Merry Christmas!

The gifts have been opened, and the meal prepared and demolished. As we relax in the living room visiting and reflecting on the past year, laughing and enjoying the company,we hope that every one who reads this has a day filled with the blessings of family and friends to share this special day with.
Merry Christmas!

I'm getting used to it :)

It's officially the week before Christmas! Today I started the cleaning and decluttering although it's a little early and I'll have to start over again Wednesday. I bought a new tree this year because I lost our old tree -after I bought the new one, I found the old one... This ever happen to you? It happens to me all the time. I'm getting used to it. Not only was the tree lost, but so were the new lights I bought last year so, I bought more of those too and then found them down in the old tree box when it surfaced. Now I have 5 boxes of lights so we are twinkling pretty good here :)
I have a Christmas music cd I play every year almost constantly from the day after Thanksgiving until New Years- big problem- I cannot figure out how to play the cd in the CD player. I know I used it last year but this year it's very unclear. There's no cd button to switch it to. I've tried every combination of buttons thinking its a "code" but it's not happening. No music. I've thought of replacing it with one I can operate but then I remember the tree and think if I purchase a new one then I'd remember how to use the old one, and then I'd have one too many. This ever happen to you? I'm getting used to it :)

Caught Up!

 

Here's a few of the Christmas crafts little man and I have made.

 

Salt dough ornaments

 

I like the gingerbread men the best, the bells are second on my favorites list.

 

Little man painting his ornaments.

 

We tried glitter to glam them up a bit- turned out very nice!

 

Little man hamming it up for the camera- 

 

Hot cocoa time!

 

Aww- so cute!!

 

Painting his hands instead of the ornaments

 

ROAR!!!  

Little man and I have had so much fun the last few weeks.  It's sweet to watch him pass out his homemade ornaments.  He guards them very well while transporting them to church or friends and family and then his face shines when he hands them to the recipient.  Such a joy and a blessing!

Joy

This time of year is always my favorite. We start with Thanksgiving and then move into the New Year. I like the feeling of closeness and good cheer. Hearts willing to help. To me, it's a joy within my heart to have others gathered in my home to visit and of course, eat. :)
I remember the year we tried to go to a restaurant for Christmas dinner. My oldest son told me to never do that again because it's just not the same. He's right, it isn't.
This morning the word "joy" is on my heart. What does "joy" mean? What does it feel like? Now, I know the answers to these questions but just a peek at what surfaces to the top for a bit. Ever been in a place and all of a sudden you see or hear something that just brings that joy bubbling up? Awesome right?
Happy Monday!

Ugh

Last Friday I decided to treat dear hubby to lunch at his favorite eatery. I walked up to the counter to place the order and by the time I was done, I had been sneezed on 4 times. I was holding onto the advice (barely-it was a thin and brittle thread, but hold onto it with all my soul, I did) of my friend James to watch my tongue so it doesn't start a wild fire and I made it through. The next day I woke up sick. I've been sick since. I'm talking fever, chills, exhaustion, congestion, coughing, and two days of laryngitis that stole my voice (not even a squeak one of the two!). Blessedly, dear hubby and little man have escaped the germs. That could be due to the amount of anti bacterial wipes I've been wiping everything down with as I move about the house- I've used several tubs of them. 

Amidst this, little man and I have homeschooled, painted, and kept busy with a lot of crafts and Christmas present- making. Today we will finish up the salt dough ornaments. 

