Wow! Goldilocks is nine already.... In keeping with tradition, here is a list of nine words to describe Goldilocks. I like this exercise, and it is an especially nice reminder of the good times with my most difficult child. Living with a child that is dealing with serious mental illness and developmental issues is very exhausting and often the days seem way too long. However, there are bright parts in almost every day, and it is good to remember Goldilocks' more positive character traits. The following list describes Goldilocks on her emotionally healthy days. - Physically healthy
- Spirited
- Helpful
- Outgoing
- Detail oriented
- Super cleaner
- Pretty
- Animal lover
- Loquacious
Blessings, Dawn
I promised I would show you all the new rooms after Christmas. Well, that day has come. We decorated the kids' rooms this year for Christmas in lieu of toys. The first room up for show and tell is Tom Sawyer's room. He got the brand new room. It is an attic type room that is small but just perfect for him. It's very quiet and has one wide, bright window. He wanted the room painted two colors of green, and it came out great. His room really shows his personality with a little boy's toy area and a very serious artist area. (He spent about 6 hours of Christmas Day working with his new art supplies.)
His Legos and Lincoln Logs are in drawers under his bed.
His artist area. He loves to do art and is really serious about it. My Mom found this great student desk at a thrift store for him to store art supplies. It's a good place for an artist to work. 
This is his toy area for his big toys.The next room to show is Little Red Riding Hood's room. Her room is a nice sunny room that is made more so by her floors being painted antique white. They are proving hard to keep clean but look nice when freshly mopped. It is totally a girly room. You can tell that she is glad she doesn't share with a boy anymore. Her closet will be painted pink but is still the pumpkin color of her oldest brother whose room it used to be. There is a pink shelf sitting on the bookcase that still needs to be hung.
The best part about the rooms is that they speak to the kids' desires but did not cost us that much. Most everything was either repurposed from other rooms, handed down from relatives, or found at thrift shops, especially Habitat for Humanity Store. In Little Red Riding Hood's room, I took several different pieces of furniture and painted them all the same color. It really pulled them all together. My Mom dyed an old matelasse cover the perfect pink. Also, Mom didn't have room anymore for the wicker armoire in her house, so we moved it to Little Red Riding Hood's room. It holds a lot of toys and the drawers serve as a chest of drawers for her clothing.Hopefully, I will be able to show you the next rooms in a few days.Blessings, Dawn
Woo whoo! My northern blood is doing the happy dance! It is snowing like crazy outside. About an hour ago, we measured 9 inches of snow in our backyard! This is AMAZING for our area! 
The meteorologist says we may get up to 12 inches! There is also snow forecasted for most of next week, including Christmas Eve. Dare I wish for a White Christmas?!? If the snow keeps up for much longer, it will be more snow than I have seen in 10 years, which is when we moved to this area. The kids rushed through their schoolwork and chores this morning so that they could get outside right after lunch. I would like to say that they had a great time in the snow. However, there were many tears out of Goldilocks. She cried and cried about how cold the snow was, that the snow touched her and about how she didn't have the sled she wanted, and on and on. After about 10 minutes of melting down, she got used to the idea and started having fun. There was enough snow for real sledding and to make two tiny snowmen. At the time we went out, there was about 2 inches.
The girls had loads of fun making snowmen. 
Everyone loved sledding! I even got in a few runs.
Of course, Tom Sawyer had to eat just a little bit of snow!
They finished off their time with a good old snowball fight, which caused more tears! Sigh...We went out one more time when Daddy got home. By that time, there was about 6 inches. The sledding wasn't as good, but the snowball fights were great, with no tears this time.The one downside to this storm is the effect it is having on our Southern Magnolia tree. It is dropping lots of branches because of the weight of the snow. It is considered one of the historic trees in our city because of its height and girth, and I am afraid we may need to get an arborist to take care of it when all is said and done. Several of the branches hit the minivan, but no damage done. 
Blessings, Dawn
