Thanksgiving Plans

Erik and I got up at almost 8:00 this morning! Which is sleeping in two hours for me. Nick waited until about 7:30 to get up and even then went back to sleep on the couch. I am letting Xander sleep in this morning. The kids and I have all been under the weather. It has been extremely mild, for which I'm thankful, but both kids have had fevers in the last two days.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving plans are to have a "feast" with just our family and to watch a couple of movies together. We will finish hanging leaves on our Thankful Tree (writing what we are thankful for on them first) and I hope we will finish coloring our Give Thanks banner from last year. I will polish up our silver (she says optimistically) and make the table look nice. We will ask the kids to use their best manners for the meal. I am looking forward to making the food and spending the time with just my family, but our plans this year certainly remind me of how nice it can be to have many people gathered.

Here's our menu, which I think will be easy if I start today:

• a small turkey, roasted
• cornbread
• mashed potatoes
• from-scratch green bean casserole (recipe from The Pioneer Woman)
• jello salad
• pumpkin pie (I bought the pie crust :) with whipped topping
• Erik's seasoned pecan mix

I may even make a chocolate pudding pie just because we have all the ingredients for it.

Plus crackers and cheese and veggies and dip for appetizers, and organic popcorn with sea salt to go with our movies. We have planned to rent The Sound of Music and Attack of the Clones. Okay, I am the only one who plans to try to find The Sound of Music.

Movies

Speaking of movies, sometime in the next month I want to watch some of my favorite Christmas movies. Along with the classics It's A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol and A Miracle on 34th Street, there is Elf. I love Elf. It really doesn't even make sense how much I love Elf.

Black Friday

I also plan to try a couple of stores early on Thanksgiving for some necessities that they will have on sale, and one store really early on Black Friday. I've only shopped on Black Friday once before, and it was more lounging at coffee shops and keeping someone else company than shopping. I'm afraid I will regret this decision, but I'm going to try it. We need some clothing and other necessaries that are on sale that day. We won't try to get any of the toys or electronics deals that are so prevalent because we just don't buy much of that stuff. Our toy purchases are highly focused. :)

Traditionally, we also put up our Christmas tree and decorate the house on Thanksgiving weekend. I like the idea of waiting until it's actually December to start the Christmas stuff, but honestly we don't have a lot to do on Thanksgiving weekend so we generally end up wanting to get out the Christmas stuff. Erik will be working a lot, in and out of town, in December, so if we want him involved it will be a good time to decorate.

Sandy

Our guinea pig is acting somewhat strangely. I think he has finally become totally tame with us. Sometimes he wheeks at us because he wants to get out of the cage and hang with us rather than just wanting more food. We had him out on our couch with us yesterday afternoon and he loved it. Every once in a while he would kind of lay down next to us and we would pet him. It was like having a dog! I became concerned that he was sick. But then every once in a while he would walk around exploring and climbing up onto the side table, so I don't think that was it. He was chirping contentedly the whole time.

Illness

Nick has been a little constipated, off and on, for the last few weeks. It surprises me because he is always eating fruit. Last night he had a hard time going to sleep because of it. I will have to be more vigilant about this issue.

I had planned to do school with Xander Monday through Wednesday, but we skipped yesterday due to this mild illness which has struck us. We'll see how today goes.

5K Saturday

Woohoo! Finished my first 5K in so many years. My strategy as a not-very-fit-yet runner was to run as slow as I could make myself run for the first mile, maybe two. I did. I purposely put myself in the back of the pack to start and made my way up slowly. My time was better than I expected, 28:58. I do think maybe the course was an easy one (for those who can call any 5K easy - not me, not yet).

They run this friendly, well-attended, not huge 5K every month. I am there next month, if I can be!

My family got up when it was still dark to come with me and cheer me on. As a bonus, they got to see donkeys and feed them grass. Erik said the playground had frost on it. :)

I was happy to be there, just cold

The finish

Doughnuts afterward! Except for me, I hate doughnuts and stuck to a Clif bar and coffee

Xander's "pretty" Arnie-like doughnut

The Boys' Accomplishments

I've been writing up all the things I've done for Money Saving Mom's online challenge, but Nick and Xander have really been pulling their own weight around here, too.

Yesterday, Xander wiped all the switch plates for me, which was a Money Saving Mom task. I got to mop the kitchen floor while he was doing that.

Nick has been making his own peanut butter honey sandwiches.

They have both been great at doing their Morning Cards, which includes wiping down the counter, sink, and toilet or potty chair in the hall bathroom. I adore walking by and smelling the fresh scent of disinfecting wipes when I haven't used them myself. It's like magic!

Then he celebrated being done with chores by listening to audiobooks

Erik worked from home today. When he was done, I was able to go to the post office and gas station by myself. Errands are much quicker without the kids. He wiped the living room ceiling fan blades for me, because I cannot reach them due to their height.

