Christmas Eve Eve

Counting down those last few days until Christmas. It feels like things are finally slowing down around here and the last few days have been very nice. There has been a lot of hosting of events that last couple weeks - all things that were very fun and we were very happy to do - but also draining for this introvert. : )

Yesterday we took the munchkins to see a matinee of Frozen. We loved it. There was a moment or two where the boy crawled in my lap and got a little nervous, but the girls were spellbound. And I have to say, this movie has got the best Disney soundtrack that I have heard in years. It brings out the musical theater side of me. (It's a very small side, but it pops out occasionally when watching a favorite musical.)



The kids and I also went to the science center on Friday afternoon. I had hopes of being outside and going to the zoo, but it didn't happen due to big rains that swept through. I'll be honest on this one as well. The science center isn't my favorite place to go, but my kids LOVE it. It's too dark and has too many small crawl spaces for me to really enjoy it. The last time that we went, the boy was contained in a stroller so he was a bit giddy with the freedom to explore and run around. (And then he slept most of the way home in the car. Bonus).



Also bonus: cute shot of my girls standing next to Saturn.

Today was a busy at home day. For my Christmas, T hired two very sweet and thorough women to come and deep clean the house for us. What a treat. Of the many things that are on my plate (and that of any stay-at-home mama / homeschooling mama / working mama) the really deep cleaning just doesn't happen. Counters get wiped and floors get mopped, but this was such a blessing to have everything cleaned REALLY well. While they were working, I did some work upstairs, hung out with the kids, folded laundry, etc. I had a few minutes to make some updates on the blog and if you look over to the left you should see a page for my 2013 booklist, as well as an updated Family Read-Aloud list. As I updated those lists, I was surprised at how little book blogging I've done this last year. Lost of reading ... just not lots of writing about it.



We are hosting Christmas Eve at our house tomorrow night and I'm excited to finish up food preparation tomorrow and have my family over for a few hours after our church's Christmas Eve service. It's been fun putting together a menu and getting the food ready - I really do love hosting things and putting together grocery lists and meal ideas. We aren't having a huge, heavy meal tomorrow. Several appetizers + soup and bread. On the menu:

• bbq meatballs (made by my sister, very yum)
• build your own ham and cheese sandwiches (on rolls)
• chicken nuggets tray (for the kids, mostly)
• relish tray
• creamy tomato basil soup
• cheesy potato soup
• garlic bread
• cheese bread
• this cheesecake
• cake balls (made by my sister at my girls' request, so good)

I'm looking forward to dinner tomorrow already. : )

Hope your Christmas Eve tomorrow is full of family and friends, food and fellowship. I leave you with a picture N1 took of one of my favorite elves while we were out running errands one day. I died when I saw these on my phone. The cuteness.



Happy (late) Monday.

Simple Things Sunday

May you find a pocket in your day to sit, relax, and be still.



Linking up with Rebecca.

Project Life Update // Thanksgiving Week!

It's Thanksgiving! (Or it was). : )

With the exception of one picture at the beginning and two pictures at the end, this entire layout (+ inserts) is all Thanksgiving, all the time. I had too many that I wanted to include and so I did!





On the left:

• a pretty leaf picture became my date card. I love using all the random nature shots as my date cards with a label slapped on them. Not that I need to justify taking the picture, but I love that I'm using them in my albums.
• The morning that we headed out for Thanksgiving a certain girl had to have a couple teeth pulled. Little teeth that didn't want to come out on their own and big teeth that wanted to make their presence known were not getting along. This was a slightly traumatic experience for all involved - the girl was NERVOUS. The mama had to have two of her other kids with her at the appointment instead of being 100% focused on calming the patient. But. We survived and there was ice cream. And happy gas.
• The giant table where we took our meals at the cabin we stayed at with my side of the family. There were twelve of us there and you could have sat another six comfortably at this table - no joke. I want a table like this in my house someday!
• T relaxing. 

