O Wisdom-O Sapientia

O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come, and teach us the way of prudence.

Come, O divine Wisdom, give us the true knowledge and the taste for what is  eternal and divine. Inspire us with a thirst for God's holy will, help us seek God's guidance and direction, enlighten us in the teachings of the holy gospel, make us submissive to Thy holy Church. Strengthen us in the forgetfulness of self, and help us to resign ourselves to a position of obscurity if that be Thy holy will. Detach our hearts from resurgent pride. Give us wisdom that we may understand that "but one thing is necessary" (Luke 10:42). "For what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (Matt. 16:26.) The Holy Spirit would have us know that one degree of grace is worth more than all worldly possessions.

~from The Light of the World by Benedict Baur, O.S.B

found here

The tree is up!

We (finally) got the tree up and decorated.  The tree actually made it's way out of the box on Friday afternoon, but we didn't get it decorated until today.  Saturday, during doodlebug's nap, I set to putting the lights on.  BIG mistake!  Of the 3 strands of lights from last year, only 1 was working!!!  So, I debated going to Wal-Mart that afternoon to replace the lights.  HMMM... Wal-Mart, late afternoon, 3 kids and myself AND less than 2 weeks before Christmas...NOPE!  No way, no how.  Not me!  So, I sent hubby later that evening.  Supposedly after the crowds had passed.  HA!  He said the registers were still 12 deep and only 2 lanes open!  Anyway, the local store didn't have any, so he went to the Supercenter (gotta love a man on a mission ;) ).  They also didn't have any.  We also decided this year to switch to the LED lights.  But neither store had the LED or the regular mini-lights.  So, Sunday on our way home from Mass, we swing by another store.  No lights.  Now I'm starting to worry.  So during Sunday nap, the Professor and I go out in search of lights.  No luck at Target, so we finally go to Sears Essentials.  Finally pay dirt!  We got the last 4 boxes of LED lights they had.  Of course they didn't have the mini-lights either.  AND they were on sale so we able to save a bit of money.  Boy are they expensive though.

I finally got the lights on late Sunday afternoon.  We're on break this week (except for a massive amount of reading, crafts and baking), so we took today to decorate the tree.  The kids had a blast.  I was very specific on the instructions...one ornament per branch, keep the breakables down low...  The Professor and Velcro Boy did a good job listening, though they did have favorite sections of the tree and some ornaments were clustered.  Doodlebug also did better than I thought he would.  There were only 2-3 branches that had double ornaments. 

They each have a mini tree for their rooms, that we also decorated today.  So, the decorating is all done!  I can finally erase it off my project list.  YIPPEE!

Small Successes

"It’s important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph. So on Thursday of each week, we do exactly that."

1.

Well...  This isn't exactly a small success, it's quite a large one (at least for me).  I finished making the ornaments for our Jesse tree!!!!!!!!!!  WooHoo!!!  What a major load off.  I'm really happy with how they came out and I can't wait for the kids to see all of them, not that I'm rushing Advent or anything ;)

2.

  I'm (finally) making a dent in the ongoing project list I have.  I've been meaning to come up with a daily schedule for us, as well as a daily school schedule, and I finally sat down and did it.  I'm also working on one for school, that may take a bit of time.  I really don't want to be so regimented as to say "we do math from 10-10:30, grammar until 11:00" or something like that.  I like to be a bit more flexible and give the kids more of a say in what to do and when each day.  Within reason of course :)  And, yes, I know a schedule can be thrown out the window at a moment's notice.  God knows I've done that on many an occasion.  But I do like to have a baseline.  I've read about people using time blocks and I think that could work well for us.  Especially since doodlebug still likes to keep me on my toes.

3.

I figured out Christmas Eve dinner!  My husband's side of the family has gotten together on Christmas Eve for the big celebration for years, it gives the daughter-in-laws a chance to spend Christmas Day with their families.  This year I was supposed to host the Christmas Day celebration with hubby's side and my side (only 3 people), while my SIL was supposed to do the Eve.  Well...they're closing on a house shortly after Christmas.  So glutton for punishment that I am, I volunteered to switch years.  She accepted.  So now I'm hosting the Eve for hubby's side (and mine too), but I don't know what we'll do for Christmas Day.  Honestly I'm not sure we'll get together on Christmas Day.  2 years ago when I was preggo with doodlebug we hosted the Eve, and stayed home on the Day just the 4 of us.  That was really nice and relaxing.  Big 'ole preggo belly in pj's all day long.  I felt so close to Mary that year, but that's a whole other post :)

Long story short (this is short??), I figured out the menu and who needs to bring what for Christmas Eve.  Now to figure out the timetable :)

What are your Small Successes this week?

