i WILL stay home, i WILL stay home, i WILL stay home

For the new year, I am trying to stay home more.

Here is the extent of our schedule. We leave home on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Also, on Monday night Eaden has her acrobat class. I am trying to see if Naia and Taven can switch to Mondays as well (gymnastics) so that we can just leave Monday and Tuesday. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we stay home! And hopefully Wednesday too soon! It is truly amazing. My life is the best. Even though I want to sell my house and live on land, I have nothing to complain about.

Here are some pictures from Monday. We are pretty much unschoolers now, meaning no set homeschooling schedule or curriculum. The only rule we have is no screens until after Daddy comes home. The kids always wake up and head to their spot by the window. I wake up, start coffee, feed the chickens, and get breakfast going. After the kids have been fed, I can sit down and read (usually for a very short while). 

The kids usually head straight outside after eating.

It doesn't take long before they ask for more food. Ugghhh! Always eating! I am trying to get them to eat fewer times per day. It is kind of working.

 I ask Naia if she would like to work on her reading and she politely says "ummm but don't I look like an artist (with the scarf)"? I take that as a hint and help her get out the paint. We had classical music on in the background (sometimes I need no words) and I told her "this is an artist's music, you know." That made her happy.

Later in the day, they all took their new gloves out back to play catch.

Tuesday is busy day. We run around getting everything done that needs to be done away from home. We go to the library, purchase food for the week, and I let the kids explore some place outside.

On our way to the nature sanctuary, we passed a school and I said "awwwe, all of those poor kids stuck in prison (HAHA I'm the worst!)." Naia replied, "where? At school? BORING!"

Today, we were able to put our new binoculars, nature kit, and pond dipping net to use. Thank you Santa!

 Eaden was relaxing, examining some of her finds with a magnifying glass when Mirek the Terror came crashing through destroying her peaceful serenity.

 Next we went by my parents to pick up some dry firewood for later this week. We do not NEED a fire ever here in southeast Texas, but there is a hard freeze coming and the kids always beg me to start one. They are nice I have to say.

 Dairy farm dogs.

 Eaden is madly in love with this dog and has been since she was three or so.

One more day out (and only down the street for an hour), then four days home! 

HOME SWEET HOME.

Sucking the marrow out of Christmas

In the same way that Thoreau wanted to "suck out all the marrow of life," we want to suck out all the marrow of Christmas. Make each day count. Stretch it ouuuuuuuuutttttttttt. Live s.l.o.w.l.y. Live simply. Live.....

I am often amazed when people wonder how I "do it all." I mean how hard is it to stay home and do one craft a day? It's not hard! Maybe because I take so many pictures it looks like more than it really is. By posting on social media sites all that we do, am I shoving it in peoples' faces? Am I bragging? 

No. I am sharing. Sharing is caring! We share to inspire. We share because we love what we do. We share because sharing makes what we do more meaningful. We are creating ourselves and creations are meant to be shared. Right? Sometimes, I feel like the purpose of life is to share. I love reading about other people and how they live their lives. We are all so awesome in our own way. It is amazing. So..........SHARE!

My goal as a mother is to make memories. To me, that is a huge part of what life is about. 

What do I remember about my childhood? I remember going to the beach house, and the river house, and camping at Chain o' Lakes with alligators, all of my dad's Christmas lights, playing the lottery ticket game, singing the street name song, getting donut and chocolate milk points for each garage sale I went to with my Dad, making my dad drop me off down the street from school because whenever I opened the door to his car garbage poured out. I remember my mom putting up with my horrible behavior at Girl Scout meetings but how she was still a great troop leader, I remember how she sewed all of my awesome Halloween costumes, she sewed me the vests I asked for in 5th grade (lol), and how I would hide under the cloth at ClothWorld. I remember picking out cow fabric for my favorite cow shorts, and I remember her finding all of my weed and flushing it down the toilet (or did she?). I remember pretending I was an ice skater on the street in front of Judy's house while waiting for my mom to pick me up, and I remember walking home from school to watch Jerry Springer at her house as well. I remember us sword fighting with butcher knives and her cutting my finger, later resulting in stitches. We told our parents she was cutting pizza and I reached for a slice. I remember trying to spend the night in my treehouse, but going inside because there were just too many cockroaches. I remember drumming on oatmeal containers at my Memaw and Pepaw's house and sliding down the stairs on my stomach at my Grandma Scott and Pepaw Bill's house. I remember Peepaw "Regular" saying "whatpa?" when we said "peepaw" and I remember Aunt Dorothy's Christmas cookies and Uncle Paul calling us "lil rascals." I remember Grandma Scott letting me go through her embroidery floss so that I could make bracelets and I remember Peepaw Bill letting me help him in his garden. I remember spending the night at my cousin Jordan's house and him pulling me on skates with his bike. I fell and we thought I had a concussion. He asked me how many fingers he was holding up. I also remember being dressed up as a clown with face paint and then laying down on his couch smearing the paint on the couch and just knowing I was in trouble. I remember us taking a puzzle of the United States from my Grandma's house and then deciding we would try to get to Canada. We got lost and ended up at a Harley shop. I remember these things and so much more!

Memories and the making of them are what life is made of!

Don't rush forward. Live now. Don't wish for more or for a future when you will have everything you ever wanted. Just do it now. Make the decisions that you need to make to live the life you want to live. If the life you want to live involves buying stuff and living beyond your means, I cannot help you. If the life you want to live involves spending time with family and making memories, then just do it! 

Live on less. Make the changes necessary. In the majority of cases, it can be done. People just don't want to make the sacrifice...or they are scared. Well, we only get one life. Better live it!

Anyway. For the last few years, our advent calendar has involved a string of envelopes with a craft or activity inside for each day.

The 1st day of December simply involved decorating the mantle and house a bit. We also made some Christmas cards for relatives.

 These pinecone reindeer turned out pretty cute.

We have been making these orange candle holders daily (as we eat).

My kids are always asking to make bags for the homeless. We talked about how although we are very happy at Christmas time, others might become more sad.

Paper snowflakes are always a hit. Abby was very excited when she opened up her first one (she is a big Frozen fan).

We decorated the window.

Weston.

 The kids were very excited to watch the live Peter Pan on tv, but had to entertain themselves waiting for it to start. They stuffed their pants full of every blanket we own...and although they fell asleep about an hour and a half through Peter Pan, they asked to watch it as soon as they woke up. In addition, it has inspired them to ask for acting classes...

On Friday we made salt dough ornaments with items from our pantry. I thought they turned out great. We had some popcorn kernels, lavender, roses and rose petals, and dried fruit pieces. Now all we need is a tree!

 Thankfully, these two played outside a lot.

 More oranges.

A successful first week of Christmas. However, every day that passes by, I cannot help but feel a little sad that it is all almost over. I have a complex, I know...