is a memory that lives on in them.

We've created our own Lemons family traditions that we look forward to every year.  We do an annual gingerbread house and I enjoy watching the kids try to work together on the design. We have an advent calendar of sorts, it's a box that I fill with either activities for us to do or chocolates. We've tried a few things that I'm not sure will continue, like making salt dough ornaments, but that I hope the girls remember the experience of and smile.  I hope they remember the laughter and fun we had with each one, successful or not. Who knows, maybe some day one of these will be something they choose to pass down to their children.

In my mind, I always imagined that’s what my kids would experience: bounding downstairs to see if Santa came, ripping open presents with anticipation, and then sitting together for a big breakfast before we were off to see the rest of our family. I imagined our evenings would be filled with the love and laughter of our extended family.  I spend each year hoping that the memories that they’re putting in their memory bank are some that they too can’t wait to pass down to their children when the time comes.  Mostly, I hope that my children never forget the reason we get to share this love and season, Jesus.

Moving On

I sit here and the number of boxes around me continues to grow. Cabinets become empty, trips to resale stores and donations are winding down, dumpsters have been rolled away. It's becoming very real that we're moving.

It's a move we're excited for and have waited a long time for. We've finally found a house in the country and it will be our forever home. But there's something about sitting among all these boxes that makes me sad.

This was our first house together. This is the house we brought each one of our girls home to as their first home. I can still see vividly each spot where we sat them when we arrived home and wondered what to do next. I know each place where they took their first steps. It's been a house of firsts.

I know that it's a house and that a home is what you make it. But for thirteen years, this has been our home. We went from newly weds trying to figure out how to make it all work to a family of six in this house. The walls of this house know stories of success and failure, laughter and tears. This house has celebrated birthdays, graduations, jobs. It's where we've cried tears of loss and tears of joy. Most of all, they've seen lives of love.

We've poured our hearts into this house to make it our own. We've changed windows, floors, and doors, remodeled bathrooms, finished the basement, gutted and remodeled the kitchen/dining/laundry rooms (eight months pregnant with twins doing dishes in a bathtub...yikes!). We made this house our home.

Now it's time to say goodbye.  And for whatever reason, no matter how excited about something you are, goodbyes are hard. I know we'll move and have a whole new series of firsts in our new home, but there's something terribly hard about leaving the home that so many firsts for your family happened.

Perhaps that's it, in this house, we became a family and this house became our home. For that I'll always be thankful and I'll always love this house. We grew up here, Rob and I. We made our family here. We built our life here. So goodbye is hard because I see how far we've come.

Thanks for the lifetime of memories. You'll always hold a piece of my heart and bring a smile to my face. Goodbye 70 Greenbriar Drive.

I Kinda Hope Some Things Never Change

There are moments that make me smile not because there's something extremely special about them to the average person, but because it's one of the little things that I hope never fades.  The little voices and mannerisms that each of my girls have that I know one day will just stop. They're the things that I love.

Maui, I kinda hope you never stop calling me mama. I hope that you never stop wanting to hold my hand. I kinda hope that you never stop claiming that snuggling with me is one of your favorite parts of the day. I kinda hope that you never stop trying to get me to let you create a new club or fundraiser idea. I hope you never lose that giver's heart.

Brylynn, I kinda hope that you never lose how matter of fact you are about everything. I kinda hope that you mispronounce oatmeal (oapmeal), pancakes (panacakes), and medicine (medisuline) forever. I hope that you never lose how expressive your face is because it cracks me up even at times it shouldn't. "I just need a hug" is something I kinda hope you never stop telling me

Aspen, I kinda hope that you never stop putting your little finger to the side of your mouth when you're contemplating things. I kinda hope that you never stop convincing me with your head shakes when you're telling me something. I hope that you never stop singing with your arms wide open and dancing through a room like you're on stage.

Afton, I kinda hope that you never stop asking "what's that?" as you point to things.  I kinda hope you never stop asking me "where we going mom?" though I've told you a dozen times every time we get into the car. I kinda hope you never lose that look that is beyond serious and how animated you are with your hands as you're telling me something whether I understand it or not.

I kinda hope Aspen and Afton, that you never stop saying "hold you me" so I can never stop saying "hold me you."

I kinda hope that the four of you never stop howling together. Though the high pitched sound of the four of you going "aaa-owwwww" together can be a bit much, it's something that means something to you as sisters. I hope you never outgrow playing "in the twins' room" because the giggles that come from there are by far one of the best sounds I hear in a day.

I kinda hope that you each continue to want me to rock you and sing to you each night. I kinda hope you never stop telling me your favorite parts of your day. I hope we never stop saying "our I'll's" and praying together every night.

