Co-op Fun

Last Friday we did our annual "baking and making" day with our co-op ~ we baked sugar cookies and made some Christmas crafts. So much fun!!

There was time for some spontaneous games!


We made foam door hangars (thanks to my mom for sending the kits!) and decorated gift bags.







Is this a fun looking table, or what??!



While Marsha and Sally were busy supervising the crafts, I supervised the baking.


So many sprinkles were used! I have swept twice since then and am still finding them on the floor. :-)











A fun time was had by all! How we love and appreciate our co-op friends!

My new outfit

As promised, here is my new outfit. It is a pair of black dress pants and this wine colored jacket with the drapey lapel. Not super exciting, but I needed the black pants (shouldn't every woman have black dress pants?) and I really love the little jacket.


We stayed four hours at the party. When we left there were loud whiskey shots and spontaneous dancing beginning to occur... but before that we had a great time mingling with my husband's co-workers and their wives. I met three other stay at home moms! And had a long conversation with a retired school teacher, who was initially alarmed when she learned we homeschooled but was relieved after discovering that I was a former classroom teacher myself. She told me exactly how to teach the play "Romeo and Juliet" to my ninth grader. :-)

What a great opportunity to support my husband in his work relationships, and Lord willing be a light for Jesus.

Score!

Bought myself a new outfit today. I kindof "had to". ;-) Hubby's office Christmas party is tomorrow night and I didn't have anything appropriate for that type of function. Not super dressy, but medium dressy. I strongly dislike clothes shopping for myself, and was pilfering funds from the grocery budget so was trying to spend very little.

I prayed, and took myself off to Kohl's where I had a coupon. Found items that looked promising, tried them on (they fit perfectly), and got in line to pay. For less than $40, in less than 30 minutes, I was in and out with a pretty new outfit! I love Kohl's!

And I'm just so thankful that this year we are going to a work Christmas party, because that means my husband is working!

Pictures after tomorrow. :-)

Daugher G's Art

Daughter G, who absolutely loves creating art, recently participated in a craft show where she was able to sell hand painted products. For several weeks leading up to the show, she spent her after school hours painting. Here is a glimpse of her room (I still need to post "after" pics!) with her school desk on the far left, and her art desk in the middle. Her art desk is on wheels, so she can pull it closer to the lamp when she is working at night, and push it next to the window for natural light when she is working during the day.



On this particular night she borrowed my reading glasses. She probably needs glasses of her own. :-( (it's on the agenda for January)


This is what it looks like to "mass produce" the same scene, by hand.


Many evenings she brought her work downstairs to the kitchen table so she could work while listening to daddy read aloud.



The night of the show finally arrived!



She sold many different bookmarks and postcards,


watercolor paintings,


charcoal drawings,


and painted cork hot pads.



She earned $68 throughout the evening, which is pretty good Christmas gift buying money! She was very encouraged and satisfied, and we are proud of her!

Son L

Time for an update on son L.

He is in the sixth grade this year, and having a good school year. Sixth grade marks the time in our family when it is possible to join our virtual history co-op and have weekly discussions online with other students using the same history curriculum as us. He was very excited about this, but didn't realize the extent of work involved each week leading up to discussion day. There is quite a bit of reading and answering of questions on paper. I helped him with this a lot in September and October, but now he is doing most of it on his own. He is learning to read for answers, and how to write answers in outline form ~ both of these are such good skills for high school and college. He has grown so much this year in self control and is continuing to learn good school habits. I know that last sentence sounds like something a teacher would write on a report card ~ but it blesses my heart to be experiencing it.

Since he first learned how to talk, he has always said whatever was on his mind. Sometimes this has been somewhat awkward for his parents. ;-) On Thanksgiving this year, when we were going around the table saying what we were thankful for, he turned to his 93 year old grandpa and said with all seriousness, "I'm thankful that you're not dead."

Tact is not a strength at this point, but I love that he is sincere and passionate about things. Sometimes we adults, in our effort to be politically or socially "correct", can tend to leave certain topics alone. All topics are open season to L. This has provided opportunities for our family to have such interesting and good conversations! (and hopefully learn a little tact, too)

He has recently joined the middle school youth group worship team, and is taking this responsibility very seriously. So seriously in fact, that I remind him each week to smile while he sings. :0) He loves reading, music, and anything electronic. I have found a wonderful way to combine his love of reading with his love of all things electronic, and have him read books on my Kindle now. There are many fantastic classic "boy" books that I have downloaded to my Kindle for free, and he will happily read the Kindle for literally hours at a time.

He is quirky and funny and adds so much joy to my life!

December First Tradition

December first arrived, time to use our candy ribbons!!


The children take off one hershey kiss each night as a way to countdown to Christmas. This is something me and my sisters did when we were growing up, so my kids are second generation candy ribboners!


A literal hershey kiss!


Yay for December!

Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes

Once again we packed some shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child this year. Ladies from my MOPS group pooled their items with ours, and we were able to pack nine boxes to the gills. I wish it were many more, but I choose to focus on the fact that these boxes may make a world of difference to the nine children who receive them!


Our daughter G took ownership of the project this year. She organized all our goodies into piles. We had a "personal hygiene" pile, and a "toys" pile, and a "school supplies" pile, and a "clothing" pile, etc. Then she further divided things into big girl/young girl stuff and big boy/young boy stuff. She pushed the big kid boxes to the back of the couch, and pulled the young kid boxes to the front so we could keep everything straight. She is so good at this, I think she should do it on a large scale for our whole church! (hint, hint daughter G, if you're reading this!)


Our nearest drop off center was no longer accepting boxes when we got there, so we had to drive much farther to a drop off center that was still open. This turned out to be a blessing, because the semi was being loaded when we arrived, and we got to see all the shoeboxes going into big cardboard boxes, and the cardboard boxes being loaded onto the semi truck for their trip to North Carolina! Hundreds and hundreds of shoeboxes..... so cool. As we watched, we prayed over the boxes and the children who would receive them.

If you have never done this, you should seriously consider packing a box (or two, or many!) next year. The boxes are usually due the week before Thanksgiving, and the deadline does tend to creep up, but if you put a big huge note on your calendar the first week of November that will help to remind you. :0)

We are able to track where our nine boxes end up, and I'm excited to find that out in a couple weeks!