Visiting Santa

Today was the annual Rutchik gals baking and shopping day. It is a wonderful holiday tradition where my in-laws come over and we bake my husband's favorite Christmas treats from when he was young - toffee squares and peanut blossoms. It is such a blessing to share with my children the treats their daddy loved when he was young, and I know it's a special day for my mother-in-law, to make her son's childhood favorites for his children.

After our baking, we head out to the mall where my MIL treats us to lunch in the food court. We shop, and end the day with a visit to Santa. Here is the story of our visit with Santa, in pictures. I know you will enjoy it.


Anna is placed on Santa's lap and has to do what Anna does best, study the situation.

She decides she is ok, maybe, and gives a leery smile.

Momma tries to add Tessa to Santa's lap. Tessa is NOT having this and screaming, "No, Mama! Oh, no mama! Please NOOOOO!" (the poor gal so upset she's shaking)

Mama decides she cannot force her child to sit on the lap on an unknown man, and tries to bride the child by sitting next to Santa while holding the petrified little gal.

Tessa screams bloody murder while Anna studies the situation.

Anna tries to comfort her sister while Tessa screams, "NO SANTA! Santa, NO! Knock it off, Santa!"

Mama decides she needs to remove her shaking and terrified child form the situation.

On the way out, Tessa stops to pick up her free coloring book, turn to Santa, wave and say, "Bye, bye, Santa."

After all, her mother raised her to have manners!

I think we got the PERFECT Santa pictures, it will show me every Christmas who my beautiful girls were the year they were 2 and 1!

Merry Christmas!

New Worth the Wait

News Worth the Wait

It’s be forever and a half since I’ve blogged. What can I say, life as a work at home mommy with a hubby in school is nuts! On a positive note, when I am absent from my blog, it usually means I am spending my little free time working on a writing project. This is good, as I have shared I really am feeling the call. I’ve been thinking, praying and writing. I’ve been feeling like something big is just around the corner and although I still believe that to be true, my focus has shifted in another direction recently.

It seems I’m getting another call:


I can’t believe it! Well, I can, but still. We were going to wait to announce until twelve weeks, but there was an incident with a vaccination line nurse yelling out my pregnant status while my mother in law stood behind me in line. Yeah, that’s a story for the record books friends, and one I may keep to myself for now as I’m sure it will end up in a book or essay someday.

Because we have moved, I have yet to hear that perfect little heartbeat every newly pregnant mommy prays for. I have just found a new doctor, but have been informed my first appointment (next week) will just be with a nurse. I so despise that initial pregnancy appointment. Yes, I know not to smoke or drink (which I don’t do anyways) and to take my vitamin. This is my third time in as many years, can’t I just see the doctor and get myself a scan so I can see that little heartbeat?

As for how I’m feeling - - great! This is good, but slightly concerning to me. With both my little gals I was sick as a dog from the time I saw 2 lines until the day I delivered! It was miserable, but the ill feeling helped me from gaining much weight, so I consider it a blessing! This go around, I don’t even feel pregnant. So, this is strange territory for me, and I want that scan!

Regardless, there is another soul in our little family and we couldn’t be more blessed. Please pray my fears and anxieties about everything are eased, and that this baby continues to grow.


PS-if you are my Facebook friend, please don’t comment on the pregnancy on Facebook, not many people read my blog and I would like to wait until I hear that heartbeat before the news shows up on my page. Thanks!

Happy Birthday Krissy!!

I’ve been MIA from the world of Blog. Humph. Usually, when I drop of the face of the earth, it’s a bad, bad thing. It means I'm holed up in an introverted ball avoiding the outside world. This time, it just means I’m a busy mommy who’s taken on lots of different tasks to financially contribute to our home.

But, when I do go MIA and really am in a ball on my couch – I know who will be the first one to notice (and call and bug me over and over, and over again until I come out to play) and reach out. She’s the bestest friend I’ve ever had, and today is her birthday!

She has been through all of life’s ups and downs with me since I was about 14, she introduced me to my husband and has been a great friend in faith. This past year, she sure pulled her weight in our friendship! To name the BIG ones:

She babysat for miss Tessa countless times exactly one year ago while I was on bed rest awaiting the arrival of Anna. I wasn’t mobile and had to go to the doctor 2 or 3 times a week. She took Tessa every time and went as far as writing my doctor appointments into her calendar, so I didn’t even have to ask her to babysit!

She listened through ENDLESS conversations over a potential Rutchik move and supported our decision to move away from her and her family. That’s a real friend!

While we were living practically next door to each other, I borrowed many more things from her fridge than she ever did from mine.

She watched our children while Joseph and I sat in her living room and driveway and cried after receiving the news of his health – and then sent her husband for pizzas.

