Advent Is Almost Complete

We picked up our tree this week . . .

. . . with plans to decorate it on Christmas Eve. This year I plan to decorate less for Christmas, forgoing putting out all my decorations on the main tree as well as skipping the small theme trees I enjoy so much (my harvest tree covered in fruits and vegetables, my nativity tree, etc.). Chris will be distressed by the lack of theme trees all over the house, right? (ha ha) By the time I'd be taking down the Christmas decorations, I'll be "in the zone" to meet this baby and I know my energy will be even more limited. Also, having festooned the house with decorations when I hit that week-beforehand, stay-awake-for-hours cleaning binge might result in a psychological conniption fit trying to get my nest in perfect, organized order.

Every day Margaret puts her hands in sports bottles, then reports, "I stuck! I stuck!" Thankfully, she is not actually stuck and it is very cute.

Our precious Mary during nap time--dolly and "Narnia" at hand: who wouldn't want to have more of these bunchkins?! (God makes them cute for a few young years to help us keep going.)

Today was our last day of school before a planned break of at least two weeks (through Epiphany January 6). After that, my plans are hazy because I'll be 36 weeks pregnant when we would plan to resume school: Will I be too much of a beached whale to function at teaching any school? Or will I delve back into school in order to occupy the children and distract myself? Time will tell!

Just for fun (because I am a nerd), I tallied how much Official School we have done so far. We have completed 20 weeks of school which equals 86 days of school (counting Catholic Schoolhouse Wednesdays as days of school, excluding sick and vacation days). I see that the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education "encourages but does not mandate by law" that homeschool students complete 180 days of school each year, so I think that puts us nicely on track to finish by the end of June, even with time off for the new baby's birth and Holy Week/Easter.

As it is, I'm a bit daunted about the next couple of weeks because this will be our first extended break from homeschooling since we started officially last fall. The children are thriving on a routine and I find that, when we break from it, our days get really wonky, not in a good way. I realized today that, just like mothers who send their children away to school and then have to come up with Something To Do when the children are on break, I am in similar circumstance!

Our mornings especially are like clockwork:

6:00 Children start waking up to join their insomniac mother

Go downstairs, serve breakfast as each child stumbles into the kitchen, hang out, be relaxed

Mama takes children upstairs to make beds, get dressed, and brush teeth. I know I am slowing way down with pregnancy because this used to be completed typically by 8:00 but is now often done by 9:00.

March back downstairs. Complete Jesse tree reading, Advent calendars, Holy Heroes Advent Adventure (while Mama washes breakfast dishes and starts laundry).

Up to the bonus room for School Time.

9:45ish: Snack Time, switch laundry

Back up to the bonus room to finish any remaining school, play, read stories.

11:30: Lunch

Noon: Quiet Time for up to two hours, baby's nap, Mama is grateful to get off her feet.

Afternoons are more variable, but I see a distinct trend that the more totally unstructured and unsupervised time the children have, the more fighting breaks out and bad behavior ensues. They do better if I move them through shorter periods of free play, chores, and outdoor time, repeating the cycle as needed.

My hopes for this break to celebrate Christmas is that (1) we will celebrate Christmas beyond Mass and gifts on December 25th with one Christmas-themed activity, craft, or outing daily for the Octave and that (2) with Chris on reduced work or vacation, I will have quite a few naps and stretches of time with my feet elevated. Pregnancy insomnia set in last month and I am now operating on short sleep roughly midnight to 4:30 a.m. nightly--but don't worry, it's not just short, it's also broken by wakings!--so I'm pretty much in a fog, body and mind, all the time. I tell myself nightly that many saints purposefully mortified their bodies by sleeping this little and that the body can handle it. I think God allows this of pregnant women so that the wakings needed for a newborn seem like a wonderful improvement!