Thoughts on a Monday afternoon

I'm ashamed of how infrequently I've been posting here. I just looked at my archives and I had thirty-one entries last November. We're more than half way through this month and how many posts do I have? Three! Well, four if you count this one. I just can't seem to get back on track with this blog. Every day there are new stories I'd love to relate, but I just put it off and the next thing I know, I'm dragging my weary body to bed at the end of another long, exhausting day. It's not that there's really so much going on around here, I just used to be so much better at recording all the little things that make me so happy to look back on now.

I am excited about the fun week ahead of us. Darren and I have been busy getting our house, yard, and garage in order and I can't tell you what peace that brings me. We're finishing up a few ongoing projects today so that tomorrow and Wednesday I can just focus on spending time with the kids, getting ready for Thanksgiving by doing little crafts, baking, and reading stories together. We did make a Thanksgiving wreath last week and I really love the way it turned out. I actually had all the supplies I needed in our craft closet, left over from last year. We simply cut a ring from the side of a cardboard box that I had out in the garage, wrapped it with ribbon, tied on a large bow, and then attached fall foam stickers on which Dylan had written things that we are thankful for.

My older brother and his family will be coming down on Thursday and staying through the weekend, and we're having our big dinner at my aunt's house this year with my dad's side of the family. I actually have to work Thanksgiving night until 1:00a.m., and I'm hoping to get at least a couple of hours of sleep after that before hitting the stores with my younger brother and my sister-in-law! I am sooo looking forward to that. It's become a tradition for my brother and me to brave the sales on the morning after Thanksgiving and then enjoy breakfast out together. (One year Darren asked me if I'd be taking newborn Caitlyn along with me and I told him he was crazy. Needless to say, she stayed home, tucked into the warmth of our bed with Darren! I don't think either of them were even awake until after I returned home!) I am so excited that my sister-in-law will be along with us this year!

I think we're going to put our Christmas tree up over the weekend. I can't wait! It's been really cold the past couple of days and so it's finally beginning to feel more like the holidays really are just right around the corner. I bought a few new scented candles a few days ago and I love, love, love the way my house smells right now! I think our homeschooling focus will shift to Advent and Christmas after Thanksgiving, and I'm eager to implement some changes that I plan to make to our curriculum at the start of the new year. I hate to detail them too much right now, as I'm still deciding on a few things, but I feel really good about where we might be headed. I was worried for a while that I might already be burned out with homeschooling, but when I really sat down and tried to figure out the source of my discontent, I realized that it was simply a matter of having already finished much of what I had planned for Dylan's kindergarten year. I realized that I need to present him with just a little more of a challenge in his school work, and that I need more structure than I had originally thought. So that's what we'll be trying. More structured, planned out lessons, at a level that's a bit more advanced. I think it will be better for both Dylan and me.

So that's where things are with me right now. I'm busy, tired, but happy. So very, very happy. And OH! Oh, my goodness! Darren just walked in the door, and showed me a few books he picked up at the bookstore. Included among them are two My First Little House Books: Winter Days in the Big Woods and Christmas in the Big Woods. They are beautiful! I love them! I had no idea this series even existed until about two seconds ago. Oh, yes. I am happy.