She brought me 5 Cokes the day Joseph had his heart surgery (I’m not sure if she knew she had given me that many Cokes, or if she really thought I drank that much:)

She bundled up an infant and came rushing to the hospital late one night because I was alone and scared - and needed her.

She’s an extrovert who pulls people to her with her wonderful energy and kind heart. She also doesn’t mind when I make all my friends from the pool of people she’s introduced me too!

She’s the sister I never had and calls me family, even though she’s been blessed with 2 sisters of her own.

She’s the Godmother of my first born – with whom she shares her birthday week.

She understands when life and kids are too much and I can’t call on her actual birth day - and will accept this blog post in place of a call (ok, I haven’t talked to her about that one, but I’m sure she will! )


It was one of those years when I did most of the leaning. But, I know I don’t have to feel badly about that, she knows my shoulders are ready for her, should she ever need them.

I pray you are blessed with a best friend as good as mine, though I highly doubt anyone could top her! If you want to be touched by this AMAZING, beautiful and faithful women, head on over to http://krissyfruitfulvine.blogspot.com/ and tell her I sent you! It would feel nice to be the one introducing her to someone!

Happy Birthday Krissy! I LOVE you!

Steppin' Out With My Lady

Steppin’ Out With My Lady

I’ve got a bad case of the Mondays, friends. You know the days when the world feels hopeless and you can’t imagine anyone in the world could have a longer “to do” list then yourself? Yup, that is the scary place I am in today.

No need to worry, I have a fairly healthy emotional intelligence and although I am a moody melancholic – at least I know it and know how to deal with myself! Today, the world is swallowing me up. But tomorrow, well tomorrow will be grand. I’m convinced.

On days like these, I need to throw up the white flag and surrender the day to the thoughts of stress, “what ifs” and “you’re not good enoughs”. Good thing I have a lovely distraction!

Miss Anna Clare had a huge weekend of milestones. She learned to clap and say “YEAH” over, and over, and over again. She saw her sister climb a staircase and decided to follow, figuring out how to climb as she went. And, the most impressive event of the weekend: first steps were taken on an early Saturday morning. My poor husband. He usually gets up with the children in the early morning. On this day he had been sent back to bed by yours truly. I thought I would give him a day off. In doing so, I got to witness her goofy grin as she took her first steps toward me. I’m sad Joseph missed it. He missed Tessa’s first steps as well. So, while he slept, I sat with my grandma and watched Anna Clare take her first steps.

So, the world can have its problems and my “to do” list can grow by a mile for all I care. I’m putting it aside, and getting down on the floor to help Anna practice her new found talent!

And now I must thank you and take my leave. Anna just pulled the garbage can on top of herself and it sounds like a mess is screaming my name. Is it bed time yet?

Work in Progress Wednesday

Work in Progress Wednesday


Whew! What a week it has been over here! As some of my readers know, my husband, Joseph, is finishing up his MA in English. He is also working for the University as a graduate assistant. The past few weeks he has been working on assisting a professor who is the editor of Film and History – An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies. This means on top of his studies and his time creating and editing videos for The Apostleship of Prayer, he has been swimming in a sea of papers. I call him the master editor. He spends his days editing visual images AND written words.
Factor in my job working with words and my commitment to personal writing and we are up to our eyeballs in proofing, editing and writing over here! It’s been really difficult to get any of this done during the waking hours of our children, so we have taken to living a double life. By day we are responsible parents and adults. Once bedtime rolls around for our girls – Joseph and I are holed up in our bedroom, working, working, working! He sits at a 5-foot table we have set up in our bedroom as his working space. It holds 2 computers, a camera, stacks of books and several wires I haven’t the slightest idea what they are for. He sits in front of the computer with his headphones on and I lie on the bed with my laptop. In the background we have Nick at Night playing on the TV (Roseanne is my favorite show of all time)! Because we have been working so hard into the wee hours of night/morning, the room is a mess with laundry and unpacked bins from our move over a month ago.
At about 2am one of us usually interrupts the other to express our hunger. We break for a snack, then sit on the bed, and eat something bad for us as we watch middle of the night TV.
Last night I realized I felt like I was back in college. Our bedroom has turned into a dorm room! I kind of love it! My husband and I didn’t meet until we were in graduate school. I was already living in my own apartment and he with a priest friend of ours. Therefore, I feel like I’ve been blessed with the ability to share a piece of my husband’s life I missed – the college years. The whole thing is wonderfully romantic and creatively fulfilling. Had we each chosen different paths, the bohemian lifestyle of up all night creating and sleeping until the middle of the afternoon would have suited us well. Thankfully, we are called to family life over here. We are currently enjoying both lifestyles - out of necessity. We are oh so tired though, so I don’t know how much longer we will be able to sustain our “door room nights.”

