Hope You Had A Happy Thanksgiving

The snow for the most part had stopped early in the morning of Thanksgiving. We got about 7 inches of snow before it turned to a snow frozen rain mix. It was a very heavy wet snow, perfect for making a snowman. Or in my nieces case, a snow turkey. LOL Isn't it cute?

We had a snow shower all day that gave us about another inch of fluffy stuff. The snow looks so pretty stuck to all the trees. Don't you think so? These trees are at the end of my street. I took it while in the car so it's not the best.

This is my favorite house. It is around the corner from me. It is so pretty in the spring and summer. The roof is all covered in moss. No one lives in it. I think it is being used as storage now. I just hope it doesn't get taken down. I love the old time charm to it. Don't you?

Crazy Weather

Yesterday was beautiful. It was in the low 60's and sunny. Our sunset was gorgeous as well.

Loads of pinks, purples and blues. Love it. Not more than 24 hours later it looks completely different out. It's in the low 30's Started as rain and quickly changed to snow.

It's been snowing for 4 hours now. We have about 2 inches so far with up to 10 expected. We live near the coast of NH, so I expect a little less. This is going to make getting to MA for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow interesting. We won't be driving my new car because it is front wheel drive. The hubby has a big truck with 4 wheel drive.

I had the flash on for the snow picture for some reason, but it makes some of the flakes sparkle like stars. This is the view out my backdoor. I will take more of the trees in the backyard tomorrow. The snow is the perfect snowman snow. I already brought in a snowball for the cats to check out and they ended up fighting over it. Typical kids. LOL

Getting Ready For Advent

I can not believe that Advent begins in less than a week. Where on earth did November go?

Last year we did something simple for Advent. Just read some verses from the Bible and lite the Advent wreath. This year, I want to do a Jesse Tree. Although I am thinking of making a wreath with little themed ornaments instead of a tree. I'll be doing another post on our Jesse Tree once it is ready to start.

There are a ton of different ideas to use for the Jesse Tree. I found a couple that I like a lot, but finally decided on one. You can find it here at Confessions of a Homeschooler. I printed out the black and white pictures and am spending some time at night coloring them in. I love to color, I find it soothing and relaxing. Matt hates to color. It always ends with me yelling and him crying. Best to avoid it.

I am still going to do our count down to Christmas garland like last year. You can find that post here: Count Down To Christmas Garland and the activities for the garland here: Advent Activities.

If you want to do the daily verses that we did last year for Advent, this is what we did:

Week 1 ~ Hope

• Sun ~ Isaiah 40:1-5
• Mon ~ Isaiah 40:6-11, Isaiah 52:7-10
• Tue ~ Isaiah 11:1-10
• Wed ~ Isaiah 9:2-7, Genesis 3:8-15
• Thu ~ Genesis 15:1-6, Micah 5:2-5
• Fri ~ Deut. 18:15-19, John 1:1-9
• Sat ~ Psalm 89:1-4, John 1:10-18

Week 2 ~ Peace

• Sun ~ Zechariah 6:12-13, Luke 1:5-13
• Mon ~ Luke 1:14-20
• Tue ~ Luke 1:21-25
• Wed ~ Malachi 3:1-6, Luke 1:26-38
• Thu ~ Luke 1:39-45
• Fri ~ Luke 1:46-56
• Sat ~ Mark 1:1-3, Matthew 1:18-24

Week 3 ~ Joy

• Sun ~ Luke 1:57-66
• Mon ~ Luke 1:67-80
• Tue ~ Luke 2:1-7
• Wed ~ Luke 2:8-20
• Thu ~ Luke 2:21-35
• Fri ~ Luke 2:36-40
• Sat ~ Matthew 2:1-6

Week 4 ~ Love

• Sun ~ Matthew 2:7-12, Isaiah 7:10-14
• Mon ~ Matthew 2:19-23
• Tue ~ Isaiah 9:2-7, Ephesians 5:1-2
• Wed ~ Ephesians 5:15-20
• Thu ~ Colossians 1:15-20
• Fri ~ 1 John 4:7-12
• Sat ~ 1 John 4:13-19

What plans do you have for Advent this year?

Scripture for Thanksgiving Week 4

Thanksgiving is this Thursday! I can't wait. Matt is going to be spending it with friends, Chantelle is working and the hubby and I are going to our nieces brand new built house. Her hubby built it. Even though we are going to be all over the place this year, we are still Thankful for what we have and for each other.

Here are this weeks verses:



Monday ~ 1 Timothy 4:4-5

Tuesday ~ Psalm 7:17

Wednesday ~ Jeremiah 33:11

Thursday ~ Colossians 3:17

Friday ~ Philippians 4:6

Vietnam War Lapbook

We gave up our history curriculum about a month after we started it. Matt was not remembering anything in it and it was torture for both of us to do it. I asked him what he wants to learn for history. The Vietnam War was one of those things.

I found a couple of books for my Kindle for him to read. One was 10,000 Days of Thunder. It was written by a soldier who was actually there. It is from his point of view, but includes the history of  pretty much the whole war. Matt really enjoyed it. This coming from a kid who hates to read.

We made the Vietnam War Lapbook by Knowledge Box Central. We made a ton of lapbooks when he was younger and first being homeschooled. Of course I no longer have those books. I love how there are little booklets throughout, Matt needs little work at a time. He learns best with small shorter lessons. He retains the info much better. Matt did 2 booklets a day and it took us a month to do the whole lapbook.

The cover of the lapbook. The picture came from inside the study guide in the pack. I made the title using Pic Monkey.

Abby just had to come see what I was doing. I had the lapbook on the sofa opened up to take pictures of it for this post. Little miss "I have to be involved in everything you do" was playing with some of the booklets.

