Advent Begins Week 2 ... and Other Tid-Bits

As we move into week two of Advent I have noticed how much my children look forward to the Holy Heroes video and audio clips. How they are enjoying coloring and "hanging" their Jesse Tree ornaments. And how well they are paying attention and retaining the information read to them from the Bible that corresponds with what we're learning during Advent.

We "lit" the second purple candle on our Advent wreath on Sunday evening, said prayers and began this week's studies right after dinner. We've been keeping to the right after dinner schedule because it seems to work best for the kiddos and then it doesn't feel rushed.


There are multiple coloring sheets that you can print out at Holy Heroes (usually one a day) along with other activities for the kids. We're working on making a Jesse Tree/Advent book for each child this year. So the night before I print off a coloring sheet per child and then the next night while I'm reading to them from the Bible they color it. Well, this was the plan but I'm not sure if we'll be able to finish them as my wonderful three year old printer is out of ink, prints blank pages (even when it has ink!), and has been skipping parts when printing when it does print the information on the page. It's probably time for us to purchase a new one but right now I'm not sure when that will happen. This makes me sad because it means I can't print off any other wonderful worksheets that I love to print for the campers.

Our Jesse tree is already looking full because each day all three children are putting an ornament on it. That makes 3 times as many ornaments than there "should" be on it. Which is fine because this year it is more about them all getting to experience each part and Mommy attempting to figure out what works for us. I plan on doing something a bit different next year about it though, because it does look really cluttered.


Something not related to Advent is a little tradition that we've had since Younger Cracker Jack was in Kindergarten. She came home that year from school and presented me with a lovely paper bell with a poem on it. Attached to that bell was a chain of construction paper rings. Each day from Dec. 1 - Dec. 24 you're to tear one of the rings off of the bell to count down until Christmas. This is a fun little tradition and it really cuts down on the "Mom, how many more days until Christmas?" question. We didn't do it last year so Peanut doesn't remember it, she's really getting a kick out of reading the poem every night and then counting the rings. Her favorite part is of course tearing off the bottom ring to make it one less day to wait.

And two things that have me feeling particularly orange right now is the fact that although I yelled when Peanut was screaming "I love you" to her sister who was less than a foot away and continued to do it after warnings. I yelled: "I love you toooo!!! Can we please stop yelling?!?! It hurts my throat!!" Which got giggles and the yelling stopped. And something that would have driven me over the edge not that long ago (though don't ask me why because I couldn't tell you) didn't bother me at all this morning. The picture below should explain it more than my words can ... and yes, she continued eating the cereal *cringegagcringe*.

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