Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is day 2 of our Thanksgiving celebration around here. Yesterday we had a fantastic feast with hubby’s parents and siblings. I did most of the cooking because my mother-in-law has a broken part on her hip replacement, ouch :/ Anyway, today we are home, with just the five of us. I made a smaller feast, only cooking the things that we love, and the way that I like them. While I really don’t mind cooking for other people and their tastes, sometimes it’s nice to just prepare things the way *I* like them.

I’ve been thinking today about what I am thankful for. I have been super duper busy this month and haven’t really had time to pick something every day or stop and reflect on what I am thankful for, so I want to spend time doing that today. Here’s my list so far:

1. Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior! Without Him, joy and peace and love and all the other fruit of the spirit are next to impossible.
2. My wonderful husband.
3. Kahlen, my first born and my only daughter.
4. Nathanael, my middle child and first son.
5. Shane, my baby boy.
6. My mom and how close we’ve become, especially in the last few years.
7. My stepdad and what a good match he is for my mom.
8. My father and the love he shows my kids.
9. My stepmom and fun times with her and her nanny charges at the park.
10. Amazing friends, both old and new.
11. Homeschooling co-op. Couldn’t do it without you, Melissa!
12. Homeschooling in general.
13. Our house. It may seem small at times, but it’s just where we need to be right now.
14. My van. Man, I’m spoiled! I asked for a Honda Odyssey, and that’s what I got.
15. Sunday school. I’ve been blessed and challenged teaching these same kids for the last five years.
16. Our church.
17. Monday morning prayer time. A group of faithful women getting together to pray for our kids almost every week for two (I think?) years.
18. My DSLR camera. Kids move at the speed of light, how else would I ever catch anything they do?
19. Warm weather in November.
20. Lessons in pie making from my mother-in-law.
21. Cherry pie and whipped cream that I did not have to make.
22. Stuffing the traditional way…cooked inside the turkey. Mmm, yummy!
23. Costco.
24. Funny faces from Shane.
25. Listening to Kahlen read to me.
26. “Tickle me again!” from Nate.
27. Sleeping in. (a rare treat given to me by hubs and the kids this morning)
28. Baking.
29. Trying new recipes.
30. Cooking old recipes that I don’t have to even think about.
31. Food Network Magazine.
32. Cooking delicious dinners.
33. Wine.
34. Sunlight.
35. My collection of Thirty-One bags. Makes spending the day somewhere else a lot easier to stay organized and find what I need (like a diaper and wipes, NOW!)
36. Hubby’s help with assembling calendar kits.
37. Good health. Not just mine, but that of my family as well.
38. Music.
39. Running. Even if it’s a struggle for me.
40. New running shoes.
41. Handmade Christmas Cards.
42. The library and all the resources available there.
43. My adventurous girl who wants to go camping, even if it does get down to 30 degrees at night right now.
44. My foodie son who wants to help me cook all the time.
45. Nursing my baby boy. Even in the middle of the night.
46. Shane’s “Cheese” face
47. Cuddles with Nate
48. Pudding pie with Oreos. Sometimes it’s nice to just have something simple for dessert.
49. The blogosphere. I’ve had a lot of fun blogging and reading other’s blogs over the last several years. I’m really hoping to get back to more consistency, maybe after the first of the year??

And more each day! What are you thankful for?

~S

PS I would highly recommend reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voscamp. It’s an excellent look at ways to be thankful for the everyday, to “live fully right where you are”. Her writing style is not for everyone as it’s very poetic even though it’s a nonfiction book. However, I really enjoyed it, especially the audio version which I bought through Audible. 

Kindergarten with Kahlen–Thanksgiving and more

Four weeks later…Oh well, I guess I’m not perfect after all ;)

Here’s a little recap of what we’ve been doing. Make sure you check out our fun Thanksgiving activities at the bottom.

Our main curriculum - Tapestry of Grace Year 1:

We’ve been moving forward from Creation through Noah’s Ark. For this activity, I printed two sets of animals. Kahlen cut out one while Nate glued the other one on. Then she had to find the matching one and glue hers near his. Simple for her, but a good way for them to work together.

Then we discussed the Tower of Babel and made a Ziggurat with paperboard boxes

(The finished product)

We moved on to the patriarchs after that, but I don’t have very many pictures. We made a travelling table and then had an indoor picnic co-op. We’re also working on an ancient Israelite costume for our end of the unit party in January.

Fun Stuff:

On a whim two weeks ago, we went to the Butterfly Pavilion. I have a membership good through January. It’s about an hour from our house, and we were only there for about 2 hours, but it was still worth it. The kids had fun and so did I. Nate was not happy that he didn’t get to hold the tarantula that they have there, but you have to be three, and he’s definitely not.

Thanksgiving:

We’ve done a few fun crafts related to Thanksgiving. We’re having a co-op feast on Monday and will have a little lesson about why we celebrate Thanksgiving. To prepare, we made woven placemats (which I don’t have any pictures of, oops) and bonnets/headbands

One of my friends posted this cute turkey craft, which we did yesterday. Turned out pretty cute, I must say :

We’re also starting a thankful book. I took a basic composition book and mod podged a piece of fall-ish paper to the front along with their handprints. We’ll write some things we are thankful for inside and then pass it around during our Thanksgiving feast on Thursday and Friday with family. It will be a neat record of what we are thankful for right now. Then we’ll pull it out every year and continue to write things in it. I’ll have to add the baby’s handprint next year, probably on the back cover.

We’re still plugging through Math U See Primer, First Step Reading, and Handwriting Without Tears without incident. In math, we’ve started actual addition, which she was very ready for, it’s almost to easy for her :) She’s getting more interested in reading, which I love love love. I’ve gotten her a couple beginning readers from the library which she’s been able to read almost by herself, hooray! We haven’t been stressing the handwriting as much because she gets lots of practice in other places, like her reading book, but that’s going pretty good too. I’m trying to get her to write her name in proper case more often, but she forgets a lot and just writes it in all caps.

I’d love to hear what’s been working and not working for you! Leave me a comment or come link up with me at HomeSchool Creations!

Also, anyone have any great ideas for Christmas Advent? This is what we did last year, and I’m thinking of something similar, but not exactly the same for this year. I got sucked into Pinterest, so you can check out my current ideas there if you feel so inclined. Once I get everything all finalized, I’ll try to blog it in hopes that someone else can use it too :)

~S

Linking up at: