I love Christmas. I love things decorated for Christmas. But I have to admit I don't like decorating for Christmas. Maybe it's too much like moving with boxes and mess and things unsettled. Maybe I've had too much of that and the hustle and bustle is overwhelming. Maybe it is because we have a few children. Children who are full of life and want to be fully involved or in charge of the decorating. Maybe I'm just a little bit too controlling and perfectionistic for that! Maybe I'd like decorating if I could take about a week and be alone and do it in peace and quite. Alas, that is not feasible Maybe I need to just relax and stretch a little further. Flexibility. Peace. Smiles. This is supposed to be a happy time. A family time. Ok. Deep breath. 'It's the most wonderful time of the year.'
Father help me in this. Mess stresses me (though you may not believe me if you saw our house on a general basis). Moms are supposed to set the mood and make Christmas memorable, right?
But mom has an agenda, a schedule, a plan, and it's so stretching when things get here there and everywhere.
Over the years God has continued to bring me back to that lesson of flexibility. I used to think I was flexible- that was in highschool when I was physically able to do a split and all sorts of things. Now with growing family, and continual changes that word takes on new meaning. So, comes the time of year when things get a little out of order and the "fruit basket gets upset" all for the sake of bring peace and good cheer to the home. Ahh! I can do all things.
This week we worked on decorations. We're not done but we did manage to do a bit of what was hoped for and hopefully had fun in the process. :)
Father help me in this. Mess stresses me (though you may not believe me if you saw our house on a general basis). Moms are supposed to set the mood and make Christmas memorable, right?
But mom has an agenda, a schedule, a plan, and it's so stretching when things get here there and everywhere.
Over the years God has continued to bring me back to that lesson of flexibility. I used to think I was flexible- that was in highschool when I was physically able to do a split and all sorts of things. Now with growing family, and continual changes that word takes on new meaning. So, comes the time of year when things get a little out of order and the "fruit basket gets upset" all for the sake of bring peace and good cheer to the home. Ahh! I can do all things.
This week we worked on decorations. We're not done but we did manage to do a bit of what was hoped for and hopefully had fun in the process. :)
The kids were all about gathering greens and trying to help make wreaths. Little Miss "I can do it!" Martha Stewart was determined to push the wheel barrow. B (and C) made their own wreaths for the first time this year. They both did a great job.
I decided to try and keep it simple this year, both for sanity sake and for the pocket book. A few red bowed swags to brighten up the balcony, B's wreath on the light post (think Narnia), My wreath for the front door (missing bow until I can run pick up more ribbon!) and C's sweet little blue spruce and holly just covering the hanger. C really wanted to work with those two greens only, but they are both so terribly prickly to work with that he decided he did not need a very full wreath. :) There's a few other decorations around outside, but like I said sweet and simple and we aren't finished yet, so maybe some more pics next week. My main goal this week was to be sure we were ready for advent. Here's our traditional advent log and the devotional we use as we look forward to the holiday.
A babysit G while we decorated outside this year. He did a fine job and taught G how to sit up on his own. G got his first "black eye" this week (barely visible in the picture) hitting himself with a toy- the same day he bruised several fingers accidently getting them slammed in a dresser drawer while "helping' an older sibling put away laundry. Baby loves his brothers and sisters.
Aren't they sweet?! I love the look of adoration in their eyes as they look at each other.
Busy little cooks. K was all ready to stick her "favorite casserole" in the oven. B's potato soup was delicious. And we even managed to bake a HUGE batch of chocolate chip cookies to begin our Christmas goodies. Don't tell anybody I froze most of them in hiding for the 12 days of Christmas. :) Will they last that long? Martha Stewart/Betty Crocker/K helped from start to finish on the cookies -even though it was such a big batch. So thankful for a convection bake oven! and Kitchen Aid mixer! And an island in a big kitchen! Ah, the luxuries!
Trying to let our hair grow long again so we can have fun with pretty braids and up dos. The boys are still enjoying paper dolls and have created ever so many this last week. Every time I turn around they are working on another set. I'm terribly behind on laminating with contact paper! I hope I can catch up! :)
We have been enjoying reading the Martha Series about Laura Ingals great great grandmother in Scotland. We have been reading through the New Testament recently. We finished Acts and began Romans this week. We also had fun reading then acting out the story of Deborah this week. Our Christmas music repertoire (both of what the kids can play on the piano and what we have is growing and it is SO fun, to hear the kids walking around singing "Bless the Lord O, My Soul." at the top of their lungs. L sings "Sing like nevee, O my soul. O my soul. O my dear. Bless the Lord."
God is good to us. There is much I don't write here, but I am enjoying keeping a quick "scrap book/journal" of our weeks. I still like writing in my paper journal as well and much will stay there. :)
We made it through the week and bed is long calling my name. Thankful Baby G is sleeping through the night at least a few times a week.