Christmas is Coming

Nothing like a good flu and lingering cough to slow me down in an otherwise busy and hectic season. But honestly, aside from being miserable for a solid week and then just slightly annoyed by my cough for another two weeks it's given me a good excuse to get back to the basics. That's not so bad. 

The church ladies and I enjoyed a fun afternoon making our own wreaths. The results were the one I made for our front door and the two for church. They turned out lovely! 

I was really sick the day of Advent by Candlelight so I missed attending, setting my table, and having a lovely evening focused on Christ's coming. However, I managed to make it to the funeral of one of our dear members the day before. There's nothing like having the opportunity to see the results of Christ's coming in the stark reality of death and the comfort found in knowing without a doubt that our salvation is found in the life, death and resurrection of that baby we are waiting for in the season of Advent. 

We had the privilege of knowing Bruce after he had experienced a health scare so extreme a few years back that they thought he wouldn't make it out alive. God had other plans for him though and extended his life here on earth by another 5 years or so. The man we knew had a new lease on life and the gift of clarity to know what was really important in light of eternity. He sat behind me in choir, he was one of my regular clients who let me cut his hair (or what was left of it!), and was a father/grandfather figure to me. I will miss him dearly and look forward to our reunion in heaven. 

We celebrate Advent in our home a number of ways. I always give the kids an Advent calendar, we have our Advent wreath and nightly devotions, and the nativity manger is up but baby Jesus hasn't arrived yet! This year I splurged a little on myself and decided mama needs an Advent calendar too. So Hosanna got a Lego friends, Will and his Prep roommate each got a Kinder surprise, and I got a David's Tea calendar. Every day is a different flavour of tea. I think I might be on to something!

Yes, there should be purple and a pink candle in there. But I ran out and only had white. It's not liturgically correct and frankly, embarrassing;)

Lights have plagued me this season. Lights at church, lights at home, lights outside, other people's lights. I think it was last year I wrote about my extreme hatred for LED lights. It makes me angry. There's nothing warm and cozy about them and they hurt my eyes. So why on earth would I want them on my Christmas tree? I don't.

Last year I purchased boxes and boxes of bulb lights from Target. Wayne was confused as to why I felt I needed ten boxes of lights on our regular sized tree. But really, the only thing worse than a tree with LED lights is a tree with not enough lights. That sweet man still does what I ask even when he may not understand. Last year we had a lot burn out which doesn't bode well for the future. One strand was on the fritz. So I bought two more backup boxes. This year he even verbalized that all those lights look beautiful ... until they all went out. 

There's my tree all lit up with hundreds of ornaments looking practically perfect - until I walked by and not one single bulb was working. Long story short, Wayne saved the day and fixed it without having to completely undress the tree. Thank goodness! But boy those bulbs have been trouble. 

Oh! And not that I want to turn this into a commercial or anything but at Thanksgiving my Mom gave me Mrs. Meyer's Iowa Pine Hand Soap and Dishwashing liquid. It is so Christmasy and I love it! I'm so sad I can't get it in Canada but at least it should last me into Christmas. I'll be stocking up next year for sure! 

I bought this three tiered basket from IKEA last February. I've only seen it that one time and I wasn't even sure I wanted it. I'm so glad I  picked it up when I did! I've had a blast changing it up for the seasons. For winter it's full of hot chocolate and varieties of tea, tins of cinnamon sticks and marshmallows, and winter produce. 

Hosanna and I have been practicing some violin pieces to play over Christmas and the next few Sundays. I love playing with my kids! She's been plowing through her Grade 6 studies and is looking forward to a well deserved break!

Will's last day of school is today! Tis the season where I chew my nails and pray to God (literally) that he makes it home without too much trouble. Between weather and the craziness of the travel season, it's always a sigh of relief when he arrives safely home. I also include in my prayers all the kids travelling home for Christmas. I used to be one of them! I can't wait for Will to get home so I can cut his hair the way I want to hug him to pieces!! 

Also on the Will front, it's official that he's been accepted to Martin Luther College! He plans on pursuing the Bachelor of Arts pre-seminary degree. We are excited to see what plans the Lord has in store for him. 

What's really crazy is that the last time we were on MLC's campus, Wayne graduated. So that was spring of 1998. We were married that summer. Little did we ever dream that 20 years later, our son would start in the fall of 2018! 