Stop by Faith and Family Live to read more of this week's Small Successes.

Speech Therapy update

I just realized that I hadn't updated with the latest about Velcro Boy's speech therapy. I finally got in touch with the case worker (this was a while back), and there is a 6-8 week delay in scheduling the appointment for an evaluation. Then the wait on the schedule, the eval and the follow-up on that. Then 2-3 weeks to start therapy. So...this could be quite a wait to get a hopefully simple problem to resolve.

It's all up!

The house, inside and out, is finally decorated for Christmas. With the exception of the tree anyway. That will go up on Sunday and be decorated next Monday and Tuesday.

In years past, I've made an all-out push to get the decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Last year, hubby convinced me to slow it down and delay the decorating. So I did, sort-of :) I took it even easier this year. I put up a box or two of decorations last week, then another this past Sunday. There's another box or two of tree decorations left to do.

I love getting out the Christmas (and Advent!) decorations. So many of our things are home-made, it's like meeting old friends all over again. My ultimate goal is to have all (or most of anyway) of our decorations be home-made. We're well on the way to that goal. And, it's something I'm striving toward over the next several/many years :)

Advent 2009

I thought I would post pictures of our Advent "decorations".

This is the Advent calendar I made 2 years ago.  There are pieces of Velcro on the backs of the ornaments and the reciprocal side on the tree.  When I first made this I only planned it for 2 kids, so I got doubles of the ornaments, you know so there couldn't be fights over who got which ornament.  Well...now that there are 3, I'm thinking that I may need to get a few more ornaments.

Our new Jesse tree!!!  I'm so happy with how this is coming out.  I'm horribly behind on this project.  I only have one more ornament made to be hung then I'm out.  I HAVE to get cracking on this!

 

Our Advent wreath:

 

I got tired of picking wax off the greenery and chasing the kids away from the candles, so this year we were going to switch to votives in the holders that fit into the taper holder.  But...we couldn't find unscented votives in the right color.  So hubby found these.  They are LED tapers.  A bit high-tech for an Advent wreath, but they actually look nice.

Our creche`:

As you can see, a sheep has already come to visit.

 

This is the Advent calendar I just finished making.  Boy was it a pain!  But the boys are having fun opening it each day, and that's what counts.

 

I started decorating for Christmas today.  I got through 2 of those big Rubermaid boxes (out of 5 total!).  I'll do more next week.  The tree will go up on Gaudete Sunday and we'll decorate on Monday and Tuesday.  There are so many people in the neighborhood that already have their Christmas lights up. I can't believe it!  The boys are starting to bug me about Christmas light walks.  For the past several years we've gone out walking the neighborhood looking at lights a few times a week after supper.  They want to restart this tradition.  I'm dragging my feet since it's still so long until the holiday.  Plus I would rather wait for a few more lights to go up :)

I see the light

The light at the end of the tunnel, and it isn't an oncoming train!!!!  It's the light at the end of diapers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Doodlebug did pee in the toilet tonight!!!!!!!

AND...he requested to go potty !!!!!

We went upstairs to do bedtime, and once in the bathroom Doodlebug lifts the toilet lid and says "me go potty, me go potty".  Now this isn't the first time he's done this (with no results), so lazy me has taken to telling him that he doesn't go potty.  Tonight he insisted.  So I gave in, figuring I needed to change his diaper for bed anyway.  So he's sitting there, and The Professor finished brushing and tells me it's my turn (to brush).  So I tell Doodlebug that he needs to go pee or poo or I have to get him off the toilet.  He wiggles around (some more) for a few seconds and then.....well, you know.

I was sooo excited that I almost dropped him!  Yup, again a child of mine has surprised me by going potty without the seat insert so I have to hold him.  All 3 kids, in the same toilet for their first times.  What are the odds of that?!?  Anyway, he actually has good balance and can hold himself on the toilet quite well by himself, skinny tush and all.  We (I) did the happy dance and sang the time-honored, made-up potty song.  Professor and Velcro Boy thought it was funny and Doodlebug was just sooo incredibly proud of himself.