Journey to Excellence

Let's talk holiday decorating. On a scale of 1-10 where do you fall? (1=Scrooge and 10=Clark Griswold). What's your favorite corner-room-table-space to decorate? is it done? I have always said that if it weren't for having children, I probably wouldn't decorate for Christmas. It's just busywork that I do not enjoy. For years I overdid it and was in a bad mood the whole time I was decorating and putting away. Even last year when I simplified down to a just a tree and stockings, I was still grumpy. I figured out this year that my grumpiness was because we had a real tree. It's a mess and gets so dry and brittle and I just don't enjoy it. So this year I bought a $20 artificial tree and stuffed it full of our decorations. I put a berry sprig on the fireplace mantle with our stockings. And I made a small advent corner. And that was it. And it felt good. I am enjoying the simplicity. So, to answer the questions, I would have to give myself a 2. ...

Today I am guzzling coffee during Coffee Chat time. You know how most people suffer from Hump Day on Wednesdays? For me, it's Tuesdays. I think I feel rested up and inspired over the weekend and then overachieve on Mondays. Then Tuesday mornings hit and I am a zombie. And as I sit here on the couch with a blanket on my lap and two doggies snuggled up close, I know that in about an hour I am going out to run and it's dark, cloudy, windy and a cold 35 degrees that feels like 25 with the wind. But for now ... Time to share that favorite holiday recipe. Do you have your Christmas menu prepared? We do traditional turkey and fixins on Thanksgiving, so I always want to do something different on Christmas. I always start the morning with biscuits and gravy and cinnamon rolls for my family and my parents. Then in the afternoon I prepare a large dinner for anybody who can be here, including extended family. This year's menu consists of: Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Pork Loi...

We had such a great Thanksgiving break, and it was well-deserved. The kids have worked so hard this school year! I have been so proud of them. We are only a couple of days away from hitting our 100th day of school for the year. We are putting in four more solid weeks and then are taking an extra long Christmas break. The next four weeks will be much of the usual: grammar, literature, personal reading, pre-algebra, astronomy, Greek mythology, Missouri history. Eli will continue to have speech therapy and will be bowling in youth league once a week. Brynne will continue to have basketball practice and games four days a week. We will continue to host our weekly enrichment class where the boys will get in some geography studies with "Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?" and the girls will do some holiday creative writing and art. We have a lot of work to do and need to stay focused. But, we are definitely going to have a more relaxed attitude during these last weeks of 2016...

Give us three rhyming words that say something about your Thanksgiving holiday (or your most recent holiday gathering if you didn't celebrate Thanksgiving). Squabble, gobble, wobble. What's a holiday without a little family disagreement? But it was all good and we enjoyed our Thanksgiving weekend together. My older kids had the funny idea to put two lemon halves under the skin of the turkey breast to make a "female" turkey ... *ahem*! It was so disturbing, but very funny. But it made the turkey really sour. We won't do it again, but it garnered some laughs. And, of course, after eating until we could burst, we definitely wobbled for a couple of days. I think I am still wobbling. When did you last say, 'the more the merrier'? Did you mean it? I don't remember the exact time I last said it, but I do say it pretty often (or something with the same meaning). I don't always really mean it deep down, but I try to be all-inclusive so if someon...

On November 8, my last Tuesday Coffee Chat post , I talked about some of my plans for doing something for myself. That was the challenge. I rambled a lot in my post because I had been feeling very blah/lost/apathetic/etc. I just hadn't felt myself for quite some time. My goal was to read a chapter a day out of A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George and allow God to be infused more into my daily activities. So, how did I do? I did not read a chapter a day. But, I did start reading it and have been reading it slowly and absorbing it into my life. It's a good book with lots of insight. Throughout my reading I realized some other things I need ... * I need to lighten up about relationships and just allow them to be what they are, to allow people to have the flaws that they have and worry more about my own flaws than theirs. * I need to start my day with God so have been enjoying a daily devotional sent right to my phone via Joyce Meyer's app. It s...

Santa came early and I got a new laptop! Yay! Now I can actually start blogging again without saying lots of bad words and considering throwing my computer through the window! It's been a grueling several months babying along my old Mac, and my new MacBook Air is amazing! I don't have any photos on this new computer yet, and I am NOT going to rev up the old one to send myself some photos. So this will, hopefully, be the last photo-less blog post. I mentioned in a previous post that we are ahead of schedule this year with our hours. That feels great! So we didn't stress when we took a full week off for Thanksgiving break and previously had to take almost a full week off school for sickness. In most subjects we have been moving along steadily completely a lesson each week. We have been doing lots of reading, researching historical events alongside the show Timeless , enjoying astronomy and Greek Mythology, and learning more and more about Missouri's history. Pre-Al...

For the month of November, Leslie at Tuesday Coffee Chat is asking us to choose something we want/need to do for ourselves and to concentrate on that for the whole month. Then we can check in each Tuesday for a progress report. This election has got me, like most people, feeling a little discombobulated. I feel all out of sorts. Where are we headed? What are we doing? What will become of us? I have a sinking feeling that if there was ever a time to get close to God and get right with Him it would be now. Now is the time. I think we are going to need Him. I know that I need Him, but I think I am going to need him more and more as time goes on. What is it going to take for Him to get our attention? He's got my attention. I want to be so close to God that I have an unshakable faith in Him and all He allows to happen in my life. I want to be the recipient of His blessings, but also His protection. I cannot change the world. I cannot change any other one person. But I can...