What a week! Daylight Savings Time pretty much wrecked our poor kids sleep schedules but we’re getting back on track after several days of early wake ups and some crankiness! I know DST even messes with me. How do you feel about the time change?

Sadie and Mordecai have a few tips for surviving the time change. Number one: eat donuts. You won’t regret a little ball of yum first thing in the morning!

Tip number two: play! Do things you love… like lining up toys.

Mom did tip number two by baking! I definitely lined up sprinkles and baked some of the things I love like granola, chocolate covered Oreos, and a cake for Mordecai’s birthday party. More on his party in another post, though!

The third and final tip: spend time with people you love!

We took this picture (above) with my brother’s drone and were laughing because we had done the same thing in 2017 (below) when we all just had dogs… now there are eight kids with three more on the way. God is good!

Other things from this week:

• The U.S. Presidential Election is over. I’m relieved. Things felt very tense in our country this week!
• I am now a hearing aid wearer. If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know I’ve struggled with hearing loss for years now. I’ll probably blog more about this journey once I’ve processed it more. It’s a big blessing and a lot to get used to!

• I’ve started to make fun lists for November and December: a “just us” Thanksgiving dinner before the big day, decorating gingerbread houses, shopping for a child in foster care, looking at Christmas lights… all the fun stuff! I can’t wait! If you have any ideas, send them my way.
• We had one of Mordecai’s birthday parties (the other will be next weekend… one for our families on each side of Pittsburgh so nobody had to sit in ‘Burgh traffic 😂) and it was so sweet. It hasn’t hit me that he’s turning two-years-old. He is such a special boy 🤎

• We looked at paint colors for Sadie and her sister’s room and I’m so excited. It feels good to start to prepare a space for her.
• Sadie has been trying and begging to learn how to write in cursive! How random, right? I’ve always wanted her to master writing in print first, and she’s just about there so I treated her to a very inexpensive cursive workbook and she hugged it when she saw it 😂 We’ll see how long she loves it, lol!
• Speaking of handwriting… how do you like to write? In print? Cursive? I’m a total weirdo and combine the two in every word. I’ll start in print and end in cursive. Jimmy WRITES EVERYTHING IN ALL CAPS. I want to know about you!!

Okay, it’s early on Saturday morning as I type this post. Malcolm woke me up by walking all over me (guess he was hungry!), but I’m glad because I have a lot to do today! Etsy orders, a run to the post office to ship said orders, cleaning up our house, doing school with Sadie (we skipped yesterday to prep for Mordecai’s party–homeschool perks!), and playing with the kids. It’s so fun to see a child receive new toys for a birthday or holiday and to check them out right along with them!

Tell me your style of handwriting!

What are your favorite Christmas and Thanksgiving traditions?

Has the time changed messed with you?