Before all that happened, I, of course, got dressed and made my list of daily goals.

Then I wrote down Xander's list for today. It's a lot shorter than normal because it's a special Friday routine. Two of the activities, Nature Walk and Journal and Tea Time, take time to prepare, do, and follow up on, so other activities are not done this day. It's a routine very similar to what Lindafay posted on Charlotte Mason Help.

One thing I added was spelling work. On Monday, Xander saw his spelling words for the week: boy, girl, man, woman, baby. He wrote two of them in sidewalk chalk outside and one of them with Do-a-Dot markers. Later in the week, he wrote one on a small chalk board. Today, I gave him a test. He got boy and man correct and did a good job trying the others. I made index cards of the ones he did not get right and we will look at them next week along with the new words. I was proud of him, mainly because he has inherited my tendencies to anxiety, and we both kept it calm while he tried spelling these words. I gave him encouragement and praise for what he did right and simply showed him the correct spelling when he had not written the correct one.

Recorder practice went well today. He had been wanting to skip it and feeling (I think) a little overwhelmed as the lessons progressed. I let him go back to previous lessons a lot and also let him skip some days. Today he did really well (and I allowed him to play songs he made up with the notes he knows). His dad was very impressed. Xander showed Erik how to play the notes he has learned so far: B, A, G, and C.

We all went to a nice county park for our nature walk. It was a beautiful day, sunny and almost 60 degrees. Erik went disc golfing while the boys and I went for a hike on the trail. We saw rocks, flowers, butterflies, wasps, birds, quartz, and other things, but we were not able to stay quiet to try to find animals. Nick did not want to do that. Then we joined Erik on the disc golf course. Everyone tried their hand at it. Nick did a lot of jogging and throwing and is now in his bed for a nap that will probably be a long one.

Xander took several of these photos 

And I took several

Later, I picked up some supplies we needed, including two new light bulbs for our living room light fixture. I cleaned the other ceiling fans. Oops! I just remembered I never did Nick's, because he was taking his nap while I did this task. Someday soon. :)

I spent 15 minutes or so laying on my bed, reading Elizabeth & Mary and eating a snack.

Last night, we had the most amazing family time. Erik had the idea of lighting a fire in our fireplace and reading Shel Silverstein poems to each other. Before that, we practiced our manners eating Chicago-style hot dogs (okay, I tried, but they weren't perfectly Chicago hot dogs) and french fries. The boys have very good manners! I mean extremely good manners. I have to expect more of them from now on!

Then Erik started the fire and got out the poetry books. Xander presented himself with professionalism and asked for our attention, please. We listened to him playing a song of his own composing (on the spot) on the recorder, using the notes he has learned. Then Nick played some things for us on the flutophone. We each took turns reading poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends. Even Nick took his turns "reading" to us. We ate pieces of a pecan pie that I had picked up at the grocery store.

We also put leaves on our Thankful Tree. We tried turning out all the lights in the house and just watching the fire. The evening ended with the kids watching a little bit of a Pokemon movie before we all went to bed early. We are  now up very early (for Xander and Erik, at least) so we can go to this local 5K. I'm going to take the plunge and run my first one in many years. Oh my gosh, it's been 17 or so years, now that I think about it. I think I'll stop doing the math on that in future.

Day 9 of Money Saving Mom's 4 Weeks Challenge {Simplified}

Great day! Got up a little early and did chores while our youngest son slept in past his normal early wake time. It was fun working around the house because my husband got up early, too, to make food for his work Thanksgiving potluck, so we were working around and with each other. Our oldest son slept in even later while I got almost all my chores done for the day.

Per the 4 Weeks challenge, I got dressed in something I felt pretty good about, made a list of daily goals from my weekly goals list, cleaned the master bathroom, and then mopped the kitchen floor while Xander did the last task entirely by himself: wiping all switch plates in the house. Hurray for learning chores! He is still really good about doing chores without complaining. (He chooses to complain about other things.)

my to-do list

After

After

the shiny kitchen floor which I mopped while Xander was doing the switch plates

Today Feels Like Victory

Today was a busy day, for our standards. Anything I've put in larger print is a task for Money Saving Mom's 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home {Simplified} series.

I went running before Erik left for work. Breakfast was served, the Money Saving Mom challenge post from yesterday was posted, email was checked, Bible section was read, and similar things were accomplished. I ordered a $0.99 copy of Money Saving Mom's new ebook Celebrating and Savoring a Simple Christmas. I made a list of goals for today.

I took a shower and got dressed. Although I don't want to spend too much time thinking about clothing and fashion right now, I went ahead and asked for the free copy of Frumps to Pumps from Sarah Mae that Crystal keeps mentioning. I could use some help, so I will be reading that at some point.

The kids did their Morning Cards and got all ready just in time to go to the doctor. Xander ran over his foot with a tricycle on Sunday and it is still red and swollen and painful. Both boys were well-behaved and entertaining (in their own ways) during the doctor visit.

