We are just back from a Thanksgiving week vacation to see my husband's family.  We had a wonderful time.  Thanks, Renee, for the portable DVD player!  We didn't pull it out til day 2 in the car, but... wow, it was helpful.  We enjoyed lots of good books on CD/tape: Lewis's The Horse and His Boy and The Silver Chair, Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Book 3 and 4 in the Artemis Fowl chronicles (read by such a great reader!, though I can't remember his name).  I also knitted lots in the car: a few hats, and a purse for my neice.

I'm just sliding back into the groove.  I cleaned before we left, so it was good to come back to a clean house.  My husband has the Gift of Unpacking, and immediately did the laundry, so that was done the first night home.  (He's amazing, my man.)  But there was no work in the school notebooks this morning, and the kids, alas, do NOT have the gift of unpacking.  The contents of their backpacks seemed to explode all over our floor and could not seem to find their homes.

SweetP is a terror, though she's happy to have bookshelves to empty and stairs to scale.  As good as it was to be with family, it's good to be home.

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The Advent Carnival is now open!  Go over to A Ten O'Clock Scholar to check it out! 

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I cherish Advent as a church season for many reasons.  I love that it is a season of waiting, of expectation, and that the prize (as it were) is Christ, Incarnate.  We don't go out to shop much, but my kids still manage to pick up on the "__ days til Christmas!" fever around us, so I enjoy Advent as a time to focus on giving to others, especially to the poor.

Saint Nicolas Day falls on December 6, and he is a great figure of charity in church history.  We like to read about him for several days leading up to the holiday; there are good retellings of his story on the internet, as well as a few beautiful picture books.  The Real Santa Claus: Legends of Saint Nicholas by Mariana Meyer (the second on the left) features many beautiful classical paintings of the saint.

(A note of caution: the Demi book is a little gruesome, as it highlights the children cut up and put in the stew.)  Focusing on Saint Nicholas as a person has diffused the Santa Claus thing at our house-- he's an historical figure, rather than a mythical Arctic guy whose purpose in life is to bring me presents.

We then give the children many ways that they can give to others.  This has been harder than I thought it would be: many charity organizations are not set up for younger children to participate.  But here are some ways we have found to share what God has given us with those less fortunate:

• packing backpacks full of non-perishable food and things like band-aids and wool hats, to give to the homeless we see around the city
• participating in Operation Christmas Child , through Samaritan's Purse
• allowing our children to choose a gift to give to a needy family or child overseas, from  Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog, World Relief's Catalog of Hope, World Vision's Gift Catalog, or The Heifer Project.  (The book Beatrice's Goat tells the story of a family in Africa who were transformed by the gift of a goat.)
• collecting coats and blankets from our neighbors for a coat drive
• hosting an Advent party and asking everyone to bring a food item for the local food pantry.

Four years ago, we also hosted an Advent party for our friends and neighbors to let them know about World Vision and World Relief's holiday catalogs.  We had a great time with food and fun, and they also went home with a catalog to encourage their own giving.  The kids had a great time making a poster of what they had chosen to give from the catalog-- ducks, or goats, or mosquito nets to prevent malaria.

These are the Advent activities my children are most anticipating this year.

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A friend asked me about biology resources for kids... I think there are some very good ones out there (and some not-so-good ones.)  Ones we have enjoyed are the coloring books (we discovered these in medical school-- they are very detailed, very comprehensive-- so they're not for little kids, but J(8) loves them).

We also recommend the ___________ Made Ridiculously Simple series, also one we used in medical school.  (All that to say that I haven't screened these as a homeshcooling parent-- they might have some things inappropriate for your younger children.) 

For the younger set, the Frances Balkwill books are accurate and detailed, but very friendly.  (Warning: the Gene Machine one has some birds-and-bees stuff in it!) 

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Wondering: how geese know which way to fly in their long, drawn-out V's full of noisy energy.

Grateful for: SweetP's signs: eat, more, milk (is there a theme here?), cat, and her first tries at words: Ma-ma-ma, Da-da, night-night, book (k-k-k).

Amazed by: Jupiter and Venus, both so bright in the evening sky.  How could Jupiter be so enormous?  The heavens truly proclaim the glory of God.

Enjoying: lettuce, from the farm's winter share.  The cold frame has satisfied my craving for salads again.

