Bi-Polar Christmas

It seems like Christmas comes around and the craziness begins and the month of December becomes like a whirlwind. I get caught up in it and sometime the first week of January it lets me go and I fall back down to earth with a big thud. This year has been different, I don't really know why but it has been slower and less hectic. This change has been nice but I find myself not feeling very Christmas-y(I know it's not a real word). Yesterday, I went shopping for my kids presents and I came home and realized I had no good hiding spot so I needed to wrap them and get them under the tree ASAP. So I locked myself in my room, put on my favorite Pandora station, and started to wrap. Somewhere between Josh Groban's Silent Night and Amy Grant's Noel, it hit me, how very very very blessed we are. Here I was surrounded by toys for my kids and even though I can't afford to buy my 5 year old the ipod he wants, he still gets gifts !!! They get to wake up Christmas morning in their warm house and go and get their presents. That is so much more than alot of kids in America right now. I hear so many parents talking about how stressed they are to find their kids these presents that they can't afford and I feel so bad for them. What a miserable way to spend your Holiday!!! I find myself wanting to give my kids all they want just to see the smile on their face, but what I've come to realize is that if I give them all they want that smile fades so quickly because nothing is ever good enough. They become spoiled rotten boogers and I don't like them :) I say that in the most loving way of course. Anyway, this has always been a struggle for me, how much is too much? How do we give our kids the things that they want but still keep them content? I'm not sure, and I look to the Lord to help me out with that. So as I sat on the floor of my room contemplating all of this I was thinking how blessed I am to have such great kids and at that very moment they sensed it. What is it, you ask? Well, we moms know that when we start to think of how great our kids are they suddenly become possesed!!! Is it just me or does this happen to you too? I promise you, the minute I think "wow, Benny is being really good today" he instantly turns into the naughtiest child on earth. So there I was in my Christmas-y heaven in my room and they all at once start screaming, there is a violent UFC match happening right outside my door. I can't open the door because their presents are everywhere in my room, so I start screaming at them. You better stop it!!!! I'm gonna take all these toys back to the store if you don't stop!!!! Don't make me come out there, you are gonna be sorry! Yep this is Christmas.....this is how it really is, moments of bliss and moments of utter pandamonium. Welcome to the Martinez house!!!!

Turkey, Football, Lights, & Trees.....

The Holidays are here and I couldn't be more excited. I look forward to November and December all year long and every year it goes by faster and faster. I wish I had a pause button I could push at all my favorite parts so that they could just stop long enough for me to take it all in. I have realized that with 3 kids I am always going to miss something. There is not enough of me to fully experience each event with each child. I grew up in a house where tradition reigned supreme! Every holiday had it's own set of traditions and they were never broken!!!(well, almost never) If my mother or father tried to do something "new" they would feel the wrath! Oh my poor poor parents.....how they tried to move the Christmas tree to a different room of the house, or thought it was a good idea to stay home for Thanksgiving instead of going to Bakersfield or when we didn't get calendar's with our stockings. To you these may seem like harmless things, but to us, it was a colossal travesty. I love tradition, it makes my world happy :) I know exactly what to expect, I look forward to these things in life that are exactly the same year in and year out. That is so rare these days, to have things stay the same. Our lives are riddled with change and I hate change so of course I love our traditions that NEVER change. Ok I may be a little OCD about it but it's who I am. I have had the daunting task of trying to come up with new traditions with my husband and our kids. I want them to be just as special as mine were when I was a kid. But slowly we have come up with our family traditions and I see my kids getting excited. This just makes me overjoyed!!!! I dreamed about my kids and how they would be growing up and to see them happy and healthy and loving life just makes me feel so blessed. I try to teach my kids that the holidays are not about what you get from people but the time you spend with your family and the memories that you make. The toys and that stuff, they will break and get lost and lose their fun; but the memories, the laughs, the love; that will never ever leave you. The Lord has blessed us so abundantly and I praise Him for the family I have. I pray that each one of you has a Holiday season full of love, laughs, and great memories.

Thankful

I have been thinking about thankfulness alot lately. I think when November comes around it's tradition for me to start thinking about how thankful I am for the many blessings in my life. Throughout the 10 years Ivan and I have been married, thankfulness was not always my strong point I have to admit. There were alot of years that I focused solely on the things that I didn't have and how my life could be better. The Lord took me down a tough road to show me all that I had to be thankful for. 3 years ago I can remember picking up a book entitled "Surrender" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss to read for a small group I was in. I didn't know what was about to hit me when I opened that pretty little purple book. The first time I picked it up to read it I only got maybe 2 pages in and threw the book across the room and swore to never pick it up again. Can you tell I had a little bit of an issue????? Now I can laugh about it, but then I really struggled. Here is an excerpt from "Surrender" that I really love :

When it comes to uncertanties that keep us from sacrafice, surrender, and slavery to God, we, like Abraham, have "exceedingly great and precious promises" from God's Word-promises that powerfully counteract our deepest fears. If we trust those promises and the God who has made them, we will be given courage to make each sacrafice He asks of us. If we do not trust God's promises and, therefore, do not step out in faith and surrender, we will ultimately find ourselves in bodage to the very things we refuse to surrender. We will end up being controlled by that which we are seeking to keep within our own control.

