We went to Iowa this year for Christmas. I will admit that we went because I NEEDED to get my hands on that newborn baby (and hug Lacey), but it was also fabulous to see Lucas' family.
We had an amazing trip as far as the travel part went. There was no slow traffic at all. We were there in 11 hours and home in 12. The way home took longer because we had a gift card to Cracker Barrell we wanted to use for supper and anytime we sit down to dinner it takes longer. My children amaze me with how long they will sit in a car. I know it helps that we have DVD players and snacks out our ears, but still, it's pretty much amazing.
I've taken so many trips recently with just the kids and it was great to have Lucas along. He did alllll the driving on the way home, although I'm not sure what is better - driving or crawling around in our van helping children. Sometimes I think driving is easier!
Our van is great for travel. At lunch time, I just crawled in the back, sat on the floor, and made sandwiches. Couldn't do that in the car. Lucas still complains (somewhat jokingly) about our van, but I won't go back to a car until the kids are much older.
While in Iowa, the kids opened gifts on four different occasions. They're not going to know how to go back to real life. They (especially David) were toast by Saturday night, but did okay on Christmas Day. Hard to see everyone you want to see in just 3 days!
When we got home, Danae said, "Mommy, I missed-ed my bed." My sentiments exactly. Visiting is wonderful, but there's no place like home.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
I'm a fake aunt!
I won't share a lot of details because this isn't my child to share about, but my best friend and Lucas' best friend are married to each other and they had a baby on Sunday!
I'm pretty much estatic!
I'm pretty much estatic!
I fell off the wagon
I was doing so well about blogging every couple of days, but Christmas busyness got to me and I have fallen off the blogging wagon.
So I'm back now!
We had our family Christmas on Saturday and it was SO much fun! We got up, the kids looked over their big gifts and then Daddy read the Christmas Story from Luke. We opened stockings, ate some breakfast, and then opened gifts at a slow pace. Danae opened hers quicker and was done by lunchtime, but David opened his last gift at 4pm. It was fun to just be here and have a quiet day of playing with new toys and games. We tried this year to buy things they would really love and that they could play with for a long time. I think we did well.
Books, games, imaginative playthings, V-Reader games, puzzles and crafty supplies make for happy kids :)
I believe that from now on we will plan to have Christmas on a day that isn't the 25th so we can enjoy the day like we did this year.
I didn't cook (crock pot did that) or clean (put it off until the next day) and we just enjoyed the day and I played with my new toy - a Kindle Fire!
So I'm back now!
We had our family Christmas on Saturday and it was SO much fun! We got up, the kids looked over their big gifts and then Daddy read the Christmas Story from Luke. We opened stockings, ate some breakfast, and then opened gifts at a slow pace. Danae opened hers quicker and was done by lunchtime, but David opened his last gift at 4pm. It was fun to just be here and have a quiet day of playing with new toys and games. We tried this year to buy things they would really love and that they could play with for a long time. I think we did well.
Books, games, imaginative playthings, V-Reader games, puzzles and crafty supplies make for happy kids :)
I believe that from now on we will plan to have Christmas on a day that isn't the 25th so we can enjoy the day like we did this year.
I didn't cook (crock pot did that) or clean (put it off until the next day) and we just enjoyed the day and I played with my new toy - a Kindle Fire!
Monday, December 12, 2011
Mixed emotions
I feel a bit on the emotional side today and decided to share.
We moved from Iowa to Ohio two years ago. We are closer to my family, but away from Lucas' family. And of course I lived in Iowa for 13 years so I left a church family and a lot of friends. When we moved, I gained my parents, my bother...I mean brother and his sweet wife, cousins, aunts, uncles, and a whole new church family.
My conclusions become
I really love living in Ohio.
I really miss people in Iowa.
My best friend is married to Lucas' best friend and they are going to have a baby any day now. I would give so much to be there making meals for them and helping decorate a nursery. We talk on the phone often and we're going to go see them and the baby at Christmas, but it's not the same.
On the other hand, last night I attended my great Aunt's 80th birthday party. I got to see cousins and cousins and COUSINS! And my kids had a ball playing with cousins. It was so fabulous to catch up and hug and visit (and eat)! I have missed nearly 20 years of famiy get-togethers and I love being able to go to these events.
