Happy Turkey Day!

I'll be doing quite a lot of this (cooking!) tomorrow, but I think Ken will most likely be more helpful than this fellow appears to be. I just hope I'll be as cheerful as the gal in the photo! No matter what you have planned for Thanksgiving, I hope that your day is blessed and that you have an opportunity to enjoy time with friends and/or family!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankfulness and Traditions

Last week, we filled shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan's Purse. We've done this every year for the past 3 or 4 years, and I think we've added a box each time. This year we made two boxes for girls, and two boxes for boys. Kathryn prepared the girls' boxes, and Lindsey prepared the boys' boxes. They wrote notes and included a family photo, and we're all hoping the kids write back. Collection day at our church was last Sunday, but it's not too late to send a shoebox yourself, if you're interested! (Click that link above.)

As we get ready for our Thanksgiving feast, we are making a point of realizing how much we have to be thankful for. Our thankful tree is getting quite full, and I've been writing a few verses on the tree trunk that remind us what the Bible has to say about being thankful. A few I added today:

• Psalm 89:15 -- "Happy are the people who know how to praise you..."
• Psalm 118:1 -- "Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good..."
• Ephesians 5:20 -- "Always give thanks to God the Father for everything..."

I'm very much looking forward to a different sort of Thanksgiving this year. We've never hosted at our home before, and there will be less of the extended family than usual, but we've extended an invitation to quite a few friends who don't have family in town, and I'm delighted that a few of them have accepted. I'd love for it to become a tradition, this inviting of an assortment of folks. Seems to me like what Thanksgiving is really about.

Are there any holiday traditions you'd like to begin?

Friend Makin' Monday

I found a new (new to me, anyway) meme today and thought I'd play along. You can, too! Stop by Amber's blog to participate.

1. Turkey or Ham? Deep-fried turkey! Sounds weird, but it's quite yummy and never dry. Dad's bringing his turkey-frying contraption and he's in charge of that. But there will also be a small ham, courtesy of Mom's employer; every year at Thanksgiving they get a gift certificate to Honey-Baked Ham. Much better than when my hubby's former employer gave each employee and actual frozen bird to take home.

2. Favorite side dish. Tough call. I'm gonna say sweet potato souffle, but without nuts.

3. Favorite dessert. Sheesh! Another tough call. But since it's on my menu this year, I'll go with chocolate chess pie.

4. Black Friday: Are you going or not? Not likely. I'm usually a pretty nice person, but crowds full of pushy and often grumpy people make me not so nice.

5. If so, what's on the top of your list? Nothing, really.

6. Going out of town or staying close to home? Almost all of our family lives nearby so we never go out of town for the holidays. This year we're extra close to home, since we'll be doing Thanksgiving dinner at our house for the first time ever!

7. Hosting or helping? Hosting! But in previous years, I've just helped.

8. Name one family tradition at Thanksgiving. Another day-after get-together to finish off the leftovers! My hubby and our college-age son Brandon love this tradition!

9. What do you do after dinner? Relax, chit-chat, probably feel overly full!

10. What are you most thankful for this year?  I can't pick what I'm most thankful for (too many to list!), but a new one for this year is that we're very thankful our soon-to-be adopted teenage daughter Lindsey has joined our family!

Homeschool Weekly Wrap-Up

I really like doing these posts. One of these days, when I finally "slurp" my blog into a Blurb book, it's going to be a great way to keep a record of what we've done! Wouldn't a blog book be a fantastic Christmas gift? {ahem! hint, hint!}

This is another of those two-weeks-in-one posts because last week was busier than usual with a field trip to the Atlanta History Center, tea time with Granma, and a weekend Powwow.

In addition to all of that, we studied Russia last week. One of the suggested activities was playing a game of chess. Since I don't yet know how, Kathryn and Ken played one evening. In this photo, Kathryn is seriously contemplating her next move...
She enjoyed reading about ballet, was amazed at how huge Russia is, and has added Matroyshka dolls to her Christmas wishlist.

This week, we've studied Romania and eastern Europe. Kathryn was fascinated by the intricate lace made in Romania. The site we visited had a book of instructions for beginners, but it still looked a bit too involved to me. Maybe we'll attempt that when I'm feeling more adventurously crafty.

Kathryn and I both love a new site we found, called Quest for Compassion. There, kids can play games, but the main focus is learning about the country's language, culture, and prayer needs. For instance, in Ghana, Kathryn learned that most people live on less than $1/day and we played a mosquito-squishing game to help us remember the great need for malaria medicines and mosquito nets there.

In Studying God's Word, one of the lessons had the beginning of a story, and Kathryn had to finish it. She did so great! So now I'm thinking of getting Story Starters to encourage her in creative writing. It would be great for Lindsey, too.

Lindsey decided to have a better attitude about her classes this week. She's still hanging in there, but it's definitely a source of stress for her.

A family project this week was our thankful tree (see yesterday's post). We're adding to it every day.

We won't do any formal school next week. Just life. We'll certainly be working on some homemaking skills, as the girls are planning to help me cook our Thanksgiving feast!

Our Thankful Tree

Can you believe just one week from today is Thanksgiving!?!?

With that in mind, we're trying to be intentional about giving thanks. One great way to do that is to work on thinking of things we're thankful for, and putting them somewhere to remind ourselves -- and each other! Last year, I had an idea about cutting out leaf shapes and letting friends and family write things they are thankful, and collecting them in a basket, but... I didn't follow through. So when I saw Kris' idea to do a thankful tree, I knew we had to do it, too!For ours, Kathryn helped me roll out white paper to cover the inside of our front door. We taped it on, then I drew a tree with a brown marker. I filled in the sky with just a little scribble of crayon (which you probably can't see in the photos). Kathryn and I found a few leaves in our yard, and I traced them on construction paper. She helped me cut them out, and we put the blank leaves in one of the baskets I bought in Botswana (love it!). A fine-point Sharpie marker and a roll of clear tape sit nearby.When a "thankful" pops into mind, we grab a paper leaf, write on it, and tape it on our tree. Any guests who come by are required to add to our tree, too.
We have quite a wide variety of thankful things on our tree...Some of our thankful leaves say:

• tea -- the girls and I each have one that says this!
• cheese -- Lindsey
• lots of games -- Kathryn
• our home and everything in it -- me
  
• for being homeschooled -- Kathryn
• our church family -- me
• beds and blankets -- Kathryn
• good health -- me
• Mac [computer] -- Brandon
• colorguard -- Diane (Brandon's girlfriend)
• the perfect girlfriend -- Brandon
• my own bedroom -- Lindsey
• that Jesus died for my sins -- Ken
• chewys, beds, petting, running, and all other stuff -- Lacy the dog
• CLC [Christian Leadership Concepts] group -- Ken
• that I got adopted by the perfect family by God's will -- Lindsey

Lindsey suggested we keep going through Christmas. I would have to find a new place to put or hang our greeting cards, but I think it's a great idea.

What are you thankful for?