Selfishly, I kinda hope you never grow up. I know one day you'll outgrow a lot of this; words will become clearer, I'll become just mom instead of mama or mommy and just like you'll outgrow your princess dresses, you'll outgrow some of my favorite things. Those are the things written on my mama heart. It's the sweet sound of your little feet running down the hallway. It's the sound of hearing "mama's home" with squeals of delight as you come running toward me. It's the trying to stay quiet giggles you have when you're trying to hide from daddy when you see him coming home.

Yes, I kinda hope some things never change because these are the things that take my breath away and make my heart fill with happiness. I kinda hope I never forget how blessed these little things make me feel.

I love you my sweet girls 💓

The Best Gifts

Over the years, I've tried to find the perfect gift for someone.  On special occasions, we always look for the right gift. When we have kids, people always ask what to get them for their birthdays and Christmas. These gestures are always meant with good intentions and on the day received, greeted with appreciation.

When Rob and I began having kids, we of course wanted to give them more than what we had. We want more and better for them as all parents do for their children. When Maui was an only child, the amount of toys and books she had was overwhelming. We spoiled her as did many others in her life with material things. However, as she grew, we realized that that's not the message we wanted to send to her. Lucky for us, she's a generous kid and saw the value in our shift. She began wanting donations for animal shelters, schools in Africa, Operation Christmas Child, etc. instead of things. We were blessed that she saw a bigger picture once we started showing her that there was more to this life than just her. We're working on doing better with the younger three by teaching them that much earlier in life.

Overall, our family has been great at grasping this concept and helping us teach our children that it's not the number of things that you have in this life that matters. We want to be able to help others. We want to enjoy time with each other. Those are some of the best gifts. This past year for Christmas, the girls received some pretty great gifts. They were given gifts of time and experiences.  These gifts will go on lots longer than the lost shoe of a Barbie doll.

The other day we took advantage of one of the experiences the girls were given for Christmas, we went to Knight's Action Park. Honestly it was pretty close to a perfect day. My girls absolutely loved the water. They amazed me with their courage and warmed me with their smiles. As we sat on the ground to have our sack lunch, Maui said how nice it was to sit together and just enjoy visiting and I couldn't agree with her more. We had ice cream on the way home and I sat thinking that I hope they always enjoy that treat with their whole bodies.

We went to the zoo a few weeks ago because another great gift the girls received was to become zoo members. I soaked up the minutes of watching the girls run from each monkey exhibit to the next.  I was sure that they would be terrified of them, but they weren't, they loved them. I loved watching each of their personalities shine picking out the animal they wanted to ride on the carousel (Afton chose to be held, she wasn't impressed by the idea). They cracked me up as we went to the splash pad in the Children's Zoo. Brylynn and Aspen dove in head first. Afton wasn't sure and it took her a good ten minutes of running in and out before she decided that she was all in and then didn't want to leave.

The best gifts in life don't have a price tag. The best gifts in life are those in which we're surrounded by those we love. The moments in time that create happiness that lasts long after the day is over. It's being surrounded by those that fill your cup up and over. The best gifts in life are the experiences that we have and the absolute choice we have to make those moments the ones that take our breath away years down the road.

Every day may not go as we've had planed, but we can still chose what it is that we remember and what experiences we chose to take away from them. We went camping with my dad, step mom, grandma, sister, step brother and a gaggle of our kids. The twins absolutely were not fans of our arrangements. It was hard and they made a trip home a day early. But what I remember from that trip isn't how awful that part was, I remember how brave Afton was as she decided to take on the river current to swim to Rob. I remember how happy Aspen was sitting on the shoreline, stark nude, playing with Lori. I remember watching Brylynn dance with my grandma in the water. I remember watching my dad play with his grandkids and watching Maui and Jackson run down the shoreline.

Some gifts are as simple as baking cookies with your grandma and hearing old stories or an adventure down new trails with your sisters. I've talked before about reconnecting, but it's as equally important to be present in the everyday moments in life. God's given us the best gifts in life, first, His Son. Secondly, the opportunity to experience this life with the ones we love and enjoy the time that we're given with them.  I intend to spend my life doing just that because even on my not so shiny days, I'm blessed beyond what I deserve.

Reconnecting

Life can be a bit crazy. In my world, some days are a lot crazy. Rob decided that he and I needed a getaway, so he booked us a trip to Mexico. Sun, fun, just adult time? Sold! So Rob arranged for child care for all the kiddos (thanks to our amazing family), and away we went.

