Advent 2014

Happy New Church Year!!!  

Advent is here again, hooray!  Time to start over.  Time to prepare for Christ to come.  Time to be watchful and ready.  Such a great time of year - kinda like Lent, but a little less harsh.

If you are curious what we have done in the past, you can read all about our previous Advents here.

TRADITIONAL:  We are doing a lot of the same stuff as these past years, including: The Traditional Advent Wreath, The Story of Christmas Book (with an ornament and reading for each day in December),  and The Jesse Tree (a lot like the Story of Christmas book - ornaments for each day that have symbols from the Scripture stories they represent).  I'm short on time so I won't go into a lot of detail on things we have previously done.  We also have our outdoor Nativity scene up.  Unfortunately none of the characters (Mary, Jesus, and Joseph) work this year and I'm too lazy to check the bulbs and fuses, but I did put lights around them so you can see they are there.

NEW:  The one new item this year is a manger for baby Jesus.  We are going to soften the bed for baby Jesus (with cut up pieces of string) by our good deeds and sacrifices.  Then on Christmas we will put our "big" baby Jesus in his bed.  This is my first year for this because I just found a "big" baby Jesus and bed that I could afford this year.

The "manger" for Jesus is in the middle and I am going to keep the string in the blue bowel beside it, until we put it in piece by piece through our acts of charity and sacrifice.  On a side note, notice how sad my Advent wreath looks without candles :(  I did find ONE after this picture, so I guess that gives me exactly a week to get more!

PRAYER:  I'm thinking of possibly doing some Liturgy of the Hours with the older kids this year.  Night Prayer is nice and short, but kind of dark and dreary, so maybe we will try Morning Prayer or Daytime Prayer.

MUSIC:  Since my son Samuel has proven he REALLY likes singing and music can be quite holy I am also hoping to add more singing - at least a song or two (a "hymn" or two - not Old MacDonald or some such - hah) with the children each day of Advent.  Perhaps we can keep this up during the Christmas Season and on to Ordinary Time, and perhaps it can encourage me to get better at playing the piano!!  (Ok, let's not get crazy - hopeful, but not crazy :)

GIFT:  I was also going to wrap up 25 books and have the kids unwrap one for each day in December, but it is the night before December 1st and I have to wrap the books so. . . I'm guessing this probably won't happen this year.  But maybe next year.  (Note: Supposedly you are supposed to give your kids 25 NEW books for this, but I figure have a TON of books we have barely read - and some really good ones, too! - so why not just wrap up the ones we have?  I imagine it would be almost as special as the kids really care more about me reading them the story, I am sure, than the actual book itself being new or old.)

CRAFT:  We also have some crafts I picked up from Oriental Trading that I was thinking of giving a try.  Nothing too spectacular, just a sticker nativity and an Advent candle craft.  I know, why waste the money on something I could probably do better from scratch?  Well, I will tell you why - because this way I might ACTUALLY DO THEM!!  I often shy from crafts because of all the prep work involved.  The prep work is done for me and the crafts were CHEAP.  Plus since they come by the dozen we can do them this year and next!!

So, there ya have it.  Sorry I cannot take time to be more exciting about all this.  Well, let me rephrase that.  I AM EXCITED about ADVENT!!  But I am once again up against the wire (as Advent is HERE!!) and I'm exhausted from being sick for a long while and then just finishing up Thanksgiving celebrations today.  So I do not have a lot of time to put lots of fun links and pictures into this post.  But something is better than nothing.  So here is something.

Jacob turned six back in August. . .

I believe I mentioned that I missed a few of my children's (Rebekah in July and Jacob in August) "birthday" posts because I was recovering from having a baby in June.  Well, I finally got Rebekah's post in back in October and now we are nearing the end of the year and the next child's birthday (Samuel) so I better get on this! 

Later in life, Jacob, when you read this, do not think it is because I love you any less that it has taken me almost an entire three extra months to post about you for your birthday!!

Without further ado, I will go into a list of random facts about Jacob (as lists are so my thing).

1) Jacob lost his first tooth today!!

2) Jacob likes to play by himself.  He will join the group sometimes, but he is often completely content if left to his own devices.

3) His toy of choice is blocks.  He likes wooden blocks and cardboard blocks.  He likes magnet blocks.  He likes mega-blocks and duplos, and OF COURSE he likes regular legos.

4) As clearly shown though his love of blocks, Jacob tends to think like an engineer.

5) Jacob likes Ninja Turtles and Spiderman.

6) He is. . . a bit stubborn at times.  (read: understatement here)

7) Jacob loves turtles.  

8) Even though he has a tough-little-boy exterior, Jacob is deeply sensitive and dislikes stories with lots of violence (like fairy tales where someone gets eaten - don't ask how I know this, it is a long story).

9) Jacob tends to be the quiet one when we are out and about, but he talks my ear off at home when no one else is around.

10) Jacob has very grippy toes and likes to use them when he climbs ropes or chains on the swing set.

My dearest Jacob, I do apologize for taking so long to post about you and all your amazing little quirks, but do know that I thank God for the wonderful little boy you are and pray that you will grown into a strong and virtuous man who seeks the Lord with all his heart!

7 Quick Takes: Zipporah Update, 4-months-old

1) At her check-up a few days ago the doctor walked in and asked, "Is she going to be your petite one?!?!"  Because our doctor was as shocked as I was to discover Zipporah is only in the 50th percentile for height and weight!!  Coming from a family of GIANT babies (Jacob coming in at 11lbs was off the chart until age 2 and all the rest have been mid to high 90th percentile) this was quite surprising!  But I must say I LOVE IT!!  It is so great to have such a light little lady to carry around!  I feel stronger than ever but thankful I only have 14lbs of Zipporah love to tote around with me.  

2) She does not mind tummy time much now.  She gets up WAY HIGH and arches her body perfectly to prepare for the crawl.  Plus she "hangs out" in that position for quite a while before finally giving in and either rolling over to her back or just resting her head down on the ground.

3) Zipporah LOVES to watch the world around her!  She seems so happy to interact with her brothers and sisters (even Miriam who gently kisses her head. . . and then tries to touch her eyes :)

4) She has started sucking her thumb (or possibly thumbs - I don't think she specifically just does one - although she does only do one at a time).  It is not an all-the-time thing, but usually after I put her in her crib when she is almost asleep she will find it and settle.  (Cue the Alleluia chorus as there is nothing like the feeling of doom when the baby cries before you even reach the door of her room, after trying to lay her down for a nap.)  Unfortunately this has led to a red nose and face sometimes (even when I try to keep her nails super-short), but such is life.

5) Zipporah does not have a giant smile yet, but I still enjoy how her face lights up when I talk to her - especially her eyes.

6) She really likes the moby wrap now.  When she was smaller I had trouble getting it to fit quite right.  But now that there is a little more to her she fits wonderfully and it is oh so comfortable!  God bless the maker of the moby :)

7) Zipporah has been sleeping quite well for being so young and small.  Although her bedtime is not set in stone (as our family schedule simply does not permit such things), she can fall asleep as early as 6:30pm (although usually it ends up being 7 or 8pm, depending on our evening activities) and will generally sleep until 8 or 9am the next morning.  She is really a "considerate" baby.  Sometimes she wakes up and just lays in her crib or chatters quietly and calmly to herself for a while - or until she falls back asleep on her own.

Zipporah Marie you are such a blessing in so many ways!  I am so grateful for your presence in our family.