Our New Tradition

I hope everyone is doing great! I have been out for several days. A week to be exact I believe. 
Here is my explanation. Firstly I try not to blog when my Mr. Sexy is home. He feels like I am ignoring him :-) Second, I ended up sick. Yes the illness came upon this house. My daughter had came to visit for her weekend time and she passed it on to us. Thank you Gabby! Eric (Mr. Sexy) ended up sick first. He took off work and slept for awhile and I will admit, I have a lack of empathy sometimes and I did not want to get sick so I tried to keep my distance from him. That did not work and I ended up with it, 2x's worse. Imagine that. Seems the further down the line an illness goes it gets worse. My step son ended up at the doctor yesterday with a minor ear infection. He is no antibiotics for a bit. 

This morning you could tell it was Friday. Waking the 2 kids out of 3 up to get ready for school was a bit more hard. Cory overslept and would not wake up when his older brother tried to get him up. 30 minutes later he gets up when I tell him. Shower was skipped. Logan had his covers up over his head and was not awake at all and he just wanted to stay in bed. Thank goodness its Friday so the little bits can wake up on their own tomorrow. The one thing I love about Saturday.

During the down time of trying to recover I missed out on several prompts from the Blog-Tember Challenge. That is okay I will do my best to try to make them up. If not at least get back on track again. 

Day 12- Tell us about a favorite tradition, it can be any tradition and tell us what makes it so special. 

It is very hard to have traditions when you have a blended family especially around the holidays. Everyone is trying to figure out when kids will be with us or be with the other side or when we can celebrate with our families and then try to have our own. Mr. Sexy (Eric) and I have been together 2 years this month. Our relationship is new still yet so there are not many traditions set in stone. Like I said it is so hard to do the traditional traditions. 

While trying to type up this post and racking my brain on a tradition we have or could have, I found one.

We make a yearly trip to the Little Rock Zoo every year. This started in 2013 when we heard thatArkansas Autism Resource and Outreach Center hosts one day out of the year where admission is free for families who have been affected by Autism. We have attended both years so far and hope to continue this. Unfortunately, getting everyone to go and together is impossible. 

2013 All the Kids together

This Year and As you can see, 2 kids are missing. One wanted to stay with a friend and the other is having issues talking to his father. Long Story

I have come to realize when you have a blended family, traditions have to be tweaked a bit. You can not always have everyone together at once to do the special thing your family does. Keep the tradition and if everyone can attend that is great if not that is fine too. We will continue to attend Zoo Day that Arkansas Autism Resource and Outreach Center hosts every year! 

What favorite traditions do you have? We want to hear and you can link up At Brave Love

Not Your Typical Easter

Oh I have once again stumbled off the beaten path of blogging. But that is okay. I am here again and hopefully will continue to follow. 

Easter was yesterday and I hope all of you enjoyed the day with your family. For us it is not the traditional Easters that I remember. We were never really into going to church and honestly I still dont. (Even though I am seriously thinking about it)

But we would always dye eggs, hide them, hunt them and have an Easter lunch. My parents never said what Easter was about or anything. I found out later as an adult. 

Easter this year was a disaster. We decided to take Logan out to an Easter Egg hunt that a local church had set up at the city park. Logan was already feeling kind of rough but I wanted him to be able to pick up eggs since we decided we were not doing it at home. I should have put Logan in the younger age group. He was slow and never stood a chance. Unlike most of the other parents there, we wanted Logan to be able to do it himself and have fun. We look around and parents are gathering eggs and throwing them in their kids baskets. It was a horrible display of greed I have ever seen. Not only that but other parents were fighting. A brawl just about broke out and I heard the grandmother telling the adults it was not a place for that. It continued out in the parking lot. We just scooped up Logan and got out of there. We see kids leaving and parents carrying baskets overflowing with eggs. It was sad. It was very sad. So Eric and I have decided our goal for next year we will set up an Easter egg hunt for Special Needs Children. Then those kids will be given a chance. 

As you can see he did not end up with much and most of that he can not even have due to allergies. 

Then on our actual Sunday and settling down a bit after a the horrible display of people on Saturday Logan spent the morning in therapy. 

After about 2 hours Logan started feeling really bad and ended up with a fever and the therapist had to leave early. I kept him home from school today and this is what he started his morning off with

This Easter is one to not exactly remember but to help up make a better one next year for my sweet little boy. 

Time To Give Thanks

A Time To Give Thanks

This is the time of the year to give thanks. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and its a time for family and friends to gather and feast and give thanks. The "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated to give thanks to God for guiding them safely into the new world. This was a three day event with enough food to feed 90 native Americans and 13 pilgrims. Then what happened after?? Yes a massacre of the Native Americans. (Just wanted to throw that in there) 

Do you or your family have any specific traditions at Thanksgiving? I can tell you what I remember from being a child. My mother would be up all night the night before prepping and baking pies. My favorite is my grandmother's and my mother's traditional pineapple pie. Everyone in the family looked forward to this pie. We did not have a huge meal but it was good enough for us. I can even still remember the menu. Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, green beans, corn, sweet potatoes and of course pies. We never had many desserts just the pie. 

The day would begin with my mother getting up like at 6 in the morning to put the turkey on and then us kids would get up and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on t.v. while my brother and my dad were out hunting for the biggest part of the day. When my brother got older and moved out my dad would go by himself. We usually had dinner around 5 I believe when I was younger. Sometimes we would have other people stop by. I remember some of my parents friends coming one year, some friends thy had not seen in years. I also remember my uncle being there every year. 

As the years went by and we all got older the holiday started changing and a new tradition evolved. Thanksgiving was held at my grandmother's house (when she moved to Arkansas) and my Aunts, Uncles and cousins would all come and we all would have a wonderful Thanksgiving day at my grandmothers house. It was held at noon every year. After eating and cleaning up we would all head back up the mountain to mom and dad's house for the continuation of the celebration. 

Now more years have passed and the traditions that I once knew have disappeared. There are no longer any traditions in my family and it is really sad to think of it. I wanted to start my own traditions within my own little family but that is almost nearly impossible because of divorce, people work, kids are somewhere else..It saddens me. 

In honor of this holiday I will give thanks to the memories that I have growing up and my adolescent and young adult years ( I am still young). I will give thanks that I am alive and can remember those memories. No sense in me basking in my own misery just because our family can not be together. I will make the best of this day with the best that I have and thank God I have healthy, loving family. Maybe one day I will be able to start my own traditions. Until then I will just be thankful for what I do have. Love to all my readers and have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. Spend it with the ones you love and enjoy in wonderful conversations and be merry.