in the thicket

Blowing the dust off and making some changes!

After considering what my blogging goals are, I've decided to make some changes! I have just created a blog where I will post specifically about homeschooling and family life, located at Dogwood Homeschool. Homeschooling is an important part of my life and certainly occupies a lot of my thoughts, time and energy. It is not my only interest, however, so I hope that this blog will become a place where I can write about my own personal interests... books, home arts (decorating, cooking, celebrations), Christianity, my quest to take better care of myself, parenting issues that don't specifically pertain to homeschooling, and maybe even some photography and digital scrapbooking again if I can fit that into my life!

So, if you are specifically interested in my homeschooling posts, you might want to follow my new blog. I'm writing for myself here, not any specific audience, and I anticipate that some months I might write a lot about books and other months I might blog about home decorating projects. Some days I might have the occassional deep thought or two that I want to get down in written form. Who knows! I just need a place where I can explore my own interests and passions that are not necessarily "child-centered" (though so much of my life really is, it's just the season!)

I will be "cleaning up" this blog shortly and I hope to update the header and overall look. I will leave all my posts here for the current time (including homeschooling posts) until I can figure out if it's possible to move them or not. Otherwise, I will just move forward with posts on this blog and hope that I will have a chance to write here regularly.

 

Magical December Day

It started with the "really big gingerbread men" that Granddaddy brought from Trader Joe's. Much fun to decorate, not so tasty for eating we figured out!

Sometimes life gives special little gifts. "Movie moments" I sometimes think, where things seem more magical than they normally do. Here in Central North Carolina, we are not accustomed to snow in December, so it was a sweet surprise when it started falling about two o'clock on Saturday afternoon.

My husband had just finished getting the leaves up in the front yard, and was thinking about tackling the back yard when it started falling. The girls ran outside (barefoot!!!) to see it. They went back out later, bundled up MUCH better because it was really cold!

This weekend was also the logical weekend for us to get and decorate our tree, though I wasn't feeling quite ready for all the Christmas decorating- house not clean enough, didn't declutter enough, blah blah blah. Thankfully we let the girls' enthusiasm propell us out the door to the Christmas Tree lot where it is now our "tradition" to purchase our tree, Wagoner's. Every year we have gone since we moved here there seems to have been a weather calamity of some sort- one year there was gusty wind and a tree almost fell on Gwen! It was definitely cold and wet but beautiful this year.

I love the JOY and HAPPINESS that Charlotte in particular radiated. I feel so blessed when I catch those "real" smiles from here, see her silliness. Her dad and I hope she stays like this for quite a while, and doesn't too quickly slide into the cynicism that seems to happen for some pre-teens and teens, and sadly for many adults, including us at times.

I have lots more pictures of the beautiful snow, but will refrain from posting them because I think I've shared enough at this point! It was my kind of snow, though, enough to look beautiful and thrill the girls but not enough to hang around and become an unwelcome guest. Thanks for sharing a bit of our magical day with us. :)

Give Thanks

I got a little crafty today. :) Fun, simple easy craft- the letters are from At Second Street- Thanks! :)

Giving thanks

I didn't want to leave that last post up for too long as the most recent post. I will leave it for posterity, but I don't want to stay in that place, so to speak!

Granddad stopped by yesterday after voting, to see if I wanted to go vote while he watched the girls. (I did but ack not registered, a result of my procrastination/anxiety about getting my driver's license renewed in this state, but I really must do it now, it will expire on my birthday later this month!

The girls are always so happy to see their Granddad. He is really good with them, very playful and silly. (He's that way with all kids, really.)

Charlotte is so excited about Thanksgiving... her BIRTHDAY is the week before Thanksgiving! (So is mine, the day before hers... I always tell her she should be "thankful" that she got her own birthday and doesn't have to share with me.) I have no idea what I will do for her birthday party. We usually do parties at home, but I'm not sure if I'm up for it. Unfortunately, with the unpredictable weather in November, it's hard to plan an outdoor party. Still brainstorming about that!

I know that it's important to God that we give thanks always... so I am going to try to incorporate that into our daily life this month (and beyond!) I was very inspired by Dawn at "By Sun and Candlelight" and would love to start our own "seeds of gratitude" tree. We have plenty of branches that have fallen in our yard, that is for sure!