You may be thinking what does that have to do with being thankful??? Well, for me it went hand in hand. I couldn't truely be thankful until I surrendered all of my wants and needs to the Lord. Not that I have perfected that ;) But 3 years has gone by since I first read that book and it has a profound affect on me still. I have learned to be thankful for all the small things in my life and for the big things. There will always be things in our lives that could be better and there will always be things that I think I "need" but ultimately God knows best. He wants the best for me!!!! That is one of his precious promises!!!!!! Not one day has gone by that I don't thank the Lord for my home, my husband, my kids, my cars, my church, my family, my friends. There will always be someone out there who has more than me and there will always be someone out there who has less than me. I am sooooo happy to be in a place where I am content with what the Lord has blessed me with. I don't ever want to repeat the road it took to get here but I am BLESSED!!!!!

"This is the day the Lord hath made, I will rejoice and be glad in it!"

Back in the saddle.....

I guess it's been quite awhile since I've done this but I decided to give it another go. I should probally give the 2 people who will read this an update on what's been going on with the Martinez Family this last year. So here it goes.........

Ivan:

He has had a very busy year full of surgeries and job changes. This Friday will be Ivan's 3rd surgery this year. So far he has had surgery on his left femur, hardware removal on his right femur, and now foot surgery. For those of you who don't know, Ivan has HME (google it..Hereditary Multiple Exostosis). He is in constant pain and discomfort, but you would never know it. He is a great example of how to deal with challenges by looking to God for peace and joy. He uses all that he deals with to now minister to those who are dealing with the same challenges in life. Speaking of which, Ivan is no longer working with the youth at our church. He has moved on to other ministries. He has such a gift for hospitality and relating with people and he is able to use that gift to its fullest extent. He is so happy with his new ministries and LOVES talking to people all day long, it's really what he's best at...trust me :) We still stay in close contact with alot of the kids in the high school and love them dearly.

Lauren:

Well last October I started working from home part time, I was working about 25 hours a week in my room on the computer. I did this until March and then decided that I could not sit in my room for one more minute or I would go bonkers. The Lord blessed me with a great job at an Optometrist office doing their billing. I split my time between Hemet and Redlands. I love getting out of the house a few days a week. I am really busy taking care of the kids, doing all the mom stuff. I have come to a place where my kids are getting older, we are out of the baby stage, and I am enjoying my kids company. They make me laugh constantly, and make me wanna pull my ears off of my head constantly but that's ok, I still love them. Life is busy, I love it that way.

Ally:

She is in 3rd grade this year. She is changing so much, I just wanna freeze her at this time and not let her grow up anymore. I see the pre-teen stage coming up really quickly and it scares the daylights out of me. If you knew me as a teenager you would know why I say that. Ally is so much like me that's it's like looking in a mirror sometimes. I have had several instances of deja vu. CREEPY!!!! She loves talking and more talking and more talking and more talking. She is a great helper, she gets along with her brother and sister so well.

Benny:

Big stuff Benny started Kindergarten this year. He was stoked to be at the same school as Ally. He was not so stoked to see that in Kindergarten there are no toys in the classroom. He misses his preschool where all they did was play and do crafts all day. He is adjusting to the "work" well. He has grown up so much this last year. He is such a sweet boy. He has his daddy's heart...he wants to please and loves to hug and cuddle. He loves all things pertaining to Star Wars or Spiderman or Batman. He can be found most days running through the house with a gun shooting his sisters. That just brings him such joy :)

Bailey:

Oh my Bailey, what can I say........she is our most challenging child for sure. She has such a crazy personality, I just sit back in awe of her most of the time. For example: last night at the fair we were watching the monster truck show and when she looked over and saw the pure joy in her big brothers face she decided it was the perfect time to clench her fist and punch him in the face. Do you get the picture???? I often look at her and wonder who's child is this??? Bailey started preschool this year. She goes to school 3 days a week while I'm at work. She loves it, she loves her teachers and her new friends. Bailey comes home to rule her roost. She 100% believes she is the boss of this house and everyday we battle for that position. God is the perfect designer, He knew that Bailey would need that fight and fire. Last December we found out that Bailey has the same bone disease as Ivan. She already has several tumors growing and will need surgery next year. She has a long road ahead of her but I have no doubt that she will be able to handle it.

So that's us in a nutshell....there have been so many joys for us and some challenges but with God we count it all joy.

Disneyland

We finally broke down this year and got Disneyland passes. We have been talking about it for a few years but never really did it.  We got them for Ally's birthday and she was thrilled, of course.  This was Benny and Bailey's first time at Disneyland and they both loved it.  We had a great day with the whole family.  

Sisterly Love

One of our rainy days last week Ally decided to set up a tea party for her and Bailey. Bailey just thought that she was such big stuff sitting up on that stool with Ally. It's so sweet to see the two of them play together. Bailey just adores her older sister and will do whatever Ally wants her to which just makes Ally thrilled. She loves being the boss :) It's times like these that I cherish and hope that the love between them now lasts through the teenage years ;)

Sorry it's been so long!

Sorry I know it's been a long time since I have posted anything. So here's just a little update on what has been going on with us for the last 6 weeks. The second week of January Ivan left on a missions trip to Chile. He was gone for a little over 2 weeks. We missed him so much but we knew that the Lord was using him and blessing him in a mighty way. He loved it there and can't wait to go back next year Lord willing. Here are some pics of him in Chile.




Ivan has to show his Mexican pride :)




We just been staying busy with kids in school and church functions. I have been busy getting ready for the Women's Retreat in April and I am teaching Bible study also.