We Survived The Holidays!! Did You?

Well it was a very difficult and trying Holiday Season at our house. However it was filled with fun, creativity, family, and great food.

Let me catch up a bit before we head into the fun of the Holidays. Since the last post we have had a total of 3 more lost teeth between the 2 oldest kids and the youngest has been putting together 3-5 words to make sentences. She is so totally voicing her likes, wants, needs and dislikes now. Not to mention she is really showing her personality. She and her older sister are totally "girly girls". They want their hair done every morning and then they dress all the way to their shoes. They MUST coordinate outfits so they do not clash with each other :D. The oldest wants to have her nails done weekly in addition to painting mine as well. This has been a great bonding experience for us. My wonderful son is just as bouncy and boyish as ever. We have been managing his food allergies quite well even through the Holidays! We were able to keep him away from the things he cannot eat and we made it through Christmas and New Year's without a single attack. Baby #4 is still due on or around March 30th. Providing the ultrasound was correct I should be having another girl. The big kids are still trying to decide what we should name her.

I am still working on setting up a home based business however, the kids school work has taken priority over that. In addition to that I have been teetering on bed rest with this pregnancy so I am trying to not overdue and end up in bed for the rest of the pregnancy. We have found a wonderful church to participate in and the kids are loving it. They have made a bunch of new friends and so have I. Every single parent needs a support system especially when you are trying to get through a crisis. Just remember to always pay it forward even if you think that you don't have anything to give. A simile and a kind word goes a long way anytime of the year.

While we are on the subject of school work I think that my kids are trying to bankrupt me on books LOL. They seem to be competing with each other to see who can get through the most work in a day. This is yet one more of my many reasons for Home Schooling my kids :). They can move at their own pace and learn in the way that suits them the best. For example; my wonderful son is very much a "hands on" learner. He needs to be able to see it, feel it and take it apart in order to truly understand it. On the other side is my daughter who is more interested in what the people wore, how they felt and why they did whatever they did. For math she is happy with a workbook, the same for spelling and grammar but for history she wants to know the feelings behind the people. My son could careless about why they felt the way they did he is much more interested in the facts on the other hand when it comes to math and spelling he has to be able to see it in order to grasp it.

Back to the Holidays at our house. We set up several new family traditions this year. So in addition to baking together to make edible gifts for family and friends and trimming the tree together, this year we started our annual Christmas movie marathon in our pajamas and finding ways to bless others with our unused and no longer needed items. I believe that family traditions are important in any family but they are doubly important in single parent homes. For more of my thoughts on this topic I will be posting an article about Single Parent Traditions shortly that will contain ideas and helps to get your creativity kick started. We hosted Christmas dinner at my home this year and the kids had a blast. They love having their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents around. The house was filled with noise and laughter not to mention a whole lot of fun. I have FlyLady to thank for the peace in my home especially during the Holidays. If you haven't checked her out just click her link at the bottom of my page. She is awesome!!!

So how did your Holiday season go??