22 hours ago
1. Gingerbread House. The kids all requested a gingerbread house this year, so I want to make sure that happens. Derek put the structure together last night, and we're hoping to get to the decorating this week!
2. Christmas Cards. I addressed cards to all the critical people, like family, and I'm just going to keep this low pressure and either 1) write a few addresses here and there as I have time or 2) just focus on returning cards to people who send them to me.
3. Baking. There really isn't any way to simplify the work of baking, so my goal is just to do one type of cookie a couple times a week until Christmas, and then freeze them. I've already got ginger cookies in the freezer.
4. Finish our stack of Christmas books. I rented a whole stack of Christmas picture books from the library,and we are slowly working our way through them! The kids are so excited every time I pull one out. We also got this adorable book from Tommy Nelson to add to our permanent collection!
Christmas Blessings has a different Christmas poem on each page, and my plan is to pick this up this week and read one poem a day to the kids. The poems are sweet celebrations of different aspects of Christmas. I think my littler ones will especially like this book, because the illustrations are so cute, and it would be fun (and easy) to even memorize one of these poems with the kids! I also love how so many of the poems point in some way back to the reason we celebrate Christmas as Christians, which is to remember what Christ has done for us through His birth, and later his death and resurrection! This book is a great starting point for reminding little ones of that.
5. Wrap Presents. I have a couple presents left to wrap for my extended family, but I'm happy to report that Derek and I knocked out most of the present-wrapping before Georgie arrived! So there is not much left to do here.
6. Advent. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law make doing advent with the kids so easy, so this one is more for me to remember to do my own advent devotionals each day! As I wrote last week, I have to make time for focusing on Jesus at Christmas, or I start to resent all the Christmas to-do's instead of celebrating the joy of His birth.
Notice one thing that is not on the list is shopping! I am very happy to have all of that done early this year, but if you are still struggling for some gift ideas, I've got a post on Tommy Nelson idea with gift ideas for boys that will last! Read and tell me what you think.
What do you have left to do before Christmas?
Note: I received a copy of Christmas Blessings for free from Tommy Nelson in exchange for a review. This is my honest opinion.
The kids have been asking me every day how many days are left until Christmas. I have to say, it brings back memories of my childhood, when it felt like Christmas would take so long to arrive. The anticipation was almost too much! Ah, childhood. We made paper chains the other day for the countdown, so I haven't had to answer the questions as often.
I've mentioned before how Christmas is usually filled with more stress than joy for me as an adult, but this year feels different. After six years of Christmas as a mom, nine years of Christmas as a married lady, this year I finally feel like I'm figuring it out.
Being due with our fifth baby so close to the Christmas season definitely has had something to do with it I think. Not only did I get started on Christmas to-do's earlier, but I have overall put less pressure one myself to do everything this year, and I feel the difference. So, I have to write down what is working for me, so hopefully repeating it next year will bring about the same results of less stress, more joy!
Buy presents early.
I bought all of the presents early this year because I wanted to finish all my shopping before Georgiana was born. I don't think I realized how much stress present shopping causes me when I save it for December. It has been so nice to not be out and about so much so far this year, and I feel less stressed about finances since most of the purchases are already made.
Do all the Christmasy things as soon as I feel like it.
I used to feel like I had to save all the Christmas activities until December, and that they had to be made into a big production. This year I am spacing things out a little more and doing all the Christmas things as the mood strikes. Example: Christmas cookies. If I feel like baking Christmas cookies with the kids early in December, we'll just bake whenever the mood strikes and freeze them for later. If we feel like wrapping presents and listening to Christmas music in November, why not? It's more fun to do Christmasy things when we feel like it, instead of "saving" the Christmas fun to the point of procrastination and then getting stressed out when we have to squeeze it all in.
Take the family picture early.
I'm continuing my strategy of taking a family Christmas picture before our actual Christmas gatherings. If I get everyone dressed up in their Christmas clothes and get some good pictures on a low-stress day, then I don't feel like I have to try to wrangle everyone together for a family picture on days when we are actually going somewhere. I can just enjoy being present and not worry about it, since I know we already got a good picture of the family at Christmas.
Cut out the non-essentials.
I don't know why it took me so long to realize that I don't have to do all the Christmas things. I'm learning to be a little more particular about what we choose to participate in at Christmas time, because it's a lot easier for me to enjoy the Christmas season if we have more days when we aren't doing anything specific. When we all have more room to breathe, the Christmas fun happens more naturally, and it's a lot less stressful on me.
I also think one of the reasons I have had a hard time enjoying Christmas is because I rush around so much, trying to make everything perfect, and I don't allow myself to have time to just relax and reflect on why we are celebrating in the first place. Having a newborn this year has given me the perfect excuse not to do things. I am enjoying Christmas so much more since deciding to say no and allowing myself enough mental rest to reflect on our Savior. Which brings me to my last point.
