Preparing for Christmas

The years that give us that extra week between Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite!  It's a week to prepare for the Christmas season.  Once December 1 arrives, the advents begin, the festivities fill our calendars, and sometimes Christmas just turns into chaos.  Silent and holy nights are few and far between.  But my prayer this year is for slower days, quieter nights, and a refocus on what's really important and why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

As I look back over pictures of the past, the memories of little girls in matching pjs (which we might still do!), of giddy giggles opening our advent house doors each day, and family traditions that have changed a little each year, it all makes this mama heart ache and swell at the same time.  There have been peaceful years and truly chaotic years.  As I've thought more over this past month, "What should this year's Christmas look like?" much will stay the same, while some things will be different.  That sweet house with doors labeled 1-25 will be opened to reveal something simple for every day leading to the 25th (a Christmas activity or act of service).  This little house has been a blessing and curse over the years.  One year when I was determined to do an act of service with my girls every single day, I found myself yelling and frustrated because either their heart wasn't in it or I was hurrying to get something ready to give to someone "in need" with a fake smile and an exhausted heart.  But most years have brought so many sweet memories!

This year will have less filling our calendar.  Much of that is due to less extracurricular activities than in years past, but I want to take what's important to us and tweak it to hopefully work better.  As a homeschooling family, we have some flexibility to do this.  We began our school year early so we can intentionally take slower school days in December.  Lots of reading, crafting and baking!  We are trying a different family advent this year to continue to point our focus to Christ, and I'm really excited to do it along with our church family.  The first link below is the one we're using this year.

The Jesus Storybook Bible Advent Reading Plan

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp (another great Advent book that we've used for years)

Come Let Us Adore Him by Paul David Tripp

 

Now, none of this is intended to add guilt as I know we will miss days of reading as a family and there will be nights that I'll have to sneak the cards around inside our advent house to avoid Christmas shopping on a busy day and instead just watch a Christmas movie.  These ideas and links above and below are just resources to help,  not to hinder your Christmas season.  

Keep things simple!  If Cracker Barrel after a busy day of shopping is going to bring some calmness to your week, go for it!  If graham crackers and leftover halloween candy for "gingerbread houses" make for a nicer mama, then ditch the homemade gingerbread recipe.  Advent is a season of waiting for Christmas.  Waiting involves silently sitting sometimes.  

Below are several links to some great gift guides to hopefully help make even gift giving a little more peaceful this Christmas.  

A Gift Guide for the Homeschool

25 Gifts for Book Loving Kids (or Adults)

Dozens of Bookish Gifts for Kids

Several gift guides for kids (the explorer or inventor in your family)

The ultimate link! Stocking stuffers, gift guides for guys, traditional toys!
 

 Our fancy gingerbread houses (with Trader Joes gingerbread men to help)

Love where you live - Summer Bucket List

Almost every year, my girls and I put together summer bucket lists.  Last year, we were in survival mode with moving at the beginning of summer and trying to settle into a new place.  But through that tough, yet beautiful summer, I began using the hashtag #lovewhereyoulive.  I truly do love where we live!  Yet, it was easy last year to look back over the fence and wish for what was.  God is so gracious to have placed us where He has.  So this year, we are ready to fully embrace where we live and have our bucket lists ready!

Mommy's Bucket List

• summer reading programs (Barnes & Noble, local library, and another fun resource! Check it out!)
• camping in the backyard
• outdoor movie night with neighbors
• blueberry picking
• farmer's market
• visit new parks
• try 3 new ice cream spots
• waterpark
• bike around Kiawah
• kayaking and paddleboarding
• baseball games

• Charlestowne Landing
• summer movies at Freshfields, Folly Beach, and the Terrace
• Middleton Place
• new beaches - Edisto and Isle of Palms

• fill out our agritourism passports
• help out neighbors (for free)
• Bulls Island
• dolphin tour
• visit the Charleston Museum houses
• a treat from the chocolate shop downtown
• visit Savannah
• make shell crafts
• work on handicrafts for a future artisan bazaar 
• breakfast on the beach
• memorize a Psalm together

Here's a couple links to previous bucket lists when our girls were younger.  

2016 Bucket List

2014 Bucket List

For Such a Time as This...

It's been a little quiet over here.  My last post was probably my hardest yet.  Praise God, I think I'm on the other side of my anxiety and panic attacks.  Medicine is there for really hard days, but used very little.  But now what?

When life is tough, it's natural to reach out.  When you're at the bottom, all you can do is look up.  But when things are going better, my tendency is to forget all that God did, forget to call out to Him in the good and bad, and to often become complacent with how my life is going.  

But over the last few months, God has whispered the words, "For such a time as this..." in my heart.  I honestly didn't know what it meant for me.  Esther was told these words in the Old Testament concerning the opportunity to rescue her people from destruction, from death!  How could this apply to me?  I still don't know the full meaning for what God has planned.  But these words have resonated again and again.  After the past few weeks, seeing such incredible needs in the lives of students where God has placed us, maybe He has put us here for such a time as this?