A Week, Briefly (11/27/17)

I've not journaled this week at all.

Instead I've been applying for a work-at-home job as a teacher of English to children in Beijing. 

I'm not sure it is a good idea.

But I'm not sure it is not a good idea either.

Sir Walter Scott and I have been discussing it, and I've been praying with fierce sincerity to know if this is wisdom in the Lord.

Or not.

I've passed all of the interviews and tests.  I've uploaded my legal documents.  All that is left wanting is for me to sign the contract.

I can't quite do it yet. 

But we are having the nicest Advent season we've ever had.

Lola pretending to be Little Princess's shoulder angel. :)

I've pulled ideas from here and there around the internet, and I'm using Pam Barnhill's Advent Morning Time Plans as the base schedule from which we are personalizing the activities to suit our family.

I'm head over heels in love with the Jesus Storybook Bible.  I have cried while reading every story so far.  Being LDS, I didn't agree with the doctrine taught in the chapter about Adam and Eve, but whether or not I agreed with the specific doctrine didn't keep us from feeling the sweet spirit of Christ pervading this darling book. 

Even my teens like it . . . and sometimes they stay in the room when I'm reading aloud because they can't help but love what they're hearing.

We lit the first Advent candle after reading a home-created liturgy following the theme of hope.  The kids can hardly wait to participate in this weekend's reading and lighting.

We're reading gorgeous retellings of the Nativity that we've borrowed from from the library.  I'm keeping a proper list in my daily records, but I don't think it matters which book we read--they're all full of light and joy. 

I used a website to print out our picture study extra large, but the borders printed wrong, and we ended up with half inch vertical strips of white.  Nature Angel accepted the challenge to fill in the gaps.  She's amazing!  If she'd had paints instead of twistable crayons, we'd not be able to tell the difference between her word and Fra Lippo Lippi's.  She captured the details in the curls of the angel's hair, the folds of the gowns, the texture of the tile floor, the flowers . . . it's amazing!  Her assessment:  "I don't like how the angel's eyes came out."  Artists are so picky about their own work. :)

We're memorizing poems.

We're doing a lot of singing.

This week's carol was O Come, O Come Emmanuel.  How do I describe the joy that springs to my heart when I hear Brother singing, "Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Emmanuel . . ." as he walks about the house doing his chores?

Or what words can adequately express the light in my heart over Little Princess's pencil sketch of the Nativity and her written testimony of Christ on the same page?

All of the planning and praying is coming together into a wonder-full experience of celebrating Christ.

We're also keeping up with individual school for the Elementary 8.  In particular Lola and Baymax are tickled pink to have new schoolbooks--ABC coloring books that are home printed and bound.

The teens are working--some more than others. :)  Super Star managed to write 25,000 words of a novel for NaNoWriMo, and now that the month is over, she's determined to keep plugging away at her book until it is done . . . just at a slower pace, now that I'm requiring her to bring her regularly scheduled school subjects back to the fore.

The teens and I read and watched Much Ado About Nothing.  Then we attended our classics book club meeting and watched it again.  (Seriously, one can never have too much Shakespeare via Kenneth Branagh . . . and Emma Thompson!)

Baymax thinks it's fun to slice our snack apples by turning a crank.

And we had the privilege of watching a live stream of The Nutcracker courtesy of The Colorado Ballet Company.  Next week the oldest 6 girls are coming with me to our city ballet company's production, but the littles got the chance to watch and revel in it at home, where they could ask questions and wiggle and have snacks.

Right now I'm listening to Ladybug read Green Eggs and Ham aloud to our toddlers.

It's a miracle to hear her read!


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