Weekly Wrap-up #15

I’m coming to you today on a very chilly morning here in the woods.

My oldest and I woke up before dawn this morning to attend a very special candlelight rorate mass and then out to breakfast together. It was an incredible experience. We literally rolled from bed into car in the pitch black dark, rubbing our hands for warmth and bundling down into jackets and sweaters. At the church, we were ushered into the darkness with only a few candles lit for the priest to see to prepare the mass. And then, exactly as the first beams of morning sun streamed through the glass windows, we received communion. It was a mass I will never forget!

Other advent happenings - I am thoroughly enjoying the 100 Miles to Bethlehem program I signed up for! Signup is still open, I believe, so there’s still time to join in. Basically, it’s an exercise program where you either commit to walking 50 or 100 miles in advent as we prepare for Christmas. It’s been amazing for me to get in the exercise rhythm again. I’ve been getting up around 5:20am daily to get my miles in and I’ve come to really love and crave the still and dark of the house at that time. I am doing the “beginner” 50 mile option and have a little walking pad set up in my husband’s office. It comes to about 1.5-2 miles a day, which I think is very doable. I’ve been putting on my headphones to listen to the program’s devotions while walking. I will definitely do the program again next year (maybe the whole 100!) and I think it’s starting a new walking habit for me! I don’t plan to stop after Christmas.

Sometimes when I have extra time, I pair walking with the Pietra fitness online classes I love. I’ve been a member of Pietra fitness for a few years now and really appreciate the flexibility of the workouts. There’s workouts of every length and I love the spiritual aspect. I recently quit paying for Peloton and now just walk and use Pietra.

In homeschool news, Christmas school is in full swing over here and the kids and I have been doing all sorts of neat little projects. My oldest sewed and decorated a baby doll for the toddler the other day, we’ve baked cookies, decorated gingerbread houses and made cinnamon ornaments. We only do read alouds, projects and math during December so it’s been a really welcome change of pace! I read somewhere about giving the kids an Epiphany basket full of new school supplies and treats so I think we’ll do something like that and then re-start our “real” school in January. I was bold and changed curriculums for my youngest kids so they will be starting fresh in 2026. My oldest uses and loves Ambleside Online but it was just too much to try to balance three different levels of that (and manage the house and toddler!) on the daily. I’m moving my younger kids to the Peaceful Press in the new year and they will be studying American history and geography together. They each do separate levels of language arts and math, but it’s good to combine as much as possible I have found (I’ve learned this the hard way!).

I finally finished the book for my book club and I hosted a small group of friends last week to discuss it. It was SO good. Sort of like a very dark Little House on the Prairie, though, so be prepared. I’ve said it many times but it’s worth saying again - if there’s a Well Read Mom group in your area, give it a chance! I absolutely love this group and it’s helped me grow as a reader and a person.

Tomorrow we celebrate gaudete Sunday at church and we are going on our annual family ice skating and out to dinner outing! Nevermind that there’s a giant arctic blast about to hit and it will be apparently 20 degrees. My friend Natalie always makes fun of me because I’m obsessed with always knowing the weather, but without social media on my phone the weather website is the one place I turn. ;)

Have a lovely third week of Advent, dear ones. I hope you find some respite this week despite the business. As our kids have gotten older, we’ve had to learn to say NO to a lot of extra things to preserve a close family culture at home. Last week, that meant saying no to an extracurricular sport tournament that would have taken up four nights of the week next week! I also had to say no to a new homeschool co-op with friends I really love, simply because I need to preserve family time, balance the commitments we’ve already made and keep my sanity. In the new year, I’m reserving Fridays for daily mass, grocery shopping and cleaning the house to get ready so we can have restful weekends as a family. I haven’t always been the best at this - I tend to veer on the overcommitting side - so this is my advice to everyone out there not to make the same mistakes I’ve made in the past. It is perfectly fine for you to say no to things. You don’t have to give your kids everything and you don’t have to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way.

My husband and I have our annual Christmas date tonight at a favorite restaurant in the city so I must go. Stay warm, friends!