Free Time? What's That?

The baby is actually asleep before my bedtime for a change!  We just started working on teaching him to self-sooth in order to go to sleep on his own.  He's too young for the "cry it out" method, but has already learned to love being held and rocked to sleep...if he can nurse to sleep he's even happier...but all that is bad news for mommy!

He already sucks his hands which was one suggestion for self-soothing techniques, so now instead of swaddling him tight for naps, we leave his arms free so he can use his skills to sooth himself.  He doesn't sooth to sleep yet, but he will when getting hungry or upon waking rather than going immediately to a scream. 

At bedtime he sleeps in a sleep-sack because it isn't safe to swaddle babies and leave them alone.  A baby of any age can inadvertently flip over while swaddled and suffocate to death...a huge risk for SIDS too.  He only gets swaddled when napping in the same room I'm working in so I can keep an eye on him.

I was wanting to do an Advent type of lesson for Homeschooling on prayer and I found a devotion of 25 days of Advent Prayer.  I'm excited to go through it with my girls and learn more with them about prayer and the power they have in the blessing of being able to pray directly to God!

In other news, I continue to pray for my hubby's arthritis.  It causes chronic pain and this fall it just seems to be constant struggle for him.  Love you all, have a wonderful night!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving dinner on a TED is interesting indeed!  We changed the ingredients of our turkey brine and I bought an all natural turkey, minimally processed as well as an all natural, uncured ham.  My sides were butternut squash mash and green beans.  I tried a vegan pumpkin "pie" with no crust and made with potato starch and evaporated coconut milk, but something in it upset my son's stomach.  Not sure what exactly, so I stuck with my fake banana bread and coconut milk ice cream after that. ;)

I've been enjoying my early morning nursing sessions with my son, that is when I have a quiet devotion time using the "YouVersion" Bible on my phone.  I did a devotion on Prayer and now I'm doing one on Busyness...this new one is much more attention grabbing because I am good at finding ways to be busy -to a fault.  I want to find a good way to do an Advent celebration with my girls as we prepare for Christmas, not sure if I'll make one up or find one to follow yet.

Homeschooling is  coming along.  I'm discovering patterns in our curriculum and am able to look ahead more often now to add in activities and be more prepared for our learning content.  I still haven't found a homeschool group to join with the kids, but I did try out our church's Mom's Night Out bible study for homeschooling moms.  It was awkward to go because I am such an introvert, but I knew it would be good for me.  I'm glad I went.

Sorry this is short, motherhood calls...have a wonderful rest of your day!