holidays
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simple holidays, part one.
It’s December 1st and our tree is twinkling in the corner next to our wall of books and the James Taylor holiday station is playing on Pandora and in this moment all feels peaceful and good. I’m so excited about the Christmas season. I love watching the anticipation and delight on my kids’ faces, seeing them stretched out on the fuzzy rug in front of the tree playing with ornaments, whispering secrets about gifts. I love the Christmas hymns at church and finding light-glowing houses when we’re out at night and Christmas-y smells coming from the oven. I love this season. But I didn’t always feel this way. I remember…
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thanksgiving 2014.
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fourth of july.
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easter 2014.
Featuring our fenced-in backyard. Yes, my kids are the only children in South Carolina forced to use trick-or-treat buckets for their egg hunt.
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our christmas.
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christmas eve.
Last night Columbia Presbyterian Church hosted a Christmas Eve service with two other churches in town. The whole evening felt like a blessing, and here’s why. David and John and Jonathan and Kenny worked hard all month to plan the service. David spent his Christmas Eve at Tapp’s, sweeping and scrubbing and restocking bathrooms after a big party the night before. Justin and Beth showed up early to run sound. Jonathan set up chairs and made coffee and screwed light bulbs and took care of the logistical details. Chris led worship. My Dad and Mom and Sarah and I organized the nursery and played with a roomful of infant-to-two-year-olds. The blessing…
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holiday honesty.
1. For the whole month of December “school” has been nothing more than a good intention, an uncrossed item on my to-do list. 2. That tired old condemning voice is whispering in my ear: You don’t deserve to homeschool your kids . . . you’re messing them up . . . you’re a failure. 3. I’m eating way too much dairy and sugar and feeling the effects. 4. I’ve gone running a grand total of one time this month. 5. I swore off household cleaning chemicals a year ago but this week, out of sheer desperation, I purchased a bottle of bleach for the mildew in our bathtub. 6. I don’t…
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december.
The slippers she picked. I tried my hand at salt dough ornaments this year: see if you can pick out Judah’s Star Wars embellishments. With Mom and Shari’s help, the kids painted and glittered ornaments to their heart’s content. Holiday pouting. We were eating dinner at some friends’ house and Judah came out looking like this — which perfectly sums up his sense of humor. A group of ladies from church went shopping at the Charleston Farmer’s Market on Saturday. It was such a fun, relaxing day and the weather was a Christmas miracle: 79 degrees and sunny. Another Christmas miracle was my gluten-free apple cider donut with maple frosting.…
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decorating day.
The day after Thanksgiving was magical this year. We stayed up very late on Thanksgiving night and then all four of us slept until 9:00 Friday morning. It was like a revelation: this is what life could be like! David drove to Publix and bought croissants for Brie-and-bacon sandwiches for the grown-ups and donuts for the kiddos, after which we took our respective coffee and tea to the living room and got to work Christmas decorating. It was the first time I let myself turn on Christmas music, and you better believe it will be playing nonstop in our house through December 25th. Judah and Amie took their tree-decorating responsibilities very…
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thanksgiving day, 2013.