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By Alyssa, November 27, 2011 8:57 pm

Are you a procrastinator like me looking for Advent activities for your kiddos?  I updated this calendar just in time to start Advent with our kiddos today.  These are all activities that realistically can be completed with a newborn, our current stage.  Hope you enjoy!

(Light the 1st purple candle this week.  This week’s theme is HOPE.)
November
27- Decorate a Christmas tree with Grandpa
28- Introduce the Advent Candles and the meaning of Advent (Here’s a great website with Advent Information)
29- Read Matthew 1:18-24 (Angel appears to Joseph)
30- Make an Advent Chain (red and green paper chain) to count down to Christmas
December
1- Read Luke 1: 26-38 (Angel appears to Mary)
2- Talk about all of the things we hope for at dinner
3- String popcorn garland for our Christmas tree and watch Polar Express

(Light the 1st and 2nd purple candles this week. This week’s theme is PEACE.)
4- Invite new friends to dinner
5- Make a Donkey puppet (We’re using this template.  The donkey is a symbol of peace and humbleness.)
6- Read Luke 1:57-66 (Introduce John the Baptist)
7- Have a Christmas carol dance party
8- Read Luke 2:1-7 (Discuss Joseph and Mary’s journey to Bethlehem)
9- Talk about other places in the world that are at war
10- Create Christmas cards and send them to Soldiers using resources from this website

(Light the 1st and 2nd purple candles and the pink candle.  This week’s theme is JOY.)
11- Take a drive to look at Christmas lights
12- Address Christmas cards and watch Christmas cartoons
13- Read Matthew 2:1-12 (Discuss the wise men’s joy)
14- Make Christmas presents for grandparents
15- Read Luke 2:8-20 (Introduction of the Shepherds and Angels)
16- Attend our Homeschool Co-op Christmas party
17- Watch Charlie Brown’s Christmas and talk about the true meaning of Christmas

(Light all three purple candles and the pink candle. This week’s theme is LOVE.)
18- Make and decorate heart sugar cookies
19- Deliver cookies to our neighbors
20- Make paper snowflakes
21- Memorize John 3:16
22- Say a prayer for the families that sent us Christmas cards
23- Act out Luke 2 together
24- Attend our church Christmas Eve service (Light ALL FIVE candles!)
25- Birthday cake celebration for Jesus’ Birthday!

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By Alyssa, November 4, 2011 3:50 pm

I’m writing this post for my dear hubby, Haus, who never asks this question, because he’s awesome, but I’m sure he thinks it constantly.

Here are the reasons in the last two weeks why it has taken me so long to leave the house:

1.  I am the milk cow for an adorable one-month old and she said “I’M HUNGRY” but it sounded like “WAAAHHHH!” just as I was headed to the car.

2.  The van side doors froze and I had to load all of the kids, including the baby in car seat, through the front passenger door (true story).

3.  Dirty diaper… again.

4.  I’m answering your text that says, “Where are you???”

5.  The boys were “helping” me with my sewing machine instead of listening to me tell them to get in the car and poked the sewing needle through their finger as I was walking out the door (yet another true story).

6.  Snow boots, hats, gloves, winter coats… oh the joys of leaving in the winter.

7.  I forgot my wallet, made it up the street and figured out I didn’t have my phone, closed the garage, and forgot whatever it was I needed for the purpose of leaving the house (man, I wish this one wasn’t true all. the. time.)

8.  Three kiddos five and under… ’nuff said.

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By Alyssa, September 23, 2011 9:25 pm

An all-encompassing, un-edited photo that perfectly expresses how I feel lately.  We’re almost there, baby.

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By Alyssa, September 10, 2011 6:15 pm

Four months ago I became a single parent.  After hating his job for almost a year, Haus came across an opportunity to work a short term engineering contract in Portland.  We prayed and talked and prayed and he decided to take it.  He quit his job on a Tuesday in May, worked until Friday, then packed up over the weekend, and hit the road that Monday for Portland.

He left without a solid timeframe for returning to Denver and, oh yeah, with me 19 weeks pregnant with our third kiddo.  Crazy?  Maybe.  I didn’t feel like I could argue at the time as I’d left him on pretty short notice twice before during my overseas Army deployments.  The first week after he was gone, I thought, I can do this. I’ve deployed before, I know friends that have done this while their husbands were deployed…. no worries.

Then I realized I needed someone to mow the lawn pronto, my two-year-old lost his mind having Daddy away, and a neighbor tried to verbally assault me at a block party knowing my hubby was out of town.  That was week two of our separation.  Thank goodness I had some good support around me.  A girlfriend’s hubby volunteered to mow our lawn every two weeks, Haus started a webcam schedule with our little guys which helped them immensely, and the rest of my neighbors banded together to support me despite the one bad apple on the block.

Unlike my military spouse friends, I had opportunities to see Haus during our time apart.  I took a hard look at the calendar and made a last minute trip up to Idaho in June so that Haus could spend 24 hours with us, vacationed for two weeks in July as a family in Portland, and made it through August on my knees praying as Haus negotiated a permanent job back here.  Around the end of August, we found out he would return for good on September 10th and the boys and I made our paper chain link countdown.

I learned two very important lessons during the last four months. Lesson 1- having your hubby away while you’re preggered with two small children stinks, period.  If it weren’t for friends that wouldn’t take “we’re fine” for an answer, I would have lost it on a daily basis.  Lesson 2- I will NEVER compare myself again to a military momma that has her hubby away.  They are ten times tougher than I am as their husbands are usually gone for more than a year, in a dangerous place, and they only get a two week spouse visit OR LESS during the separation.

We picked up Haus from the airport this morning so right now it seems like the time flew by.   Then again there were nights during the last four months when I really wondered if I could do it another 24 hours. Enough whining for today though, it was tough, it is over, and I’m going to go watch some football with my Hubby. If you were one of those that helped us out, I cannot thank you enough, and if you’re a military mama with your man deployed, I’m praying for his safe and quick return.

The boys and their just-returned Daddy

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By Alyssa, September 9, 2011 9:13 pm

My nesting pattern so far:

Prior to Bubba’s birth- decorated his nursery, organized our CDs, right before he was born, baked a few pies and cleaned our ceiling fans (Yes, I did stand on our kitchen table nine months pregnant to accomplish that last task).

Prior to Zeke’s birth- reorganized the baby clothes, sold and bought baby items on Craigslist, redid the nursery.

Prior to baby #3′s birth… and the kid’s not born yet so I add to this list daily- reorganized our entire filing system to include color coding, reorganized our master closet, reorganized the boys closet, labeled bins and reorganized the basement toys, sorted through all of our manuals, software items, old picture CDs, etc. and, of course, labeled everything, scrubbed down our front porch and front door, redecorated our master bedroom, created a gallery wall in our living room, moved furniture upstairs and downstairs (with help on the big items), tried to paint our stair railing upstairs and down (then realized I really shouldn’t get on a ladder and the belly wouldn’t allow me to reach OVER the railing to paint so hired some really nice contractors), painted and decorated our master bathroom, reorganized our homeschool room, and started to scrapbook Zeke’s baby book (that I’m determined to finish before baby #3 is born).

Wow, now that I’ve written it all out I really must be nuts.  I will offer an excuse that with Haus gone the last four months (see tomorrow’s post) I tried to stay busy and not lonely at night after the boys were in bed… but, wow.  I’m crazy.

Look for decorating pics next week!