I can hardly believe another year has flown by.  I remember hearing adults talk about how much time faster time goes when you are an adult but I never believed them.  It took forever to get to Christmas and then forever 'till summer vacation started and then that went on forever and I couldn't wait for school to start again.  Now that I'm an adult time really is different.  I never have time to get all the things done that I need to in any given day.  I am continually amazed at how fast the kids are growing.  It really seems like Jubilee has been here maybe 4 or 5 months and yet she is 9 months old.

I am working on redeeming my time or better yet the time that God has given me.  I am going to work this year on making sure my priorities are what get accomplished and that life doesn't just pass me by because I am squandering my time.  The Bible says, "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.  Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is."  We all need to be making sure to get accomplished those things that God has asked of us and the rest will fall into place.

My last post was about the boys and how well they are doing with their tin whistles, and I didn't include Elisha.  Elisha didn't feel comfortable about playing her tin whistle, but she did want me to video her playing her flute.  She has been playing the flute for less than a year and she has improved a lot.  I remember when she started the flute, I was worried that she would give up because she was having such a hard time with it.  She struggled through and is now doing much better.

So here is a video of Elisha Michele Silva playing her flute.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed listening to her get better and better and better.

~MykkMoose (Dad)(Mike)

This year I spent time deciding what instrument I wanted to play.  After a lot of research I decided on the tin whistle.  The day I brought my tin whistle home, the kids were very interested of my choice.  They all wanted to play my tin whistle.  After seeing that they liked it so much I decided I would get them all tin whistles for Christmas.  I ordered them some Clarke Sweetones tin whistles and put them in their stockings. 

On Christmas morning the children were very happy to get their tin whistles.  They started playing great music the same day they got them.  I was sort of jealous because in one day they could play better than I could and I have been practicing for a month.  Below I have some videos of the boys playing their tin whistles.  I hope you enjoy their music.

Today we had about 2 hours of snow fun.  Isaiah, Elisha, Elizabeth, and I drove to the middle school close to where we live and we went sledding.  We also played in the snow a bit.  Below is a cute video of Elizabeth.

You can also see the rest of our snow day videos on our SmugMug Page.

~MykkMoose (Dad)(Mike)

It has been a very interesting week.  We have had lots of snow, as I have mentioned in my other posts, and we have had a lot of great times outside playing in the snow.  That has been one of the blessings this week.  I have some others too.

I would like to thank the Lord for the blessing of my little Hosanna.  We have had a good day today.  It all started this morning when she called me into her bedroom at 3am to tell me she was not feeling good.  Now it isn't a blessing for her to be sick, but it was great to let her jump into the bed with me and cuddle all morning.  The next nice thing was after lunch I was tired after shoveling lots of snow, and Hosanna and I cuddled for about 30 minutes on the couch.  The last but not least, tonight Hosanna came to me to tell me she was sorry for taking a potato chip without asking.  The reason this is such a blessing is that she is starting to be repentant for things she does wrong.  I had scolded her when she took the chip without asking and told her not to do it again, and then just left it at that.  About 45 minutes later she came to me and said she was sorry.  I hugged her for a LONG time after that.  I love her very much.

The last blessing I want to mention was that we found out camera.  Last Saturday I thought I had left it in the church, but nobody had seen it.  We had some very good pictures of our trip to Grandma and Grandpa Wiebe's house and we were very worried those would be lost.  With Grandma, Grandpa and Great Grandma getting older we didn't know whether or not these might be our last pictures of one of them.  Well anyway, I found the camera in the house and praise God we didn't loose it.

So those are the blessing we received today.  God is good!

~MykkMoose (Dad)(Mike)

Okay this is just a short post with some pictures.  I posted several of them on my Facebook page, but I wanted to make sure I put them up here.  We took pictures at Winco of the "olders" and pictures of Jubilee at the house.  I hope you enjoy them.  The quality isn't the best because I took them with my cell phone.

Today we went to Winco and while we were there I took some pictures of Jubilee in the shopping cart.  The shots were pretty good so I decided to put one on my cell phones background. 

As I was changing this on my phone Gabriel asks, "Why don't I get to ..." and then he stops.  He was going to ask, why he didn't get to be on the cell phone, but then remembered that the last image I used was of him.  Gabe's picture has been the home screen background for the last 6 months, if not longer.  It is funny though, what things are important to the kids.  As dad, I have to remember those things.

