Simply Living

While visiting family in Oregon I was struck by the simplicity of small town life.  I used to live this life and forgot how different it is from the life I live now.We left this small town for the promise of a brighter future in California.  Now, let me say, I know God lead us to California and our life as a family was forever changed for the better by that move.  It was not easy as we left my family and loved ones.  But I know for us, we were meant to leave and forge a new life in a new culture.





The hustle and bustle of the Bay Area in California is certainly a different pace from small town USA.  There are so many things I love about living in the Bay; the mild weather, beautiful scenery, cultural events, all the excitement living near San Francisco brings. You can easily find fresh local produce, organic and hormone free food, amazing restaurants.  There is a continual barrage of things to do.  But with this came the need to take all of this in.  Make it part of our lives. With so many things available to us, we can't possibly ever do everything because our lives have become so busy.  There are so many things to care about; education, business, work, health, exercise, kids activities, sports, spiritual life, giving, helping others.  Just the larger volume of people to see and be friends with and events to partake in just make my life feel like it is busting at the seams.  It is beautiful and full of adventure, but sometimes I get soooo busy, I forget how wonderful it all is.







When I return to this small town of 10,000 people, the place where three of my children were born, I remember the good things.  Days of leisure, 5 minute drives to get to anywhere in town, driving through the countryside, the big sky, the whole town coming out for football games or firework shows. A sense of community and belonging. And time...time to connect, time to sit without distraction, to visit with loved ones.


I want to take this simple living lifestyle, peel away the habit I have learned to have to "do" something all the time and insert it into the beautiful life I have here.  It will take practice and actually some discipline.  I will learn to say no to some things in order to fully experience the things I say yes to.

Living simply is a choice and not a location! 

xoxo,

Carol

Claire Bear

Meet Claire!

She is full of sass!  She's spunky, doesn't like to be told what to do and gives the best hugs in the whole world!

I just love her spirit!  It will be so fun watching her grow up to see how this independence develops.  

Something I have learned from raising five kids is to let them be them. Let their personality blossom.  Of course it's our job to guide them and teach them but we have to remember to allow their own individuality shine through. 

Claire's parents are great at this. I consider myself blessed to be a part of her life and to get to watch her grow. 

I am so excited to see the adventures that lie ahead for her.

xoxo,

Carol

Family - One of those posts I started last year and who knows why I didn't post it!

We went to my nieces wedding last year. 

My mom, both sisters, brother-in-law, nieces and nephews all live in a small town in Oregon.  

We only get to see them once or twice a year.

I sure miss these guys and cherish the times when we get to see each other.  

It is always fun.  It is always crazy.  We always leave with great memories.

This is my nephew "Sumo".  He is fun squared.

This is my niece Becka's baby Ellie.  What a doll.

Chloe got to visit her cousins.  

She loves it and acts like she has she has been around them her whole life.

My beautiful niece Miranda.  She is my sister Jami's youngest daughter. 

Courtny getting ready for the wedding.

My sister Holly. She is a blast!  Everyone gathered at her house to get ready for the wedding.

Well...everyone gathers at her house for everything!

My sister Jami made these beautiful flower balls for the bridesmaids to carry down the isle. 

Jami is amazingly creative.

Me and Holly waiting for the wedding to start.  Unfortunately my sister Jami was at home changing.  

She was in the car with a crock pot full of chili on her way to the wedding when her son-in-law turned the corner and the pot of chili poured all over her ivory dress!  Can you imagine?  But within minutes, Jami was changed into a new dress and at the Armory as if nothing ever happened.  This is one of the best stories of the weekend.  Jami,  I hope it's been long enough for this story to be funny.   :)

My nephew Layton and his best girl Gloria.  Their wedding is coming up next year.

Holly and Sumo.

My nephews Landon and Sumo.  Two of the cutest guys I know!

My niece Brianna came with us from California to the wedding.  Bri, Cali and Becka are best friends!

Holly's second oldest son, Logan.  This dude rocks!  He played music for the wedding march.

Courtny was directing traffic.  haha

                                                      

Becka's older sister Jocelynn.  Jocey was married the month before Becka.  

