We have not had any time to put our tree and all its trimmings away yet. I do not like to have it all up this long. One year we kept the lights on our house until just before Valentine's Day. I hope that doesn't happen with the tree this year.
A new quarter begins tomorrow morning. I start teaching the 2nd and 3rd graders. I actually have a plan in mind this time. I was sort of wayward with my kindergarten class. I taught it for the past 2 quarters and never seemed to really get in the groove with it. The kids were great, I was just not up to par.
If you ever want to know what I'm doing in class, check out my Diary Of A Bible Class Teacher blog. You can tell by looking through the archives that I didn't post much last year. I plan on doing better this year.
So, that's 2 new things to do this year: update my Bible class blog and take my Christmas tree down.
I take my tree down Christmas night. I don't like waking up and seeing it on the 26th. Makes me sad. I also don't like when ppl keep turning their lights on after the 25th....my pet peeve!
Reese has no idea that the majority of ppl keep their tree up till New Years. A couple of years ago we went to a New years eve party at the Lachausse's and they still had their tree up, Reese was floored! She kept asking why it was up!! lol
Last night I asked my husband, "When are we gonna take our tree down?" He replied, "I don't know. When are you going to take it down?" It's still up. ;)
Because of the long, cold winters in Minnesota, many people turn on their outdoor holiday lights at Thanksgiving and keep them on through January and sometimes February. Their winters are brutal!
I hope you enjoy the 2nd and 3rd graders. I switched from 4th-5th grade to 2nd-3rd grade this past year and find them so much fun to work with. I plan on following this group up to 4th-5th again because of a teacher shortage
I would have some kind of lights up all year round if people didn't think we were really weird. I love seeing sparkly little lights here and there thruout my house! (but only thru the duldrums of winter!)
I "thought" we were doing so well...getting the x-mas decorations down and "most" put away, but alas the tree is still sitting in the middle of the living room. LOL
Good luck and enjoy your 2nd and 3rd graders...that IS a good age to work with.
I got our last tree down last night. We have a neighbor whose tree does not go up till about a week before Christmas, but is up till at least Valentine's Day. All lit up, too. My husband likes it since there's so much darkness in the winter. Seems to brighten things up a bit. I see that, but I'm ready to take it down after the New Year holiday.
I kind of like the decorations too. Otherwise, I feel a little too "religious" about the Christmas holidays. I decorate to brighten up the season, and that's why the stuff goes up so "early" too (right around US Thanksgiving time). We mostly decorate with snowmen and greenery anyway (no Santas), birds and colorful balls and lights on the tree. But that's me. :) Enjoy decorating, I say! :)
We took our tree down on the 22nd. In my defense, lol, we had our Christmas on the 20th, and we went to Doug's parents on the 23rd. By then...it was dead, lol. The last tree I had up until nearly February. I was tempted to redecorate it for each season to avoid putting it away haha
Our tree is still up...it's coming down tomorrow! It normally is down by New Year's day but we were on our way home from TX then we worked and I haven't felt like 'dealing' with it this weekend! So tomorrow is the day...
We didn't have a tree put up this year, but it usually doesn't come down till about now.... I'm always reluctant to eradicate this wonderful season from our house. We moved in the day before Xmas 23 years ago, put a tree up immediately and a rather shaky move [for our kids] became a season of memories as the familiar ornaments came out of their boxes. It has remained a wonderful time of year for all the "kids." They love coming home for Xmas.
It is a lot of work to take everything down and put it away. I usually do it myself and this year Eric helped a lot and he commented about how much work it was and how long it took. I think he may help me more next year :)
2009 looks to be a promising year. I don't have anything scheduled except the normal stuff. They include:
A VBS planned this summer. We are going to have a study about young Bible characters that grew up to do great things. I'm pretty sure there is a catchy theme title but I don't remember what it is. We'll be studying Josiah, David, Joseph, Samuel and Jesus.
I will be teaching the 2-3 graders Bible class. I'll be teaching them both Sunday and Wednesday all year long. We'll be studying the United Kingdom, Poetry, The Divided Kingdom and The Return to Jerusalem (I forget the name of that quarter).
My string orchestras will have 2 concerts -- one in January and another in May. I plan on having the kids split up into small ensembles and maybe go play for some nursing homes in a couple of months.
The boys and I have been working on memorizing The Sermon On The mount. I hope to get that finished by the end of the school year.
I plan to continue my weight loss endeavor. It is a slow go but it is still going -- away that is. I've been exercising sporadically. I hope to make that more regular.
