Yes, I’m still alive, but be warned, I’m barely kicking.
Don’t worry, I’m not sick or dying or anything like that (well, no more than anyone else). I’ve just been incredibly busy with a zillion and one things.
In September we tackled both kids going to school on alternating days. They have to be there by 9am. I am not a morning person, thus, getting myself up and somewhat functioning at 8 in the morning is pretty much torture. I hate the morning. We had what people call a 500 year flood and the town we live in was basically an island for a few hours. Lots of people had damage to their houses. Our house was (and is) fine. We are fortunate to live on higher ground.
In October we had fun playing in the leaves and doing the typical Halloween thing. Our church does a Harvest Fest every year on Halloween night and we took the kids to that. They played games, got LOTS of candy, and won some pretty sweet prizes. I still hated the morning.
November brought some wonderful events. The kids’ school had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, we had our normal family dinner, and then the kids and I did yet another Thanksgiving dinner with my parents a couple days later. We had soo much turkey that week, it wasn’t even funny. I still hated the morning.
December…yes…in itself December is a crazy month, but with our extracurricular activities the word ‘busy’ or ‘crazy’ just doesn’t do it justice. Our church sponsored a skating party to celebrate Jesus’ birthday, then the next day Awana had another birthday party for Jesus. The kids each had a Christmas party for their school class, so we had back to back Christmas parties. So we had 4 days straight of parties!! (yes, run away screaming……I wanted to!) Our Awana club adopted a family for Christmas and we had a GREAT turnout for that. The entire back of my minivan was full of gifts for the children in the family AND we were able to provide them with a full Christmas dinner. Tonight we’ll go to our church’s Christmas Eve service which I absolutely love. Tomorrow we’ll do our regular Christmas morning stuff and then the kids and I will load up and go to my parents’ house to visit for a few days.
Oh, I still hate the morning.
Come January, things will slow down just a little bit, making room for a year-long project that I will be doing. I’ve been slowing reading through Tsh Oxenreider’s book Organized Simplicity and the companion e-book One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler. Decluttering and simplifying our life is extremely high on my priority list and these books have helped me make some significant changes. So, starting in January, I’ll be going through Tsh’s One Bite at a Time e-book and Lord willing, by the end of the year I will live in an uncluttered life and home. Will you join me for this year long project? Come back on January 1st to see what it’s all about.