On the right:

• getting the kids out of the cabin for a hike. It was cooooold this day (I think it was Wednesday?) Flurries the whole day long though nothing really accumulated.
• A lake we walked past near our cabin.
• T and B singing/working on one of the Christmas songs for the church program. A little impromptu music after we put up our tree...
• which is here! This is our first year for a LIVE tree and I am so enjoying it. This was not a great picture by any stretch of the imagination. I actually used my point and shoot for this shot and it gave the picture a funny orange tint but it's the only one we had. 

Insert #1:

On Friday, we went on a horseback / trail ride with everyone thanks to Grandpa's generosity. The kids had a blast!!! Even the boy got to ride the whole time with T and he kept turning around and telling me he was riding a black horse! This was such a thrill for them all.

The back of Insert #1:

More pictures from outside around our cabin that we stayed at, minus the selfie with the horse that I took. His name was Smokey, but it should have been Pokey. He was soooo slow.

Insert #2:

A cut down PL page to hold just a few more shots.

B put away that whole turkey leg. Pretty impressive.

A fun getaway that is DONE and in the books. 

Questions? As you can see I've had a bit more time for blogging now that we are on break and am hoping to do more in the coming weeks. I'm curious who all out there is a Project Lifer or has interest in that? Anyone taking this on for 2014? 

Supplies used in this layout:

• journaling cards from In a Creative Bubble
• I Love stamp from Elise Joy
• PL 3x4 grid cards
• blue 4x6 journaling card is from the Cobalt edition.
• red 4x6 journaling card is from a Studio Calico PL kit.
• Tracy Larson white spaces templates

Project Life is a product and a system created by Becky Higgins and available on Amazon.com, DigitalProjectLife.com, and many major craft retailers. It can be anything you want it to be. You can view all my posts about Project Life here. I'm always happy to answer questions about how Project Life works for me, if you have any. Affiliate links used where available.

Read-Aloud Thursday // The Big Fall Wrap-up!

We have been read-aloud machines this fall. If I was to put together a post on “what’s working now”, our read-aloud time would definitely make the cut. I don’t know that we have stumbled into anything magic, but for this season, we’ve moved read-alouds to right after lunch. Everyone has a full stomach and they have the option to get a little something crafty to work on while I read. (Are your girls as crazy about rainbow looming as mine are? I firmly believe that simple toy has been another huge key to our read-aloud success).

Anyway, back to the books. Another reason I think our read-alouds this fall have gone so well is the selections that we have made. We just finished up the first twelve weeks of Cycle 2 of Classical Conversations. This cycle started in the medieval period and meanders slowly up through a few (fairly) current events. It’s made it much easier to tie our books into our history as opposed to last year where we spent the majority in ancient civilizations. I will also admit, some of that was my own choosing – I’m leaving the bulk of ancient readings until we come back around to Cycle 1 again in a couple more years.

Here’s the list of what we have tackled this fall:
August:

Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green

·         So so so good. Such a fun adventure story and I cannot wait to read this again with the boy when we come back through Cycle 2 and he’s old enough to really enjoy it.

·         We read the full version of this – no abridgements for us. The old English occasionally offers a word that we needed to define, but the girls (especially my older two) did fabulous with it.

·         We followed it up with the Disney version of Robin Hood. Not so much like the book. : )

Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop

·         Another one we really enjoyed. This was a more modern tale of a little boy who is given an amazing model of a castle by his beloved housekeeper. He finds a small toy knight (or what he thinks is a toy knight) in the castle and ends up releasing the knight from a spell that had him frozen. Through some selfish decisions that the boy makes, and which he later has to recify, he goes on a quest to help the knight return to his normal size and to his home.

·         I think the girls were able to follow along a little better with this one due to the more modern setting. I didn’t love it as much as Robin Hood, but still a good read.

The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame

·         A short story that we read over two days. A young boy meets a dragon and tries to explain (to the dragon) that the village expects him to show up and battle a knight to the death. The dragon is really not interested in fighting and tries to talk his way out of the battle with the knight so they work out a plan to stage some injuries so neither loses face before the townsfolk.

