Another Week of Winter

I am trying to embrace winter--evening fires and cozy time with books, lots of soups and homemade sourdough bread, reading and game time while we're stuck indoors--and it's mostly going well, but February was too cold for me and I'm starting to feel done with it all. Winter could be over now and I'd be happy with that.

In the meantime, we are all catching up on our reading. Peanut, especially, seems like he is trying to make up for all the years he wasn't able to read on his own. He's gone through 25 Magic Treehouse books since the fall. My current reads--I just finished listening to Great Expectations which I've been wanting to reread for years now (and highly recommend the audio book--it was great!), just read Where the Crawdad's Sing (good book, some slightly awkward writing, but still enjoyed it), and am currently working through The Brave Learner by Julie Bogart, which is incredible! So full of ideas for creating an enchanting home life, especially for homeschoolers. She's getting me through the February/winter slump with hope and forgiveness and inspiration.

Which is why I had no issues with this kid spending most of one morning building a ukulele and learning about the history of it. Arts ✔ Music✔ History ✔ Woodshop✔ I'm sure there was some math involved in there, too. And reading and following directions is important. There was even some science of sound. School is taken care of for the day!

And getting to play an instrument you built yourself is kind of cool. I love that he loves these types of projects, and if I will just get out of the way, he's pretty awesome about both coming up with, and executing amazing ideas. This one was a kit we got (we're loving the new Eureka crates from KiwiCo.), but he has built some really fun things on his own, too. 

A miniature race track with sponsored cars, a pile of gladiator weapons,

a new calendar system (every month has 28 days, with a World Day at the end of the 13 month year to get us around the sun) and he figured out what day all our birthdays and the major holidays would fall on in this new calendar, because why not?

And speaking of creating, Peanut is obsessed with Wild Kratts and has made so many disks for his Creature Power suit (which Bug made him a couple years ago). He watches an episode or two, and then comes to me with a sheet of disks to laminate. I'm loving watching him get into the creativity craze, just like his siblings.

A Hygge Christmas

That was our goal this year--to have a hygge Christmas (although I just read that the adjective is actually hyggelig, so I guess we are technically trying to have a hyggelig Christmas, but at this point in the game, changing the name seems unlikely, haha.) 

Hygge is a Danish word that roughly means cozy. After spending a weekend in Solvang celebrating our Danish heritage, I decided that this was the perfect principle to try to incorporate into our Christmas. I'd been hearing about hygge a lot over the past year or two (although I'm pretty sure that comes from being a homeschooler and the various feeds and podcasts I follow relating to that because most people I talk to do not, in fact, know what hygge means.)  The idea of trying to make the holidays cozy and calm, celebrating with friends and family, but reducing the frantic busy-ness that takes over each year sounded perfect because this fall has felt the opposite of hygge to me and I was ready for a break from the crazy.

However, saying we're going to have a hygge Christmas is one thing--making it happen is a whole different game. To say we've struggled is an understatement. Illnesses have had half the family (and many friends we've had plans with) feeling down through a lot of this month. The kids' break didn't start until Friday, between Bug and Bean, they have activities Monday-Thursday that affect dinner and the rest of our evening as always, Christmas cards have been a struggle every step of the way, and securing the right presents (and kids trying to make presents for each other) has been stressful. There have been some tense moments that are certainly not in the realm of calm and cozy.

BUT--we have tried to bring some cozy into our home. We have sat by the tree sipping warm drinks, we've lit candles, we've snuggled up for books and movies in the evening. Not selling hot chocolate has made a huge difference in our weekend evenings, and that has been nice. I can't imagine how overscheduled this year would have felt if we'd tried to do that as well.

And we've had a few different families over for various celebrations which has felt very hygge. We had friends come for a family night and going to see the lights at Deacon Dave's, another group come for a solstice bonfire and dinner outside, which was the highlight of my week--a few hours of just eating and enjoying friendships while sitting outside.

We've also gone to others' homes as well. We got to hang out with a group of my friends from high school and their families last weekend, which was awesome. 

And we had a couple nights with my brother who stayed with us while on his annual December business trip. What's better than some uncle arm wrestling time?

Getting to share some cozy, relaxed time with friends has been magical, and we still have more to come. And I'm hoping that as the Christmas preparations are winding down, we can slow down and really embrace the coziness and love these next couple days.