Monday Meanderings - Dec. 8

Bible Study... One study is on contentment. And the other study is on Philippians. 

Memory Verse...  Ephesians 4:29

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs."

Husband Encouragement...

♥ Just trying to keep the house tidy and need to get our bedroom dressers decluttered and dusted. 

♥ Cookies and coated pretzals. =)

Train Them Up...

* Continue being consistent with my nightly dinner helper routine. This is not only a good opportunity for quality 1x1 time with each child, but they are learning how to cook! AND learning to appreciate all the details involved in preparing a meal!

* Carter-- working on respecting sibling's space and things. 

* Eli--I've been having the kids do our Christmas reading and counting that as his required reading minutes so that he's not spending as much time with homework.  Also working on attitude issues--he's type A child who likes things to be a certain way, or to continue working on a project, or to constantly defend himself/point fingers. Working on obedience and grace-filled attitude with this. 

* Hannah--Started a back-n-forth journal with her since she LOVES writing so much, she's so sweet! Also working on not withholding good from someone (siblings!!) just to make them mad. I've been having her think about whether she wants to continue with gymnastics after Christmas. 

* Started something new, yet AGAIN, with Bible notes. Eli and Hannah both really like looking up verses and copying them down. Last week I made up a study for Eli to discover the features of his Bible (table of contents and the notes at the beginning of each book) but he had it almost all done before church even started! Need to adapt this a little for Hannah's level and her Bible, and then she can do one too. And I can also write up something new this week for Eli.
* Christmas activities--I always plan a variety of suuuuuper easy things that don't require prep or supplies. But even still, the kids have had some fussiness here and there and because of it, have had to miss one of their days. We'll see how this week goes. 

Personal Goals...

I'm "doing" the "1 mile a day from Thanksgiving to New Year's" challenge. >>This really hasn't been happening as consistently as I'd like but doing what I can. 

New Habit of the Month...  {december}

intentional time with the kids. use my time WISELY.

MUST Do... 

* Post office -- Mail a package!! and a surprise! and get stamps
* copy Christmas letters.
* finish music project. Can't get it formatted to print just right so I think I'm going to just manually cut, tape, and copy the pages that are being weird.
* Look into kids piano lessons.
* Take kids shopping for Christmas exchange.
* Bring home any musical items from the church.

Zone(s)... kitchen counters

Menu - 

M - enchilada bake

T -  breakfast for dinner -- pancakes

W - sandwiches

Th - angel hair pasta and shrimp

F - appetizer night--spinach artichoke cups, teriyaki meatballs

S - veggie soup

FUN THINGS!

* Bible study today!
* Music rehearsal tonight--Christmas music! Also having some new people practice with our team, so that's kinda fun!

* I have a service idea in mind for tomorrow, just need to find out if it's really doable! 

* Bible study Wednesday. =)
* Wednesday night is a women's ministry meeting.  We've been brewing up some big changes and I'm really excited to see where we're gonna go with it! 

* Volleyball Thursday--can't wait! now that we have new players, it's awesome!
* Lunch Thursday! (I may need to shower in town at the gym but oh well!)

* Saturday is a little Christmas party with our friends.

3 things I'm thankful for today...
1. The kids' musical at church! Incredible message--Even though I've observed nearly every practice and heard the lines a lot of times, I was still almost in tears the whole time. The Gospel will do that to ya, I guess. 

2. Tradition. Memories are so sweet. Tradition helps bond families together. Just love it. 

3. Parents. They are so supportive and come to the kids' events. They spend many hours on the road, but do it without a thought. They were always like that for me growing up and during college. And now they are like that for the grandkids. We are blessed.