Remember...

Advent is supposed to be a time of "waiting in joyful hope." So, maybe that's why there haven't been any blog posts here for more than a week. Perhaps I am trying to help you perfect the virtue of patience. Or maybe create some anticipation and wonder during this holy season. Perhaps I've spent all of my free time in quiet reflection and prayer.

Or perhaps I've been to Michigan for five days, am trying to get our Christmas tree up and decorated (finally), still need to do most of the shopping for the boys, am trying to keep schooling and cooking and cleaning, need to get cards addressed, .have been enjoying visits from faraway friends..... Yikes! We've been doing tons of neat things that I'd like to blog about, but there just hasn't been time. Hopefully soon!

Is this part of getting old? There seems to be no time to "wait." Life seems to be in fast motion. Time seemed to crawl by at a snail's pace when I was a child waiting for Santa Claus to come. Now the challenge is to carve out time to make myself wait. It just doesn't seem right. I am trying to keep my heart and spirit from becoming engulfed in "Christmas hoopla." I am not feeling stressed, just so very busy. I am repeatedly reminding myself that the celebration of Jesus' birth doesn't have to be polished/perfect with matching wrapping paper and made-from-scratch meals and a perfectly clean house. It's probably better without all that anyway. I am praying for openness to receive Jesus into my heart and into our family life in a new way. I'm sure it won't look or feel the way I plan. It didn't happen the way people planned it 2000 years ago either.

Come, Lord Jesus. Find our hearts ready. Fill us anew with your love and your grace. We offer to you all of our preparations and busy-ness as well as our prayers and devotions. We long to give you and our loved ones "perfect gifts" and adore you in the most meaningful and beautiful ways. Help us remember that it's our hearts that you and our loved ones want. May the story of your birth in a simple, humble stable inspire us to give you and others genuine gifts of presence and love. May the joy that you continue to bring to the world be the focus of all of our celebrations and the true joy of our lives. Amen.

Stop and Reflect

I have spent this week very, very busily preparing for several Christmas celebrations. I have been working off a monster to-do list. The children and I have shuttled from event to event. This morning I read a beautiful post by Kimbery at Catholic Family Vignettes. It really reminded me to stop the craziness and embrace the season in the way it's meant to be celebrated. So, grab a warm drink, take a deep breath, and check it out here: http://catholicfamilyvignettes.com/2010/12/09/a-ragged-singer-of-carols/ . Thanks so much Kimberly! Advent Blessings.

"Hello, Jesus?"

Adam loves to come in and snuggle in bed with me in the mornings. I am usually very out of it and sleepy, not wanting to get up. Here's how I woke up this morning:

Adam: "Mommy, can we really hear Jesus talk to us?"

Me: "Yes."

Adam: "Do you think he could tell me where I lost my Chap Stick?"

So funny! I won't go into the heavy Theology that I managed to muster up and give him. Somehow, he was appeased. A few minutes later he was patting me on the forehead and saying, "Oh my sweetheart, I just love you so much."

It doesn't get much better than that!

A Weekend of Parties!

It's Tuesday night and I'm still recovering from a whirlwind weekend of parties. (Wow... it occurs to me that "partying" is much different now than it was before children. It's a different kind of recovery entirely!)

On Friday Ray had a very nice birthday, including a Lego/pizza party with family and friends.

He had a wonderful time decorating the house and preparing prize boxes for all of the children. Here he is waiting for the party to begin!I decided to turn the main wall of our school room into a "Wall of Ray" with pictures of him from birth through age six.After dinner we had some Lego-building time and also some relays and other Lego games. We played our family's famous "marching game." (Basically, we tape down pictures related to the party theme and then we play music and march around the circle. When the music stops, we randomly select one of the pictures and whoever is standing on that picture wins a prize.) I should have taken pictures of the Lego pictures Jon and I hand-drew the night before. They were pretty silly. The children loved marching and winning prizes. Then I made the adults march too. They all got lottery tickets, but I don't think anyone won anything!Uncle Mike and Christian were the winners of the "Guess How Many Legos Are In The Box" game.A lady from our parish made this delicious - and very green - Lego cake.After most of the guests left I realized that I totally forgot to have them do the craft I planned. Ava, Carter, the boys, and Mamaw had fun filling hollow ornament bulbs with Legos and other craft items. Here's Ray opening his presents. He got several cool Lego kits that should help keep him busy this winter. A special gift from Mamaw:
A cool gift from some friends - A LEGO Rosary!
Daddy and Ray trying to figure out a neat robotic erector set from Pappy -
On Saturday the fun continued with a new tradition, a "cousin party" at my sister's house. We decided to get together for an afternoon of fun, food, games, and crafts instead of buying presents for one another this year. A great time was had by all!

More marching....Christmas Bingo...

A table full of prizes...Craft time.... The coolest craft: We made small holes in the bottoms of ping pong balls, placed them on top of battery-operated tea lights, and then decorated them with markers. They really glow and look like snow globes.
And last, but certainly not least, we took part in a wonderful circus-themed party to celebrate the first birthday of my Goddaughter. More games and prizes and presents and cake and fun! She was so adorable and I can't believe she's already a year old!
And so, we're into another school week now... but there's a table in my living room that is overflowing with party paraphanalia of all types: hats, treat bags and boxes, crafts, treats, prizes. Thank you, God, for so many wonderful reasons to celebrate. Thank you for the gift of life, for family and friends, for days filled with laughter and fun.

