It's Advent!

Advent started yesterday, and we are excited to head into this beautiful season.  I am always a little apprehensive of "doing it right" and of course one of my strongest prayers right now is to get over that and let the Spirit guide our family as we prepare to celebrate the coming (s) of Jesus.

I will post these in more detail once I catch my breath (we got home from a 10 day cross-country, multi-stop roadtrip early yesterday morning, just in time for the dog to get skunked in the backyard...).  However, we took a walk yesterday to gather pine for our advent wreath, the kids and I unwrapped our advent candles for the year (a gift from Mimi), and read a great book that sums up the story of Christmas.  I put our advent wreath together and got it set up on the table.  I started an Advent devotional for myself that I plan to follow through the season.  I have instituted a month of "super easy dinners" so that I can use the kids' resttime for my study time instead of dinner prep.  I also re-read all of my past blog posts on here that pertain to Advent.  So powerful to re-read those reminders of the reason for Advent, and to remember where I was last year as I entered this season.  Many things the same, and a few are different.  If you want to read them (there are some GREAT quotes), you can click on the "advent" label on my sidebar. 

Also, I am really loving this article:
Preparing Children for Advent (click)

I printed it out and am getting ready to sit down with my highlighter and pen to note things I want to use with my kiddos.  I already have a devotional time planned for Quinn to use her Jesus Storybook Bible to go through some of the messages that lend understanding to this season of Advent.  Don't worry, I will post once I get it fleshed out a bit more! 

Also I purchased this e-book:
FEAST Real Food, Reflections, and Simple Living for the Christian Year

I read through it on our roadtrip and just LOVE it.  It begins with Advent and carries on through the whole church year.  I'd strongly recommend it!