On the baking front, there are the yearly treats that all hell would break loose if I didn't make them. That includes wreath cookies and Carmel corn which are both Grandma Nork's recipes. This year I added a crockpot Christmas Crack that sounds horrible (why name a treat after additive drugs?) but the point is that it's addicting. I get it. I also made Nanaimo Balls inspired by the popular and in my opinion one of the yummiest Canadian delicacies - Nanaimo Bars. 

Tonight it's off to Costco for one more pre-Christmas trip. There's a few more gifts to be wrapped. I need some rum. Yes, need. (How else am I going to make Rum Cake and drink eggnog?). I also need to figure what I'm doing for Jesus' birthday cake. 

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! 

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Thanksgiving: American Edition

We made our fourth annual pilgrimage to Wisconsin to celebrate an American Thanksgiving. 

Do we look like we're having fun? Because it's totally fun driving for two days, listening to the news of yet another sexual allegation against someone in government or media, passing Sunday drivers (on Monday) on a two lane highway, and looking forward to the sweet relief of a Tim Horton's stop. Seriously, I have a love/hate relationship with these trips. I am however very grateful that we are close enough to even make the drive. Timmies is a perk. 

Since we've been making this tradition to meet up with Will at my Mom and Dad's to celebrate Thanksgiving together, there are a multitude of expectations and family traditions that some of us look forward to more than others. They include but are not limited to:

Our initial arrival to Grandma and Grandpa's house where they welcome us into their home and serve us a meal as we await the coming of my mom and Will. It's a lovely time to catch up with my sweet grandparents and play a game of hand and foot.

The car lights flashing into the living room that alert us to the coming of Oma and Will! Why does he keep getting taller?! 

Racing home to catch the finale and final results of Dancing with the Stars. 


Wednesday prep day. Ladies in the kitchen, men at the hardware store (or wherever they go). 

Wednesday night Thanksgiving church service. Opa meets us there having come from deer camp. 

A Halloween to remember! 

This year includes a visit from my sister and her husband from England! They're at the home waiting when we return from church.

Thursday arrives! Skype call to German family in the morning, taking turns in the bathroom to get ready, finishing up the cooking and smelling the turkey while the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade plays in the background. 

Big afternoon meal where we pretty much stuff ourselves. After cleaning up, we start some card games. Grazing for an evening meal coincides with the annual viewing of A Muppet Christmas Carol - the best Christmas movie in the world. We sit around the TV and laugh as if we hadn't all seen it a million times already. 

Time to eat!

Pie, glorious pie

Black Friday. Yes, we are those crazy people. Only we do it in the big city of Rhinelander so it's not so overwhelming. After a few years of practice, this year we were in and out of Kohls in an hour (which is very impressive if you saw the line snake through the department store). The ladies enjoy shopping the rest of the afternoon away and the guys head back to nap, drink, and do whatever it is they do.

The guys find a comfortable spot to wait in Kohls

Friday night fish fry. We all meet back together for this blessed event. There's something about deep fried fish that warms the cockles of the heart! 

Grandma and Grandpa

Tom wears the fetching Christmas jacket he found at Kohls

Sisters! 

Saturday bowling. Nothing like a little healthy competition among family:) 

Big fun

Opa wears the hat Zanna made for him

Sunday church and goodbyes as we take Will back to school and spend the next few nights with Wayne's brother and sister-in-law. 

Back to Prep

We were so grateful to have this time with family. It always seems to go so fast! Happy Thanksgiving! 

Our Homeschool Year: Grade 6

This is one overdue post! I usually write about what our homeschool plan is in August or September when we're just starting our year. I did manage to take some pictures of our learning area but that's as far as I got. I didn't even get a back to school photo of Zanna although I did get a First Day of 6th Grade printed. 

Better late than never ... 

6th grade is the sweet spot. I really do love this year - wrapping up elementary school and just before the middle school/junior high years. 

As Sonlighters, I love this year. It's my favourite - Eastern Hemisphere. It's so different from the others years in that it's more of a unit study over many countries in the Eastern Hem. So far this year we've studied the Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Antartica, and Japan. To wrap up our study of Japan we just ate a dinner of sushi and miso soup! As we study each country we learn about their culture, language, customs and religion. I include two fabulous books I invested in called Material World and What the World Eats. We also pray for the people in the 10/40 window north of the equator. It's incredibly eye opening and fascinating!!

Our other daily lessons include:

Religion: 
CPH Growing in Christ New Testament 4 - middle school
Retirement home services with Dad (1-2 times a week)
Wednesday choir and Bible study, Saturday CAP (congregational assistance program) class, memory work and hymnology 

Math:
Saxon Math7/6
Mathtacular Word Problems

Language Arts:
Easy Grammar: Grade 6
Worldly Wise 3000: Book 6
Institute for Excellence in Writing: Student Continuation Course
All About Spelling: Book 5
Sonlight Readers/ Book studies: Eastern Hemisphere

For Language Arts I spread it all over the year concentrating on one area for a quarter. Grammar is all year. The other three will be taken one at a time. 

We've started with Worldly Wise which is vocabulary. This one is new for us and I thought since she's such an avid reader and great speller, that I would encourage expanding her vocabulary. Honestly I though it would be easy for her. It's actually very challenging and she hates it. She threatens to throw it in the green bin every week which makes me laugh that she's still willing to recycle it - haha! 


SHEP - Science and History Enrichment Program
This is a class Will took for years when he was home. There's a fall session and a spring session. They meet one day a week and in the morning they have gym and art class (taught by an actual artist). In the afternoon they are in a classroom for Canadian History and Science taught by a retired school teacher. Her teacher is absolutely wonderful and she comes home full of information! She has homework throughout the week, weekly Science quizzes, a unit test, and projects in both subjects. It's a great learning environment and gets her prepared for traditional learning.  

She's busy with some extracurricular activities. In some ways she's an only child so I suppose she gets spoiled being allowed to participate in so many activities. She continues to be in weekly swimming lessons, violin lessons, recreational synchronized swimming, Lutheran Girl Pioneers,  and monthly cooking class. In the winter when there's a break from SHEP she'll add on downhill skiing and indoor soccer. 

After reading through that list it seems hard to believe but there's still plenty of time in the week for playing with neighbour friends, knitting hats on her loom, reading ferociously, sporadicly creating art projects, and free play. 

I'm only too aware that I've got precious time with this girl. I'm trying to soak up the less than three years we have together before she goes to Prep. There's so much I still want to teach her and experience with her. I'm so blessed to be able to spend my days with her, watch her blossom into a young woman, and observe her maturity. 

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Deuteronomy 6:5-8
               


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Autumn Days

Where did October even go? I honestly don't know! Thank goodness I took some pictures occasionally to remind me exactly what we did!

Pumpkin picking is the best! We always pick four - one for each of us. I like to throw in a white one just for fun. 

Everything's coming up fall around the house! Our apples from our September apple picking became a table decoration in my Grandma's milk glass fruit bowl. 

Our Friday night football evenings came to a close as Prep wrapped up their season. It's been so cool to be able to watch the games from the comfort of home. There's something about being able to see my kid in live time and know what he's up to at that moment that's so comforting when he's so far away! Livestream has been awesome!

We had a wedding to attend (and Wayne to officiate) from our Quebec church. This is always a perk in the ministry and I love to watch new families being created through marriage. 

And then there's the official arrival of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. After visiting Germany in the spring and building our VBS and outreach event around it last summer, we were ready to wave Reformation Red and sing our hearts out to A Mighty Fortress is our God. 

After hemming and hawing over what to make for the Reformation potluck at church, I finally settled on a fall pasta salad using my Martin Luther shaped pasta from Wittenberg. I also used my Luther shaped cookie cutter and put some chicken salad sandwiches together. 

Then there was the big reveal of the new church paraments using the Luther's seal fabric from Ecclesiastical Sewing. Our resident sewer/member made the beautiful altar dressings seen in the pictures below. It was stunning! 

In between our remembrance of restoring the teachings of God's grace alone to the pulpit's of churches, there was an annoying holiday that's always celebrated in our culture on the exact same day. We managed to put a little Lutheran twist to it ..... 

Fall traditions in our household included caramel apple making and leaf cookie cutouts. So far we've managed the apples and have enjoyed their gooey goodness. We have yet to do the cookies but it's on my to-do list and Zanna won't let me forget!

Our Reformation celebrating ended with the joint service with the other area congregations at the downtown church. It was a fantastic display of Lutheran love of the Word of God, liturgical teaching and worship, and music through song, pipe organ, instruments and teaching found in the words sung. I got a balcony view as I joined the instruments up there with my violin. 

These autumn days are flying by. I'm wrapping up some loose ends of Christmas shopping, homeschool, and hair appointments. We'll be heading to Wisconsin for our annual trip soon and I can't wait to see my sweet family!!!