{This and That} :: December 1st

Hello friends! Are you enjoying the start of December? With Thanksgiving past, Advent present, and Christmas to come, it's one of my favorite "seasons" of the year!

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving that I took literally zero photos of. How is that possible?! Thanksgiving Friday we were able to go to Mass and visit the graves of family members for All Souls' Day/month. It's always so striking to see children at a cemetery -- a good reminder of both the mortality of the body and the immortality of the soul.

~~~

Advent is such a holy time of the year. I love how the preparation we must do in our homes and for our families becomes a metaphor for spiritual preparation. And I love the time for reflection and the hope of a new year to come.

I realized that I only have two Advents left after this before my older children are in college or out living their lives! That humbling thought brought home the idea of preparation in a new way for me this year.

I am reading Houselander's Reed of God and thinking about L'Umile Pianta, or the humble plant, as we have been discussing over at the CMEC this fall. We have also been talking about the "habit of attention" as demonstrated by Our Lady. The "serenity of the Madonna" (as Mason calls it) is such a powerful posture for the mother-teacher. Fruitful connections between life and lessons for me to ponder this Advent!

~~~

Justin celebrated his sixth birthday this month! He got his own TBG Songbook, which he loves using for singing, recitation, and writing. And as you can see in the photo on the right, he lost his two front teeth in the last two weeks -- just in time for Christmas. ;)

 

I love this picture of him napping by the fire. So cozy, and so him! He loves to cuddle.

~~~

Some snaps from our exam celebration in October...

~~~

And now we are currently in the second half of our second term! (I divide each 10-week term into two 5-week sessions for my planning.) That means we're right at the halfway point in our school year, which is hard to believe.

Work from the past couple weeks...

kingfisher from Burgess Bird Book

Form 1 Bible narrations

grammar lessons with my Form 2B student

demonstrating the Pythagorean theorem

Kinderleben monograms

table work

chalk drawing lessons

clay modeling - snakes!

outdoor geography -- and enjoying the fall sunshine!

final projects for Plutarch and Beesly's Stories from the History of Rome

I have to admit, it was a bit hard to get back to things on Monday after the long Thanksgiving weekend and with Christmas break almost in sight -- which is why I am so grateful for our timetable! I just got up and did the "next right thing" and the day flew by.

~~~

My goal this year was to finish all the Christmas shopping I could before Thanksgiving, and I succeeded! I really just needed the mental space during Advent to focus on home things and spiritual things.

If you are looking for gift ideas, I am happy to share a few. (Just don't tell my kids! :))

:: These journals are lovely and seem very durable. They arrived in the mail but I put them aside, so we haven't tried writing on them yet. But they get great reviews and have so many pretty cover options.

:: These small jewelry boxes are going to be perfect for each of my girls to store her own jewelry. (I also grabbed some assorted studs for my oldest, who got her ears pierced just a month ago!)

:: One of my goals for this year was to encourage physical activity and time outdoors. My older boys have started running every morning and are getting running socks and gloves. I also have pots, seeds, tools, and gardening gloves on the way for them! And I grabbed scooters at a deep discount for a couple of my middle kids who have outgrown their smaller ones. We love these water bottles (totally leak-proof and easy to clean) and needed a couple more for our adventures, and the girls needed new warm socks of various kinds to wear with their rain boots.

:: Youngers are getting frisbees, socks, gripper socks, winter gloves, onesies and soft-soled shoes.

:: A few books on their wish lists: The Living Wood and The Keeper of the Bees (olders), Enemy Brothers and The Last Crusader (older middles), Snow Treasure and Springtime with Geraldine Woolkins (younger middles), If You Lived Here and Where is Baby's Belly Button (littles).

And if you're looking for stocking stuffer ideas, I have lots of little things recommended here. This year, we're doing pajamas all around, peg doll craft kits, and the essentials -- chocolate and oranges, of course!

And might I recommend my daughter Gianna's novel, Four Red Banners, for kids who love a good story? :)

What are you gifting this year? I am hoping to get a head start on this year's birthdays during Christmas break and would love fresh ideas.

(Links above are affiliate links. Thanks for your support!)

~~~

I have a post about our family prayer routine coming soon -- hopefully some time in December. Until then, wishing you a fruitful Advent!

{This and That} :: Thanksgiving Week

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. 

~~~

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.

~~~

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.

~~~

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.

~~~

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.

~~~

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.

~~~

Scenes from the past couple weeks...

Animalium has a helpful diagram to accompany Life and Her Children

More Fesole -- this time, a still life!

Vincent set up his still life as well, but hasn't finished his painting yet -- isn't it perfect for fall?

Free time painting for Bridget after studying Titian's Saint Christopher

Fireside prepping (my favorite!) for the Form Meetings with the CMEC

California fall!

And some recent work in clay over the past two weeks. We all love this medium!

(We have these silpats and Chavant Clayette clay -- which is unfortunately out of stock right now, but I'll add the link when it's back -- both thanks to recommendations from the art teacher at the CMEC. The Fall Mini-Retreat immersions were so helpful in giving us a good start.)

~~~

Well, that's it for now! What are you up to this holiday weekend -- and what's on your menu? I am going with a classic Thanksgiving line-up this year, though we'll do chicken instead of turkey since my husband prefers it. But I am looking forward to teaching my girls to bake apple pie! I have made it by myself in the past but skipped the past couple years. Now I have eager helpers, and I think we'll have a good time perfecting the method. :)

And before I go, I want to say too that I am grateful to the kind community of readers who read along, leave comments, and send emails -- thank you for your encouragement and I wish you a wonderful week!

(Links above may be Amazon affiliate links -- thanks for your support!)