Thank Goodness.

We finally got some of it done. My husband got a some of the boys gifts on the way home and I got a few more this afternoon. I still have my nephews to buy for and each of our kids needs a couple more things, but I feel better. I also do my mom and dad's shopping and I got half of theirs done today too. I see a light at the end of the tunnel now, the last couple weeks before Christmas maybe I can relax a little bit more, knowing this is done. I'm going to start earlier next year so I can shop online. That's where I messed up, trying to shop online too late for free shipping, I guess.

I have to confess. I told a fib today. After I was gone for a few hours shopping and I came home, the kids ran to greet me at the door. Fortunately, I had the foresight to leave the gifts in the van, covered up in the back. They asked what I'd done with the presents I'd bought and I said I'd dropped them off at Grandmas on the way home. A total untruth. I feel bad about it, but I don't think it would've been good to tell them they were in the van! Now I'll have to sneak out there after I they've gone to sleep and bring them in. It's bad, I know, but it was the first thing I thought of.

Anyway, I have gotten over my shopping paralysis and gotten started.

I'm starting to get worried about this Christmas shopping thing.

Usually, we've got a pretty good handle on it by now, but not this year. I spent a lot of time putting a bunch of things in my cart on Amazon only to find that more than half of them could not be delivered by December 25. That is a terrible disadvantage to shopping late! It's difficult for me to get any actual store shopping time without the kids, so I'm not sure when I'm going to get my part done. I've sent my husband a list of things to look for on his way home from work, but I like to do some of the shopping too, that way we've both picked some of the kids things out. I will feel better when this is done and I'm just trying to sneak around and get them wrapped!

Pipe cleaner sculptures and other things.

These are some pipe cleaner sculptures the younger two made last night. They've been inspired by a book from the library which showed them how to make all these. I think they're cute. I'm not sure what we're going to do with them. Right now, they're all over the couch.

Today we don't seem to have any appointments or anything so hopefully it will be a good day for me to get a lot of medical transcription done as well as a productive school day. I'm giving some thought to changing the schedule when we get back from Christmas break, adding in more grammar and science. The science part will be met with a lot of happiness from my kids, but I'm not so sure about the grammar part.

To clarify, most of the time when I'm talking about what we'll be studying, I'm talking about the younger 2. The oldest is in high school and he has certain subjects that he's working on, on his own. We also use his American History textbook as a spine and we all study American History together each day. He's had a lot of trouble with a couple of the books he's been using to study on his own, science and language arts, and is doing well with all of other ones. I've been debating whether to replace the 2 that he's having so much trouble with. I hate to, but honestly, I tried to sit down and do the science with him and I just found the text to be very difficult to read. I've battled with myself about this for several long months. Yes, I know he will someday have to do things he doesn't want to do but on the other hand, he's not learning anything from these books and I do want him to learn. That's the benefit of home education, right?; an education tailored for the child?

If I can get a good high school science text we may all do it together as we are doing the American History, I can just adapt it to everyone's level.

Some Pre-Christmas fun.

We enjoyed doing this Mad-Lib of the night before Christmas.

We did it.

I managed to make school a priority yesterday and we got it mostly done. We worked on least common denominators. We studied American History. I had to take my mom to the doctor yesterday afternoon, so I wasn't around to supervise reading and writing. I never did ask my husband if he did, so that part may have been neglected a little. After I got back from the doctor's, I took the kids to craft night at the library where the youngest 2 got to make 6 Christmas ornaments for our tree (each) and the oldest got to spend some time on the library's computer's fast internet. The homeschool group was there too, so we all got to do some socializing. It was nice. After we got home from the library, I did the usual read-aloud. We're reading Hank Zipzer. Then we all had a discussion about the book character's learning disabilities and how his teacher handing him a homework packet to take on vacation was not helpful to him and the kids each talked about how they learn best. Then my daughter read 2 Christmas picture books to her younger brother, something that's good for both of them. He enjoys having someone read to him because he doesn't read very fast yet and she enjoys reading aloud. So if you add that day all together, adds up into a pretty good learning day.

The view from here.

This was the view from my kitchen window today, both of our girl cats, Zoey and Xena.

We're going to do school today and do a good job of it too. It seems like homeschooling has been getting the short end around here lately. Anyway, today we're going to get something done. I just know it.

Hopefully.

Ahhh.

I don't have to work today, which is always good. The floor is done except for the trimwork. We have a Christmas party to go to for the homeschool group and that's it. I think we will do a kind of relaxed school schedule this morning and go to the party and call it a day. We deserve a break today. ;-) Whoops, I just remembered I'm supposed to bring cookies to the homeschool party. Maybe I'll go get some cookie mix this morning? I guess I could make them from scratch but who knows how that would turn out? I'm not that experienced of a cookie baker. Hmmm. Maybe I do need to go do some shopping?

We got our Christmas tree up, finally. The younger 2 kids have been chomping at the bit to do it since Thanksgiving, but we wanted to wait until the floor was done. They put it up last night and had it decorated in no time flat. Later today, we'll go put up Grandma's tree. I can't believe how fast Christmas season has come upon us!

Flooring again.

The flooring is about 90% done. My youngest son said we ought to be on the show "Weekend Warriors" because we only work on the weekends. Truth is, I haven't done any of it. My idea of getting flooring put down is to call in professionals. I've just kept working at my job and supplying the workers with food and iced tea.
Anyway, it looks great and I'm very happy with it.

The first picture was what it looked like when they stopped working on it. (The furniture is still all shoved up against the walls.) The second picture is about 2 hours later when it had turned into Littlest Pet Shop world.