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Also important to mention: I started a new habit this week and I really hope I can keep it up. I’ve been feeling my introverted-ness in a big way lately and the constant interaction with people has been taking its toll. (They are everywhere and there’s nowhere to run, hah!) So this week, I started waking up at 5:15. I turn on the Christmas tree, light the fireplace, pour a cup of hot coffee and sit down to my devotional. In the silence, I have time to read, pray and drink my coffee while it’s still hot. It has been amazing! I feel calmer, centered and ready to tackle the day.
Day 4 // Richard Scarry’s Best Christmas Book Ever
We played the board game in the book, worked on our puzzle and had an entire morning dedicated to Art for Kids Christmas tutorials.
Day 5 // The Jolly Christmas Postman
We’re really enjoying the children’s companion to my Rooted in Hope advent study. We talked about Moses and then the bigger kids watched the episode about him from The Bible DVD. (There are some scary parts, so I was close by to block off the screen when necessary.)
Day 6 // Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend
The kids found chocolate coins and the Brain Games game in their shoes this morning!
We made Italian soft anise cookies, but used vanilla extract instead. So delicious and relatively easy to do with a bunch of helpers. I had some on rolling duty, some on glaze-dipping duty and one on sprinkles.
Day 7 // Country Angel Christmas
We made ornaments with Sculpey clay. The plan was to make star ornaments (to go along with the story), but the kids went rogue! We ended up with two candy canes, a cross, a mug of cocoa and a blueberry pie.
Day 8 // Merry Christmas, Curious George (P.S. the hardcover version is less than $4 right now!)
The three littlest woke up not feeling well. We spent the morning laying low and watching the fire. For family movie night tonight, we’ll be having popcorn and hot cocoa and watching the Polar Express.
Other things to note:
+ TJ has been playing with the Playmobil Nativity every.single.day. We have it set up in the kitchen and I love to peek in on him.
+ We’re still on a Tomie dePaola kick around here and have started his biography, 26 Fairmount Avenue. We’re all loving it so far! His story about seeing Snow White at the movie theater was adorable and hilarious.
MOTHER CULTURE & SELF-CARE
+ Health: Blogged about my workouts this week!
+ Reading: What Remains True – an e-book I got for free on Amazon. Really sad and depressing so far. Hoping it will pick up soon.
+ Spiritual: I’m keeping up with Rooted in Hope and already feeling the fruits of the discipline.
+ Fun: I joined 22 other lovely ladies in a HUGE Christmas book giveaway on Instagram! We each chose one of our favorite books and one lucky winner will receive them all. There were so many great choices – I was jotting down titles to add to our own collection, hah! The giveaway is open until 12PM EST today!
I need to look up that Richard Scarry book! Peter would love it 😊 We just got out the Playmobil Nativity and everyone is so excited about it!!
Thomas loves it too! He's a big fan of Busytown Mysteries on Amazon Prime these days 🙂
Your new habit of waking up early sounds lovely! I don’t know how you homeschooling mamas fit everything in. What a great way to start the day!
And I have been loving kettlebell workouts lately too! I just follow a Kathy Smith DVD.
Have a great weekend!
If you had told me in college that I would eventually LOVE waking up at 5:15, I would have laughed in disbelief. This night owl has become the early bird, hah!