In the kitchen: lots of soups, though the weather has warmed back up into the seventies.

Searching for: the missing library books.  Hmmm.

Praying for: those affected by wildfires in California, and the hurricane in Haiti.

We had our first snow of the year last week-- just a dusting, but the children were thrilled to bundle into snow clothes and pile out into the snow.  M kept murmuring, "I just can't wait to taste it!"  When she got outside, she licked a tiny bit off the table on the patio, then off the trunk of the hawthorne tree.  There was just enough snow to make a few snowballs with which to play snow-baseball.  You can't see it in the photo, but both boys are wearing the traditional first-snow-of-the-season boots (a.k.a., tennis shoes with grocery bags tied over them, because they're both two sizes past last year's boots.)

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I had a migraine last week-- the first one in awhile.  But this one had a silver lining:

When rest time was over, the big kids piled into my room (SweetP was still sleeping) and asked if they could sew.  I'm working on some Christmas projects, so our "new" room has all my sewing stuff up.  Because I felt crummy, I didn't do my usual thing and turn their simple request to be creative into some big Mommy-engineering projects with a goal in mind.  Instead, I set up the iron and ironing board, opened the fabric stash, and let them at it.  J made a sweater for his stuffed snake.  O made "Christmas clothes" for froggy.  M made a blanket for Froggy (or Clifford, or Daddy...) 

I've been reading Amanda Blake Soule's (of Soule Mama) book, The Creative Family.  I'm alternately inspired and annoyed that she makes creativity sounds so easy.  But really, it is.  And if I'd just get my results-are-the-goal mentality out of the way, we'd all be a lot happier.  She has a wonderful suggestion for, when teaching kids to sew on the machine, let them sew for awhile without thread.  Duh.  I don't know why I didn't think of that before, but... well, I didn't.  But last week, both boys sewed for a good five minutes before we threaded the machine, and they made the clothes.  The only casualty was a burn on M's finger from the iron (sorry!), but she says she's all better now.  Here are the projects in action:

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November is apparently when my husband's painting muse arrives.  (You'll remember the eight coats of red paint it took to achieve Authority Red in the boys' room?)  Happily, this year the weather has allowed us to keep the windows open to air everything out.  We chose the purple last year, but after the kids' bedrooms and the bathrooms, Sam couldn't bear to face another paintbrush... until last weekend.

Here is a before shot (isn't this just the blandest room you've ever seen?):

A photo of O painting the window seat:

The master of painty-ness himself:

And an after shot (including the cat's tail... I'm so glad she's home.)  Notice I finally got my baskets of knitting off the floor and onto a shelf so SweetP can't unravel everything (good thing she's still short!)

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SweetP is killing me here... my house is a wreck. She loves to tip over trash cans, knock over anything even vaguely resembling a tower, and is starting to open cupboard doors.  I can't keep up with her... or rather, I could keep up with her if I gave up on the laundry, cooking, and Christmas crafts. Yesterday I found her covered in pencil shavings (from the overturned trash) and dry-erase marker.

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M had her four-year old physical recently and stunned me by failing the vision screen.

Did I mention I can't be my children's doctor?  Here's why:

The assistant said, "She knows all the shapes, she just can't see them."  Her vision was 20/80. The eye doctor asked me, "Did you notice anything at home before the vision test?"

Uh, yeah.  Like when she said, "I can't see the pictures!" as I read a story book over lunch and tried to come sit in my lap to see them.  (I said, "Stay in your seat, you can see fine.")  Like when she stands right in front of the TV, and the boys complain.  I tell her to sit down, and she says, "I can't see from the couch."

I won't be winning any mother-of-the-year contests. 

Now she has her new purple glasses ("They're fuschia-- that's a fancy way of saying purple!") and her glasses case, and both have been lost in the few days we've had them. 

 (self-portrait photo)

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I'd like to share a tradition Jeanne at At a Hen's Pace and Kerry at The Ten O'Clock Scholar started last year: a Carnival of Advent Traditions.  Advent is a very precious time in our family, a time of waiting and preparing... two things our fast-paced culture tries to speed out of us, I think!  The Ten O'Clock Scholar will host starting on November 28, so check back there.  I look forward to sharing ideas with you all!   

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