Happy New Year

From our homestead to yours, we wish you a very blessed new year.  May you see much love and happiness in 2013!  I am looking forward to see what the Lord blesses us with in the coming year, and I'm thankful to share it with you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

 

 

Blessings, 



Merry Christmas!

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This will be my last post until after Christmas.  I will be spending time with my family and completely ignoring the computer during this time!!



Our family would like to wish you a blessed Christmas season as you reflect on our Saviour’s birth.  May you have a happy and healthy new year filled with the love of family and friends.

Merry Christmas!!

Blessings,

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God"
1 Corinthians 10:31

Christmas Traditions

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As a child, I always looked forward to Christmas.  We went to Christmas Eve Worship at church for a candle light service (still one of my favorite things!).  Then Grandma and Grandpa came over for snacks and egg nog, and we opened presents with them.  We would spend Christmas day with our Grandparents and Great Grandparents from my dad's side (yes, I was blessed to have Great Grandparents until I was in my early 20's~something I am so very thankful for!), Aunts and Uncles, and cousins.  We'd spend all day at Grandpa and Grandma's house and we loved every minute of it! 

Having Christmas traditions has been important to us as we raise our family.  When our first kiddo's were small, we had many family events that we felt we had to attend.  This left Christmas feeling rushed and left us exhausted by the end of it.  We realized that it was more important for us to carve out time for our own family while still maintaining extended family relationships. 

Honestly as the years have gone by, this has become a little easier.  As our extended families have grown, we have all had this realization.  We still have family celebrations with our extended families, but they are no longer on Christmas day.  That is reserved for our own families.  We want our kids to know that those relationships with extended family are strong and important to us.  We know that our time with our kiddo's at home is short, and they will someday have families of their own~and struggle with some of the same things we did as a new family.  But we also want them to look back at their childhood Christmas' and feel that same warmth that hubby and I have for our own.  We don't want them to remember Christmas as hurried, frazzled, and exhausting.  That is NOT what Christmas is about.  We want them to remember that we stopped our usual routines, and celebrated that birth so many years ago.  We spent time together singing, decorating, baking, worshipping, and loving each other.  And we loved every minute of it!

Have a blessed Christmas and enjoy your time together with your loved ones!

Blessings,

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God"
1 Corinthians 10:31

Homeschooling During The Holidays

One of the things I really love about homeschooling is the flexibility it brings our family.  With 5 kiddo's, one of them with multiple appointments during the month, things can get crazy in a hurry.  I am still relatively new at homeschooling (we're just starting our 3rd year), but I don't stress over these things like I first did.  We'll still get our school year done, it just may not look the same as someone else.  That's OK!

I *think* I may have mentioned once or twice that I LOVE Christmas time.  I also love having our kiddo's home and creating happy memories during this time of year with them.  Our "formal" schooling is on hold until the second week of January.  What our homeschool looks like for the next several weeks is to just enjoy one another.

We're planning on baking and creating Christmas goodies next week.  We then take some of them to our neighbors and relatives.  We'll send out our Christmas cards next week also.  We're going to create some holiday crafts~something that Sweetcheeks is really looking forward to.  We're going to watch holiday movies, and read books together.  We're going to read the Christmas story together, and have a family Christmas eve worship time together (I'm really looking forward to this!).  We're just going to take it easy, enjoy our Christmas, enjoy each other, and reflect on the real reason for this season.

I pray you also can enjoy the Christmas holiday with your loved ones!

Blessings,

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God"
1 Corinthians 10:31

Oh, Christmas Tree

You won't find fancy decorations or color coordination on our Christmas tree.  No themed Christmas tree's here.  What you will find is a lot of ornaments that are meaningful to our family.

Ornaments that our kiddo's made for us as they were growing

 Or the ornament that reminds us what Christmas is really all about

Or the ornaments that celebrate special moments in our family's life

 Or ornaments that tell the story of how our family began

Or those ornaments that are just for fun

 Or those ornaments that remind us of the different stages in our kiddo's lives

Each year we look forward to decorating the tree and getting out the family decorations again.  We love to laugh as we remember each of the ornaments and who they belonged to or what the reason was for each of them.  Each year we add an ornament or two.  Someday when our kiddo's are grown, I may share an ornament or two with them to start their tree's.  But for now, I love our simple, lovely tree.

Blessings,

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God"
1 Corinthians 10:31