Hello friends! It is hard to believe we are in late November now. We have a short school week this week for Thanksgiving, and then we're officially halfway through our school year! I can't believe how fast this school year is flying by.
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First happy news: my oldest two were confirmed!
Their sponsor got them these watercolored saint portraits from The Fig and Thimble. They love them!
For their confirmation saints, Gianna picked St. John the Evangelist and Vincent picked St. John Bosco. Both choices were unexpected but made sense to me in hindsight.
We are studying Titian this term, so we thought it would be neat to get Gianna a framed print of Titian's St. John the Evangelist on the Isle of Patmos. Isn't it striking? Vincent got a couple books about St. John Bosco that he has already started reading.
Gianna asked me for an at-home Confirmation Retreat, so I prepared a week's worth of short readings for them to do alongside their novena to the Holy Ghost. I pulled completely from religious books we already had on our shelves -- a little wisdom from St. John Vianney, Cardinal Newman, the Baltimore Catechism, Mother Loyola, and more. It is so nice to have a good selection of books to choose from for projects like this! I am always thankful to my younger self for taking the time to scour used bookstores and church library sales and investing in a long-term library of our own.
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Emilia just turned ten months old! She is so playful and determined. She loves all the attention she gets from her siblings and plays Peek-a-Boo, Pat-a-Cake, and This Little Piggy. She is also a full-time walker now. Such a fun age! If only she could start napping a little more reliably... :)
We did the seasonal clothing switch-out last week. This is one of the chores I dread each year, simply because of the sheer number of children and clothes. My kids have capsule wardrobes -- very manageable and streamlined. They all wear a "uniform" of sorts, as you may have noticed from posts through the years. But still, if I were a millionnaire, I would donate the kids' wardrobes at the end of each season and start fresh every time! There is just something about this task that always ends up being more complicated than it ought to be.
However, I'm finding that the chore has been getting progressively easier -- even though I have more kids than any other year, having more bigs than littles really has helped so much! And this year, my to-buy list is unprecedently short: just a couple pairs of replacement leggings for my girls and a few tops and bottoms for Vincent, my oldest, who grew several inches this year. Gianna is now as tall as I am and has been for about a year, so I think she's close to finished growing. All of her clothes from last year still fit, which has never happened for any of my children, ever! A new stage of parenting, for sure.
I also gave all of my girls (except Emilia) haircuts this past week! All but Clara had it down to their waists and were super overdue for a cut, but they LOVED their long hair. They finally consented and they love the shorter hair too, thank goodness.
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Are you getting started with Christmas shopping? I am hoping to take some time over Thanksgiving weekend to look through my lists and begin making plans. We keep things very simple around here, just a few things per person, but times that by ten and it's still a pretty big task. But I have been quite determined to get my shopping done before Advent this year.
(Speaking of Thanksgiving, I have a post from ten years ago here on the blog that I always share this time of year: Cooking Up a Thanksgiving "Feast.")
I also took and ordered photos for our Christmas cards this weekend. Christmas cards take a good amount of time to put together and send out, but they always feel worth it to me -- and especially this year. Sending something personal during a year of very little personal interaction is the kind of hopeful statement I want to end the year on.
I am planning to pull together a few quick gift ideas here on the blog this weekend if I get a chance, but in case you're wanting suggestions now, I have a bunch of favorite links from last year compiled here: {This and That} :: Thanksgiving and Advent.
And since we are almost at Advent, you can read more about Advents past in our home. This year we'll once again be lighting the Advent wreath, choosing Christkindls, observing some special feast days, and decluttering and deep cleaning with a hopeful but penitential spirit! And we'll be adding the free printable Advent calendar from Lydia -- so lovely.
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Our Halloween was quiet -- there was no trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, so we stayed home and had an impromptu party. We told the kids they had 45 minutes to dress up as a saint with items from the constume bin. Then we spent the evening playing board games and making cookies. In times like these, I'm grateful that we always have enough people for a party here at home!
The hit of the night was Pictionary, which we don't play that often...but every time we do play it, I think we ought to play it more! It is such a fun game if you have preschoolers in the mix.
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Justin turned five! Besides books and a Schleich animal, he got embroidery thread for making friendship bracelets and a bunch of plastic canvas squares for "sewing" with yarn. He was so pleased and has done little else since then. He is truly a delightful kid and I am soaking up this age.
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| Animalium has a helpful diagram to accompany Life and Her Children |
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| More Fesole -- this time, a still life! |
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| Vincent set up his still life as well, but hasn't finished his painting yet -- isn't it perfect for fall? |
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| Free time painting for Bridget after studying Titian's Saint Christopher |
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| Fireside prepping (my favorite!) for the Form Meetings with the CMEC |
Thank you for sharing! I've been inspired by your advent posts in years past and this year so thank you for posting your preparation. Your children look lovely!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Helen! Happy Thanksgiving! :)
DeleteThank you so much for taking the time to share with us! I always come away VERY inspired. :) :) :)
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm glad, Lindsay. :) Thanks for reading, and Happy Thanksgiving!
DeleteHello Celeste! I am curious about your form 2 pencil box. I love how you have his letters model taped in there! Do you keep his watercolors in there as well or do you keep those separate with his nature journaling stuff?
ReplyDeleteMy kids have two sets of watercolors: one stays in their nature kit, and then they each have a larger one that goes under their pencil box in their cubby for all other painting we do. :)
DeleteHi. Thank you for sharing. You are very organized and appear to be very self-disciplined. Thank you for the inspiration! I have a question... do you keep the clay sculptures? I wonder where you keep all of these beautiful products the children are producing. Do you have a way of organizing the art? Thank you, again. :-)
ReplyDeleteNo, the clay is non-hardening, so I take photos and then we reuse the clay the next time. Storing all the beautiful art and handicrafts can certainly be tricky! My kids keep finished art in a tray I have on the counter. Once or twice a term, we go through it and sort -- keep, gift, recycle. I choose a few from the "keep" pile to put into their permanent file; any others they want to keep they can put into their personal storage boxes, which they are in charge of. (These are small, so they can only keep a finite amount of stuff -- this means they must be culling and sorting often.) This has worked fairly well for large family, though there are still extra handicrafts here and there that people don't necessarily want to keep forever but haven't found the right person to gift it to. ;)
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