Advent is almost here! I'm excited! Tomorrow afternoon we'll get out the Advent Wreath and devotional book and hopefully the Christmas tree and get this place looking a little more like Christmas is on the way.
Our small group from church made some Christmas cards and ornaments together. They will be given to residents at a nursing home where another couple from our church volunteer once a month by leading a service. Actually they took over from my dad who had been doing it for years and ended at the end of summer. My family finished up the rest of the 50 cards today and put a Bible verse on the back (Romans 15:13). Graham and Isaac did all the gluing. Lily-Anna enjoyed making lots of cards and Kohen most enjoyed making the ornaments. It was a fun activity for our small group to do together. All ages were able to take part.
We enjoyed surprising the kids with a trip to the movie theatre this month. We watched The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
In other exciting news, my parents have a new garage door and opener. This is their first automatic opener.
There's not a whole lot on the calendar to report. There were a number of birthday parties to attend as well as visits to the dental office and the regular swimming and piano lessons as well as small group, youth, and Olympians meetings. I keep meeting with kids at school to practice their literacy skills and helping our Children's Pastor at church. Our winter tires are on the van and my wonderful husband cleaned out the garage so we can park there nightly. I see vehicles outside with a light covering of snow and I am once again grateful for our garage.
Isaac enjoyed his visit to Graham's workplace. He was even given a nice stainless steel water bottle and a portable power bank.
Lily-Anna missed two days of school earlier this month due to what appeared to be a stomach bug of some sort. We listened to audiobooks and I read to her. She had more energy the second day. Isaac was also home with cold symptoms one day but he mainly slept.
I forgot to mention last month that Lily-Anna joined the running club at her school and went to school early two days a week to run. She was able to participate in a "Fun Run" at another school. It was a day with much prayer as I realized shortly before the run was to start that I was taking her to the wrong school and the actual school was across town. I think something like 300 kids were participating so when we finally arrived, there was certainly no parking to be found anywhere near the school. When I finally parked, we made our way to the starting line as quickly as we could. The race had begun but thankfully the older age groups started first so she had a little time catch her breath.
And, I also forgot my phone in the van that was parked a good ways away from the race. I was tempted to try to get it but thought it would be worse to miss seeing her run than to not get a photo. When I saw her come into view for the last leg of the run(which was on paths and sidewalks), she and a friend were each holding onto an arm of Lily-Anna's hoody that they held between them as they ran. I loved that! I think she ran well - but after the run, she said she never wanted to do that again. We'll see what next year brings.
I enjoyed reading a couple of books with Kohen that involved a family who could go inside paintings and travel to museums through them. We looked up all the paintings mentioned in the first book and I took out a number of art books from the library. These family members are Restorationists and they have different gifts that help them restore paintings to what the artist originally intended. They see art as pointing to the truth. There are also Distortionists who change the art so that it negatively affects the person viewing the art, without their knowledge.
I also enjoyed listening to Unoffendable by Brant Hansen. He believes that Biblically, Christians should never take offense and that only God can have righteous anger due to His perfect character. I would love to get to the point of not getting angry. My kids will quickly tell you I am not there yet.
I'm currently listening to It Wasn't Roaring, It Was Weeping by Lisa-Jo Baker and reading Foster by Claire Keegan as I just watched the movie based on this book. I'm excited about the books I've ordered for the kids for Christmas. I think books are my favourite thing to buy the kids, though I have a hard time narrowing down my choices.
Bon nuit ma famille et mes amis! That reminds me, Lily-Anna told me she accidentally spoke French in her swimming lesson today.
Elizabeth
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
