I couldn't make all these changes and not make a post! Today has been full...decorating for Christmas, family time, cleaning, and getting that Christmas picture taken and the cards ordered and a little HTML. A very busy day.

May the Lord find us faithful.

My good blogging friend, Lynn has finally convinced me to give Zazzle a try.  I've always wanted an outlet for my love of photography and computers.  So, I thought I'd start a Zazzle store and put any money I earn towards a real camera, a good one!  (Currently I am using a low end point-and-shoot camera that belongs to my son.)  I am just learning my way around Zazzle. I hope to make more items soon.

Here is my store's address.  http://www.zazzle.com/jenn4him*

~Jenn

What will we be doing during the rest of December besides the "normal" Christmas celebrations? We will be making math mini offices and maybe English/Language Arts mini offices as well depending upon time.

I will also be ripping the school closet apart again and getting things set up to begin again with workboxes when January begins. You know when you homeschool you really never stop learning we just take breaks and learn about other things. You see putting these mini books together will be school. I am also researching living math to supplement our math curriculum. You know I really want to be a notebooker but haven't quite gotten there, we are close and notebook more than we used to. I guess I would technically be an interactive notebooker since I love the folds and other lapbook ideas to "compartmentalize" our learning but I can't do lapbooks because I am not sure what to do with them. Notebooks I know what to do with.

How am I doing Jenn?

May the Lord find us faithful.

I will be honest and admit that I do not often visit the home page here at hsb or the front porch very often. So, in an effort to be more "into" the blog element I popped over tonight before signing off. I visited the blogger of the week which linked to this post about handprint snowman ornaments. These are just absolutely beautiful. I love snowmen and I think I will have to make a shopping list and gather supplies for these beauties. Now, this is my first visit over at this blog but I can tell that I will be spending some time reading over there.

Just thought you would like to know.

May the Lord find us faithful.

I know I just mentioned Jenn in my last post because she asked me a question and it reminded me to post on my blog. Well, she has done it again. This week she posted this post which got me to thinking again. (We all know that is dangerous!) Remember the "good ole days" of blogging before facebook and twitter? Well, I do and I for one love my blog and reading other's blogs. But life gets in the way and I don't have good pictures and oh, wait, I am making excuses! No excuses....here is our update.

I have a cold or something...I woke up with a sore throat Sunday and Monday I woke up full blown sick. Right now I feel as though someone has beaten my back and an elephant is sitting on my chest, my hips even hurt, oh, yeah and someone is covering my nose so I can't breath very well. Sometimes I am cold and sometimes I am just fine. I am otherwise okay. I can function at home and I have maintained school this week minus my reading aloud due to sore throat and nasal issues. I am not sick very often so I will be glad when this is over.

Now that THAT is over with...we have really had a good week despite my illness. School keeps moving on and we are taking a break from some of our usual lessons and keeping some of the normal but we are working on  The Twelve days of Christmas free lapbook from Homeschool Share . I don't know if the song really was some secret Christian catechism but I thought this information was great to get us focused on Christ during December. Do you know about Homeschool share? It is a gold mine of information especially if you are a FIARer or a lapbook/notebook person.

Our tree is up but no ornaments. I honestly think that this is the latest I have ever put up the tree and gotten out the decorations. I bought a prelit tree this year so at least we could have a lit tree today. Tomorrow the boxes are coming out of storage and ornaments are going onto the trees regardless of my personal health.

The girl blessings are going to attend an ice skating clinic tomorrow for a little ice skating instruction. I am thankful that my husband (who is recovering from what I have) is taking the afternoon off from work to take them. He is definitely a keeper. That leaves me home with two boys and hopefully I can do a little extra house work in preparation for decorating.

What kind of gingerbread project do we have planned this year? Thanks for asking. We are planning a "village" which means everyone will decorate their own little "house".

I must get some sleep.. but first...speaking of sleep. Baby Blessing has not been a great napper and has woke up at least once a night for the first 11 months of his life. Well, all that waking up on my part is finally getting repaid. He is sleeping longer at night, like 10 hours and he is taking at least one long nap a day and sometimes two. This morning he didn't wake up until 9:00, which I greatly appreciated as I could sleep in as well. Do you also know that he will be ONE next week. Where has this year gone??? Time flies when you are having fun.