We'll probably be making a trip or 2 to Tampa to pick up and or drop James off at school. I would love to make a trip to California to see Matthew and Sarah. Maybe I'll ask for a plane ticket for my birthday (hint, hint).
Those are my plans I can think of sitting here. What is something you'd like to accomplish this year?
I want to "grow" my studio, exercise more (I've really started to notice how much better I feel when I do), and establish a better pattern for studying the bible.
Have you taken your students to nursing homes before? That's where we do 99% of our concerts and recitals--the residents love it, and so do the kids! :)
Sounds like a full year! And here I am asking for you to do more! ;) I would like both my kids to finish their school year by June. It has never happened before, but it's good to set your goals high!
We are hoping to be in Tampa around lecture-time hopefully. Also, if you go see Matt and Sarah in CA that is my "home"...I attended church where they go (Ontario) forever it seems, until we moved to AR 14 years ago now. I still miss the people there...they were/are a great group.
I hope to gain better eating habits (healthier ones, that is), exercise, and lose weight. I think a healthier lifestyle is a little more motivated this time since it reduces the risk of recurrence of my breast cancer. Any tips?
The Psalms verses we learned were with all the kids that have promoted. The all focused on a characteristic of God and were individual verses. I'm afraid to say that I have gotten away from that with this new set of 5 year olds.
You will make such great headway with the kids, teaching them both classes for one year. Sometimes I think that's easier than going in and out of a class and trying to get used to where they are.
With my last group, not long before they left, we learned the Eph 6 soldier. We would stand and act like we were putting the armor on as we said each verse. They learned it well!
I've just started a weight loss program too. Mostly by adding exercise to my routine. I sure hope I can loose some weight.
I just finished a queen size quilt for my mom and dad. Now I am doing a regular size quilt for each of our two girls. I don't know if I will complete the quilts this year, but that is my goal.
We had a full day today. I got 2 naps in. Now I'm going to be up all night. Santa brought a cell phone, a tennis racket, a bicycle, a ripstick and some robots. We've eaten well, watched a lot of good movies and old TV shows, opened a lot of neat presents, played some games, eaten some more, made a huge mess in the house several times and are now ready to get back to life as we know it. Here's a slide show to give you a glimpse of Christmas at the Dow's house.
I don't know if it's just that my computer is slow tonight, but this slide show seems to take forever to load. Sorry, feel free to browse around the web until it gets loaded. :)
That is fun! I'm glad Benjamin got a bike where he can try it out right away. I've always felt sorry for children in the North who get one when there is a foot of snow outside!
When I was young I had a full-sized guitar and always had trouble playing it because my arms are short and my hands are small. So my hubby found a 3/4 size and it's perfect! :)
We've done a couple of Vivaldi duets (I'm not sure of the numbers right now), Classical Violin Trios (Publisher: De Haske Publications), and it seems like there is another duet book, but I can't remember the name of it. I know it has Schubert's Serenade in it. We're also working on some solo works together (Tchaikovsky's and Mendellsohn's violin concertos).
Haha, well I asked her permission first, you think I would have posted that photo if I knew it would upset dear mommy? Lol, I asked her and she said I could :)
Yesterday, we went with the Joneses (Alex, Natalie, Ashley, Pat and Karolyn) to Pinecrest. Pinecrest is the nursing home my father in-law is at. For a neat picture of him and Danny and Karolyn, go check out Danny's blog. The Jones kids -- mentioned above -- sang Christmas songs. Karolyn baked Gingerbread cookies and made punch and organized the whole thing. Danny, Andrew and Timothy sang Jingle Bells -- barbershop style. Timothy played a couple of Christmas songs on the violin. Then, we played a trio. Andrew played viola, Timothy played cello and I played violin. We played some Christmas songs and some more classic pieces. I read Twas The Night Before Christmas.
It turned out to be a very nice party. The residents (there are only about 20) were very sweet. There are some that don't seem to have much memory problems at all. There are some like Granddad that can't remember much of anything unless it happened years ago. Then there are those that sleep most of the time. We weren't sure if the residents would be able to sit there for the whole 30 minutes we were entertaining them. But they did. They seemed to enjoy it. One of the residents entertained us on her organ. She used to play organ at her church. When she moved into the nursing home she brought her organ. It's a really nice organ. It was neat to see her play.
Here's a few pictures. It's hard to take pictures when everyone that takes pictures is involved in the program. I hope some of the Joneses got some better ones. In the meantime, you'll have to suffer along with these.
