SR 899: Preparing for the Holidays – Simplifying the Season and Managing the Chaos – Sheri Renno, Part 2

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In our family with 10 kids, there have been times where there were

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just so many things that went wrong, and

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accepting it really made all the difference.

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Hey, everyone, this is Yvette Hampton. Welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rocked

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Podcast. I am so glad you are back with me today. I am back with

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my new friend, Sheri Renno. She’s from Our Life Homeschooling.

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It’s a blog, a YouTube channel. She’s got all sorts of great encouragement

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for everyday homeschool moms. And I am excited to have her back

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today because we’re talking about the home holidays. So if you missed Monday’s episode, go

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back and listen to that one. Otherwise, just keep tracking with us. We are

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enjoying this conversation and I love it because I love the holidays. It’s.

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It is my favorite time of year. I love fall. I love. Well, I love

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wintertime, but I don’t love the cold. So I’m always

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anxious for the cold days to go away. But I do love

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just the whole holiday season, and I know that Sheri does as well, which is

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why she’s here to bring encouragement to us. So we’re going to talk more about

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that. But before we do, I want to say thank you to our sponsor, BJU

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Press Homeschool. If you’re looking for great homeschool curriculum that’s taught from

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a strong biblical worldview, they’ve got something for you. Go

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to their website, bjupresshomeschool.com and whatever

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method of homeschooling you’re using, they’ve got something for everyone.

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Truly. Check it out. They’ve got a ton of resources, and if you don’t know

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what you need, call them up. Talk to one of their consultants and they’ll help

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walk you through it. BJUPressHomeschool.com.

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Well, Sheri, welcome back to the podcast. I’m so glad to have you back

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with me. Yeah, it’s been fun chatting about the holidays

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so far. Let’s talk about how to simplify life, because I

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know, especially as homeschool moms, I mean, you’re a mom of 10.

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And we can find ourselves very busy,

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very overwhelmed to where the holidays are not even enjoyable for us because

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we always are. Like, okay, what’s the next thing on my to do list? And

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I have all these things I haven’t gotten done. And then you try to throw

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homeschooling and just everyday life in the

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mix. Laundry, dishes, doctor equipment. It can

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be so overwhelming. It can be so overwhelming. So

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what are some ways. I guess I should say that you have Found for

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yourself to simplify the holiday season.

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Yeah, I think just living simply

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and doing less for us, we’ve

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just seriously narrowed our to do list. So especially

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when. When Christmas rolls around, I usually write out a to do

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list of the things that I really. That we both really want to do

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with the kids during the holiday season. Whatever we want to

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prioritize. And our list has gotten

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really, really short. Yeah, I mean, it’s just. It’s really,

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really small. And I have simple things on

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there, Things that maybe a lot of people wouldn’t even write on a to do

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list, like bake cookies with my kids. Or we like

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to take one night to just decorate the tree and have a family night

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and put the lights outside. Making sure some of those

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important things get done. Christmas schooling, that’s another one that’s on our

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list. Making sure those are on there. But

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it’s very short. And a lot of times we

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just have to cut out things so that we can make sure we’re

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doing the things that we want to prioritize, the things we

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value. And so for us, it’s almost, to me, a

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lot like decluttering. I love the idea of decluttering. Yeah.

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But then when it comes down to it, and there’s this one thing

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that looks really exciting, but it’s just hard to let

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go of. And some. But sometimes you just need to. You know, I love.

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I love taking my kids to festive Christmas productions or

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doing Christmas cookie exchanges, things like that. But we don’t

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necessarily need to do all of those things. We can do

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maybe one. And there may even be some years where we just. We don’t have

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to do those things, and that’s okay. You can have a

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very simple Christmas with your family, and it can still be

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very good. What are some of the things that you would prioritize? I mean, you

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talked about decorating the Christmas tree and, you know, baking things like that.

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Are those the things that would be at the top of your list that you

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would prioritize? And what are some of the other things that you keep that are

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just important for you and your family to stay focused on the

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holidays? One thing for sure that’s always kind of been a constant for

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us is reading scripture. So part of our family

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lifestyle is that we read scripture for breakfast and in

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the evening with dinner. But of course, around Christmas, we kind of

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shift those passages and we’ll pick ones that just have stories

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about the birth of Christ, because I really want them to hear, not

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just the stories, not just see the plays but to

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actually hear it from the Bible itself, to hear

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it read. And so that’s one. And

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yeah, just some of those things I mentioned,

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baking cookies. And that’s definitely one that we like to

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do in our Christmas schooling. We will

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do a lot of the things that I have on my list as part

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of what we’re doing as part of our Christmas

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celebration just so that we can make sure that they’re getting

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done. Yeah, I want to talk about Christmas schooling, but let’s take a break first.

