Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho, It's back to work (school) we go!

The Thanksgiving break went by much too quickly! I really enjoyed having more leisurely time with the kids, and we did get the Christmas trees and other decorations up this weekend. We still have some outdoor reindeer that may or may not get put out this year, depending on how the next few weeks go.

Unfortunately, we can't seem to stay healthy for more than a week or two at a time this winter. It wasn't anything serious, but Hudson started running fever and was lethargic and coughing on Wednesday. He lay around and didn't want to do much on Thanksgiving Day. Sure enough, Arden woke up with a high fever on Friday morning and turned into a crying, clingy, runny-nosed monster for Friday and Saturday. She's better today, but she's still not eating as much and sleeping more than usual. I got the sore throat and congestion yesterday, but I feel better day. Ugh! I feel like we lost half the break with someone being sick . . . again.

The Christmas trees look good; we have the big one downstairs and let the boys decorate a smaller "kids" tree upstairs in the bonus room. Arden is really understanding Christmas this year and is talking about Santa and saying, "ho, ho, ho." She has pulled off the Dora ornament off the tree and is carrying it around with her everywhere!

We have three more weeks until Christmas break, and I'm excited to have that break also. A week was nice, but two weeks will surely help us all to feel rested and ready to face second semester. I've got a lot to do to wrap up my unit with my classes and finish all the grading and projects to end the semester grades in these few weeks, so it will probably just fly by. We will be going to Stuart's parent's house for a few days for Christmas, but it will be relaxing to spend the majority of the time right here at home!

I'm taking Owen to see the play The Best Christmas Pageant Ever next weekend, and then Stuart and I will go to The Messiah the following weekend. I love this time of year! Maybe we'll even get a little snow!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe that November is almost over. It seems like Halloween was just last week. Time is flying by, and Christmas will be here soon.

I enjoyed Christmas shopping yesterday since I was out of school, and the kids stayed in childcare for one extra day. I had to get a couple fillings at the dentist in the morning and needed childcare for that, and then I decided to use the rest of the time without kids to finish my shopping. I got most of the gifts bought, and I enjoyed shopping when it wasn't overly crowded. A couple gifts were out-of-stock, but I hope they will get more before Christmas since I got rainchecks.

We went to the lighting of the Bentonville square on Saturday and enjoyed hearing live Christmas music and looking at all the lights after dark. The boys thought that some of the songs were very silly like, "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Clause" and "Santa Baby." They asked me why Mommy would kiss Santa and why would she call him "Baby." I wasn't quite sure how to answer that since the kids really believe in Santa! I just told them that Santa must be cute!

I've been getting a lot of projects done around the house with hired help while I've been out of school. A handyman spent four hours here last week and replaced deadbolts, installed a new doorbell, and installed decorative trim on the garage doors. Today a plumber is coming to install my new kitchen sink and fix a dripping shower. My stainless sink has two pinholes in it -- inside the actual sink bottom! I have no idea what happened since the sink was used by two previous owners before us, but that sink basket also was damaged on that side and had to be replaced once we moved in. So, the only thing to do was get a new sink, so that I could use both sides without having water flood the cabinet below. I guess that is my Christmas present!

The boys are looking forward to watching some football games over the holiday weekend. They have really gotten into the sport after Owen got to attend the last two Razorback home games in Fayetteville with Stuart due to some generous, free tickets we were given. Now, all Owen talks about is football, and he is reading the sports page every day!

We hope you and your family have a great Thanksgiving weekend! We all have much to be thankful for.

Score!

After four months of checking Craigslist almost daily for a used, wooden kitchen for Arden, I finally found one to buy! It's a bit bigger than what I was originally looking for, but I figured a way to move around things in her room to make the space. It is so cute!

It has some scratches on the "burner" area of the stove from kids pushing around pots and pans, but it doesn't bother me. I was able to negotiate the owner down to less than 1/2 price of the exact model new, and this one was already assembled.

I love having a van because I have loaded many Craigslist finds into the back cargo area since the seats fold down! I survived another appointment to pick up a Craigslist item from a stranger without being murdered, and now this kitchen is in my garage under two blankets, just awaiting Christmas Day when we move it into Arden's bedroom for her! (Seriously, do take precautions and let someone know where you are going, take a phone, and never enter a stranger's house alone when buying from a stranger).

I love buying used! It's a thrill to save money; it relieves me of stress because I don't worry about my kids damaging items as much, and it is better for the environment.

iHope

Today was a service day at our church which was named iHope. There were various projects that had been set up for groups to do including yard help in neighborhoods, helping with a satellite church's facilities, working at Saving Grace ministry, and moving items for the local women's shelter. Our new body life group that we are leading includes five families, and four families got together today to work side-by-side to participate (the fifth family was sick, or they would have been there too).