Prioritize Advent.
It's tragic really, how often I let this get overlooked in previous years in favor of all the more commercial aspects of Christmas. I think having the shopping done before the season started has really given me the space I needed to focus less on things and more on our Savior. He is the reason our family celebrates Christmas in the first place, after all.
I am doing this advent devotional, and listening to my favorite Christ-focused Christmas songs, and I've been spending a lot of time reflecting on why He came (to seek and save sinners) and my part in that (the great commission). Of course I did advent stuff in years past, but I think the fact that so much of my other Christmas prep is already done this year has left me more space to keep advent in the "because I want to category", instead of the "I have to do this or my kids won't remember that Christmas is about Jesus" category. I am convicted that I even let the Lord get relegated to the "have to" category during Christmas. If other things have to take a backseat for our family to have the time and space it takes to focus on Jesus, well, that's what we'll do! It's as it should be, even especially at Christmas time.
As I've guarded my time a little more this year, and given more of it to the Lord, I feel the joy that I've been missing in years past coming back a little. It makes sense. He is the only true source of Christmas joy, after all. Everything else ends up being a disappointment eventually, but in the gift of Jesus's birth and sacrifice for us - that's where the joy is.
And it only took me nine Christmases as an adult to figure that out.
Do you do anything to guard your time at Christmas? How do you make sure the focus stays on Jesus during Christmas season?
I feel like I should preface this post by saying that many of my days alone with the five kids so far have ended with Derek coming home right as I'm about to pull my hair out, and me escaping to wash my hair - even if it doesn't need washed - just to have a break.
But yesterday, it wasn't like that. We had the most peaceful day that we've had, not just since adding our sweet Georgie, but in months. I'm trying to go back over it in my head to figure out the "secret", so I can repeat it, if that were possible.
The morning went pretty normally, with the kids waking up before me. Clarice climbed under the covers with me at some point, and I feel like I remember her reading a book in my sleepy haze. After drifting in and out for a half hour, I finally got out of bed and got ready for the day. The kids woke up Georgie because they went into her nursery to take care of her (which wasn't as tragic as it sounds, because I heard her stirring anyway). I fed the kids oatmeal, I fed Georgie, and wrapped her into our Solly wrap.
She fell asleep, so I pulled out the play dough (which I've been meaning to do for the last two weeks), and read to the kids while they created things. We read about Christopher Columbus. We read two chapters of Dr. Doolittle. We were on a roll, so I pulled out the next catechism question, and we worked on a memory verse, and we read the Christmas story from Luke (I figure if we read it every day for the next month, maybe they'll inadvertently memorize it). And nobody cried (at least not until we were done with all our read-alouds).
I made lunch and got the kids down for a nap in the nick of time before Georgie got hungry. I fed her and then practiced some reading with Wyatt while she slept on my lap. I snuck her onto the couch and she stayed asleep, so I edited some of the pictures we had taken of her first two weeks.
Kids got up. Pulled out the play dough again, and they entertained themselves for another hour while I chopped up potatoes for dinner. I made dinner! On my own! Potato soup was bubbling on the stove by the time Derek walked through the door.
I still can't figure out what made it go right. But it's nice that it happened on Thanksgiving week, because I suspect it had more to do with my attitude than with the logistics of the day. I watched this video, and while I'm mulling over some of it, what I do think is true is that gratitude makes all the difference in the level of happiness we feel. When things start to feel overwhelming or frustrating, it is usually about the same time that I forget to feel grateful. And when things go relatively smoothly it seems that it is usually because I decide to make the most of the day with my sweet children, from a heart of gratitude, instead of letting things just happen to us.
"Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever." Psalm 118:1
I had this verse on my chalkboard all last year, but it is sad that I didn't let it sink into my heart a little more. There is a reason Scripture tells us to "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
There is so much for which to give thanks - each day I have to spend with these sweet children, each day my wonderful husband comes home to me - it's such a blessing. Somehow, having Georgie come at this time of year seems really appropriate, because having her here has reminded me that God didn't have to give me any of this. But He did, and I am so grateful. I think the Lord let today go so well to remind me what it looks like to slow down and give thanks, to marinate in that gratitude a little bit more. (Marinate - ha! Because it's Thanksgiving week? Turkey? Oh, never mind.)
My hope is that I'll remember to be grateful on the rough days too, long after this Thanksgiving week is past.
