Thanksgiving

soap making

Happy Birthday Abby

Abigail Grace had her 11th birthday this week. At her request Gramps made her a dollhouse and left it unfinished for her to decorate. Here are her before and after pictures.

Abby won't let me decorate the house until after her birthday, so I decide to decorate my blog instead. Festive, Huh??

A Merry Christmas lecture

I like Christmas. In fact, I have urges to begin holiday music around August, but usually hold off.
I have read a few articles in different newspapers and magazines this year about "stress free' Christmas and "How to simplify the holidays" and money wise, I think that is a very smart thing to do. I know our children have so many toys that it would not hurt them a bit for the bar to be lowered.
The thing I don't like about these articles is that they suggest we could destress our self following these ideas:

Don't sending Christmas cards ~ Well I happen to love getting Christmas cards and so I don't want to stop giving them. This is the only time of year I am in contact with quite a few people on my list. It would make me sad if all the people I enjoy getting cards from took this advice. I would think they didn't like me anymore.

Cook premade or store bought~ If you are not going to cook real mashed potatos and stuffing, in my opinion.... just don't bother. I love to bake and Christmas is a good excuse to spend a day in the kitchen listening to carols and baking away.

Say NO to church activities ~ It happens to be about Jesus birth and all, so to me it would be good if we give some thought to the real reason for the season.....I'm just sayin.

Stop shopping ~ Well now, asking me to stop breathing might be easier....:)

Tell your family you are staying home this season. ~ At Christmas,if your not going to appreciate the fact that you have a family and they love and want to spend time with you, well then I just don't know when ya will.

I guess what I am saying is by all means don't stress the season away, but don't simplify it to the fact that it doesn't mean anything special to you and is remarkably forgettable. Cherish your family..cook for them, love on them. Sing in the choir, send out cards, sit and listen to your family together and enjoy the rewards of your labors.

So, here is my first Merry Christmas of the year to you all!

Home School update

School is going really really well this year. I canot believe we are already at the 10 week mark. I really like starting after Labor Day. I might not feel the same about that in May, but for right now it has been working really well. Here are a few things we are doing:
Bible ~ We are reading Missionary and Wisdom stories with the Millers. I love these books. They are such interesting stories and lead to good discussions with the kids, We are also memorizing Psalms 100 for November.

History ~ Story of the World. The kids have a history notebook thye are working on as we study early civilazation. We are going to participate in an Around the World Fair in the spring and we have chosen Australia for our country. I think that will be a lot of fun.

Science ~ Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy. Awesome. I love this book.I have never likes Science, but even I am learning with the kids.

We are using Math U See for math still and it is going smoothly.

Abeka still for Language and Phonics, reading and spelling.

We are in our second session of PE at the YMCA, Abby will begin basketball in December. We are looking for a guitar teacher for Nathan. We may join a coop in Walkertown in January if the enrollment is not full.

The kids are in a Christmas play at church and Abby is also in the teen play. We also have all kinds of Christmas activities to do at church,so we are staying pretty busy for sure! We love it here in NC and am so glad God has allowed us to move back here.

Election Day dinner

We are talking about the election this week in school and I got the idea to celebrate Election Day with a special theme dinner from a home school message board. Here is what we will be having tomorrow night:

Sloppy Joe Bidens
McCain-aroni and Cheese
Barrak-oli
Palin Pumpkin pie

Happy Halloween!