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We’ll be right back.

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We are back with Sheri. Let’s talk about Christmas schooling,

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which that just sounds like a fun thing in itself. And that I’m

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assuming doesn’t just mean teaching your kids about Christmas for the whole month of

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November and December. No, but what is Christmas schooling for your family?

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Well, Christmas schooling is when we make our homeschool life fit

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around our family life. So it’s usually about two weeks

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before Christmas. And in our family, we try to

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do three things, reading, writing, and math. That happens

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every day. So wherever they are, they continue with their reading, writing

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and math. But after that, we pretty much just do

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a lot of the things on our list that we want to get done for

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Christmas. So some of my girls will

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get out handicrafts and they’ll be sewing and making

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different crafts that they’re going to give away as gifts to family and

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friends. We’ll do just some service

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projects. I think this is one we love to find

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opportunities to serve. This is one that I think you can kind of get sucked

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into and it can make your schedule a little busy again. So we usually only

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do one or two. But I definitely

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want that to be something that they’re looking outward

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not just at what we can have here in our family, but just seeing the

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needs of other people. Yeah. What are some service projects that you’ve done in

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your family? Going to nursing homes and singing.

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We have a place around here, Blessings of Hope, where you can go

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and package food and repackage food. One thing that

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we do is I love reading picture books and chapter books

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to my kids. And you mentioned the best Christmas pageant ever,

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which I think I called it. The greatest Christmas pageant ever. But yes, it is

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the best Christmas pageant ever. Yeah, my kids ask

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every year for me to read that book. And so it’s just like it’s not.

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It’s a no brainer. Like we always read that. And then we have several other

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picture books and chapter books that I’ll randomly read.

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And so that’s something that’s also a part of our

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Christmas schooling. Listening to carols

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and learning them, having them on throughout the day, that’s something.

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And just really understanding some of the words and the meaning.

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Yeah. Behind them. So I think

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for us, instead of letting the

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school just kind of. I think sometimes there can just be this difficulty in

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balancing the school days. You know, by law we have to get so many days

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in and you want to keep going, but it’s

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just too much to do the full curriculum and all that we

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have on our plates. So for us, we just do reading, writing and

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mathematics and then fill it in with some of these things

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that we want to get done. My girls also,

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we do a calendar every year for my in laws, like a

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snapfish calendar where we make different pictures. So that’ll be something

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that they’ll do during this time. And when I first

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handed this over to them, I was so nervous to

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let them try it. But once they got going, they have

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done such a great job. So that’s a big project that takes up

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a lot of their day and they’ve learned a lot from doing it

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as well. And then it makes them feel like they’ve done something useful and

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productive, contributing to the family. And it really does help me

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out. That has freed me up to be able to do some other things.

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Wrapping gifts. The kids help us with wrapping

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gifts. So that’s something else we’ll do during that time. Yeah. So cool. You

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talked about Christmas carols and I have several

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hymnals in my house and most of them, if not all of

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them, have Christmas carols in them. And I think oftentimes people don’t realize

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that many of the Christmas, the Christian Christmas carols that we sing

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are hymns. They’re old Christian songs. And I think that’s so

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cool because, you know, you’re not going to find songs about Santa Claus in

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there. But there are songs that are worshipful, you know, oh, Holy Night. I

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mean, things like that that are true hymns that we can go back

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and we can look at who wrote them, the meaning of them, and that can

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really draw us back into the holidays. That’s such a fun way, I

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think, to incorporate singing because then you’re not just singing the song

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that’s on the radio. You can really think through, oh, this is what this song

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was written for or who wrote it or when it was written, you know, I

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mean, many of them, you know, 200 plus years ago or

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longer. And it’s absolutely fascinating. I love learning

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about old hymns. Yes. Yeah. And then it reminds them

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of how Christmas was celebrated throughout the years when people

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were singing these songs 100 years ago. Yes. Yeah.

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I know a lot of homeschool families actually do that. They’ll do kind of a

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Christmas around the world, and they’ll study different

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countries and how these different countries celebrate

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Christmas. And it’s incredible to think through that as a

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Christian, because you know that those people, so

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many of them know Jesus, the birth of Jesus. His story is

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worldwide. That’s not something that’s just in America. It’s a

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worldwide story because it’s the story of the world, and so people celebrate it

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differently. But how fun to get to explore the different ways that

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people celebrate Christmas around the world. Yeah. Oh, that would be

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so neat. That would be such a neat study to do. That would be. I’ve

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never done that before, but I know that there are studies. Maybe I can do

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some research and find a couple of studies that have that. But I’m certain

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they’re probably easy to find. Just go on Pinterest and look up

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Christians celebrating Christmas around the world or something like that, and you can come up

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with something fun. Let’s talk about just some practical ways to manage

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family life during the busy holiday seasons, whether it’s Thanksgiving,

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Christmas, New Year’s, whatever. I know especially, I can imagine, with a family of 10.

