A bit of this and a bit of that~

Hi y’all!  The blog of the little white house has been quiet but the actual little white house has been anything but quiet.  We’ve been very busy.  Every December I tell myself that I want this season to be a peaceful, slow season for our family.  However, I’ve not been able to obtain the slow part yet.  Since I can’t seem to slow us down, I’ve decided to work on the peaceful part.  I’ve found that the key to peace in my home during the hustle and bustle of the season is in direct connection to…

{my attitude}

This year, I am making it a point to stay calm and in control of my emotions despite the stress that I feel inside.  Being human, I sometimes fail to do this.  But I find that as I stay in God’s Word and keep joy in my heart then my family life is more peaceful.  Of course, now that I mentioned it on the blog, I will probably fall flat on my face over the next few days.  That’s what always seems to happen!  {smile}

This post will be one of my “catching up” posts.  It seems that I’m having to do that a lot lately!

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Every year, we do some sort of advent countdown.  In the past, we’ve had a countdown chain and advent calendars.  This year, I let the kids make countdown bags using lunch bags and some scrapbook paper.  Into each bag, we placed a little activity to be completed for the day.

Each night, a child will take down a bag, open it and read (or have read) the activity in the bag.  These activities are Bible readings or other activities that help our family to focus on the real meaning of the season. 

Last week, one of the activities was a polar express night.  They loved it!  I’ll have to write about it soon!

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A while back the kids asked me what I wanted for Christmas.  I told them two things:  (1) to have a peaceful home {they were squabbling quite a bit that day} and (2) to have blonde hair again. 

A large portion of my life was spent as a blonde but then as I have gotten older, it has gotten darker and darker.  I just did not feel like myself at all! 

David treated me to a hair “reblonding” for Christmas.  Finally, I feel like me again!  In the picture above, you can’t really see how blonde it because it is up in a ponytail.  However, when it is down, it is blonde. Really blonde.  My kids tell me I look about 28 years old!  I don’t know if that’s true but it was worth every cent if it made me look eleven years younger!  (Somehow, it made me feel younger too!)

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In September, I started teaching The Young Musicians choir (4th – 6th grade) at our church.  I love it!  It combines two things that I truly love:  teaching and music.  Sunday a week ago, the children’s choirs had their musical performances and it was beautiful!  There is something just absolutely beautiful about hearing children sing praises to our King!

This past Friday night, we took the 1st through 6th grade choir members caroling.  We began at a nursing home.  First, we sang in the dining room and then we walked up and down all of the halls as we sang carols.  The elderly people would wave at us, sing with us, and just smile.  It was one of the most moving things to be a part of.  I would sometimes get choked up as I saw a staff member with tears in their eyes.  Two of my children went, and they too were deeply touched by singing there.  It was a sweet, sweet night.

Bryce, Grant, and I made these ornaments to give to the choir members.  They are so easy to make and come out very, very cute.  We filled plain glass ornaments with shredded paper.  Then we added some musical note stickers and I wrote on them with a paint pen.  We finished it off with a little bow on the top and voila!

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It seems that I am out of blogging time even though I had more to share.  Today, the kids are at their MawMaw and PawPaw’s house so that David and I could finish some of our Christmas shopping.  It is very {actually too} quiet around here!  But I need to take advantage of my time and get some things knocked off of my to-do list.  I will see you soon!