January Plans

Today I have time to think.  Not that there is nothing around here that needs doing, there is. I’m just choosing, for one day, to ignore it and have a quiet day thinking.

The kids are tired due to all the illness followed up by a lot of fun partying. They are content to quietly play with their new toys use their new art supplies, read their new books and watch their new movies.  I am content to let them do this.

I am looking toward January. Tomorrow will be devoted to cleaning up, planning for the New Year’s Eve gathering we are hosting, and some lesson planning and quarterly report writing. Today I am noodling about January.  I like January. It’s hunker down time.  The weather gets cold, there is the promise of snow and there are no big holidays or even birthdays to distract us. We can just focus on school work and our activities and catch up on the house stuff.

So I thought it would be helpful to make a list a la Dawn of things I would like to get to in January.  Kind of a wish list.  With two very active 17 month olds in the house how ever much gets done, gets done.

• Faith
  – We will join the Holy Father in his prayer intentions for the Church in Africa
  – It is the month of the Holy Name of Jesus so we will explore the names of Jesus
  – We will learn this hymn
  – Confirmation prep for Ryan. He gets measured for his robe this month and he needs to submit his stewardship time chart to the diocese.
  – Solemnity of Mary Mother of God (1/1)
  – Holy Name of Jesus (1/3)
  – Ephiphany of the Lord (1/6)
  – Baptism of the Lord (1/13)
  – Saint Agnes (1/21)
  – Saint Thomas Aquinas (1/28)
  – Saint John Bosco (1/31)
  – Continue with our Magnifikids study and activities
• Nature
  – Make some cool homemade bird feeders to supplement the ones we have
  – Try to take some pictures of the birds visiting.
  – Peruse the seed catalogs to get ready for spring. Our garden may have to be merely containers this year due to the construction.
  – Pray for a snowstorm so we can build a snowman – it’s been a while.
• Food
  – Wassail for New Year’s Day
  – Beef stew
  – Chicken and dumplings
  – Maple pancakes
  – Cocoa, lots of cocoa!
  – Shepherds pie
  – Molasses cookies
  – Apple pie (should be on every food list)
  – Chocolate cream pie (ditto)
  – Christ’s diapers
  – Epiphany bread
  – Pork roast
  – Red wine
  – Popcorn
• Homekeeping
  – Begin to de-clutter in preparation of the construction.
  – Look into storage facilities
  – Put flannel sheets on all of the beds.
  – Buy new crib sheets
  – Take down all the curtains and wash and iron them 🙁
  – De-clutter the book shelves and school closet
  – Sew up the two dresses I have cut out for myself.
  – Sew up the t-shirts cut out for the girls
  – Sew up the tote bag project
  – Plan for Dave, Katie’s and Kevin’s birthdays in February
• Crafting
  – Make this cute craft for the Holy Name Feast
  – Beaded snow flakes
  – Mitten Bookmarks
  – Pipe Cleaner Penguins
  – Some kind of snowflake flower for St. Agnes’ Day?
  – A lamb for St. Agnes’ Day?
  – Teach Katie and Erin to knit.
  – Frames for saint pictures
  – Winter placemats
  – Make a few candles in preparation of Candlemas
• Special Events/Days
  – Homeschool Poetry Slam is in early February, the three big girls are memorizing poems to recite.
  – Twelfth Night – read the Lamb version.
  – A weekend trip later in the month. Perhaps Boston?
  – A trip to NYC to either The Met or the The Museum of Natural History which will necessitate watching the movie either right before or right after.
  – National Popcorn Day (1/19)
  – National Pie Day (1/23)
• Books
  – See my sidebar in the coming days for what will be in our winter book baskets! I just received my latest Amazon order of winter goodies 🙂

So that’s all I can come up with at the moment.  I still have some tweaking to do and a lot more planning.  Now it’s off to tackle some of those chores I was ignoring.

Have a blessed evening.

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