The Legend of the Christmas Tree

Oh the christmas tree! Can you think of anything else that kicks the season off more than putting up and decorating the tree. The boys always ask what day  we will be putting ours up. I usually have to put the DAY on the calendar. I wish I could say it starts off like a hallmark moment but well..... not really. I have 873 ornaments that need to go on the tree so that is about 5 tubs of ornaments that must be taken out of storage. The tree is a prelit 7' artificial tree (we all have allergies) which is way too heavy for me to put up by myself. I actually empty all of the ornaments out of the tubs and organize them as to what part of the tree it needs to be hung on. Once I have that chore out of the way then we begin acting out more of a hallmark scenario... kind of , remember I have 3 boys. We always have some bickering over who is doing what to the tree.  The boys love hearing the stories that go with each ornament. Each one usually reminds us of a special person or time in our lives. I keep all information (who and where it came from ) in my ornament journal so that I will not forget as time marches on .

The boys enjoy listening to the inspirational story of the tree which they know so well due to this wonderful book I bought years ago . I always read it the day before the tree decorating ceremony begins at our house . You can find more info about it here.

While  we work on the tree, we enjoy some gingerbread and sugar cookies that are shaped like bread twist and apples. You will understand why they are shaped like apples and bread twist once you read the story. I am always amazed at how the tree can cast such a magical spell on our family. It is the one night that I can count on peace and silence at our house. :)

Oh NO, look what I did!

Did you ever start to put something back in its place and you realize right then the whole thing needs to be redone???? Well I do it all the time. This would be the number one reason why I live by a planner and a to do list. I tend to like things very structured and organized and start to feel like my throat is closing up and I can not breathe when something is all cluttered up. My mind feels as if all four walls are vibrating and I can not hear a sound or a thought.

On that note. I decided to put away a few childrens books. We have a lot of them...... 2 bookcases full and bookcases in each of the boys rooms. That one simple task of filing the books back on the shelf became an all out organizing and decluttering of books. As of right now the entire hallway is a potential landmine of bins with books in them.  I am now sitting here looking at this mess and realize this was Crazy!

So far we have managed to redo all the childrens fiction by the authors last name and I am actually removing about 80 books from our collection.This was so hard for me. I save books for the boys to share with their children one day, just the ones that they loved when they were younger. The problem with that is they had alot of favorites. I also tend to buy books that I know are incredible childrens stories when I come across them at a thrift store. This would be why I have 8 Goodnight Moon books. 
I am sure I will be dreaming about shelving books all night. Has anyone else done something like this before???? 

Hopefully I  will come out of this mess sometime soon to resume my other activites.
As far now......

I am lost in a sea of books hoping to return soon. Feel free to send out a search party if you have not heard from me, oh lets say in a day or so!

Summer Reading Challenge

Well I have tried to post 3 times this week but my blogger account has been acting up, actually my whole google account has been hit or miss this week. That just means I have some catching up to do with you. We did make it to the library the other day to sign up for the summer reading program. We are lucky, we have a city and a county library so we signed up for both. We also swung by Borders and Barnes & Nobles Bookstores to pick up their summer reading sheets. As happy as I am to have my boys in all of these programs, this is alot of sheets & events to keep up with. 3 boys, 4 programs.....hmmm....get the picture?  The boys are still working on their organization skills. I tend to hear "Mom, where is _______? " at least a hundred times a day (ok, I am blowing that out of proportion but honestly it FEELS like it). So I created our summer reading binder. I am a vertical filer. I tend to think better this way and have a lot less of a chance to misplace it if it is in a binder or on a clipboard. So this is what is in the binder: 10 vinyl sheet protectors, one for every child to keep his reading sheets, a sheet for each locations summer events and a sheet for me (They offer an adult summer challenge too) . I put our receipts from the libraries in the front pocket of the binder. This is great to doublecheck that all books are accounted for before we leave to return them. I use the back pocket to store the book review sheets that the boys fill out so that we can discuss the books and I can monitor their comprehension. 

It has been great to utilize this system. I feel so much better knowing that all the info is in one place. Which by the way is always stored on my desk. You do not want this little fellow walking all over the house. They must come to it to record their info. When we are ready to go to the library, I just grab our binder and basket of books to go. A lot less headaches and nobody can say they have lost their sheets!  If you are interested in the book review sheets,  you may find them  at Super Teachers Worksheets . Hope everyone has a great day! :)

I am linking to the following parties, be sure to check them out.