Our Crazy Week and Our New Addition to the Family

Well, all I can say after this week is phew! What a week it has been! First we said good-bye to Dear Husband who left for 97 days for pre-deployment training, after which he will deploy. We attempted to get back into the school book groove and prepare for Tapestry of Grace Y2 week 18/19 co-op to begin this week. I also had thoughts of picking up Christmas decorations and getting them back into their home in the attic. Ha! Then life kicked in and this week turned into a lesson in having a servant's heart and how to comfort those who are grieving. Dear Church friends had their precious 6 week old taken in an untimely, unexplainable death and this week had to say good-bye to her and the life they had with her here on earth. Then a member of our co-op said good-bye to her sweet Daddy,who had lived in her home with her family, as he passed into the arms of Jesus. Food was needed, loving words and arms of comfort too, the wagons were circled as we say in our family and the AGAPE love flowed from fellow Christians taking care of one another. It is breath taking to watch and to be part of such love. I can only imagine what Heaven will be like when I watch the body of Christ in action. Non-stop, AGAPE love flowing all of the time, how mind blowing! Having been on the receiving end of this stream of love I know what a blessing it is, and I am always honored to be part of taking care of people in times of need. However, the other things that are part of the week take time too, and this week we had our school lessons altered a lot. I know that these life lessons ultimately are more important for the children to learn then anything I can teach them from a book and that is why I will just start again on Monday with the school book groove!

In addition to husband leaving and life happening around us, we also have a new member of our family to introduce. Our family proudly introduces:

Ginger, from Yanceyville, NC. She is our deployment puppy and she is so sweet! She has been a wonderful addition to our family and a great distraction for everyone. Sandy is even starting to get used to her. (Sandy is our 14 year old hound mix) Ginger is a lab and maybe a little of something else too, she is a rescue puppy! We are making great memories with her and the kids love her. These pictures are from when we traveled up to the shelter in Yanceyville to get her.

Sugar Plums Dancing in Our Heads

I am posting today about our experience with the Nutcracker ballet this year. My dd is dancing with the Carolina Ballet and has the honor of being a truffle and dancing with the Sugar Plum Fairy. Talk about what dreams are made of for a little girl! The whole experience has been wonderful, lots of work and time committment, but wonderful. I am so humbled by my daughter and her attitude in dancing in this ballet. She has been full of pure joy and I have had so much fun shadowing her and watching from the sidelines. I really have had to sit on my hands when I see the different dancers from the Carolina Ballet company come and go...I guess you could say I was starstruck! I love this time of year and I love this ballet. If you get a chance, go to the Carolina Ballet's Nutcracker this year or to your local ballet company's production of this great ballet or maybe catch a version of it on television. It definitely has our family dreaming of sugar plums and such.

12 Days of Christmas-Two Turtle Dogs

Our family has had an extra great week with a visiting dog cousin, "Happy". She has been such a fun addition to our family. The kids have had fantastic adventures taking care of another dog. It has been a good experiment to see what it would be like at our house with two dogs. Since our dog, "Sandy" is 14, she cannot hear so well, so her cousin has been hearing things for her. The wonderful barking of two happy dogs! Sandy is rejuvenated by having her younger cousin, who is 11, around to get into trouble with her. How does the song go? Two turtle dogs and a partridge in a pear tree?
Christmas time and two dogs, what more could a kid ask for, all the excitement and the sheer joy! Well, the trial run has gone very well, and the kids are very sad about "Happy" leaving at the end of the weekend. What a great part of the 12 days of Christmas!

Surveying My Priorities

I want to take a minute and write about checking priorities during this typically busy Christmas holiday season. Really I started looking at priorities before Thanksgiving, knowing that Christmas tends to be a whirlwind of activities. I am trying to keep from getting overwhelmed by all the stuff of this time of year... It is easy to get bogged down quickly. I have worked hard to make school my priority with the kids, giving them my 100%...most of the time I have been able to. When I have to divide myself up into more pieces, things begin to slip. I have had to really pray and determine what activities are truly worthy of our time and energy right now and which ones can be dropped or skipped this year or maybe done in a different way. It is good to take a survey of priorities every once and awhile, really every season...so I can see where we are headed in homeschooling, as a family and individually as well. Almost like a spring cleaning of the priorities in my life. I thank God for helping me sort them all out and for giving me the peace to let some things go... That's really the hardest part, realizing that it is o.k. not to do EVERYTHING!