Posted in Ramblings

 The week is off to a crazy start already. Maddy has still been a bit sick, so we kept the kids home from Sunday School. Ted had a rehearsal all afternoon for the Christmas program, though. He is in the chorus, along with all the other younger children (all the older ones have speaking parts), so mostly they got to play while the big kids practiced. And they had a pizza party. It sounds like he had a really good time. They’ll be taking off this coming weekend because of the holiday, and then the next weekend is show time!

We also took off from Scouts, since they had just done the Regatta and it’s a hectic week. I was glad; the break was nice.

We’ve jumbled up our school work a bit, to try to get a good week’s work in without being overloaded. Science is easy to double up on, since it’s mostly reading right now. We’re taking the week off of handwriting. Math and phonics still proceed at a page a day.

We’re reading a whole bunch of good Thanksgiving books this week. Goody O’Grumpity by Carol Ryrie Brink is our main story. We had a lot of fun just looking at the pictures and finding all the things that were different in their daily lives, as compared to now. (For those who like to cook, this one comes with a spice cake recipe that sounds yummy!) We’ve also read The Magic School Bus at the First Thanksgiving, which is one of their leveled readers. We also got to watch the video made of Jean Fritz’s book Who’s That Stepping on Plymouth Rock? which I found more interesting than the kids did, but it’s very good. Now I need to get the book. I had no idea they had dropped and broken the rock during the moving process not once, but twice! All of her historical stories are interesting, and worth purchasing.

Storytime was a no-go for us this week; I didn’t want to expose all the other kids to sniffly, snuffly Maddy right now. She’s doing better, but just in case there are germs… better safe than sorry 

The holiday will be a bit simpler this year, as we’re just having Grandma and Grandpa over for dinner, no big extended family or trying to squeeze two meals into one day. I’m kind of looking forward to it, though it’s nice to see everyone too. This is, of course, assuming everyone is well by then … Lysle has been sick, too, and working overtime, so it’s been pretty rough.

If I should actually get this posted on time for once, everyone be sure to check out the Black Friday sales by TOS. They’re supposed to be marking down a year’s subscription, which will make an awesome gift for friends. (Note: I am not posting this on time, but they’ve had other nice deals this December.)

And this is the countdown to finishing up writing, for National Novel Writing Month. A shout-out of congratulations to DeniseR from the FIAR forums, who has already crossed the finish line! Watching her has kept me motivated to keep trying (though I really should have quit this year; it’s been pretty awful going!). That winner icon looks really cool … I must get one! LOL. We still need to let Ted finish his story, too. He crossed the halfway mark early in the month, on his goal of two thousand words, and we never got back to it. It’s been so busy!

Madeline is already looking forward to her birthday; she can’t quite grasp that it’s a month away. Pink will be the order of the day, and I’ve already stocked up on streamers and balloons. I’ve even (shh! don’t tell!) gotten a shiny birthday crown for our little princess to wear. I’m trying to decide which of her princess-themed gifts should be for her birthday, and which for Christmas. One she’s getting is the God’s Little Princess Devotional Bible… she’s been borrowing (and ruffling the pages of) Ted’s big boy Bible (from church) and she won’t have anything to do with our toddler-friendly Bibles like The Beginner’s Bible anymore. So I ordered this one from CBD, and I must say, it looks great. I like the story format and the little introductions and fun ideas that accompany each one. I think it will be fun to read to her, and that we might enjoy it together. We shall see.

Thanksgiving: All our food was a hit! Mom and I both took this opportunity to try out new recipes. Mom tried a stuffed chicken breast, and a spinach mashed o which even the kids liked. I tried a Buckeye Bars recipe from, I think, the Kraft magazine. They did not come out exactly like the picture (they show chocolate much darker than is the actual result) but it was very yummy.

The kids watched the Macy’s parade while playing all morning, and enjoyed it. First year they could both really sit through it. They loved seeing the balloons of their favorite characters, and of course, Santa at the end.

Maddy got tired and laid down on the sofa at one point during the meal, and fell asleep … it was very cute. She woke up (well, I made her wake up) when it was time for Mom and Glenn to leave. She played with me and Ted and nibbled at her dessert before bedtime (and then didn’t want to go to sleep, as is usual these days when she naps, especially such a late nap).

Ted’s activity today (besides watching the parade, which he loved) was making what he calls ‘room’ boxes and what I think of as Christmas boxes, since that is always the season we seem to do them. He got Daddy to trim the flaps off of all the small (book shipping size) boxes that we had handy, and also to cut doors and windows into them (which is more than Mommy ever does). We also got out lots of catalogs (hence the Christmas box designation, since this is when we get the most and best catalogs for cutting up) and we cut out paper dolls and pictures. He gave Maddy the tiniest box, but she and I had fun decorating it with a Ruthie cut out from the American Girl magazine, and decorations from AG and Current, and miscellaneous other bits. Ted was cutting out all things red from the Rainbow Resource catalog, but hasn’t pasted anything down. I spotted a cutout of cutlery and other things in his pile, and I found a red wreath in the Current catalog for him to use. So now we have a pile of boxes and catalogs on the floor of the family room, while we work on this project. It’s a fun activity and simple enough. When I first started doing them with Kelley’s kids, as a babysitting activity when Elisha was about Ted’s age or even younger, it was all paper dolls from the AG catalog, and any Christmas goodies we could find in the others. Ted uses the rooms for his Webkinz dolls, which is fun too. We also like to cut out treats from the sweets catalogs like Aplets and Cotlets, and Swiss Colony.

On Sunday we got out our tree and decorations, since it was the First Sunday of Advent. It went pretty fast, actually … many hands make quick work, if not necessarily light. And speaking of lights, the kids talked Lysle into adding a string of colored lights on top of the prewired white ones our tree came with. It sort of works … not the look I was going for, but the kids love it, so who am I to fuss?