Happy Birthday Ray!

My dear Ray Ray,

I can't believe you're turning six today! I have loved you since the moment I found out you were growing inside me. The day you were born was one of the happiest days of my life. I thank God every day for the privilege of being your mom.... even on the hard days, even when you're not perfectly behaved. We grow and learn so much together. I am proud of you! I love your enthusiasm and analytical mind. I love watching you grow and become your own person. I hope you have a fantastic birthday and a wonderful seventh year of life!

All my love,
Mommy

Advent Adventures

Happy Advent!

We are off to a great start here. It seems like we are doing a ton of different Advent activities, but that is going to be the main focus of our studies and activities this month (in addition to Math and Reading and Writing of course). I apologize for not getting this post out in ADVANCE of Advent for those of you who may want to use some of these ideas.... but it's still early!


We kicked off Advent on Sunday with a little "Happy New Year Breakfast Party" inspired by one of my favorite bloggers at http://catholicicing.blogspot.com/.



We are using the traditional Advent wreath at dinnertime and also in our room at our family prayer time at night. When we light the candle we sing one verse of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" and the week's appropriate verses of a song called, "Light One Candle." We also pray this simple little Advent prayer I used to pray with my second graders when I taught school: "Come Lord Jesus. We are waiting for you. Each day we try more and more to get our hearts ready. Thank you for coming to us again this Christmas. Amen."

The Jesse Tree is the "family tree" of Jesus. It tells the story of God in the Old Testament. Jesse was the Father of David who was anointed to establish a royal family. A thousand years later Jesus was bron in this royal line. I have always wanted to start the Jesse Tree tradition with my family. I was so excited several weeks ago when my friend Ginny invited me to be part of a Jesse Tree Ornament exchange.

I was assigned the story of Isaiah's Call to Holiness (Is 1:10-20, 6:1-13, 8:11-9:7). I had to make tongs holding a hot coal! So I made 15 of these:

I also had the story of Jeremiah and the Exile (Jer 1:4-10, 2:4-13, 7:1-15, 8:22-9:11). I made 15 sets of these tears:A few weeks ago all of the ladies in the exchange brought their ornaments to a party. It was so fun to see all of the creative ways people made their ornaments.

Now I have this basket of ornaments to use on our Jesse Tree:

Here's a picture of the boys looking at out the first flakes of snow this morning. The little tree next to them is our Jesse Tree. Each morning at the beginning of our school time we are reading the appropriate Bible story and placing the ornament on the tree. So far we've done a dove for Creation, an apple for Adam and Eve, and a sparkly rainbow for Noah's Ark.Here's a link for another way of doing the Jesse Tree. It includes Scripture passages and coloring pages:
http://showerofroses.blogspot.com/2010/11/jesse-tree-readings-coloring-pages-for.html

Of course we're also reading lots and lots of Advent and Christmas stories and we're learning some new holiday songs. Check out another link from my FAVORITE blog (Shower of Roses). She wrapped up a book for each day of the Advent and Christmas Seasons. Each day the family opens a book and reads it together.
http://showerofroses.blogspot.com/2010/11/this-years-advent-and-christmas-book.html

At breakfast each morning the boys are taking turns putting stickers on our Advent Calendar and then we are reading a page out of this little book:It's from Creative Communications for the Parish (http://www.creativecommunications.com/) . Each day's readings focus on Advent/Christmas traditions in a different country. We are reading the passage and the prayer, locating the country on a world map, and adding a piece to this corresponding mobile:I am attempting to also teach the boys a bit more about each country each day and/or do a related craft and/or try a food from the country. Today was the first day. We learned about Argentina. The reading said that the children often put cotton on their Christmas trees to look like snow, so we made this:

Here's the corner in our kitchen where we've got these activities posted:



Also from Creative Communications for the Parish, we are reading and coloring the pages in this book:

Beginning on the 17th we will be praying the O Antiphons with the help of this O Antiphon House I made with some other homeschool moms. More on that when we get to it!

There are so many wonderful Feasts to celebrate and lessons to learn in the next few weeks: Saint Nicholas, Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Saint Lucy....

Here are a few more awesome links with great ideas for celebrating the Advent and Christmas seasons:

http://showerofroses.blogspot.com/2010/11/links-for-advent-planning-from-archives.html

http://www.elizabethfoss.com/reallearning/2010/11/advent-and-christmas-clicking.html#tp

It's so easy to get so busy this season. Let's pray for and encourage one another. May we carve out time each day to be still and prepare our hearts for true celebration that comes with the Birth of Jesus.

Another Day, Another Tooth Gone!

Four days before his sixth birthday, Ray lost his sixth baby tooth! Yikes! He is looking quite "holey." I'm just glad it came out after Daddy got home. (I am NOT good with teeth.)
His cousin Carter also has a very loose tooth. A few days ago Ray matter-of-factly told me that the "Tooth Fairy" would visit our house before Carter's because our house is closer to heaven. Upon further inquiry, I discovered that (according to Ray) the "Tooth Fairy" is an angel from heaven AND our house is closer to heaven because it is closer to (our) church. OK. Makes perfect sense.... I guess.