Monday (how's that for a catchy title?)

We spent the day doing our "spring cleaning" - I know, I know - but the leaves are FALLING so I figure I can choose the season I want it to be. Today it's spring. I like to clean this time of the year.

I continued to work through the library. I gave it a good overhauling and it feels much more peaceful. Clutter plain stresses me out. I'm on a huge declutter campaign again. I'll take at least one big load to Goodwill near the end of the week.

We're really sitting pretty for Christmas. The presents are all bought. Some are still on their way...grrr. I'm cleaning and decluttering. I've begun getting extra bread and such in the freezer. I have NOT managed to get meals in the freezer so I will be doing more cooking while all are here than I'd planned. Even that, however, can provide special times of fellowship. It will all work.

Here are a few photos of the day:



"Cecil" again. That naughty dragon!


Nolan took a drawing and a bag of "friendship soup" to his therapist. We'll not see her again until 2008. Wow.

Sunday Celebrations

Lighting the Candles (note we are now using a red taper for our Advent countdown; I can't find a fancy candle shop in town and the PEACE candle isn't burning right).


Reading Jotham


Opening a family Advent gift...shhhh the fancy calendar I had purchased didn't arrive....so I pulled this one out (365 stupid things people said).



Here is a new series I've been wanting to give a whirl (post about it below)

AND I made chocolate covered peanuts to go in our homemade ice cream last night. Yep, organic but certainly not healthy. LOL

BOOKS - ALBUMS - CLUTTER

I'm spending this upcoming week having decreptitude appointments and cleaning, baking etc.

I'm not sure WHY but I decided to deal with the stacks of books in the library last night.

There was no other solutuion - I've thought about it for over a month.
I took all the photo albums off this shelf....

And they are now in crates that I have to put "somewhere"... I thought I would have ONE crate of albums. I HAD to skim through the albums. The PWOC Photo album from AK brought back so many fond memories...there was Marie (now in WA), and Darshia (still in AK - often comments here), Lynn (now in CO), Julie (now in Greece), Carleen (now in SD) and a host of women I need to hear from - guess I'd best get some Christmas (after the 25th) cards done as we all know THIS is ADVENT season and not CHRISTMAS season - right Renee? ::snort::....and there were photos of Donna when they were praying about adopting Destinee and her siblings. Wealth of memories stored in these crates...now WHERE am I going to put them????

I loaded the former photo album shelf with TOG books. That 3rd shelf from the bottom are Paperback Swap books (link in sidebar),double-shelved, that I need to read. Yes, I think I'd better think about hosting a winter reading challenge and quit receiving more books than I'm swapping. I DID find 3 new books to post on PBS last night and all 3 have been requested already. LOL

The tops of the shelves in the library are "safe" spots - and so lightbulbs, models, shined uniform shoes etc are all placed up there where the littles (and I) can't reach....I'm going to clear those out this week too.

Ratatouille
While I finished up paperwork on the portfolio and the youngers enjoyed a day to play.....Jamin and Josiah went out to finsih their Christmas shopping.

Jamin came home with a surprise for us!

The surprise was on HIM when we realized the dvd he'd bought was high definition. He tried to take it back and they wouldn't take it. He bought ANOTHER copy of the movie and we watched it last night. Strange premise for a movie. ::snort::

I posted that I had it for sale on SHS and it looks like it will mail out today. Shew.

Scenes from Sunday

Fall is finally here (just throw out the calendar & go by the weather)


In a large family you MAKE your reading nooks. LOL


I discovered this in the fridge. I know I'm FRUGAL but we probably could have thrown THIS out! ::snort::

Lunch and Decisions


We have one hour to grab lunch between the Traditional Service Fellowship and the start of the Gospel Service. This means that we usually hit Burger King. When Mike was deployed Debbie and her family often invited us all out to lunch with them (there you have an illustration of TRUE or at least BRAVE friends who are willing to go out to lunch with a single mom and 7 children LOL). We all miss those lunches. Debbie and her boys join us at Burger King from time to time. They did yesterday. Fun time. Steve will be home in about a month. Yippee!

During lunch I realized that I really needed to skip the Gospel Service. Didn't I share that you CAN'T do all the important things? Jamin works 40 hours this week. If I wanted to get his portfolio in the mail I felt it had to be ready to mail by today (Monday). It isn't due until 31 Dec but I KNOW that we'll be busy when our 5 guests arrive.

It's DONE!

Re-creating Sunday

I decided to post a few quick entries.

Yesterday, fearless leader Ch. B planned a Christmas party for our RE department.

He did a superb job. He had us read parts of the Christmas story and kept the attention of the young ones with Balloon games.

We played a Balloon Bethlehem game where they had to sit in a circle and work to get 4 different colors of balloons to 4 different parts of the room (illustrating how difficult it would be for all to go to their own hometown - and creating general mayhem).

In another game the balloons were sheep and the shepherds had to get them across the room and through a gate using nothing but their staffs (rolled up and taped newspaper).

In yet another game the ballons were gifts from the magi and had to be brought and deposited in a basket - using nothing but their knees to transport the balloon.





This really DID keep all the children from 2 yo Stacia to adults interested and involved.