Merry CHristmas Eve......

Today should be pretty laid back....hubby is driving to Blaine to pick up his brother to spend the holidays with us.  

I received the nicest gift today!   I slept in!  I didn't wake up until aftr 10:00.  WOW....Tommy has slept through the night for the past two nights....trust me that is a real gift!

Hubby is so amazed by Tommy....last night he came upstairs and said, "that boy is scary smart!"    He might give us a run for our money, but I am glad he is so smart.   Last night he really amazed us at the table.  We were eating supper and he had both a spoon and a fork and he was eating with them on top of each other.   He said "look Mom it's a Spork".   HOw in the world would he learn that word?   I thought maybe Josh taught him....but I think he came up with it on his own because he was using the two together....another scary smart moment!    He is amazing.......

As some of you know I am a developmental social worker.   I work with about 60 children and see alot of school programs and attend more IEP's that you  could imagine.   I was observing in a early childhood classroom and this teacher had the most fabulous idea.   It is going to be one of my projects on my vacation.   I have always done additional homeschooling type activities with my children in the summer and evenings.   We have a bin and Tommy will go grab it and say "let's play school!"  One of his favorite things to do.   I will admit I could never homeschool and I praise all you that do.  You are amazing.  But I do my part to be active in teaching my children, especially in the early years.  It is so very important, we have story time, puzzle time and try to work on using a pencil, but Tommy doesn't like that much.   Anyways...on to the great idea!!   

This year I am goign to work on introducing Tommy to the lettters of the alphabet.  He can sort of say his alphabet, but only ids a few letters.   I am going to make Letter Buckets.   I am going to use clear gladware containers and put the Letter of the Week on the lid.   Then I will collect little toys from around the house that start with that letter and put in the bucket.   Tommy really loves games so once we have finished a bucket we will use two buckets and dump the contents on the table and sort them which bucket the object goes in based on the lettr sound.   Each bucket will only have 3 to 4 things in them.  While on vacation and decluttering the toy boxes I a will collect some toys to make the buckets.  Should be fun. 

My favorite Store is LakeShore Learning...they have these beads I want to get.  Great learning store, but expensive.  We have one very near our house.   Lakeshore learning has the buckets I explained above, but WAY out of my price range.  But take a look at them...they are way cool.  These are the ones the teacher had...but she had a higher budget than me. 

I am getting way more projects on my list than I will get to on vacation....but I will have fun tryin! 

Ok....I have been reading books of course since I am home and can't sleep at night.   This will not be a post about the "real" meaning of Christmas, but about how do we instill morals in our children???   Yes, you guessed it  I a reading a book with a section about teaching morals.   Ok...I have had conversation with Erik about giving since my hubby got mad at him about some of his attitude about his wish list.  I think it is normal kid stuff in my opinion, but that is another post.   Ok...so Erik really seemed to get it and gave presents to many, etc.  Bought them with his own money, etc.   I think that part is  important at Erik's age, if I gave him the money of course he would buy gifts for others.  I would too if someone else gave me their money.  I would rather spend someone elses money too and get the thanks for the gift.  

Now I want to start having Tommy pick out gift for his immediate family next year.  I don't give him money so I have been pondering how will I have him buy gifts with his money.   I am not sure if matters since he does't really have a concept of money and ownership yet.   I tossed around the idea of doing a few little chores with him to earn his shopping money.    He knows all about chores!  So what do you think??   How would you handle it with a 4 year old??   Does it really matter if it is his money or not??   Could I give him a dollar for each person on his list and set him loose in the dollar store like I did Erik? 

Ok...now for the other thing that I have tried to instill in my kids is church offerings.   My hubby and I believe in and do faithfully donate every week.  Tommy will be in the actually Sunday school program next year and I want to start the idea of offering right away.   We tired with Erik, but he didn't understand it...he would cry or get mad if he had to give his money so I would put money in the envelope for him.  Sometimes he would keep the money.   I want to start this right with Tommy for the first moment.   I thought of giving him 10 nickels a week and say...some for Tommy...some for God.   It is his money but the expectation would be inherent to give.   How did you introduce your child to tithing???  I am really interested in hearing how you handled this with your small childen.   I do not want to handle it with Tommy how we did with Erik.  Or when children are that young do you jsut give them the money and they learn from the example of giving not so much that they are giving their money??  Because I really don't think that at age 4 I would want to give Tommy an allowance in the first place.    he doesn't understand money in the first place.  

