Snow Day & Oliger Family Christmas

I don't think we got as much snow as predicted, but it is very cold and windy! That doesn't stop the kids though! They have been out sledding and playing in it since it began. The dog is right there with them. He doesn't know what to think!! So much so that I think he was afraid to poop in it, as he did that twice in the house...I was not a very happy camper. He never makes mistakes anymore.

I always walk in circles on snow days! What the heck should I do? My routine is way out of whack and it is really hard to get stuff done with everyone around. So, I am scanning my husband's family's slides into the computer. We are going to put the best of the best on a DVD to watch during the Christmas Party.

The Oliger family Christmas party is my favorite. I remember my first experience with it; I had to hide the tears through the whole thing. It is so full of laughter, love, tradition and the true meaning of Christmas. Every year the grandkids put on a Christmas pageant and put a rose in the vases on either side of the Nativity scene. Santa comes and lets all the kids sit on his lap and everyone sings Jingle Bells and Up On The House Top. The kids open presents from grandma (that all the parents bought) and from Godparents if they have any there. And the food is unending.

There is now 30 grandkids and I think 5 great grandkids...soon to be 7, so it is a housefull, though not everyone can come every year anymore. The kids still look forward to it. We had a family reunion this summer that all but one was able to attend. The grandkids made a "You Know Your an Oliger if" presentation that was awesome. It pretty much sums us up. Here it is:

You Know You're an Oliger If:
Your backside is so flat you can put your pants on backwards or forwards and they fit the same way.
You can't drink champagne, not because you don't like it, but because your nose doesn't fit in the glass.
You ever referred to a color as "Virgin Mary Blue."
You played church growing up while all your friends played house.
You're usually not late but you're NEVER early.
You rhyme all the time.
You can't tell a story without your hands.
You randomly burst into song.
You laugh at your own jokes.
You learn about politics by reading Uncle Bill's e-mails.
No one in your family calls you by your real name.
You could say the rosary before the abc's.
You have the same name or birthday as someone in your family.
You ever fought to be Mary or Joseph in the Christmas Pageant.
You know all the actions to "Up on the Roof Top."
Your cousins are also your best friends.
When you hear Grandma say "tyi tyi tyi" (sp) you automatically say "mother may I."
You ever looked like a "million buck," said, "everythings copasetic" on a good day, or have said, "It's a jungle out there!"
You have ever been or wanted to be prep of the week.
Every time your family gets together it's bigger then it was before.
If it's Sunday, and you don't have the family letter in your inbox, you start to worry.
You've ever dressed up as a biblical character, Saint, nun or priest for Halloween.
You've ever heard or said, "You're dumb, you're stupid and you don't know what you're talking about."
When describing your girlfriend or boyfriend you first say their name and then say "they're Catholic."
You've ever received a Schlymer gift.
You shop at the GW (Good Will) or the SA (Salvation Army).
You have ever been or are homeschooled.
You have ever been asked "who's your favorite Aunt/Uncle?"
It takes forever to get to the point of a story, but even longer to say goodbye.
No one loves us more than we love ourselves.
If people have ever said, "Oh you're an Oliger!"
You sneeze no less than 3x in a row.
You're not sleeping in the chair you're only resting your eyes.
You can fall asleep better than a narcoleptic.
You have ever prayed for the dead ants on the sidewalk.
You were ever told you were gonna get a knuckle sandwich.
Your friends don't need to ask what you're doing Sundays because they know that's family rosary time at Grandma's.
You pray for everything, even the travelers on "both sides."
You can hardly put your car in park before Grandma hops in.
You have more Holy things in your house than the Church.
You have a stash of rosaries including the one with you right now.
You get excited when your cousin is wearing a cute outfit because you know it will be yours someday.
You think it's normal to have at least 4 kids in a family.
You've ever played "riddley-riddley-eye-double-dee" or "huckle buckle beanstock."
You wear short sleeves on Christmas Eve because you know it's going to be 90 degrees in Grandma's house.
Your stomach has ever hurt after laughing too hard.
And lastly, you have a grandmother who loves you dearly, a grandfather whose "blua, blua, blua" always made you smile, an uncle whose prayers you depended on, an uncle who had a purity and dependability you had to admire, an uncle who's wacky names and vibrant personality shown brighter than any star, and a family so loving you couldn't ask for anything more.

