I dislike shopping for Christmas gifts because, despite my best efforts, it always feels like a rushed, insincere, commercially generated obligation. Often, the difficulty comes from trying to buy for someone who has everything. That’s pretty much both sides of our family. For the most part, buying for our my family is like buying for Donald Trump. Do you think the guy has a use for a $25 gift card to, well, anywhere?

We don’t spend a lot of money, but instead try very hard to find gifts that are meaningful. Sometimes that means I make the gifts myself. Sometimes that means we find something unique. I’d rate this year a 7 out of 10 for getting it right. Not too shabby.

The big exception to the “have-everythings” is my boys. Although I’ve never felt the need to keep up with the Jones’, I have at times wondered if my kids are viewed as the poor kids on the block. I just know that some of their friends were swimming in gifts on Christmas day. And, like every year, I felt a little bad when I realized the gifts under our tree didn’t flood our living room floor like they did when I was a kid. Finding gifts for them is very easy. Finding the right gifts takes a little more effort. It didn’t help that some people stole my best ideas.

We got each of the boys four gifts plus two family gifts. Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents did the rest. The boys ended up with a nice assortment of toys, books, board games, electronic gadgets, educational toys, and other little goodies. And the best part (for me) is that they were delighted with every single gift they got.

We were invited to spend Christmas Eve with my dad’s extended family. We gave ourselves about an hour to get there and found ourselves in the area near 7:00 p.m. Rob knows the area well, so he didn’t print a map, but glanced at the map online. I don’t know why I didn’t think to print a map. Or grab the invitation.

Between 7 and 8, we stopped at half a dozen party stores and gas stations trying to find the right street. We called my parents on their cell phones, but their cell phones weren’t turned on. We didn’t have anyone else’s number. We gave up after searching for an hour and turned around and headed home. The boys were unhappy about missing the party, but we made it up to them with dinner at the drive-thru at McDonald’s.

When we got home at 9:00, our phone rang. It was my mom calling to ask if we were coming to the party. Having just stepped out of the car after three hours, we chose not to head back. It wasn’t one of our best Christmas Eve’s, but the fries were really good. And it will probably make a funny story next Christmas Eve.

Christmas sneaks up on me faster every year. It’s three days ’til the big X and I’m behind on almost everything. I don’t feel stress or pressure, but I am acutely aware of the timeline right now. The shopping is done. Mostly. I still need to pick up a couple of small things for the boys, and a b-day gift for my dad.

I haven’t started wrapping yet, let alone assessed my arsenal of good paper. I have no idea which package is being wrapped with which paper. And I don’t like not knowing. I need to know. (Seriously people, these are the kinds of trivial things I think about.)

Our annual ornaments are barely out of the prototype phase. I looks like my out-of-state family is out-of-luck when it comes to getting them before X-Day. It’s not looking good for my in-state family right now either.

I haven’t made any cookies yet. Not that I usually do, but I plan on it this year. Really. Rob usually makes cookies and baklava, and he hasn’t started yet either.

But hey, I sent holiday cards this year! That’s a first. And they weren’t just cards, they were newsletters. Pats on the back for me.

Every year I have the best intentions for all these things I want to do, and every year something gets dropped off the must-do list. Previously, it was the cards. This year, it looks like it might be the ornaments. Or the cookies. Or both.

Or maybe just the ornaments…

After the boys successfully emptied a basket full of shredded paper into a trash container twice, I decided to show them a better way.

Step 1: Place empty bag over the top of the shred basket.

Step 2: Turn basket over, being careful to hold the bag around the edges.

Step 3: Carefullylessly lift the basket out of the bag.

Step 4: Watch as shredded paper pours out onto the floor.

Step 5: Ignore the smug laughter of twin boys as you get out the Shop-Vac to clean up the mess.

It took three years, but we finally finished painting all the rooms in the house. The lower half of the house was painted right away, but the upstairs has taken a little longer. Only the master bedroom was still unpainted due to my inability to settle on a color. I finally chose the color, but when it was time to buy the paint, I got this crazy idea to also repaint the master bathroom and the boys’ bedroom. We must have been on some sort of home improvement kick because we ended up working on three more projects between coats.

Rob painted. I assembled the boys’ new desk. Rob removed a wall. I measured and cut the boards to close up the opening. Rob re-routed wiring in the attic. I relocated the light switch. Rob installed a new light fixture. I installed a new dimmer switch. Rob patched the wall. I installed new closet shelving.