·         I had no idea that this was written by the author of Wind in the Willows, the book I reviewed/hosted for the Reading to Know bookclub this summer. Totally different type of book from WitW … and way shorter. : )

September:

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle

·         This was a bit heady for my girls, but I’m glad we read it. (And a departure from our books that tied in with history). We went to a play this story at our local children’s theater in September and I wanted them to be somewhat familiar with the story before the play. I’m so glad that we read it! This play (which was excellent) was INTENSE and I know that my little girls would have been very overwhelmed (i.e. freaked out) had they not known the story and that all ends well.

·         Of note: reading this, and my realization that I had never read the rest of the Wrinkle in Time series (did you know there was a series?) meant that I had to read the rest of those books on my own this month. : )

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli

·         This story tied in perfectly with one of our history sentences that we memorized about the One Hundred Year War and the Black Death. The story starts with a young boy who loses the loss of his legs after an illness. When we starts to regain his strength he finds that most of the people in his household have gotten sick from the plague and either left or died. His father is off fighting for the king in the war and his mother is attending the king in London. He’s taken in by a kind monk and lives in a monestary until he is able to rejoin his family and return to the duties that he was to take on as a young squire for a knight.

·         A Newberry winner that I’m glad we read. The perfect length for my girls and they were very interested in the fate of this boy.

October:

Leonardo da Vinci, Giants of Science by Kathleen Krull

·         This is our only non-fiction in the batch, I believe. (Minus many picture books on other Renaissance figures). This was a great book as far as lots and lots of facts on Leonardo. What a truly fascinating guy.

·         That said, I did quite a bit of editing as I read aloud to the girls. His parents were not married, and there is quite a bit of explanation and discussion about his illigitamacy as well as other social issues of the time that I’m not ready to get into with my girls. (At least not my little one, therefore the older one will also benefit from my editing for the time being).

·         Still, full of facts. Use parental discretion if you hand it off to them or read it aloud.

Basil, Of Industry and Honesty, Lamplighters Books

·         We have subscription to Lamplighter Press and get a book a month in the mail from them. This is one that my husband read aloud to the girls in the evening. The story of a young boy of impoverished parents. He learns that hard work and honesty is the way to make your way in the world and is mentored by several kind neighbors and adults that cross his path. His hard work starts to change the tide of hard times that his family is in and by the end of the story, things are looking much better for the family.

·         Heavy on the morals in this book and there is no doubt on the points that they are trying to get across with this story.

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

·         Surprised at how funny this book was! The story of a prince and his whipping boy – the boy that took the prince’s punishment when he misbehaved. They are kidnapped and while the whipping boy tries to get them out of the scrape that they are in, the prince keeps messing things up.

·         Another (short) Newberry winner that we enjoyed.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Young Reader’s Shakeseare

·         Recommended by Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things, I picked this up and we began our first foray into Shakespeare. This was a GREAT abridgement/paraphrase/easily understandable version. I had never read this play before and this was a great intro into the story for me as well. I have a copy of the Young Reader’s version of Romeo and Juliet on my shelf and hope to get to it sometime in the new year.

… and then we have been slooooooowly working our way through Little Women since early November. It has been SO fun reading this with the girls. One of my all-time favorite stories and it’s been some time since I’ve read it. Reading it aloud and sharing it with my girls has been a treat. We've missed several days (and will miss some more in the coming days) with different events and a little travel but I'm hoping we can still get it done before the end of the year.

Whew! I’m glad to have our fall 2013 read-aloud’s recorded. Though we enjoyed some more than others, there really wasn’t a dud in the lot. And now it’s time to start looking at what we are going to read in 2014!

Linking up this long-overdue post with Amy’s monthly Read-Aloud Thursday link-up!

Christmas Break! and a New Post on Jelly Telly

It's Christmas Break! As of about 10:30 a.m. this morning, my girls finished up their Christmas music recital and we are officially on break until January. Whew. I've been struggling to get school done with them the last few days and even had strange thoughts of trying to plug on through the rest of this week, but it's not happening. I'm done and ready for a break and so are they. I've got a short stack of books from the library that need some attention and White Christmas is on the agenda (hopefully) for tonight's viewing.

