Season's Greetings!

Happy Holidays!

Okay, I know it seems a little bit early to start with the holiday cheer, but the way the last few years have flown by, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here before I know it.  Last Christmas snuck up on me and had me in a state of  shock, panic and total exhaustion.  I am determined for that NOT to happen again!

I want to be able to live in the moment

this holiday season.

I look forward to spending another Thanksgiving with my family in the hill country, a tradition we have carried for all eleven years of Katherine’s life {and a few before she came along!}.  I love this special time with the people who have my heart,  just hanging out and spending time together.

This Christmas I am going to focus more on celebrating the greatest gift ever given – the humble birth of my Savior, Jesus. 

For the last few years, our family has watched The Nativity Story on Christmas Eve,  and I always enjoy reading the book The Handmaid and The Carpenter  by Elizabeth Berg.  

This year I will add The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare {one of my all time favorite books} as a story to read with Katherine. 

But before I can relax, I will make my list

and check it twice – then be done with it!

I am already starting to gather supplies for what will be the homemade presents I will be giving this year.  Here is a sneak peek of a few projects in the works:

I am also starting to put together my list of baking supplies that I will need for those special treats I will give to my friends and neighbors – it is just one way I can let them know how much they mean to me and how grateful I am to have them in my life.  Of course, my little helper elf has always enjoyed delivering the Christmas goodies, so she, too, will have to plan her delivery route ahead of time.

Are you already planning for your Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays?  Do you have any special traditions during the holidays?  I’d love for you to share them with me here on the blog so others may be inspired to start a tradition, too.

Blessings,

School Organization Blessings

Our first week of home school went smoothly, partly because we worked hard to re-establish our school area.  In this blessed matchbox of a home in which we live, there isn’t much room for us to spread out, so we modified and relocated our “school room”. 

Out of the “spare” bedroom we moved {it is used as a playroom, a library, a storage room and, on occasion, a bedroom for any guest willing to sleep on a roll-away bed or in a sleeping bag on the floor}.  Using the room as a school room was difficult - too many distractions.  We are now doing lessons out in the dining room, which is the only dining area we have – so it has to look nice.  Fortunately, there is a bookcase built into the end of the kitchen island on the dining room side of the kitchen.  That bookcase is serving as command central for most of our home school books, curriculum, and supplies.

We pared down our books, binders, folders and supplies so that we had only what we will need for the first six weeks of school. 

To organize Katherine’s six subjects’ worth of textbooks, workbooks and folders, we repurposed three large magazine organizers {that previously held long forgotten coloring books}.

To keep pencils, highlighters, colored pencils, rulers and scissors in one neat spot, we repurposed a large, cardboard “drink” carrier we found in my in-laws’ recycle bin.  Originally, I thought about covering is with scrapbook paper, but it was a pain and I really wanted it to just blend in on the shelf and not stand out too much.  Instead, I spray painted it a neutral ivory and wrapped the handle with jute to keep the cardboard from digging into our fingers when we carry it.  A nifty little jute bow wrapped around the middle finished off our project.

And because I really didn’t get crafty much this summer, I made a fun little wood plaque to display on our school shelves.  It’s so much fun to see what you can make out of a scrap piece of 2x4, some sandpaper, spray paint and left over rustic red scrapbook letters!  And in less than 15 minutes, it satisfied the need to get my craft on – yet still be relevant to keeping our school area organized!

How did you get organized for your first week of school?

Blessings,