Our First Day

Yesterday we decorated the tree. This year it has been a process. In the past we've just been able to put the tree together all in one day. It's taken us 4 days to actually complete the tree this year. But...sigh.....it's up and ready now!




Below is the picture of the completed tree. I plan to have the kids make construction paper garland and maybe a couple of ornaments to add to it.

Today was our first day home together!! It was definitely scary for me. I sat down last night and prayed that everything would go well and that God would give me the confidence in myself that I CAN do this. The thing that has been worrying me the most is naptime. We never really have enforced naptime when the kids are here....so on weekends - unless we take a trip in the car - they go without naps. It's not because we don't try with them - we HAVE. But everything we seem to do never works. Dimming lights, naptime mats, blankets, milk, etc. We have just gotten to the point of being discouraged and not even wanting to try. Today - I CONQUERED naptime. :) They both went to sleep for an hour and a half - together! Now that I know it's possible, I have a lot more confidence in myself to do this everyday. The trick for them is running them and exercising them until they've used all that energy up and they're tired. After that I fed them lunch and got their bellies full and they were more than ready to rest.

But as for the rest of the day - it was great. I had put together a lesson plan last night of different things we could do today - to encourage learning but also be fun. We sang (and somewhat learned) two different Christmas songs and a Bible verse. We made a snowman door hanger for Izzy's door and watched "The Grinch" movie. And we played and played and played. I'm so appreciative to have this time with them. It's such a gift.