First folder that you see when it opens up.

The second folder. Only thing we did not do was make the recipe that came with the pack. It's the can looking booklet on the right hand side flap. I thought it sounded gross and it used a lot of cans of beans, so I didn't want to waste anything if it was gross.

Last folder. Matt didn't finish the word search puzzle. He has a hard time doing them. I love doing them and can find the words pretty fast.

The back cover. This is also a picture from the study guide in the lapbook pack.


We finished up our Vietnam War unit by watching "Good Morning Vietnam" and "We Were Soldiers" on Netflix.

Why you should always keep a fully stocked First Aid kit

A little accident my son had a couple of weekends ago reminded me why it is a good thing to always have a fully stocked first aid kit. We have one for the house, one in each of our cars and my son has one in his Boy Scout camping trunk.

Matt and the hubby were putting in the storm windows and then wrapping the windows in that plastic shrink wrap stuff. Anything to help keep our 1969 mobile home warmer in the winter. They were in Matt's tiny room putting the storm window in when I herd what I though was a broken light or dish, not the window itself.

Matt had put the window on his bed while he got onto the bed to put the window in. The window is behind his headboard. He must have tripped or loss his balance or something, because the crash was his hand and arm going through the storm window. The hubby was right there and told Matt not to move and slowly helped Matt up and got his arm out of the window with nothing major happening to it.

Yes, he does have quite a few cuts, some that took sometime to stop bleeding. Nothing that needed stitches. He lucked out for sure. No normal band-aids were going to work, so gauze pads it was. Thankfully I had just restocked them after Matt had another accident involving his leg. Boys will be boys. The only thing I could not find was my ace bandages. I had two of them back when my daughter broke her elbow, twice. The paper tape to hold the gauze bandages on only does so much, and seeing how I had a large area to cover, I wanted to use the ace bandages to wrap around the gauze. I just used extra tape instead.

Now to hit Walmart and get some more ace bandages.

Weekly Menu 11/17 ~ 11/23

Monday ~ Chicken Pot Pie

Tuesday ~ Salisbury Steak Meatball Stroganoff

Wednesday ~ Chicken Parmesan, Angel Hair Pasta & Garlic Bread

Thursday ~ Minestrone Soup (crockpot meal)

Friday ~ Homemade Pizza (movie night)

Saturday ~ Smoked Sausage, Potato, Green Bean Bake

Sunday ~ Make Your Own Meal


Linked to Meal Plan Monday

Scripture for Thanksgiving Week 3

I hope everyone is enjoying their time up to Thanksgiving. This year we (me and the hubby) are going over to my nieces brand new house. Her husband built it himself. Matt has been invited to a friends house and they will be traveling to Massachusetts for the long weekend. We said yes, that he could go. If it was Christmas, then no.



Hope you enjoy the verses for this week.



Monday ~ Psalm 145:7

Tuesday ~ 1 Corinthians 1:4-5

Wednesday ~ 2 Corinthians 4:15-16

Thursday ~ 2 Corinthians 9:11-12

Friday ~ Ephesians 1:15-16

Scripture for Thanksgiving Week 2

Both Matt and I have been using the Thanksgiving scriptures for copywork. I like to decorate and make mine look all pretty and girly, Matt just wants to get it over with. The point is for him to use his best handwriting, but he hates to take his time. Says it hurts his hands. We will work on it this week.
On to this weeks verses for Thanksgiving.


Monday ~ Psalm 100:4

Tuesday ~ Ephesians 5:3-4

Wednesday ~ Colossians 3:15

Thursday ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Friday ~ Psalm 107:1

Getting the garden ready for winter

I have been slacking seriously this year with getting the garden ready for winter. Normally by mid October everything is done. With Starting a new homeschool year and still trying to figure out our daily schedule, I haven't really done anything.

This is what the yard looked like last week. So embarrassing. I started to pull the weeds the day I took these pictures. It was easier to pull them when they are dead. The garden was crazy with weeds this year. I decided not to mulch this year. A mistake I learned the hard way. I only got about a quarter of it done before I was forced to stop. My hands were starting to cramp and my hips were killing me. Hate having RA. It interrupts my life.

I did manage to get the strawberry bed put to rest though, thankfully. It is all covered in straw all ready for snow. Speaking of snow, we had our first flakes falling yesterday, but nothing stuck, thank goodness. Its been a rainy snow mix weekend, so nothing got done outside. Figures, when the hubby and I have nothing planned over the weekend (other than scouts on Sunday afternoon), the weather decides to be moody and uncooperative. We were going to pull the rest of the weeds, till and mulch the big bed, the blueberry bushes and all the flower beds.

I don't even have my garlic planted. Not that planting the garlic will take long. I ordered Elephant Garlic to try and all I got was two huge cloves. Kinda ticked me off that I paid 10.00 for two, but if they grow as big as they say they will, I will have more to plant next year. It might be a couple of years before I have enough to keep, unless I want to spend more money and risk it. I really did not have luck this year with garlic, but it was also my first year growing it.

Hoping that the winds die down today so that I can get more yard work done and hopefully finish the big bed. So much to do.

Scripture for Thanksgiving ~ Week 1

Every week day for the whole month of November, Matt and I will be studying scripture that has to do with Thanksgiving. I didn't realize how many scripture there are that talks about giving thanks to God and others. I am going to introduce him to the S.O.A.P method and he will be using the days verse as copywork. This is what I have planned for the first week:


Monday ~ Psalm 28:7

Tuesday ~ Psalm 69:30

Wednesday ~ Psalm 95:1-6

Thursday ~ 1 Chronicles 16:8

Friday ~ 1 Chronicles 16:34