All the new paint meant new accessories! I wasn’t able to find pillow shams that I liked (and I was unwilling to pay $22.00 for one boring sham), so I had to make my own. I probably could have managed with just two, but I ended up making four, for under $40 no less. I’m pretty pleased with the results.

I still have a few more projects I want to tackle, but I think we’ll wait until after the holidays to start anything new.

Hey, you won’t find a new post here. I’ve moved! Go check out my new blog and don’t forget to update your links.

So this is it. New name, new look, new blog. Same me. I’m still working on fine tuning all the little annoying things, but for now, this is it. It’s like a new haircut. You have to play with it for a while to learn just how you want to style it. You have to try new products and new techniques until you find something that’s just right. You have to make it yours. Revealing it for the first time is scary. You wonder how it looks on you. You wonder if it fits.

A few kind friends will tell you when the thing you’re doing today isn’t really working. You thank them and make adjustments. Eventually, you find what works best. Then you, and everyone else, get used to your new look.

Thanks to a helpful suggestion from Lara, I am participating in the Carnival of Homeschooling this week. This is my first exposure to blog carnivals, and I’m a little surprised I haven’t discovered them sooner.

The carnival is a single blog entry that pulls together links to other blogs entries and articles about homeschooling. It’s an interesting way of exposing readers to a lot of different resources for a topic in one place.

It may not seem like it based on my inconsistency lately, but I’m really ready to get back into blogging more regularly again. For the past few days, my blog time has been consumed by the search for something new. A new look. A new name. A new blog. This blog was born out of my website, so I never gave much thought to choosing a unique name for it. But because this blog has rarely had a connection to my website, it seems fitting that it should have a name of its own.

It feels a little weird changing my online identity. I’ve known more than a couple people who introduced themselves to me with one name, then later asked me to call them a different name, and I always struggle with it. Neither name feels right to me after that. But this is different, right? This is my online identity we’re talking about here, so maybe it won’t feel so weird.

Anyway, you’ve been warned. A new look. A new name. A new blog. Coming soon.

Yesterday was my first day back to Tae Kwon Do since I made the decision to homeschool the boys. Not surprisingly, a few of the moms were interested to know why I decided to homeschool. It wasn’t the first time I was unable to give them The Answer because there is no simple answer. Rather, it’s a decision that I’ve come to over the last several years.

When I moved the boys to a charter school for second grade, I believed it had solved all the problems I had with the public school. And for the most part, it did. Their peer groups included kids from a range of ages, rather than one age per grade. The student to teacher ratio was capped at 20:1, with the average being 18:1. Teachers taught in pairs, and the material taught per level was consistent across that level. Aside from weekly spelling words, multiplication facts, and the occassional project, there was no homework. The school had a group of professionals called a Teacher Support Team which worked individually with kids who needed extra attention in certain areas. The school philosophy was that each child is an individual, and thus, should not be labelled for any reason. And most importantly, the school felt that teaching children was a partnership between the teaching professionals and the parents. Parents were welcomed in the classroom anytime of any day, with or without notice. The teachers built relationships with the parents and made them feel like they were part of the school. And being a parent in the school was a great experience.

So why homeschool?

1) Socialization. I want more control over which kids are influencing my kids. The accepting nature of the charter school attracted a lot of parents of kids with behavior problems. My boys will still have many opportunities to interact with people, but I will have more control.

2) Quality Time. By the time we leave school, attend afterschool activities, and get home, it’s near 7:00 p.m. I’m exhausted and they want some free time. We don’t have time for dinner, a bath, and “please read to your children every night.” Usually, it only leaves time for dinner and “go watch t.v. until bedtime.” I don’t know what I would do if they had daily homework or if I worked full time outside of the home.

3) Efficiency. The boys can learn more in less time at home. They were unable to learn their 2’s after three weeks in school. We learned them at home in 30 minutes.

4) Curriculum. I want more control over what they’re learning. Only the three R’s are essential. Everything else is optional. I want them to participate in their education.

5) Flexibility. I don’t believe that children must learn on a schedule. Learning can happen at any time of any day during any season. If we want to spend more time on a subject just for the fun of it, we can.

6) Fun. I want learning to be fun for them. Brendan’s first two years of school were not enjoyable for either of us. His learning spark isn’t as bright as it used to be. When he’s learning with me, he doesn’t feel the anxiety he felt in school. Now, he has fun.

There are other things that made the decision easy, such as the state we live in and the fact that I don’t work outside the home, but these are the main reasons.