Tomorrow I have got the monster of all read aloud posts going up - nothing like saving ALL our fall read-alouds and posting them in one swoop. I need to remind myself not to do that next spring. : )

Also, I've got a new post up over on the Jelly Telly blog and some thoughts about Jesus as our Prince of Peace.

Hope your day has been merry.

Christmas Meme 2013

Q: What is your favorite Christmas song?

O Come All Ye Faithful is my favorite Christmas hymn, I believe, stemming back from college choir days when we would sing it at the yearly Christmas candlelight service. I'm partial to Steven Curtis Chapman's version as well. If I'm looking for a contemporary Christmas song, Chris Tomlin's Emmanual (Hallowed Manger Ground) is absolutely gorgeous. We sang it on Sunday and I remembered how much I love it.

I also discovered this CD this year - T must have bought it and when I synced my music on my phone it just appeared there.



Very good. It's been my go-to in the car with the kids.

Q: Favorite Christmas Special/Movie?

White Christmas. : ) I informed T as he went out the door today that tonight may be the night for my annual viewing.



We definitely have other family favorites for this month - we typically watch Elf sometime over Thanksgiving weekend as we transition from one holiday to the next. It's also become an annual tradition to rewatch the Lord of the Rings movies in December (now plus The Hobbit).

Q: What sort of goodies do you make in December?



On the short list:

Cranberry Christmas Cookies
Toffee Crack
my Grandma's chex mix

Q: Favorite Christmas beverage? 

This year it has been diet Sierra Mist with cranberry. So good. And, of course, always coffee.

Q: How many Christmas parties do you usually attend? 

We typically have one annual party that we are invited to every year and try to go if we have a sitter. Some years we make it and some we don't. The last two years I've hosted our Classical Conversations mom's night out which is always a fun night. That's about it. 

Q: Do you go Christmas caroling? Does anyone come caroling to your house?

No and no. We went caroling last year with our small group to a nursing home, but that's probably the only time I've been in years. I/we didn't make it happen this year. I think I'm still slightly traumatized because I spend the whole time holding a VERY wiggly two year old boy who literally LICKED my face while we were singing. Maybe next year. : )

Q: What's on your front door at Christmas?

Nothing. One day I'd like to hang a wreath, but it didn't happen this year. I'm also not sure how that would work between the wood door and the storm door and I didn't have the time / energy / crafty-ness to figure out how to rig it up!

Q: When do you put the tree up and take it down?  

Ideally, I like putting the tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving and leave it up through the first week (or so) of January. When I was younger, my parents were always very conscientious about taking the Christmas tree down right after Christmas Day so that it wasn't up for my birthday (which is New Year's Eve). Now that I'm the parent and it's my own home, I leave it up and enjoy the lights until I need/have to take it down. I want to enjoy my lights as long as I can!

Q: Do you decorate with traditional red and green? Or with other colors?  

No color scheme worth noting here. So far every year has been different! I'm pretty sure that last year was multicolored lights. T and the girls typically pick them out and this year we have white and purple lights adorning the tree. I think it looks lovely.



Q: How many Christmas trees do you put up (large and small)?  

This year we have two. One is in our front room and it's our large (real) tree. We also have a smaller (maybe 3 foot) tree that we used the last 2-3 years when we were in our smaller house and when the boy was just starting to cruise around. It now sits at the top of the stairs in front of mirror which reflects the light all over our upstairs landing.



Q: Are your Christmas decorates themed or hodgepodge?   

Totally hodgepodge. We have a few ornaments from my childhood, a few that the kids have made over the years, and a few that I've picked up along the way. Absolutely no matchy-matchy or coordination happening. 

Q: Ham, turkey, both or something else for Christmas dinner?

When we celebrate with my side of the family Christmas dinner is usually chicken enchiladas and a layered mexican dip. When it is T's side, it's turkey. If I was planning the meal, I would probably fall somewhere in the middle of both camps. In fact, T bought me a turkey over the weekend and it is in the fridge right now so I can cook it for him. Yum.

Q: Do you have any Christmas traditions that are unusual or out-of-the-ordinary?

I really can't think of any. Maybe the mexican food meal for Christmas Day? I feel like I'm still trying to find my footing with traditions and no year seems to be the same.

