Monthly Archives: December 2006

This has been the best month of December that I can recall since we started home schooling. Why, you may ask? This year is the first year that I have given myself permission to stop formal schooling with the children after the first week of December. We have focused on Christ, outreach, traditional Christmas preparations, and family time instead. This is a list of things we’ve been working on this month, most have been completed and we still have a few days left! If your family has a fun tradition or favorite book/movie for Christmas, please share, I’m always looking for more ideas.
December to do List: *means not completed yet
1. Read the Nativity story from the Bible
2. Discuss perspectives from each person in the story with children
3. Look up history and significance of many Christmas decorations
4. Bake and frost home made cookies for gifts and parties
5. Teach the children at least 5 Christmas songs and go caroling to the shut ins
6. Watch old Christmas movies with the children
7. Make cards and deliver them to a nursing home
8. Make Chex Mix from scratch
9. Read through some old cookbooks and try at least 3 new recipes
10. Commercial Watch with the children and point out greedy attitudes and marketing techniques
11. Convey true contentment with whatever God gives us NOW without “updating our want list”
12. Work on a couple Christmas songs for harps
*13. Send a thank you or encouragement card for a non material attribute
14. Host at least one dinner party with a family we don’t know very well
15. Encourage the children to host a big play date party and do preparations for it
16. Pause while shopping to press the buttons and listen to all the MP3 music samples on the display
17. Take kids on frozen coke run, just because we can
*18. Have the kids get in pj’s and then load up in the car to go look at Christmas lights
*19. Go see the Nativity movie on Christmas Eve, as a family
*20. Read the book, One Wintry Night (by Ruth Graham) to the children
21. Go through house clutter and toys and donate things we do not cherish or use
22. Send cards or goodies to soldiers in Iraq
23. Build and display a Nativity out of Legos with the children

If you got to our site, Congratulations! We are still locked out off and on. We have addressed the problem to the company and they are “working on it”. Hmmm, not very reassuring. Thanks for being patient, I’ll be back soon…..or in between lock ups.

We have a church-wide playdate at our house tomorrow, so I’m off to mop my kitchen and make another batch of cookies. (I just realized that all the school children are out for Christmas break……..we could end up with a HOUSEFUL!) Yikes, better make up a veggie tray too.

I’m off!

Remember how our door painting project didn’t go so well. We completed it, yes….but it ended up being a huge stinking deal and everything that could go wrong did? Apparently God is working on patience with us and we just aren’t getting it.

Today was balmy and warm here in sunny Florida. Hubby called to request that we throw the solar cover over the pool. If it stays warm, we may be able to swim without much help from the heater. Hubby told me to have the Sarge help because he is the oldest and has helped his dad with the cover before. The solar cover was on a roller thing that sits at one end of the pool. Like a giant roll of Saran Wrap, we are to unroll the cover and drop it on the pool. Pretty simple and straight forward…..you’d think. We also have a dolphin statuary fountain at one end of the pool that sits in FRONT of the rolled cover. HMMM. I asked the Sarge what he and dad did. “Unroll S-L-O-W-L-Y while lifting up over the dolphins.” Cool, got it. We did as he said. Half way down the pool length, I hear a splash. Our cement dolphin fountain just took a header off of the pool deck, did a slow motion turn and landed with a less than graceful bump into the deepest end of the pool. “Oh yeah mom, we were supposed to move the roll to the front of the dolphins…….I’m SO SORRY….I TOTALLY forgot!”

Hubby was less than enthused. I give him kudos for not yelling though. Maybe God will smile upon his ultimate show of control and let us move beyond this stretch of patience trials for awhile. Anyhoo, he called me back once he was thinking clearly to advise me to get the dolphins out of the pool and check for any damage. The dolphins had a cracked fin and possibly a hairline crack in the tail….but the tail thing may have been there from the home owners (their grandson hugged them right into the pool). Hubby clarified that he was looking for structural damage to the side or floor of the pool not on the dolphin statues. “Oh, right. Didn’t think about that.”

