Thanksgiving Week

Over the weekend the bottom dropped out temperature wise around here. We went from the high sixties to the mid forties! So, in between bouts of playing outside the campers watched a lot of Pokemon and I crocheted while warming back up. Friday it had been nearly 70* outside, Saturday it was down in the 40s and snow was blowing around with the wind gusts, and come Sunday we actually had a little snow accumulation to go along with those wind gusts with the temperature (before wind chill) at 36*. Only one of us didn't have a scarf this year so I made up a quick scarf for Daddy. I also finished a preemie baby set to give to a friend in the coming weeks. The weather also had everyone's sinuses acting up again. Every year at the season changes we go through this, sometimes for just a week and sometimes for much longer. Here's to hoping that the weather makes up its mind quickly and either stays warm or cold for awhile. And while I'm not a huge fan of snow and cold, since I know it's coming anyway ... why not just let winter start?



Important side note: Sometime over the weekend ECJ decided to do the salt and ice challenge and severely wounded his right hand. His entire palm, while not blistered, is burned! This is NOT a good challenge for kids to try! I thought I should let all of you know because I had no idea about this challenge until the day after he did it! He never complained about the pain and Daddy was the one to notice his palm. Then ECJ began to complain about the pain. We've been treating it with burn ointment and bandages at night while allowing it to breath during the day. (Who came up with this stupid challenge to begin with?!?!?)

Monday we had a pretty good day homeschool wise. There was a few moments of "snarkiness" during the period of time that we had ECJ helping YCJ with math, but other than that book lessons went smoothly. Online lessons were breezed through as well. Then I broke out some new DVD's from the library for science and history, they're from the Schlessinger Library DVDs. Here's the link to one of the DVDs for the history of the US government that I found on Amazon. The prices for these are reasonable and the content is great. Each DVD is around 20 minutes long and they have several different topics in both science and history. They've been well received by the campers and they actually learn from them. So, if your local library doesn't carry them you might want to invest in buying some (no, I am not an Amazon affiliate ... so I get nothing from you buying anything from there if you use my links).

On Tuesday we had a pretty full day. Lessons were done with little to no complaint and more DVDs were watched (from the same series). Cooking and cleaning was done along with (you guessed it) more crochet. Of course this was after a night of Peanut sleeping between Daddy and I due to a nightmare, and Daddy and I getting very little sleep. Needless to say much coffee was consumed during the course of the day and we made a concentrated effort to keep our cool. The afternoon was spent decorating for Christmas. The tree is up and decorated, the village is arranged, stockings hung, and outside lights as well. Some years we wait until the first of December and other years we decorate right around Thanksgiving. The only thing that isn't out yet is the glass nativity scene, that won't be put out until Sunday (right in the middle of our dining table and the pumpkins there now will be put away until next fall) when Advent starts this year. Baby Jesus won't be added until Christmas eve. Hmmm... perhaps I should crochet an Advent wreath for the table...

Wednesday the campers were getting excited for Thanksgiving, which will be at Grandma and Papa's house again this year. It wasn't hard to keep them on task for lessons but they were definitely more antsy in their seats. Book lessons, computer lessons, and watching of DVDs all happened this day. Isn't it just a coincidence that the history DVDs had to do with Native Americans and the early settlers and immigrants? It's almost as if someone (I don't know who) planned it this way! Since the DVDs are only about twenty minutes long each they really do grab the attention. 

Thursday. Thanksgiving day! Turkey day! We all got up after sleeping in a little and went about our day pretty normally until around noon when we began getting ready. The drive to Grandma's house is about an hour from our house and there wasn't any bickering to be had (minor miracle there!)! Everyone had a great time visiting with family and eating Grandma's turkey and stuffing, everyone agrees that she makes the best stuffing. And after such a large meal and another hour long drive home we were all ready to rest and relax.

I'm writing this before I head to bed Thursday night. Tomorrow is another day. More lessons to be had because we only took the one day off this year since we'd pretty much had about two weeks off just recently (no book lessons = off school since the campers don't count online or hands on learning as school). It's been a full week! And as I sit here typing I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who take the time every week to read these wrap ups. I know that we usually lead a pretty boring life since we're homebodies for the most part and I really appreciate the time you take to read my blog each week!

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