There's no solution here except to shove the states of Indiana and Illinois out of the way and I don't think that's within my power. ;)
We moved from Iowa to Ohio two years ago. We are closer to my family, but away from Lucas' family. And of course I lived in Iowa for 13 years so I left a church family and a lot of friends. When we moved, I gained my parents, my bother...I mean brother and his sweet wife, cousins, aunts, uncles, and a whole new church family.
My conclusions become
I really love living in Ohio.
I really miss people in Iowa.
My best friend is married to Lucas' best friend and they are going to have a baby any day now. I would give so much to be there making meals for them and helping decorate a nursery. We talk on the phone often and we're going to go see them and the baby at Christmas, but it's not the same.
On the other hand, last night I attended my great Aunt's 80th birthday party. I got to see cousins and cousins and COUSINS! And my kids had a ball playing with cousins. It was so fabulous to catch up and hug and visit (and eat)! I have missed nearly 20 years of famiy get-togethers and I love being able to go to these events.
There's no solution here except to shove the states of Indiana and Illinois out of the way and I don't think that's within my power. ;)
Friday, December 9, 2011
Christmas Fun!
This week is our last week of formal preschool until after Christmas. I have difficulty working Christmas activities in with our regular preschool curriculum so I decided to finish off this week and then do just Christmas activities next week. The following week we are going to Iowa, so we will do nothing but get ready that week.
I've done a little preliminary planning and this is what I have come up with! I think it will be fun.
First, I bought Truth in the Tinsel. There are lots of cute crafts in here and there are modified schedules so you don't have to do every single craft if you don't want to (or don't have time!) These were created by a mom and are geared for the preschool/early elementary age. This e-book costs $4.99 and is delivered right to your e-mail.
http://truthinthetinsel.com/buy-the-book
And then to sneak some learning into all of the fun crafty-ness, I downloaded this preschool pak, which is free. I love free.
http://overthebigmoon.blogspot.com/2011/11/nativity-pre-k-pack.html
Then we have to have some reading! The curriculum we use for preschool is literature based and we have a book called The Lion Storyteller Book. This book has fun illustrations and stories that Danae really enjoys. I discovered there was a Lion Storyteller CHRISTMAS Book. And well, that's all she wrote. I had to have it!
If you are really picky about Bible stories being accurately told in literature, you're going to have to modify some of the Bible section as you read. The Wise Men did not show up at the stable, but they do in this book. I just preread everything because I. am. picky.
http://www.amazon.com/Lion-Storyteller-Christmas-Book/dp/074596916X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1323440343&sr=8-5
I'm hopeful that it will be a fun week for my kids as well as the daycare kids!
I've done a little preliminary planning and this is what I have come up with! I think it will be fun.
First, I bought Truth in the Tinsel. There are lots of cute crafts in here and there are modified schedules so you don't have to do every single craft if you don't want to (or don't have time!) These were created by a mom and are geared for the preschool/early elementary age. This e-book costs $4.99 and is delivered right to your e-mail.
http://truthinthetinsel.com/buy-the-book
And then to sneak some learning into all of the fun crafty-ness, I downloaded this preschool pak, which is free. I love free.
http://overthebigmoon.blogspot.com/2011/11/nativity-pre-k-pack.html
Then we have to have some reading! The curriculum we use for preschool is literature based and we have a book called The Lion Storyteller Book. This book has fun illustrations and stories that Danae really enjoys. I discovered there was a Lion Storyteller CHRISTMAS Book. And well, that's all she wrote. I had to have it!
If you are really picky about Bible stories being accurately told in literature, you're going to have to modify some of the Bible section as you read. The Wise Men did not show up at the stable, but they do in this book. I just preread everything because I. am. picky.
http://www.amazon.com/Lion-Storyteller-Christmas-Book/dp/074596916X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1323440343&sr=8-5
I'm hopeful that it will be a fun week for my kids as well as the daycare kids!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
I am a cleaning fool
After our experience with the flu (we all ended up getting it AND so did the daycare kids), I have been cleaning like a crazy person. Partly because the house is cluttered beyond what I can stand and partly because I had to rid us of germs.
