TUESDAY AFTERNOON

I believe the children are suffering from cabin fever.....I need some calgon.....

I received a call informing me that there were more toys brought in today. I told them to collect them and I'd mail another box next week. I already mailed this week. LOL

I just found out that I'm not serving breakfast at the chapel at 10:00 on Saturday but at 7:30 a.m. THIS is what happens when you miss a PAC meeting! Ah well - I am sort of thinking THAT is my contribution to the whole "work at the chapel day" and so I'll go early and come home early. Of course, guilt being what it is, I may end up being one of the first there and one of the last to leave as well. LOL Nah - with Mike gone I am rarely the last one out of the building these days.....I knew all along we were always waiting on HIM. ::snort::

NATIVITIES

I had visions of the Playmobile Nativity solving all my problems this year. It didn't. The pieces are far too small to have down low. They are a choking hazard for Stacia. Zander also wasn't real interested in the tiny pieces....just the big pieces he could place in with the real Nativity.


No sooner had I read Renee's comment on the blog, than Charly called. She also recommended Fisher Price's nativity. I looked online while we talked and it was cute.

When I ran out for milk, Kleenex, and cough syrup, I checked for the nativity. I found it. It's darling. No small pieces for choking hazards. Cute hair on the animals. The star lights up and plays Christmas carols. The little ones love it. The pieces are big enough they won't get lost. . . easily. Charly, this set came with the shepherds so I didn't have to buy them separately.

Nativity

Three wise men & Shepherd (Check out the shepherd's prayer shawl - top left)

Best yet - kid approved

TUESDAY A.M. UPDATE


Those vapor plugs are great! I may get rid of the old fashioned vaporizer I have.

Stacia woke up at 4:30 but finally went back down. The others are still sleeping.

I must find some dye free/flavor free cough syrup for Zander.

I am making breakfast with another lady for chapel on Saturday. I'm making muffins and quiche. She's making a breakfast casserole that will have ham. I'm looking for awesome quiche recipes - perferably without pork - but I'll adapt any recipes sent my way......

Christmas School

In years past we have taken the month of December to do "Christmas School". This means that all schooling centers around the season. The kids write for the Christmas letter. They help bake. We study Advent and read Christmas books/stories......we like to deliver a nativity or many piece by piece. We usually do this for families whose fathers are deployed...but this year we don't know a lot of those on our base....us...but it'd be strange even for OUR family to sneak up and leave a nativity piece on our own doorstep. The kids ARE asking about this, so I need to think it out. There are usually lots of families we know through PWOC, chapel, Mike's squadrons. We write up a letter thanking the family for blessing our country by having dad/mom gone at Christmas, we tell they know us through wherever so they don't worry about stalkers....and we let the adults know that our children want to remain anonymous. LOL Then we stealthily deliver pieces. It was a blast in AK where we had the snow to content with....one resourceful group of boys had walkie talkies out to track us one night. Ah - memories. I really must figure out someone we can do this for this year.

This year we are attempting to do some "normal school". This year, with Mike gone, I don't have as many "must attend" functions. We have a SR. and he needs to be wrapping things up by May in order to have a transcript/diploma. We are trying to be able to take a few weeks off when Mike comes home in the spring....so we will try to continue making progress.

We ARE going to do some sort of Christmas/Advent project. I have looked at the ones to buy and the free ones out there and am not sold on anything yet. I need to decide soon. In looking over our Christmas books (unpacked this week), I've come up with two ways we could go. We could make a lap book out of our Jesse Tree symbols and readings. OR we could make a lap book centered around Christmas symbols. See - I'm learning to have realistic expectations - I'm not going to try to do both! LOL I'm leaning towards a study on Christmas symbols for the younger 3. I love to find lots of hands on/real life object lessons. I like to help the kids make the connections so that when they see one of these things there minds will fly to Jesus. I think we can use the book we have as the basis to study various symbols and make a fun study of it.

Here are the two books I'm considering...I'll let you know which way we go.

*Let's Make a Jesse Tree! by Darcy James* - Brenda, gave us this book years ago when we lived in San Antonio. We used the patterns to make our Jesse banner. OK the GIRLS cut these out and made them! I love child led projects! LOL Each year we read the 26 devotional passages and hang the symbols on our banner. I think it needs some mending before it's packed away this year. I could easily use the symbols in this book for patterns for shape books.....and there would be easy copy work etc.

*The ADVENTure of Christmas by Lisa Whelchel* - I love the artwork in this book. Lisa takes common Christmas symbols and explains a small bit about where they came from and offers ideas on how to help your child make a connection. By following the suggestions in this book one is constantly being reminded of Christ throughout the season.

I think Arielle and I are leaning towards a lap book on the symbols of Christmas with this book being the basis of our study and projects.

MONDAY

Quick trip for meds and to pick up toys (see below).

Home to pack boxes and baby ill children.

Run to the post office. Used the one in a storage business - great tip Kristine. They recognized me. LOL

More babying of ill children.

Comfort dinner - mac/cheese and homemade turkey noodle soup. Got 20 more cups of turkey broth in the freezer...what a blessing to have had so many turkeys to cook over the weekend.

Cleared my schedule from today - Thursday afternoon.....ready to cozy up with ill children.

Chased Stacia around the house to rescue nativity pieces. {Sigh}

Zander came out and said, "Mom, Nolan and Alex (him) are sick." I agreed. "So, can we have the TV in our room?" When they are sick I quarantine them and give them a VCR - they love it.

Time to read some Peter Pan....

TOYS FOR MIKE....



I had to run and buy vicks. Melody had told me about "vapor plugs". I'd never heard of such a thing - but went out to get some. Maybe we'll have a quieter night tonight. I decided to run to the base and pick up the toys at the same time.....

Here's the table loaded with toys....

Packing boxes....

Taking the van seat out has proven handy...

OUCH - that bill at the post office was hard! Now I hear about a program where you can get free labels, boxes, packing and postage{?} to mail to soldiers....I'm going to check into it.

I mailed out a package to mom, a package to Dorothy (I think I have your address memorized now - they gave me the wrong customs form to fill out so I filled it out three times without my reader glasses LOL), toys to Mike, Christmas package to Mike, two portfolios to NARS, a PBS book.....$157.00. Yikes! No food this week!

COMMENT OF THE WEEK!

"I know you are a minor but in my book you're a man!"

Chick Fil A manager to Josiah. I love having young adults.