Shannon Yee

I just can’t start again.

It seems like I just don’t have anything worthwhile to share and that I don’t have time to share what isn’t really worth posting in the first place…

So, all this to say, I’m going to read a book to my kids now and we just finished playing a rousing game of Chutes and Ladders followed by Memory. I was soundly beaten by my newly 4-year old daughter, who just got poked by her brother with a drum stick.

Merry Christmas! This is a great time to celebrate and remember that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born into this world and lived as we do, with lots of stresses and pressures, yet He was perfect. Then Jesus died for us and rose again, so that we could live with God forever – the way it was meant to be. We have been transformed by this good news and pray that God’s great love will change your life as well.

One way our lives are changing is that we are eagerly expecting another baby boy this spring. With two fun little red-headed children, the real question is what color hair will this baby have (although many people are wondering what we’ll name him, including his parents)!

Brian continues to work at ePrize doing web development and as manager. In his free time, he is still part of the Bell Creek Church worship band and also joined a guild for World of Warcraft this year. In the evenings, after dinner he often wrestles with the kids or plays some Candyland before reading them stories. He has redesigned his website and entered the twitter world. Most recently, he successfully undertook a number of home improvement projects. Strangely, he struggles to find time to shave and get a haircut.

Shannon (that’s me) continues to head up the MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers) ministry at our church and was able to attend the International Convention in Dallas this fall. This was her first time away from both kids for an overnight and everyone survived! In addition to the exciting daily chores of laundry, cooking and loving on her family (which also means keeping them out of too much trouble – harder than it sounds…), she is also slowly realizing (finally!) that she is not perfect.

Eila is our fun, whiny, bossy and loving big girl – almost four years old. She loves to learn and read stories; she asks to do school almost everyday with Mom as her teacher. She also loves an audience and will tell a story or sing and dance, in costume, for any willing bystander. Eila has taken a wide variety of classes this year, like ballet, swimming, gymnastics, and Tae Kwon Do; she enjoyed each one and has a hard time deciding what to take next. She is very excited about her new baby brother especially since it meant that she’ll have a new bedroom all to herself.

Josiah is two years old, but not too terrible. He loves to climb, run, jump, hit and throw. He is very ticklish and laughs uncontrollably at just the threat. While Eila loves all things princess, Joe is a fanatic of all things Thomas or train-related. He always talks loudly and possibly even more than Eila, who he is ever trying to imitate. Despite some tough times due to food sensitivities, he is a fun if fearless little boy. He is really happy about the new baby and will show others where he has a baby in his tummy (or neck sometimes) too.

As a family, we were able to spend a couple of weeks this summer up north with our extended families. We also ventured on a camping weekend with some friends. We are really looking forward to our final trip this year to Phoenix to ring in the new year.

For all the latest info and pictures throughout the year, check out our family websites.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Love, The Yees

I have never been one to struggle with falling asleep. I think I need more sleep than the average person, but for the last few weeks, I have been up so late because I can’t seem to wind down and go to sleep before midnight. If my kids slept through the night, this would still afford me plenty of sleep. It seems that as soon as I am just asleep or almost there, one of my lovely little ones comes in and needs to cuddle or a drink or something else for which I am the only one who can help. So, I am getting to sleep around 2am and then being awakened at around 4:30am to welcome a young boy who sleeps best in Mama’s bed until around 6:30am when he doesn’t sleep anymore and insists – very, very loudly – that it’s 8 o’clock and time to wake up.

If I seem a little irritable or look a little rough around the edges, you now know one possible reason why. Of course, there are lots of other excuses I could dream up as well.

Brian and I recently finished a small group video/discussion series on having a heart for and helping the poor in meaningful ways.

We watched God Bless the Child and it was heart-wrenching. It may have been even more troubling for me as a mom and pregnant woman, but watching a mother and her daughter suffer and have to make really hard choices in really bad situations was not fun. It was, however, very eye-opening to me and moved me to have a greater compassion for those in my same stage of life who are really struggling with the basic necessities in life.

As a church we are packing and delivering 100 Boxes of Love to families in the local area who aren’t able to afford a Thanksgiving dinner this year. Usually, we’d deliver this to downtown Detroit, but this year with things not so good in the economy right in our community we have many families in our town who are in need.

Covenant House of Michigan is hosting a candlelight vigil that might be an easy way to get started in helping others.

For the Christmas season there are lots of ways to give and spend less on gifts for those who don’t need them and instead help those who really do. Adventconspiracy.org is one place to get inspired and get ideas from others who are trying that this year.

Aside from what I’m already doing, I don’t know exactly how I am going to put my compassion and concern for the poor into action with my kids, but I do know that I will be doing more with each opportunity and involving my kids with me along the way so that they will continue to have a heart that sees and helps rather than walks on by those in need.

*Oops, I wrote this a while ago and forgot to publish it. So, some of it is outdated… We delivered the boxes of love to some families nearby and had the kids help with that. The vigil was last week… sorry.

