Well, on Monday, we officially start back to homeschooling and life. On the one hand, I’m really ready to get back to our consistent routine again. On the other hand, we had such a calm and peaceful Christmas break that I almost wish it would last forever!
We took the kids to a Frozen on Ice Skating Program and then they got to go ice-skating afterward. Jesse Paine also totally surprised us with a night at the Gaylord Opryland hotel as a Christmas present. I love that man so much! It was beautiful there, we had so much fun, and it was the perfect way to end our week.
Starbucks had Peppermint Mochas on sale for 50% off one day, but I did even better: I made my own sugar-free homemade mocha that was probably 1/5th the calories of Starbucks and really delicious. You can find the recipe here.
There is a first for everything. On the flight back to Kansas, one of our kids ended up getting really sick and had to use one of these on the plane. Gratefully, this child gave us fair warning, had good aim, and didn’t end up actually getting the full-blown flu. I’ve never been so grateful for this little white bag… I can’t imagine the mess and stink there would have been in the plane otherwise.
One of my favorite parts of December: Goal-setting for the new year!! My list-making self just loves, loves, loves it.
I’m so grateful for Grandmas. We hadn’t decorated cookies or made gingerbread houses yet this December and I was feeling like I’d dropped the ball since we usually always do both things.
Never fear, we got to Kansas and one Grandma had planned to decorate gingerbread houses with the kids and the other Grandma planned a cookie decorating party. My kids were so excited about doing both activities — and I was so thankful that not only did it not feel like I’d dropped the ball as much, but also that they got to make these sweet memories with their Grandmas.
We learned a new-to-us game with Jesse’s family called Tenzi. You should have heard the screaming, whooping, and hollering that happened. Such a fun game for a big group and a wide range of ages. Have you played it before?
We closed out our Christmas day celebration by going to a late-night showing of Unbroken.
Wow! I cannot recommend this movie highly enough! One of the best I’ve watched in a long time. It’s intense, but such a powerful, powerful true story of courage and forgiveness. And now I MUST read the book (can you believe I haven’t read it yet??)
We came home from Kansas all really sick with fevers, sore throats, aches, etc. and have spent the rest of our Christmas break recovering from that. Unfortunately, none of us were exempt from getting it and it took each of us around 5-6 days to recover. So that wasn’t too fun. But gratefully, we had a free week and at least one or two of us were well enough at all times to take care of the rest of the family who was down at the time.
So that was our Christmas break in a nutshell. How was YOUR Christmas break?
I was listening to the Read Aloud Revival podcast about Starting a Reading Streak a few days ago. Sarah encouraged her listeners to print this nifty free calendar and hang it somewhere conspicuous to remind yourself to read aloud to your children every day — even if just for a few minutes.
I promptly printed the calendar and stuck it on our fridge. Not only because I really am committed to doing a better job of reading aloud to my kids this year, but also because I love checking things off.
That love of checking things off stems back to my childhood. My mom made chore lists and achievement lists for us in various areas — when we were toddlers and getting potty-trained, a chart to check off how many times we brushed our teeth every day when we were a little older, and so on.
Little white boxes on a piece of paper hung in a can’t-miss place beckon me to actually do stuff and follow through with stuff, not just set goals and then forget about them.
Maybe you’re the same way? If so, I encourage you to choose one goal for this year that’s highly important to you. It could be anything that you feel will make a lasting difference to improve your life and/or the lives of those you love.
Here are some examples:
- writing 200 words each day
- exercising for 15 minutes
- reading 5 pages from a book every day
- eating a big salad every day
- working for 10 minutes on a foreign language
- spending 20 minutes on a craft project
- investing 15 minutes in playing with your children
There are so many great ideas I could list, but you must just choose one thing. Decide on that one thing, keep it simple, and then commit to follow through with it every day by printing out the mini calendar and checking off each day that you hit your goal.
We’re only three days into the new year, but the constant reminder of that calendar on my fridge has served to motivate me to make reading aloud with my kids — even just for a few minutes — a priority each of those three days. I’m excited to see how many days long our reading streak will continue for!
Want to join me? Choose a goal, print the calendar, and then leave a comment here letting us know what goal you chose!
