Wrapping Up & Looking Forward

*1*

Are you amazed as you watch your kids learn? They all come with their own strengths and weaknesses, eager for some things, avoiding others at all costs. I joke that mine are idiot savants, but it's all truth.  Flower keeps cruising through Math and actually asked for a Math book for a Christmas present. Cub looked at her aghast and exclaimed, "WHY would you ask for a math book for Christmas?!" This would be seen as worse than coal in his stocking.

*2*

Broke out The Word of Promise this week. The notsolittles are loving it. The older kids, performers one and all, are having fun ramping up the dialog they'd like to see done with more verve.

*3*

Snow, snow, snow. In addition to the Saturday blizzard, we had more snow on Tuesday, with more scheduled this coming week. The kids had a great time bundling up in snow pants, hats, boots, gloves, scarves and trudging around, making forts and creating snow blocks. We found a pheasant trapped in the chicken coop, clucking and hopping around until it finally decided to fly over. Cub and Flower were within feet of it.

*4*

Wrapping presents and baking have been daily activities, though most cookies baked have been consumed during wrapping. The kids all buy presents for each other and us and they range from the hysterically funny to the deadly serious (Miss R. brought back Hungarian daggers one year). Wrapping is not a trifling matter either and ranges from being a present in itself to a mangled, duct taped box full of bricks (my dh started this with his little bro  back in the day and eagerly spread the joy of his immature practical joking side wisdom to his progeny.

*5*

Jenny (my blogger buddy who writes Home is Where You Start From)  wrote a great comment in response to my post, Knocked, Crushed, Joy about an answer to prayer that left her grieving the old place she'd left behind. Like the Israelites I find myself longing for Egypt way to often, even when the new and fresh and unknown is right in front of me.
Writing that post was very cathartic for me and an end to the deep weariness I'd felt since getting the call about Dad. I was looking for a picture of grapes and it "came to me" that God is doing a new work. And it's not because the old was rejected; it takes the old to make the new but often we are confused by the process of creation because it's not a simple addition process like I, at least, presume. It's a chemical process that changes things fundamentally.

*6*

What are your fun activities for the break? Our lists includes viewing Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Tron and Tangled, (and the older kids and I plan on viewing Inception New Years Eve) go rock-wall climbing and hopefully cross country skiing at our Outdoor Campus, celebrate the end of the semester with a houseful of kids and homemade pizza, celebrate some more cause we have 3 December and January birthdays and checking out Xmas lights around the city. We are also doing a fun Advent activity thanks to our friends the Borah's, who not only gave us a boatload of curriculum after the fire last year but blessed us with Advent  in the midst of a dirty, smoky, ugly mess. They sent us a wrapped gift for each day of Advent. We decided to add it to our list of holiday traditions. The gifts are simple and inexpensive- small items from the dollar store, but the kids love it and it's a fun thing to do after we read the Advent lesson each night; this year we are using a study from Chuck Swindoll. What are you doing for Advent?

*7*

I've been kicking around starting a weekly blog meme. I've had a hard time keeping vision and mission at the fore this past year and am mulling over ideas about how to do so with a weekly meme. My friend Robyn has inspired me so much this year with the 52 Books in a Week Challenge (with an even more exciting challenge for 2011!) that I've been considering how to make that happen for other areas of my life. Accountability is a gift, no? Would you be interested in joining me if I put something like that together?