I'm loving...

I'm enjoying:

Josie is fascinated with reindeer. When we drive in the evenings, we are all about looking at Christmas lights and in particular, reindeer. From the back seat comes a sweet little voice saying, "I don't see the reindeer! We need to find more reindeer, mama!" It is a bonus to our light viewing adventures.

Seriously, the best I can get of her. But look how long her hair is getting!

Going to church with three kids has been less than enjoyable for us. The older two egg each other on and create problems one minute after the next. We get a short reprieve during the message when all three kids are in nursery/kid's class but then we have to endure the last two songs all together again before church is done. We know it is important to have the kids with us during the service and that we have to diligently teach them how to behave in church, so it's worth it, but man it's been hard. This week, though, was wonderful. They didn't yell (much), they didn't run away (much), we got to actually hear what the speakers were saying, and we could sing along to the songs without many interruptions. I was so impressed with them. I have no idea what was different or if they just finally figured it out, but it was fabulous.

We also ate out for the first time, just the five of us. Fast food, in and out as we were going to do a few errands (a brave feat also). It went great. I was so proud of them. We sat in the corner booth so that we could barricade the kids in, kept them busy eating their foods, took potty breaks, and people watched. It couldn't have gone better.

Playing too hard to smile for the camera

I went to the library last week with the lfb and we got loads of Christmas books to bring home. I think we might have brought over half of their total collection home with us. I made a point to not just get a bunch of Santa oriented books, and it's amazing how much easier it is for Josie to understand what Christmas is all about when what we are reading is Christ centered. I had been getting frustrated with how her view of Christmas revolved around Santa even though we didn't emphasize it. We aren't completely avoiding it but we aren't encouraging it either. The outside world does that enough for us. Now that we have been reading about it, talking about it in the car, and singing old sacred Christmas songs instead of just the catchy songs on the radio, it's improved a lot. I know that she's young and that she'll have time to learn about this in the future, but we don't need to start habits that we can "change later" when they are "old enough" for the real deal. Why not just start it off right?

We had oatmeal this morning for breakfast, something I haven't made in longer than I remember. Most of the time when I make it, it just turns out kind of blah. This time, I used milk instead of water, cinnamon, and more brown sugar than I usually do (I can be very skimpy at times). You guys. It was amazing. All the kids absolutely loved it and the clean up wasn't half bad. We'll be doing this again. Like tomorrow. And the next day.

While I'm a little busier this week with some evening commitments, the kids are staying home and their routines aren't going to be interrupted. I'm loving their regular schedules and the good behavior and sweet hearts shining through that occur when our days look like this.

What are you loving?

Rare glimpse of them playing together, right before Josie pushed Audrey over (gently, but with poor intention). Ahh, sisters.