what's up weekly. (T-minus six days, people.)

What's up, party people!  It's the final countdown to Christmas!

Last Sunday was the Christmas feast at church, so we spent Saturday prepping.  I made cheesy potatoes, a salad, and green beans to take.  Penelope made some fudge to give as gifts to her friends.  Penelope and Callista also performed piano pieces at the Merry Making portion of Sunday, so they spent time on Saturday practicing.

We also spent time reading old Christmas blog posts from when the kids were little.  (Rocco must've been documented doing something funny.)  After that, we watched Rudolph.  (Have I mentioned that during Advent, we only watch Christmas movies and TV?)

Monday was also OPHELIA'S BIRTHDAY!  SHE IS FOUR!

Oh, Oey.  How we love you.  You are so full of life, and so funny and smart.  You are independent and hold your own.  You love playing with trains.  You named your stuffed dragon, Big the Giant, which I think is just so funny.  You tell fart jokes.  (Well, mainly you just say things like, "YOU'RE a fawt.  This bread is a fawt."  You know your audience.)  You are maybe too affectionate with the babies.  (Is there really any such thing as TOO affectionate?  To ask the babies, the answer is a resounding, "YES.")  You're starting to LOVE imagination games.   You're wild and feral and sweet and spicy.  They should name a perfume after you.  I'd buy that.  

She requested pancakes for breakfast, peanut butter sandwiches for lunch (NO JELLY for this one.  She doesn't like jelly...?  Why would someone not want jelly?!) and macaroni and cheese for dinner.  After dinner, we watched Polar Express, which we always pause at the "hot chocolate" scene so we can come upstairs and drink hot chocolate.

The next day was Wednesday, and you know what that means: Table Time!  Maps, math, memory work.  You know the drill.  After lunch we read some of Evangeline and a few chapters in Watership Down.

And that brings me to last night.  I've plugged in the chicken lamp in my room to get a little red light therapy before bedtime.  If anything, it gives my eyeballs a rest from the blue lights and the God-awful LEDs that are everywhere.  I'm hoping it will help with my sleep patterns, which is really why I'm using it.  My sleep has been so awful lately, for no discernible reason, and I desperately need it to go back to normal!  They say red light at night can help with that, as well as with hormone balance, so we'll see.

Inception: I am putting a photo of me writing this post INTO this post.   Does red light cancel out active blue light exposure?  Can I pretend it does if it really doesn't?

Okay.  Now to just get through today.  Today is our last day before a three-week break for Christmas!  I'm so excited!  I was a little worried that I was waiting so late in December before breaking, but I think this is actually really perfect.  We won't start back to school until January 12!  So I'll have time to celebrate all twelve days of Christmas, and then put the decorations away after Epiphany, without it conflicting with other responsibilities.  I have some reading goals I'm hoping to meet over break, and I think after Christmas will be better than trying to utilize time before.  (Who am I kidding; after Christmas the kids and I will all be on a sugar crash, and I will be sick of stepping on pine needles, and fed up with Christmas music, all of which don't exactly foster ideal internal or external conditions under which to expect myself to read anything other than the back of the Tylenol bottle for dosing information.  But here's to untethered optimism.)