Wednesday nights always keep us up late with church activities.  On top of that, the kids and I stayed up extra late because we got to looking at some of my old scrapbooks full of big hair.  So Thursday morning, we heard some groans and some snappy words from my sleepy kiddos in the first hour of the day.  I could hear Olivia getting teary down the hall, and I knew that the Lord had to step in big or this day was going to be a disaster.  So I started praying 2 Timothy 2:23-24 to help fight against the grumbles and gripes and cranked up Third Day's "Christmas Offerings".

 

 I thought maybe a pretty breakfast would help lift moods, so in addition to serving bagels, we added pomegranate seeds to our vanilla yogurt and served it all on pretty plates.  It's amazing what good food can do to help a day get started well!  And our little advent calendar helped, too.  Today we read "The Candymaker's Gift:  The Legend of the Candy Cane" and gave the kids a couple of boxes of candy canes to hang on the tree and to make peppermint bark.  We also found a box of Peppermint Bark Herbal Tea that we drank with breakfast.  I love spreading out gifts and activities throughout Advent and Christmas and Epiphany!
 

 

 Six weeks of focusing on God's gift of Jesus and anticipating his return?  Yes, ma'am, I'll take take that!  Earlier this week, each of the kids got $5 to go shopping for the library's food drive.  We had a great time going up and down the aisles at the grocery store trying to choose what to buy.  The three big kids shopped together, and Katherine went with me.  At one point, when I was trying to help her figure out how much money she had left, she asked me, "Did you bring us to the grocery store to do math?"  Well, as a matter of fact, Katherine, that was a little sneaky intention of mine.  She chose her own food and did her own math, and when each kid checked out, her total was $4.99.