Thankful for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving and the weekend that follows have changed so much over the past 15 years. There have been different seasons of our lives that have changed our traditions. Thanksgiving used to be at my mom's house with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins. The food was unending as my mom's side loved to cook and associated love, family and socializing with good food. I am continually telling my kids cooking stories about my family. I've actually told two this past week. 1) My Aunt LaVonne used to make Red Food Coloring Cake, which is Red Velvet Cake in it's original title. My aunt always called it "cancer cake" because at that time a certain red food coloring was known to cause cancer. I'm sure the name was changed to save face for that very reason. 2) When I was very young, my Aunt LaVonne made a tuna noodle casserole that I just loved. I asked her what it was called and she told me, "Horse Poop Casserole." Sorta like a lady responds to a compliment on a dress: Oh this ol' thing?! Anyway, that is what we all called it ever since. I even have a recipe card with that title, which I showed the kids recently when I made it and they said, "Wow, this is good, what is it?" They wouldn't believe me until I showed them the recipe card.

After my mom passed away, it wasn't the same. Then my sister moved to Colorado. So, we started having a small, but nice and peaceful thanksgiving at home with just us. I'm sure my mom would just have a fit because I use instant mashed potatoes in my Thanksgiving dinner...my kids won't eat the real thing, so why bother!

Again circumstances change, and last year we had John's mom and his brother, Bill, join us for dinner. This year it didn't quite work out and the whole day was just plain Unthanksgivingy (nice word). My green bean casserole was horrible and I forgot to make 7 layered salad. My menu never changes: Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, green bean casserole, 7 layered salad, pumpkin and apple pie. Also, some of our traditions have not come to pass yet, such as, we usually watch My Life the night before. This is a real tear jerker that makes you realize that you have plenty to be thankful for. But others are underway, such as decorating the house for Christmas and taking the yearly family Christmas picture. I always write our family Christmas newsletter by Thanksgiving and list all the things we are thankful for. Putting it in writing makes you realize that life isn't so bad after all. There really is so, so very much to be thankful for.

We are rethinking our traditions and are going to try a few new things next year. We are entering a new season of our life: our children are getting older and we need to accommodate new interests and attention spans. I love Thanksgiving and can't wait to try again next year.

Facebook

I started Facebook when my oldest son went off to AIT for 5 months and he didn't want to miss out on my youngest daughter's "firsts." I put pictures and videos on there of her for him to see, but that is about all I used it for. Almost three years later I have over 200 friends and I spend more time hiding games and crap I don't want to read, than I do reading anything worth while. I finally unfriended a bunch of people that I really didn't know or didn't know that well, because I didn't have the time to read everything about everyone. I am almost to the point of completely getting rid of facebook because people are so rude to each other and to certain groupings of people. I love being a part of it all and seeing what my family is up to, but I am not sure it is all worth my time. Am I any better for spending time on there? I'm not so sure I am. I would much rather be typing on my blog, whether anyone looks at it or not. On my blog I can be myself and not worry about being attacked because of what I believe and what I stand for.

Commentary taken from Daily Gospel Online

Commentary of the day :

Saint Symeon the New Theologian (c.949-1022), Greek monk
Catecheses, III, 19 (©Friends of Henry Ashworth; cf SC 113, p.165f.)

Believing in Jesus today


Many people never stop saying - I have heard them myself - "If only we had lived in the days of the apostles, and been counted worthy to gaze upon Christ as they did, we should have become holy like them." Such people do not realize that the Christ who spoke then and the Christ who speaks now throughout the whole world is one and the same... The position now is not the same as it was then, but our situation now, in the present day, is very much better. It leads us more easily to a deeper faith and conviction than seeing and hearing him in the flesh would have done.

Then he appeared to the uncomprehending as a man of lowly station: now he is proclaimed to us as true God. Then in his body he associated with tax collectors and sinners and ate with them: now he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, and is never in any way separated from him... Then even those of lowliest condition held him in contempt. They said: «Is not this the son of Mary, and of Joseph the carpenter?» (Mk 6,3; Jn 6,42) Now kings and rulers worship him as Son of the true God, and himself true God... Then he was thought to be mortal and corruptible like the rest of humankind. He was no different in appearance from other men. The formless and invisible God, without change or alteration, assumed a human form and showed himself to be a normal human being. He ate, he drank, he slept, he sweated, and he grew weary. He did everything other people do, except that he did not sin.

For anyone to recognize him in that human body, and to believe that he was the God who made heaven and earth and everything in them was very exceptional... It is certain, therefore, that anyone who now hears Christ cry out daily through the holy gospels and proclaim the will of his blessed Father, but does not obey him with fear and trembling and keep his commandments: it is certain that such a person would have refused to believe in him then.

