The Annual Christmas Party Ordeal

Guess what faithful readers??? It's that time of year again! Time for husband's work Christmas party. You guys go through this with me every single year. Haven't we had fun? Let's look back on some of the better memories, shall we?

The Unfortunate Shirt Incident

The Better Living Through Facebook Incident

Facebook Success!

(The Pictures)

So....I'm thinking this year is going to be a bit more traumatic because of the whole maternity clothes kink thrown in there. Mind you, I'm not big yet and honestly could get away with wearing normal clothes but that would mean wearing last year's outfit. Or the year before that. Or some combination of the 2. And how many times can you recycle an outfit? Certain pieces, yes. But really. It's time for something new.

So I THOUGHT this one was in the bag. I looked online and found this:

Cute, right? It's long enough (some of these things hit mid-thigh! are you serious? mid-thigh when you're pregnant???) It's black. It has sleeves. It got great reviews. I liked it.

So after my doctor's appointment this morning (more on that later--and yes I was waiting to shop until I heard that heartbeat to make sure everything was OK!), we swung by Motherhood Maternity and found that they had.....size Small and size Medium. Which are not totally useless to me because I could use those sizes as a scarf in a pinch.

Just trying to be positive. The saleslady said they sell out of Large and Extra large really quickly. You don't say? Why would pregnant women be buying those sizes?

I tried on a few other knit dresses and was not pleased to discover that I look...how shall we say? LUMPY. The models do not look lumpy on the website. I think it may depend on better undergarments. Sigh. Also? It was disturbing to watch the girls trying on the belly pillow in the dressing room and convulsing with laughter. Good times.

So...Target has some nice options but most of them say "not sold in stores." Really Target? What DO you sell in your store?

I'm starting to freak out just a teeny bit. Not sleeveless. Longer than my 8 year old's dresses. Cute. Am I asking too much?

Suggestions? Ideas?

And yes, I CAN still wear that black skirt that I've worn 2 years in a row. I wore it Sunday. I could wear a cute fancy maternity top with it. And Carrie, I'm planning to wear the shoes again. OK?

Calling Off All Plans

Sweetheart got sick last night. The puking kind. My stomach doesn't feel so good either. I went to the store at 6:30 this morning to buy Lysol, Jello, instant mashed potatoes, and applesauce.

We will not be worrying about school today. If we get some done...fine. If not....fine.

We will be washing hand and spraying everything in sight.

We will be resting.

It's Friday. Thankful to be home and able to take care of things.

It's December and I Refuse to Panic

I have no Christmas gifts. I know some people are finished or nearly finished with their gift buying.

I have feelings about those people.

But I have nothing. But then again, I never do this time of year. However, sometimes I have some gifts made already.

I'm not feeling the crafty this year.

I do have a lot of gift ideas pinned. We'll see if I can find my motivation soon.

We have decorations up around the house, but no Christmas tree yet. Honestly I'm a bit concerned about getting a real tree with the huge drought we've had. Will it ever make it until Christmas? I guess we just will avoid the fire hazard and not put lights on it. I hate putting lights on anyway.

I am, however, ready to start our "Names of Jesus chain" tonight. Here is the link. I found it through Carissa's site.  (More great ideas on that post!) I'll be honest. I never even heard of Advent until I started reading blogs.  It's not something I grew up doing. I really don't even know where it started. But I like this chain because you just look up the verse and learn the name of Jesus each evening. We are going to color these ornaments also to go along with it. Kind of wish I had a separate tree to put them on. Hmmm.....

Have you found your December motivation? Are you feeling crafty? Are you through with your shopping and willing to admit that to me even though you know how I feel about you? Where do you stand on Advent? Can you believe it's December?

Isn't That What I've Been Saying?

Long division has been the enemy here for a few months.

It's been months and not weeks only because of inconsistent schooling, mind you. We've been on long division for a while. Simple division? No problemo. Long division where numbers don't go in evenly and there are 3 digits in the dividend? With remainders? No good.

There has been much frustration and many set backs. I don't know why it hasn't been making sense to Sweetheart but I think I have figured it out based on yesterday's occurrence.

I believe to her brain, there was a never-ending series of steps you had to go through. These steps must have seemed very random to her because she was never sure what to do next. Or where to write the answer. Or what to do after that. I was sitting right next to her with every problem....

Me: OK---how many times does 4 go into 7? Write it here. Now multiply. Multiply 4 X 1. OK--where do you write that? Now what? Subtract. Now bring down the next number. No, bring it down to here. OK--what's next?

blah blah blah

I was hoping my voice would become her inner conversation but it wasn't happening. Girlfriend was just confused. That's all.

So yesterday I found this little tutorial and had her read it out loud.

And suddenly (cue angels singing) IT ALL MADE SENSE!!!

Why? I don't know. She's very visual. Something about this tutorial just clicked with her and math was done in 1/4 of the time it usually takes.

Praise the Lord!!!! It worked for us, so I thought I'd pass that along. And now some random pictures!

These are the books we found in Sweetheart's room during the cleaning last week. Mind you, there are supposed to be NO BOOKS in their rooms as they are all housed here in the black shelves. We found more later. 

My little family watching Christmas cartoons right after Daddy got home from work the other night. 

When the Plan Goes Out the Window

I very carefully planned out our school year this summer. I scheduled all our breaks. I broke our books down into chapters and lessons and figured out how much we needed to get done each week. I copied everything and organized everything.

It was a thing of beauty.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Well.

I guess we all know that my beautiful planning is kaput. Those every-6-weeks breaks have to go. (We'll take smaller ones as needed.) I slept through a great deal of the fall so we are behind on every subject just about.

I have often given the advice to others, "Give yourself a break. You'll have time later to catch up!"

A friend is sick as a dog through her pregnancy? I don't expect her to get school done every day! Puhleeze.

A friend lives with a chronic illness? Of COURSE she will have a different looking schedule than most!

Now I have to listen to my own self.

We put up some Christmas decorations yesterday. That was way more fun than school work. We're going grocery shopping today. Life lesson. We'll take time to read Christmas books, and make presents, and enjoy this whole month....and we will do school too.

I made the calendar. It's change-able. It's flexible. We set our own schedule around here. (So thankful!) The girls will learn, and grow, and improve in all areas (maybe not as much as I had planned), every week. They will end this school year smarter than they started it.

But most importantly, they will not live with the memory of a stressed-out mama snapping at them to get busy or skipping holiday fun for math practice. So my advice still stands. It really is true--it will be OK. An off-year isn't going to hurt anyone permanently.

Besides, I know what matters most.

(And it isn't checking off my little school list!)