Season Greetings

Our greetings may be too late for Christmas, but that's just how cards went this year. Every single step was a struggle. I finally mailed out the batch that we were sending on Christmas Eve, and wanted to wait until people had a chance to receive them before posting. (We decided to cut back our list this year so we could use the money towards a charitable donation, but still sent to a few, mainly to friends who don't use social media much, so if this is the first you are seeing of it, it just means we feel like we get to "see you" online :).)

So, if you'd like, play along with our Mad Libs style Christmas letter.
Fill this out first, and then see how 2018 went for us.

1. Your Last Name_____________________________

2. Adj_______________________________________

3. Adj_______________________________________

4. Time Measurement__________________________

5. Past Tense Verb____________________________

6. Distance Measurement_______________________

7. Adj______________________________________

8. Number__________________________________

9. Noun____________________________________

10. Measurement of Time_______________________

11. Past Tense Verb___________________________

12. Location, Building__________________________

13. Adj______________________________________

14. Noun, Plural_______________________________

15. Adj______________________________________

16. Body Part_________________________________

17. Adj______________________________________

18. Adj._____________________________________

19. Animal___________________________________

20. Verb_____________________________________

21. Adj._____________________________________

22. Adj._____________________________________

23. Number_________________________________

24. Adj._____________________________________

25. Adj._____________________________________

26. Adj._____________________________________

Dear ​(1--Your Name)
​
 Family, Season’s Greetings! We are excited to tell you about our ​(2-adj.)​ 2018. Moving in 2016 was so (3-adj.), and we didn’t want to let another ​(4-time measurement)​ go by without a move. In January, we​ (5-verb, p.t.) ​ up our stuff and moved 5 ​(6-distance)  down the street. Even if the distance was small, the impact was​ (7-adj.)! We love our new home and hope to take at least ​(8-number)
​ year(s) off before the next move.

The kids have been busy this year. After finishing middle school as a homeschooler, Bean, 14, started high school at the local ​(9-noun)​ and is loving every ​(10-measurement of time). She ​(11-verb, p.t.) water polo this fall, attends early morning seminary at the ​(12-location, building), and doesn’t even complain too much about the early wake-ups.

Bug, 12, is our only one still homeschooling this year. He loves his ​(13-adj) art class, piano lessons, and park day with ​(14-noun, plural). He went on his first backpacking trip with the (15-adjective) scouts this year and usually has a book in his (​16-body part).

Peanut, 7, thought he would try out public school this year, so he is now a 2nd grader at the (​17-adj) elementary school. He has had mixed emotions, but likes his teacher and P.E. and has made a few
(​18-adj) friends. He was bitten by the reading (​19-animal) and loves to draw and (​20-verb) T.V.

Daddy-o achieved a life-long goal this fall and is now the (​21-adj) owner of his own business--an RV and boat storage facility. While his daily work may not be glamorous, he loves the challenge of keeping up with all the parts of a (​22-adj.) business and is happy that he no longer answers to anyone.

Since Kim is only homeschooling (​23-number) kid(s) this fall, she thought she better take on a couple more roles. She is teaching a homeschool science class for middle schoolers and is now a (​24-adj.)
​dog-walker, along with keeping up with the kids’ activities and learning.

At this (​25-adj) time of year, we are grateful for the spirit of Christmas, and friends and family, near and far.  Merry Christmas and (​26-adj) New Year!

Love, The Mercers

Fall projects

Just had to show off a couple recent crafts we've done.



The first was something Bean and I did together. I was put in charge of starting a blog with fun activities to do with kids for the MBASA (spouse association), so I now get to search out the seasonal crafts and fun things we should be doing and I thought I'd try some out with Bean. (And although some of these are specific to our location, there are fun ideas for anyone with kids--you might want to check it out here. After we made our leaf rubbings, I needed something to do with them (I'm all about functional art), so we made them into cards (and a couple of you will be seeing one of these in the mail in the next few days :)

And then, of course, another scrapbook layout. I LOVE this picture of my two guys. And I got a collection of paper by BasicGrey that I've been dying to start using. And even more exciting, Daddy-o has promised to add his own little note at the bottom of the journaling. It always makes me happy when I know my kids will have record of his involvement in their lives, and not just the crazy woman who writes down every random thing they do or say.

More projects. . .

Even though I've been sick and cranky, kids have been sick and cranky, things have been nutty, I've managed to squeeze in a little mama fun.
And Savannah's craft projects while I was working on the thank you card (I love that she wanted me to take a picture of hers when I was doing mine!)

She's crafty . . .

For some reason, Daddy-o and I both thought we were going to have excessive amounts of free time this summer to catch up on all our hobbies and projects. I don't know exactly where we thought this time was going to come from. Daddy-o does have some extra time since he no longer has to study day and night, but my job of taking care of the kids and house really didn't change all that much summer.

We did join Netflix (and LOVE it) so we've watched a lot more movies lately, but my box of crafting supplies was untouched for the first few weeks we were here. But I finally have gotten a few things done:

A page for Bugaboo's album
A double page for Bean'sand a card with the leftovers.