CHRISTMAS TIME- YAY!!!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!!!  It is my favorite season/time of year.  I love spring and fall weather, but I love the feeling of Christmas time. The carols being sung, the smell of the trees, just everything about it…

We spent Thanksgiving in South Carolina at Jon’s parents home.  He grew up on a Christmas Tree farm so we come home almost every year with a fresh cut Fraser Fir. 

Prior to heading north, I packed up all our Thanksgiving decorations, linens, books, etc. in anticipation of coming home and getting right into decorating for Christmas.  Trees, wreaths, apple- cinnamon candles, bells, snowmen and randomly placed Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer toys…  I smile just thinking about it.

A few years ago Jon and I decided that we would give 3 gifts to Lily, representing the 3 gifts of the Wise Men.  It is hard to choose just 3 things, I want to get so much for her, but I think we did good. We found an art easel that becomes a desk as well.  (I am thinking multi-purpose, art time, school work sheet and letter writing), we found a pack of dinosaurs ( she is really into dinosaurs.  One of the few T.V. shows I let her watch is Dinosaur Train on PBS, it is a really great show) and lastly a LARGE coloring book. 

While in SC we went “Black Friday” shopping.  I normally don’t do this because I don’t like getting up early, well- I just didn’t go to bed this year.  So many shops were opening around midnight, so I was able to get ALL of my shopping done in about 4 hours.  It was GREAT!  I found some awesome deals, too…

Tomorrow is grocery shopping.  I think I will just get groceries for about week, then work on meal plans and go shopping again Monday morning (hopefully with out the rain)  It was so much easier to cook and shop when I had my meals all planned out.  I can tell you this- I will be making a Pumpkin Pie tomorrow.  We didn’t have one Thursday and I am CRAVING some pumpkin Pie!  :)

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful time with your families!! 

oh yeah-  my grass is growing!!!  I am SO excited… apparently the grass seed I had been planting is Fescue, a fall seed, so now my yard is sprouting baby grass everywhere!!  It is beautiful!!

Starting back slowly...

Hi- I am back, sort of... I am going to try to limit my time on the computer, trying to keep family and home first and foremost... I got onto Amandas blog and read a few posts from this month and I realized how much I missed you all, how much I was learning from you all and mostly how much I needed you. This being my first year of homeschooling, I was learning so much about how to balance house work, life, school, etc... and I have to admit, I have been feeling a bit frazzled these past couple of months!

Update on us:
Jon has a new job. He was fired from the FD job in April and God provided so many lttle odd jobs to hold us over until we really (and I mean REALLY) needed more money. I am still amazed at all the blessings we recieved during this summer.

Lily is still Lily. She is 4 1/2 and thinks she is everything! I am still having a hard time with getting her to poop in the potty (sorry for the, literal, potty talk). She seems to be wanting more of this and more of that (materialistic) and I wonder if she is learning it from us, or friends or where... (going to work on that more, hopefully)

I have had a few photos sessions this fall, so far. Nothing big, but I am hoping it will help get the ball rolling, more...

I stopped blogging back in Sept. because I wanted to be available for my family more. I felt like I was on the computer too much, that I wasnt spending enough time with Lily and teaching her like I should. Well, shortly after I stopped blogging I found a new way of filling the time (and not how I had imagined). It was another one of Gods blessings, though... A new restaurant opened up in town and asked me to make desserts for them, twice a week... nothing major just brownies, banana pudding and Oreo delight, but these desserts took up 4 hours of my morning (when we usually do school work) twice a week, not to mention the time of driving 35 miles to the grocery store every week to get the ingredients and then to deliver the desserts.
I am thankful for the income it provided us in those last few strapped weeks, but I am so happy knowing that I delivered my last batch last week.

So- I am, once again, making my "New Years Resolution" list (at the of the year) of things I want to accomplish... I never make these lists on January 1st because I know I will be making them regularly through the year... lol

#1- SIMPLIFY our lives
#2- Structure my time to be most productive, both in school and house work
#3- Be a GOOD, Godly mother and wife


So, all this to say- I am back, but probably wont be a daily blogger like before. I hope you all have a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!!!

~ Kristina