Grateful

I wish I had pictures of the kids playing out in the sun today. Last week the forecast was very grim - 40mph winds, rain, bitterly cold, but today was gorgeous and sunny and warm-ish. I kept kicking the kids outside to go play while I read and puttered around, getting ready. Dinner was a success, I managed to steal away to my beloved book a couple times, and in the end almost all the kiddos went off to a weekend with grandparents. 

This year I am trying to be a bit more present, content, and forgiving during the holidays. Even Chris noticed I wasn’t my usual crazy, insufferable self (ha!)

I think tomorrow I will start to bring out some winter decor and sprinkle some Christmas books around. Do you decorate for Christmas before or after thanksgiving? 

Regards!

Allison

Mid-November Days

Marigolds at an end. Next stop: the dye pot 

Visiting the ducks earlier this autumn

Lego worlds for days

Geography

Apple pie

Embroidery while she educated me on different horse breeds

Starting math

Tomorrow is W's 11th birthday.  I remember sharing little bits about him after he was born in past (failed) blogs, and it's weird to think that over a decade later I'm still around sharing about this sweet, sensitive boy of mine. He and A were out of school today so he was able to enjoy his favorite meal for lunch and a dinner out to a local restaurant for hot wings.  Turning 11 also brought him a new board game (What Do You Meme? Family), a new book (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), and a skateboard because, why not? The board was a total shot in the dark by me and it was very well received.  I don't know who was more surprised - him for receiving it or me that he was so excited about it! 

In a fit of early holiday prep I started to do a bit of de-cluttering and reorganization. Not in any place that could be appreciated by visitors, no, I started in the depths of my little craft cabinet in the dining room.  I pulled out two big knitting baskets and immediately set to work trimming the fat and organizing unfinished projects.  I have at least 1 sweater that needs just a few inches on it before it can be worn, as well as a hat that is more than halfway to completion and a shawl that is a good bit done, but I stopped on a row of straight knitting so I have to go back and try to figure out what the pattern was in the row before to figure out where to begin again.  Four large skeins of chenille yarn departed from my stash and on to appreciative homes. Once I finished with that I managed to make some room on the dining room shelf for my current reads. I tend to scatter books everywhere and as a result I don't finish anything I've started so I needed a central place for 4-5 books on which I want to concentrate.  Currently it's "How the Irish Saved Civilisation" - Thomas Cahill , "My Antonia" - Willa Cather, "Stress-Free Parenting in 12 Steps" - Christiane Kutnik, "The Practice of the Presence of God" - Brother Lawrence, and "On Social Justice" - St. Basil the Great. 

My goal was to finish these and just concentrate on a few select books for the Nativity Fast, but I'm not sure if that will work out.  For starters, my devotional has been stuck in the USPS system since the 8th, apparently sitting in my local post office waiting on the acceptance scan. I should probably pray about it. 

Until next time!

Hello again

 Better late than never, I guess!

After a brief and fruitless switch to Wordpress I’ve come back here to dust off this old blog and see what we can see. Looking at some of the OLD posts (I’ve since unpublished, mostly photos of my kids when they were younger) has been a blast from the past. So much has changed! Some for the better, some not so much. 

The kids have grown! W is nearly 11 and doing well in school, V (almost 10) is enjoying her 4th year of homeschool and all the sleeping in that it affords. We shipped A off to school last year for kindergarten, something I never thought I’d ever consider but she loved it and is now my big 7 yo 1st grader. Now it’s M in Kindy at home with little brother Bear causing a ruckus everywhere he goes. 

All the older moms tell you about how quickly time flies and on the surface I get it. I understand that the days are long but the years are short, however there’s nothing like going through pictures from just a couple years ago to see how far my kids have come from toddler-hood. As W likes to remind me, he’ll be driving in 5 years. At least that’s what he thinks.

Well, it’s late and I’m tired so I’ll be off for now, but back in a couple days to share some of what I’ve been working on recently. Until next time!

- Allie