I'll admit, I was a little nervous. Not nervous for the trip, but rather nervous for he and I. Our lives and conversations generally seem to revolve around the kids and work because we work different schedules; it sometimes seems like a briefing/debriefing of the day. Would we have anything to talk about for five whole days without those things coming into play? It'd been a good long while since we'd had that many days alone without any other factors of life driving our world.

Before dawn on a Friday morning, we left our house and headed south of the boarder. Days seemed to fly, but never seemed rushed. We enjoyed the beach. We went zip-lining, atving, and swimming in cenotes. We went downtown Playa and enjoyed the street life. We ate, we swam, we played cards. We enjoyed each other.

My fear of having little to talk about was a non-factor. Here's what I learned: we are still the same head over heels couple that we were fourteen years ago when we started dated. We still make each other laugh. We still love holding hands and kissing like it's the first time we've ever done such a thing. We laughed, we loved, we reconnected. Fourteen years later, I still get butterflies and smile when I think about it.

We're not perfect.  We face struggles and battle through them. But here's what's great, we're here. That for better or for worse thing, it's real. Some times we just need a little getaway to reconnect and remind us of where we started and how much we don't ever want to lose that. How lucky am I that I have a man that sees the same things?

Speaking of reconnecting, the annual Hopwood kids sibling weekend happened. Maui asked me why we have a sibling weekend. I originally told her it was because we like hanging out and that I hope she and her sisters do that when they're older.  Then I got to thinking about the real reason we get together. I think it's for similar reasons as the trip Rob and I took.  It's because life gets busy and we don't make time for each other in the ways that we want to or should.  So for us, sibling weekend gives us a chance to catch up, to laugh, to reminisce, and make new memories.

This year we didn't go far. We hit the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert in Des Moines. And while the concert was great, it wasn't my favorite part of the weekend. No, my favorite parts happened before and after.  The memories of sitting around the fire pit laughing way past my bedtime. That of five adults squeezing into one very tiny money booth and thinking we'd hit the jackpot (we collected $45 between the five of us). The awful service at the restaurant after the concert that made me realize how seriously we all take our food. That to me was what the weekend was all about.

In this life, we can't be certain of much. Yet this I'm certain of: reconnecting with those we love is never time wasted, it's time gained.

Speak Life

Over the last month I've had several encounters that really encouraged me. These events coupled with a song that I love, Speak Life, made me wonder what would happen if we all chose to speak words of life. 

Over Mother's Day I wasn't home, I was in Mexico with Rob for a little getaway. The day that we came home we picked Maui up from school. I could see her in the car line holding flowers.  Now these weren't just flowers that she picked out of the school yard, they looked like they'd come from a flower shop. She was so excited to give them to me for Mother's Day and the look of excitement on her face as she gave them to me was priceless. But here's the thing that really got me about this: when I asked her where she got the flowers, she said the trash. Here's where my heart REALLY began to smile. My Maui girl she's got this heart that sees beauty in everything. She said "mama some of the teachers threw away the flowers that they got because they started to die, but they weren't all dead. So I found the pretty ones for you." I've never had someone choose  to dig through the garbage for me, but this little girl did because she wanted to give me something beautiful when I came back. The flowers sat in a vase on my counter until there was no life left in them, but through them, she spoke life. 

A couple of weeks later I had taken the three younger girls grocery shopping with me. They had been excellent. As I as was bagging the groceries, Brylynn reminded me that we'd forgotten to get Goldfish. I told her we'd have to get them next time and I reminded her that I had a snack for them in the car when we were finished.  A lady had overheard our exchange and came over and asked if my girls could have Goldfish. I told her that they were fine and she didn't need to do that. She again asked if it was ok. I agreed. She told my girls how good they'd been and she knew how hard it was to be patient and good while waiting for mommy to finish. Each of my girls looked like they were on cloud nine because this nice stranger acknowledged the good in them. She spoke life not only to my girls, but to me through her kindness.

My Brylynn had a doctor's appointment a week or so later. Afterwards she and I stopped at Popeye's for a late lunch. As I was cleaning up our table a very polite young man told me I had a beautiful smile as he smiled back at me. Hearing that, I thanked him and found myself smiling more. It was a genuine unexpected compliment that had a lasting effect. Have you ever noticed that smiling is contagious?  He spoke words of life not only to me that day, but to others because his words had a chain reaction.

Speaking life isn't something that we do easily.  I'm not sure why we've made it difficult. Finding the good in one another and searching for the silver lining in all situations shouldn't be as low on the list as we've let it become.  Our words and actions have the power to lift each other up.  We have the ability to speak life into each other.  How much better would this world be if even once a day we chose to be the voice that spoke life?