I'm Still Sick!

 Seriously, it's getting ridiculous.

How am I still this sick?

I am so grateful that I changed my mind about how we would do Christmas School this year.  

Had I invested in craft and baking supplies and watched day after day of lesson plans fall to the wayside, I'd be feeling far crazier than I do now.

I haven't read to the kids in over a week!

However, I do have blessings to count.

My decision regarding Christmas School was to celebrate and make do with what we have.  

     *Read books we already own.

     *Forage for supplies we already own to craft and decorate.

     *Bake old favorite recipes.

     *Watch movies from the library and on streaming services we already have.

     *Celebrate traditions that are already dear to us.

Even though I sat on the couch and lay in my bed far more than I would have liked, and even though the bare minimum of talking sent me into coughing fits, we did what Christmas School we could.

*With the help of the teen girls and Sir Walter Scott, we read aloud together from The Jesus Storybook Bible each day.  And we had Morning Meeting, even though I had to just listen to the rest of the family singing instead of joining with them.

*The kids did two copywork assignments--one from Isaiah and one from A Christmas Carol.

*Little Princess reserved movies at the library for us to watch.

*We watched 4 episodes of The Great British Bake-Off together.  This is not specifically Christmas, but it is a tradition that we love to do together each year.  We're late to the table because we rotate our streaming subscriptions instead of having them all at the same time all of the time, and now we're laughing, talking, predicting, cheering, groaning, and generally sharing a very good time together.

*Sir Walter Scott took the kids to see The Nativity Puppets.  It was his first time seeing the show!  It made the experience all the more joyful for the kids to watch their dad learn why this is one of our favorite parts of Christmas.

*Everyone did math every day.

Ladybug finished Math 5!!!
She promptly started Math 6 the very next day.

I forgot to include this from last week, but Little Princess finished Geometry, too!!!

*The kids watched Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer.

*Little Princess baked homemade bread--both gluten-free and gluten-y.  We ate it with homemade strawberry freezer jam left over from Thanksgiving.

*We decorated our tree.

*We warmed our home with our wood-burning stove every day.

*Kids shopped for and began making gifts for Christmas.  On days that I felt well and thought I was getting better, I took one or two kids at a time out for brief trips to the dollar store or a thrift store.  Each trip exhausted me but left me very happy because of the shared time with my kids.

*The church youth activity this week was ice skating, so 5 of the kids got to enjoy that this week (Little Princess attended CAP that night).

It was 28 degrees outside, and that's Beowulf skating in shorts and a t-shirt!!
I sent him in proper clothing for the weather.  I really did.
The leaders saw him and made him at least put a sweatshirt on. 😆

*In place of me reading aloud at bedtime, we've simply gathered in the living room with our own books and read quietly together.  Nature Angel did our weekly library run.  Most of the books the kids have chosen have had something to do with Pokemon or The Forgotten Five, so they're not quality, but they have created shared reading experiences and prompted lots of conversations.  Even as I write, I'm listening to two boys talk as they examine the pages of a book together.

This week, my kids have practiced a great deal of caring for their mother.  

One night, after I'd been feeling better and had used my energy both productively and profligately, Little Princess looked at me and said, "Mom, go to bed.  There are three of us home tonight (referring to herself, Nature Angel, and Belle).  We've got this."

I gratefully retreated to my bed with a mug of hot lemon tea and honey.

One really bad morning, the teens ran the whole morning routine including Morning Meeting without me.

Other kids have run errands around the house for me, protected my napping space, rubbed my back, and have generally done their best to be kind.

Beowulf had a couple of bad breakdowns this week, including one in which he broke through another set of walls. 

Sir Walter Scott was out of the house helping another child, so I was left to cope with Beowulf until he got home.  The older teens seamlessly took over the rest of the household duties, including preparations for a family birthday dinner that night!

(Having just had an appointment with his psychiatrist, we had the resources we needed to help him eventually calm down and help him have successful days after this event.)

So, while it is not what I would have liked our first week of December to look like, it has been a week of beauty and loving service . . .

. . .  which is what following and celebrating Christ should be.