Me reading. The kid on the floor with the glowing eyes is not a kid. She works there. She really didn't have glowing eyes either.
Alex, Natalie, and Ashley leading a sing a long of some favorite Christmas songs. On the far left, you can see Karolyn sitting next to Granddad.
Timothy playing his violin. That's Granddad sitting on the far left.
That's awesome. I bet they all enjoyed that. I know many of the people in nursing homes get left there without ever hearing from friends and family again. It's wonderful that you all took the time to spend with your dad-in-law and included all of the residents!
This is something we usually do every year. We get together several homeschoolers and visit Nursing Homes...and this year it just did not happen. It is a wonderful thing to do and we always come back more blessed!
That's so great that you could do that. I hope that sometime in the next year my kids can start playing piano at nursing homes. They've been wanting to do it but we never got it started this year. Have a great Christmas!
Much to Danny's sorrow, we rarely have a hot breakfast unless you'd call Instant Oatmeal in the microwave or toast from the toaster a hot breakfast. I just don't cook well before noon. Today is a good example. I got up before everyone else and decided I would make some pancakes and bacon. These are the 2 worst things I do in the morning. I always burn the bacon and the pancakes come out in a variety of ways. After noon, they are almost always perfect, just not in the morning. Actually, the bacon turned out pretty well. The first package got a little burned but they are still edible, the second looked great. The pancakes look good but I made a mess. I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to pour the batter. I needed to tend to the bacon so I laid it in the bowl of batter. When I went back to look for it, it wasn't there. It had sunk deep in the batter. So, I decided, since I was going to have to clean it anyway that I would try something different. I tried the ice cream scoop to pour the batter. I poured some and laid the ice cream scoop on the side of the bowl (so it wouldn't sink in the batter), It began to fall to the floor. I quickly stuck the spatula that I had in my hand in the bowl of batter -- I don't know why. The ice cream scoop with lots of batter still clinging to it, fell to the floor, I picked it up, cleaned it and then went to look for my spatula. There it was in the bowl of batter. Why I put a spatula in the bowl of batter, I don't know. Now, I have a batter covered 1/4 cup measuring cup, a batter covered ice cream scoop, a batter covered floor, and a batter covered spatula, plus pancakes getting doner and doner all the time in the pan.
So, how did breakfast turn out? Actually, it was pretty good. I cleaned everything up, went back to my old way of pouring out the batter and did not stick the spatula in the batter bowl again.
I have been there several times, just love when the spoon or something decides to fall to the floor....batter on cabinets, floor, fridge and you. Then someone decides to come through and step in it...ugh. It is called multitasking....women are famous for it. Jim cooks the bacon first, then pancakes. Works good for him but I get bored. Thanks for the laugh.
You cook in the mornings like I do all the time, lol. See I've figured it out. It's not that I don't like to cook things, it's that I drive myself crazy trying to keep up with too many things at once, lol.
I tend to have batter on the floors, cabinets, counters, a dozen spoons, and all over me and the stove :) Sounds like you've got it pretty well together comparatively :)
I've made pancakes for dinner twice recently. The scoop is always a mess. Last night, I rested my 1/4 cup measure on the whisk I had used to mix the batter and had left it in the bowl. The cup didn't have a way to sink this time, yay!
My new favorite pancake batter dispenser is a syrup/ketchup squeeze bottle. Just wash one out after you finish whatever came in it, pour the batter in after mixing and squeeze the batter out of the top. Perfectly round pancakes everytime. You can even make mini ones using this method. I will say that it works best to make sure the batter is pretty lump free. Otherwise, the lumps get stuck in the hole of the lid and can cause an explosion. Other than that, this method has worked great for me.
Tupperware used to make this enormous plastic measuring cup type of a bowl back when I was first married. We use that to mix our batter, and then just pour it right out of the bowl's "spout." It works like a charm.
That sounds like something from "I Love Lucy"! You're too funny! For pancake batter I use an ancient Tupperware mixing bowl with a pouring spout. :) (Oh, it must be the same one she has.)
I have a terrible time turning pancakes over. Somehow I can't turn them over without messing up the pancake or the pan, etc. I usually end up with myself and the kitchen covered with whatever I am making. Your story is pretty funny. I think it's funny to me because I can relate.
I don't do breakfast well, either. I'm not a morning person to start with, and then I'm too impatient. Not long after I got married, Brad told me not to get up and cook breakfast for him anymore. I kept burning my fingers, etc. ha
I'm not a morning cook either. We have hot breakfasts at night occasionally. However, I can still burn things at night and spill things on the floor. :)
