It's the Little Things

It has been easy for me to get bogged down with all of the things that I am not doing right now.  I can start listing all of the things that might not be going right in Melissa Blau World, and I'm sure I could come up with a mighty large list.  But in the midst of all of this chaos (and right now a very UNorganized chaos) I have been able to see a few little things that show that some things that I am doing (or at least moderately involved with) are moving right along as they should be.

First of all . . . Minsy:
Minsy doesn't say very much right now, either in English or Chinese, but she is definitely able to get her point across.  She is able to ask, "Where is JoJo?" constantly when he is at school.  We have learned to call him "He Who Must Not Be Named" because Minsy will get a bit upset if she hears us talking about JoJo, but there is no JoJo in the immediate area.

Minsy has learned to fold her arms when we pray.  I am totally convinced that that is because of excellent nursery leaders at church because we were not having much luck with this, but last Sunday she came home and was quite gung ho about showing off her new talent with us, delighted to hear our squeals when she folded her arms during the dinner prayer.

Minsy also loves to say Jesus over and over.  I think the real thing here is that Minsy LOVES babies, and this weekend we got out our Little People nativity sets which I absolutely love.  Minsy fell in love with the baby Jesus piece, and Hyrum explained that this was Jesus, so Minsy has been running back and forth to each of us, beaming for joy as she shows the Jesus piece and says, "Jesus, Jesus" over and over again.  It's quite adorable.

Minsy loves looking at pictures of people she knows and especially of herself.  We made a little album of pictures they took of her in China, and she laughs and smiles at this album a bunch.

Minsy has developed a bit of an obsession over The Fresh Beat Band TV show.  She really doesn't like watching TV much, whether it is in English or Chinese, but she LOVES watching the Fresh Beat Band episodes that I uploaded to my iPhone for JoJo a year ago.  She loves to dance to their incredibly hokey music.  If she is ever in a rare and difficult mood it only takes a few minutes with Kiki, Marina, Twist, and Shout for Minsy to be in a little bit of heaven on earth.

Next . . . Laney, Savannah, Spencer, Katie, Hyrum, and JoJo
I don't mean to totally lump these six together as The Rest of the Blau Children, but we are still in the "getting to know you" phase with Minsy, so we are pretty focused on her accomplishments.  But that doesn't mean that the other Blau children are not rocking the world in their own ways.  Today Laney and Savannah were singing O Holy Night with some accompaniment on the computer, and it was absolutely gorgeous.  It brought tears to my eyes as I listened.  Laney is a great singer, but so is Savannah.  She has a beautiful voice, but when she sings she is often doing so in a mocking way, adding tons of vibrato and things like that. Still, even in her silliness it sounds divine.  I love hearing them sing together.  Also, it was an absolute joy to attend a Waynesville High School jazz band concert last Thursday and hear Savannah kicking it on the piano.  She is just a freshman, and she is replacing a young man who is an amazing legend of music genius in the Waynesville schools who graduated last year and is now impressing the people at UMKC's school of music.  So she has a lot to live up to, but I think she's doing great.

Spencer is becoming quite a good trombone player.  I never thought he would really get very far into instrumental music because I thought he would be more interested in sports.  He still is an amazing soccer player, but they don't have school teams until high school for that.  He has ended up loving his instrument, and he spends more time practicing it than he spends on his other homework.  I would have never guessed.

Katie is super involved with her friends.  She obviously got the social gene that does not exist in my system.  I have been so impressed with her friendship with a little girl who has some mental problem that keeps her from speaking to most people, whether adults or children.  But for some reason she has latched onto Katie, and they are bffs.  Recently this little girl was diagnosed with diabetes, and Katie has spent a long time learning about the condition and what she can do to help her friend.  She monitors her friend's diet better than her friend does.

Hyrum is my little man who talks like a thirty year old many times.  He is always quick to try to make things better when he sees a problem.  He is my child who will spend hours cleaning his room without any help from others if he thinks that the messiness is making me sad.

And JoJo, my baby boy, will be turning six tomorrow.  I told him that he can't grow up.  He needs to stay five forever because I need my baby boy.  He just looked at me and said that I could call him five if I want, and he would always be my baby boy.  Awww!  Love him!

And then . . . My Primary Class at Church
I teach the class of nine year olds at church, and they can be a rowdy group.  There are a lot of boys who don't really know the meaning of the word reverence, and I often feel as if I am herding cats each week as I try to calm everyone down enough to feel the Spirit during the lesson.  On a side note, I love this commercial, and it accurately depicts what my class feels like many Sundays of the month:

One week a couple of months ago I finished my lesson only to find that the class thought that the main message of the lesson was that the apostle Peter was a total hottie.  Geesh!  I obviously failed that day.  Well, today I was teaching a lesson about the gifts of the spirit spoken of by Paul in Corinthians, and, Holy Cow!, I had everyone's attention for the entire lesson.  They acted as if I was speaking the most important words ever spoken.  They started sharing personal experiences that matched our lesson topic, and they listened to each other with rapt attention.  I was shocked beyond words.  What happened?  How was my lesson different today than in the past?  I don't know, but I'll say that if I can teach like that for the rest of my days on this earth I will consider myself totally blessed.

Of course . . . My Totally Amazing and Absolutely Perfect in Every Way Husband, Herman
It has been a crazy few weeks for Herman's schedule at work and at church, but I am happy that he is a forward thinking man who is looking ahead two steps before he takes the next one.  He really tries to do what is right for our family, and that makes it easy to partner with him in all of our adventures.  I posted this on facebook a couple of weeks ago, but I'll say it again:  One of the reasons I love my husband?  He told me that the wrinkles I get by my eyes when I smile are beautiful.  Herman never gets really gushy with romantic sentiment usually, but sometimes he says things that just knock it out of the ballpark.

And finally . . . We're Talking About the Little Things Here, So I Have to Say . . . Peter, Paul, and Mary
Peter, Paul, and Mary?  Well, I love my Christmas albums . . . a lot.  I usually just thrown all of them on a playlist and shuffle the songs, mixing up different albums and styles.  But today I was in the mood for my Peter, Paul, and Mary Christmas album.  It is not a typical Christmas album, and it contains many unusual songs that others really couldn't pull off, but Peter, Paul and Mary do amazingly.  It just reminds me of being home at Christmas as a little girl.  My parents had this album, and when I say album, I mean album, or as my kids once explained "those really big black CDs."  We listened to this a bunch during the season.  My parents didn't have my obsession with Christmas music, so we didn't have 100 different albums, but this is one we had, and I love it to this day.  It reminds me of my very wonderful parents!

So I close my little message of the little things that make me happy with a special video of one of my favorite songs from this album, "A Soalin'" by Peter, Paul, and Mary.  Enjoy, and take a few minutes this day to think of the little things that bring joy to your life this Christmas season!