1.) How on EARTH has it been a week since I last blogged?!!! I don't know what happened, but apparently we've been a bit busy. My week in review: Monday I got to have coffee with three sweet friends--two came over in the morning and stayed for lunch, and one came over in the afternoon, and stayed for dinner and cards. SO fun! Tuesday morning we were fingerprinted by the USCIS (something we have to do in order to obtain eventual visas for our girls), we did homeschool, and Tuesday evening we had our small group. Wednesday Kevin was home sick with an apparent 24-hour stomach virus, so we just hung out around the house and homeschooled and read. Yesterday, Thursday, the big kids went to school, I did a bunch of reading, and then went to a friend's house for awhile before it was time to pick up the kids. Then last night we had to trek out to have something notarized (not adoption related, surprisingly. :) ) Finally, this morning, the kids and I got up early (though not early enough since we were a little late), went to Mass at our neighborhood parish, came home and did homeschool, and are finally taking a little break. Whew! Tonight Kevin and I are attending the annual Christmas party his company throws each year...kid-free! Crazy, I know. It's a pretty formal affair so we get to dress up and enjoy wine and appetizers and a nice meal and dessert. I'm looking forward to it.
2.) Is Charlotte's Web not the sweetest story EVER?! It's my second time through (as an adult) and I absolutely love it. The kids do, too. If you ever get the chance to get the book-on-CD version from the library, it's read by EB White himself and it's AWESOME.
3.) My kids think it's super fun to make Christmas lists. They spend pretty much all of December writing lists and figuring out what they want--it's a group effort. So funny. We don't really do tons of gifts...our kids get SO many things from their grandparents that we really haven't done much. This year though I've been doing a little shopping and have picked up some things for them. Anna and the boys are all shopped for I think, and I'm about done with Kaitlyn too. You're going to laugh but everything I've bought has been from the thrift store, except for some cheap 2-for-$1 headbands for a certain three-year-old from Target. But I've found some great stuff!! On the one hand I really do NOT ever want my kids buying into the consumerism and idea that Christmas is all about getting stuff. On the OTHER hand, in case you didn't know, we don't exactly buy toys and things for our kids on a regular basis (besides clothes or stuff they need.) SO, I think it's nice for them to have a couple of times a year (Christmas and birthdays) when they receive something they've been wanting. Plus, we really are doing a lot of Christmas things (nativity set, Advent calendar paired with opening and reading an already-owned or library Christmas book a day, baking, Advent wreath + daily readings) that have nothing to do with consumerism. Advent is all about anticipation and I'm really hoping to capture that this year!
4.) Last night when we had something notarized (I THINK it had to do with refinancing, but I don't really know, as that's Kevin's domain, and I choose to be ignorant and just sign on the dotted line), we did it at the little bank inside our grocery store. We needed to pick up a few things as well, and let's just say I came home with some extras...Peppermint Mocha creamer, egg nog, egg nog ICE CREAM, and chocolate mint fudge topping. HA! Clearly I am attempting to get into the spirit here. By consuming lots of delectable calories. (Note that I didn't call them "empty" calories. Because they bring me joy. Nothing empty about that. So come on over if you're in the area, because I'm happy to share!)
5.) The kids and I are going through a childrens' book about saints right now. Have you done much reading about the saints? SO fascinating! Many of them I've heard of, mostly the biggies (St. Augustine, St. Joan of Arc, St. Patrick, St. Francis of Assissi, and of course people of the New Testament like Mary and Joseph and John the Baptist and Stephen)...but there are some really wild stories! Crazy miracles and visions and such. I do believe these things happen, but they feel so far removed from little ol' me that it seems so wild. It is truly amazing, however, to see the passion and love for God in His people all throughout history, and to see how they courageously gave their lives away (some in martyrdom, some simply in the day-to-day) to live for Him. (My kids LOVE this portion of our day, by the way. Love, love, love it. I'd thought we'd do two saints per day, but no, we usually end up reading about five or so--when I finally say we need to move on to something else.)
6.) I also feel like maybe we're FINALLY finding our homeschooling groove. In December. Ha! Not that we weren't doing and learning things before this point, but I do feel like we're maybe finding a good rhythm, and that I'm finally figuring out what we should be working on exactly. It feels so good to feel like we're (finally) on the right track for us right now.
7.) Last night for dinner we had, ahem, frozen pizza. (We baked it, but it started frozen.) I know, I know, first I talk about all the unhealthy sugary treats I bought, THEN I tell you we ate cheap frozen pizza. Well, I couldn't exactly cook last night because we had to leave the house to see the notary, so that's what we did. (Does it make it any better if I say that the night before that we had (brown) rice and beans? Full of fiber and protein?) One of the kinds of pizza we made last night was spinach mushroom (yum!), but one of the kids declared that it smelled like stinky feet (??!!) SO, they kept calling it "stinky feet pizza." And apparently they LIKE the taste of feet because they kept wanting more, and would let us know by saying, "Can I have some more stinky feet?" They thought this was SO funny, and really, so did I. Kids. What will they say next?
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