On Sunday, Danae and I went through her room. That sounds so easy. Clean one child's room. Right? Not so easy. It was fairly destroyed, but we came out alive and the room looks great. Then I tackled the toy room and threw away broken toys and packed away baby toys on the sly. The kids haven't asked for anything I took away so either they really weren't playing with those things or my suspisions about the fact that we have too many toys have been confirmed.
Yesterday I cleaned my upstairs desk where I use my computer. It's a small rolltop desk that doesn't get too messy because it's too small to stuff too many things into. Today I took a deep breath and went through my downstairs desk. Everyone has a catch-all space. My downstairs desk is my catch-all space. Receipts, bills, colored on scraps of paper, the first time Danae wrote her name, pictures, everything gets thrown on that desk. It was such a mess. It was so bad that while I cleaned it, I found THREE hairbrushes. Three. I had bought a new hairbrush because for a week I had to use a comb because all of my brushes were missing.
Sigh.
I was voted Most Organized in high school.
Oh how the mighty have fallen.
On Sunday, Danae and I went through her room. That sounds so easy. Clean one child's room. Right? Not so easy. It was fairly destroyed, but we came out alive and the room looks great. Then I tackled the toy room and threw away broken toys and packed away baby toys on the sly. The kids haven't asked for anything I took away so either they really weren't playing with those things or my suspisions about the fact that we have too many toys have been confirmed.
Yesterday I cleaned my upstairs desk where I use my computer. It's a small rolltop desk that doesn't get too messy because it's too small to stuff too many things into. Today I took a deep breath and went through my downstairs desk. Everyone has a catch-all space. My downstairs desk is my catch-all space. Receipts, bills, colored on scraps of paper, the first time Danae wrote her name, pictures, everything gets thrown on that desk. It was such a mess. It was so bad that while I cleaned it, I found THREE hairbrushes. Three. I had bought a new hairbrush because for a week I had to use a comb because all of my brushes were missing.
Sigh.
I was voted Most Organized in high school.
Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Happy December!
I am so glad to leave the last day of November behind. I will spare you the details, but Danae, David and I all had the stomach flu yesterday. In a word - Horrible. But we got through it and it's over and I'm completely ready to take on the month of Christmas!
My shopping is done, the gifts are wrapped, and I have our book-a-day-until-Christmas books pretty much ready. We're going to start that today, although I don't have quite 48 books. I wanted one per child per day and didn't have quite enough, although I did buy a couple new ones this year. The Scholastic website was my friend. I planned to make a library run for the last 9 books but with being sick that didn't get done. I'll probably do it tonight. Hopefully the kids won't notice that the stack grew :) I think the kids will be thrilled to find new books when they unwrap mixed in with their old friends as well.
Christmas gets more fun every year as Danae "gets it" more. She is very excited to dig into the gifts under the tree and we are focusing as much as possible on baby Jesus so she understands the true meaning of Christmas.
We also wanted her to have the fun of giving gifts this year so we took both kids to Dollar Tree and let them pick out gifts for each other, a couple of friends, and mom and dad. It's hilarious to see the things they pick out! She keeps talking about how she got to go "shopping." The whole thing was kind of lost on David, but he'll understand it better next year.
Right now I have Christmas music blasting and the tree lights on. Happy December!
My shopping is done, the gifts are wrapped, and I have our book-a-day-until-Christmas books pretty much ready. We're going to start that today, although I don't have quite 48 books. I wanted one per child per day and didn't have quite enough, although I did buy a couple new ones this year. The Scholastic website was my friend. I planned to make a library run for the last 9 books but with being sick that didn't get done. I'll probably do it tonight. Hopefully the kids won't notice that the stack grew :) I think the kids will be thrilled to find new books when they unwrap mixed in with their old friends as well.
Christmas gets more fun every year as Danae "gets it" more. She is very excited to dig into the gifts under the tree and we are focusing as much as possible on baby Jesus so she understands the true meaning of Christmas.
We also wanted her to have the fun of giving gifts this year so we took both kids to Dollar Tree and let them pick out gifts for each other, a couple of friends, and mom and dad. It's hilarious to see the things they pick out! She keeps talking about how she got to go "shopping." The whole thing was kind of lost on David, but he'll understand it better next year.
Right now I have Christmas music blasting and the tree lights on. Happy December!
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