May the Lord find us faithful.

As is our habit, we had another full weekend.  The highlight being a trip to the local zoo to see their Christmas lights.  

Here's Ryan hard at work on the scavenger hunt to earn a free pencil.  (I'll do anything for a free zoo pencil.)  And that hunt was challenging.  They had us looking high and low for 32 items!  It was a mental workout for my old brain, but I did it! 

Along the way, we met a real reindeer named Willow. 

Since we were all bundled up for the cold, we didn't mind the freezing conditions. 

Fantastic lights and displays were everywhere.  Plenty of animals were also out enjoying the later zoo hours, too.  I'd have to give the zoo credit for their effort.  And it was nice that we had already bought our zoo membership long ago in June, so there was no extra cost. 

One last item of interest.  This is the official photo of the kids with Santa taken a few weeks back. 

Merry Christmas from my blog to yours! 

~Jenn

(I NEVER watch 60 Minutes, but the other day, I happened to catch Andy Rooney as I was flipping to find Extreme Home Makeover.  I thought it would be fun to write something as if Mr. Rooney were talking.  Here is my lame attempt.)

Life must have us all in the fast lane.  I sure miss the "old" days when we all had hours to kill on the computer.  I miss the old days of blogging when I'd get 8 comments before noon.  I really do.  Perhaps with all the other avenues like Facebook and Twitter, the true bloggers are left in the dust while everyone else is wasting time elseware.   I looked at my friends list yesterday and noticed that more than a few have moved on or no longer update their blogs here.  *sniff, sniff* 

Blogging does take time and effort.  You have to think of something to write and then write it.  And it helps if you have some good photos to post as well.  And then there is the flip side of leaving comments.  Currently, I have left some 6824 comments in the last 3 years.  (Not that I keep track.)  It is a responsibility to leave comments, if you have a blog.  Lately though, it is getting harder and harder to leave comments with fewer and fewer people updating their blogs.  (I could go into a rant here, but I won't.) 

So what am I to do?  Why am I thinking about all of this?  What is my point?   Does anyone care?  Please update your blog.  It is your responsibility. 

It is a good thing Jenn left me a comment this morning! Note to Jenn: My husband says she is my twin!

I have been meaning to post all week. I do not have picutures to post so this will be a wordful post!

It has been a different week. Monday we made cookies and treats all day for our Ladies' Tea at church with Mrs. L. We had a great time and enjoyed Mrs. L for the day since we haven't had her for a while. Her job is busy during November and December so hopefully we can begin our weekly days in January.

We made sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, dipped pretzel rods and oreos(made to look like snowman heads), chocolate peanut butter cups and Mrs. L went home and made about three more things to put with it(she says they were quick and easy so I hope that is the case).

Tuesday was piano and a little grocery shopping.

Yesterday was our first school day since last Monday. Next week should be normal and the next week should be almost normal. Then after that we will take our Christmas break. Speaking of Christmas, I do not have decoration one up. I am looking to purchase a new tree but I have not found just the right one yet and since I will probably have it for at least ten years I want to find one that I will be happy with for a while. Hopefully I will find one tomorrow.

I hope to make some cookies this afternoon as we didn't keep much of what we made on Tuesday.

When am I finding time to type this? Little Baby Blessing is eating finger food now so while he sits next to me and eats his lunch I can type!!!!!

Tomorrow the older blessings and one of us parents will be attending the Nutcracker Ballet. The girls and I went two years ago so I was surprised when they all wanted to attend, even Blessing #1. So, off we go! I really hope my husband goes and Baby Blessing and I can do some shopping while they are at the ballet. But we will see.

Well, this has been a sporatic post but sporatic is where I live right now. I am not getting used to it so hopefully I can move on soon.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Here are some pictures of our weekend.   The first group is from our Thanksgiving dinner with family.  The football pictures are from the highschool state championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium.  The kids really enjoyed going for the second year in a row.