Video of Bunnell Christmas Take 1

We had the first of our 12 days of Christmas when a package arrived from our parents. Warning--- this is 7 minutes long! :) Hope you enjoy.


Other news-

• I'm feeling much better. My side isn't hurting as much. :)

• We have been doing Weight Watchers one week. Peter has already lost a pant size! I'm sure by next week he'll lose 42 pounds and I'll lose 0.5! I'm happy for him though!

• It is truly amazing how much LESS food we are eating. It will help our 30 year financial plan because the food I buy is lasting much longer! :) I can't believe how full our fridge is with leftovers and groceries. Usually, it feels like there is no food, two days after I shop! We even have 2-3 slices of pumpkin pie from Thanksgiving! Amazing- that is like a miracle in this house.

• It is also nice to be eating less because it means less cooking for me.

• I've been using Real Simple magazine's "Basic checklist for a tidy house in 30 minutes a day." It's working. It provides a checklist for each room and keeps it simple. It is not for deep cleaning, just tidying up and wiping. It keeps me from focusing on the whole room instead of the details and results in a clean house!
  

• I have been using a stopwatch to time how long it takes to clean each room. I am like a kid I guess it helps me feel motivated to beat my time! The first day the kitchen took me 43 minutes and today 18! Yesterday the bathroom took me 23 and today 8! My room takes about 4 minutes a day now! I think it's working. I like the checklist because it's "real simple!" ha ha!

• I'm enjoying homeschooling. It is something that I need to be a better mother. I am thankful for the "forced" time to read to the kids and interact with them. I am good at distracting myself keeping busy with other things, but reading to the the children for a chunk of the day is really worth it. It is fun!

• I'm looking forward to Christmas!
  

Quiet Day

This day has been a quiet one, that's nice. We are enjoying the cool temperatures of fall and the end of the gardening season. There is a lot to do in the way of raking and harvesting potatoes outside.

I continue working on organizing the house one room at a time. It has been great!

Homeschool is going well... I need to think of some games for reviewing letters sounds to break it up. We have studied A-E so far... he's got those sounds down. We will do F and G next week. We will continue with 2 letters a week for the next 10 weeks until he has all the letter sounds down pat. Then we'll start in with short sound phonics. I have been trying to have him put sounds together... HE WANTS NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT! He likes just focusing on one sound/letter for now, so I won't push.

Sierra is doing well... smart as can be. She is turning into a major climber. I found her on TOP of the green house about 9 feet up.... nice! I have to watch her. She loves dancing, music, clapping and holding the puppies. Can you continue to pray for her to talk, it is hard not to worry- she'll be 3 in December.

Peter is doing well. He is working on a small patio/porch for me now. He is such a hard worker. He is getting more compliments on his Mongolian language skills, although he says he is rotten at it! He really is learning and growing. He continues with his hobby of guitar and really is getting good at that. He has learned another song in Mongolian and he played that on Sunday morning.

Ok... enough with my Christmas letterish report!