After the doctor, we had time to make it to preschool story time at the library and also to pick out books and magazines and DVDs.

Then lunch and some cleaning. I did the 4 Weeks task of cleaning out my messiest drawer. Actually, my clothes drawers are all pretty neat, so I chose a rolling shelf unit in the closet that is used to hold my knitting projects.

Before

The rolling cart has only three shelves. I had six projects out and underway. Since this phase of life is not a good time for me to finish a lot of knitting projects, I decided to cut my losses and whittle projects down to three, to fit the shelves. First, I discontinued the robot I was knitting for Nick. He had no interest in the picture of the finished product and liked what I had done so far. Two little pieces can fit over his fingertips and one is a long thin tube that was supposed to be the robot's antenna. I gave Nick the three little pieces and cut that project out of my life. Nick calls the pieces robots anyway. Win win.

Next, I decided to go ahead and send my friend the baby hat I finished without waiting for some mythical day when I would finally finish the booties. If I have time to finish the booties, I can always send those later. This makes me feel a little uncomfortable, but if I don't send something soon, her baby will be too big to wear any of it.

The remaining yarn from my ditched projects went into the appropriate places. I have a bin for acrylic yarn and a drawer that holds wool yarn and cotton yarn along with my knitting books.

I kept my 1) very portable Mother Bear project, 2) mindless bathroom hand towel project for TV nights, and 3) mustang and cowboy project that I said I would make for Xander.

After

I just have one straggler that I think maybe I should finish. All I have to do is finish picking up stitches to make a chain border around a pot holder. (Or something like that; the reason it's taking me so long is I've never done this type of border before and I'm hesitant.)

Back to our regularly scheduled day.

We then did homeschooling and preparing dishes for having a family over to dinner tonight.

Then some more cleaning, including cleaning our guinea pig's cage. Xander and I also wiped down all the door knobs in the house with disinfecting wipes. I did the remote and iPod Touch and cell phone for good measure, too. I had taught Xander how to do this task just last week, so it was good timing to practice it again.

Will be back later!

Money Saving Mom's new ebook: Celebrating and Savoring a Simple Christmas

Crystal Paine, aka Money Saving Mom, has a new ebook for sale: Celebrating and Savoring a Simple Christmas.

Recently, I made some great progress by following the assignments in her really good book The Money Saving Mom's Budget. I've been feeling great about the house after following tasks from her 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home series and her 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life ebook. I even got some extremely helpful tips by reading some of the books she's recommended on her blog.

So I told myself I would follow along with any of her future series and buy any of her future books, within reason, as long as I continued to benefit from them. Looks like I'm about to buy Celebrating and Savoring a Simple Christmas.

She also has a 24-hour giveaway going on to win a Kindle PaperWhite (valued at $179). You can get entries each day by blogging about the new ebook, buying it, tweeting or posting on Facebook about it, or pinning a link to the ebook on Pinterest. Or all of the above.

This post will serve as my first entry. I will also be buying the ebook while it's priced at $0.99. I'm sure it will be worth more than that amount to me.

Day 7 of Money Saving Mom's 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home {Simplified}

Today felt wonderful. The assignment was to:

"::Get dressed in something that makes you feel great {there’s something about dressing in clothes that make you feel great that just gives you more energy and zest for life! Get your free copy of SarahMae’s ebook, Frumps to Pumps, if you need more motivation in this.}

::Sit down with a cup of coffee or tea and create a list of weekly goals. I’ll be posting my weekly goals later today along with a link-up so you can share yours, as well.

::Set the timer for 15 minutes and vacuum the main living areas of your home."

I did all of the above plus the car clean-out and vacuum from yesterday. The floors needed it SO badly.

Before picture of the back of the car

After - how beautiful

These are free things we got today through coupons and deals listed at Money Saving Mom! Yay! Free!

reading for school

Ew - dirty floors

Ooh - sparkling floors!

Homeschool went pretty well today. We got quite a lot done in a relatively organized and cheerful way. We read the final story in Norse Gods and Giants, a story from Everyday Graces, ten minutes of The Hobbit, the introduction and first section of The Golden Picture Book of Science, the introduction (hilarious!) and first poem of Now We Are Six, and the end of Chapter 6 in This Country of Ours. We also read about nature journaling with this Smithsonian.org lesson plan I found today. 

Xander did 20 minutes of Spanish with Oh Noah!, one section of the Singapore Math textbook and one exercise in the accompanying workbook, one session of Xtra Math, a Spanish song sing-along, morning chores, do-a-dot spelling words for the week, and drew both a picture of his choosing and a picture narrating what happened in the chapter of This Country of Ours. For both, he wrote a caption. His handwriting is improving since the beginning of the year. We also did pledges to the flags and learned facts about the second president of the United States, John Adams.

I feel really good about all of that. Now to make dinner and do a general clean-up of the table and dishes.