Thursday, December 2, 2010

Small Successes-First Week of Advent

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Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

I feel like a lot has happened in the past two weeks.

1. I survived the week of Thanksgiving and all the craziness that it encompassed.  Namely, a Thanksgiving show at Ellie's school, a full blown Thanksgiving feast at Madeline's school (We cooked the turkey and stuffing.), and Thanksgiving at our house.  That week saw me in a frantic frenzy cleaning the house and trying to make sure I had everything under control.  Bryan and I also celebrated our 10th anniversary on Thanksgiving.

2. I didn't get all of my Christmas shopping done and wrapped before Thanksgiving or Advent like I had planned and I haven't freaked out about it.  I have eight people left to buy for and I'm handling the fact that I still have shopping and wrapping to do very well.  Ordinarily I'd be very upset that I'm not done with shopping but I'm being realistic and realizing that I still have plenty of time to get everything done.

3. The house is in various stages of decoration.  We have lights on the house and the bushes and trees out front.  It looks rather festive and the girls love it.  Last night as I decided to put out the lights Bryan didn't want to use (they weren't LED and someone was being a Christmas light snob) Madeline skipped around on the lawn [in the dark, in case you wanted to give me the parent of the year award] joyfully proclaiming how beautiful she thought the house looked.  I'm not going to tell you that I yelled at her for being a pest several times as she "helped" me put up the lights in the freezing cold in this fashion.  Gaa, I went and told you so there you have it!

4. We are actually using a real Advent wreath with real candles this year, and the girls are each doing a Jesse Tree.  We're using Holy Heros Advent Adventure and they are using ornaments we found over at Paper Dali.  They love the green foil wrapping paper trees they have on their bedroom doors for the Jesse Tree ornaments.  I like that it makes the upstairs look a bit more festive since I don't really decorate the upstairs.

5. I'm such a show off, doing 5 successes when I'm supposed to have just three. Feel free to slap me if you must.  I finished my lesson plans for both religious education classes for the entire month of December.  Yay!  Before you hate me too much, let me clarify that two weeks of the kindergarten class were done since last year since I saved and printed my lesson plans beginning in Advent of last year, and I only have three classes this month for the third grade.  So really, I just wrote four lesson plans and visited the parish office to make all of my copies.  I'm just very happy and relived that it's all done.  I don't need to worry about lesson plans and copies until January.

Be sure to enter the book giveaway I'm hosting this week while you are here.

3 comments:

  1. Fabulous!! 5 successes is a wonderful week and such big ones too! Love #2 and #3. I am right with you on trying to stay calm and joyful while trying to get everything done. Sometimes it can be challenging but the payoff is worth it. Have a fantastic week!

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  2. I have to catch myself also with the yelling at the helper. Sometimes I don't know if it is worse when they help or when they don't.

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  3. Lynn, It's a catch 22. You want them to help so they learn how to do certain things, but then you don't want them do because the job takes longer when they're "helping." Sometimes I have to ask them when they ask to help out if they're looking to help and learn or just hinder. If I wasn't out in the dark on a very cold windy evening I'm sure I would have have more patience, but when I have ice cube fingers and the ground its wet outside I run very low on patience. I'm certain that I could have been inside and warm about 15 minutes sooner without the help (job took 30 minutes with help), but she was very happy that she got to "help" decorate.

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