Q: Do you display Christmas cards in a particular way?  

Taped to the wall in our family room. I love displaying them there, until the tape loses it's sticky and they start falling down. : ) 

Q: What do you do with Christmas cards you have received after the holidays are over?  

I used to save them, but I just pitch (most of) them. See also this post on what to do with your Christmas card photos. Brilliant. I'm doing this this year so I can virtually save the photos.

 Q: Christmas newsletters: Love 'em or hate 'em?  

Love!! I love sending and receiving cards and little newsy notes - its one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season. As of Monday, all of ours are officially out the door (minus the half-dozen that I need to track down addresses for). I realize most people think that you keep up and know what's going on because of Facebook, but I don't find that is the case. One, because I have really cut back my time on Facebook and therefore miss all sorts of stuff. And two, I may know that you had the best bagel of your life and the such-and-such bagel shop this year, but I find that I really don't know what's been going on in your family. So, if you are on the fence about sending me a newsletter, do! : )

Thanks to Carrie for sharing this on her blog and Barbara for thinking up the questions. This is going to be printed and placed in my Project Life album as a little snippet of life this Christmas season.

Five Posts from 2013

If you have traveled over here from Sarah's blog, welcome and happy clicking. You will find that 2013 was a sparse blogging year and am thinking and pondering what to do with this space in the days ahead. : ) That said, I did enjoy scrolling back through a year's worth of posts (it doesn't take long when you haven't written much!) and had a few favorites to share. Happy clicking!

Post with the most clicks:

Crockpot Beef and Broccoli for the Win

Post with the most comments:

My book review of Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

 

I actually did find another post with one more comment, and this actually tied with a couple other posts for most comments - this is not a high comment blog by any stretch of the imagination - but this was probably my favorite post out of the group so it's my pick for this category. : )

 

Post with the best picture:

 

From my Hello November

One of my favorite shots ever of one of the girls, capturing her hands.

Post that was the hardest to write:

Reminders in the midst of disappointment. This post was actually written for the Jelly Telly blog. Several of the blogs that I have posted over there could probably have fallen into this category but I went with this one that I wrote off the cuff after some rough parenting days.

Post that was my personal favorite:

This is probably one of my favorite posts even though it's nothing over-the-top spectacular. I have loved loved LOVED using Project Life as our family's scrapbook and am about to finish my third year working on these albums. This post is one of my favorite weeks from the year.

Linking up over at Amongst Lovely Things for a "best of 2013" wrap-up post.

 

Simple Things Sunday

Cello by Christmas light.



Linking up with Rebecca.

Reading to Know Bookclub :: Version 2014

My friend Carrie is once again hosting her classics bookclub this coming year and I'm very excited. I thoroughly enjoyed reading and participating on those months that I could this last year and the 2014 titles, and the women sharing them, are a fabulous combination. I'm hosting March and hope that you'll join us for as many titles as you can over the coming year!

The line-up is as follows:

January (Adult)- The Blue Castle, by Lucy Maud Montgomery. (Hosted by Carrie herself in conjunction with her January L.M. Montgomery read-along).
February (Children's) - Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Selected by Stephanie from Everyday Family Living.
March (Children's) - The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge. Selected by Stephanie from Simple Things.
April (Adult) - My Man Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse. Selected by Cassandra from Adventist Homemaker.
May (Children's) - The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, by Joan Aiken. Selected by Tammy atBluerose's Heart.
June (Adult) - King Solomon's Mines, by H. Rider Haggard. Selected by Sky at Circus Caravan of My Thoughts on Things.
July (Children's) - 101 Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith. Selected by Amy at Hope is the Word.
August (Adult) - The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Selected by Shonya atLearning How Much I Don't Know.
September (Children's) - The Princess And The Goblin, by George MacDonald. Selected by Rebekah at Bekahcubed.
October (Adult) - To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson, by Courtney Anderson. Missionary classic selected by Barbara from Stray Thoughts.
November (Children's) - Number the Stars, by Lois Lowrey. Selected by Heather at Don't Let This Universe Forget You.
December (Adult) - To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Selected by Annette at This Simple Home.