Shelton Shenanigans

We are now three days past Christmas and three days ahead of New Year's Eve.  We're right in the middle of the span of time where the sentimentalists are clinging to the last bit of Christmas while the practicalists are boxing, shelving, and happily storing Christmas away until next year.  I was a little startled how quickly the non-stop Christmas music stations flipped the switch back to their usual sets on December 26.  Christmas is over and done with and they're moving forward!  I am almost there, but wanted to share one poignant lesson I learned from the Christmas story this year. One of the Shelton traditions is that I tell the boys a Bible story every night at bedtime.  I rarely tell the stories the same way twice.  I believe that if you want your children to believe that the stories in the Bible are true, you need to tell them as if you believe they're true.  So I'm creative, sometimes dramatic, and always looking for a devotional thought to em...

I started out my last post by stating that one of my goals for this blog was to always be honest and open about where we are in our adoption journey.  That has not changed, although I have been struggling to find the words to start this entry.  Hang on with me, this one may be a little more up and down than usual. December is two days away.  Christmas will be here in under a month.  My plans for this month were to push the book hard, everywhere we could.  We also have Christmas cards that need to be marketed, and I annually do a Christmas concert at a little country church nearby that is on the National Historic Registry which has become one of my favorite places to sing.  I intended to sing my way through this month and raise adoption dollars from generous folks who like to give to charitable causes at Christmas.  Thus were my plans. As it turns out, life has taken a different twist.  My December calendar now revolves around two dates, Christma...

One of my goals with this blog is to always be honest and open about where we are in our adoption journey.  We are, after all, regular people, subject to emotion and weakness, and along with the highlights that are fun to write about, there are struggles of all kinds.  And over all of it is a really big God who isn't surprised or intimidated by any of it.  He is our source of balance.  So, with that in mind, allow me to tell you about the ups and downs of this week. Sunday, November 11 was a whirlwind day.  We were triple booked with events we weren't going to miss!  Our church had a special Veteran's Day Service, in which the choir played a prominent roll, and in which I was to sing a pretty rangy rendition of our national anthem.  Following that, we were off to a chili cook-off/silent auction fundraiser for friends of ours who are adopting.  That event was about an hour and ten minutes from our home.  From there, we went another ...

     We are in an Avengers state of mind in the Shelton household.  The boys' imaginations have been captured by this colorful cast of super heroes.   On any given day, you can find our boys, along with a bunch of other neighborhood kids, running up and down the block, protecting the earth in epic battles with their shields, hammers, and of course the all powerful "Hulk smash!"  They have defended us from countless villains and thwarted many an evil plan, and we are all better off for it!     For the girls who are reading this who, like me, have never ever cracked open a comic book and couldn't explain the difference between a DC and a Marvel super hero if their life depended on it, let me explain the Avengers' appeal.  The Avengers are an unlikely team of super heroes who come together when the earth is in grave danger from an extra terrestrial bad guy who is too powerful to be defeated by just one of them.  They join fo...

I once sang in a Christmas program where one of the songs we sang had the deep and meaningful lyrics: I wish every day could be like Christmas, And every night like Christmas Eve. I wish every day could be like Christmas, And I know it could if we would just believe. The song didn't really specify what we were to believe, just that by believing, and evidently singing this song with great feeling, we could conjure up a daily dose of Christmas all year round.  Deep thoughts, I tell you! The Shelton household seems to be embracing this theme this fall.  We, or at least I, think about Christmas all the time.  I am one of those clearance shoppers who looks for Christmas gifts all year round.  I actually bought a gift in April a few years ago - and I am not ashamed to admit it!  It's also not unusual for me to be singing a Christmas song any given day of the year.  They just lodge themselves in my brain.  And it has long been established that I am t...

My third grader is evidently learning about politics.  His social studies assignment includes a statement that one of the candidates running for president is promising "a butter future."  I am a big fan of this platform!  In a world "saturated" with  "salty" language and "greasy" politicians, I can get on board with someone who cares about the "margerinalized" and who wants to "spread" around "promise" of a tasty tomorrow.  And now enough with the bad word play, I'll stop before you "can't believe" what you're reading and write off this entire post as a "country crock!"  :) Clearly, I am dillerious.  Most people would be after the crazy week the Sheltons have had.  We've had three birthday celebrations, announced to the Facebook world that we're adopting, became officially published, kicked off our first fundraiser, made a trip to Urgent Care, attended an adoption webinar, stu...

Back in high school, I was in show choir.  Evidently, while gearing up for a major competition, I was overwhelmed and stressed out because I went to bed early not feeling well, and my brother informed me the next day that I dropped into a deep sleep and started singing, "This is the Moment," at the top of my lungs.  I would never have believed him except that my parents verified his story.  Now that's embarrassing!  :) I'm pretty sure that has never happened again since then, seems like something Steve would never let me live down, but if there were a time in my life where I might start belting out power ballods in my sleep, it would be now.  I am literally bursting with anticipation as the Sheltons are finally ready to fill you in on a journey we are taking - all five of us!  When we were choosing our second son's name, my dad told me it really didn't matter what we named him because in a few years, he and his big brother would just be known as "...