The morning began rather rough, as Arden was crying after being woken up early, and I was debating about the benefit of putting her back into a half day of childcare after being away from her during the work week already. I was running late, so Stuart left separately to get there on time. Then, Arden had a dirty diaper, so we had yet another delay. As soon as I started the van, I realized that the gas light was on, so we had another stop to make to fill up the tank. Quickly, I pulled out onto the interstate and started cruising quickly down the road to make up for lost time. However, as Owen quickly pointed out, "Mom, this isn't the way to church!" In my hurry, I had turned down the opposite direction on the interstate and was "automatically" driving towards my favorite mall instead of north towards church! So, after a quick u-turn at the next exit, we were on our (right) way. Upon checking the kids in at church, the printer failed to print Arden's nametag, so I had to go back to the end of the line and wait all over again to get her security tag. Finally, we were all there, and kids were distributed. Only twenty minutes late!

This was the first time that our small group had worked together, and though it started with a lot of setbacks, it was a very good day. We loaded boxes from the other women's shelter and unloaded and organized materials at the new facility. The younger kids had childcare provided by volunteers at the church, but Owen was too old for the childcare and worked along with the adults this year. This was the first service project like this that Owen had ever done, and he absolutely loved it! I was so proud to see him jump in and lift all the boxes and take the work so seriously. He enjoyed talking to all the adults, and I had a couple of offers from people who said they "wanted to take him home with them." He has such a servant's heart and loves helping! Owen begged to be able to do this project again next year, and Stuart explained that we would do a service project again sometime soon, but it might not be at the same location. Owen replied, "But I really want to organize stuff!" Ha. He is definitely my child!

We picked up the kids at lunchtime, so Arden could come home for her nap. It was a good day, and we are looking forward to more times of service in our local community . . . and maybe someone else will need Owen's organizational services!

Halloween

I can't believe we are already into November! October was a strange month that seemed at times to be endless while also flying by. I don't know if that makes any sense. In early October, Stuart was gone for 8 days out of the first two weeks. That. Was. Rough. I had never done the "single working parent" thing before, and it gave me a whole new appreciation for those moms that work every day and have to do all the childcare at night and weekends alone. Stuart went to Atlanta to the Catalyst conference that he attends yearly with friends, and they had a great worship experience. Then, he had to travel to Little Rock for his annual prosecutor's conference the next week!

After Stuart returned, Hudson got the flu and missed a couple of days of school, and then I got it. Yes, it was the flu, and I'm still not 100% (2 weeks later). I was in bed for close to three days, but then I had to return to work and dragged myself there for the rest of the week. I definitely hurt my recovery by talking and teaching all day, but I didn't have enough sick days to use in order to recover slowly. I stayed home until I had been fever-free for 24 hours, but I still felt like a truck had run over me for about another week. All I could do was work and then come home to bed. I am still coughing a lot, but my energy level is back to around 85% normal now, so it's much better. Arden has had a clear runny nose, but she hasn't had flu or fever symptoms.

I was still dragging last weekend for Halloween, but I did manage to go around with the kids to two different church festivals in town. Then, Stuart took them to a few neighbors' houses in our neighborhood before we called it a night. Owen was Obi Wan, Hudson was a cowboy, and Arden was a ladybug. The boys had a huge fall festival at school on Friday, and they had gotten to wear their costumes to school too! That was a huge hit! I enjoyed seeing them dressed up, but it drained my limited energy to be out and walking around for two hours outdoors, so I was back in bed again last Sunday.

I'm already thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas and counting down the days until I get vacation time! Only two more weeks until I am out for the entire week of Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to spending most of that time at home with my kids, just hanging out and playing with them. I do have to go to the dentist to get a couple fillings on that Monday, and I hope to get some Christmas shopping done that day too (when I will have childcare). I have done very little shopping yet since I didn't plan to return to full-time work until August. So, this next year I will definitely be shopping throughout the year instead and spreading it out.

We'll probably put up our big Christmas tree and the smaller kids' tree after Thanksgiving, and that is always fun. I haven't opened the ornament boxes since we we moved last December, so I hope we don't have many broken items in there. I did find a wooden kitchen used on Craigslist this past week that I plan to give Arden for Christmas. I got it for 1/2 off the regular price, and it is in good condition with just some surface scratches from normal play. I know she'll love it, and I'm glad I could find a used set that I won't worry about since it wasn't too expensive. Right now, it's in our garage under two large blankets. She hasn't seemed to notice it yet!

Stuart and Owen are going to their first Razorback game today in Fayetteville. We sure love living in this area. There is so much to do for families. I'm looking forward to some quieter time with the younger kids today and maybe a short trip to Walmart.