It's been a busy couple of weeks. We were in the midst of November and Thanksgiving and fall and I was loving it.
This Thanksgiving week, I only did one day of school with the kids, on Monday. We took an extra day because we can! And also we didn't have as long of a fall break as public school, so I felt fully justified. It was nice to have most of the week off of school. The last couple of full weeks of school I've kind of struggled a little. Sawyer makes it really difficult because he's so needy when I have to do school. But I was also less patient with the girls. Brooke has taken to staying up late at night again (she was doing a lot better for several weeks, going to bed on time), and she fell apart every single day during school, saying it was too hard and crying and turning her brain off. And I had a hard time being a) sympathetic, and b) patient, because it seemed a problem of her own making. And Camille was constantly taking what I said out of context and yelling at me and getting upset for the littlest things...
Anyway, I didn't really want to dwell on that. I'll just say the break from school was very nice and gave us all a needed refresher. We start back again on Monday for a few measly weeks before we break again for Christmas.
I finished my Christmas shopping this week!!! I'm so happy about it. We had stuff in our gift box of things that I had bought for kids for past Christmas or birthday gifts that we didn't use. So I planned to use up a bunch of those, and then I ordered a few things to be sent, and then a went along a few times to get all the rest and I'm DONE! Even with parent gifts and gift exchange gift. Now I can relax and enjoy the season with my friends and family and go to all our parties and not be stressed and have to worry about Christmas shopping.
Earlier this month, I was racking my brain trying to think of things to tell Daniel he could get me for Christmas. I did think of a few things. But I feel like I have everything I need and want, and I really want to do something generous this year for Christmas and spend some money on other people. Daniel makes pretty darn good money, I feel so blessed and so fortunate, and also something of guilt for having so much when SO many people have so little. I'm trying to think of what we could do and how we can be generous this year. 🤔
I've been going to the temple every week this month. I felt inspired at stake conference, so I scheduled appointments to go every Friday this month (well, I missed that first Friday because that was the weekend of conference). It's been so nice. I'd like to try to keep doing it for December as well. My thought was that this was my gift to the Savior this year. ❤ It's also a gift to myself, though, because I love the peace I feel in the temple and I believe I have felt the spirit more this month because of my time in the temple. My hope is that the sacrifice of time and the being in the temple will invite the spirit into my life and the lives of my little family, and that we'll have God's power working in our lives.
Thanksgiving was fun. Brooke had planned a Fall Festival for our family for that day, just like the one she did last year sometime in November. We colored leaves, bobbed for apples, and created hands turkeys. There were a couple other activities that some of us didn't get to (creating your own comic strip), but it was very fun and such a nice way to spend time together on Thanksgiving. She also made us chocolate cupcakes for a treat. I love that she wants to plan a little party for us every fall, it is the cutest thing ever. (Daniel won the apple bobbing this year, by the way. But even Jacky Boy bobbed for an apple and got one!)
We had Thanksgiving dinner at Gramma and Grampa Holbrook's house, which was just so fun. Everyone brought something to share (I made a massive batch of mashed potatoes and my artichoke pesto dip), and the food was delicious and it was so great to see everyone. Gramma had bought gingerbread house kits for all the grandkids, and after dinner they all got to work putting their houses together. I love this new tradition my mother in law started a couple of Thanksgivings ago! All the cousins get to do gingerbread houses together. 😍
The last couple of days have been chill and relaxing at home. We had planned to do a murder mystery dinner with some of our family the day after Thanksgiving. But Daniel woke up sick, and we decided to postpone it to later on in December. So we cleaned up the house, we decorated for Christmas while listening to Christmas music, and had a movie night with the kids instead. We watched the new animated Grinch, which Daniel and I thought mediocre, and had a picnic on the floor of takeout food. It was fun!
Yesterday we just hung out at home, mostly. The girls and I did a tiny bit of shopping, and Daniel took them mountain biking in the afternoon. I spent a lot of time working on Sawyer's baby book and have made some good progress! I'd like to get it done in time to wrap it and put it under the Christmas tree.
A couple of things to remember:
- Every single school day, Jack comes upstairs to be with us, and draws the cutest, most detailed trucks on the white boards with dry erase markers. I love them so much.
- Sawyer is starting to be quite the little trouble maker. He can push the stools around and climb up them onto the counter and get into things. The other day, he got chia seeds everywhere when he was putting the cashews in the chia jar. 🙄 Daniel put the stools in the basement for the time being, until he outgrows this mischievous phase. He's also very cute, though, walking and running around. He has the most adorable baby dance, and we just love to watch him.
- Camille and Brooke have been spending soooo much time reading. Once we get done with school, they plop down on the couch with a pile of books each and read pretty much the whole afternoon. I think our weekly trips to the library are helping this -- there's no end to the new books they have to read. Sometimes, I tell them they have to go do something else. 😂😂 I'm all for reading and I love that they love to read so much, it's definitely what I want. But they need to do other things too! Play and run around and move their bodies.
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| The other day, Jack and Camille were playing so well together, nearly the whole day. This is worth documentation, because they normally fight like cats and dogs. They made this huge elaborate fort, with the stools and pillows and blankets and a bunch of heavy stuff I had bought at Costco the night before. They made a huge mess of the family room, but I was just so happy they were playing so well together. Then I caught them reading together; Camille reading to Jack. ❤❤❤ |
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