Sadly we were not able to attend her wedding.

Here she is...the woman of the hour.  Our bride to be, Becka.  She was crazy getting everything ready for the wedding and reception...

Ran to change...

And was truly beautiful.  She had a great time at her wedding.  As it should be.

Talk to you soon.

Love,

Carol

(Mom, Auntie, Gamma)

Traditions

I love traditions!  

I love them!  

There is something so meaningful and comforting about them.  They remind you how important family is.  They take you back to your childhood and let you share your favorite memories with your kids and your kids, kids.  Most of our tradtions happen around the holidays.  One of our traditions is opening one gift on Christmas Eve and it is suppose to be a surprise, but everyone knows it will be Christmas jammies.

One of my favorite traditions that I continued from my childhood is making Christas Cookies.  This year, Chloe and Claire helped me make the cookies.  My two teenagers were too busy to make cookies this year.  It's ok, I know in a few years, they will realize how much they love our traditions and won't want to miss them!

Chloe picked up on the process rather quickly.  After showing her once, she was rolling out the dough, cutting the cookies and putting them on the cookies sheet all by herself.  She hardly needed me there, except to make sure she didn't eat too much dough.

Claire wanted to be a helper too.  She picked out the cookie shapes she wanted.

I ate so many of these delicious masterpieces, that I had to do a cleanse immediately after new years.  I am pretty sure a week straight of Christmas cookies for breakfast, lunch and dinner is a bit excessive.  I may have a problem.

My mom spent years as a daycare provider and preschool teacher.  She figured out a way to make decorating the cookies easy for kids to do.  She thins out the frosting so the kids can simply dip the cookies into a shallow bowl of frosting.  I still do it this way.  My kids and now grandkids have done it this way too.  They don't look as pretty as some of the beautiful sugar cookies that I have seen, but believe me, they taste amazing!  They really are the best sugar cookies I have ever had.

Chloe said, "I'll eat the cookie after I eat the candy off the top.  Smart Girl!

After all that hard work, Chloe needed to take a break on her favorite cushion!  :)

What are you favorite family tradtions?

Talk to you soon!

Love, 

Carol

Big Sister

After Claire was born I got spend lots of time with Chloe.

We like to go on picnics in the park...

 And play dress up.

We drink lots of smoothies.

Once in a while we watch Elmo.

We play.  She is getting a little too big to swaddle...

And so far she still likes to help with the dishes.

 My heart just wants to explode!

xoxo,

Carol

Mother's Day

For the first time in years, I was able to celebrate my mom in person on Mother's Day.

What better way to spend mothers day than with your mom and your family.  The longer I am a mother (and now grandmother) and the more experiences I have in this role the more it causes me to reflect on my own mom.  I learned to love being a mom by example.  My mom has given all of herself to us and still does.

As I watch my own daughter go through the stages of being a mommy to two little girls I think back to when I was a mom to little ones and wonder how I did it?  Then I remember my mom being there for me through all of it.  Good and Bad.  She loves us, teaches us and always makes us laugh!

Thanks mom for coming to visit.

xoxo,

Carol

Boy do we know how to make girls.

Yep!  That's right!  We have a new baby girl in the family.  

 Meet Claire Noelle Debonis.  

She is the sweetest "little tiny baby"  as her sister calls her.

It has been a long time since I have updated this blog and what better reason to add a new post.  

Life is good.  

xoxo,

Carol

Christmas Decorating

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year.  The music, movies, traditions, food, parties, family, friends and decorations. 

Most of my decorations were gifts from my mom.  She always makes us decorations to add to our collection.   These are my favorite of all decorations.  I just love homemade gifts.  The time and thought that goes into making something is pure love.

My boxes of Christmas decorations take up the whole ceiling storage area of my garage.  I have a LOT of boxes.  Some years I don' t even use them all of my decorations.  

This year I was especially excited to set out all of our Christmas things.  I knew Chloe would love them when she came over and saw them for the first time.

Also, Bailey and Cali were in Oregon for Thanksgiving so I wanted the house to be all dressed up when they got home.

Happy Decorating.

xoxo,

Carol