I detest cold water and anything under 86 is nippy to me, the temp reading was resting at a chilly 62 degrees. I was instructed to retrieve our non swimming dolphins and check for damage. I went in and threw on a bathing suit, dipped in a toe and decided I would look into other methods of removing the dead dolphins. The kids were all cheering and wanting to jump in to help. “Um, it’s over your head, the dolphins outweigh you by about 40 pounds, the water is so cold that you can’t catch your breath when you first jump in, and we have grandparents coming for Christmas and you’ll end up sick……NO! This was turning out to be a solo mission.

Being the resourceful country girl that I am, I rigged a lasso and hooked it on the skimmer pole. After a couple attempts, I had roped me some dolphins! I hauled them up to the surface and wrestled them to the decking. Our dolphins will need first aid and possibly a complete overhaul.

Now to check the pool. I ungracefully hopped into the cold water, wishing I hadn’t shaved my legs because any layer of warmth would have been appreciated at that point. Breathing couldn’t happen until my body got over the shock and then I went numb fairly quickly. I KNOW I swam in the Great Lakes as a kid, but getting old and living in warm climes has made me soft. I waded to the point of impact and checked for cracks and chips until I my legs began to ache from the cold. The pool is fine. No cracks, no chips, just dolphin dust on the bottom. WOO HOO no thousands of dollars in repair bills! I’ll do my happy dance when I can feel my feet again!

Woo Hoo! We’re back on line again! We’ve been having server issues so I was locked out for about a week except for an occasional moment here and there. Now to catch you up on all the happenings……

We had pastor and his wife over for dinner one of the nights. That was fun. Pastor is a man who likes to eat and is appreciative of any gathering that involves food. We enjoyed good conversations and we learned a lot about the church.

Lots of Christmas shopping happened last week. My goal was to be done shopping by last Friday and I accomplished this! By 10pm on Friday night, everything was purchased, wrapped, and under the tree or bagged to send to family.

We sorted the Imp’s drawers and pulled out anything that was too short (4inches showing at the tummy when she raised her arms….been awhile since we sorted). Now we have a bag of clothes ready to go home with grandma for the Michigan cousins.

The boys did a mass cleaning and purging in their room as well. Daddy pulled their bed out and the boys cleaned for an entire afternoon and organized, threw out, or donated all of their belongings. Daddy has the magic touch to get these things done!

While the boys were cleaning, we worked on our chairs for the dinning room table. The whole set with matching glass hutch was free because it was so old. They look great, but the chair joints are getting wobbly. Hubby, the fixer of all things, took all the chairs apart and re glued them and then set screws so they are good as new! Yay, Hubby! We also pulled off the front door and sanded and painted it a dark reddish-wine color. It looks so pretty against the white house. We figured it would be an afternoon project, but it turned out to be the Project from Hell! Everything that could go wrong, did. We ended up with bed sheets for a door from 9:30am till about 11pm. I am still looking for lizards that sneaked into the house, but the finished result is really pretty…..and I am eternally grateful that hubby got it done. (Our door was brown with lots of bubbles and flaking that showed the white underneath before our project.)

Today we are off to do laundry, bake more Christmas cookies (peanut butter or sugar cookies), and do a little general household cleaning. Our family company will arrive in less than a week! We are SO looking forward to seeing family over the holidays!

Well, after our super busy day on Saturday, we had church in the morning and the children’s Christmas program at night. The Imp and Gremlin were over tired and in a mood, but the program went off without a hitch. It was cute and not insanely complicated……. and none of the shepherds took down Joseph, so we can call it a success. The Imp still looked more like a bunny than a sheep, but the other barn yard critters were a little bizarre looking too. We like to think of them as “representative farm animals” not literal. The director did not bean any of the kids either, did I mention she has the patience of a saint? Some of the children needed to be beaned….I’m just sayin.

