Phone Photo Friday

Or should that be Phriday? That looks weird… how about Pfriday? Maybe I'll make it a link up!!! Hah!!  :) 

Anyway, I got nothing else. I couldn't come up with 7 anything right now, not even 7 pictures apparently, so I'm just doing another IG dump. Today has just been one headache after another. It started last night when the oven was preheating and The Professor walked up and said, "Why is the oven sparking?" Sure enough, the heating element had melted and part of it was glowing and sparking. Garlic Chicken Pasta quickly became just pasta for dinner. The only bright spot of the day today was getting to drop off a dear friend's son at the airport so that he can make his way back to his sweet mama until next semester! Anyway, here is a dump of pictures from my phone. Happy Friday!

*UPDATE: Second bright spot, my husband, who worked a 70 hour week for the second time this month, came home early-ish today and fixed the oven in time for dinner prep! He is amazing! He also bathes babies and makes fantastic chocolate chip cookies in his spare time. And he's all mine!!!

 O Key of David… chocolate keys for dessert! {affiliate link}

 Our Wise Men decided to study up on the O Antiphons a little… wise men indeed! Although, the kids said it kind of looked they were in cubicles. Maybe that's just because Dad's been putting in a lot of hours lately!

 # no filter…This is honestly what our sunset looked like last night! Advent perfection, as Miss Kelly said. 

 Um, Wise Men, those guys are on a different kind of quest.

Last night, we had root beer with dinner for O Root of Jesse because we really are that cheesy.

Instagram Dump

 Maybe putting the star on early this year wasn't the best idea…

 Cupcake pulled this salad away from her Daddy along with his fork and said, "This is gonna be so much fun!" right before she dove in.

 Dopplegangers

 The Baby Jesus is not in here, but I could use a little laundry help…

 Sunshine was surprised when she started her schoolwork this morning. They chose a good book!

 Ina Garten's Baked Cinnamon Donuts

 Three of these things are not like the others...

Advent Day 2: Links

Ahhhh…it's already going too fast! I love Advent but I don't love these short ones as much. Here are some clickety-clicky links that I thought you might like:

1)  Kimberlee's idea for a sewn book bag is just delightful! We have done the gift wrapped books for several years now, but I like to change things up a little bit every now and then. I already mentioned that I wasn't going to wrap them this year but did at the last minute. I'm thinking next year a book bag might be the way to go.

2) We are joining in on the Wise Men Adventures. We pulled out the Playmobil Nativity set and have already sent the Wise Men on their first adventure. When searching for the Baby Jesus, it's a pretty wise idea to check the baby toys first! But inside the hippo? Really Balthazar?

My big kids have come up with a rotation. They will each take turns staging a new scene every night for everyone else to discover in the morning. This is gonna be fun! I can't wait to see where those silly Wise Men turn up next. And can I just say that this is a lot less creepy than the Elf on the Shelf. Something about that doll's face give me the heebie jeebies.

3) I don't know who Sam Rocha is, but my friend Calah seems to like him a lot and I like what he has to say in this post here. Look, you could make an argument for just about anything. I could even see someone arguing that celebrating Advent in a more Christmassy fashion is like celebrating a baby's impending arrival before they've arrived with things like baby showers and shopping trips. But Sam's post makes sense to me and fits well with what we've always done. I don't think it needs to be a strict observance though and I think common sense should always take precedence. If you turn the Christmas music station on in the car to get a break from the newest pop phenom station, there is nothing wrong with that. And as I pointed out to Sam on FB, those of us with children who are musicians or choir members know that practice makes perfect and sometimes those Christmas tunes start getting practiced in October.

4) If you are looking for a super simple Jesse Tree, my SIL and I created this one last year. I drew the symbols and she wrote the reflections. You can do the longer Bible readings if you want or just read the verse and the reflections. You can find all of her reflections gathered in one document here and you can find my symbols here:
Jesse Tree Symbols Page 1
Jesse Tree Symbols Page 2
Jesse Tree Symbols Page 3