The Saturday 7. . . ish

I'm not feeling it today. This won't be eloquent.

1. I wrapped all my kids' presents on Thursday. Having all three in school two days a week really works to my advantage sometimes! I'm done shopping, but I keep stalking my deals websites, so I'm sure I'll buy more. We found out this week that both of our extended family Christmases have been cancelled. As I told my sisters, my kids are going to be crushed so it's a good thing I bought them way too many presents to help them handle their disappointment. #materialism

2. Honestly, I've been on the warpath today, threatening to get rid of all their toys and wondering why I even bought them more. Nobody ever plays with toys. They either do screen time, beg me to do screen time, or beg me to play with them. They're completely incapable of entertaining themselves and it's making me CRAZY!! I let them watch way too much TV just so they'll stop climbing on me. And before you get up on your high horse, let me point you to number three . . .

3-5. Advent activities have commenced with the onset of December. I'm doing something new this year: Wandering Wisemen. I'm a nerd, and I love the Elf of the Shelf, but we don't do Santa, so I didn't want to muddle things with an elf. Thanks to Pinterest, I discovered the Wandering Wisemen - the Christianized version of the elf, hiding throughout the house and making mischief on their way to Bethlehem. I've tried to correlate their shenanigans with the day's activity because I thrive on creative thinking. Here's what we've done so far:

Day One:

Our activity for the day was making this countdown. We had a ridiculously hard time making a star out of popsicle sticks, and the kids all fought about who got to do what, and there may have been yelling, but we HAD FUN and MADE MEMORIES!!

Day 2:

The wise men made a mess making cards. And I had fun making them talk.

Day 3:

My sweet sister-in-law had promised the girls last Christmas that she'd take them to Accidental Art to paint pottery. But then Covid happened, and AA shut down. They recently started doing Take-Home kits, though, so Esther picked some up and came over after school to paint with the kids.

Casper couldn't hang with the painters, but I enjoyed snuggling with him!

Day 4:

"You're the weirdest looking camel I've ever seen."

That night was the kids' school Christmas program. Lucy asked me to curl her hair and I was like . . .🤔🤔🤔 "Isn't it already so curly we can't handle it?" But she never lets me do her hair, so I wasn't about to turn her down.

Looking about 13 years old!!

Lena didn't dress Chrismassy because she didn't actually participate in the program . . .

For weeks, Lena has been practically hyperventilating on the mornings that she has music class because she didn't want to practice for the program. I finally told her that she doesn't have to do the performance, but she has to attend the practices (because they're during the school day). That gave her some measure of relief, until it came to the dress rehearsals, whereupon the hyperventilating began anew. They had rehearsals on Thursday and Friday this week. She made it through the Thursday rehearsal because I asked her teacher to let her stand next to her best friend. On Friday, though, there was an audience. (We were told only two people per family could attend the program in order to socially distance. So they opened up the dress rehearsal to grandparents, etc.) I wish I could explain to you the terror she felt at the thought of an audience. I kept telling her that she was not in danger, that she was just part of the choir - not doing a part or a solo or anything that would draw attention, and that the audience members were there to watch their own kids/grandkids, not her. And when that didn't work, I pushed her into school and told her to do it afraid. But I secretly emailed her teacher telling her that I wasn't going to make her do the performance, so if she needed to sit out the rehearsal, it was ok with me. And that's precisely what Lena did. This anxiety thing continues to be a hard call for me. I don't want to be a helicopter parent/enabler, but I want to be empathetic and not just write off her legitimate terror. Levi was nervous about the performance, but he wasn't petrified. There's a difference.

Day 5:

A couple weeks ago, Lucy said, "Hey, Walt Disney's birthday is on December 5. We should do something Disney themed for our advent activity that day." Again, she so rarely is interested in anything we do, that I was sure to accommodate her request - even though Walt Disney would not usually be considered high on my priority list of people to remember during advent. Lol.

6. College update: I got a letter in the mail informing me that I received financial aid last semester but did not participate in any of my classes, so I owe the school the money back.

I did not receive a penny of financial aid (they can scour my bank statements if they want to verify that), and I dropped my classes before the end of the drop/add period when I realized I wasn't getting financial aid. I'm starting to think this whole "finishing my degree" thing is not God's plan for me.

7. A couple more pictures:

Nova is obsessed with "crafting." Almost immediately after she gets to my house every day she says, "I wanna make something." Haha. Usually she's content with scissors, scrap paper, and glue. But I broke out the big guns this week and found some stuff for her to paint.