Ornaments

Yesterday, little man and I made some foam ornaments. We made snowmen, bulbs, snowflakes, gingerbread men and Christmas trees. Today we will attempt making salt dough ornaments. Yesterday we got out the cookie cutters- stocking, tree, snowman, angel, and a bell then discovered I do not have enough salt on hand to make a batch so today we will pick some up. I'll take pics and post those later this evening along with a few other pics and maybe a cute video that I shot of little man while we were having "art" class.
What's on your to-do list today?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know I'm late with this but it couldn't be helped. My little man was exploring the iPad and discombobulated some of the settings. It took me until today with a little (ok, a LOT!) of tech support to figure out the problem and set it right.
We had a great Thanksgiving with lots of friends and family joining us around our table. I didn't get pics except of the uncooked bird and I'm thinkin' you really don't want to see those. It was busy but so very much needed and enjoyed by our little family. At one point little man flew past me wearing a cape and waving a paper towel tube pretending to be a super hero. THAT I really wanted a picture of :)
We hope you Thanksgiving was filled with family, friends, laughter and love.

Adventure in Town

We had a few days of cold weather and snow so we've been bundled up in the house. We got out today and caught up on errands and necessity shopping. First stop was to get Caleb's hairs cut. He didn't like that at all. First time he's preferred to not have it cut. He looks more clean cut now. We stopped at a certain box store because I like their dollar bins. Found some good deals to make crafts for Christmas. We also stopped at a craft show at one of the churches and I got a few ideas for homemade gifts there. In expensive but cute- which is what I like! Then we did our Thanksgiving day dinner shopping.
How are you celebrating Thanksgiving this year?

Shopping

Little man and I went to the mall this afternoon to look for his big nana and great aunt Christmas gifts.  At one of the stores I picked up a top to examine it when I heard little man say, "yep that's where our tax dollars is- this store".  The woman behind me started chuckling while I stood there speechless and stunned. I think he's beeen listening to too much talk radio with his daddy.

Cards

Today Little Man and I started making Thanksgiving cards to send to family and friends. I arranged the stickers after they were printed so he could color them. He decided he didn't like where the stickers were and rearranged them so some will get theirs with the stickers looking a little ragged. It's the thought that counts so I think it'll be all right.

The Pitch

 Little man is explaining to me what  he's about to do.

Here's the windup...

And the pitch!!

Learning fun

 He likes decorating the letters and painting them.


 

We made a shape picture and he is adding to it with marker.
We turned snack time into a math lesson.  This week our number is "6".  Also working on name recognition.

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Wind Chimes and Shovels

Our weather is beautiful today.  So today is our outside school day.  The wind is blowing and making the wind chimes sing a beautiful, peaceful melody.  Caleb is playing in the dirt with his kiddie shovel scooping up the dirt and relocating it (and later i will have to scoop it back to where it belongs :)  ).
We are going to miss the nice weather pretty soon so today we will enjoy it as much as we can.

Enjoying the beautiful day!

Daddy and Caleb enjoying the beautiful weather we've been having.  We took Caleb on a nature/hiking trail.  Another great field trip!

Finally!

Caleb is learning the letter "G" and number "5".

Daddy and Caleb at the corn maze.  I love this picture! It shows how happy and excited he was!

Our corn maze field trip.

Corn maze

Saturday we went to the Right Choices Corn maze. Caleb had a lot of fun! He enjoyed the duck races the most. I enjoyed the hayride. It was peaceful and calm. Caleb's second best was the cow train. We came home with a homemade marshmallow shooter that we haven't tried out yet- Caleb needed a snack and then the marshmallows were no more ;)
We walked through the corn maze and ended up exiting through the entrance instead of the exit. That baffled us as well as the people who work there- seems I'm geographically challenged :) very fun and happy memories made.

Just wondering....

How they make candy corn. And why is it named candy corn.... These questions have been inspired by my 3 yr old. I know I can google it but it's more fun to just think about it :)

A Year?!?!!

I cannot believe it's been a year since I've posted on here.  In one year Caleb has grown soooo much! We  visited the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago, I will upload those photos sometime this week. Caleb participated in his first church play. I didn't get photos of that because I was running the words on the jumbos at the time. It's so sweet to hear Caleb sing about "Germs, Germs his invisible dog" which was one of the cutest songs in the play. Caleb also experienced his first VBS!