    I think we have done ok with teaching our children about charity.  We try to participate in the diffierent programs at church to adopt a family, buy local children school supplies, etc.   That is a family project  though....and part of our family budget. 

I do plan on reading more about the subject from various places and discuss with my church small group and hubby.   Your ideas and suggests are greatly appreciated.

Well I have to share my excitment....and it is totally geeky excitment.  I was naughty and left the house - don't tell the Dr.   I wanted to go to Big Lots.  I had saw a crafting table in their ad last week and I wanted to see if they still had it.  There were sold out, but had a utility table for 39.99.    I am going to set up the folding utility table to make a craft/wrapping station.  Thanks for helping to add wrapping station to this idea Sandra.    I am hoping once I rearrange and declutter the basement I will be able to carve an area out for my table and I can leave my scarpbooking and sewing things out.   This will be a project I am looking forward to completing during my vacation in January!!  YEAH!!  

I am going to hit the clearance sale after Christmas and see if I can find a container to put my rolls of wrapping paper into.   It will be great!    I am getting way into my organizing mood! 

Man....I am havinga coughing jag here.....must have been moving around too much.  Time to sit down for a bit an relax before I clean some more.  

JEN'S TO DO LIST - THURSDAY

• Set up Humidifier - DONE
  
• Wash Dishes  - DONE
  
• Wipe Down Micro and Fridge - DONE
  
• Couple Loads Laundry - DONE 
  
• Scrub Kitchen Floor
  
• Vacccum Living Room and Steps
  
• Bills/Budget
  
• Eriks Clothes
  
• Review 5 plans for work
  

More Household Management Stuff.....told you that was what was on my mind now!   Well since I was up early and had alone time I started on few new pages.   I would love you imput, especially on my monthly routine page!  I know there are things I should add but this is all I could come up with. 

MONTHLY ROUTINE - those things you do once a year or so.

PLANNING AHEAD TIPS

TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS

Not a new form....but decided to add to my webpage for my family members.  I try each year to send a birthday card to everyone and I did pretty good this year with a few months that were missing.  So I thought I would share my List of Important Dates with you as well.  If you don't have one of these on your computer, it is a great thing to have.   Helps me a lot to remember birthdays.  I take the list and buy cards for three months at a time.   Then when I have free time I have the cards on hand to address and maybe write a little letter.  Generally something I do on my lunch break at work. 

Can't sleep so figured I would gt up and enjoy the quiet.   It is the time of year when I go nuts with organizing....my work life finally settles down and I take a few weeks off in January to get thing in order for the new year.    So get rady for alot of boring home organizing talk and list making.   LOL!!  I hope to have my control journal completed this year.  

Today I have a few things I want to get done around the house and a bit of work work to do as well.   Now that life is getting back to normal, time to gt back on routine.   I love my routines and feel off in November and December with the hoidays and all the extra hours I have to work.   SO time to bring back my to do lists!!!

JEN'S TO DO LIST - THURSDAY

• Set up Humidifier


• Wash Dishes


• Couple Loads Laundry


• Bills/Budget


• Eriks Clothes


• Review 5 plans for work
  

Now to catch up on my email and work on my webpage a bit....had a few ideas of home organization pages I wanted to add.   Later!  Have a great Day!

We are snuggled in for a few days.   I have everything done for Christmas and don't have to leave the house until Christmas Eve service at 9:00pm.   I hope to have a very quiet relaxing holiday with my hubby and children.  I am off to neb and get ready for bed.  Have a great night!

Well I am quickly making meatball subs for supper than we are going to my office.  I have all my plans written!!  Tomorrow I will try to work on revisions to the ones I already turned in!     Daycare is closed tomorrow so it should be an interesting balancing act.   Never a dull moment.  

We will run the last of our errands tonight too....Target, SA and Grocery Store...

I was hoping Josh would watch Tommy for me tonight but he plans on going to the movie..  Since it is his only night off of work, I figure I should let him be the 16 year old he is!   

Off to feed the family....

Quick break before I nebulize for the 2nd time today.  I almost have the last plan done for work.   Once I finish it we will stop by the office to take care of a few things.   Maybe I can even get Josh to watch Tom for us while we go to the office. 

Off to neb and read.....then back to work.