Afterwards they had this food spread. Yum! But talk about difficult to get the kids down after all the excitement and mini desserts! Pastor dropped by to ask that we meet with a new couple that was asking about home schooling. (Sure, no problem.) Then he commented that they were with C. (Mind you we had just had him and his wife, whose name I looked up and DO KNOW, over on Friday night.) She teaches public school, so my mind was mulling over the name and trying to put together if there was another C in the church that home schools. Knowing I didn’t know HALF of the names in the church, I innocently questioned, “….and C would be …..whom?” Pastor stopped and cracked up while looking at me oddly. Then, realizing I was waiting for a response, he chuckled, “C, you know….my wife!” Instead of explaining that I thought there might be another lady in the church that home schools and just happened to share his wife’s name….my brain did a total disconnect and I mumbled something stupid. OY! We just had them over for dinner, now the man thinks I don’t know his wife’s name. How tacky would that be?! Sigh. My brain and mouth have been having a huge disconnect lately, I know what I want to say, but it never makes it. Now the pastor probably thinks I’m a bubble! I’m really not….well at least most of the time…..I don’t think I am anyways.

Today we had the Children’s play practice and had to be at the church EARLY. The children practiced for a couple hours before they all started to get squirrelly. Their music director has the patience of a saint! 20 or more wiggly little ones dressed like sheep, cows, and cats….oy!

After the practice, we had a quick lunch while the rest of the people showed up to go Christmas caroling to the home bound seniors. We went to several houses and about 3 nursing homes to sing, pass out hugs and kid made cards, and a plate of cookies, small poinsettia, or gift. What an incredible time.

These folks were so appreciative. One lady started crying because she thought she had been forgotten. There was a gentleman in a wheelchair and a Navy hat. The Sarge went over to ask him about it, and found out he had served as an aviator for 30 years and had served during WWII. My sons both thanked him for his service to our country and the Sarge told him that one day he hoped he could serve in the military. They talked for a bit longer and the man hugged us all and said he was just pleased to be noticed.

One of the stops we made was at a semi truck driver’s home. The man is waiting for his truck to be taken because his cancer came back and treatments/testing are making it so he can’t drive anymore. He let all the children from the group climb up into his truck and honk the semi horn till we were all deaf. This man is caring for his wife and her mother who is also in a wheel chair. I was impressed that he was not sad and depressed, he is so full of life. Sick or not sick, he wants to impact the life of children. He played with them and encouraged them and he makes memories with all children that he meets. What a selfless man. His illness return did not reduce him to sitting and “waiting for the end”, if anything it spurred him to do even more than he already was. To insure he has touched as many lives as he possibly can.

The last house we went to had this feisty 89 year old grandma whose daughter was caring for her. The children all ran through the woods and played behind the house while we visited for awhile. Even though the grandma was not able to make her body move, her mind was very sharp. She kept us laughing with stories about parenting and marriage. She had so much wisdom and had seen it ALL throughout her years! When the Imp skinned her knee, I left to tend to her and then came back. When I walked into the room I was struck by the scene. The grandma was propped up in her chair and was talking with 4 different generations of mothers sitting at her feet and on the nearby couches listening intently to her encouraging stories and sage advice. What a blessing to be able to sit under such instruction and see her example of Godly aging.

My daughter thrived in this element, she loved it and asked if we could “go visiting” again soon. All three children enjoyed going out today, the Gremlin is still amazed by how much it affected the residents, when it was such a small thing on our part.

Yesterday was our first baking day of the season. We baked 4 batches of my favorite chocolate chip cookies and did about 6 batches of Chex mix. I still have 2-3 other kinds of cookies to get done, but they will have to wait for now. We are sending some of the cookies we made to the soldiers in Iraq as part of a service project for the boys. Their group has made cards and we are putting together care packages with all kinds of goodies at club this week.

All of the children sat down and wrote out thank you cards for some early Christmas gifts that mom brought from relatives while they were here.

Today we are doing some Christmas shopping and looking for dress pants for the Sarge. (What were you doing when the cat clawed a hole through your only dress pants……..WHILE THEY WERE ON YOU!?) We’ll also be mailing out a few packages. The plan is to get all my “out” shopping done before the public school kids are off for vacation. We’re off!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 c. margarine 2 eggs 1tsp. salt
1c. granulated sugar 3 c. all purpose flour 2tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. brown sugar 1tsp. baking soda 2 cups chocolate chips

Mix it all together, drop by heaping tablespoons on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 10-14 minutes.
****Optional: Substitute white chocolate chips and add 1teaspoon almond flavoring