Wow. Never in all of our years have we experienced a Christmas like this one. Our times with Family were seamless, fun and relaxing. The gifts were plentiful and amazing. I am almost embarrassed sometimes at the degree of our blessing. Some people have so little, and we are blessed with so much.
The Holy Family had so little, not even a place to lay their heads.
Thank you Lord, for all of our blessings. May we be generous with all of them.
God Bless you all!
Ben and Posy were playing hide and go seek yesterday, when suddenly there was a loud *Crash!*. Oh boy, here we go, I thought as I headed down the stairs. Jay got there first and was already (loudly) asking Ben what the HECK he was thinking…
…Crawling behind the Christmas tree and under the presents to hide.
The whole tree lay on it’s side, ornaments everywhere, branches bent and falling off. Poor kid, he just had this look of horror on his face. He had no idea that it could just FALL like that.
Long story short… after a trip to Lowe’s and to Jay’s parents house, we found a base that could hold up the tree, so even though it looks a little more battered than before, it will be OK anyway.
The EVIL TWIN is back.
It all started last week with some random whining, but yesterday when Tessa threw her head back and let out a scream that would make any banshee proud while leaving a toy store it became official.
We have a 2 year old.
Sure, she is only 21 months (as of this coming Saturday) but she has always been one step ahead of the game.
We had walked around a very pleasant little toy store for a while, and after a few warnings of imminent departure, I told he kids we were leaving. Now. Tessa responded by immediately trying to run from me, and when I picked her up she tried the “my body is too straight and slippery for you to hold” maneuver. When that didn’t work she let out a howl that I had no idea she was capable of. She cried the rest of the way to the car and half way home too.
Here we go…
Usually it takes until January, but this year it came for me early. The dreaded Mid-year Burnout. The Doldrums. The “Ugh, Why am I Doing This Again?” Blues.
Even our poor Jesse Tree sputtered and was nearly forgotten after only a few short days of Advent. And now with sick kids… I think Christmas vacation has officially begun in earnest. We will be spending our time reading a few novels. (Currently working on The Chronicles of Narnia) and some coloring, and math will be covered in our baking. Lots of fraction practice as we double or halve our recipes! There will be lots of time for hugs and for cuddling while watching an educational DVD or two. And for religion, we will try to resurrect our Jesse tree and work on Salvation history. You can find an awesome run-down of what a Jesse Tree is all about at The Domestic Church. Hopefully we can come back in January, ready to work hard.
It hit us this week. Two kids down with the flu. It appears to be the real thing, not just a 24 hour bug like I was hoping. James and Tessa went down with it on Thursday, right after I had spent all day Wednesday getting out all the toys for reorganization. So instead of organizing, I spent Thursday hold and nursing Tessa and fetching James more tylenol. Poor kids, they are so miserable. Friday seemed better and on Saturday, I had declared it over and just a 24 hour bug, but alas, it bit again. By Saturday afternoon, James was down again with a fever and a terrible sounding cough and Tessa had resumed her marathon nursing sessions.
Tessa still hasn’t come down with the rest of the symptoms, like the cough or stuffiness, which I attribute to her CONSTANT breastfeeding. Although she did say that her head hurt when she woke up this morning. So I will be watching her closely as the day goes on. I am praying that no one else in our family comes down with this, and that anyone reading this can stay well and warm and have a Merry Christmas!
While at Mike & Annie’s house the other day, Ben noticed his favorite drink, A&W Rootbeer in their fridge. So he asked if he could have some. Annie told him that it was, unfurtunately, Diet, so no, he couldn’t have some.
His response was, “Diet? Should I dump it on my head then?”
Well all just thought that was a very strange remark until we realized that he meant… to Dye his hair. Har har… Get it? Diet = Dye it?
Smart kid, that Ben. His humor is way above my head.
Ben kept running ahead in the Baltimore Aquarium, so Annie told him, “Ben, you are going to miss seeing the fish!”
Ben replied, “I’ve SEEN fish before.”
Shoot, we could have just left him home for that one I guess!
We are headed right on past the middle of November here, and our homeschooling is starting to feel the pull of better weather outside combined with lots of holiday things to do. So how will we ever catch up after our trip and stay that way while the holidays move through? How can we make the holidays a Spirit filled, holy time without losing track of the progress we are trying to make with academics?
I think I need to set up some serious priorities right now:
1. I need to stop skipping my morning devotions. Sure it is hard to get up and I would sometimes rather read my email first, but putting it off just means that it doesn’t get done.
2. I need to meet with each child, each day. EVERY DAY.
3. I need to keep a running journal of these school “meetings” So that I can give them their assignments properly. I don’t think this is the time for long range lesson plans, which will just leave us feeling behind.
4. Weekly library trips need to be reinstated. ASAP.
So there we are, Holiday CPR for our school year.
Tessa picked up one of those little pony tail holders the other day… the kind with a little marble on each end and said, “Look, a trap!”
Thinking I might have heard wrong I asked her, “A Trap?”
“Yes!” She replied and toddled off on her merry way.
Poor kid, it’s a good thing she doesn’t have hair, she’d be thinking I spent all my time trying to TRAP her!
Putting this in another category just to see what that does, if anything.
August is almost over, and if it weren’t already over 100 degrees outside, I would say I could feel fall in the air. Maybe I can just feeli it in the stores. I went shopping the other day and the fabric sotres have all their cordouroys and browns out, the department stores have long sleeves everywhere you look. Oh those clothes look so cozy, but it is just too hot to even think about buying such things!
Today is Monday, and as usual, I have a pretty good start on things, homeschooling, laundry, I can usually get up on time. This year I am trying to stretch my endurance and make it to Thursday before I peter out and start shlumping from one procrastinated task to the next.
Enough time here for now, I just updated the website, so now I need to go attend to the munchkins, I know that lunch is cleaned up, and I think our trip to the library will have to wait until after dinner now. Shoot, my fault!