Oh! Christmas time this year..it was good. It felt a little difficult to get into the Christmas spirit-for me. I did my best for the kids though. We had our Johnny the Elf moving around during the day and night, and it turned quite fun because of the little kids-even Lily was on the look out for Johnny. I also tried to incorporate some fun homeschool Christmas activities..we did a candy cane experiment, built the shelf for the elf with gumdrops and toothpicks- oh, how I am trying! 😂💁🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️ I have enjoyed the school break as much as my kids have I am sure. Shall we talk about the homeschooling now that I am on the subject? Yes, yes, we shall. I feel like it really is going just about as well as I thought. The boys are very used to the schedule, and I don't hear much complaining. Jonah actually really loves it, and the push back I get is actually from Josh. 🤨 Which is so weird considering he has been the dream child in all of his classes. I guess it just goes to show you really can let yourself be your worst self when you are home..which...every one is like that so I shouldn't be so disappointed. Rowan, I feel like he is doing the best and better than he would be doing at school. I feel I have caught him in math, he is reading really well, he has about 60 sight words that he knows, and he is understanding things very well. I feel even proud of my efforts with him. I should be feeling proud about all my efforts, but we are still talking about me here. 
We had a good Christmas. So very lazy, but isn't that what can be enjoyable about the day. Christmas Eve we spent with some friends. We tried our hand at a nativity play done by the kids, maybe next year I will just have them act it out, and plan, because it was a hot mess. Mary rode in on one of our bouncing cows which was hilarious. Christmas morning I heard some noises- and I thought "no, not yet, my kids can't be up already-it feels like the middle of the night." Looked at my clock. Oh! It was the middle of the night. 2:10 am to be exact. I follow the noise downstairs. Josh- "emptying the dishes." 😂 He cracks me up! I told him the time. "But, I just wanted to do my job!" He says. "Nope, it doesn't work like that..Its 2 o clock in the morning." "But, I was just doing my job" he says again. The fool he thinks I am! But props for trying to sell that. He then came to our room at 4, and then we got up at 6:30. It was fun. We got the all the kids scooters this year, and I am actually very happy about the decision because they have so much fun riding them and they are super transferrable. I don't know why it took us so long to get them. 
In other news Lily thinks she is a big girl, and wants to use the potty. None of the boys were this little, and she is quite insistent upon it. She removes her clothes, and he diaper until you have no choice but to put her on the toilet. Where you watch her sit there for a very long time, use all the toilet paper left on the roll, and she repeats "potty" to you or "poop" over and over again until your head is in your hand as you shake your head. So, what I am concluding is that I would rather potty train a slightly older kid. 3 was a good age. She has actually gone several times, but still.
This is the new year now, and though I didn't set as many goals as I have in previous years, I was very intentional about the ones I did choose and wanted them all to be very realistic. And, the latest thing I decided for the new year is I am going to be studying joy. I want to find more of that this year. 🤞🏻