I share this all because it’s Work in Progress Wednesday. My works in progress are coming along well. I’ve got to have something to show for being up until 4am the last 5 nights! Not only have I moved forward on two half written essays, I’ve started 2 more! I am also reading the book Writing Life Stories – How to Make memories into Memoirs, ideas into Essays, and life into Literature by Bill Roorbach. I’m so excited I’m having a difficult time remembering to pay the bills or add broccoli to that meal I just made for Tessa!

I know this double life can’t last forever. I’m always a wife and mother first and will have to stop giving so much of myself to my creative endeavors the moment the other aspects in my life start to suffer. The girls always wake up by 8am and this mommy can’t function on 4 hours of sleep a night for too long. But, until then, I am going to enjoy my late night time with my projects and my husband. I know it’s not the conventional way of life, but we aren’t conventional people over here. And as for our children, I pray they too have artistic outlets.

Joseph's workspace

Time to Celebrate!

I’m not one to toot my own horn, but I do have a knack for turning the everyday into a holiday! In fact, I’m going to guess I make more cut out cookies over the course of one year than anyone I know. I make them for every season – and I don’t even like them all that much. I just love to celebrate! I love to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary! - Side note: that might be the title of my next personal essay –

Come the real holiday season and I field phone calls and visits from family and friends who suggest I pull it back, not work too hard or put too much pressure on myself to do all of these things. The fact of the matter is, as a stay and home / work at home mom, planning special days, meals and gatherings gets me through the day and gives me something to look forward to. Crazy as it sounds – this introvert needs to party!

As a lifetime Wisconsinite, I couldn’t let this week’s Packer/Viking game pass without cut outs, homemade meatballs and donning my whole family in Packer gear. I even did three loads of laundry before I found my husband’s Packer shirt. I hate laundry, but we must be matchy – matchy as a family. The whole thing wouldn’t have been nearly as obnoxious or fun if we weren’t!

We love Wisconsin sports in the Rutchik home. Truth be known, we are more baseball and swimming fans than football. But, if there is one thing I hate, it’s a traitor. You may have heard of a man who goes by the name of Brent, or Bert, or something along those lines. He wears the number 4, has a difficult time making decisions, and then expects multimillion-dollar organizations to wait around on him. The hype of his first game against the Packers as a Viking was all over the Wisconsin, and national, news this week. To me, it was a big glittering invitation to get out the cookies cutters and homemade meatball recipe!

We had a great time! I was forced to clean the house for guests and my husband was off to fill the role as graduate school student/assistant for the day. He had a wonderful meeting on campus and although the Packers lost, we got the opportunity to celebrate a big accomplishment for my husband. We added a much needed dose of good friends and food to the mix and had a wonderful evening celebrating life!

Work in Progress Wednesday

Work in Progress Wednesday

I’m thrilled to be adding Work in Progress Wednesday to my blog! Not only is this blogging tool a springboard to share, network, and offer support to the online writing community – but it will also be a great way for me to stay accountable to my writing goals! So, without further ado, my first Work in Progress Wednesday:

I’m taking a writing class! I am so excited to be taking this course, but also questioning my sanity. With both my husband and I working from home, his masters program and oh yeah, our 2 kids under age 2, I must have been a lunatic to sign my name to another time commitment. The fact of the matter; I NEED it. I desperately need something of my very own right now. We are working so hard over here and have just been through a time of crisis. My soul is craving something of my very own – something that does not fall into the categories of wife, mother or employee.

Starting Oct. 7, I will be taking the course Personal Essays That Get Published with Abigail Green! I know this class will be a perfect fit for me personally, and for my writing goals. Special thanks go out to Abigail Green and my father for making this possible. Abby was very willing to answer my questions while I was making this decision and my dad helped me make the decision by telling I must take the course and then writing the check for me to do so!

When it comes to marking progress in my writing, my methods are a bit untraditional. Because I write non-fiction, word count and story plotting are not goals on my to do list. Instead, I keep ongoing lists of essay ideas and prompts. When I’m feeling inspired, I write the rough draft of an essay, take the initial line or thought that sparked the idea off the list of potential essays and then place the first draft of the essay in a “to edit” folder. My current goal is to finish edits and re-writes on the essays in that folder BEFORE starting another essay. I have too many unfinished pieces of work floating around on my desktop. This week’s goal: 2 essays.

Another writing goal I am working on is choosing a writer’s conference. I’ve been reading on agent and author blogs about how beneficial this experience has been to the writing process. I am stating to research and save my pennies. I hope to make my appearance at a writer’s conference next fall. Any suggestions for a conference offering information on non-fiction would be greatly appreciated!

Until next week, if you need to find me, I’ll be glued to my computer!