Do rainy days get you down?  I have a love-hate relationship with them, I think.

I love a good thunderstorm, a really dense fog (as long as I don’t have to be out in either), and whoever invented “thundersnow” should get a medal.  I guess I like my weather interesting, energized. Within reason, of course.  I’m not going to ask for a tornado to get my energy up. 😉

But the dark, gloomy days of constant drizzle that we get so often here in November and December really put me to sleep, make me ache (same with my son with JRA, so I do a lot more carrying, comforting, and getting him things), and, well, erase my motivation for almost everything. Except sleeping. (Do any of you use one of those light boxes? Do they help?)

So today my bucket started at half-full  three-quarters  85% full.

A pretty normal December day!

 

Things I’m loving right now:

 

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The tree. I spend a lot of time in this room as it is — having the tree here makes it magical.  Most of us were sitting here one evening when the timer went off, shutting down the lights on the tree and the banister — the disappointment in the room was palpable. We all whined “awwww” simultaneously and our shoulders sagged. It was like we all thought “There’s no point in being alive awake now that all beauty has left us,” at the same time.  Thinking I should keep the tree up all year with the happiness it brings. (#kiddingnotkidding)

Beast Academy – James T. is almost done with 3A, and as long as I “advise” him through the complicated ones, he enjoys it and keeps going.  I thought it might be too focused on innovative problem solving for him (he can be a perfectionist and hates to be wrong), but he has risen to the task. It’s interesting and doesn’t have too many problems of each type. Right up his math alley.

These Who Was (So and So) books.  They are serving as the bulk of my 2nd grader’s social studies this year – they lead to some great discussions.

Thankful that:

~we have only one more college visit and interview to go (yay!), and a few phone calls to finalize the fact that my daughter was homeschooled and no, a guidance counselor recommendation won’t be coming. Did I tell you she has already been accepted to her favorite school?  Now all we have to do is harvest the money tree in the backyard.  Oh, wait…

~my husband designed our Christmas cards

~my other high schooler has the next two weeks off. She needs a good, long break.

 

What we’re reading:

James T.  – Firefly Hollow

Lydia – The Lightning Thief  and The Sea of Monsters  (first two in the Percy Jackson series)

Julia – reading Redwall over again (the series, not the book, LOL. Every time I turn around she has another one.)

Elizabeth – re-reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy again after reading The Silmarilion, which is, according to Amazon: “The story of the creation of the world and of the First Age, this is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back and in whose events some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part.”  She loves them all and is excited to be making connections between books.

Me – I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t)  by Brene Brown and Trauma and Memory by Peter Levine.  Expect a post on shame, trauma, and the highly sensitive person in the (hopefully) not too distant future.

 

Thinking about:

This post.  Dh and I are trying to practice this – turning every “sorry” into a “thank you” instead.  Well, mostly me, because I’m the Queen of Sorry.  Just now I was rendered speechless because I went into the bedroom as he was going to bed (“Sorry to bother you!”). He tried to turn it into a Thank You and neither one of us could do it…then I started crying because it was all so hard and silly, and I started saying sorry about crying and sorry about being unable to do this stupid thank you thing, LOL. I apparently can’t figure out anything to say if I’m not apologizing for my existence…so after a long staring silence, we both just looked at each other with an “I give up” expression and said Good night!

Best moment of the day:

A nice email from my mother saying they weren’t going to stay for Christmas dinner. Is that weird that that is the best thing?  Our oven is broken and we can’t pull off much of a nice dinner anyway. Now there is no pressure.

Worst HSP trigger today:

As usual, the interrupting of me doing something quiet and important, with chit-chat that never.ends.  Just when I’ve gotten my attention back on my work…they keep talking……..and again….aaaand again.  It takes SO much effort for me to bring my attention back and forth, that I start shutting down and my ears hurt from the talking. I love them and want to hear what they have to say, I just wish they would do it all at once, instead of letting me get back to my work for 1.3 seconds, or wait until I’m not engrossed in trying to impress the people that might give us scholarship money. 😉 (In this case I was working on some college application essay stuff for dd – the Common App wanted to know all about my educational philosophy as a homeschooler. Hey, at this moment I’m just happy they’re alive and occupying themselves with something other than Minecraft. But that doesn’t impress the Universities, LOL)

Well, I have an hour to post this before I’ll have to change the title, so here goes.  I hope everyone has a blessed and peaceful Friday! (I know, I know, but I can wish it for you anyway!)

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