On Thursday I'll join the rest of the country in "giving thanks" - giving thanks to God for all the blessings He's given our family, and the way He has guided our nation so that we even celebrate this holiday in the first place, and for the greatest gift He gave by giving us His Son to save us. But I want to carry that gratitude on into the craziness of December and through the New Year too. And I wish the same for you, friends! Because there is so much to be grateful for when we remember to slow down and look, and giving thanks "in everything" can change a lot.
Happy Thanksgiving Week!
I have no big plans for the day, aside from homeschool and working on my Christmas card list (Christmas time and this baby's arrival are looming). I will probably do something a bit more elaborate for dinner, and by that I mean I'll spend the 45 minutes it takes to cut up potatoes for potato soup. It's a potato soup kind of day.
But for now, it's quiet, and I'm hunkering down in my room, trying to figure out what to write today. I was going to write about more frivolous things, but there are a few deeper thoughts left in the month after all. Snow always puts me in a reflective mood, and this morning I'm reflecting on keeping a good balance between memory-keeping and memory-making.
Much has been said about how obsessed we all are with getting the perfect picture to share on social media, and viewing our lives through the lens of our phone instead of the lenses of our eyes. I'm not sure I'm going to go that route with this post, because I've written this month already about how it's hard for me to even remember certain events without some documentation. I am not gifted with an impeccable memory for times and places and events, so writing something down or snapping a picture keeps these things from being lost to me forever. I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to document the past, and indeed I think it's important. It's most important I think so we don't forget what God has done. How far He has brought us, and how He has worked in our lives and grown our character up to the present moment.
However, I think there is a certain danger in getting too caught up in the past. How we've "always" done things. How things "used to be".
Because the more years behind you the more you realize that things never stay exactly the same.
And that statement sounds wistful and sad somehow, but I don't really think it has to be. Because would we really even want things to stay the same forever? Would we want to never move to the next stage of life, to never watch our babies get bigger and develop their personalities, to never develop new traditions, try something new, grow?
There is room for a bit of sentimentality about the past I think, as long as we don't get stuck in our reminiscing about "the good ole days". Because these days that we're in right now, these very present moments, are good too. They drift on by, and tomorrow will be a memory before we even realize it. And I think it's good to embrace the way things change, to hold on to our memories while making fresh, different ones in the present moment, and not to resent the fact that things aren't always "the same". Because really, how boring would things get if they always were?
My goal I think, in all this memory-keeping, is to remember all that God has done for me this far, but not so I can wish for the way things used to be. I want to remember His faithfulness and gifts in the past so my eyes are wide open for His faithfulness and gifts that are still in the future. And when I keep that balance between the memory-keeping and the memory-making yet to be done, I think it's easier to live fully in the blessings of right now, and to be grateful for them.
Today I want to talk about a practical aspect of memory-keeping, namely, how I go about organizing photos.
First, I feel like I should clarify that I am not actually very good at this. I have plenty of photos stored on my computer, and I have something of an organization system, but there is much room for improvement. Still, I thought I'd share what I do and ask how you all go about organizing photos!
Organizing Digital Photos
For my digital photos, I try to keep the photos I take organized in folders by year and month. So I'll have a folder for 2017, and in that folder I'll have a folder for each month. In recent years I've organized them even further and I try to split each month into separate "event" folders - for example, in my September 2017 folder I have folders for "Autumn Hike", "Clarice's Birthday", "34 Weeks Pregnant", etc. I think this helps me find the photos I'm looking for a little easier, assuming I can remember the year/month of the event - which I usually can, because I somehow am able to remember pictures I take even better than the real-life events. This is one reason why taking photos is so important to me! It helps me remember the different fun things we did together.
My recent project - and by recent I mean the project I've been working on over the last year and a half - is going through all these folders and deleting the photos that were no good. In the past, I've gotten lazy and just dumped photos into a folder without editing them or deleting the throw-aways, so I'm trying to clear out some of the photo clutter. I am in the process of creating a folder for each year of my "favorite" photos, the ones that I would actually like to get printed up (this is difficult because there are so many).
Which leads to the next aspect of organizing my photos...
Organizing Printed Photos
I am really struggling with figuring out how to organize my printed photos. I have albums from our early years of marriage and Wyatt's first couple of years, but I quickly realized that I'm not going to have enough room in my house to store albums of all our family photos. So what to do? Like I said, I have a ton of photos that I hope to eventually get printed. I need to narrow them down further, but then what?
I'm considering just buying cute-looking boxes to hold each year of photos - I can fit a lot more prints into a box than in albums. However, I'm also aware that this is a messier option and not as fun as an album to look through, so I'm still debating on what to do. It's going to take me a while to get caught up on printing photos, so I guess I have time to figure it out!
So how do you all organize your photos? Do you have any sort of system? Are you better than I am at getting them printed up? Give me your tips!
