The Week Before Christmas Notes

Friday evening advent activity: playing a game together as a family. We played Dos, from the creators of Uno. It was an interesting card game and fairly easy to pick up. I still think Uno works better for younger children because it includes color matching, but Dos is doable.

Saturday Jason had a driver's meeting at work in the morning. While he was gone the kids played their weekly half hour of video game time. Then Joseph, Emma, and I ran out to get the last things they wanted for their 50s outfits for the upcoming dance. In the afternoon we did some projects and then headed to church for a Christmas dinner. We came home a bit early and watched as Rebekah slowly started looking less well. She threw up in bed at 11:15pm and then was awake until 1:30am. A couple of the little boys were coughing on and off all night.

Sunday morning my husband stayed home with the youngest 3 sickies and I handled church and two meetings plus choir (with a quick drive home to drop off kids not needed at any of those). After all that, we retreated to home and rested, until 7pm that evening, when two kids needed to be back at church for the yearly youth activity planning meeting. I sat in the quiet of the church doing some scripture study and planning while I waited for them. It was peaceful.

Monday of the last week of school before winter break dawned cloudy with a fresh snowfall overnight. I took 10 minutes to plan meals for the week and submit a grocery pickup order to WalMart. We had a slow start to the workday and a little bit of grumping, but we settled in and got our work done. I spent 2.5 hours on the phone with three different government agencies trying to get them to fix their mistake - being passed off to one agency and another until I left a message instead of continue sitting on hold. Ugh. It wasn't my favorite way to spend 2.5 hours. Thankfully, my husband is home on Mondays and was able to help kids with school work in the few short times I was actually speaking with a live person at one of those agencies.

We had lunch and then I headed to WalMart for our grocery pick up order. I love the convenience! We spent the rest of the afternoon doing small projects around the house - replacing a faucet/sprayer, cleaning under the furniture, building a bed frame for Makayla's visit, etc. Our advent activity was a reading about Christ in the Book of Mormon.

Tuesday the kids started out making cards for their piano teacher. She is taking a break fromteaching and we're going to miss lessons so much. However, we get to see her each week at church, so we don't have to miss HER, which is wonderful. After card making we did school work. Joseph and Emma are on the study guide for Module 7 in Biology, which we use as a test over what they have learned (the test is set up pretty much the same way as the study guide, so we do one instead of both). This is the last biology they will do until we return from winter break. They are nearly at the halfway point in the course (finishing module 8 is halfway), which is solid progress for their first attempt at a textbook and lab science course.

The kids are at various chapters in their math books, most halfway or more than halfway. In language arts the older kids (Daniel on up) are a smidge over the halfway mark. Oliver and Mason, who are going at a slower pace for their first year with The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts, are not far behind the halfway mark. I have no intention of speeding them through. We will take it at their pace.

One big exciting point - Caleb has basically graduated from All About Reading. He's reading pretty fluently and tackling real books willingly. We will probably still finish using the readers for level 3 and 4, but he's admitted to himself that he really can read, which makes my heart happy.

Wednesday seems to have disappeared, as I have no notes. I do know the older 5 kids had church activities in the evening. And I fed people. We did school too. That's all I've got.

Thursday I surprised the kids and announced the beginning of Winter Break. They were excited, though one child asked, "Can I still read my literature book? I want to see what happens next." Makayla flew in from college this evening. All my chicks home in the nest again feels so good.

Friday dawned cold again and has simply been a quiet day at home. It's wonderful.