And a happy December to you...

December has come in with a whiz and a bang and aching, sleepless nights. Kitty Bill, our three-year-old, has suddenly decided to wake at odd hours of the night and rise before the dawn. Normally, this sort of change would be greeted with a gaping yawn, much grumbling, and lots of coffee... but it's almost funny since I have been giddily looking forward to catching up on all the sleep I lost in October and November. Looks like that will be one dream quite deferred.... maybe until old age.

Homeschooling lessons took a wee break when Yoga Barbie, one of my five sisters, came to visit for an entire month. Then we wrapped up the last half of November with National Novel Writing Month, and each of the girls, Sunburst and Moonshine, joined me in a story-writing exercise. We joined the festivities two weeks late, so we scaled our goals down to represent that. Over in the Young Writers Program Sunburst pledged to write 3,000 words and Moonshine 1,000. Given that Moonshine, at the tender age of six, can't really write yet, her story was drawn in pictures and dictated so I could type it down for her. Sunburst did her writing by hand, and then I transcribed it onto the computer.

I'm proud to announce that each one of us made her personal goal and then some. Originally I had intended to shoot for half of the adult goal, but by some manic stroke of fate, dark chocolates, courage and sleeplessness, I actually finished the 50,000 word goal-- quite a feat for two weeks worth of writing! Between the three of us, we built quite a large house of words.

The program provided us with these lovely parting gifts:




Now that we're back into the homeschooling grind, Moonshine is overjoyed to be back in the throes of her letter story, and Sunburst is heavy into the exciting world of the Norse myths. We're also spending the afternoons trying to create a little holiday cheer in the form of decorations and handmade presents, and at evening time we're celebrating Advent with stories, songs, and little calendars.

There's a stirring on the job-front news-- a possible move in the year ahead, but I'm trying not to look too far forward. The packing part of me can't even fathom another move, so I'm trying to instead be here now in this moment. With all the twinkling lights and little Christmas markets, it's not a bad moment to be enjoying.