This fall I joined the Holistic Moms Network and have enjoyed attending the local meetings and being part of the email loop, but find some of it a bit over the top. I have to keep myself in check to not spend hours a day reading and following all the trends and ideas of ways to be healthier and greener and more natural in everything. I struggle to remember that not everything that I read or hear from these well-meaning women is truth; in fact, most of it is just speculation or humble opinions. Yet, there has been a very interesting thread about how much various families spend on food.

Apparently, most of the families that commented spend about $700-800 per month buying mostly organic produce, grains, dairy, eggs, and free-range meats. Some spend as much as $1500/month for a family of four and some as little as $350/month. Some people included soaps (laundry, dish, and body) as well as vitamins and homeopathic remedies, which I think are pretty expensive. We fall somewhere in the middle, but our difficulty in cutting back on food expenses is not in the grocery store, but in eating out. If we stopped eating out altogether, we could easily halve our food expenditures. I’m not interested in pursuing that budget shortcut just yet. I really enjoy dining out for the break it provides me from cooking and cleaning up after meals, but also for the chance to try foods that I don’t/won’t make at home.

So, my husband is working on a problem with one of their busiest promotions. You should check it out and enter your adorable children in the photo contest, if you have any. And, I will update with nothing at all really.

We went to the zoo this week and enjoyed the most perfect fall day. The kids had a great time and we were all so exhausted that they continued their nap and I joined them for an hour after we got home. Then, we walked to the park with some good friends. I enjoy days like that, but usually follow them with days like today where we stay home and don’t do much of anything fun.

I’ve been researching the life and times of David king of Israel as preparation for the new Bible Study on his life starting tomorrow morning. I love this type of study and found lots of interesting pieces of information, but not really much that will be noteworthy enough to share with the group.

The kids got haircuts and Josiah looks like a little boy now. He lost all his sweet mullet curls…

I talked on the phone to my closest far-away friends in the past two weeks and am so glad to reconnect with each of them each time I do. Too bad I don’t call more often.

I’m really trying not to complain, but it isn’t going so well. “To be a good steward, I need to be thankful and content.” This is exactly what I wrote in Eila’s preschool notebook and I really want to model that for her, especially since I already see her struggles with this.

Finally, I’ve decided to stop highlighting my hair (for the health benefits of not doing it) and am debating if I should chop my hair instead. I need a second opinion (or as many opinions as I can get) on what type of cut I should get, if any. I do have several limitations and I am not really willing to negotiate on these: I need a style that works for my straight, fine, thin hair, one that does not require blow-drying or styling of any sort (other than brushing it). It must also be one that is flattering to me, because I really am very vain and lazy.

For the past week and a half I have done nothing but pray, think, and do MOPS. I really enjoy the work, so it’s not a bad thing, but I’ll be glad to have the first meeting go off smoothly with happy moms and kids. I had a talk with Eila tonight about how I have been given this job to help other moms as well as to be her mom. She seemed pretty excited about that and ready to do her job tomorrow at our meeting: obey Mommy and be kind! I’ve been staying up too late, so I now I really need to rest.

Being on vacation and with family away from home for several weeks in the past two months has been exhausting. It has also been more fun than I can express, but apparently I am truly an introvert and refresh by being alone. I have always known this, but often doubt because I love hanging out with my family and close friends so much.

Having two little ones who are not living according to the “normal” routine and being with people all the time was an adventure – tiring and fabulous all in one.

I am very thankful to be home and getting settled back into whatever normal is. I just wish it didn’t involve so much laundry, dishes, and whining (from me or the kids!)…

A few weeks ago, I started to feel like I needed to be sure that I was getting enough of all the nutrients and that I should probably find a good multi-vitamin to take. After several months without dairy and eating what seemed like an awful lot of chips, I was really wondering if I was not getting all of what I needed. And, I’d been wanting to start Josiah and I on probiotics (I got Genestra) since we’ve not been eating yogurt or kefir as well as take some fish oil, which I’ve heard is really good for those with skin problems. So, I went to my local health food store and asked the friendly staff who recommended Her Daily Vitamin.

I must have been really low in my B-vitamins, because after just a few days I was full of energy and felt like a whole new woman. I could tell a huge difference and was loving the results. Now, after several weeks, I’m back to my normal self. I feel pretty good most days, but other days I’m really dragging. I think that the vitamins are worth taking and I’m continuing even though they cost a ton… When they run out, I’ll probably see if I can find a cheap, but good-quality whole-food vitamin – do those exist?

My kids don’t really like the fish oil, but they love the mango-flavored liquid multi-vitamin that I got for them. I’ve been mixing Josiah’s probiotic and fish oil and vitamin all in his orange juice and he doesn’t notice it at all. Eila drinks plenty of kefir and just takes the fish oil (with many protests) and vitamin (begging for more) straight. I’m glad I’ve started to do the probiotics especially with Josiah, but I wonder if (well, realize and know that) we should see a nutritionist or dietitian. I’m open to suggestions.