Like Disney World. This last year everyone and their mother seemed to be going to Disney World, and I started to wonder if my kids would be deprived of something important if we never make it there.
Over the last few months though, my attitude has started to change on this a bit. I still think memories are important, and I work toward trying to give my children good memories. But I think the more I slow down and remember my own childhood, the more I realize that a happy childhood doesn't have to be made of big memorable moments. Some of my favorite memories with my mom and dad were just times when we did ordinary things together.
When you are a kid, having mom and dad join in with your activities makes them so much more fun.
I vividly remember when I was in elementary school, my mom and dad joined in with our game of hide and seek one day. But instead of just hiding, they changed up the game. If it was mom's turn to hide, she would take each of us kids and tuck us away in different spots throughout the house...and then my dad had to be the one to find us! They came up with the best hiding spots, places that we kids couldn't possibly reach by ourselves. My dad hid me on the top shelf of the closet. My mom hid us behind the TV stand. It was so hard not to giggle when I knew I was getting close to being found.
I try to think about things like that when I'm considering how to make good memories for my kids...because as fun as a trip to Disney World is, things like hide-and-seek can be just as memorable, and just as fun. (And these things are free.)
I was thinking about this yesterday. The little three were down for a nap (and they were actually sleeping, which is rare these days), and Derek and I were on the couch reading while Wyatt worked with his Legos. He sat over there, silently laboring over his Lego boat. He asked me to come help him figure out how to make it into the shape he wanted, and I have to tell you right now, my Lego skills leave much to be desired. After doing what I could, I mentioned that we might have to ask Daddy to come help us figure it out, because he is better at Legos than me.
I started googling how to make a boat out of Legos, and Derek came over to see what I found. He and Wyatt declared the plans I found to be "boring", and Derek sat down with Wyatt and started to sort through the Legos. Wyatt bounced in his seat as Derek started helping him form the base of the boat.
"Wow, that's perfect! Dad, you're really smart at Legos!"
They built a pretty impressive boat together, complete with a hook to haul things out of the water and a movable ramp. Wyatt declared it a "rescue boat", and he's been carrying it around with him ever since.
I stood their in the kitchen and watched my husband and oldest son building a boat together, and I just thought, this is it. This is what makes a happy childhood. It's not these big, extravagant offerings that I so often worry that our kids will not experience. (Because hello, we have five kids. Disney World vacations are likely not in our future, at least not anytime soon).
No, kids need far less than we often think to be happy. It's these little moments, when we parents take a minute to slow down and step into our kids' worlds. To show them our love by giving them our time and attention in the little things. To make an ordinary game, an ordinary interest that much more exciting because we're willing to join in. It's enough to make a child's day. Maybe even enough to make their whole childhood.
If you are expecting this list to be populated with all the "children's classics", think again, my friends! When I was in elementary school I mostly read a few series that captured my attention at the time. I don't think they'd be considered great works of children's literature, but they did get me reading! Just for fun, today I thought I'd share a few of the book series I remember reading as a kid.
The Saddle Club Series - These are some of the first books I remember being interested in, ever. I think what drew me in was not so much the stories, but the collectible cards that came with each book. Not to mention that I met my closest elementary school friend because she was also reading the Saddle Club series. They were basically just stories about girls and their horses, and I remember very little of them now. Like I said, I was in it for the cards.
American Girl Series - Did anyone in my generation not read one of the American Girl book series? My favorite was always Felicity, because my favorite era of American History was the Revolutionary period, even back then.
Encyclopedia Brown - I used to love these books! Each book had multiple stories - mysteries with clues! And it wouldn't tell you the answer at the end, you had to guess who you thought "did it" and turn to the back of the book to find out if you were right. I was always so proud of myself when I picked the right culprit.
Grandma's Attic - Okay, this one is sort of a classic. I mostly remember whichever book is the one where they pull an old quilt out of the attic, and each patch on the quilt has a different story. Really cute stories.
Grandma's Attic - Okay, this one is sort of a classic. I mostly remember whichever book is the one where they pull an old quilt out of the attic, and each patch on the quilt has a different story. Really cute stories.
American Adventure Series - I'm actually relieved to see you can still buy these! Around the time we started homeschooling, my mom bought a couple of these American History books and assigned done of them to me for school. I didn't get too excited about that one, but about a year down the road I got a hold of a book a little further in the series. I was hooked. Each book in the series follows the children of the characters in the previous book, so it's like one long family story down through all the eras of American History. I used to save up my own money and march into the Christian bookstore with my $4 to buy the next book in the series. Until a friend started loaning me the books, which I kind of regret now. I wish I had kept buying them so I could have completed the series. The ones I did buy are in a box under Gwen's bed, waiting for my children to get old enough to read them.
What did you like to read in elementary school?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
