fashion show

Here are some new clothes the girls got for Christmas.  Thanks everyone!

more christmas

We had a lovely couple of days.  And lot's more pictures!  (Though it seems we had some trouble keeping our eyes open in the pictures.)  This year we decided to do our family celebration on Christmas Eve.  So we woke up to filled stockings and got to open our presents.  I was really proud of how thankful the kids were without even being reminded.  I guess all that nagging eventually pays off.  Anyway, we had some wonderful gifts from our very generous family and from each other.  Then we had a fun day playing with our new stuff and hanging out together.  Jomo took the kids out front to play a little football with Leo's new ball that he got from my brother.  They had fun and got muddy.  And the cherry on top was ordering take-out from our favorite restaurant!  No cooking.  Yay!  We watched the Clone Wars movie, put the kids to bed, and watched some of my new season of Scrubs.  Then today, Christmas day, we focused on celebrating Christ's birth.  We made a birthday cake for Jesus, watched The Nativity Story, and talked a bit about the importance of God coming to live on earth.  Another really good day.

gingerbread houses

We did this a couple weeks ago with our good friend.  We had a lot of fun!

christmas fun

We recently returned from Atlanta where we visited some of my side of the family for a Christmas celebration.  We had a layover in Charlotte, and unfortunately, both ways one of our flights was cancelled.  So on the way down we ended up renting a car and driving the rest of the way rather than waiting around in an airport with three cranky kids hoping to get on one of the other overbooked flights.  On the way back, we were able to catch the next plane pretty easily, but it was a long day.

Other than that, we really enjoyed getting to see family.  My aunt always decorates her house beautifully.  We had a few different events scheduled.  One was a presentation which the kids and their cousin gave, each one on a different aspect of ancient Egypt.  L did mummies, and Z talked about the people of ancient Egypt.  My aunt set the whole thing up like a conference (she's an events planner), and we all wore name tags, the kids wore special shirts, received some presenters bags with small gifts inside.  This was their first (and mine) power point presentation.

My aunt and uncle have three dogs: a large one, a medium sized one, and a small one.  The dogs didn't particularly take to us.  There are a lot of us and the kids aren't too experienced around dogs.

Opening presents.

The kids were about to start their own version of a white elephant game that the adults played.  We learned from this year's kids' game and hopefully will get it better next year.

The baby taking a ride in the box.

nutcracker

Z was a party guest, a snowflake, one of the punchinellas, and also a flower, but that dance was cut for time.  Cute outfits!

pace

We forgot to take our camera to Z's performance of The Nutcracker.  Can you believe it?  But our friend let us borrow hers, so I'm sure I'll post some pics at some point.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about the pace of our life.  One of the things I most enjoy about homeschooling is getting to make choices ourselves about how much to do, rather than having a lot of the decisions made for us (hours/day in school, homework, getting out the door in the morning).  And while we live in a "go go go" society, we've talked about not wanting our lives to be full to the brim and rushed like that.  So I guess I've been mentally evaluating where we are in this. I've been trying to stay home as much as possible this year because I find that getting everyone ready to go, going, being somewhere, then returning home can be a lot of work and stress.  Especially if we're trying to get somewhere on time. Now some of this is our stage of life.  We have small children that still need some help getting ready, even if just reminders to use the bathroom before we go. And a baby who needs her diaper changed often and also eats quite often.  But I think I make some of the stress myself.  If I were a bit more laid back, I wouldn't get stressed because we "need" to get to the library in time for storytime.  And probably some of it is my lack of patience.  I just don't want to spend that much time getting everyone into the car!  So, I like myself a bit more when we just stay home.  

Having said that, there are some activities that are important to us.  Piano lessons for Z, and eventually for L.  Some sort of physical activity like dance or karate.  Library trips.  And then there are things like doctors/dentist appointments, not to mention the grocery store, bank and other errands.  And finally, the "s" word.  Yes, socialization.  I know it's on everyone's mind. We do also value social opportunities.  For now I think we're meeting this need adequately, though I think in the future we'll try to increase it.  The kids get to hang out with their friends at church, have group interactions in storytimes and classes, and we try to get together with other homeschoolers here and there.  Since we don't know if we'll be leaving the area in the spring, I've been a little cautious in getting involved in co-ops or groups. But we'll definitely be revisiting that idea after we make the big transition back to the real world.  

It's quite difficult to find a balance.  I think the best way to juggle everything well is to prioritize. And then when it's too much, cut out the lowest priorities.  I'm not so good at seeing when it's too much until after the fact.  Also, sometimes those lower priorities are hard to let go of.  And at the end of the day, I think  I need to keep in mind the bare minimum, and feel successful even if we only did that.  So I'm thinking that might be: treat them with love, teach them to treat others with love, feed them (?). Ok, I'm still working on it.  Those things encompass a lot.  And schoolwork is important, but not necessarily at the cost of these other ones, if that makes sense.  Ok, that's enough philosophizing for me.   

new challenges

Things have gotten considerably harder around here recently since Little Miss S has learned to walk and is (usually) taking only one nap these days.  It's hard to do school with Z, or read to the kids, or cook dinner, or any other normal activity if I keep having to stop and get S out of trouble. I'm having to adjust quite a bit for this new development.  It's good for me to remember that things have changed so I don't feel guilty for not getting as much done.  My new strategy is to set up the Pack'n'Play in the living room first thing in the morning so I can stick her in there in a pinch... and also during my shower, for part of school, and generally whenever she's driving me crazy :) Ok, it sounds like she's in there all day.  She's not, but certainly more often!  This takes me back to L's toddler days. I remember friends telling me that having two kids got easier after the second was one, but I think it got harder for me.  (And I kept waiting for it to get easier again until I eventually figured out that it's just harder to have two kids instead of one. What a shock.) So I'm trying to keep in mind that now my attention is going to be pulled three different ways, and that's ok.  That's three kids.  I love my kids very much, and I really enjoy my life these days.  But I hope you'll excuse me if I occasionally use this blog as a means of therapy, sorting out my thoughts amidst the chaos of my life! 

decorating

Probably the thing I love most about Thanksgiving weekend is decorating for Christmas.  Yes, even more than the food, surprisingly.  This year we set up the our tiny tree that Jomo and I bought for our first Christmas back in student housing.  It's perfect for our tiny house!  

The baby was SOOO excited when she first saw the Christmas tree upon waking up from her nap.  Now we just need to get her to leave it alone!

This is our little Christmas corner.  Jomo did a very nice job.  He even sewed us two new stockings this year, for him and me, since we were short one last year after the baby came. You can see him hanging them in the picture.  Later on that night we wrapped up a bunch of presents to put under the tree.  We don't really like the lonely tree look.  (This year we received a very generous, anonymous gift which we used to buy the kids some fun presents.  We enjoyed taking them to the toy store to see what sparked their interest, and then secretly buying some of it!)  On top of the shelves is our new (from after Xmas sales last year) advent calendar, and we actually started on time.  I printed out a verse or two per day of the Christmas story in the Bible, and placed them with two candies in each door.  It's super fun!

This week I finally got out our Egyptian Dig Kit which was so much fun.  I wish I had done it sooner.  Z especially enjoyed searching for treasures and declared she would be an archaeologist someday (maybe shortly after she pursues these other careers: lawyer, artist, ballerina, doctor, scientist... ok those are all the ones I can remember).