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But even for myself, I mean, you know, we’re a smaller family. We have four

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in our family. And you’re actually, I guess you’d be a family of

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12 because you’ve got 10 kids or a family of four.

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And sometimes I know that the busyness just

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gets away from me. So what are some ways that you. Just some really practical

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ways that you found to manage that? Well, one of the

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biggest things that’s helped us is just to keep up with the regular

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chore routines. If the house is clean, then

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it seems like everything else is manageable. But once we get behind in that,

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and it can happen so quickly, especially when you. For us, when you have a

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lot of people and you’re just managing so much.

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Just one little thing. When you have 10 people, if they all start leaving something

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out and not cleaning up after themselves, it can just quickly

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escalate. So keeping up with our main chore routines, that

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is something that really helps. And it’s something

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that I think I can easily forget because I just get into the mode

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of all the things that I’ve got to do, and I see the countdown and

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how much time we have left, and have we gotten everything ordered and

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everything ready, packaged and everything but

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just remembering to be consistent with that helps

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just get the day started right. And it helps the

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kids, too, I think, when everything feel everything stays

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normal and they have a normal routine. Yeah. Even though things are changing at this

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time. So can we park there for just a second? Talk about

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what your regular chore routine looks like for your family

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on any given day, because obviously you have to have that

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in place in order to continue it through the holiday season. What does that look

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like for you? Well, we do our chores after breakfast,

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and everyone has a zone. We’ve divided up our family or our

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rooms by zone. And I have a chore

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chart which changes. That’s one thing I’ve learned is that I thought you just

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make a chore chart and, you know, then we just follow that forever. But

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no, I find myself changing it every couple months because our family

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changes and grows. And so everyone does

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their zone. And we’ve really. I’ve

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realized more and more how important this is to just fit in

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as part of our day. I always thought that chores was something we had to

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get through and then we could finally do school. And I’ve begun to see it

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more as a life skill. Just maintaining a home is

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something that takes repeated practice. And then

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in the afternoons, we also do just a pickup,

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usually before dinner. And that brings us back. So just

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nothing really. Nothing exciting. But just being

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consistent with it, I think, is what helps. Now, do

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you stop at a certain time, say, okay, we’re done with school for the day,

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3:00, whatever. Okay. Now from 3 to 3:30, we’re going to have pickup

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time. And then the whole family just goes into, you know, wherever

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their zones are and they pick up their own zones. Is that how it works

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for you? Yeah. In the morning we do zones. Okay. And then every.

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That’s more of like a. It’s a pickup, but it’s also clean. Like the bathroom

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gets clean. Okay. Somebody’s assigned to the kitchen. I always have a different

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kitchen person every day, and they clean up. And the idea is if they’re

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a young child, I’m cleaning up the kitchen, but they’re helping me.

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If it’s an older child, they’re cleaning up the kitchen and I’m helping them.

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Okay. The afternoon is more of just like a pickup before

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my husband gets home and just kind of bringing everything back into order

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again. And that helps get us through a nice evening.

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Yeah. Okay. It’s being intentional about the way that you spend your

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day. So. Yes. I love that. Okay. So I’m sorry, I totally

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derailed you. We’re talking about practical ways to manage, you know, just manage your family

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life during the busy season. So you started out with keeping up with your chore

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routine. What else? And, well, another way that

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we, especially during Christmas, is to have our kids help

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us with whatever we’re doing. So, like I mentioned before,

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just letting them help wrap gifts, help make our family

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calendars. When the kids. We have our kids. I think last year, they

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wrapped almost all of our gifts. Oh, wow. And, you

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know, initially when they started wrapping, I’m looking at some of them and

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thinking, oh, this is not good. I can’t put this

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under the tree. But then when all the wrapping was

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done, it was really nice, and they’ve gotten better at

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it, and it gives them something to do. They’re really proud of it. It’s a

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contribution, so it’s something little. But letting them wrap

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the gifts, letting them make. And even my older

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kids now, they make our Christmas calendars. But they’ll

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also do some shopping for me, which is really nice.

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Yes. We have some drivers, too, so they’ll run out and take some kids

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shopping and just finding ways

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that they can contribute. Instead of feeling all

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the pressure on yourself of all you have to get done, how can they help?