Here is the picture of Jubilee that I am using.

~mykkmoose (dad)(mike)

I have to start out by saying that here in western Washington state we don't get much snow during the winter.  When it does snow, usually it snows in the morning, rains around noon, and the by the afternoon the snow we got in the morning is all gone. 

Well this week has been different.  It has snowed many days and the temperatures have been so low that it hasn't melted.  The kids have LOVED it.  They have been able to play in it everyday this week.  (Well except for today.  We went out shopping)  Below are some pictures of the snow.

I am blogging because I feel guilty about not blogging for so long.  So...in an attempt not to be a bad blogger I will give you a few bits of randomness.

• My baby is cranky right now because she is nearly ready for bed.  I need to feed her and change her diaper so this post will not be too long.
• I have been thinking a lot about my New Year's resolutions.
• I wonder if anybody even reads my blog.
• We just finished playing a card game that my husband invented.  It needs a little bit of work but it's not too bad.
• My dog has acne.  Somebody in our house needs to put medicine on it.
• There are shavings from the pencil sharpener on my floor right now.  I am not exactly sure how they got there but I'm sure I will be the one picking them up.
• I have a whole container of chocolates that I am trying to share with my family but secretly I would like to hide them and eat them at will.
• My favorite tea is Red Rose (decaf).
• My back is hurting right now.
• I really like the James Taylor song "September Grass."  I really like James Taylor period, he has a very soothing voice.
• I have to go to the dentist on Monday and I am dreading it.  I HATE the dentist.
• It's been very nice not being able to go out this week because of the snow.
• I don't know what we will do for school tomorrow but I will figure it out in the morning.  I like Tapestry of Grace but I am having a hard time with the writing/language portion of things.  I think I need the CD to make better sense of it all.

I thought this was very good and very interesting.  It was written by a Jesuit priest,  on the NPR site and was broadcast on NPR Radio.  I thought it was pretty good.

All Things Considered, December 17, 2008

It's the middle of the day, and I'm opening my Christmas cards. And what do I see when I tear open the envelope? Not Baby Jesus in his manger. Not the Virgin Mary. Not even the Wise Men. No, chances are the card will be a photo of a family on some beach in the Caribbean. Or a picture of somebody's house. Or someone's dog wearing reindeer horns.

These are the new favorite Christmas cards, for even the most pious Christians: the family cards.

Family cards display — on the front — a photo of a happy family, typically wearing red-and-green scarves or red-and-green sweaters. Sometimes the family dog is included, wearing a scarf covered with slobber. Just as often, family cards show the clan on their summer vacation, posing jauntily in bathing suits in the Caribbean. These cards don't say "Merry Christmas" as much as "Look where you didn't go!"

Look, I love family photos during the holidays. Plus, I actually read those annual holiday letters, all of which start with "What a busy year it's been!" Seeing photos of my friends and their families and even enjoying a few sunny beach scenes when it's cold and dark outside is a highlight of December.

But I enjoy the photos more when they're inside the card, not the card itself. Because more and more, even devout Christians have been replacing Jesus, Mary and Joseph with themselves. Doesn't it strike you as weird to set aside the Holy Family in favor of your family? Does a photo of Cabo San Lucas trump the story told by the original San Lucas? Is Christmas really about you?

Still unconvinced? Try a thought experiment. For your next birthday, how would you feel about getting a birthday card with my photo on it? "Happy Birthday! It's a photo of me!" My modest campaign against family cards has less chance of success than another Ralph Nader presidential bid. People will accuse me of being anti-family. But I'm not: I'm more pro-Holy Family. Plus, I'm battling Snapfish, Shutterfly, Kodak and a lot of online card stores that have been promoting this idea with more resources than a poor Jesuit can muster.

So I'll leave you with a simple plea. Place those great photos inside the card. Or how about this: When choosing your Christmas cards this year, think more Jesus and less you. Or, more Virgin Mary, and less Virgin Islands.

The Rev. James Martin is a Jesuit priest and author of My Life with the Saints.

I hope you all liked it.

~MykkMoose (Dad)(Mike)