Scanning Slides

Look, my first day of kindergarten. My son Michael bought a Canon CanoScan 5600F a while back. Well, I've finally conned him into hooking it up to my computer for a while because it can scan slides!!! So, I am sitting at my computer today scanning all the slides from my side of the family. There are hundreds of them, but boy do they bring back a lot of memories. It is amazing at the quality of the pictures that this scanner can make with these old slides. I also, have inherited the slides from my Aunt Emily Bluedorn, so I will be scanning in those along with all the slides from my husband's side of the family. This is a many month job, which will give me plenty of time to spend on the computer checking email, Facebook, writing on this blog and in my book and whatever else I feel like doing. It is actually quite exciting! I plan on giving all the relatives CDs with all the pictures on them for Christmas.

What a Busy Day!

I took my mother in law to Hy-Vee and Walgreens and then we went out to brunch. I was telling her about my Wednesday. She insisted I write it down because it has got to be a record...well, I'm not sure if it beats everyone's busyness, but I hadn't ran around like that before. I'm not really into writing down boring stuff like this, but who knows maybe some day I'll want to recall it. So it begins:
I got all the kids up and at em, and the ones who go to school out the door. My daughter Caity had a submerged tooth that needed pulled so we all went to the Dentist, afterwards we stopped at McDonald's so she could eat a shake. After McDonald's we went home. I put Michelle down for a quick nap while I worked in the kitchen. Woke her up and we went to a Doctors apt. On the way home from there I picked Andrew and Lisa up from school and brought them home. Made sure all was good and went back to do the Middle School car pool. After I dropped all the kids off at their homes, I picked up Joe and took him to the dentist. After the dentist, I dropped him off at his babysitting job and then I went to have some blood work done. After the blood work I picked Caity up from dance along with a neighbor; took the neighbor to choir and then went home. Everyone quickly ate dinner and I took Joe to play practice and then I was back out at 8:15 to pick him up. I can't wait until I have another driver in the house, that would make things so much easier! Luckily not every day is like this.

Thee Family Tree

I decided to actually sit down and write my book on family. I've written the preface and decided to put it on my blog:

My original intent of writing this handbook was to pass on many family “jewels,” traditions and recipes to my kids in the form of a keepsake. As this book went through my head over the years, a friend encouraged me to write to a bigger audience. She thought what I had to say, many could learn from. For some people, raising seven kids gives me credibility and makes me an expert in several areas such as organization, communication, frugality and discipline. There are many moms out there who have raised more children than I who could have, just as easily, written this book. So, what else gives me credibility? Could it be my family background?

My husband is from a family of 9 and his mom has 30 grandchildren and as of this writing 5 great grandchildren. His family tree is a perfectly shaped triangle. I come from a family tree that looks like a web designed by a spider on caffeine: 2 parents, each with 3 marriages, 17 children between them, 32 grand kids and 15 great grand kids. The experiences I can pull from within my extensive family is wide and varied with many visibly present lessons for the kids to learn from. I would call this a type of comparative research. Hmmm…..could credibility come from my education and work experience?

My degree is in Organizational Communications with a Business option. My business career was very short, only four years in the Industrial Relations department of a large corporation. I spent those four years traveling factories auditing EEO policies and practices, training management in Teamwork, Behavioral Interviewing, Active Listening, and Franklin Time Management. When marriage two began, the career ended and my family career began. I have 7 children and all the experience that goes into raising them and homeschooling them. My children find me credible, but I still wonder how one achieves credibility?

As I contemplate credibility a few things come to mind. 1) We are a very successful family. Don’t get me wrong, there is screaming, and fighting, and chaos at my house, too, but for the most part my marriage is awesome and my kids are all great friends to each other, they are caring and joyful, they love God and they are successful at what they do. 2) Over a short period of time we have experienced much sorrow and many struggles in our family. Our strength can be found only in our strong faith in God. 3) We have had the opportunities to be very generous. We have also been on the receiving end of great generosity. All of these experiences have taught us that obedience, gratitude, love and humility will bring so much joy and peace. I guess on the outside, looking in, how we have handled ourselves in these situations, and how we are living our life and our faith, and being examples to our children, is also setting examples for others. Our example is credible. Our example has to be credible…it must be credible.

My “new” goal of this handbook is to pass down to the next generation the importance of family, which seems to be not only losing its importance, but also losing its meaning.