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They can do more, I think, than we give them credit for. Yeah. I think

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another way to practically manage your family is just to

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lower your expectations and to be okay with everything not being

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perfect. In our family, with 10 kids, there have been times

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where there were just so many things that went wrong,

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and accepting it really

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made all the difference. Being okay with burned cookies

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or the Christmas gift that just is not coming on time,

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that is just. It’s how we respond to it, really,

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that makes all the difference. And you can look around and see

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what other families are doing or even just on Instagram and

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Pinterest and think, oh, that’s really great. Why aren’t we doing this? Or we

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should do this. But not putting the expectations of

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other families on our family, that’s really, really

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helped us. Just understanding this is who we are, this is what we

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do. And there’s things that I love about it. It might be

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simple, but it’s still okay. And our family loves it. Just enjoying

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being together, letting that be your

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main focus and more of a focus than just on all the things

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that you want to get done. Yes. Yeah. Oh, so many good

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things. I love your ideas. Tell me really quickly what some of the books

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are that you read, because I know that you have your Christmas

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book list. So in Addition to the best Christmas pageant ever, which

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everybody should read. What are some other books that are some of your favorites?

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Let’s see. Well, there’s the Little House Christmas Treasury. That’s one that

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I love. Okay. The Vanderbeekers of

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141st Street. That’s a really cute one. The Holly

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and the Ivy. That’s a picture book. Really adorable. The

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Legend of the Candy Cane. That’s a great one because that tells the true story

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of Christmas and the reason for the stripes. It goes back

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to Jesus on the cross. And that’s a really good one.

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I’m trying to think, oh, the Christmas miracle of Jonathan Toomey. That’s a great one,

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too. I’ve not heard of that one. Oh, it’s so good. And there’s a movie

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that goes with it. It’s adorable. Okay, I’ll have to look up that

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one. Yeah, it’s about a little boy that his father

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dies and his mom’s a widow. They move to this new town and

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he wants a nativity set. So they find this

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woodcutter who carves out this nativity set, and as he’s

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making each animal, he’s saying, I just don’t think that really looks

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like the lamb that was there with

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Jesus. And then when he makes the baby Jesus, I just don’t think that really

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looks exactly like the look he would have had on his face. And anyway,

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it just goes into the story. The true story of Christmas. It’s a great one.

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Oh, that’s so cool. Well, we’ll put links to all those in the show notes

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so you guys can find them. Which, by the way, you guys may not know

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this, but when we put links to different books, whether it’s through Amazon or

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Christianbook.com or other resources, oftentimes when you

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purchase books from our link, that actually helps to support the Schoolhouse

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Rocked Podcast, because we have affiliate accounts with those different companies.

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And so if you purchase the books, purchase them through our link, because

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that really does help to support this ministry and you get a book out of

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it. So, anyway, I always forget to say that, and I think I assume that

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people know that, but then I realized that a lot of people don’t actually know

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that. So, anyway, thank you, Sheri, so much for being with us again today.

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We will be back tomorrow. Tell us one more time where people can find you.

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Your website, Your blog, your YouTube channel. All the stuff you can

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find me at ourlifehomeschooling.com and then on YouTube. I do one

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video a week. Sharing homeschooling encouragement for everyday moms.

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All right, we’ll put those links in the show notes as well. You’re gonna have

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lots of links this week, but we’ll make it super easy for you. All you

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have to do is just one click and get to where you need to be.

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So thank you guys so much for listening. Stay tuned to the very end to

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hear what’s coming up next on the podcast. And if you’ve not yet watched the

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movie, Sheri has watched it. Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution. If you haven’t watched it

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yet, It’s fantastic. Thank you. All by God’s grace, I’m telling you, it’s not us,

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it’s all the Lord. But if you have not watched it, go to our website,

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schoolhouse rocked.com and you can stream it for free. Or we

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also, I know many of you know because you’ve been buying them. We have DVDs

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now. Our distributor sent us the rest of the DVDs that

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they had left. And so we’ve got now like 500 and something

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DVDs sitting in our office. We would love to get rid of them. So

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if you are wanting to purchase a dvd, that would be a great Christmas gift

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for family, friends, anybody. We actually have had people

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buy five DVDs or three DVDs to hand out to friends.

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We had one person, this was such a great idea. She put a

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note on them and she said, watch this movie and pass it on to someone

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else. And she put two of them, I think, in her church and just put

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them out for anybody to take them with the idea of them passing it on.

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And so we’ve got those for you. You can go to our website, click on

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the button that says buy the dvd. And they’re really reasonably

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priced because we really want to get rid of them. So you can purchase

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them there, but you can stream it for free as well. Have a great rest

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of your day and we will see you guys back here tomorrow. Bye.