Time For A Break

Today is our last day of school until the new year. While to some it may seem like an enormously huge Christmas break, it is just what is needed in this Nutty household. I am looking forward to it. Partly to regain some lost ground, but mostly so that I can breathe during this season. I am a planner (remember??) I even plan about planning. But lately I have been unfocused and hectic. I have tried to convince myself that this is perfectly normal for a large family and that eventually I will just get used to it. I like perfection and I have watched it quietly slip away from me at a most alarming rate. I most certainly am not happy about this and have started to become very nervous that I will never reclaim the organization and schedule on which I thrive. I have decided that this is not how it should be and I am not happy with the sloppy, always late, never quite together family we have become. And I plan to take my life back!



My first order of business this season was to commit to nothing regarding our church. This year we will attend regular Sunday morning service, but this year I will not head up our Christmas Adult Music program, or the Children's Musical, or the Live Nativity. Do you know how great it feels to know that this month I have TIME!!!! Time to spend doing things with my children that will build lasting memories and tradition. We have been working on refreshing the memories of our littlest ones on the words to a few Christmas carols, and plan to visit a nursing home to sing and deliver Christmas cards. I could not have imagined fitting this in last year.



We also plan to bake, something that I always seems to run out of time for and I end up cheating by making a huge batch of spritz cookies, sprinkling on some sugar and calling that my holiday baking. This year I have purchased a lovely cookie magazine and I plan to bake as many different varieties of cookie that I can.



I have also collected a very nice pile of Christmas books over the years, a lovey advent calendar and Christmas devotional. I plan to have a family reading time each night to count down the days to Christmas.

For the SCHOOL record, so far I have art (cards), math (baking) and reading covered.........

Last year we were so busy with the work I was doing that we didn't have time to drive around to see lights, have a cookie painting party, or paint our holiday T-shirts (thankfully my sister came over to paint with my kids so they didn't miss out, but I never sat down with them), My annual Christmas ornament was completed in the middle of the night and I barely had time to focus on the true meaning of the season. I was tired and irritable and just wanted it all to end. The best part of last year was when we packed up our Travel Trailer on New Year's Eve and hit the road, we spent a wonderful few days in Savannah, just our family. It was cold and a little rainy, but it was fantastic. So before this season gets away from me once again, I have set the ground rules.



I have made my lists and I am checking them off (this brings me great satisfaction).



I have scheduled the events that are really important to me for our family.




I have finished my shopping!!!!!!





I have chosen my cookies, ornament design, and bought our T-shirts.





I have purchased our Christmas clothes, shoes and all (shoes are difficult in our family).






Our Christmas photos have been taken and the Christmas card is ready to be printed.






I am now ready to enjoy this month and that is the reason there will be no ( sit at the table with open books) school. There will be fun and laughter. We will make messes and play games. We will be using the lessons we have learned up until now in everything we do. But it will be a break and we will all emerge from this season renewed and refreshed, ready to delve back into our books and the wonderful world of learning. As a mom I write this with a smile in my heart. To know that I get the weeks ahead to truly enjoy my family free from the stresses that only outside influence brings is such a joy. Family is precious, time is fleeting and I plan to make every moment count. May you and your family enjoy every moment of this Blessed Season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

First of all I can not believe that I have put this off until the morning of Thanksgiving. The truth of the matter is I did not procrastinate out of laziness, but rather out of emotional overload. When I think back over the last year it feels like 10 years. So much has happened both physically and emotionally in my life that I am most thankful for the hand of God the holds mine through all things. Secondly I am thankful for my husband and how he gives me strength. I have noticed that that strength does not always come easily, but I could not imagine one day of my life without him. Our anniversary is this weekend and I look forward to spending three wonderful days alone with the man I am madly in love with most days, and threaten to replace on some!!!

I am thankful for the strength of my family ( mom, dad, brothers and sisters...etc) and how in the midst of tragic or tragedy we are a family the binds together and when all are doing the part they were designed by God to do in our family, we are a well oiled machine. I am blessed to have them even on the days they are most frustrating.

I am thankful for my beautiful children. They have taught me so many lessons this year. One is that I may not ever have it all together ever again, but I have also never enjoyed life as much as I do now. I may always be somewhat buried under the laundry of 5 children, but I can not even thinks of what a day would look like without one of them here. I thank God for each of them today and the qualities with which He blessed each of them. I have my challenges, but if I am faithful in my commitment to raising them up as God has said them I will prevail.

I am thankful for friends. A few have stood above the rest this year and for that I am truly thankful. I am discovering what a true friend is and learning not to be hurt when I discover I do not have many true friends. But finding myself blessed with the ones I do have.

I am thankful for our schooling. What a privilege and joy it is to have my kids schooled at home. What peace it brings me to know that I am laying a strong, Biblical foundation for them to stand upon in the coming years. How thankful I am to know that their formative years are being shaped by me and my husband and that we can rest in the knowledge that they are better off for it. There are many years ahead for them to be bombarded with the problems and choices of this world we live in and I pray they will stand strong on the foundation of God.

I am thankful for my country, my home and neighborhood, my church, but mostly I am thankful for the forgiveness of my Savior. Because it is through Him and the relationship He offers that I am able to face each day. Psalm 118:24 "This is the day that the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it."

May each of you have a blessed Thanksgiving!